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diff --git a/3461.txt b/3461.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8195b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/3461.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6424 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Essays on Life, Art and Science, by Samuel +Butler, Edited by R. A. Streatfeild + + +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: Essays on Life, Art and Science + + +Author: Samuel Butler + +Editor: R. A. Streatfeild + +Release Date: December 27, 2007 [eBook #3461] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS ON LIFE, ART AND SCIENCE*** + + +Transcribed from the 1908 A. C. Fifield edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +ESSAYS ON LIFE +ART AND SCIENCE + + +BY +SAMUEL BUTLER + +AUTHOR OF "EREWHON," "EREWHON RE-VISITED," +"THE WAY OF ALL FLESH," ETC. + +EDITED BY +R. A. STREATFEILD + +LONDON +A. C. FIFIELD +1908 + +Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO +At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh. + +Contents: + +Introduction +Quis Desiderio? +Ramblings in Cheapside +The Aunt, The Nieces, and the Dog +How to make the best of life +The Sanctuary of Montrigone +A Medieval Girl School +Art in the Valley of Saas +Thought and Language +The Deadlock in Darwinism + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +It is hardly necessary to apologise for the miscellaneous character of +the following collection of essays. Samuel Butler was a man of such +unusual versatility, and his interests were so many and so various that +his literary remains were bound to cover a wide field. Nevertheless it +will be found that several of the subjects to which he devoted much time +and labour are not represented in these pages. I have not thought it +necessary to reprint any of the numerous pamphlets and articles which he +wrote upon the Iliad and Odyssey, since these were all merged in "The +Authoress of the Odyssey," which gives his matured views upon everything +relating to the Homeric poems. For a similar reason I have not included +an essay on the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which he +printed in 1865 for private circulation, since he subsequently made +extensive use of it in "The Fair Haven." + +Two of the essays in this collection were originally delivered as +lectures; the remainder were published in _The Universal Review_ during +1888, 1889, and 1890. + +I should perhaps explain why two other essays of his, which also appeared +in _The Universal Review_, have been omitted. + +The first of these, entitled "L'Affaire Holbein-Rippel," relates to a +drawing of Holbein's "Danse des Paysans," in the Basle Museum, which is +usually described as a copy, but which Butler believed to be the work of +Holbein himself. This essay requires to be illustrated in so elaborate a +manner that it was impossible to include it in a book of this size. + +The second essay, which is a sketch of the career of the sculptor +Tabachetti, was published as the first section of an article entitled "A +Sculptor and a Shrine," of which the second section is here given under +the title, "The Sanctuary of Montrigone." The section devoted to the +sculptor represents all that Butler then knew about Tabachetti, but since +it was written various documents have come to light, principally owing to +the investigations of Cavaliere Francesco Negri, of Casale Monferrato, +which negative some of Butler's most cherished conclusions. Had Butler +lived he would either have rewritten his essay in accordance with +Cavaliere Negri's discoveries, of which he fully recognised the value, or +incorporated them into the revised edition of "Ex Voto," which he +intended to publish. As it stands, the essay requires so much revision +that I have decided to omit it altogether, and to postpone giving English +readers a full account of Tabachetti's career until a second edition of +"Ex Voto" is required. Meanwhile I have given a brief summary of the +main facts of Tabachetti's life in a note (page 154) to the essay on "Art +in the Valley of Saas." Any one who wishes for further details of the +sculptor and his work will find them in Cavaliere Negri's pamphlet, "Il +Santuario di Crea" (Alessandria, 1902). + +The three essays grouped together under the title of "The Deadlock in +Darwinism" may be regarded as a postscript to Butler's four books on +evolution, viz., "Life and Habit," "Evolution, Old and New," "Unconscious +Memory" and "Luck or Cunning." An occasion for the publication of these +essays seemed to be afforded by the appearance in 1889 of Mr. Alfred +Russel Wallace's "Darwinism"; and although nearly fourteen years have +elapsed since they were published in the _Universal Review_, I have no +fear that they will be found to be out of date. How far, indeed, the +problem embodied in the deadlock of which Butler speaks is from solution +was conclusively shown by the correspondence which appeared in the +_Times_ in May 1903, occasioned by some remarks made at University +College by Lord Kelvin in moving a vote of thanks to Professor Henslow +after his lecture on "Present Day Rationalism." Lord Kelvin's claim for +a recognition of the fact that in organic nature scientific thought is +compelled to accept the idea of some kind of directive power, and his +statement that biologists are coming once more to a firm acceptance of a +vital principle, drew from several distinguished men of science retorts +heated enough to prove beyond a doubt that the gulf between the two main +divisions of evolutionists is as wide to-day as it was when Butler wrote. +It will be well, perhaps, for the benefit of readers who have not +followed the history of the theory of evolution during its later +developments, to state in a few words what these two main divisions are. +All evolutionists agree that the differences between species are caused +by the accumulation and transmission of variations, but they do not agree +as to the causes to which the variations are due. The view held by the +older evolutionists, Buffon, Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, who have been +followed by many modern thinkers, including Herbert Spencer and Butler, +is that the variations occur mainly as the result of effort and design; +the opposite view, which is that advocated by Mr. Wallace in "Darwinism," +is that the variations occur merely as the result of chance. The former +is sometimes called the theological view, because it recognises the +presence in organic nature of design, whether it be called creative +power, directive force, directivity, or vital principle; the latter view, +in which the existence of design is absolutely negatived, is now usually +described as Weismannism, from the name of the writer who has been its +principal advocate in recent years. + +In conclusion, I must thank my friend Mr. Henry Festing Jones most warmly +for the invaluable assistance which he has given me in preparing these +essays for publication, in correcting the proofs, and in compiling the +introduction and notes. + +R. A. STREATFEILD. + + + + +QUIS DESIDERIO . . . ? {1} + + +Like Mr. Wilkie Collins, I, too, have been asked to lay some of my +literary experiences before the readers of the _Universal Review_. It +occurred to me that the _Review_ must be indeed universal before it could +open its pages to one so obscure as myself; but, nothing daunted by the +distinguished company among which I was for the first time asked to move, +I resolved to do as I was told, and went to the British Museum to see +what books I had written. Having refreshed my memory by a glance at the +catalogue, I was about to try and diminish the large and ever-increasing +circle of my non-readers when I became aware of a calamity that brought +me to a standstill, and indeed bids fair, so far as I can see at present, +to put an end to my literary existence altogether. + +I should explain that I cannot write unless I have a sloping desk, and +the reading-room of the British Museum, where alone I can compose freely, +is unprovided with sloping desks. Like every other organism, if I cannot +get exactly what I want I make shift with the next thing to it; true, +there are no desks in the reading-room, but, as I once heard a visitor +from the country say, "it contains a large number of very interesting +works." I know it was not right, and hope the Museum authorities will +not be severe upon me if any of them reads this confession; but I wanted +a desk, and set myself to consider which of the many very interesting +works which a grateful nation places at the disposal of its would-be +authors was best suited for my purpose. + +For mere reading I suppose one book is pretty much as good as another; +but the choice of a desk-book is a more serious matter. It must be +neither too thick nor too thin; it must be large enough to make a +substantial support; it must be strongly bound so as not to yield or +give; it must not be too troublesome to carry backwards and forwards; and +it must live on shelf C, D, or E, so that there need be no stooping or +reaching too high. These are the conditions which a really good book +must fulfil; simple, however, as they are, it is surprising how few +volumes comply with them satisfactorily; moreover, being perhaps too +sensitively conscientious, I allowed another consideration to influence +me, and was sincerely anxious not to take a book which would be in +constant use for reference by readers, more especially as, if I did this, +I might find myself disturbed by the officials. + +For weeks I made experiments upon sundry poetical and philosophical +works, whose names I have forgotten, but could not succeed in finding my +ideal desk, until at length, more by luck than cunning, I happened to +light upon Frost's "Lives of Eminent Christians," which I had no sooner +tried than I discovered it to be the very perfection and _ne plus ultra_ +of everything that a book should be. It lived in Case No. 2008, and I +accordingly took at once to sitting in Row B, where for the last dozen +years or so I have sat ever since. + +The first thing I have done whenever I went to the Museum has been to +take down Frost's "Lives of Eminent Christians" and carry it to my seat. +It is not the custom of modern writers to refer to the works to which +they are most deeply indebted, and I have never, that I remember, +mentioned it by name before; but it is to this book alone that I have +looked for support during many years of literary labour, and it is round +this to me invaluable volume that all my own have page by page grown up. +There is none in the Museum to which I have been under anything like such +constant obligation, none which I can so ill spare, and none which I +would choose so readily if I were allowed to select one single volume and +keep it for my own. + +On finding myself asked for a contribution to the _Universal Review_, I +went, as I have explained, to the Museum, and presently repaired to +bookcase No. 2008 to get my favourite volume. Alas! it was in the room +no longer. It was not in use, for its place was filled up already; +besides, no one ever used it but myself. Whether the ghost of the late +Mr. Frost has been so eminently unchristian as to interfere, or whether +the authorities have removed the book in ignorance of the steady demand +which there has been for it on the part of at least one reader, are +points I cannot determine. All I know is that the book is gone, and I +feel as Wordsworth is generally supposed to have felt when he became +aware that Lucy was in her grave, and exclaimed so emphatically that this +would make a considerable difference to him, or words to that effect. + +Now I think of it, Frost's "Lives of Eminent Christians" was very like +Lucy. The one resided at Dovedale in Derbyshire, the other in Great +Russell Street, Bloomsbury. I admit that I do not see the resemblance +here at this moment, but if I try to develop my perception I shall +doubtless ere long find a marvellously striking one. In other respects, +however, than mere local habitat the likeness is obvious. Lucy was not +particularly attractive either inside or out--no more was Frost's "Lives +of Eminent Christians"; there were few to praise her, and of those few +still fewer could bring themselves to like her; indeed, Wordsworth +himself seems to have been the only person who thought much about her one +way or the other. In like manner, I believe I was the only reader who +thought much one way or the other about Frost's "Lives of Eminent +Christians," but this in itself was one of the attractions of the book; +and as for the grief we respectively felt and feel, I believe my own to +be as deep as Wordsworth's, if not more so. + +I said above, "as Wordsworth is generally supposed to have felt"; for any +one imbued with the spirit of modern science will read Wordsworth's poem +with different eyes from those of a mere literary critic. He will note +that Wordsworth is most careful not to explain the nature of the +difference which the death of Lucy will occasion to him. He tells us +that there will be a difference; but there the matter ends. The +superficial reader takes it that he was very sorry she was dead; it is, +of course, possible that he may have actually been so, but he has not +said this. On the contrary, he has hinted plainly that she was ugly, and +generally disliked; she was only like a violet when she was half-hidden +from the view, and only fair as a star when there were so few stars out +that it was practically impossible to make an invidious comparison. If +there were as many as even two stars the likeness was felt to be at an +end. If Wordsworth had imprudently promised to marry this young person +during a time when he had been unusually long in keeping to good +resolutions, and had afterwards seen some one whom he liked better, then +Lucy's death would undoubtedly have made a considerable difference to +him, and this is all that he has ever said that it would do. What right +have we to put glosses upon the masterly reticence of a poet, and credit +him with feelings possibly the very reverse of those he actually +entertained? + +Sometimes, indeed, I have been inclined to think that a mystery is being +hinted at more dark than any critic has suspected. I do not happen to +possess a copy of the poem, but the writer, if I am not mistaken, says +that "few could know when Lucy ceased to be." "Ceased to be" is a +suspiciously euphemistic expression, and the words "few could know" are +not applicable to the ordinary peaceful death of a domestic servant such +as Lucy appears to have been. No matter how obscure the deceased, any +number of people commonly can know the day and hour of his or her demise, +whereas in this case we are expressly told it would be impossible for +them to do so. Wordsworth was nothing if not accurate, and would not +have said that few could know, but that few actually did know, unless he +was aware of circumstances that precluded all but those implicated in the +crime of her death from knowing the precise moment of its occurrence. If +Lucy was the kind of person not obscurely pourtrayed in the poem; if +Wordsworth had murdered her, either by cutting her throat or smothering +her, in concert, perhaps, with his friends Southey and Coleridge; and if +he had thus found himself released from an engagement which had become +irksome to him, or possibly from the threat of an action for breach of +promise, then there is not a syllable in the poem with which he crowns +his crime that is not alive with meaning. On any other supposition to +the general reader it is unintelligible. + +We cannot be too guarded in the interpretations we put upon the words of +great poets. Take the young lady who never loved the dear gazelle--and I +don't believe she did; we are apt to think that Moore intended us to see +in this creation of his fancy a sweet, amiable, but most unfortunate +young woman, whereas all he has told us about her points to an exactly +opposite conclusion. In reality, he wished us to see a young lady who +had been an habitual complainer from her earliest childhood; whose plants +had always died as soon as she bought them, while those belonging to her +neighbours had flourished. The inference is obvious, nor can we +reasonably doubt that Moore intended us to draw it; if her plants were +the very first to fade away, she was evidently the very first to neglect +or otherwise maltreat them. She did not give them enough water, or left +the door of her fern-ease open when she was cooking her dinner at the gas +stove, or kept them too near the paraffin oil, or other like folly; and +as for her temper, see what the gazelles did; as long as they did not +know her "well," they could just manage to exist, but when they got to +understand her real character, one after another felt that death was the +only course open to it, and accordingly died rather than live with such a +mistress. True, the young lady herself said the gazelles loved her; but +disagreeable people are apt to think themselves amiable, and in view of +the course invariably taken by the gazelles themselves any one accustomed +to weigh evidence will hold that she was probably mistaken. + +I must, however, return to Frost's "Lives of Eminent Christians." I will +leave none of the ambiguity about my words in which Moore and Wordsworth +seem to have delighted. I am very sorry the book is gone, and know not +where to turn for its successor. Till I have found a substitute I can +write no more, and I do not know how to find even a tolerable one. I +should try a volume of Migne's "Complete Course of Patrology," but I do +not like books in more than one volume, for the volumes vary in +thickness, and one never can remember which one took; the four volumes, +however, of Bede in Giles's "Anglican Fathers" are not open to this +objection, and I have reserved them for favourable consideration. +Mather's "Magnalia" might do, but the binding does not please me; +Cureton's "Corpus Ignatianum" might also do if it were not too thin. I +do not like taking Norton's "Genuineness of the Gospels," as it is just +possible some one may be wanting to know whether the Gospels are genuine +or not, and be unable to find out because I have got Mr. Norton's book. +Baxter's "Church History of England," Lingard's "Anglo-Saxon Church," and +Cardwell's "Documentary Annals," though none of them as good as Frost, +are works of considerable merit; but on the whole I think Arvine's +"Cyclopedia of Moral and Religious Anecdote" is perhaps the one book in +the room which comes within measurable distance of Frost. I should +probably try this book first, but it has a fatal objection in its too +seductive title. "I am not curious," as Miss Lottie Venne says in one of +her parts, "but I like to know," and I might be tempted to pervert the +book from its natural uses and open it, so as to find out what kind of a +thing a moral and religious anecdote is. I know, of course, that there +are a great many anecdotes in the Bible, but no one thinks of calling +them either moral or religious, though some of them certainly seem as if +they might fairly find a place in Mr. Arvine's work. There are some +things, however, which it is better not to know, and take it all round I +do not think I should be wise in putting myself in the way of temptation, +and adopting Arvine as the successor to my beloved and lamented Frost. + +Some successor I must find, or I must give up writing altogether, and +this I should be sorry to do. I have only as yet written about a third, +or from that--counting works written but not published--to a half, of the +books which I have set myself to write. It would not so much matter if +old age was not staring me in the face. Dr. Parr said it was "a beastly +shame for an old man not to have laid down a good cellar of port in his +youth"; I, like the greater number, I suppose, of those who write books +at all, write in order that I may have something to read in my old age +when I can write no longer. I know what I shall like better than any one +can tell me, and write accordingly; if my career is nipped in the bud, as +seems only too likely, I really do not know where else I can turn for +present agreeable occupation, nor yet how to make suitable provision for +my later years. Other writers can, of course, make excellent provision +for their own old ages, but they cannot do so for mine, any more than I +should succeed if I were to try to cater for theirs. It is one of those +cases in which no man can make agreement for his brother. + +I have no heart for continuing this article, and if I had, I have nothing +of interest to say. No one's literary career can have been smoother or +more unchequered than mine. I have published all my books at my own +expense, and paid for them in due course. What can be conceivably more +unromantic? For some years I had a little literary grievance against the +authorities of the British Museum because they would insist on saying in +their catalogue that I had published three sermons on Infidelity in the +year 1820. I thought I had not, and got them out to see. They were +rather funny, but they were not mine. Now, however, this grievance has +been removed. I had another little quarrel with them because they would +describe me as "of St. John's College, Cambridge," an establishment for +which I have the most profound veneration, but with which I have not had +the honour to be connected for some quarter of a century. At last they +said they would change this description if I would only tell them what I +was, for, though they had done their best to find out, they had +themselves failed. I replied with modest pride that I was a Bachelor of +Arts. I keep all my other letters inside my name, not outside. They +mused and said it was unfortunate that I was not a Master of Arts. Could +I not get myself made a Master? I said I understood that a Mastership +was an article the University could not do under about five pounds, and +that I was not disposed to go sixpence higher than three ten. They again +said it was a pity, for it would be very inconvenient to them if I did +not keep to something between a bishop and a poet. I might be anything I +liked in reason, provided I showed proper respect for the alphabet; but +they had got me between "Samuel Butler, bishop," and "Samuel Butler, +poet." It would be very troublesome to shift me, and bachelor came +before bishop. This was reasonable, so I replied that, under those +circumstances, if they pleased, I thought I would like to be a +philosophical writer. They embraced the solution, and, no matter what I +write now, I must remain a philosophical writer as long as I live, for +the alphabet will hardly be altered in my time, and I must be something +between "Bis" and "Poe." If I could get a volume of my excellent +namesake's "Hudibras" out of the list of my works, I should be robbed of +my last shred of literary grievance, so I say nothing about this, but +keep it secret, lest some worse thing should happen to me. Besides, I +have a great respect for my namesake, and always say that if "Erewhon" +had been a racehorse it would have been got by "Hudibras" out of +"Analogy." Some one said this to me many years ago, and I felt so much +flattered that I have been repeating the remark as my own ever since. + +But how small are these grievances as compared with those endured without +a murmur by hundreds of writers far more deserving than myself. When I +see the scores and hundreds of workers in the reading-room who have done +so much more than I have, but whose work is absolutely fruitless to +themselves, and when I think of the prompt recognition obtained by my own +work, I ask myself what I have done to be thus rewarded. On the other +hand, the feeling that I have succeeded far beyond my deserts hitherto, +makes it all the harder for me to acquiesce without complaint in the +extinction of a career which I honestly believe to be a promising one; +and once more I repeat that, unless the Museum authorities give me back +my Frost, or put a locked clasp on Arvine, my career must be +extinguished. Give me back Frost, and, if life and health are spared, I +will write another dozen of volumes yet before I hang up my fiddle--if so +serious a confusion of metaphors may be pardoned. I know from long +experience how kind and considerate both the late and present +superintendents of the reading-room were and are, but I doubt how far +either of them would be disposed to help me on this occasion; continue, +however, to rob me of my Frost, and, whatever else I may do, I will write +no more books. + +_Note by Dr. Garnett_, _British Museum_.--The frost has broken up. Mr. +Butler is restored to literature. Mr. Mudie may make himself easy. +England will still boast a humourist; and the late Mr. Darwin (to whose +posthumous machinations the removal of the book was owing) will continue +to be confounded.--R. GANNETT. + + + + +RAMBLINGS IN CHEAPSIDE {2} + + +Walking the other day in Cheapside I saw some turtles in Mr. Sweeting's +window, and was tempted to stay and look at them. As I did so I was +struck not more by the defences with which they were hedged about, than +by the fatuousness of trying to hedge that in at all which, if hedged +thoroughly, must die of its own defencefulness. The holes for the head +and feet through which the turtle leaks out, as it were, on to the +exterior world, and through which it again absorbs the exterior world +into itself--"catching on" through them to things that are thus both +turtle and not turtle at one and the same time--these holes stultify the +armour, and show it to have been designed by a creature with more of +faithfulness to a fixed idea, and hence one-sidedness, than of that quick +sense of relative importances and their changes, which is the main factor +of good living. + +The turtle obviously had no sense of proportion; it differed so widely +from myself that I could not comprehend it; and as this word occurred to +me, it occurred also that until my body comprehended its body in a +physical material sense, neither would my mind be able to comprehend its +mind with any thoroughness. For unity of mind can only be consummated by +unity of body; everything, therefore, must be in some respects both knave +and fool to all that which has not eaten it, or by which it has not been +eaten. As long as the turtle was in the window and I in the street +outside, there was no chance of our comprehending one another. + +Nevertheless I knew that I could get it to agree with me if I could so +effectually button-hole and fasten on to it as to eat it. Most men have +an easy method with turtle soup, and I had no misgiving but that if I +could bring my first premise to bear I should prove the better reasoner. +My difficulty lay in this initial process, for I had not with me the +argument that would alone compel Mr. Sweeting think that I ought to be +allowed to convert the turtles--I mean I had no money in my pocket. No +missionary enterprise can be carried on without any money at all, but +even so small a sum as half-a-crown would, I suppose, have enabled me to +bring the turtle partly round, and with many half-crowns I could in time +no doubt convert the lot, for the turtle needs must go where the money +drives. If, as is alleged, the world stands on a turtle, the turtle +stands on money. No money no turtle. As for money, that stands on +opinion, credit, trust, faith--things that, though highly material in +connection with money, are still of immaterial essence. + +The steps are perfectly plain. The men who caught the turtles brought a +fairly strong and definite opinion to bear upon them, that passed into +action, and later on into money. They thought the turtles would come +that way, and verified their opinion; on this, will and action were +generated, with the result that the men turned the turtles on their backs +and carried them off. Mr. Sweeting touched these men with money, which +is the outward and visible sign of verified opinion. The customer +touches Mr. Sweeting with money, Mr. Sweeting touches the waiter and the +cook with money. They touch the turtle with skill and verified opinion. +Finally, the customer applies the clinching argument that brushes all +sophisms aside, and bids the turtle stand protoplasm to protoplasm with +himself, to know even as it is known. + +But it must be all touch, touch, touch; skill, opinion, power, and money, +passing in and out with one another in any order we like, but still link +to link and touch to touch. If there is failure anywhere in respect of +opinion, skill, power, or money, either as regards quantity or quality, +the chain can be no stronger than its weakest link, and the turtle and +the clinching argument will fly asunder. Of course, if there is an +initial failure in connection, through defect in any member of the chain, +or of connection between the links, it will no more be attempted to bring +the turtle and the clinching argument together, than it will to chain up +a dog with two pieces of broken chain that are disconnected. The contact +throughout must be conceived as absolute; and yet perfect contact is +inconceivable by us, for on becoming perfect it ceases to be contact, and +becomes essential, once for all inseverable, identity. The most absolute +contact short of this is still contact by courtesy only. So here, as +everywhere else, Eurydice glides off as we are about to grasp her. We +can see nothing face to face; our utmost seeing is but a fumbling of +blind finger-ends in an overcrowded pocket. + +Presently my own blind finger-ends fished up the conclusion, that as I +had neither time nor money to spend on perfecting the chain that would +put me in full spiritual contact with Mr. Sweeting's turtles, I had +better leave them to complete their education at some one else's expense +rather than mine, so I walked on towards the Bank. As I did so it struck +me how continually we are met by this melting of one existence into +another. The limits of the body seem well defined enough as definitions +go, but definitions seldom go far. What, for example, can seem more +distinct from a man than his banker or his solicitor? Yet these are +commonly so much parts of him that he can no more cut them off and grow +new ones, than he can grow new legs or arms; neither must he wound his +solicitor; a wound in the solicitor is a very serious thing. As for his +bank--failure of his bank's action may be as fatal to a man as failure of +his heart. I have said nothing about the medical or spiritual adviser, +but most men grow into the society that surrounds them by the help of +these four main tap-roots, and not only into the world of humanity, but +into the universe at large. We can, indeed, grow butchers, bakers, and +greengrocers, almost _ad libitum_, but these are low developments, and +correspond to skin, hair, or finger-nails. Those of us again who are not +highly enough organised to have grown a solicitor or banker can generally +repair the loss of whatever social organisation they may possess as +freely as lizards are said to grow new tails; but this with the higher +social, as well as organic, developments is only possible to a very +limited extent. + +The doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls--a doctrine to +which the foregoing considerations are for the most part easy +corollaries--crops up no matter in what direction we allow our thoughts +to wander. And we meet instances of transmigration of body as well as of +soul. I do not mean that both body and soul have transmigrated together, +far from it; but that, as we can often recognise a transmigrated mind in +an alien body, so we not less often see a body that is clearly only a +transmigration, linked on to some one else's new and alien soul. We meet +people every day whose bodies are evidently those of men and women long +dead, but whose appearance we know through their portraits. We see them +going about in omnibuses, railway carriages, and in all public places. +The cards have been shuffled, and they have drawn fresh lots in life and +nationalities, but any one fairly well up in mediaeval and last century +portraiture knows them at a glance. + +Going down once towards Italy I saw a young man in the train whom I +recognised, only he seemed to have got younger. He was with a friend, +and his face was in continual play, but for some little time I puzzled in +vain to recollect where it was that I had seen him before. All of a +sudden I remembered he was King Francis I. of France. I had hitherto +thought the face of this king impossible, but when I saw it in play I +understood it. His great contemporary Henry VIII. keeps a restaurant in +Oxford Street. Falstaff drove one of the St. Gothard diligences for many +years, and only retired when the railway was opened. Titian once made me +a pair of boots at Vicenza, and not very good ones. At Modena I had my +hair cut by a young man whom I perceived to be Raffaelle. The model who +sat to him for his celebrated Madonnas is first lady in a confectionery +establishment at Montreal. She has a little motherly pimple on the left +side of her nose that is misleading at first, but on examination she is +readily recognised; probably Raffaelle's model had the pimple too, but +Raffaelle left it out--as he would. + +Handel, of course, is Madame Patey. Give Madame Patey Handel's wig and +clothes, and there would be no telling her from Handel. It is not only +that the features and the shape of the head are the same, but there is a +certain imperiousness of expression and attitude about Handel which he +hardly attempts to conceal in Madame Patey. It is a curious coincidence +that he should continue to be such an incomparable renderer of his own +music. Pope Julius II. was the late Mr. Darwin. Rameses II. is a blind +woman now, and stands in Holborn, holding a tin mug. I never could +understand why I always found myself humming "They oppressed them with +burthens" when I passed her, till one day I was looking in Mr. Spooner's +window in the Strand, and saw a photograph of Rameses II. Mary Queen of +Scots wears surgical boots and is subject to fits, near the Horse Shoe in +Tottenham Court Road. + +Michael Angelo is a commissionaire; I saw him on board the _Glen Rosa_, +which used to run every day from London to Clacton-on-Sea and back. It +gave me quite a turn when I saw him coming down the stairs from the upper +deck, with his bronzed face, flattened nose, and with the familiar bar +upon his forehead. I never liked Michael Angelo, and never shall, but I +am afraid of him, and was near trying to hide when I saw him coming +towards me. He had not got his commissionaire's uniform on, and I did +not know he was one till I met him a month or so later in the Strand. +When we got to Blackwall the music struck up and people began to dance. I +never saw a man dance so much in my life. He did not miss a dance all +the way to Clacton, nor all the way back again, and when not dancing he +was flirting and cracking jokes. I could hardly believe my eyes when I +reflected that this man had painted the famous "Last Judgment," and had +made all those statues. + +Dante is, or was a year or two ago, a waiter at Brissago on the Lago +Maggiore, only he is better-tempered-looking, and has a more intellectual +expression. He gave me his ideas upon beauty: "Tutto ch' e vero e +bello," he exclaimed, with all his old self-confidence. I am not afraid +of Dante. I know people by their friends, and he went about with Virgil, +so I said with some severity, "No, Dante, il naso della Signora Robinson +e vero, ma non e bello"; and he admitted I was right. Beatrice's name is +Towler; she is waitress at a small inn in German Switzerland. I used to +sit at my window and hear people call "Towler, Towler, Towler," fifty +times in a forenoon. She was the exact antithesis to Abra; Abra, if I +remember, used to come before they called her name, but no matter how +often they called Towler, every one came before she did. I suppose they +spelt her name Taula, but to me it sounded Towler; I never, however, met +any one else with this name. She was a sweet, artless little hussy, who +made me play the piano to her, and she said it was lovely. Of course I +only played my own compositions; so I believed her, and it all went off +very nicely. I thought it might save trouble if I did not tell her who +she really was, so I said nothing about it. + +I met Socrates once. He was my muleteer on an excursion which I will not +name, for fear it should identify the man. The moment I saw my guide I +knew he was somebody, but for the life of me I could not remember who. +All of a sudden it flashed across me that he was Socrates. He talked +enough for six, but it was all in _dialetto_, so I could not understand +him, nor, when I had discovered who he was, did I much try to do so. He +was a good creature, a trifle given to stealing fruit and vegetables, but +an amiable man enough. He had had a long day with his mule and me, and +he only asked me five francs. I gave him ten, for I pitied his poor old +patched boots, and there was a meekness about him that touched me. "And +now, Socrates," said I at parting, "we go on our several ways, you to +steal tomatoes, I to filch ideas from other people; for the rest--which +of these two roads will be the better going, our father which is in +heaven knows, but we know not." + +I have never seen Mendelssohn, but there is a fresco of him on the +terrace, or open-air dining-room, of an inn at Chiavenna. He is not +called Mendelssohn, but I knew him by his legs. He is in the costume of +a dandy of some five-and-forty years ago, is smoking a cigar, and appears +to be making an offer of marriage to his cook. Beethoven both my friend +Mr. H. Festing Jones and I have had the good fortune to meet; he is an +engineer now, and does not know one note from another; he has quite lost +his deafness, is married, and is, of course, a little squat man with the +same refractory hair that he always had. It was very interesting to +watch him, and Jones remarked that before the end of dinner he had become +positively posthumous. One morning I was told the Beethovens were going +away, and before long I met their two heavy boxes being carried down the +stairs. The boxes were so squab and like their owners, that I half +thought for a moment that they were inside, and should hardly have been +surprised to see them spring up like a couple of Jacks-in-the-box. "Sono +indentro?" said I, with a frown of wonder, pointing to the boxes. The +porters knew what I meant, and laughed. But there is no end to the list +of people whom I have been able to recognise, and before I had got +through it myself, I found I had walked some distance, and had +involuntarily paused in front of a second-hand bookstall. + +I do not like books. I believe I have the smallest library of any +literary man in London, and I have no wish to increase it. I keep my +books at the British Museum and at Mudie's, and it makes me very angry if +any one gives me one for my private library. I once heard two ladies +disputing in a railway carriage as to whether one of them had or had not +been wasting money. "I spent it in books," said the accused, "and it's +not wasting money to buy books." "Indeed, my dear, I think it is," was +the rejoinder, and in practice I agree with it. Webster's Dictionary, +Whitaker's Almanack, and Bradshaw's Railway Guide should be sufficient +for any ordinary library; it will be time enough to go beyond these when +the mass of useful and entertaining matter which they provide has been +mastered. Nevertheless, I admit that sometimes, if not particularly +busy, I stop at a second-hand bookstall and turn over a book or two from +mere force of habit. + +I know not what made me pick up a copy of AEschylus--of course in an +English version--or rather I know not what made AEschylus take up with +me, for he took me rather than I him; but no sooner had he got me than he +began puzzling me, as he has done any time this forty years, to know +wherein his transcendent merit can be supposed to lie. To me he is, like +the greater number of classics in all ages and countries, a literary +Struldbrug, rather than a true ambrosia-fed immortal. There are true +immortals, but they are few and far between; most classics are as great +impostors dead as they were when living, and while posing as gods are, +five-sevenths of them, only Struldbrugs. It comforts me to remember that +Aristophanes liked AEschylus no better than I do. True, he praises him +by comparison with Sophocles and Euripides, but he only does so that he +may run down these last more effectively. Aristophanes is a safe man to +follow, nor do I see why it should not be as correct to laugh with him as +to pull a long face with the Greek Professors; but this is neither here +nor there, for no one really cares about AEschylus; the more interesting +question is how he contrived to make so many people for so many years +pretend to care about him. + +Perhaps he married somebody's daughter. If a man would get hold of the +public ear, he must pay, marry, or fight. I have never understood that +AEschylus was a man of means, and the fighters do not write poetry, so I +suppose he must have married a theatrical manager's daughter, and got his +plays brought out that way. The ear of any age or country is like its +land, air, and water; it seems limitless but is really limited, and is +already in the keeping of those who naturally enough will have no +squatting on such valuable property. It is written and talked up to as +closely as the means of subsistence are bred up to by a teeming +population. There is not a square inch of it but is in private hands, +and he who would freehold any part of it must do so by purchase, +marriage, or fighting, in the usual way--and fighting gives the longest, +safest tenure. The public itself has hardly more voice in the question +who shall have its ear, than the land has in choosing its owners. It is +farmed as those who own it think most profitable to themselves, and small +blame to them; nevertheless, it has a residuum of mulishness which the +land has not, and does sometimes dispossess its tenants. It is in this +residuum that those who fight place their hope and trust. + +Or perhaps AEschylus squared the leading critics of his time. When one +comes to think of it, he must have done so, for how is it conceivable +that such plays should have had such runs if he had not? I met a lady +one year in Switzerland who had some parrots that always travelled with +her and were the idols of her life. These parrots would not let any one +read aloud in their presence, unless they heard their own names +introduced from time to time. If these were freely interpolated into the +text they would remain as still as stones, for they thought the reading +was about themselves. If it was not about them it could not be allowed. +The leaders of literature are like these parrots; they do not look at +what a man writes, nor if they did would they understand it much better +than the parrots do; but they like the sound of their own names, and if +these are freely interpolated in a tone they take as friendly, they may +even give ear to an outsider. Otherwise they will scream him off if they +can. + +I should not advise any one with ordinary independence of mind to attempt +the public ear unless he is confident that he can out-lung and out-last +his own generation; for if he has any force, people will and ought to be +on their guard against him, inasmuch as there is no knowing where he may +not take them. Besides, they have staked their money on the wrong men so +often without suspecting it, that when there comes one whom they do +suspect it would be madness not to bet against him. True, he may die +before he has out-screamed his opponents, but that has nothing to do with +it. If his scream was well pitched it will sound clearer when he is +dead. We do not know what death is. If we know so little about life +which we have experienced, how shall we know about death which we have +not--and in the nature of things never can? Every one, as I said years +ago in "Alps and Sanctuaries," is an immortal to himself, for he cannot +know that he is dead until he is dead, and when dead how can he know +anything about anything? All we know is, that even the humblest dead may +live long after all trace of the body has disappeared; we see them doing +it in the bodies and memories of those that come after them; and not a +few live so much longer and more effectually than is desirable, that it +has been necessary to get rid of them by Act of Parliament. It is love +that alone gives life, and the truest life is that which we live not in +ourselves but vicariously in others, and with which we have no concern. +Our concern is so to order ourselves that we may be of the number of them +that enter into life--although we know it not. + +AEschylus did so order himself; but his life is not of that inspiriting +kind that can be won through fighting the good fight only--or being +believed to have fought it. His voice is the echo of a drone, +drone-begotten and drone-sustained. It is not a tone that a man must +utter or die--nay, even though he die; and likely enough half the +allusions and hard passages in AEschylus of which we can make neither +head nor tail are in reality only puffs of some of the literary leaders +of his time. + +The lady above referred to told me more about her parrots. She was like +a Nasmyth's hammer going slow--very gentle, but irresistible. She always +read the newspaper to them. What was the use of having a newspaper if +one did not read it to one's parrots? + +"And have you divined," I asked, "to which side they incline in +politics?" + +"They do not like Mr. Gladstone," was the somewhat freezing answer; "this +is the only point on which we disagree, for I adore him. Don't ask more +about this, it is a great grief to me. I tell them everything," she +continued, "and hide no secret from them." + +"But can any parrot be trusted to keep a secret?" + +"Mine can." + +"And on Sundays do you give them the same course of reading as on a week- +day, or do you make a difference?" + +"On Sundays I always read them a genealogical chapter from the Old or New +Testament, for I can thus introduce their names without profanity. I +always keep tea by me in case they should ask for it in the night, and I +have an Etna to warm it for them; they take milk and sugar. The old +white-headed clergyman came to see them last night; it was very painful, +for Jocko reminded him so strongly of his late . . . " + +I thought she was going to say "wife," but it proved to have been only of +a parrot that he had once known and loved. + +One evening she was in difficulties about the quarantine, which was +enforced that year on the Italian frontier. The local doctor had gone +down that morning to see the Italian doctor and arrange some details. +"Then, perhaps, my dear," she said to her husband, "he is the +quarantine." "No, my love," replied her husband. "The quarantine is not +a person, it is a place where they put people"; but she would not be +comforted, and suspected the quarantine as an enemy that might at any +moment pounce out upon her and her parrots. So a lady told me once that +she had been in like trouble about the anthem. She read in her prayer- +book that in choirs and places where they sing "here followeth the +anthem," yet the person with this most mysteriously sounding name never +did follow. They had a choir, and no one could say the church was not a +place where they sang, for they did sing--both chants and hymns. Why, +then, this persistent slackness on the part of the anthem, who at this +juncture should follow her papa, the rector, into the reading-desk? No +doubt he would come some day, and then what would he be like? Fair or +dark? Tall or short? Would he be bald and wear spectacles like papa, or +would he be young and good-looking? Anyhow, there was something wrong, +for it was announced that he would follow, and he never did follow; +therefore there was no knowing what he might not do next. + +I heard of the parrots a year or two later as giving lessons in Italian +to an English maid. I do not know what their terms were. Alas! since +then both they and their mistress have joined the majority. When the +poor lady felt her end was near she desired (and the responsibility for +this must rest with her, not me) that the birds might be destroyed, as +fearing that they might come to be neglected, and knowing that they could +never be loved again as she had loved them. On being told that all was +over, she said, "Thank you," and immediately expired. + +Reflecting in such random fashion, and strolling with no greater method, +I worked my way back through Cheapside and found myself once more in +front of Sweeting's window. Again the turtles attracted me. They were +alive, and so far at any rate they agreed with me. Nay, they had eyes, +mouths, legs, if not arms, and feet, so there was much in which we were +both of a mind, but surely they must be mistaken in arming themselves so +very heavily. Any creature on getting what the turtle aimed at would +overreach itself and be landed not in safety but annihilation. It should +have no communion with the outside world at all, for death could creep in +wherever the creature could creep out; and it must creep out somewhere if +it was to hook on to outside things. What death can be more absolute +than such absolute isolation? Perfect death, indeed, if it were +attainable (which it is not), is as near perfect security as we can +reach, but it is not the kind of security aimed at by any animal that is +at the pains of defending itself. For such want to have things both +ways, desiring the livingness of life without its perils, and the safety +of death without its deadness, and some of us do actually get this for a +considerable time, but we do not get it by plating ourselves with armour +as the turtle does. We tried this in the Middle Ages, and no longer mock +ourselves with the weight of armour that our forefathers carried in +battle. Indeed the more deadly the weapons of attack become the more we +go into the fight slug-wise. + +Slugs have ridden their contempt for defensive armour as much to death as +the turtles their pursuit of it. They have hardly more than skin enough +to hold themselves together; they court death every time they cross the +road. Yet death comes not to them more than to the turtle, whose +defences are so great that there is little left inside to be defended. +Moreover, the slugs fare best in the long run, for turtles are dying out, +while slugs are not, and there must be millions of slugs all the world +over for every single turtle. Of the two vanities, therefore, that of +the slug seems most substantial. + +In either case the creature thinks itself safe, but is sure to be found +out sooner or later; nor is it easy to explain this mockery save by +reflecting that everything must have its meat in due season, and that +meat can only be found for such a multitude of mouths by giving +everything as meat in due season to something else. This is like the +Kilkenny cats, or robbing Peter to pay Paul; but it is the way of the +world, and as every animal must contribute in kind to the picnic of the +universe, one does not see what better arrangement could be made than the +providing each race with a hereditary fallacy, which shall in the end get +it into a scrape, but which shall generally stand the wear and tear of +life for some time. "_Do ut des_" is the writing on all flesh to him +that eats it; and no creature is dearer to itself than it is to some +other that would devour it. + +Nor is there any statement or proposition more invulnerable than living +forms are. Propositions prey upon and are grounded upon one another just +like living forms. They support one another as plants and animals do; +they are based ultimately on credit, or faith, rather than the cash of +irrefragable conviction. The whole universe is carried on on the credit +system, and if the mutual confidence on which it is based were to +collapse, it must itself collapse immediately. Just or unjust, it lives +by faith; it is based on vague and impalpable opinion that by some +inscrutable process passes into will and action, and is made manifest in +matter and in flesh: it is meteoric--suspended in midair; it is the +baseless fabric of a vision so vast, so vivid, and so gorgeous that no +base can seem more broad than such stupendous baselessness, and yet any +man can bring it about his ears by being over-curious; when faith fails a +system based on faith fails also. + +Whether the universe is really a paying concern, or whether it is an +inflated bubble that must burst sooner or later, this is another matter. +If people were to demand cash payment in irrefragable certainty for +everything that they have taken hitherto as paper money on the credit of +the bank of public opinion, is there money enough behind it all to stand +so great a drain even on so great a reserve? Probably there is not, but +happily there can be no such panic, for even though the cultured classes +may do so, the uncultured are too dull to have brains enough to commit +such stupendous folly. It takes a long course of academic training to +educate a man up to the standard which he must reach before he can +entertain such questions seriously, and by a merciful dispensation of +Providence, university training is almost as costly as it is +unprofitable. The majority will thus be always unable to afford it, and +will base their opinions on mother wit and current opinion rather than on +demonstration. + +So I turned my steps homewards; I saw a good many more things on my way +home, but I was told that I was not to see more this time than I could +get into twelve pages of the _Universal Review_; I must therefore reserve +any remark which I think might perhaps entertain the reader for another +occasion. + + + + +THE AUNT, THE NIECES, AND THE DOG {3} + + +When a thing is old, broken, and useless we throw it on the dust-heap, +but when it is sufficiently old, sufficiently broken, and sufficiently +useless we give money for it, put it into a museum, and read papers over +it which people come long distances to hear. By-and-by, when the +whirligig of time has brought on another revenge, the museum itself +becomes a dust-heap, and remains so till after long ages it is +re-discovered, and valued as belonging to a neo-rubbish age--containing, +perhaps, traces of a still older paleo-rubbish civilisation. So when +people are old, indigent, and in all respects incapable, we hold them in +greater and greater contempt as their poverty and impotence increase, +till they reach the pitch when they are actually at the point to die, +whereon they become sublime. Then we place every resource our hospitals +can command at their disposal, and show no stint in our consideration for +them. + +It is the same with all our interests. We care most about extremes of +importance and of unimportance; but extremes of importance are tainted +with fear, and a very imperfect fear casteth out love. Extremes of +unimportance cannot hurt us, therefore we are well disposed towards them; +the means may come to do so, therefore we do not love them. Hence we +pick a fly out of a milk-jug and watch with pleasure over its recovery, +for we are confident that under no conceivable circumstances will it want +to borrow money from us; but we feel less sure about a mouse, so we show +it no quarter. The compilers of our almanacs well know this tendency of +our natures, so they tell us, not when Noah went into the ark, nor when +the temple of Jerusalem was dedicated, but that Lindley Murray, +grammarian, died January 16, 1826. This is not because they could not +find so many as three hundred and sixty-five events of considerable +interest since the creation of the world, but because they well know we +would rather hear of something less interesting. We care most about what +concerns us either very closely, or so little that practically we have +nothing whatever to do with it. + +I once asked a young Italian, who professed to have a considerable +knowledge of English literature, which of all our poems pleased him best. +He replied without a moment's hesitation:-- + + "Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, + The cow jumped over the moon; + The little dog laughed to see such sport, + And the dish ran away with the spoon." + +He said this was better than anything in Italian. They had Dante and +Tasso, and ever so many more great poets, but they had nothing comparable +to "Hey diddle diddle," nor had he been able to conceive how any one +could have written it. Did I know the author's name, and had we given +him a statue? On this I told him of the young lady of Harrow who would +go to church in a barrow, and plied him with whatever rhyming nonsense I +could call to mind, but it was no use; all of these things had an element +of reality that robbed them of half their charm, whereas "Hey diddle +diddle" had nothing in it that could conceivably concern him. + +So again it is with the things that gall us most. What is it that rises +up against us at odd times and smites us in the face again and again for +years after it has happened? That we spent all the best years of our +life in learning what we have found to be a swindle, and to have been +known to be a swindle by those who took money for misleading us? That +those on whom we most leaned most betrayed us? That we have only come to +feel our strength when there is little strength left of any kind to feel? +These things will hardly much disturb a man of ordinary good temper. But +that he should have said this or that little unkind and wanton saying; +that he should have gone away from this or that hotel and given a +shilling too little to the waiter; that his clothes were shabby at such +or such a garden-party--these things gall us as a corn will sometimes do, +though the loss of a limb way not be seriously felt. + +I have been reminded lately of these considerations with more than common +force by reading the very voluminous correspondence left by my +grandfather, Dr. Butler, of Shrewsbury, whose memoirs I am engaged in +writing. I have found a large number of interesting letters on subjects +of serious import, but must confess that it is to the hardly less +numerous lighter letters that I have been most attracted, nor do I feel +sure that my eminent namesake did not share my predilection. Among other +letters in my possession I have one bundle that has been kept apart, and +has evidently no connection with Dr. Butler's own life. I cannot use +these letters, therefore, for my book, but over and above the charm of +their inspired spelling, I find them of such an extremely trivial nature +that I incline to hope the reader may derive as much amusement from them +as I have done myself, and venture to give them the publicity here which +I must refuse them in my book. The dates and signatures have, with the +exception of Mrs. Newton's, been carefully erased, but I have collected +that they were written by the two servants of a single lady who resided +at no great distance from London, to two nieces of the said lady who +lived in London itself. The aunt never writes, but always gets one of +the servants to do so for her. She appears either as "your aunt" or as +"She"; her name is not given, but she is evidently looked upon with a +good deal of awe by all who had to do with her. + +The letters almost all of them relate to visits either of the aunt to +London, or of the nieces to the aunt's home, which, from occasional +allusions to hopping, I gather to have been in Kent, Sussex, or Surrey. I +have arranged them to the best of my power, and take the following to be +the earliest. It has no signature, but is not in the handwriting of the +servant who styles herself Elizabeth, or Mrs. Newton. It runs:-- + + "MADAM,--Your Aunt Wishes me to inform you she will be glad if you + will let hir know if you think of coming To hir House thiss month or + Next as she cannot have you in September on a kount of the Hoping If + you ar coming she thinkes she had batter Go to London on the Day you + com to hir House the says you shall have everry Thing raddy for you at + hir House and Mrs. Newton to meet you and stay with you till She + returnes a gann. + + "if you arnot Coming thiss Summer She will be in London before thiss + Month is out and will Sleep on the Sofy As She willnot be in London + more thann two nits. and She Says she willnot truble you on anny a + kount as She Will returne the Same Day before She will plage you anny + more. but She thanks you for asking hir to London. but She says She + cannot leve the house at prassant She sayhir Survants ar to do for you + as she cannot lodge yours nor she willnot have thim in at the house + anny more to brake and destroy hir thinks and beslive hir and make up + Lies by hir and Skandel as your too did She says she mens to pay fore + 2 Nits and one day, She says the Pepelwill let hir have it if you ask + thim to let hir: you Will be so good as to let hir know sun: wish She + is to do, as She says She dos not care anny thing a bout it. which way + tiss she is batter than She was and desirs hir Love to bouth bouth. + + "Your aunt wises to know how the silk Clocks ar madup [how the silk + cloaks are made up] with a Cape or a wood as she is a goin to have one + madeup to rideout in in hir littel shas [chaise]. + + "Charles is a butty and so good. + + "Mr & Mrs Newton ar quite wall & desires to be remembered to you." + +I can throw no light on the meaning of the verb to "beslive." Each +letter in the MS. is so admirably formed that there can be no question +about the word being as I have given it. Nor have I been able to +discover what is referred to by the words "Charles is a butty and so +good." We shall presently meet with a Charles who "flies in the Fier," +but that Charles appears to have been in London, whereas this one is +evidently in Kent, or wherever the aunt lived. + +The next letter is from Mrs. Newton + + "DER MISS ---, I Receve your Letter your Aunt is vary Ill and + Lowspireted I Donte think your Aunt wood Git up all Day if My Sister + Wasnot to Persage her We all Think hir lif is two monopolous. you Wish + to know Who Was Liveing With your Aunt. that is My Sister and + Willian--and Cariline--as Cock and Old Poll Pepper is Come to Stay + With her a Littel Wile and I hoped [hopped] for Your Aunt, and Harry + has Worked for your Aunt all the Summer. Your Aunt and Harry Whent to + the Wells Races and Spent a very Pleasant Day your Aunt has Lost Old + Fanney Sow She Died about a Week a Go Harry he Wanted your Aunt to + have her killed and send her to London and Shee Wold Fech her 11 + pounds the Farmers have Lost a Greet Deal of Cattel such as Hogs and + Cows What theay call the Plage I Whent to your Aunt as you Wish Mee to + Do But She Told Mee She Did not wont aney Boddy She Told Mee She + Should Like to Come up to see you But She Cant Come know for she is + Boddyley ill and Harry Donte Work there know But he Go up there Once + in Two or Three Day Harry Offered is self to Go up to Live With your + Aunt But She Made him know Ancer. I hay Been up to your Aunt at Work + for 5 Weeks Hopping and Ragluting Your Aunt Donte Eat nor Drink But + vary Littel indeed. + + "I am Happy to Say We are Both Quite Well and I am Glad no hear you + are Both Quite Well + + "MRS NEWTON." + +This seems to have made the nieces propose to pay a visit to their aunt, +perhaps to try and relieve the monopoly of her existence and cheer her up +a little. In their letter, doubtless, the dog motive is introduced that +is so finely developed presently by Mrs. Newton. I should like to have +been able to give the theme as enounced by the nieces themselves, but +their letters are not before me. Mrs. Newton writes:-- + + "MY DEAR GIRLS,--Your Aunt receiv your Letter your Aunt will Be vary + glad to see you as it quite a greeable if it tis to you and Shee is + Quite Willing to Eair the beds and the Rooms if you Like to Trust to + hir and the Servantes; if not I may Go up there as you Wish. My + Sister Sleeps in the Best Room as she allways Did and the Coock in the + garret and you Can have the Rooms the same as you allways Did as your + Aunt Donte set in the Parlour She Continlery Sets in the Ciching. your + Aunt says she Cannot Part from the dog know hows and She Says he will + not hurt you for he is Like a Child and I can safeley say My Self he + wonte hurt you as She Cannot Sleep in the Room With out him as he + allWay Sleep in the Same Room as She Dose. your Aunt is agreeable to + Git in What Coles and Wood you Wish for I am know happy to say your + Aunt is in as Good health as ever She Was and She is happy to hear you + are Both Well your Aunt Wishes for Ancer By Return of Post." + +The nieces replied that their aunt must choose between the dog and them, +and Mrs. Newton sends a second letter which brings her development to a +climax. It runs:-- + + "DEAR MISS ---, I have Receve your Letter and i Whent up to your Aunt + as you Wish me and i Try to Perveal With her about the Dog But she + Wold not Put the Dog away nor it alow him to Be Tied up But She Still + Wishes you to Come as Shee says the Dog Shall not interrup you for She + Donte alow the Dog nor it the Cats to Go in the Parlour never sence + She has had it Donup ferfere of Spoiling the Paint your Aunt think it + vary Strange you Should Be so vary Much afraid of a Dog and She says + you Cant Go out in London But What you are up a gance one and She says + She Wonte Trust the Dog in know one hands But her Owne for She is + afraid theay Will not fill is Belley as he Lives upon Rost Beeff and + Rost and Boil Moutten Wich he Eats More then the Servantes in the + House there is not aney One Wold Beable to Give Sattefacktion upon + that account Harry offerd to Take the Dog But She Wood not Trust him + in our hands so I Cold not Do aney thing With her your Aunt youse to + Tell Me When we was at your House in London She Did not know how to + make you amens and i Told her know it was the Time to Do it But i + Considder She sets the Dog Before you your Aunt keep know Beer know + Sprits know Wines in the House of aney Sort Oneley a Little Barl of + Wine I made her in the Summer the Workmen and servantes are a Blige to + Drink wauter Morning Noon and Night your Aunt the Same She Donte Low + her Self aney Tee nor Coffee But is Loocking Wonderful Well + + "I Still Remane your Humble Servant Mrs Newton + + "I am vary sorry to think the Dog Perventes your Comeing + + "I am Glad to hear you are Both Well and we are the same." + +The nieces remained firm, and from the following letter it is plain the +aunt gave way. The dog motive is repeated _pianissimo_, and is not +returned to--not at least by Mrs. Newton. + + "DEAR MISS ---, I Receve your Letter on Thursday i Whent to your Aunt + and i see her and She is a Greable to everry thing i asked her and + seme so vary Much Please to see you Both Next Tuseday and she has sent + for the Faggots to Day and she Will Send for the Coles to Morrow and i + will Go up there to Morrow Morning and Make the Fiers and Tend to the + Beds and sleep in it Till you Come Down your Aunt sends her Love to + you Both and she is Quite well your Aunt Wishes you wold Write againe + Before you Come as she ma Expeckye and the Dog is not to Gointo the + Parlor a Tall + + "your Aunt kind Love to you Both & hopes you Wonte Fail in Coming + according to Prommis + + MRS NEWTON." + +From a later letter it appears that the nieces did not pay their visit +after all, and what is worse a letter had miscarried, and the aunt sat up +expecting them from seven till twelve at night, and Harry had paid for +"Faggots and Coles quarter of Hund. Faggots Half tun of Coles 1_l._ +1_s._ 3_d._" Shortly afterwards, however, "She" again talks of coming up +to London herself and writes through her servant-- + + "My Dear girls i Receve your kind letter & I am happy to hear you ar + both Well and I Was in hopes of seeing of you Both Down at My House + this spring to stay a Wile I am Quite well my self in Helth But vary + Low Spireted I am vary sorry to hear the Misforting of Poor charles & + how he cum to flie in the Fier I cannot think. I should like to know + if he is dead or a Live, and I shall come to London in August & stay + three or four daies if it is agreable to you. Mrs. Newton has lost + her mother in Law 4 day March & I hope you send me word Wather charles + is Dead or a Live as soon as possible, and will you send me word what + Little Betty is for I cannot make her out." + +The next letter is a new handwriting, and tells the nieces of their +aunt's death in the the following terms:-- + + "DEAR MISS ---, It is my most painful duty to inform you that your + dear aunt expired this morning comparatively easy as Hannah informs me + and in so doing restored her soul to the custody of him whom she + considered to be alone worthy of its care. + + "The doctor had visited her about five minutes previously and had + applied a blister. + + "You and your sister will I am sure excuse further details at present + and believe me with kindest remembrances to remain + + "Yours truly, &c." + +After a few days a lawyer's letter informs the nieces that their aunt had +left them the bulk of her not very considerable property, but had charged +them with an annuity of 1 pound a week to be paid to Harry and Mrs. +Newton so long as the dog lived. + +The only other letters by Mrs. Newton are written on paper of a different +and more modern size; they leave an impression of having been written a +good many years later. I take them as they come. The first is very +short:-- + + "DEAR MISS ---, i write to say i cannot possiblely come on Wednesday + as we have killed a pig. your's truely, + + "ELIZABETH NEWTON." + +The second runs:-- + + "DEAR MISS ---, i hope you are both quite well in health & your Leg + much better i am happy to say i am getting quite well again i hope + Amandy has reached you safe by this time i sent a small parcle by + Amandy, there was half a dozen Pats of butter & the Cakes was very + homely and not so light as i could wish i hope by this time Sarah Ann + has promised she will stay untill next monday as i think a few daies + longer will not make much diferance and as her young man has been very + considerate to wait so long as he has i think he would for a few days + Longer dear Miss --- I wash for William and i have not got his clothes + yet as it has been delayed by the carrier & i cannot possiblely get it + done before Sunday and i do not Like traviling on a Sunday but to + oblige you i would come but to come sooner i cannot possiblely but i + hope Sarah Ann will be prevailed on once more as She has so many times + i feel sure if she tells her young man he will have patient for he is + a very kind young man + + "i remain your sincerely + "ELIZABETH NEWTON." + +The last letter in my collection seems written almost within measurable +distance of the Christmas-card era. The sheet is headed by a beautifully +embossed device of some holly in red and green, wishing the recipient of +the letter a merry Xmas and a happy new year, while the border is crimped +and edged with blue. I know not what it is, but there is something in +the writer's highly finished style that reminds me of Mendelssohn. It +would almost do for the words of one of his celebrated "Lieder ohne +Worte": + + "DEAR MISS MARIA,--I hasten to acknowledge the receipt of your kind + note with the inclosure for which I return my best thanks. I need + scarcely say how glad I was to know that the volumes secured your + approval, and that the announcement of the improvement in the + condition of your Sister's legs afforded me infinite pleasure. The + gratifying news encouraged me in the hope that now the nature of the + disorder is comprehended her legs will--notwithstanding the process + may be gradual--ultimately get quite well. The pretty Robin Redbreast + which lay ensconced in your epistle, conveyed to me, in terms more + eloquent than words, how much you desired me those Compliments which + the little missive he bore in his bill expressed; the emblem is + sweetly pretty, and now that we are again allowed to felicitate each + other on another recurrence of the season of the Christian's + rejoicing, permit me to tender to yourself, and by you to your Sister, + mine and my Wife's heartfelt congratulations and warmest wishes with + respect to the coming year. It is a common belief that if we take a + retrospective view of each departing year, as it behoves us annually + to do, we shall find the blessings which we have received to + immeasurably outnumber our causes of sorrow. Speaking for myself I + can fully subscribe to that sentiment, and doubtless neither Miss --- + nor yourself are exceptions. Miss ---'s illness and consequent + confinement to the house has been a severe trial, but in that trouble + an opportunity was afforded you to prove a Sister's devotion and she + has been enabled to realise a larger (if possible) display of sisterly + affection. + + "A happy Christmas to you both, and may the new year prove a + Cornucopia from which still greater blessings than even those we have + hitherto received, shall issue, to benefit us all by contributing to + our temporal happiness and, what is of higher importance, conducing to + our felicity hereafter. + + "I was sorry to hear that you were so annoyed with mice and rats, and + if I should have an opportunity to obtain a nice cat I will do so and + send my boy to your house with it. + + "I remain, + "Yours truly." + +How little what is commonly called education can do after all towards the +formation of a good style, and what a delightful volume might not be +entitled "Half Hours with the Worst Authors." Why, the finest word I +know of in the English language was coined, not by my poor old +grandfather, whose education had left little to desire, nor by any of the +admirable scholars whom he in his turn educated, but by an old matron who +presided over one of the halls, or houses of his school. + +This good lady, whose name by the way was Bromfield, had a fine high +temper of her own, or thought it politic to affect one. One night when +the boys were particularly noisy she burst like a hurricane into the +hall, collared a youngster, and told him he was "the +ramp-ingest-scampingest-rackety-tackety-tow-row-roaringest boy in the +whole school." Would Mrs. Newton have been able to set the aunt and the +dog before us so vividly if she had been more highly educated? Would +Mrs. Bromfield have been able to forge and hurl her thunderbolt of a word +if she had been taught how to do so, or indeed been at much pains to +create it at all? It came. It was her [Greek text]. She did not +probably know that she had done what the greatest scholar would have had +to rack his brains over for many an hour before he could even approach. +Tradition says that having brought down her boy she looked round the hall +in triumph, and then after a moment's lull said, "Young gentlemen, +prayers are excused," and left them. + +I have sometimes thought that, after all, the main use of a classical +education consists in the check it gives to originality, and the way in +which it prevents an inconvenient number of people from using their own +eyes. That we will not be at the trouble of looking at things for +ourselves if we can get any one to tell us what we ought to see goes +without saying, and it is the business of schools and universities to +assist us in this respect. The theory of evolution teaches that any +power not worked at pretty high pressure will deteriorate: originality +and freedom from affectation are all very well in their way, but we can +easily have too much of them, and it is better that none should be either +original or free from cant but those who insist on being so, no matter +what hindrances obstruct, nor what incentives are offered them to see +things through the regulation medium. + +To insist on seeing things for oneself is to be in [Greek text], or in +plain English, an idiot; nor do I see any safer check against general +vigour and clearness of thought, with consequent terseness of expression, +than that provided by the curricula of our universities and schools of +public instruction. If a young man, in spite of every effort to fit him +with blinkers, will insist on getting rid of them, he must do so at his +own risk. He will not be long in finding out his mistake. Our public +schools and universities play the beneficent part in our social scheme +that cattle do in forests: they browse the seedlings down and prevent the +growth of all but the luckiest and sturdiest. Of course, if there are +too many either cattle or schools, they browse so effectually that they +find no more food, and starve till equilibrium is restored; but it seems +to be a provision of nature that there should always be these alternate +periods, during which either the cattle or the trees are getting the best +of it; and, indeed, without such provision we should have neither the one +nor the other. At this moment the cattle, doubtless, are in the +ascendant, and if university extension proceeds much farther, we shall +assuredly have no more Mrs. Newtons and Mrs. Bromfields; but whatever is +is best, and, on the whole, I should propose to let things find pretty +much their own level. + +However this may be, who can question that the treasures hidden in many a +country house contain sleeping beauties even fairer than those that I +have endeavoured to waken from long sleep in the foregoing article? How +many Mrs. Quicklys are there not living in London at this present moment? +For that Mrs. Quickly was an invention of Shakespeare's I will not +believe. The old woman from whom he drew said every word that he put +into Mrs. Quickly's mouth, and a great deal more which he did not and +perhaps could not make use of. This question, however, would again lead +me far from my subject, which I should mar were I to dwell upon it +longer, and therefore leave with the hope that it may give my readers +absolutely no food whatever for reflection. + + + + +HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OF LIFE {4} + + +I have been asked to speak on the question how to make the best of life, +but may as well confess at once that I know nothing about it. I cannot +think that I have made the best of my own life, nor is it likely that I +shall make much better of what may or may not remain to me. I do not +even know how to make the best of the twenty minutes that your committee +has placed at my disposal, and as for life as a whole, who ever yet made +the best of such a colossal opportunity by conscious effort and +deliberation? In little things no doubt deliberate and conscious effort +will help us, but we are speaking of large issues, and such kingdoms of +heaven as the making the best of these come not by observation. + +The question, therefore, on which I have undertaken to address you is, as +you must all know, fatuous, if it be faced seriously. Life is like +playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes +on. One cannot make the best of such impossibilities, and the question +is doubly fatuous until we are told which of our two lives--the conscious +or the unconscious--is held by the asker to be the truer life. Which +does the question contemplate--the life we know, or the life which others +may know, but which we know not? + +Death gives a life to some men and women compared with which their so- +called existence here is as nothing. Which is the truer life of +Shakespeare, Handel, that divine woman who wrote the "Odyssey," and of +Jane Austen--the life which palpitated with sensible warm motion within +their own bodies, or that in virtue of which they are still palpitating +in ours? In whose consciousness does their truest life consist--their +own, or ours? Can Shakespeare be said to have begun his true life till a +hundred years or so after he was dead and buried? His physical life was +but as an embryonic stage, a coming up out of darkness, a twilight and +dawn before the sunrise of that life of the world to come which he was to +enjoy hereafter. We all live for a while after we are gone hence, but we +are for the most part stillborn, or at any rate die in infancy, as +regards that life which every age and country has recognised as higher +and truer than the one of which we are now sentient. As the life of the +race is larger, longer, and in all respects more to be considered than +that of the individual, so is the life we live in others larger and more +important than the one we live in ourselves. This appears nowhere +perhaps more plainly than in the case of great teachers, who often in the +lives of their pupils produce an effect that reaches far beyond anything +produced while their single lives were yet unsupplemented by those other +lives into which they infused their own. + +Death to such people is the ending of a short life, but it does not touch +the life they are already living in those whom they have taught; and +happily, as none can know when he shall die, so none can make sure that +he too shall not live long beyond the grave; for the life after death is +like money before it--no one can be sure that it may not fall to him or +her even at the eleventh hour. Money and immortality come in such odd +unaccountable ways that no one is cut off from hope. We may not have +made either of them for ourselves, but yet another may give them to us in +virtue of his or her love, which shall illumine us for ever, and +establish us in some heavenly mansion whereof we neither dreamed nor +shall ever dream. Look at the Doge Loredano Loredani, the old man's +smile upon whose face has been reproduced so faithfully in so many lands +that it can never henceforth be forgotten--would he have had one +hundredth part of the life he now lives had he not been linked awhile +with one of those heaven-sent men who know _che cosa e amor_? Look at +Rembrandt's old woman in our National Gallery; had she died before she +was eighty-three years old she would not have been living now. Then, +when she was eighty-three, immortality perched upon her as a bird on a +withered bough. + +I seem to hear some one say that this is a mockery, a piece of special +pleading, a giving of stones to those that ask for bread. Life is not +life unless we can feel it, and a life limited to a knowledge of such +fraction of our work as may happen to survive us is no true life in other +people; salve it as we may, death is not life any more than black is +white. + +The objection is not so true as it sounds. I do not deny that we had +rather not die, nor do I pretend that much even in the case of the most +favoured few can survive them beyond the grave. It is only because this +is so that our own life is possible; others have made room for us, and we +should make room for others in our turn without undue repining. What I +maintain is that a not inconsiderable number of people do actually attain +to a life beyond the grave which we can all feel forcibly enough, whether +they can do so or not--that this life tends with increasing civilisation +to become more and more potent, and that it is better worth considering, +in spite of its being unfelt by ourselves, than any which we have felt or +can ever feel in our own persons. + +Take an extreme case. A group of people are photographed by Edison's new +process--say Titiens, Trebelli, and Jenny Lind, with any two of the +finest men singers the age has known--let them be photographed +incessantly for half an hour while they perform a scene in "Lohengrin"; +let all be done stereoscopically. Let them be phonographed at the same +time so that their minutest shades of intonation are preserved, let the +slides be coloured by a competent artist, and then let the scene be +called suddenly into sight and sound, say a hundred years hence. Are +those people dead or alive? Dead to themselves they are, but while they +live so powerfully and so livingly in us, which is the greater paradox--to +say that they are alive or that they are dead? To myself it seems that +their life in others would be more truly life than their death to +themselves is death. Granted that they do not present all the phenomena +of life--who ever does so even when he is held to be alive? We are held +to be alive because we present a sufficient number of living phenomena to +let the others go without saying; those who see us take the part for the +whole here as in everything else, and surely, in the case supposed above, +the phenomena of life predominate so powerfully over those of death, that +the people themselves must be held to be more alive than dead. Our +living personality is, as the word implies, only our mask, and those who +still own such a mask as I have supposed have a living personality. +Granted again that the case just put is an extreme one; still many a man +and many a woman has so stamped him or herself on his work that, though +we would gladly have the aid of such accessories as we doubtless +presently shall have to the livingness of our great dead, we can see them +very sufficiently through the master pieces they have left us. + +As for their own unconsciousness I do not deny it. The life of the +embryo was unconscious before birth, and so is the life--I am speaking +only of the life revealed to us by natural religion--after death. But as +the embryonic and infant life of which we were unconscious was the most +potent factor in our after life of consciousness, so the effect which we +may unconsciously produce in others after death, and it may be even +before it on those who have never seen us, is in all sober seriousness +our truer and more abiding life, and the one which those who would make +the best of their sojourn here will take most into their consideration. + +Unconsciousness is no bar to livingness. Our conscious actions are a +drop in the sea as compared with our unconscious ones. Could we know all +the life that is in us by way of circulation, nutrition, breathing, waste +and repair, we should learn what an infinitesimally small part +consciousness plays in our present existence; yet our unconscious life is +as truly life as our conscious life, and though it is unconscious to +itself it emerges into an indirect and vicarious consciousness in our +other and conscious self, which exists but in virtue of our unconscious +self. So we have also a vicarious consciousness in others. The +unconscious life of those that have gone before us has in great part +moulded us into such men and women as we are, and our own unconscious +lives will in like manner have a vicarious consciousness in others, +though we be dead enough to it in ourselves. + +If it is again urged that it matters not to us how much we may be alive +in others, if we are to know nothing about it, I reply that the common +instinct of all who are worth considering gives the lie to such cynicism. +I see here present some who have achieved, and others who no doubt will +achieve, success in literature. Will one of them hesitate to admit that +it is a lively pleasure to her to feel that on the other side of the +world some one may be smiling happily over her work, and that she is thus +living in that person though she knows nothing about it? Here it seems +to me that true faith comes in. Faith does not consist, as the Sunday +School pupil said, "in the power of believing that which we know to be +untrue." It consists in holding fast that which the healthiest and most +kindly instincts of the best and most sensible men and women are +intuitively possessed of, without caring to require much evidence further +than the fact that such people are so convinced; and for my own part I +find the best men and women I know unanimous in feeling that life in +others, even though we know nothing about it, is nevertheless a thing to +be desired and gratefully accepted if we can get it either before death +or after. I observe also that a large number of men and women do +actually attain to such life, and in some cases continue so to live, if +not for ever, yet to what is practically much the same thing. Our life +then in this world is, to natural religion as much as to revealed, a +period of probation. The use we make of it is to settle how far we are +to enter into another, and whether that other is to be a heaven of just +affection or a hell of righteous condemnation. + +Who, then, are the most likely so to run that they may obtain this +veritable prize of our high calling? Setting aside such lucky numbers +drawn as it were in the lottery of immortality, which I have referred to +casually above, and setting aside also the chances and changes from which +even immortality is not exempt, who on the whole are most likely to live +anew in the affectionate thoughts of those who never so much as saw them +in the flesh, and know not even their names? There is a _nisus_, a +straining in the dull dumb economy of things, in virtue of which some, +whether they will it and know it or no, are more likely to live after +death than others, and who are these? Those who aimed at it as by some +great thing that they would do to make them famous? Those who have lived +most in themselves and for themselves, or those who have been most +ensouled consciously, but perhaps better unconsciously, directly but more +often indirectly, by the most living souls past and present that have +flitted near them? Can we think of a man or woman who grips us firmly, +at the thought of whom we kindle when we are alone in our honest daw's +plumes, with none to admire or shrug his shoulders, can we think of one +such, the secret of whose power does not lie in the charm of his or her +personality--that is to say, in the wideness of his or her sympathy with, +and therefore life in and communion with other people? In the wreckage +that comes ashore from the sea of time there is much tinsel stuff that we +must preserve and study if we would know our own times and people; +granted that many a dead charlatan lives long and enters largely and +necessarily into our own lives; we use them and throw them away when we +have done with them. I do not speak of these, I do not speak of the +Virgils and Alexander Popes, and who can say how many more whose names I +dare not mention for fear of offending. They are as stuffed birds or +beasts in a Museum, serviceable no doubt from a scientific standpoint, +but with no vivid or vivifying hold upon us. They seem to be alive, but +are not. I am speaking of those who do actually live in us, and move us +to higher achievements though they be long dead, whose life thrusts out +our own and overrides it. I speak of those who draw us ever more towards +them from youth to age, and to think of whom is to feel at once that we +are in the hands of those we love, and whom we would most wish to +resemble. What is the secret of the hold that these people have upon us? +Is it not that while, conventionally speaking, alive, they most merged +their lives in, and were in fullest communion with those among whom they +lived? They found their lives in losing them. We never love the memory +of any one unless we feel that he or she was himself or herself a lover. + +I have seen it urged, again, in querulous accents, that the so-called +immortality even of the most immortal is not for ever. I see a passage +to this effect in a book that is making a stir as I write. I will quote +it. The writer says:-- + + "So, it seems to me, is the immortality we so glibly predicate of + departed artists. If they survive at all, it is but a shadowy life + they live, moving on through the gradations of slow decay to distant + but inevitable death. They can no longer, as heretofore, speak + directly to the hearts of their fellow-men, evoking their tears or + laughter, and all the pleasures, be they sad or merry, of which + imagination holds the secret. Driven from the marketplace they become + first the companions of the student, then the victims of the + specialist. He who would still hold familiar intercourse with them + must train himself to penetrate the veil which in ever-thickening + folds conceals them from the ordinary gaze; he must catch the tone of + a vanished society, he must move in a circle of alien associations, he + must think in a language not his own." {5} + +This is crying for the moon, or rather pretending to cry for it, for the +writer is obviously insincere. I see the _Saturday Review_ says the +passage I have just quoted "reaches almost to poetry," and indeed I find +many blank verses in it, some of them very aggressive. No prose is free +from an occasional blank verse, and a good writer will not go hunting +over his work to rout them out, but nine or ten in little more than as +many lines is indeed reaching too near to poetry for good prose. This, +however, is a trifle, and might pass if the tone of the writer was not so +obviously that of cheap pessimism. I know not which is cheapest, +pessimism or optimism. One forces lights, the other darks; both are +equally untrue to good art, and equally sure of their effect with the +groundlings. The one extenuates, the other sets down in malice. The +first is the more amiable lie, but both are lies, and are known to be so +by those who utter them. Talk about catching the tone of a vanished +society to understand Rembrandt or Giovanni Bellini! It's nonsense--the +folds do not thicken in front of these men; we understand them as well as +those among whom they went about in the flesh, and perhaps better. Homer +and Shakespeare speak to us probably far more effectually than they did +to the men of their own time, and most likely we have them at their best. +I cannot think that Shakespeare talked better than we hear him now in +"Hamlet" or "Henry the Fourth"; like enough he would have been found a +very disappointing person in a drawing-room. People stamp themselves on +their work; if they have not done so they are naught; if they have we +have them; and for the most part they stamp themselves deeper in their +work than on their talk. No doubt Shakespeare and Handel will be one day +clean forgotten, as though they had never been born. The world will in +the end die; mortality therefore itself is not immortal, and when death +dies the life of these men will die with it--but not sooner. It is +enough that they should live within us and move us for many ages as they +have and will. Such immortality, therefore, as some men and women are +born to, achieve, or have thrust upon them, is a practical if not a +technical immortality, and he who would have more let him have nothing. + +I see I have drifted into speaking rather of how to make the best of +death than of life, but who can speak of life without his thoughts +turning instantly to that which is beyond it? He or she who has made the +best of the life after death has made the best of the life before it; who +cares one straw for any such chances and changes as will commonly befall +him here if he is upheld by the full and certain hope of everlasting life +in the affections of those that shall come after? If the life after +death is happy in the hearts of others, it matters little how unhappy was +the life before it. + +And now I leave my subject, not without misgiving that I shall have +disappointed you. But for the great attention which is being paid to the +work from which I have quoted above, I should not have thought it well to +insist on points with which you are, I doubt not, as fully impressed as I +am: but that book weakens the sanctions of natural religion, and +minimises the comfort which it affords us, while it does more to +undermine than to support the foundations of what is commonly called +belief. Therefore I was glad to embrace this opportunity of protesting. +Otherwise I should not have been so serious on a matter that transcends +all seriousness. Lord Beaconsfield cut it shorter with more effect. When +asked to give a rule of life for the son of a friend he said, "Do not let +him try and find out who wrote the letters of Junius." Pressed for +further counsel he added, "Nor yet who was the man in the iron mask"--and +he would say no more. Don't bore people. And yet I am by no means sure +that a good many people do not think themselves ill-used unless he who +addresses them has thoroughly well bored them--especially if they have +paid any money for hearing him. My great namesake said, "Surely the +pleasure is as great of being cheated as to cheat," and great as the +pleasure both of cheating and boring undoubtedly is, I believe he was +right. So I remember a poem which came out some thirty years ago in +_Punch_, about a young lady who went forth in quest to "Some burden make +or burden bear, but which she did not greatly care, oh Miserie." So, +again, all the holy men and women who in the Middle Ages professed to +have discovered how to make the best of life took care that being bored, +if not cheated, should have a large place in their programme. Still +there are limits, and I close not without fear that I may have exceeded +them. + + + + +THE SANCTUARY OF MONTRIGONE {6} + + +The only place in the Valsesia, except Varallo, where I at present +suspect the presence of Tabachetti {7} is at Montrigone, a little-known +sanctuary dedicated to St. Anne, about three-quarters of a mile south of +Borgo-Sesia station. The situation is, of course, lovely, but the +sanctuary does not offer any features of architectural interest. The +sacristan told me it was founded in 1631; and in 1644 Giovanni d'Enrico, +while engaged in superintending and completing the work undertaken here +by himself and Giacomo Ferro, fell ill and died. I do not know whether +or no there was an earlier sanctuary on the same site, but was told it +was built on the demolition of a stronghold belonging to the Counts of +Biandrate. + +The incidents which it illustrates are treated with even more than the +homeliness usual in works of this description when not dealing with such +solemn events as the death and passion of Christ. Except when these +subjects were being represented, something of the latitude, and even +humour, allowed in the old mystery plays was permitted, doubtless from a +desire to render the work more attractive to the peasants, who were the +most numerous and most important pilgrims. It is not until faith begins +to be weak that it fears an occasionally lighter treatment of semi-sacred +subjects, and it is impossible to convey an accurate idea of the spirit +prevailing at this hamlet of sanctuary without attuning oneself somewhat +to the more pagan character of the place. Of irreverence, in the sense +of a desire to laugh at things that are of high and serious import, there +is not a trace, but at the same time there is a certain unbending of the +bow at Montrigone which is not perceivable at Varallo. + +The first chapel to the left on entering the church is that of the Birth +of the Virgin. St. Anne is sitting up in bed. She is not at all ill--in +fact, considering that the Virgin has only been born about five minutes, +she is wonderful; still the doctors think it may be perhaps better that +she should keep her room for half an hour longer, so the bed has been +festooned with red and white paper roses, and the counterpane is covered +with bouquets in baskets and in vases of glass and china. These cannot +have been there during the actual birth of the Virgin, so I suppose they +had been in readiness, and were brought in from an adjoining room as soon +as the baby had been born. A lady on her left is bringing in some more +flowers, which St. Anne is receiving with a smile and most gracious +gesture of the hands. The first thing she asked for, when the birth was +over, was for her three silver hearts. These were immediately brought to +her, and she has got them all on, tied round her neck with a piece of +blue silk ribbon. + +Dear mamma has come. We felt sure she would, and that any little +misunderstandings between her and Joachim would ere long be forgotten and +forgiven. They are both so good and sensible if they would only +understand one another. At any rate, here she is, in high state at the +right hand of the bed. She is dressed in black, for she has lost her +husband some few years previously, but I do not believe a smarter, sprier +old lady for her years could be found in Palestine, nor yet that either +Giovanni d'Enrico or Giacomo Ferro could have conceived or executed such +a character. The sacristan wanted to have it that she was not a woman at +all, but was a portrait of St. Joachim, the Virgin's father. "Sembra una +donna," he pleaded more than once, "ma non e donna." Surely, however, in +works of art even more than in other things, there is no "is" but +seeming, and if a figure seems female it must be taken as such. Besides, +I asked one of the leading doctors at Varallo whether the figure was man +or woman. He said it was evident I was not married, for that if I had +been I should have seen at once that she was not only a woman but a +mother-in-law of the first magnitude, or, as he called it, "una suocera +tremenda," and this without knowing that I wanted her to be a mother-in- +law myself. Unfortunately she had no real drapery, so I could not settle +the question as my friend Mr. H. F. Jones and I had been able to do at +Varallo with the figure of Eve that had been turned into a Roman soldier +assisting at the capture of Christ. I am not, however, disposed to waste +more time upon anything so obvious, and will content myself with saying +that we have here the Virgin's grandmother. I had never had the +pleasure, so far as I remembered, of meeting this lady before, and was +glad to have an opportunity of making her acquaintance. + +Tradition says that it was she who chose the Virgin's name, and if so, +what a debt of gratitude do we not owe her for her judicious selection! +It makes one shudder to think what might have happened if she had named +the child Keren-Happuch, as poor Job's daughter was called. How could we +have said, "Ave Keren-Happuch!" What would the musicians have done? I +forget whether Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz was a man or a woman, but there were +plenty of names quite as unmanageable at the Virgin's grandmother's +option, and we cannot sufficiently thank her for having chosen one that +is so euphonious in every language which we need take into account. For +this reason alone we should not grudge her her portrait, but we should +try to draw the line here. I do not think we ought to give the Virgin's +great-grandmother a statue. Where is it to end? It is like Mr. +Crookes's ultimissimate atoms; we used to draw the line at ultimate +atoms, and now it seems we are to go a step farther back and have +ultimissimate atoms. How long, I wonder, will it be before we feel that +it will be a material help to us to have ultimissimissimate atoms? +Quavers stopped at demi-semi-demi, but there is no reason to suppose that +either atoms or ancestresses of the Virgin will be so complacent. + +I have said that on St. Anne's left hand there is a lady who is bringing +in some flowers. St. Anne was always passionately fond of flowers. There +is a pretty story told about her in one of the Fathers, I forget which, +to the effect that when a child she was asked which she liked best--cakes +or flowers? She could not yet speak plainly and lisped out, "Oh fowses, +pretty fowses"; she added, however, with a sigh and as a kind of wistful +corollary, "but cakes are very nice." She is not to have any cakes, just +now, but as soon as she has done thanking the lady for her beautiful +nosegay, she is to have a couple of nice new-laid eggs, that are being +brought her by another lady. Valsesian women immediately after their +confinement always have eggs beaten up with wine and sugar, and one can +tell a Valsesian Birth of the Virgin from a Venetian or a Florentine by +the presence of the eggs. I learned this from an eminent Valsesian +professor of medicine, who told me that, though not according to received +rules, the eggs never seemed to do any harm. Here they are evidently to +be beaten up, for there is neither spoon nor egg-cup, and we cannot +suppose that they were hard-boiled. On the other hand, in the Middle +Ages Italians never used egg-cups and spoons for boiled eggs. The +mediaeval boiled egg was always eaten by dipping bread into the yolk. + +Behind the lady who is bringing in the eggs is the under-under-nurse who +is at the fire warming a towel. In the foreground we have the regulation +midwife holding the regulation baby (who, by the way, was an +astonishingly fine child for only five minutes old). Then comes the +under-nurse--a good buxom creature, who, as usual, is feeling the water +in the bath to see that it is of the right temperature. Next to her is +the head-nurse, who is arranging the cradle. Behind the head-nurse is +the under-under-nurse's drudge, who is just going out upon some errands. +Lastly--for by this time we have got all round the chapel--we arrive at +the Virgin's grandmother's-body-guard, a stately, responsible-looking +lady, standing in waiting upon her mistress. I put it to the reader--is +it conceivable that St. Joachim should have been allowed in such a room +at such a time, or that he should have had the courage to avail himself +of the permission, even though it had been extended to him? At any rate, +is it conceivable that he should have been allowed to sit on St. Anne's +right hand, laying down the law with a "Marry, come up here," and a +"Marry, go-down there," and a couple of such unabashed collars as the old +lady has put on for the occasion? + +Moreover (for I may as well demolish this mischievous confusion between +St. Joachim and his mother-in-law once and for all), the merest tyro in +hagiology knows that St. Joachim was not at home when the Virgin was +born. He had been hustled out of the temple for having no children, and +had fled desolate and dismayed into the wilderness. It shows how silly +people are, for all the time he was going, if they had only waited a +little, to be the father of the most remarkable person of purely human +origin who had ever been born, and such a parent as this should surely +not be hurried. The story is told in the frescoes of the chapel of +Loreto, only a quarter of an hour's walk from Varallo, and no one can +have known it better than D'Enrico. The frescoes are explained by +written passages that tell us how, when Joachim was in the desert, an +angel came to him in the guise of a fair, civil young gentleman, and told +him the Virgin was to be born. Then, later on, the same young gentleman +appeared to him again, and bade him "in God's name be comforted, and turn +again to his content," for the Virgin had been actually born. On which +St. Joachim, who seems to have been of opinion that marriage after all +_was_ rather a failure, said that, as things were going on so nicely +without him, he would stay in the desert just a little longer, and +offered up a lamb as a pretext to gain time. Perhaps he guessed about +his mother-in-law, or he may have asked the angel. Of course, even in +spite of such evidence as this I may be mistaken about the Virgin's +grandmother's sex, and the sacristan may be right; but I can only say +that if the lady sitting by St. Anne's bedside at Montrigone is the +Virgin's father--well, in that case I must reconsider a good deal that I +have been accustomed to believe was beyond question. + +Taken singly, I suppose that none of the figures in the chapel, except +the Virgin's grandmother, should be rated very highly. The under-nurse +is the next best figure, and might very well be Tabachetti's, for neither +Giovanni d'Enrico nor Giacomo Ferro was successful with his female +characters. There is not a single really comfortable woman in any chapel +by either of them on the Sacro Monte at Varallo. Tabachetti, on the +other hand, delighted in women; if they were young he made them comely +and engaging, if they were old he gave them dignity and individual +character, and the under-nurse is much more in accordance with +Tabachetti's habitual mental attitude than with D'Enrico's or Giacomo +Ferro's. Still there are only four figures out of the eleven that are +mere otiose supers, and taking the work as a whole it leaves a pleasant +impression as being throughout naive and homely, and sometimes, which is +of less importance, technically excellent. + +Allowance must, of course, be made for tawdry accessories and repeated +coats of shiny oleaginous paint--very disagreeable where it has peeled +off and almost more so where it has not. What work could stand against +such treatment as the Valsesian terra-cotta figures have had to put up +with? Take the Venus of Milo; let her be done in terra-cotta, and have +run, not much, but still something, in the baking; paint her pink, two +oils, all over, and then varnish her--it will help to preserve the paint; +glue a lot of horsehair on to her pate, half of which shall have come +off, leaving the glue still showing; scrape her, not too thoroughly, get +the village drawing-master to paint her again, and the drawing-master in +the next provincial town to put a forest background behind her with the +brightest emerald-green leaves that he can do for the money; let this +painting and scraping and repainting be repeated several times over; +festoon her with pink and white flowers made of tissue paper; surround +her with the cheapest German imitations of the cheapest decorations that +Birmingham can produce; let the night air and winter fogs get at her for +three hundred years, and how easy, I wonder, will it be to see the +goddess who will be still in great part there? True, in the case of the +Birth of the Virgin chapel at Montrigone, there is no real hair and no +fresco background, but time has had abundant opportunities without these. +I will conclude my notice of this chapel by saying that on the left, +above the door through which the under-under-nurse's drudge is about to +pass, there is a good painted terra-cotta bust, said--but I believe on no +authority--to be a portrait of Giovanni d'Enrico. Others say that the +Virgin's grandmother is Giovanni d'Enrico, but this is even more absurd +than supposing her to be St. Joachim. + +The next chapel to the Birth of the Virgin is that of the _Sposalizio_. +There is no figure here which suggests Tabachetti, but still there are +some very good ones. The best have no taint of _barocco_; the man who +did them, whoever he may have been, had evidently a good deal of life and +go, was taking reasonable pains, and did not know too much. Where this +is the case no work can fail to please. Some of the figures have real +hair and some terra cotta. There is no fresco background worth +mentioning. A man sitting on the steps of the altar with a book on his +lap, and holding up his hand to another, who is leaning over him and +talking to him, is among the best figures; some of the disappointed +suitors who are breaking their wands are also very good. + +The angel in the Annunciation chapel, which comes next in order, is a +fine, burly, ship's-figurehead, commercial-hotel sort of being enough, +but the Virgin is very ordinary. There is no real hair and no fresco +background, only three dingy old blistered pictures of no interest +whatever. + +In the visit of Mary to Elizabeth there are three pleasing subordinate +lady attendants, two to the left and one to the right of the principal +figures; but these figures themselves are not satisfactory. There is no +fresco background. Some of the figures have real hair and some terra +cotta. + +In the Circumcision and Purification chapel--for both these events seem +contemplated in the one that follows--there are doves, but there is +neither dog nor knife. Still Simeon, who has the infant Saviour in his +arms, is looking at him in a way which can only mean that, knife or no +knife, the matter is not going to end here. At Varallo they have now got +a dreadful knife for the Circumcision chapel. They had none last winter. +What they have now got would do very well to kill a bullock with, but +could not be used professionally with safety for any animal smaller than +a rhinoceros. I imagine that some one was sent to Novara to buy a knife, +and that, thinking it was for the Massacre of the Innocents chapel, he +got the biggest he could see. Then when he brought it back people said +"chow" several times, and put it upon the table and went away. + +Returning to Montrigone, the Simeon is an excellent figure, and the +Virgin is fairly good, but the prophetess Anna, who stands just behind +her, is by far the most interesting in the group, and is alone enough to +make me feel sure that Tabachetti gave more or less help here, as he had +done years before at Orta. She, too, like the Virgin's grandmother, is a +widow lady, and wears collars of a cut that seems to have prevailed ever +since the Virgin was born some twenty years previously. There is a +largeness and simplicity of treatment about the figure to which none but +an artist of the highest rank can reach, and D'Enrico was not more than a +second or third-rate man. The hood is like Handel's Truth sailing upon +the broad wings of Time, a prophetic strain that nothing but the old +experience of a great poet can reach. The lips of the prophetess are for +the moment closed, but she has been prophesying all the morning, and the +people round the wall in the background are in ecstasies at the lucidity +with which she has explained all sorts of difficulties that they had +never been able to understand till now. They are putting their +forefingers on their thumbs and their thumbs on their forefingers, and +saying how clearly they see it all and what a wonderful woman Anna is. A +prophet indeed is not generally without honour save in his own country, +but then a country is generally not without honour save with its own +prophet, and Anna has been glorifying her country rather than reviling +it. Besides, the rule may not have applied to prophetesses. + +The Death of the Virgin is the last of the six chapels inside the church +itself. The Apostles, who of course are present, have all of them real +hair, but, if I may say so, they want a wash and a brush-up so very badly +that I cannot feel any confidence in writing about them. I should say +that, take them all round, they are a good average sample of apostle as +apostles generally go. Two or three of them are nervously anxious to +find appropriate quotations in books that lie open before them, which +they are searching with eager haste; but I do not see one figure about +which I should like to say positively that it is either good or bad. +There is a good bust of a man, matching the one in the Birth of the +Virgin chapel, which is said to be a portrait of Giovanni d'Enrico, but +it is not known whom it represents. + +Outside the church, in three contiguous cells that form part of the +foundations, are:-- + +1. A dead Christ, the head of which is very impressive while the rest of +the figure is poor. I examined the treatment of the hair, which is terra- +cotta, and compared it with all other like hair in the chapels above +described; I could find nothing like it, and think it most likely that +Giacomo Ferro did the figure, and got Tabachetti to do the head, or that +they brought the head from some unused figure by Tabachetti at Varallo, +for I know no other artist of the time and neighbourhood who could have +done it. + +2. A Magdalene in the desert. The desert is a little coal-cellar of an +arch, containing a skull and a profusion of pink and white paper +bouquets, the two largest of which the Magdalene is hugging while she is +saying her prayers. She is a very self-sufficient lady, who we may be +sure will not stay in the desert a day longer than she can help, and +while there will flirt even with the skull if she can find nothing better +to flirt with. I cannot think that her repentance is as yet genuine, and +as for her praying there is no object in her doing so, for she does not +want anything. + +3. In the next desert there is a very beautiful figure of St. John the +Baptist kneeling and looking upwards. This figure puzzles me more than +any other at Montrigone; it appears to be of the fifteenth rather than +the sixteenth century; it hardly reminds me of Gaudenzio, and still less +of any other Valsesian artist. It is a work of unusual beauty, but I can +form no idea as to its authorship. + +I wrote the foregoing pages in the church at Montrigone itself, having +brought my camp-stool with me. It was Sunday; the church was open all +day, but there was no mass said, and hardly any one came. The sacristan +was a kind, gentle, little old man, who let me do whatever I wanted. He +sat on the doorstep of the main door, mending vestments, and to this end +was cutting up a fine piece of figured silk from one to two hundred years +old, which, if I could have got it, for half its value, I should much +like to have bought. I sat in the cool of the church while he sat in the +doorway, which was still in shadow, snipping and snipping, and then +sewing, I am sure with admirable neatness. He made a charming picture, +with the arched portico over his head, the green grass and low church +wall behind him, and then a lovely landscape of wood and pasture and +valleys and hillside. Every now and then he would come and chirrup about +Joachim, for he was pained and shocked at my having said that his Joachim +was some one else and not Joachim at all. I said I was very sorry, but I +was afraid the figure was a woman. He asked me what he was to do. He +had known it, man and boy, this sixty years, and had always shown it as +St. Joachim; he had never heard any one but myself question his +ascription, and could not suddenly change his mind about it at the +bidding of a stranger. At the same time he felt it was a very serious +thing to continue showing it as the Virgin's father if it was really her +grandmother. I told him I thought this was a case for his spiritual +director, and that if he felt uncomfortable about it he should consult +his parish priest and do as he was told. + +On leaving Montrigone, with a pleasant sense of having made acquaintance +with a new and, in many respects, interesting work, I could not get the +sacristan and our difference of opinion out of my head. What, I asked +myself, are the differences that unhappily divide Christendom, and what +are those that divide Christendom from modern schools of thought, but a +seeing of Joachims as the Virgin's grandmothers on a larger scale? True, +we cannot call figures Joachim when we know perfectly well that they are +nothing of the kind; but I registered a vow that henceforward when I +called Joachims the Virgin's grandmothers I would bear more in mind than +I have perhaps always hitherto done, how hard it is for those who have +been taught to see them as Joachims to think of them as something +different. I trust that I have not been unfaithful to this vow in the +preceding article. If the reader differs from me, let me ask him to +remember how hard it is for one who has got a figure well into his head +as the Virgin's grandmother to see it as Joachim. + + + + +A MEDIEVAL GIRL SCHOOL {8} + + +This last summer I revisited Oropa, near Biella, to see what connection I +could find between the Oropa chapels and those at Varallo. I will take +this opportunity of describing the chapels at Oropa, and more especially +the remarkable fossil, or petrified girl school, commonly known as the +_Dimora_, or Sojourn of the Virgin Mary in the Temple. + +If I do not take these works so seriously as the reader may expect, let +me beg him, before he blames me, to go to Oropa and see the originals for +himself. Have the good people of Oropa themselves taken them very +seriously? Are we in an atmosphere where we need be at much pains to +speak with bated breath? We, as is well known, love to take even our +pleasures sadly; the Italians take even their sadness _allegramente_, and +combine devotion with amusement in a manner that we shall do well to +study if not imitate. For this best agrees with what we gather to have +been the custom of Christ himself, who, indeed, never speaks of austerity +but to condemn it. If Christianity is to be a living faith, it must +penetrate a man's whole life, so that he can no more rid himself of it +than he can of his flesh and bones or of his breathing. The Christianity +that can be taken up and laid down as if it were a watch or a book is +Christianity in name only. The true Christian can no more part from +Christ in mirth than in sorrow. And, after all, what is the essence of +Christianity? What is the kernel of the nut? Surely common sense and +cheerfulness, with unflinching opposition to the charlatanisms and +Pharisaisms of a man's own times. The essence of Christianity lies +neither in dogma, nor yet in abnormally holy life, but in faith in an +unseen world, in doing one's duty, in speaking the truth, in finding the +true life rather in others than in oneself, and in the certain hope that +he who loses his life on these behalfs finds more than he has lost. What +can Agnosticism do against such Christianity as this? I should be +shocked if anything I had ever written or shall ever write should seem to +make light of these things. I should be shocked also if I did not know +how to be amused with things that amiable people obviously intended to be +amusing. + +The reader may need to be reminded that Oropa is among the somewhat +infrequent sanctuaries at which the Madonna and infant Christ are not +white, but black. I shall return to this peculiarity of Oropa later on, +but will leave it for the present. For the general characteristics of +the place I must refer the reader to my book, "Alps and Sanctuaries." {9} +I propose to confine myself here to the ten or a dozen chapels containing +life-sized terra-cotta figures, painted up to nature, that form one of +the main features of the place. At a first glance, perhaps, all these +chapels will seem uninteresting; I venture to think, however, that some, +if not most of them, though falling a good deal short of the best work at +Varallo and Crea, are still in their own way of considerable importance. +The first chapel with which we need concern ourselves is numbered 4, and +shows the Conception of the Virgin Mary. It represents St. Anne as +kneeling before a terrific dragon or, as the Italians call it, "insect," +about the size of a Crystal Palace pleiosaur. This "insect" is supposed +to have just had its head badly crushed by St. Anne, who seems to be +begging its pardon. The text "Ipsa conteret caput tuum" is written +outside the chapel. The figures have no artistic interest. As regards +dragons being called insects, the reader may perhaps remember that the +island of S. Giulio, in the Lago d'Orta, was infested with _insetti_, +which S. Giulio destroyed, and which appear, in a fresco underneath the +church on the island, to have been monstrous and ferocious dragons; but I +cannot remember whether their bodies are divided into three sections, and +whether or no they have exactly six legs--without which, I am told, they +cannot be true insects. + +The fifth chapel represents the birth of the Virgin. Having obtained +permission to go inside it, I found the date 1715 cut large and deep on +the back of one figure before baking, and I imagine that this date covers +the whole. There is a Queen Anne feeling throughout the composition, and +if we were told that the sculptor and Francis Bird, sculptor of the +statue in front of St. Paul's Cathedral, had studied under the same +master, we could very well believe it. The apartment in which the Virgin +was born is spacious, and in striking contrast to the one in which she +herself gave birth to the Redeemer. St. Anne occupies the centre of the +composition, in an enormous bed; on her right there is a lady of the +George Cruikshank style of beauty, and on the left an older person. Both +are gesticulating and impressing upon St. Anne the enormous obligation +she has just conferred upon mankind; they seem also to be imploring her +not to overtax her strength, but, strange to say, they are giving her +neither flowers nor anything to eat and drink. I know no other birth of +the Virgin in which St. Anne wants so little keeping up. + +I have explained in my book "Ex Voto," {10} but should perhaps repeat +here, that the distinguishing characteristic of the Birth of the Virgin, +as rendered by Valsesian artists, is that St. Anne always has eggs +immediately after the infant is born, and usually a good deal more, +whereas the Madonna never has anything to eat or drink. The eggs are in +accordance with a custom that still prevails among the peasant classes in +the Valsesia, where women on giving birth to a child generally are given +a _sabaglione_--an egg beaten up with a little wine, or rum, and sugar. +East of Milan the Virgin's mother does not have eggs, and I suppose, from +the absence of the eggs at Oropa, that the custom above referred to does +not prevail in the Biellese district. The Virgin also is invariably +washed. St. John the Baptist, when he is born at all, which is not very +often, is also washed; but I have not observed that St. Elizabeth has +anything like the attention paid her that is given to St. Anne. What, +however, is wanting here at Oropa in meat and drink is made up in Cupids; +they swarm like flies on the walls, clouds, cornices, and capitals of +columns. + +Against the right-hand wall are two lady-helps, each warming a towel at a +glowing fire, to be ready against the baby should come out of its bath; +while in the right-hand foreground we have the _levatrice_, who having +discharged her task, and being now so disposed, has removed the bottle +from the chimney-piece, and put it near some bread, fruit and a chicken, +over which she is about to discuss the confinement with two other +gossips. The _levatrice_ is a very characteristic figure, but the best +in the chapel is the one of the head nurse, near the middle of the +composition; she has now the infant in full charge, and is showing it to +St. Joachim, with an expression as though she were telling him that her +husband was a merry man. I am afraid Shakespeare was dead before the +sculptor was born, otherwise I should have felt certain that he had drawn +Juliet's nurse from this figure. As for the little Virgin herself, I +believe her to be a fine boy of about ten months old. Viewing the work +as a whole, if I only felt more sure what artistic merit really is, I +should say that, though the chapel cannot be rated very highly from some +standpoints, there are others from which it may be praised warmly enough. +It is innocent of anatomy-worship, free from affectation or swagger, and +not devoid of a good deal of homely _naivete_. It can no more be +compared with Tabachetti or Donatello than Hogarth can with Rembrandt or +Giovanni Bellini; but as it does not transcend the limitations of its +age, so neither is it wanting in whatever merits that age possessed; and +there is no age without merits of some kind. There is no inscription +saying who made the figures, but tradition gives them to Pietro Aureggio +Termine, of Biella, commonly called Aureggio. This is confirmed by their +strong resemblance to those in the _Dimora_ Chapel, in which there is an +inscription that names Aureggio as the sculptor. + +The sixth chapel deals with the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple. +The Virgin is very small, but it must be remembered that she is only +seven years old, and she is not nearly so small as she is at Crea, where, +though a life-sized figure is intended, the head is hardly bigger than an +apple. She is rushing up the steps with open arms towards the High +Priest, who is standing at the top. For her it is nothing alarming; it +is the High Priest who appears frightened; but it will all come right in +time. The Virgin seems to be saying, "Why, don't you know me? I'm the +Virgin Mary." But the High Priest does not feel so sure about that, and +will make further inquiries. The scene, which comprises some twenty +figures, is animated enough, and though it hardly kindles enthusiasm, +still does not fail to please. It looks as though of somewhat older date +than the Birth of the Virgin chapel, and I should say shows more signs of +direct Valsesian influence. In Marocco's book about Oropa it is ascribed +to Aureggio, but I find it difficult to accept this. + +The seventh, and in many respects most interesting chapel at Oropa, shows +what is in reality a medieval Italian girl school, as nearly like the +thing itself as the artist could make it; we are expected, however, to +see in this the high-class kind of Girton College for young gentlewomen +that was attached to the Temple at Jerusalem, under the direction of the +Chief Priest's wife, or some one of his near female relatives. Here all +well-to-do Jewish young women completed their education, and here +accordingly we find the Virgin, whose parents desired she should shine in +every accomplishment, and enjoy all the advantages their ample means +commanded. + +I have met with no traces of the Virgin during the years between her +Presentation in the Temple and her becoming head girl at Temple College. +These years, we may be assured, can hardly have been other than eventful; +but incidents, or bits of life, are like living forms--it is only here +and here, as by rare chance, that one of them gets arrested and +fossilised; the greater number disappear like the greater number of +antediluvian molluscs, and no one can say why one of these flies, as it +were, of life should get preserved in amber more than another. Talk, +indeed, about luck and cunning; what a grain of sand as against a +hundredweight is cunning's share here as against luck's. What moment +could be more humdrum and unworthy of special record than the one chosen +by the artist for the chapel we are considering? Why should this one get +arrested in its flight and made immortal when so many worthier ones have +perished? Yet preserved it assuredly is; it is as though some fairy's +wand had struck the medieval Miss Pinkerton, Amelia Sedley, and others +who do duty instead of the Hebrew originals. It has locked them up as +sleeping beauties, whose charms all may look upon. Surely the hours are +like the women grinding at the mill--the one is taken and the other left, +and none can give the reason more than he can say why Gallio should have +won immortality by caring for none of "these things." + +It seems to me, moreover, that fairies have changed their practice now in +the matter of sleeping beauties, much as shopkeepers have done in Regent +Street. Formerly the shopkeeper used to shut up his goods behind strong +shutters, so that no one might see them after closing hours. Now he +leaves everything open to the eye and turns the gas on. So the fairies, +who used to lock up their sleeping beauties in impenetrable thickets, now +leave them in the most public places they can find, as knowing that they +will there most certainly escape notice. Look at De Hooghe; look at "The +Pilgrim's Progress," or even Shakespeare himself--how long they slept +unawakened, though they were in broad daylight and on the public +thoroughfares all the time. Look at Tabachetti, and the masterpieces he +left at Varallo. His figures there are exposed to the gaze of every +passer-by; yet who heeds them? Who, save a very few, even know of their +existence? Look again at Gaudenzio Ferrari, or the "Danse des Paysans," +by Holbein, to which I ventured to call attention in the _Universal +Review_. No, no; if a thing be in Central Africa, it is the glory of +this age to find it out; so the fairies think it safer to conceal their +_proteges_ under a show of openness; for the schoolmaster is much abroad, +and there is no hedge so thick or so thorny as the dulness of culture. + +It may be, again, that ever so many years hence, when Mr. Darwin's earth- +worms shall have buried Oropa hundreds of feet deep, some one sinking a +well or making a railway-cutting will unearth these chapels, and will +believe them to have been houses, and to contain the _exuviae_ of the +living forms that tenanted them. In the meantime, however, let us return +to a consideration of the chapel as it may now be seen by any one who +cares to pass that way. + +The work consists of about forty figures in all, not counting Cupids, and +is divided into four main divisions. First, there is the large public +sitting-room or drawing-room of the College, where the elder young ladies +are engaged in various elegant employments. Three, at a table to the +left, are making a mitre for the Bishop, as may be seen from the model on +the table. Some are merely spinning or about to spin. One young lady, +sitting rather apart from the others, is doing an elaborate piece of +needlework at a tambour-frame near the window; others are making lace or +slippers, probably for the new curate; another is struggling with a +letter, or perhaps a theme, which seems to be giving her a good deal of +trouble, but which, when done, will, I am sure, be beautiful. One dear +little girl is simply reading "Paul and Virginia" underneath the window, +and is so concealed that I hardly think she can be seen from the outside +at all, though from inside she is delightful; it was with great regret +that I could not get her into any photograph. One most amiable young +woman has got a child's head on her lap, the child having played itself +to sleep. All are industriously and agreeably employed in some way or +other; all are plump; all are nice looking; there is not one Becky Sharp +in the whole school; on the contrary, as in "Pious Orgies," all is +pious--or sub-pious--and all, if not great, is at least eminently +respectable. One feels that St. Joachim and St. Anne could not have +chosen a school more judiciously, and that if one had daughter oneself +this is exactly where one would wish to place her. If there is a fault +of any kind in the arrangements, it is that they do not keep cats enough. +The place is overrun with mice, though what these can find to eat I know +not. It occurs to me also that the young ladies might be kept a little +more free of spiders' webs; but in all these chapels, bats, mice and +spiders are troublesome. + +Off the main drawing-room on the side facing the window there is a dais, +which is approached by a large raised semicircular step, higher than the +rest of the floor, but lower than the dais itself. The dais is, of +course, reserved for the venerable Lady Principal and the +under-mistresses, one of whom, by the way, is a little more _mondaine_ +than might have been expected, and is admiring herself in a +looking-glass--unless, indeed, she is only looking to see if there is a +spot of ink on her face. The Lady Principal is seated near a table, on +which lie some books in expensive bindings, which I imagine to have been +presented to her by the parents of pupils who were leaving school. One +has given her a photographic album; another a large scrap-book, for +illustrations of all kinds; a third volume has red edges, and is +presumably of a devotional character. If I dared venture another +criticism, I should say it would be better not to keep the ink-pot on the +top of these books. The Lady Principal is being read to by the monitress +for the week, whose duty it was to recite selected passages from the most +approved Hebrew writers; she appears to be a good deal outraged, possibly +at the faulty intonation of the reader, which she has long tried vainly +to correct; or perhaps she has been hearing of the atrocious way in which +her forefathers had treated the prophets, and is explaining to the young +ladies how impossible it would be, in their own more enlightened age, for +a prophet to fail of recognition. + +On the half-dais, as I suppose the large semicircular step between the +main room and the dais should be called, we find, first, the monitress +for the week, who stands up while she recites; and secondly, the Virgin +herself, who is the only pupil allowed a seat so near to the august +presence of the Lady Principal. She is ostensibly doing a piece of +embroidery which is stretched on a cushion on her lap, but I should say +that she was chiefly interested in the nearest of four pretty little +Cupids, who are all trying to attract her attention, though they pay no +court to any other young lady. I have sometimes wondered whether the +obviously scandalised gesture of the Lady Principal might not be directed +at these Cupids, rather than at anything the monitress may have been +reading, for she would surely find them disquieting. Or she may be +saying, "Why, bless me! I do declare the Virgin has got another hamper, +and St. Anne's cakes are always so terribly rich!" Certainly the hamper +is there, close to the Virgin, and the Lady Principal's action may be +well directed at it, but it may have been sent to some other young lady, +and be put on the sub-dais for public exhibition. It looks as if it +might have come from Fortnum and Mason's, and I half expected to find a +label, addressing it to "The Virgin Mary, Temple College, Jerusalem," but +if ever there was one the mice have long since eaten it. The Virgin +herself does not seem to care much about it, but if she has a fault it is +that she is generally a little apathetic. + +Whose the hamper was, however, is a point we shall never now certainly +determine, for the best fossil is worse than the worst living form. Why, +alas! was not Mr. Edison alive when this chapel was made? We might then +have had a daily phonographic recital of the conversation, and an +announcement might be put outside the chapels, telling us at what hours +the figures would speak. + +On either of side the main room there are two annexes opening out from +it; these are reserved chiefly for the younger children, some of whom, I +think, are little boys. In the left-hand annex, behind the ladies who +are making a mitre, there is a child who has got a cake, and another has +some fruit--possibly given them by the Virgin--and a third child is +begging for some of it. The light failed so completely here that I was +not able to photograph any of these figures. It was a dull September +afternoon, and the clouds had settled thick round the chapel, which is +never very light, and is nearly 4000 feet above the sea. I waited till +such twilight as made it hopeless that more detail could be got--and a +queer ghostly place enough it was to wait in--but after giving the plate +an exposure of fifty minutes, I saw I could get no more, and desisted. + +These long photographic exposures have the advantage that one is +compelled to study a work in detail through mere lack of other +employment, and that one can take one's notes in peace without being +tempted to hurry over them; but even so I continually find I have omitted +to note, and have clean forgotten, much that I want later on. + +In the other annex there are also one or two younger children, but it +seems to have been set apart for conversation and relaxation more than +any other part of the establishment. + +I have already said that the work is signed by an inscription inside the +chapel, to the effect that the sculptures are by Pietro Aureggio Termine +di Biella. It will be seen that the young ladies are exceedingly like +one another, and that the artist aimed at nothing more than a faithful +rendering of the life of his own times. Let us be thankful that he aimed +at nothing less. Perhaps his wife kept a girls' school; or he may have +had a large family of fat, good-natured daughters, whose little ways he +had studied attentively; at all events the work is full of spontaneous +incident, and cannot fail to become more and more interesting as the age +it renders falls farther back into the past. It is to be regretted that +many artists, better known men, have not been satisfied with the humbler +ambitions of this most amiable and interesting sculptor. If he has left +us no laboured life-studies, he has at least done something for us which +we can find nowhere else, which we should be very sorry not to have, and +the fidelity of which to Italian life at the beginning of the last +century will not be disputed. + +The eighth chapel is that of the _Sposalizio_, is certainly not by +Aureggio, and I should say was mainly by the same sculptor who did the +Presentation in the Temple. On going inside I found the figures had come +from more than one source; some of them are constructed so absolutely on +Valsesian principles, as regards technique, that it may be assumed they +came from Varallo. Each of these last figures is in three pieces, that +are baked separately and cemented together afterwards, hence they are +more easily transported; no more clay is used than is absolutely +necessary; and the off-side of the figure is neglected; they will be +found chiefly, if not entirely, at the top of the steps. The other +figures are more solidly built, and do not remind me in their business +features of anything in the Valsesia. There was a sculptor, Francesco +Sala, of Locarno (doubtless the village a short distance below Varallo, +and not the Locarno on the Lago Maggiore), who made designs for some of +the Oropa chapels, and some of whose letters are still preserved, but +whether the Valsesian figures in this present work are by him or not I +cannot say. + +The statues are twenty-five in number; I could find no date or signature; +the work reminds me of Montrigone; several of the figures are not at all +bad, and several have horsehair for hair, as at Varallo. The effect of +the whole composition is better than we have a right to expect from any +sculpture dating from the beginning of the last century. + +The ninth chapel, the Annunciation, presents no feature of interest; nor +yet does the tenth, the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth. The eleventh, the +Nativity, though rather better, is still not remarkable. + +The twelfth, the Purification, is absurdly bad, but I do not know whether +the expression of strong personal dislike to the Virgin which the High +Priest wears is intended as prophetic, or whether it is the result of +incompetence, or whether it is merely a smile gone wrong in the baking. +It is amusing to find Marocco, who has not been strict about +archaeological accuracy hitherto, complain here that there is an +anachronism, inasmuch as some young ecclesiastics are dressed as they +would be at present, and one of them actually carries a wax candle. This +is not as it should be; in works like those at Oropa, where implicit +reliance is justly placed on the earnest endeavours that have been so +successfully made to thoroughly and carefully and patiently ensure the +accuracy of the minutest details, it is a pity that even a single error +should have escaped detection; this, however, has most unfortunately +happened here, and Marocco feels it his duty to put us on our guard. He +explains that the mistake arose from the sculptor's having taken both his +general arrangement and his details from some picture of the fourteenth +or fifteenth century, when the value of the strictest historical accuracy +was not yet so fully understood. + +It seems to me that in the matter of accuracy, priests and men of science +whether lay or regular on the one hand, and plain people whether lay or +regular on the other, are trying to play a different game, and fail to +understand one another because they do not see that their objects are not +the same. The cleric and the man of science (who is only the cleric in +his latest development) are trying to develop a throat with two distinct +passages--one that shall refuse to pass even the smallest gnat, and +another that shall gracefully gulp even the largest camel; whereas we men +of the street desire but one throat, and are content that this shall +swallow nothing bigger than a pony. Every one knows that there is no +such effectual means of developing the power to swallow camels as +incessant watchfulness for opportunities of straining at gnats, and this +should explain many passages that puzzle us in the work both of our +clerics and our scientists. I, not being a man of science, still +continue to do what I said I did in "Alps and Sanctuaries," and make it a +rule to earnestly and patiently and carefully swallow a few of the +smallest gnats I can find several times a day, as the best astringent for +the throat I know of. + +The thirteenth chapel is the Marriage Feast at Cana of Galilee. This is +the best chapel as a work of art; indeed, it is the only one which can +claim to be taken quite seriously. Not that all the figures are very +good; those to the left of the composition are commonplace enough; nor +are the Christ and the giver of the feast at all remarkable; but the ten +or dozen figures of guests and attendants at the right-hand end of the +work are as good as anything of their kind can be, and remind me so +strongly of Tabachetti that I cannot doubt they were done by some one who +was indirectly influenced by that great sculptor's work. It is not +likely that Tabachetti was alive long after 1640, by which time he would +have been about eighty years old; and the foundations of this chapel were +not laid till about 1690; the statues are probably a few years later; +they can hardly, therefore, be by one who had even studied under +Tabachetti; but until I found out the dates, and went inside the chapel +to see the way in which the figures had been constructed, I was inclined +to think they might be by Tabachetti himself, of whom, indeed, they are +not unworthy. On examining the figures I found them more heavily +constructed than Tabachetti's are, with smaller holes for taking out +superfluous clay, and more finished on the off-sides. Marocco says the +sculptor is not known. I looked in vain for any date or signature. +Possibly the right-hand figures (for the left-hand ones can hardly be by +the same hand) may be by some sculptor from Crea, which is at no very +great distance from Oropa, who was penetrated by Tabachetti's influence; +but whether as regards action and concert with one another, or as regards +excellence in detail, I do not see how anything can be more realistic, +and yet more harmoniously composed. The placing of the musicians in a +minstrels' gallery helps the effect; these musicians are six in number, +and the other figures are twenty-three. Under the table, between Christ +and the giver of the feast, there is a cat. + +The fourteenth chapel, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is without +interest. + +The fifteenth, the Coronation of the Virgin, contains forty-six angels, +twenty-six cherubs, fifty-six saints, the Holy Trinity, the Madonna +herself, and twenty-four innocents, making 156 statues in all. Of these +I am afraid there is not one of more than ordinary merit; the most +interesting is a half-length nude life-study of Disma--the good thief. +After what had been promised him it was impossible to exclude him, but it +was felt that a half-length nude figure would be as much as he could +reasonably expect. + +Behind the sanctuary there is a semi-ruinous and wholly valueless work, +which shows the finding of the black image, which is now in the church, +but is only shown on great festivals. + +This leads us to a consideration that I have delayed till now. The black +image is the central feature of Oropa; it is the _raison d'etre_ of the +whole place, and all else is a mere incrustation, so to speak, around it. +According to this image, then, which was carved by St. Luke himself, and +than which nothing can be better authenticated, both the Madonna and the +infant Christ were as black as anything can be conceived. It is not +likely that they were as black as they have been painted; no one yet ever +was so black as that; yet, even allowing for some exaggeration on St. +Luke's part, they must have been exceedingly black if the portrait is to +be accepted; and uncompromisingly black they accordingly are on most of +the wayside chapels for many a mile around Oropa. Yet in the chapels we +have been hitherto considering--works in which, as we know, the most +punctilious regard has been shown to accuracy--both the Virgin and Christ +are uncompromisingly white. As in the shops under the Colonnade where +devotional knick-knacks are sold, you can buy a black china image or a +white one, whichever you like; so with the pictures--the black and white +are placed side by side--_pagando il danaro si puo scegliere_. It rests +not with history or with the Church to say whether the Madonna and Child +were black or white, but you may settle it for yourself, whichever way +you please, or rather you are required, with the acquiescence of the +Church, to hold that they were both black and white at one and the same +time. + +It cannot be maintained that the Church leaves the matter undecided, and +by tolerating both types proclaims the question an open one, for she +acquiesces in the portrait by St. Luke as genuine. How, then, justify +the whiteness of the Holy Family in the chapels? If the portrait is not +known as genuine, why set such a stumbling-block in our paths as to show +us a black Madonna and a white one, both as historically accurate, within +a few yards of one another? + +I ask this not in mockery, but as knowing that the Church must have an +explanation to give, if she would only give it, and as myself unable to +find any, even the most farfetched, that can bring what we see at Oropa, +Loreto and elsewhere into harmony with modern conscience, either +intellectual or ethical. + +I see, indeed, from an interesting article in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for +September 1889, entitled "The Black Madonna of Loreto," that black +Madonnas were so frequent in ancient Christian art that "some of the +early writers of the Church felt obliged to account for it by explaining +that the Virgin was of a very dark complexion, as might be proved by the +verse of Canticles which says, 'I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of +Jerusalem.' Others maintained that she became black during her sojourn +in Egypt. . . . Priests, of to-day, say that extreme age and exposure to +the smoke of countless altar-candles have caused that change in +complexion which the more naive fathers of the Church attributed to the +power of an Egyptian sun"; but the writer ruthlessly disposes of this +supposition by pointing out that in nearly all the instances of black +Madonnas it is the flesh alone that is entirely black, the crimson of the +lips, the white of the eyes, and the draperies having preserved their +original colour. The authoress of the article (Mrs. Hilliard) goes on to +tell us that Pausanias mentions two statues of the black Venus, and says +that the oldest statue of Ceres among the Phigalenses was black. She +adds that Minerva Aglaurus, the daughter of Cecrops, at Athens, was +black; that Corinth had a black Venus, as also the Thespians; that the +oracles of Dodona and Delphi were founded by black doves, the emissaries +of Venus, and that the Isis Multimammia in the Capitol at Rome is black. + +Sometimes I have asked myself whether the Church does not intend to +suggest that the whole story falls outside the domain of history, and is +to be held as the one great epos, or myth, common to all mankind; +adaptable by each nation according to its own several needs; +translatable, so to speak, into the facts of each individual nation, as +the written word is translatable into its language, but appertaining to +the realm of the imagination rather than to that of the understanding, +and precious for spiritual rather than literal truths. More briefly, I +have wondered whether she may not intend that such details as whether the +Virgin was white or black are of very little importance in comparison +with the basing of ethics on a story that shall appeal to black races as +well as to white ones. + +If so, it is time we were made to understand this more clearly. If the +Church, whether of Rome or England, would lean to some such view as +this--tainted though it be with mysticism--if we could see either great +branch of the Church make a frank, authoritative attempt to bring its +teaching into greater harmony with the educated understanding and +conscience of the time, instead of trying to fetter that understanding +with bonds that gall it daily more and more profoundly; then I, for one, +in view of the difficulty and graciousness of the task, and in view of +the great importance of historical continuity, would gladly sink much of +my own private opinion as to the value of the Christian ideal, and would +gratefully help either Church or both, according to the best of my very +feeble ability. On these terms, indeed, I could swallow not a few camels +myself cheerfully enough. + +Can we, however, see any signs as though either Rome or England will stir +hand or foot to meet us? Can any step be pointed to as though either +Church wished to make things easier for men holding the opinions held by +the late Mr. Darwin, or by Mr. Herbert Spencer and Professor Huxley? How +can those who accept evolution with any thoroughness accept such +doctrines as the Incarnation or the Redemption with any but a +quasi-allegorical and poetical interpretation? Can we conceivably accept +these doctrines in the literal sense in which the Church advances them? +And can the leaders of the Church be blind to the resistlessness of the +current that has set against those literal interpretations which she +seems to hug more and more closely the more religious life is awakened at +all? The clergyman is wanted as supplementing the doctor and the lawyer +in all civilised communities; these three keep watch on one another, and +prevent one another from becoming too powerful. I, who distrust the +_doctrinaire_ in science even more than the _doctrinaire_ in religion, +should view with dismay the abolition of the Church of England, as +knowing that a blatant bastard science would instantly step into her +shoes; but if some such deplorable consummation is to be avoided in +England, it can only be through more evident leaning on the part of our +clergy to such an interpretation of the Sacred History as the presence of +a black and white Madonna almost side by side at Oropa appears to +suggest. + +I fear that in these last paragraphs I may have trenched on dangerous +ground, but it is not possible to go to such places as Oropa without +asking oneself what they mean and involve. As for the average Italian +pilgrims, they do not appear to give the matter so much as a thought. +They love Oropa, and flock to it in thousands during the summer; the +President of the Administration assured me that they lodged, after a +fashion, as many as ten thousand pilgrims on the 15th of last August. It +is astonishing how living the statues are to these people, and how the +wicked are upbraided and the good applauded. At Varallo, since I took +the photographs I published in my book "Ex Voto," an angry pilgrim has +smashed the nose of the dwarf in Tabachetti's Journey to Calvary, for no +other reason than inability to restrain his indignation against one who +was helping to inflict pain on Christ. It is the real hair and the +painting up to nature that does this. Here at Oropa I found a paper on +the floor of the _Sposalizio_ Chapel, which ran as follows:-- + +"By the grace of God and the will of the administrative chapter of this +sanctuary, there have come here to work --- ---, mason --- ---, +carpenter, and --- --- plumber, all of Chiavazza, on the twenty-first day +of January 1886, full of cold (_pieni di freddo_). + +"They write these two lines to record their visit. They pray the Blessed +Virgin that she will maintain them safe and sound from everything +equivocal that may befall them (_sempre sani e salvi da ogni equivoco li +possa accadere_). Oh, farewell! We reverently salute all the present +statues, and especially the Blessed Virgin, and the reader." + +Through the _Universal Review_, I suppose, all its readers are to +consider themselves saluted; at any rate, these good fellows, in the +effusiveness of their hearts, actually wrote the above in pencil. I was +sorely tempted to steal it, but, after copying it, left it in the Chief +Priest's hands instead. + + + + +ART IN THE VALLEY OF SAAS {11} + + +Having been told by Mr. Fortescue, of the British Museum, that there were +some chapels at Saas-Fee which bore analogy to those at Varallo, +described in my book "Ex Voto," {12} I went to Saas during this last +summer, and venture now to lay my conclusions before the reader. + +The chapels are fifteen in number, and lead up to a larger and singularly +graceful one, rather more than half-way between Saas and Saas-Fee. This +is commonly but wrongly called the chapel of St. Joseph, for it is +dedicated to the Virgin, and its situation is of such extreme beauty--the +great Fee glaciers showing through the open portico--that it is in itself +worth a pilgrimage. It is surrounded by noble larches and overhung by +rock; in front of the portico there is a small open space covered with +grass, and a huge larch, the stem of which is girt by a rude stone seat. +The portico itself contains seats for worshippers, and a pulpit from +which the preacher's voice can reach the many who must stand outside. The +walls of the inner chapel are hung with votive pictures, some of them +very quaint and pleasing, and not overweighted by those qualities that +are usually dubbed by the name of artistic merit. Innumerable wooden and +waxen representations of arms, legs, eyes, ears and babies tell of the +cures that have been effected during two centuries of devotion, and can +hardly fail to awaken a kindly sympathy with the long dead and forgotten +folks who placed them where they are. + +The main interest, however, despite the extreme loveliness of the St. +Mary's Chapel, centres rather in the small and outwardly unimportant +oratories (if they should be so called) that lead up to it. These begin +immediately with the ascent from the level ground on which the village of +Saas-im-Grund is placed, and contain scenes in the history of the +Redemption, represented by rude but spirited wooden figures, each about +two feet high, painted, gilt, and rendered as life-like in all respects +as circumstances would permit. The figures have suffered a good deal +from neglect, and are still not a little misplaced. With the assistance, +however, of the Rev. E. J. Selwyn, English Chaplain at Saas-im-Grund, I +have been able to replace many of them in their original positions, as +indicated by the parts of the figures that are left rough-hewn and +unpainted. They vary a good deal in interest, and can be easily sneered +at by those who make a trade of sneering. Those, on the other hand, who +remain unsophisticated by overmuch art-culture will find them full of +character in spite of not a little rudeness of execution, and will be +surprised at coming across such works in a place so remote from any art- +centre as Saas must have been at the time these chapels were made. It +will be my business therefore to throw what light I can upon the +questions how they came to be made at all, and who was the artist who +designed them. + +The only documentary evidence consists in a chronicle of the valley of +Saas written in the early years of this century by the Rev. Peter Jos. +Ruppen, and published at Sion in 1851. This work makes frequent +reference to a manuscript by the Rev. Peter Joseph Clemens Lommatter, +_cure_ of Saas-Fee from 1738 to 1751, which has unfortunately been lost, +so that we have no means of knowing how closely it was adhered to. The +Rev. Jos. Ant. Ruppen, the present excellent _cure_ of Saas-im-Grund, +assures me that there is no reference to the Saas-Fee oratories in the +"Actes de l'Eglise" at Saas, which I understand go a long way back; but I +have not seen these myself. Practically, then, we have no more +documentary evidence than is to be found in the published chronicle above +referred to. + +We there find it stated that the large chapel, commonly, but as above +explained, wrongly called St. Joseph's, was built in 1687, and enlarged +by subscription in 1747. These dates appear on the building itself, and +are no doubt accurate. The writer adds that there was no actual edifice +on this site before the one now existing was built, but there was a +miraculous picture of the Virgin placed in a mural niche, before which +the pious herdsmen and devout inhabitants of the valley worshipped under +the vault of heaven. {13} A miraculous (or miracle-working) picture was +always more or less rare and important; the present site, therefore, +seems to have been long one of peculiar sanctity. Possibly the name Fee +may point to still earlier Pagan mysteries on the same site. + +As regards the fifteen small chapels, the writer says they illustrate the +fifteen mysteries of the Psalter, and were built in 1709, each +householder of the Saas-Fee contributing one chapel. He adds that +Heinrich Andenmatten, afterwards a brother of the Society of Jesus, was +an especial benefactor or promoter of the undertaking. One of the +chapels, the Ascension (No. 12 of the series), has the date 1709 painted +on it; but there is no date on any other chapel, and there seems no +reason why this should be taken as governing the whole series. + +Over and above this, there exists in Saas a tradition, as I was told +immediately on my arrival, by an English visitor, that the chapels were +built in consequence of a flood, but I have vainly endeavoured to trace +this story to an indigenous source. + +The internal evidence of the wooden figures themselves--nothing analogous +to which, it should be remembered, can be found in the chapel of +1687--points to a much earlier date. I have met with no school of +sculpture belonging to the early part of the eighteenth century to which +they can be plausibly assigned; and the supposition that they are the +work of some unknown local genius who was not led up to and left no +successors may be dismissed, for the work is too scholarly to have come +from any one but a trained sculptor. I refer of course to those figures +which the artist must be supposed to have executed with his own hand, as, +for example, the central figure of the Crucifixion group and those of the +Magdalene and St. John. The greater number of the figures were probably, +as was suggested to me by Mr. Ranshaw, of Lowth, executed by a local +woodcarver from models in clay and wax furnished by the artist himself. +Those who examine the play of line in the hair, mantle, and sleeve of the +Magdalene in the Crucifixion group, and contrast it with the greater part +of the remaining draperies, will find little hesitation in concluding +that this was the case, and will ere long readily distinguish the two +hands from which the figures have mainly come. I say "mainly," because +there is at least one other sculptor who may well have belonged to the +year 1709, but who fortunately has left us little. Examples of his work +may perhaps be seen in the nearest villain with a big hat in the +Flagellation chapel, and in two cherubs in the Assumption of the Virgin. + +We may say, then, with some certainty, that the designer was a cultivated +and practised artist. We may also not less certainly conclude that he +was of Flemish origin, for the horses in the Journey to Calvary and +Crucifixion chapels, where alone there are any horses at all, are of +Flemish breed, with no trace of the Arab blood adopted by Gaudenzio at +Varallo. The character, moreover, of the villains is Northern--of the +Quentin Matsys, Martin Schongauer type, rather than Italian; the same sub- +Rubensesque feeling which is apparent in more than one chapel at Varallo +is not less evident here--especially in the Journey to Calvary and +Crucifixion chapels. There can hardly, therefore, be a doubt that the +artist was a Fleming who had worked for several years in Italy. + +It is also evident that he had Tabachetti's work at Varallo well in his +mind. For not only does he adopt certain details of costume (I refer +particularly to the treatment of soldiers' tunics) which are peculiar to +Tabachetti at Varallo, but whenever he treats a subject which Tabachetti +had treated at Varallo, as in the Flagellation, Crowning with Thorns, and +Journey to Calvary chapels, the work at Saas is evidently nothing but a +somewhat modified abridgement of that at Varallo. When, however, as in +the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Crucifixion, and other chapels, the +work at Varallo is by another than Tabachetti, no allusion is made to it. +The Saas artist has Tabachetti's Varallo work at his finger-ends, but +betrays no acquaintance whatever with Gaudenzio Ferrari, Gio. Ant. +Paracca, or Giovanni D'Enrico. + +Even, moreover, when Tabachetti's work at Varallo is being most obviously +drawn from, as in the Journey to Calvary chapel, the Saas version differs +materially from that at Varallo, and is in some respects an improvement +on it. The idea of showing other horsemen and followers coming up from +behind, whose heads can be seen over the crown of the interposing hill, +is singularly effective as suggesting a number of others that are unseen, +nor can I conceive that any one but the original designer would follow +Tabachetti's Varallo design with as much closeness as it has been +followed here, and yet make such a brilliantly successful modification. +The stumbling, again, of one horse (a detail almost hidden, according to +Tabachetti's wont) is a touch which Tabachetti himself might add, but +which no Saas woodcarver who was merely adapting from a reminiscence of +Tabachetti's Varallo chapel would be likely to introduce. These +considerations have convinced me that the designer of the chapels at Saas +is none other than Tabachetti himself, who, as has been now conclusively +shown, was a native of Dinant, in Belgium. + +The Saas chronicler, indeed, avers that the chapels were not built till +1709--a statement apparently corroborated by a date now visible on one +chapel; but we must remember that the chronicler did not write until a +century or so later than 1709, and though, indeed, his statement may have +been taken from the lost earlier manuscript of 1738, we know nothing +about this either one way or the other. The writer may have gone by the +still existing 1709 on the Ascension chapel, whereas this date may in +fact have referred to a restoration, and not to an original construction. +There is nothing, as I have said, in the choice of the chapel on which +the date appears, to suggest that it was intended to govern the others. I +have explained that the work is isolated and exotic. It is by one in +whom Flemish and Italian influences are alike equally predominant; by one +who was saturated with Tabachetti's Varallo work, and who can improve +upon it, but over whom the other Varallo sculptors have no power. The +style of the work is of the sixteenth and not of the eighteenth +century--with a few obvious exceptions that suit the year 1709 +exceedingly well. Against such considerations as these, a statement made +at the beginning of this century referring to a century earlier, and a +promiscuous date upon one chapel, can carry but little weight. I shall +assume, therefore, henceforward, that we have here groups designed in a +plastic material by Tabachetti, and reproduced in wood by the best local +wood-sculptor available, with the exception of a few figures cut by the +artist himself. + +We ask, then, at what period in his life did Tabachetti design these +chapels, and what led to his coming to such an out-of-the-way place as +Saas at all? We should remember that, according both to Fassola and +Torrotti (writing in 1671 and 1686 respectively), Tabachetti {14} became +insane about the year 1586 or early in 1587, after having just begun the +Salutation chapel. I have explained in "Ex Voto" that I do not believe +this story. I have no doubt that Tabachetti was declared to be mad, but +I believe this to have been due to an intrigue, set on foot in order to +get a foreign artist out of the way, and to secure the Massacre of the +Innocents chapel, at that precise time undertaken, for Gio. Ant. Paracca, +who was an Italian. + +Or he may have been sacrificed in order to facilitate the return of the +workers in stucco whom he had superseded on the Sacro Monte. He may have +been goaded into some imprudence which was seized upon as a pretext for +shutting him up; at any rate, the fact that when in 1587 he inherited his +father's property at Dinant, his trustee (he being expressly stated to be +"_expatrie_") was "_datif_," "_dativus_," appointed not by himself but by +the court, lends colour to the statement that he was not his own master +at the time; for in later kindred deeds, now at Namur, he appoints his +own trustee. I suppose, then, that Tabachetti was shut up in a madhouse +at Varallo for a considerable time, during which I can find no trace of +him, but that eventually he escaped or was released. + +Whether he was a fugitive, or whether he was let out from prison, he +would in either case, in all reasonable probability, turn his face +homeward. If he was escaping, he would make immediately for the Savoy +frontier, within which Saas then lay. He would cross the Baranca above +Fobello, coming down on to Ponte Grande in the Val Anzasca. He would go +up the Val Anzasca to Macugnaga, and over the Monte Moro, which would +bring him immediately to Saas. Saas, therefore, is the nearest and most +natural place for him to make for, if he were flying from Varallo, and +here I suppose him to have halted. + +It so happened that on the 9th of September, 1589, there was one of the +three great outbreaks of the Mattmark See that have from time to time +devastated the valley of Saas. {15} It is probable that the chapels were +decided upon in consequence of some grace shown by the miraculous picture +of the Virgin, which had mitigated a disaster occurring so soon after the +anniversary of her own Nativity. Tabachetti, arriving at this juncture, +may have offered to undertake them if the Saas people would give him an +asylum. Here, at any rate, I suppose him to have stayed till some time +in 1590, probably the second half of it, his design of eventually +returning home, if he ever entertained it, being then interrupted by a +summons to Crea near Casale, where I believe him to have worked with a +few brief interruptions thenceforward for little if at all short of half +a century, or until about the year 1640. I admit, however, that the +evidence for assigning him so long a life rests solely on the supposed +identity of the figure known as "Il Vecchietto," in the Varallo Descent +from the Cross chapel, with the portrait of Tabachetti himself in the +Ecce Homo chapel, also at Varallo. + +I find additional reason for thinking the chapels owe their origin to the +inundation of September 9, 1589, in the fact that the 8th of September is +made a day of pilgrimage to the Saas-Fee chapels throughout the whole +valley of Saas. It is true the 8th of September is the festival of the +Nativity of the Virgin Mary, so that under any circumstances this would +be a great day, but the fact that not only the people of Saas, but the +whole valley down to Visp, flock to this chapel on the 8th of September, +points to the belief that some special act of grace on the part of the +Virgin was vouchsafed on this day in connection with this chapel. A +belief that it was owing to the intervention of St. Mary of Fee that the +inundation was not attended with loss of life would be very likely to +lead to the foundation of a series of chapels leading up to the place +where her miraculous picture was placed, and to the more special +celebration of her Nativity in connection with this spot throughout the +valley of Saas. I have discussed the subject with the Rev. Jos. Ant. +Ruppen, and he told me he thought the fact that the great _fete_ of the +year in connection with the Saas-Fee chapels was on the 8th of September +pointed rather strongly to the supposition that there was a connection +between these and the recorded flood of September 9, 1589. + +Turning to the individual chapels they are as follows:-- + +1. The Annunciation. The treatment here presents no more analogy to +that of the same subject at Varallo than is inevitable in the nature of +the subject. The Annunciation figures at Varallo have proved to be mere +draped dummies with wooden heads; Tabachetti, even though he did the +heads, which he very likely did, would take no interest in the Varallo +work with the same subject. The Annunciation, from its very simplicity +as well as from the transcendental nature of the subject, is singularly +hard to treat, and the work here, whatever it may once have been, is now +no longer remarkable. + +2. The Salutation of Mary by Elizabeth. This group, again, bears no +analogy to the Salutation chapel at Varallo, in which Tabachetti's share +was so small that it cannot be considered as in any way his. It is not +to be expected, therefore, that the Saas chapel should follow the Varallo +one. The figures, four in number, are pleasing and well arranged. St. +Joseph, St. Elizabeth, and St. Zacharias are all talking at once. The +Virgin is alone silent. + +3. The Nativity is much damaged and hard to see. The treatment bears no +analogy to that adopted by Gaudenzio Ferrari at Varallo. There is one +pleasing young shepherd standing against the wall, but some figures have +no doubt (as in others of the chapels) disappeared, and those that remain +have been so shifted from their original positions that very little idea +can be formed of what the group was like when Tabachetti left it. + +4. The Purification. I can hardly say why this chapel should remind me, +as it does, of the Circumcision chapel at Varallo, for there are more +figures here than space at Varallo will allow. It cannot be pretended +that any single figure is of extraordinary merit, but amongst them they +tell their story with excellent effect. Two, those of St. Joseph and St. +Anna (?), that doubtless were once more important factors in the drama, +are now so much in corners near the window that they can hardly be seen. + +5. The Dispute in the Temple. This subject is not treated at Varallo. +Here at Saas there are only six doctors now; whether or no there were +originally more cannot be determined. + +6. The Agony in the Garden. Tabachetti had no chapel with this subject +at Varallo, and there is no resemblance between the Saas chapel and that +by D'Enrico. The figures are no doubt approximately in their original +positions, but I have no confidence that I have rearranged them +correctly. They were in such confusion when I first saw them that the +Rev. E. J. Selwyn and myself determined to rearrange them. They have +doubtless been shifted more than once since Tabachetti left them. The +sleeping figures are all good. St. James is perhaps a little prosaic. +One Roman soldier who is coming into the garden with a lantern, and +motioning silence with his hand, does duty for the others that are to +follow him. I should think more than one of these figures is actually +carved in wood by Tabachetti, allowance being made for the fact that he +was working in a material with which he was not familiar, and which no +sculptor of the highest rank has ever found congenial. + +7. The Flagellation. Tabachetti has a chapel with this subject at +Varallo, and the Saas group is obviously a descent with modification from +his work there. The figure of Christ is so like the one at Varallo that +I think it must have been carved by Tabachetti himself. The man with the +hooked nose, who at Varallo is stooping to bind his rods, is here +upright: it was probably the intention to emphasise him in the succeeding +scenes as well as this, in the same way as he has been emphasised at +Varallo, but his nose got pared down in the cutting of later scenes, and +could not easily be added to. The man binding Christ to the column at +Varallo is repeated (_longo intervallo_) here, and the whole work is one +inspired by that at Varallo, though no single figure except that of the +Christ is adhered to with any very great closeness. I think the nearer +malefactor, with a goitre, and wearing a large black hat, is either an +addition of the year 1709, or was done by the journeyman of the local +sculptor who carved the greater number of the figures. The man stooping +down to bind his rods can hardly be by the same hand as either of the two +black-hatted malefactors, but it is impossible to speak with certainty. +The general effect of the chapel is excellent, if we consider the +material in which it is executed, and the rudeness of the audience to +whom it addresses itself. + +8. The Crowning with Thorns. Here again the inspiration is derived from +Tabachetti's Crowning with Thorns at Varallo. The Christs in the two +chapels are strikingly alike, and the general effect is that of a +residuary impression left in the mind of one who had known the Varallo +Flagellation exceedingly well. + +9. Sta. Veronica. This and the next succeeding chapels are the most +important of the series. Tabachetti's Journey to Calvary at Varallo is +again the source from which the present work was taken, but, as I have +already said, it has been modified in reproduction. Mount Calvary is +still shown, as at Varallo, towards the left-hand corner of the work, but +at Saas it is more towards the middle than at Varallo, so that horsemen +and soldiers may be seen coming up behind it--a stroke that deserves the +name of genius none the less for the manifest imperfection with which it +has been carried into execution. There are only three horses fully +shown, and one partly shown. They are all of the heavy Flemish type +adopted by Tabachetti at Varallo. The man kicking the fallen Christ and +the goitred man (with the same teeth missing), who are so conspicuous in +the Varallo Journey to Calvary, reappear here, only the kicking man has +much less nose than at Varallo, probably because (as explained) the nose +got whittled away and could not be whittled back again. I observe that +the kind of lapelled tunic which Tabachetti, and only Tabachetti, adopts +at Varallo, is adopted for the centurion in this chapel, and indeed +throughout the Saas chapels this particular form of tunic is the most +usual for a Roman soldier. The work is still a very striking one, +notwithstanding its translation into wood and the decay into which it has +been allowed to fall; nor can it fail to impress the visitor who is +familiar with this class of art as coming from a man of extraordinary +dramatic power and command over the almost impossible art of composing +many figures together effectively in all-round sculpture. Whether all +the figures are even now as Tabachetti left them I cannot determine, but +Mr. Selwyn has restored Simon the Cyrenian to the position in which he +obviously ought to stand, and between us we have got the chapel into +something more like order. + +10. The Crucifixion. This subject was treated at Varallo not by +Tabachetti but by Gaudenzio Ferrari. It confirms therefore my opinion as +to the designer of the Saas chapels to find in them no trace of the +Varallo Crucifixion, while the kind of tunic which at Varallo is only +found in chapels wherein Tabachetti worked again appears here. The work +is in a deplorable state of decay. Mr. Selwyn has greatly improved the +arrangement of the figures, but even now they are not, I imagine, quite +as Tabachetti left them. The figure of Christ is greatly better in +technical execution than that of either of the two thieves; the folds of +the drapery alone will show this even to an unpractised eye. I do not +think there can be a doubt but that Tabachetti cut this figure himself, +as also those of the Magdalene and St. John, who stand at the foot of the +cross. The thieves are coarsely executed, with no very obvious +distinction between the penitent and the impenitent one, except that +there is a fiend painted on the ceiling over the impenitent thief. The +one horse introduced into the composition is again of the heavy Flemish +type adopted by Tabachetti at Varallo. There is great difference in the +care with which the folds on the several draperies have been cut, some +being stiff and poor enough, while others are done very sufficiently. In +spite of smallness of scale, ignoble material, disarrangement and decay, +the work is still striking. + +11. The Resurrection. There being no chapel at Varallo with any of the +remaining subjects treated at Saas, the sculptor has struck out a line +for himself. The Christ in the Resurrection Chapel is a carefully +modelled figure, and if better painted might not be ineffective. Three +soldiers, one sleeping, alone remain. There were probably other figures +that have been lost. The sleeping soldier is very pleasing. + +12. The Ascension is not remarkably interesting; the Christ appears to +be, but perhaps is not, a much more modern figure than the rest. + +18. The Descent of the Holy Ghost. Some of the figures along the end +wall are very good, and were, I should imagine, cut by Tabachetti +himself. Those against the two side walls are not so well cut. + +14. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The two large cherubs here are +obviously by a later hand, and the small ones are not good. The figure +of the Virgin herself is unexceptionable. There were doubtless once +other figures of the Apostles which have disappeared; of these a single +St. Peter (?), so hidden away in a corner near the window that it can +only be seen with difficulty, is the sole survivor. + +15. The Coronation of the Virgin is of later date, and has probably +superseded an earlier work. It can hardly be by the designer of the +other chapels of the series. Perhaps Tabachetti had to leave for Crea +before all the chapels at Saas were finished. + +Lastly, we have the larger chapel dedicated to St. Mary, which crowns the +series. Here there is nothing of more than common artistic interest, +unless we except the stone altar mentioned in Ruppen's chronicle. This +is of course classical in style, and is, I should think, very good. + +Once more I must caution the reader against expecting to find +highly-finished gems of art in the chapels I have been describing. A +wooden figure not more than two feet high clogged with many coats of +paint can hardly claim to be taken very seriously, and even those few +that were cut by Tabachetti himself were not meant to have attention +concentrated on themselves alone. As mere wood-carving the Saas-Fee +chapels will not stand comparison, for example, with the triptych of +unknown authorship in the Church of St. Anne at Gliss, close to Brieg. +But, in the first place, the work at Gliss is worthy of Holbein himself: +I know no wood-carving that can so rivet the attention; moreover it is +coloured with water-colour and not oil, so that it is tinted, not +painted; and, in the second place, the Gliss triptych belongs to a date +(1519) when artists held neither time nor impressionism as objects, and +hence, though greatly better than the Saas-Fee chapels as regards a +certain Japanese curiousness of finish and _naivete_ of literal +transcription, it cannot even enter the lists with the Saas work as +regards _elan_ and dramatic effectiveness. The difference between the +two classes of work is much that between, say, John Van Eyck or Memling +and Rubens or Rembrandt, or, again, between Giovanni Bellini and +Tintoretto; the aims of the one class of work are incompatible with those +of the other. Moreover, in the Gliss triptych the intention of the +designer is carried out (whether by himself or no) with admirable skill; +whereas at Saas the wisdom of the workman is rather of Ober-Ammergau than +of the Egyptians, and the voice of the poet is not a little drowned in +that of his mouthpiece. If, however, the reader will bear in mind these +somewhat obvious considerations, and will also remember the pathetic +circumstances under which the chapels were designed--for Tabachetti when +he reached Saas was no doubt shattered in body and mind by his four +years' imprisonment--he will probably be not less attracted to them than +I observed were many of the visitors both at Saas-Grund and Saas-Fee with +whom I had the pleasure of examining them. + +I will now run briefly through the other principal works in the +neighbourhood to which I think the reader would be glad to have his +attention directed. + +At Saas-Fee itself the main altar-piece is without interest, as also one +with a figure of St. Sebastian. The Virgin and Child above the remaining +altar are, so far as I remember them, very good, and greatly superior to +the smaller figures of the same altar-piece. + +At Almagel, an hour's walk or so above Saas-Grund--a village, the name of +which, like those of the Alphubel, the Monte Moro, and more than one +other neighbouring site, is supposed to be of Saracenic origin--the main +altar-piece represents a female saint with folded arms being beheaded by +a vigorous man to the left. These two figures are very good. There are +two somewhat inferior elders to the right, and the composition is crowned +by the Assumption of the Virgin. I like the work, but have no idea who +did it. Two bishops flanking the composition are not so good. There are +two other altars in the church: the right-hand one has some pleasing +figures, not so the left-hand. + +In St. Joseph's Chapel, on the mule-road between Saas-Grund and Saas-Fee, +the St. Joseph and the two children are rather nice. In the churches and +chapels which I looked into between Saas and Stalden, I saw many florid +extravagant altar-pieces, but nothing that impressed me favourably. + +In the parish church at Saas-Grund there are two altar-pieces which +deserve attention. In the one over the main altar the arrangement of the +Last Supper in a deep recess half-way up the composition is very pleasing +and effective; in that above the right-hand altar of the two that stand +in the body of the church there are a number of round lunettes, about +eight inches in diameter, each containing a small but spirited group of +wooden figures. I have lost my notes on these altar-pieces and can only +remember that the main one has been restored, and now belongs to two +different dates, the earlier date being, I should imagine, about 1670. A +similar treatment of the Last Supper may be found near Brieg in the +church of Naters, and no doubt the two altar-pieces are by the same man. +There are, by the way, two very ambitious altars on either side the main +arch leading to the chance in the church at Naters, of which the one on +the south side contains obvious reminiscences of Gaudenzio Ferrari's Sta. +Maria frescoes at Varallo; but none of the four altar-pieces in the two +transepts tempted me to give them much attention. As regards the smaller +altar-piece at Saas-Grund, analogous work may be found at Cravagliana, +half-way between Varallo and Fobello, but this last has suffered through +the inveterate habit which Italians have of showing their hatred towards +the enemies of Christ by mutilating the figures that represent them. +Whether the Saas work is by a Valsesian artist who came over to +Switzerland, or whether the Cravagliana work is by a Swiss who had come +to Italy, I cannot say without further consideration and closer +examination than I have been able to give. The altar-pieces of Mairengo, +Chiggiogna, and, I am told, Lavertezzo, all in the Canton Ticino, are by +a Swiss or German artist who has migrated southward; but the reverse +migration was equally common. + +Being in the neighbourhood, and wishing to assure myself whether the +sculptor of the Saas-Fee chapels had or had not come lower down the +valley, I examined every church and village which I could hear of as +containing anything that might throw light on this point. I was thus led +to Vispertimenen, a village some three hours above either Visp or +Stalden. It stands very high, and is an almost untouched example of a +medieval village. The altar-piece of the main church is even more +floridly ambitious in its abundance of carving and gilding than the many +other ambitious altar-pieces with which the Canton Valais abounds. The +Apostles are receiving the Holy Ghost on the first storey of the +composition, and they certainly are receiving it with an overjoyed +alacrity and hilarious ecstasy of _allegria spirituale_ which it would +not be easy to surpass. Above the village, reaching almost to the limits +beyond which there is no cultivation, there stands a series of chapels +like those I have been describing at Saas-Fee, only much larger and more +ambitious. They are twelve in number, including the church that crowns +the series. The figures they contain are of wood (so I was assured, but +I did not go inside the chapels): they are life-size, and in some chapels +there are as many as a dozen figures. I should think they belonged to +the later half of the last century, and here, one would say, sculpture +touches the ground; at least, it is not easy to see how cheap +exaggeration can sink an art more deeply. The only things that at all +pleased me were a smiling donkey and an ecstatic cow in the Nativity +chapel. Those who are not allured by the prospect of seeing perhaps the +very worst that can be done in its own line, need not be at the pains of +climbing up to Vispertimenen. Those, on the other hand, who may find +this sufficient inducement will not be disappointed, and they will enjoy +magnificent views of the Weisshorn and the mountains near the Dom. + +I have already referred to the triptych at Gliss. This is figured in +Wolf's work on Chamonix and the Canton Valais, but a larger and clearer +reproduction of such an extraordinary work is greatly to be desired. The +small wooden statues above the triptych, as also those above its modern +companion in the south transept, are not less admirable than the triptych +itself. I know of no other like work in wood, and have no clue whatever +as to who the author can have been beyond the fact that the work is +purely German and eminently Holbeinesque in character. + +I was told of some chapels at Rarogne, five or six miles lower down the +valley than Visp. I examined them, and found they had been stripped of +their figures. The few that remained satisfied me that we have had no +loss. Above Brieg there are two other like series of chapels. I +examined the higher and more promising of the two, but found not one +single figure left. I was told by my driver that the other series, close +to the Pont Napoleon on the Simplon road, had been also stripped of its +figures, and, there being a heavy storm at the time, have taken his word +for it that this was so. + + + + +THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE {16} + + +Three well-known writers, Professor Max Muller, Professor Mivart, and Mr. +Alfred Russel Wallace have lately maintained that though the theory of +descent with modification accounts for the development of all vegetable +life, and of all animals lower than man, yet that man cannot--not at +least in respect of the whole of his nature--be held to have descended +from any animal lower than himself, inasmuch as none lower than man +possesses even the germs of language. Reason, it is contended--more +especially by Professor Max Muller in his "Science of Thought," to which +I propose confining our attention this evening--is so inseparably +connected with language, that the two are in point of fact identical; +hence it is argued that, as the lower animals have no germs of language, +they can have no germs of reason, and the inference is drawn that man +cannot be conceived as having derived his own reasoning powers and +command of language through descent from beings in which no germ of +either can be found. The relations therefore between thought and +language, interesting in themselves, acquire additional importance from +the fact of their having become the battle-ground between those who say +that the theory of descent breaks down with man, and those who maintain +that we are descended from some ape-like ancestor long since extinct. + +The contention of those who refuse to admit man unreservedly into the +scheme of evolution is comparatively recent. The great propounders of +evolution, Buffon, Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck--not to mention a score of +others who wrote at the close of the last and early part of this present +century--had no qualms about admitting man into their system. They have +been followed in this respect by the late Mr. Charles Darwin, and by the +greatly more influential part of our modern biologists, who hold that +whatever loss of dignity we may incur through being proved to be of +humble origin, is compensated by the credit we may claim for having +advanced ourselves to such a high pitch of civilisation; this bids us +expect still further progress, and glorifies our descendants more than it +abases our ancestors. But to whichever view we may incline on +sentimental grounds the fact remains that, while Charles Darwin declared +language to form no impassable barrier between man and the lower animals, +Professor Max Muller calls it the Rubicon which no brute dare cross, and +deduces hence the conclusion that man cannot have descended from an +unknown but certainly speechless ape. + +It may perhaps be expected that I should begin a lecture on the relations +between thought and language with some definition of both these things; +but thought, as Sir William Grove said of motion, is a phenomenon "so +obvious to simple apprehension, that to define it would make it more +obscure." {17} Definitions are useful where things are new to us, but +they are superfluous about those that are already familiar, and +mischievous, so far as they are possible at all, in respect of all those +things that enter so profoundly and intimately into our being that in +them we must either live or bear no life. To vivisect the more vital +processes of thought is to suspend, if not to destroy them; for thought +can think about everything more healthily and easily than about itself. +It is like its instrument the brain, which knows nothing of any injuries +inflicted upon itself. As regards what is new to us, a definition will +sometimes dilute a difficulty, and help us to swallow that which might +choke us undiluted; but to define when we have once well swallowed is to +unsettle, rather than settle, our digestion. Definitions, again, are +like steps cut in a steep slope of ice, or shells thrown on to a greasy +pavement; they give us foothold, and enable us to advance, but when we +are at our journey's end we want them no longer. Again, they are useful +as mental fluxes, and as helping us to fuse new ideas with our older +ones. They present us with some tags and ends of ideas that we have +already mastered, on to which we can hitch our new ones; but to multiply +them in respect of such a matter as thought, is like scratching the bite +of a gnat; the more we scratch the more we want to scratch; the more we +define the more we shall have to go on defining the words we have used in +our definitions, and shall end by setting up a serious mental raw in the +place of a small uneasiness that was after all quite endurable. We know +too well what thought is, to be able to know that we know it, and I am +persuaded there is no one in this room but understands what is meant by +thought and thinking well enough for all the purposes of this discussion. +Whoever does not know this without words will not learn it for all the +words and definitions that are laid before him. The more, indeed, he +hears, the more confused he will become. I shall, therefore, merely +premise that I use the word "thought" in the same sense as that in which +it is generally used by people who say that they think this or that. At +any rate, it will be enough if I take Professor Max Muller's own +definition, and say that its essence consists in a bringing together of +mental images and ideas with deductions therefrom, and with a +corresponding power of detaching them from one another. Hobbes, the +Professor tells us, maintained this long ago, when he said that all our +thinking consists of addition and subtraction--that is to say, in +bringing ideas together, and in detaching them from one another. + +Turning from thought to language, we observe that the word is derived +from the French _langue_, or _tongue_. Strictly, therefore, it means +_tonguage_. This, however, takes account of but a very small part of the +ideas that underlie the word. It does, indeed, seize a familiar and +important detail of everyday speech, though it may be doubted whether the +tongue has more to do with speaking than lips, teeth and throat have, but +it makes no attempt at grasping and expressing the essential +characteristic of speech. Anything done with the tongue, even though it +involve no speaking at all, is _tonguage_; eating oranges is as much +tonguage as speech is. The word, therefore, though it tells us in part +how speech is effected, reveals nothing of that ulterior meaning which is +nevertheless inseparable from any right use of the words either "speech" +or "language." It presents us with what is indeed a very frequent +adjunct of conversation, but the use of written characters, or the finger- +speech of deaf mutes, is enough to show that the word "language" omits +all reference to the most essential characteristics of the idea, which in +practice it nevertheless very sufficiently presents to us. I hope +presently to make it clear to you how and why it should do so. The word +is incomplete in the first place, because it omits all reference to the +ideas which words, speech or language are intended to convey, and there +can be no true word without its actually or potentially conveying an +idea. Secondly, it makes no allusion to the person or persons to whom +the ideas are to be conveyed. Language is not language unless it not +only expresses fairly definite and coherent ideas, but unless it also +conveys these ideas to some other living intelligent being, either man or +brute, that can understand them. We may speak to a dog or horse, but not +to a stone. If we make pretence of doing so we are in reality only +talking to ourselves. The person or animal spoken to is half the +battle--a half, moreover, which is essential to there being any battle at +all. It takes two people to say a thing--a sayee as well as a sayer. The +one is as essential to any true saying as the other. A. may have spoken, +but if B. has not heard, there has been nothing said, and he must speak +again. True, the belief on A.'s part that he had a _bona fide_ sayee in +B., saves his speech qua him, but it has been barren and left no fertile +issue. It has failed to fulfil the conditions of true speech, which +involve not only that A. should speak, but also that B. should hear. +True, again, we often speak of loose, incoherent, indefinite language; +but by doing so we imply, and rightly, that we are calling that language +which is not true language at all. People, again, sometimes talk to +themselves without intending that any other person should hear them, but +this is not well done, and does harm to those who practise it. It is +abnormal, whereas our concern is with normal and essential +characteristics; we may, therefore, neglect both delirious babblings, and +the cases in which a person is regarding him or herself, as it were, from +outside, and treating himself as though he were some one else. + +Inquiring, then, what are the essentials, the presence of which +constitutes language, while their absence negatives it altogether, we +find that Professor Max Muller restricts them to the use of grammatical +articulate words that we can write or speak, and denies that anything can +be called language unless it can be written or spoken in articulate words +and sentences. He also denies that we can think at all unless we do so +in words; that is to say, in sentences with verbs and nouns. Indeed he +goes so far as to say upon his title-page that there can be no +reason--which I imagine comes to much the same thing as thought--without +language, and no language without reason. + +Against the assertion that there can be no true language without reason I +have nothing to say. But when the Professor says that there can be no +reason, or thought, without language, his opponents contend, as it seems +to me, with greater force, that thought, though infinitely aided, +extended and rendered definite through the invention of words, +nevertheless existed so fully as to deserve no other name thousands, if +not millions of years before words had entered into it at all. Words, +they say, are a comparatively recent invention, for the fuller expression +of something that was already in existence. + +Children, they urge, are often evidently thinking and reasoning, though +they can neither think nor speak in words. If you ask me to define +reason, I answer as before that this can no more be done than thought, +truth or motion can be defined. Who has answered the question, "What is +truth?" Man cannot see God and live. We cannot go so far back upon +ourselves as to undermine our own foundations; if we try to do we topple +over, and lose that very reason about which we vainly try to reason. If +we let the foundations be, we know well enough that they are there, and +we can build upon them in all security. We cannot, then, define reason +nor crib, cabin and confine it within a thus-far-shalt-thou-go-and-no- +further. Who can define heat or cold, or night or day? Yet, so long as +we hold fast by current consent, our chances of error for want of better +definition are so small that no sensible person will consider them. In +like manner, if we hold by current consent or common sense, which is the +same thing, about reason, we shall not find the want of an academic +definition hinder us from a reasonable conclusion. What nurse or mother +will doubt that her infant child can reason within the limits of its own +experience, long before it can formulate its reason in articulately +worded thought? If the development of any given animal is, as our +opponents themselves admit, an epitome of the history of its whole +anterior development, surely the fact that speech is an accomplishment +acquired after birth so artificially that children who have gone wild in +the woods lose it if they have ever learned it, points to the conclusion +that man's ancestors only learned to express themselves in articulate +language at a comparatively recent period. Granted that they learn to +think and reason continually the more and more fully for having done so, +will common sense permit us to suppose that they could neither think nor +reason at all till they could convey their ideas in words? + +I will return later to the reason of the lower animals, but will now deal +with the question what it is that constitutes language in the most +comprehensive sense that can be properly attached to it. I have said +already that language to be language at all must not only convey fairly +definite coherent ideas, but must also convey them to another living +being. Whenever two living beings have conveyed and received ideas, +there has been language, whether looks or gestures or words spoken or +written have been the vehicle by means of which the ideas have travelled. +Some ideas crawl, some run, some fly; and in this case words are the +wings they fly with, but they are only the wings of thought or of ideas, +they are not the thought or ideas themselves, nor yet, as Professor Max +Muller would have it, inseparably connected with them. Last summer I was +at an inn in Sicily, where there was a deaf and dumb waiter; he had been +born so, and could neither write nor read. What had he to do with words +or words with him? Are we to say, then, that this most active, amiable +and intelligent fellow could neither think nor reason? One day I had had +my dinner and had left the hotel. A friend came in, and the waiter saw +him look for me in the place I generally occupied. He instantly came up +to my friend, and moved his two forefingers in a way that suggested two +people going about together, this meant "your friend"; he then moved his +forefingers horizontally across his eyes, this meant, "who wears divided +spectacles"; he made two fierce marks over the sockets of his eyes, this +meant, "with the heavy eyebrows"; he pulled his chin, and then touched +his white shirt, to say that my beard was white. Having thus identified +me as a friend of the person he was speaking to, and as having a white +beard, heavy eyebrows, and wearing divided spectacles, he made a munching +movement with his jaws to say that I had had my dinner; and finally, by +making two fingers imitate walking on the table, he explained that I had +gone away. My friend, however, wanted to know how long I had been gone, +so he pulled out his watch and looked inquiringly. The man at once +slapped himself on the back, and held up the five fingers of one hand, to +say it was five minutes ago. All this was done as rapidly as though it +had been said in words; and my friend, who knew the man well, understood +without a moment's hesitation. Are we to say that this man had no +thought, nor reason, nor language, merely because he had not a single +word of any kind in his head, which I am assured he had not; for, as I +have said, he could not speak with his fingers? Is it possible to deny +that a dialogue--an intelligent conversation--had passed between the two +men? And if conversation, then surely it is technical and pedantic to +deny that all the essential elements of language were present. The signs +and tokens used by this poor fellow were as rude an instrument of +expression, in comparison with ordinary language, as going on one's hands +and knees is in comparison with walking, or as walking compared with +going by train; but it is as great an abuse of words to limit the word +"language" to mere words written or spoken, as it would be to limit the +idea of a locomotive to a railway engine. This may indeed pass in +ordinary conversation, where so much must be suppressed if talk is to be +got through at all, but it is intolerable when we are inquiring about the +relations between thought and words. To do so is to let words become as +it were the masters of thought, on the ground that the fact of their +being only its servants and appendages is so obvious that it is generally +allowed to go without saying. + +If all that Professor Max Muller means to say is, that no animal but man +commands an articulate language, with verbs and nouns, or is ever likely +to command one (and I question whether in reality he means much more than +this), no one will differ from him. No dog or elephant has one word for +bread, another for meat, and another for water. Yet, when we watch a cat +or dog dreaming, as they often evidently do, can we doubt that the dream +is accompanied by a mental image of the thing that is dreamed of, much +like what we experience in dreams ourselves, and much doubtless like the +mental images which must have passed through the mind of my deaf and dumb +waiter? If they have mental images in sleep, can we doubt that waking, +also, they picture things before their mind's eyes, and see them much as +we do--too vaguely indeed to admit of our thinking that we actually see +the objects themselves, but definitely enough for us to be able to +recognise the idea or object of which we are thinking, and to connect it +with any other idea, object, or sign that we may think appropriate? + +Here we have touched on the second essential element of language. We +laid it down, that its essence lay in the communication of an idea from +one intelligent being to another; but no ideas can be communicated at all +except by the aid of conventions to which both parties have agreed to +attach an identical meaning. The agreement may be very informal, and may +pass so unconsciously from one generation to another that its existence +can only be recognised by the aid of much introspection, but it will be +always there. A sayer, a sayee, and a convention, no matter what, agreed +upon between them as inseparably attached to the idea which it is +intended to convey--these comprise all the essentials of language. Where +these are present there is language; where any of them are wanting there +is no language. It is not necessary for the sayee to be able to speak +and become a sayer. If he comprehends the sayer--that is to say, if he +attaches the same meaning to a certain symbol as the sayer does--if he is +a party to the bargain whereby it is agreed upon by both that any given +symbol shall be attached invariably to a certain idea, so that in virtue +of the principle of associated ideas the symbol shall never be present +without immediately carrying the idea along with it, then all the +essentials of language are complied with, and there has been true speech +though never a word was spoken. + +The lower animals, therefore, many of them, possess a part of our own +language, though they cannot speak it, and hence do not possess it so +fully as we do. They cannot say "bread," "meat," or "water," but there +are many that readily learn what ideas they ought to attach to these +symbols when they are presented to them. It is idle to say that a cat +does not know what the cat's-meat man means when he says "meat." The cat +knows just as well, neither better nor worse than the cat's-meat man +does, and a great deal better than I myself understand much that is said +by some very clever people at Oxford or Cambridge. There is more true +employment of language, more _bona fide_ currency of speech, between a +sayer and a sayee who understand each other, though neither of them can +speak a word, than between a sayer who can speak with the tongues of men +and of angels without being clear about his own meaning, and a sayee who +can himself utter the same words, but who is only in imperfect agreement +with the sayer as to the ideas which the words or symbols that he utters +are intended to convey. The nature of the symbols counts for nothing; +the gist of the matter is in the perfect harmony between sayer and sayee +as to the significance that is to be associated with them. + +Professor Max Muller admits that we share with the lower animals what he +calls an emotional language, and continues that we may call their +interjections and imitations language if we like, as we speak of the +language of the eyes or the eloquence of mute nature, but he warns us +against mistaking metaphor for fact. It is indeed mere metaphor to talk +of the eloquence of mute nature, or the language of winds and waves. +There is no intercommunion of mind with mind by means of a covenanted +symbol; but it is only an apparent, not a real, metaphor to say that two +pairs of eyes have spoken when they have signalled to one another +something which they both understand. A schoolboy at home for the +holidays wants another plate of pudding, and does not like to apply +officially for more. He catches the servant's eye and looks at the +pudding; the servant understands, takes his plate without a word, and +gets him some. Is it metaphor to say that the boy asked the servant to +do this, or is it not rather pedantry to insist on the letter of a bond +and deny its spirit, by denying that language passed, on the ground that +the symbols covenanted upon and assented to by both were uttered and +received by eyes and not by mouth and ears? When the lady drank to the +gentleman only with her eyes, and he pledged with his, was there no +conversation because there was neither noun nor verb? Eyes are verbs, +and glasses of wine are good nouns enough as between those who understand +one another. Whether the ideas underlying them are expressed and +conveyed by eyeage or by tonguage is a detail that matters nothing. + +But everything we say is metaphorical if we choose to be captious. +Scratch the simplest expressions, and you will find the metaphor. Written +words are handage, inkage and paperage; it is only by metaphor, or +substitution and transposition of ideas, that we can call them language. +They are indeed potential language, and the symbols employed presuppose +nouns, verbs, and the other parts of speech; but for the most part it is +in what we read between the lines that the profounder meaning of any +letter is conveyed. There are words unwritten and untranslatable into +any nouns that are nevertheless felt as above, about and underneath the +gross material symbols that lie scrawled upon the paper; and the deeper +the feeling with which anything is written the more pregnant will it be +of meaning which can be conveyed securely enough, but which loses rather +than gains if it is squeezed into a sentence, and limited by the parts of +speech. The language is not in the words but in the heart-to-heartness +of the thing, which is helped by words, but is nearer and farther than +they. A correspondent wrote to me once, many years ago, "If I could +think to you without words you would understand me better." But surely +in this he was thinking to me, and without words, and I did understand +him better . . . So it is not by the words that I am too presumptuously +venturing to speak to-night that your opinions will be formed or +modified. They will be formed or modified, if either, by something that +you will feel, but which I have not spoken, to the full as much as by +anything that I have actually uttered. You may say that this borders on +mysticism. Perhaps it does, but their really is some mysticism in +nature. + +To return, however, to _terra firma_. I believe I am right in saying +that the essence of language lies in the intentional conveyance of ideas +from one living being to another through the instrumentality of arbitrary +tokens or symbols agreed upon, and understood by both as being associated +with the particular ideas in question. The nature of the symbol chosen +is a matter of indifference; it may be anything that appeals to human +senses, and is not too hot or too heavy; the essence of the matter lies +in a mutual covenant that whatever it is it shall stand invariably for +the same thing, or nearly so. + +We shall see this more easily if we observe the differences between +written and spoken language. The written word "stone," and the spoken +word, are each of them symbols arrived at in the first instance +arbitrarily. They are neither of them more like the other than they are +to the idea of a stone which rises before our minds, when we either see +or hear the word, or than this idea again is like the actual stone +itself, but nevertheless the spoken symbol and the written one each alike +convey with certainty the combination of ideas to which we have agreed to +attach them. + +The written symbol is formed with the hand, appeals to the eye, leaves a +material trace as long as paper and ink last, can travel as far as paper +and ink can travel, and can be imprinted on eye after eye practically _ad +infinitum_ both as regards time and space. + +The spoken symbol is formed by means of various organs in or about the +mouth, appeals to the ear, not the eye, perishes instantly without +material trace, and if it lives at all does so only in the minds of those +who heard it. The range of its action is no wider than that within which +a voice can be heard; and every time a fresh impression is wanted the +type must be set up anew. + +The written symbol extends infinitely, as regards time and space, the +range within which one mind can communicate with another; it gives the +writer's mind a life limited by the duration of ink, paper, and readers, +as against that of his flesh and blood body. On the other hand, it takes +longer to learn the rules so as to be able to apply them with ease and +security, and even then they cannot be applied so quickly and easily as +those attaching to spoken symbols. Moreover, the spoken symbol admits of +a hundred quick and subtle adjuncts by way of action, tone and +expression, so that no one will use written symbols unless either for the +special advantages of permanence and travelling power, or because he is +incapacitated from using spoken ones. This, however, is hardly to the +point; the point is that these two conventional combinations of symbols, +that are as unlike one another as the Hallelujah Chorus is to St. Paul's +Cathedral, are the one as much language as the other; and we therefore +inquire what this very patent fact reveals to us about the more essential +characteristics of language itself. What is the common bond that unites +these two classes of symbols that seem at first sight to have nothing in +common, and makes the one raise the idea of language in our minds as +readily as the other? The bond lies in the fact that both are a set of +conventional tokens or symbols, agreed upon between the parties to whom +they appeal as being attached invariably to the same ideas, and because +they are being made as a means of communion between one mind and +another,--for a memorandum made for a person's own later use is nothing +but a communication from an earlier mind to a later and modified one; it +is therefore in reality a communication from one mind to another as much +as though it had been addressed to another person. + +We see, therefore, that the nature of the outward and visible sign to +which the inward and spiritual idea of language is attached does not +matter. It may be the firing of a gun; it may be an old semaphore +telegraph; it may be the movements of a needle; a look, a gesture, the +breaking of a twig by an Indian to tell some one that he has passed that +way: a twig broken designedly with this end in view is a letter addressed +to whomsoever it may concern, as much as though it had been written out +in full on bark or paper. It does not matter one straw what it is, +provided it is agreed upon in concert, and stuck to. Just as the lowest +forms of life nevertheless present us with all the essential +characteristics of livingness, and are as much alive in their own humble +way as the most highly developed organisms, so the rudest intentional and +effectual communication between two minds through the instrumentality of +a concerted symbol is as much language as the most finished oratory of +Mr. Gladstone. I demur therefore to the assertion that the lower animals +have no language, inasmuch as they cannot themselves articulate a +grammatical sentence. I do not indeed pretend that when the cat calls +upon the tiles it uses what it consciously and introspectively recognises +as language; it says what it has to say without introspection, and in the +ordinary course of business, as one of the common forms of courtship. It +no more knows that it has been using language than M. Jourdain knew he +had been speaking prose, but M. Jourdain's knowing or not knowing was +neither here nor there. + +Anything which can be made to hitch on invariably to a definite idea that +can carry some distance--say an inch at the least, and which can be +repeated at pleasure, can be pressed into the service of language. Mrs. +Bentley, wife of the famous Dr. Bentley of Trinity College, Cambridge, +used to send her snuff-box to the college buttery when she wanted beer, +instead of a written order. If the snuff-box came the beer was sent, but +if there was no snuff-box there was no beer. Wherein did the snuff-box +differ more from a written order, than a written order differs from a +spoken one? The snuff-box was for the time being language. It sounds +strange to say that one might take a pinch of snuff out of a sentence, +but if the servant had helped him or herself to a pinch while carrying it +to the buttery this is what would have been done; for if a snuff-box can +say "Send me a quart of beer," so efficiently that the beer is sent, it +is impossible to say that it is not a _bona fide_ sentence. As for the +recipient of the message, the butler did not probably translate the snuff- +box into articulate nouns and verbs; as soon as he saw it he just went +down into the cellar and drew the beer, and if he thought at all, it was +probably about something else. Yet he must have been thinking without +words, or he would have drawn too much beer or too little, or have spilt +it in the bringing it up, and we may be sure that he did none of these +things. + +You will, of course, observe that if Mrs. Bentley had sent the snuff-box +to the buttery of St. John's College instead of Trinity, it would not +have been language, for there would have been no covenant between sayer +and sayee as to what the symbol should represent, there would have been +no previously established association of ideas in the mind of the butler +of St. John's between beer and snuff-box; the connection was artificial, +arbitrary, and by no means one of those in respect of which an impromptu +bargain might be proposed by the very symbol itself, and assented to +without previous formality by the person to whom it was presented. More +briefly, the butler of St. John's would not have been able to understand +and read it aright. It would have been a dead letter to him--a snuff-box +and not a letter; whereas to the butler of Trinity it was a letter and +not a snuff-box. + +You will also note that it was only at the moment when he was looking at +it and accepting it as a message that it flashed forth from snuff-box- +hood into the light and life of living utterance. As soon as it had +kindled the butler into sending a single quart of beer, its force was +spent until Mrs. Bentley threw her soul into it again and charged it anew +by wanting more beer, and sending it down accordingly. + +Again, take the ring which the Earl of Essex sent to Queen Elizabeth, but +which the queen did not receive. This was intended as a sentence, but +failed to become effectual language because the sensible material symbol +never reached those sentient organs which it was intended to affect. A +book, again, however full of excellent words it may be, is not language +when it is merely standing on a bookshelf. It speaks to no one, unless +when being actually read, or quoted from by an act of memory. It is +potential language as a lucifer-match is potential fire, but it is no +more language till it is in contact with a recipient mind, than a match +is fire till it is struck, and is being consumed. + +A piece of music, again, without any words at all, or a song with words +that have nothing in the world to do with the ideas which it is +nevertheless made to convey, is often very effectual language. Much +lying, and all irony depends on tampering with covenanted symbols, and +making those that are usually associated with one set of ideas convey by +a sleight of mind others of a different nature. That is why irony is +intolerably fatiguing unless very sparingly used. Take the song which +Blondel sang under the window of King Richard's prison. There was not +one syllable in it to say that Blondel was there, and was going to help +the king to get out of prison. It was about some silly love affair, but +it was a letter all the same, and the king made language of what would +otherwise have been no language, by guessing the meaning, that is to say +by perceiving that he was expected to enter then and there into a new +covenant as to the meaning of the symbols that were presented to him, +understanding what this covenant was to be, and acquiescing in it. + +On the other hand, no ingenuity can torture language into being a fit +word to use in connection with either sounds or any other symbols that +have not been intended to convey a meaning, or again in connection with +either sounds or symbols in respect of which there has been no covenant +between sayer and sayee. When we hear people speaking a foreign +language--we will say Welsh--we feel that though they are no doubt using +what is very good language as between themselves, there is no language +whatever as far as we are concerned. We call it lingo, not language. The +Chinese letters on a tea-chest might as well not be there, for all that +they say to us, though the Chinese find them very much to the purpose. +They are a covenant to which we have been no parties--to which our +intelligence has affixed no signature. + +We have already seen that it is in virtue of such an understood covenant +that symbols so unlike one another as the written word "stone" and the +spoken word alike at once raise the idea of a stone in our minds. See +how the same holds good as regards the different languages that pass +current in different nations. The letters p, i, e, r, r, e convey the +idea of a stone to a Frenchman as readily as s, t, o, n, e do to +ourselves. And why? because that is the covenant that has been struck +between those who speak and those who are spoken to. Our "stone" conveys +no idea to a Frenchman, nor his "pierre" to us, unless we have done what +is commonly called acquiring one another's language. To acquire a +foreign language is only to learn and adhere to the covenants in respect +of symbols which the nation in question has adopted and adheres to. + +Till we have done this we neither of us know the rules, so to speak, of +the game that the other is playing, and cannot, therefore, play together; +but the convention being once known and assented to, it does not matter +whether we raise the idea of a stone by the word "lapis," or by "lithos," +"pietra," "pierre," "stein," "stane" or "stone"; we may choose what +symbols written or spoken we choose, and one set, unless they are of +unwieldy length will do as well as another, if we can get other people to +choose the same and stick to them; it is the accepting and sticking to +them that matters, not the symbols. The whole power of spoken language +is vested in the invariableness with which certain symbols are associated +with certain ideas. If we are strict in always connecting the same +symbols with the same ideas, we speak well, keep our meaning clear to +ourselves, and convey it readily and accurately to any one who is also +fairly strict. If, on the other hand, we use the same combination of +symbols for one thing one day and for another the next, we abuse our +symbols instead of using them, and those who indulge in slovenly habits +in this respect ere long lose the power alike of thinking and of +expressing themselves correctly. The symbols, however, in the first +instance, may be anything in the wide world that we have a fancy for. +They have no more to do with the ideas they serve to convey than money +has with the things that it serves to buy. + +The principle of association, as every one knows, involves that whenever +two things have been associated sufficiently together, the suggestion of +one of them to the mind shall immediately raise a suggestion of the +other. It is in virtue of this principle that language, as we so call +it, exists at all, for the essence of language consists, as I have said +perhaps already too often, in the fixity with which certain ideas are +invariably connected with certain symbols. But this being so, it is hard +to see how we can deny that the lower animals possess the germs of a +highly rude and unspecialised, but still true language, unless we also +deny that they have any ideas at all; and this I gather is what Professor +Max Muller in a quiet way rather wishes to do. Thus he says, "It is easy +enough to show that animals communicate, but this is a fact which has +never been doubted. Dogs who growl and bark leave no doubt in the minds +of other dogs or cats, or even of man, of what they mean, but growling +and barking are not language, nor do they even contain the elements of +language." {18} + +I observe the Professor says that animals communicate without saying what +it is that they communicate. I believe this to have been because if he +said that the lower animals communicate their ideas, this would be to +admit that they have ideas; if so, and if, as they present every +appearance of doing, they can remember, reflect upon, modify these ideas +according to modified surroundings, and interchange them with one +another, how is it possible to deny them the germs of thought, language, +and reason--not to say a good deal more than the germs? It seems to me +that not knowing what else to say that animals communicated if it was not +ideas, and not knowing what mess he might not get into if he admitted +that they had ideas at all, he thought it safer to omit his accusative +case altogether. + +That growling and barking cannot be called a very highly specialised +language goes without saying; they are, however, so much diversified in +character, according to circumstances, that they place a considerable +number of symbols at an animal's command, and he invariably attaches the +same symbol to the same idea. A cat never purrs when she is angry, nor +spits when she is pleased. When she rubs her head against any one +affectionately it is her symbol for saying that she is very fond of him, +and she expects, and usually finds that it will be understood. If she +sees her mistress raise her hand as though to pretend to strike her, she +knows that it is the symbol her mistress invariably attaches to the idea +of sending her away, and as such she accepts it. Granted that the +symbols in use among the lower animals are fewer and less highly +differentiated than in the case of any known human language, and +therefore that animal language is incomparably less subtle and less +capable of expressing delicate shades of meaning than our own, these +differences are nevertheless only those that exist between highly +developed and inchoate language; they do not involve those that +distinguish language from no language. They are the differences between +the undifferentiated protoplasm of the amoeba and our own complex +organisation; they are not the differences between life and no life. In +animal language as much as in human there is a mind intentionally making +use of a symbol accepted by another mind as invariably attached to a +certain idea, in order to produce that idea in the mind which it is +desired to affect--more briefly, there is a sayer, a sayee, and a +covenanted symbol designedly applied. Our own speech is vertebrated and +articulated by means of nouns, verbs, and the rules of grammar. A dog's +speech is invertebrate, but I do not see how it is possible to deny that +it possesses all the essential elements of language. + +I have said nothing about Professor R. L. Garner's researches into the +language of apes, because they have not yet been so far verified and +accepted as to make it safe to rely upon them; but when he lays it down +that all voluntary sounds are the products of thought, and that, if they +convey a meaning to another, they perform the functions of human speech, +he says what I believe will commend itself to any unsophisticated mind. I +could have wished, however, that he had not limited himself to sounds, +and should have preferred his saying what I doubt not he would readily +accept--I mean, that all symbols or tokens of whatever kind, if +voluntarily adopted as such, are the products of thought, and perform the +functions of human speech; but I cannot too often remind you that nothing +can be considered as fulfilling the conditions of language, except a +voluntary application of a recognised token in order to convey a more or +less definite meaning, with the intention doubtless of thus purchasing as +it were some other desired meaning and consequent sensation. It is +astonishing how closely in this respect money and words resemble one +another. Money indeed may be considered as the most universal and +expressive of all languages. For gold and silver coins are no more money +when not in the actual process of being voluntarily used in purchase, +than words not so in use are language. Pounds, shillings and pence are +recognised covenanted tokens, the outward and visible signs of an inward +and spiritual purchasing power, but till in actual use they are only +potential money, as the symbols of language, whatever they may be, are +only potential language till they are passing between two minds. It is +the power and will to apply the symbols that alone gives life to money, +and as long as these are in abeyance the money is in abeyance also; the +coins may be safe in one's pocket, but they are as dead as a log till +they begin to burn in it, and so are our words till they begin to burn +within us. + +The real question, however, as to the substantial underlying identity +between the language of the lower animals and our own, turns upon that +other question whether or no, in spite of an immeasurable difference of +degree, the thought and reason of man and of the lower animals is +essentially the same. No one will expect a dog to master and express the +varied ideas that are incessantly arising in connection with human +affairs. He is a pauper as against a millionaire. To ask him to do so +would be like giving a street-boy sixpence and telling him to go and buy +himself a founder's share in the New River Company. He would not even +know what was meant, and even if he did it would take several millions of +sixpences to buy one. It is astonishing what a clever workman will do +with very modest tools, or again how far a thrifty housewife will make a +very small sum of money go, or again in like manner how many ideas an +intelligent brute can receive and convey with its very limited +vocabulary; but no one will pretend that a dog's intelligence can ever +reach the level of a man's. What we do maintain is that, within its own +limited range, it is of the same essential character as our own, and that +though a dog's ideas in respect of human affairs are both vague and +narrow, yet in respect of canine affairs they are precise enough and +extensive enough to deserve no other name than thought or reason. We +hold moreover that they communicate their ideas in essentially the same +manner as we do--that is to say, by the instrumentality of a code of +symbols attached to certain states of mind and material objects, in the +first instance arbitrarily, but so persistently, that the presentation of +the symbol immediately carries with it the idea which it is intended to +convey. Animals can thus receive and impart ideas on all that most +concerns them. As my great namesake said some two hundred years ago, +they know "what's what, and that's as high as metaphysic wit can fly." +And they not only know what's what themselves, but can impart to one +another any new what's-whatness that they may have acquired, for they are +notoriously able to instruct and correct one another. + +Against this Professor Max Muller contends that we can know nothing of +what goes on in the mind of any lower animal, inasmuch as we are not +lower animals ourselves. "We can imagine anything we like about what +passes in the mind of an animal," he writes, "we can know absolutely +nothing." {19} It is something to have it in evidence that he conceives +animals as having a mind at all, but it is not easy to see how they can +be supposed to have a mind, without being able to acquire ideas, and +having acquired, to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them. Surely +the mistake of requiring too much evidence is hardly less great than that +of being contented with too little. We, too, are animals, and can no +more refuse to infer reason from certain visible actions in their case +than we can in our own. If Professor Max Muller's plea were allowed, we +should have to deny our right to infer confidently what passes in the +mind of any one not ourselves, inasmuch as we are not that person. We +never, indeed, can obtain irrefragable certainty about this or any other +matter, but we can be sure enough in many cases to warrant our staking +all that is most precious to us on the soundness of our opinion. +Moreover, if the Professor denies our right to infer that animals reason, +on the ground that we are not animals enough ourselves to be able to form +an opinion, with what right does he infer so confidently himself that +they do not reason? And how, if they present every one of those +appearances which we are accustomed to connect with the communication of +an idea from one mind to another, can we deny that they have a language +of their own, though it is one which in most cases we can neither speak +nor understand? How can we say that a sentinel rook, when it sees a man +with a gun and warns the other rooks by a concerted note which they all +show that they understand by immediately taking flight, should not be +credited both with reason and the germs of language? + +After all, a professor, whether of philology, psychology, biology, or any +other ology, is hardly the kind of person to whom we should appeal on +such an elementary question as that of animal intelligence and language. +We might as well ask a botanist to tell us whether grass grows, or a +meteorologist to tell us if it has left off raining. If it is necessary +to appeal to any one, I should prefer the opinion of an intelligent +gamekeeper to that of any professor, however learned. The keepers, +again, at the Zoological Gardens, have exceptional opportunities for +studying the minds of animals--modified, indeed, by captivity, but still +minds of animals. Grooms, again, and dog-fanciers, are to the full as +able to form an intelligent opinion on the reason and language of animals +as any University Professor, and so are cats'-meat men. I have +repeatedly asked gamekeepers and keepers at the Zoological Gardens +whether animals could reason and converse with one another, and have +always found myself regarded somewhat contemptuously for having even +asked the question. I once said to a friend, in the hearing of a keeper +at the Zoological Gardens, that the penguin was very stupid. The man was +furious, and jumped upon me at once. "He's not stupid at all," said he; +"he's very intelligent." + +Who has not seen a cat, when it wishes to go out, raise its fore paws on +to the handle of the door, or as near as it can get, and look round, +evidently asking some one to turn it for her? Is it reasonable to deny +that a reasoning process is going on in the cat's mind, whereby she +connects her wish with the steps necessary for its fulfilment, and also +with certain invariable symbols which she knows her master or mistress +will interpret? Once, in company with a friend, I watched a cat playing +with a house-fly in the window of a ground-floor room. We were in the +street, while the cat was inside. When we came up to the window she gave +us one searching look, and, having satisfied herself that we had nothing +for her, went on with her game. She knew all about the glass in the +window, and was sure we could do nothing to molest her, so she treated us +with absolute contempt, never even looking at us again. + +The game was this. She was to catch the fly and roll it round and round +under her paw along the window-sill, but so gently as not to injure it +nor prevent it from being able to fly again when she had done rolling it. +It was very early spring, and flies were scarce, in fact there was not +another in the whole window. She knew that if she crippled this one, it +would not be able to amuse her further, and that she would not readily +get another instead, and she liked the feel of it under her paw. It was +soft and living, and the quivering of its wings tickled the ball of her +foot in a manner that she found particularly grateful; so she rolled it +gently along the whole length of the window-sill. It then became the +fly's turn. He was to get up and fly about in the window, so as to +recover himself a little; then she was to catch him again, and roll him +softly all along the window-sill, as she had done before. + +It was plain that the cat knew the rules of her game perfectly well, and +enjoyed it keenly. It was equally plain that the fly could not make head +or tail of what it was all about. If it had been able to do so it would +have gone to play in the upper part of the window, where the cat could +not reach it. Perhaps it was always hoping to get through the glass, and +escape that way; anyhow, it kept pretty much to the same pane, no matter +how often it was rolled. At last, however, the fly, for some reason or +another, did not reappear on the pane, and the cat began looking +everywhere to find it. Her annoyance when she failed to do so was +extreme. It was not only that she had lost her fly, but that she could +not conceive how she should have ever come to do so. Presently she noted +a small knot in the woodwork of the sill, and it flashed upon her that +she had accidentally killed the fly, and that this was its dead body. She +tried to move it gently with her paw, but it was no use, and for the time +she satisfied herself that the knot and the fly had nothing to do with +one another. Every now and then, however, she returned to it as though +it were the only thing she could think of, and she would try it again. +She seemed to say she was certain there had been no knot there before--she +must have seen it if there had been; and yet, the fly could hardly have +got jammed so firmly into the wood. She was puzzled and irritated beyond +measure, and kept looking in the same place again and again, just as we +do when we have mislaid something. She was rapidly losing temper and +dignity when suddenly we saw the fly reappear from under the cat's +stomach and make for the window-pane, at the very moment when the cat +herself was exclaiming for the fiftieth time that she wondered where that +stupid fly ever could have got to. No man who has been hunting twenty +minutes for his spectacles could be more delighted when he suddenly finds +them on his own forehead. "So that's where you were," we seemed to hear +her say, as she proceeded to catch it, and again began rolling it very +softly without hurting it, under her paw. My friend and I both noticed +that the cat, in spite of her perplexity, never so much as hinted that we +were the culprits. The question whether anything outside the window +could do her good or harm had long since been settled by her in the +negative, and she was not going to reopen it; she simply cut us dead, and +though her annoyance was so great that she was manifestly ready to lay +the blame on anybody or anything with or without reason, and though she +must have perfectly well known that we were watching the whole affair +with amusement, she never either asked us if we had happened to see such +a thing as a fly go down our way lately, or accused us of having taken it +from her--both of which ideas she would, I am confident, have been very +well able to convey to us if she had been so minded. + +Now what are thought and reason if the processes that were going through +this cat's mind were not both one and the other? It would be childish to +suppose that the cat thought in words of its own, or in anything like +words. Its thinking was probably conducted through the instrumentality +of a series of mental images. We so habitually think in words ourselves +that we find it difficult to realise thought without words at all; our +difficulty, however, in imagining the particular manner in which the cat +thinks has nothing to do with the matter. We must answer the question +whether she thinks or no, not according to our own ease or difficulty in +understanding the particular manner of her thinking, but according as her +action does or does not appear to be of the same character as other +action that we commonly call thoughtful. To say that the cat is not +intelligent, merely on the ground that we cannot ourselves fathom her +intelligence--this, as I have elsewhere said, is to make intelligence +mean the power of being understood, rather than the power of +understanding. This nevertheless is what, for all our boasted +intelligence, we generally do. The more we can understand an animal's +ways, the more intelligent we call it, and the less we can understand +these, the more stupid do we declare it to be. As for plants--whose +punctuality and attention to all the details and routine of their +somewhat restricted lines of business is as obvious as it is beyond all +praise--we understand the working of their minds so little that by common +consent we declare them to have no intelligence at all. + +Before concluding I should wish to deal a little more fully with +Professor Max Muller's contention that there can be no reason without +language, and no language without reason. Surely when two practised +pugilists are fighting, parrying each other's blows, and watching keenly +for an unguarded point, they are thinking and reasoning very subtly the +whole time, without doing so in words. The machination of their +thoughts, as well as its expression, is actual--I mean, effectuated and +expressed by action and deed, not words. They are unaware of any logical +sequence of thought that they could follow in words as passing through +their minds at all. They may perhaps think consciously in words now and +again, but such thought will be intermittent, and the main part of the +fighting will be done without any internal concomitance of articulated +phrases. Yet we cannot doubt that their action, however much we may +disapprove of it, is guided by intelligence and reason; nor should we +doubt that a reasoning process of the same character goes on in the minds +of two dogs or fighting-cocks when they are striving to master their +opponents. + +Do we think in words, again, when we wind up our watches, put on our +clothes, or eat our breakfasts? If we do, it is generally about +something else. We do these things almost as much without the help of +words as we wink or yawn, or perform any of those other actions that we +call reflex, as it would almost seem because they are done without +reflection. They are not, however, the less reasonable because wordless. + +Even when we think we are thinking in words, we do so only in half +measure. A running accompaniment of words no doubt frequently attends +our thoughts; but, unless we are writing or speaking, this accompaniment +is of the vaguest and most fitful kind, as we often find out when we try +to write down or say what we are thinking about, though we have a fairly +definite notion of it, or fancy that we have one, all the time. The +thought is not steadily and coherently governed by and moulded in words, +nor does it steadily govern them. Words and thought interact upon and +help one another, as any other mechanical appliances interact on and help +the invention that first hit upon them; but reason or thought, for the +most part, flies along over the heads of words, working its own +mysterious way in paths that are beyond our ken, though whether some of +our departmental personalities are as unconscious of what is passing, as +that central government is which we alone dub with the name of "we" or +"us," is a point on which I will not now touch. + +I cannot think, then, that Professor Max Muller's contention that thought +and language are identical--and he has repeatedly affirmed this--will +ever be generally accepted. Thought is no more identical with language +than feeling is identical with the nervous system. True, we can no more +feel without a nervous system than we can discern certain minute +organisms without a microscope. Destroy the nervous system, and we +destroy feeling. Destroy the microscope, and we can no longer see the +animalcules; but our sight of the animalcules is not the microscope, +though it is effectuated by means of the microscope, and our feeling is +not the nervous system, though the nervous system is the instrument that +enables us to feel. + +The nervous system is a device which living beings have gradually +perfected--I believe I may say quite truly--through the will and power +which they have derived from a fountain-head, the existence of which we +can infer, but which we can never apprehend. By the help of this device, +and in proportion as they have perfected it, living beings feel ever with +greater definiteness, and hence formulate their feelings in thought with +more and more precision. The higher evolution of thought has reacted on +the nervous system, and the consequent higher evolution of the nervous +system has again reacted upon thought. These things are as power and +desire, or supply and demand, each one of which is continually +outstripping, and being in turn outstripped by the other; but, in spite +of their close connection and interaction, power is not desire, nor +demand supply. Language is a device evolved sometimes by leaps and +bounds, and sometimes exceedingly slowly, whereby we help ourselves alike +to greater ease, precision, and complexity of thought, and also to more +convenient interchange of thought among ourselves. Thought found rude +expression, which gradually among other forms assumed that of words. +These reacted upon thought, and thought again on them, but thought is no +more identical with words than words are with the separate letters of +which they are composed. + +To sum up, then, and to conclude. I would ask you to see the connection +between words and ideas, as in the first instance arbitrary. No doubt in +some cases an imitation of the cry of some bird or wild beast would +suggest the name that should be attached to it; occasionally the sound of +an operation such as grinding may have influenced the choice of the +letters g, r, as the root of many words that denote a grinding, grating, +grasping, crushing, action; but I understand that the number of words due +to direct imitation is comparatively few in number, and that they have +been mainly coined as the result of connections so far-fetched and +fanciful as to amount practically to no connection at all. Once chosen, +however, they were adhered to for a considerable time among the dwellers +in any given place, so as to become acknowledged as the vulgar tongue, +and raise readily in the mind of the inhabitants of that place the ideas +with which they had been artificially associated. + +As regards our being able to think and reason without words, the Duke of +Argyll has put the matter as soundly as I have yet seen it stated. "It +seems to me," he wrote, "quite certain that we can and do constantly +think of things without thinking of any sound or word as designating +them. Language seems to me to be necessary for the progress of thought, +but not at all for the mere act of thinking. It is a product of thought, +an expression of it, a vehicle for the communication of it, and an +embodiment which is essential to its growth and continuity; but it seems +to me altogether erroneous to regard it as an inseparable part of +cogitation." + +The following passages, again, are quoted from Sir William Hamilton in +Professor Max Muller's own book, with so much approval as to lead one to +suppose that the differences between himself and his opponents are in +reality less than he believes them to be:-- + +"Language," says Sir W. Hamilton, "is the attribution of signs to our +cognitions of things. But as a cognition must have already been there +before it could receive a sign, consequently that knowledge which is +denoted by the formation and application of a word must have preceded the +symbol that denotes it. A sign, however, is necessary to give stability +to our intellectual progress--to establish each step in our advance as a +new starting-point for our advance to another beyond. A country may be +overrun by an armed host, but it is only conquered by the establishment +of fortresses. Words are the fortresses of thought. They enable us to +realise our dominion over what we have already overrun in thought; to +make every intellectual conquest the base of operations for others still +beyond." + +"This," says Professor Max Muller, "is a most happy illustration," and he +proceeds to quote the following, also from Sir William Hamilton, which he +declares to be even happier still. + +"You have all heard," says Sir William Hamilton, "of the process of +tunnelling through a sandbank. In this operation it is impossible to +succeed unless every foot, nay, almost every inch of our progress be +secured by an arch of masonry before we attempt the excavation of +another. Now language is to the mind precisely what the arch is to the +tunnel. The power of thinking and the power of excavation are not +dependent on the words in the one case or on the mason-work in the other; +but without these subsidiaries neither could be carried on beyond its +rudimentary commencement. Though, therefore, we allow that every +movement forward in language must be determined by an antecedent movement +forward in thought, still, unless thought be accompanied at each point of +its evolutions by a corresponding evolution of language, its further +development is arrested." + +Man has evolved an articulate language, whereas the lower animals seem to +be without one. Man, therefore, has far outstripped them in reasoning +faculty as well as in power of expression. This, however, does not bar +the communications which the lower animals make to one another from +possessing all the essential characteristics of language, and as a matter +of fact, wherever we can follow them we find such communications +effectuated by the aid of arbitrary symbols covenanted upon by the living +beings that wish to communicate, and persistently associated with certain +corresponding feelings, states of mind, or material objects. Human +language is nothing more than this in principle, however much further the +principle has been carried in our own case than in that of the lower +animals. + +This being admitted, we should infer that the thought or reason on which +the language of men and animals is alike founded differs as between men +and brutes in degree but not in kind. More than this cannot be claimed +on behalf of the lower animals, even by their most enthusiastic admirer. + + + + +THE DEADLOCK IN DARWINISM {20}--PART I + + +It will be readily admitted that of all living writers Mr. Alfred Russel +Wallace is the one the peculiar turn of whose mind best fits him to write +on the subject of natural selection, or the accumulation of fortunate but +accidental variations through descent and the struggle for existence. His +mind in all its more essential characteristics closely resembles that of +the late Mr. Charles Darwin himself, and it is no doubt due to this fact +that he and Mr. Darwin elaborated their famous theory at the same time, +and independently of one another. I shall have occasion in the course of +the following article to show how misled and misleading both these +distinguished men have been, in spite of their unquestionable familiarity +with the whole range of animal and vegetable phenomena. I believe it +will be more respectful to both of them to do this in the most out-spoken +way. I believe their work to have been as mischievous as it has been +valuable, and as valuable as it has been mischievous; and higher, whether +praise or blame, I know not how to give. Nevertheless I would in the +outset, and with the utmost sincerity, admit concerning Messrs. Wallace +and Darwin that neither can be held as the more profound and +conscientious thinker; neither can be put forward as the more ready to +acknowledge obligation to the great writers on evolution who had preceded +him, or to place his own developments in closer and more conspicuous +historical connection with earlier thought upon the subject; neither is +the more ready to welcome criticism and to state his opponent's case in +the most pointed and telling way in which it can be put; neither is the +more quick to encourage new truth; neither is the more genial, generous +adversary, or has the profounder horror of anything even approaching +literary or scientific want of candour; both display the same inimitable +power of putting their opinions forward in the way that shall best ensure +their acceptance; both are equally unrivalled in the tact that tells them +when silence will be golden, and when on the other hand a whole volume of +facts may be advantageously brought forward. Less than the foregoing +tribute both to Messrs. Darwin and Wallace I will not, and more I cannot +pay. + +Let us now turn to the most authoritative exponent of latter-day +evolution--I mean to Mr. Wallace, whose work, entitled "Darwinism," +though it should have been entitled "Wallaceism," is still so far +Darwinistic that it develops the teaching of Mr. Darwin in the direction +given to it by Mr. Darwin himself--so far, indeed, as this can be +ascertained at all--and not in that of Lamarck. Mr. Wallace tells us, on +the first page of his preface, that he has no intention of dealing even +in outline with the vast subject of evolution in general, and has only +tried to give such an account of the theory of natural selection as may +facilitate a clear conception of Darwin's work. How far he has succeeded +is a point on which opinion will probably be divided. Those who find Mr. +Darwin's works clear will also find no difficulty in understanding Mr. +Wallace; those, on the other hand, who find Mr. Darwin puzzling are +little likely to be less puzzled by Mr. Wallace. He continues:-- + +"The objections now made to Darwin's theory apply solely to the +particular means by which the change of species has been brought about, +not to the fact of that change." + +But "Darwin's theory"--as Mr. Wallace has elsewhere proved that he +understands--has no reference "to the fact of that change"--that is to +say, to the fact that species have been modified in course of descent +from other species. This is no more Mr. Darwin's theory than it is the +reader's or my own. Darwin's theory is concerned only with "the +particular means by which the change of species has been brought about"; +his contention being that this is mainly due to the natural survival of +those individuals that have happened by some accident to be born most +favourably adapted to their surroundings, or, in other words, through +accumulation in the common course of nature of the more lucky variations +that chance occasionally purveys. Mr. Wallace's words, then, in reality +amount to this, that the objections now made to Darwin's theory apply +solely to Darwin's theory, which is all very well as far as it goes, but +might have been more easily apprehended if he had simply said, "There are +several objections now made to Mr. Darwin's theory." + +It must be remembered that the passage quoted above occurs on the first +page of a preface dated March 1889, when the writer had completed his +task, and was most fully conversant with his subject. Nevertheless, it +seems indisputable either that he is still confusing evolution with Mr. +Darwin's theory, or that he does not know when his sentences have point +and when they have none. + +I should perhaps explain to some readers that Mr. Darwin did not modify +the main theory put forward, first by Buffon, to whom it indisputably +belongs, and adopted from him by Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck, and many other +writers in the latter half of the last century and the earlier years of +the present. The early evolutionists maintained that all existing forms +of animal and vegetable life, including man, were derived in course of +descent with modification from forms resembling the lowest now known. + +Mr. Darwin went as far as this, and farther no one can go. The point at +issue between him and his predecessors involves neither the main fact of +evolution, nor yet the geometrical ratio of increase, and the struggle +for existence consequent thereon. Messrs. Darwin and Wallace have each +thrown invaluable light upon these last two points, but Buffon, as early +as 1756, had made them the keystone of his system. "The movement of +nature," he then wrote, "turns on two immovable pivots: one, the +illimitable fecundity which she has given to all species: the other, the +innumerable difficulties which reduce the results of that fecundity." +Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck followed in the same sense. They thus admit +the survival of the fittest as fully as Mr. Darwin himself, though they +do not make use of this particular expression. The dispute turns not +upon natural selection, which is common to all writers on evolution, but +upon the nature and causes of the variations that are supposed to be +selected from and thus accumulated. Are these mainly attributable to the +inherited effects of use and disuse, supplemented by occasional sports +and happy accidents? Or are they mainly due to sports and happy +accidents, supplemented by occasional inherited effects of use and +disuse? + +The Lamarckian system has all along been maintained by Mr. Herbert +Spencer, who, in his "Principles of Biology," published in 1865, showed +how impossible it was that accidental variations should accumulate at +all. I am not sure how far Mr. Spencer would consent to being called a +Lamarckian pure and simple, nor yet how far it is strictly accurate to +call him one; nevertheless, I can see no important difference in the main +positions taken by him and by Lamarck. + +The question at issue between the Lamarckians, supported by Mr. Spencer +and a growing band of those who have risen in rebellion against the +Charles-Darwinian system on the one hand, and Messrs. Darwin and Wallace +with the greater number of our more prominent biologists on the other, +involves the very existence of evolution as a workable theory. For it is +plain that what Nature can be supposed able to do by way of choice must +depend on the supply of the variations from which she is supposed to +choose. She cannot take what is not offered to her; and so again she +cannot be supposed able to accumulate unless what is gained in one +direction in one generation, or series of generations, is little likely +to be lost in those that presently succeed. Now variations ascribed +mainly to use and disuse can be supposed capable of being accumulated, +for use and disuse are fairly constant for long periods among the +individuals of the same species, and often over large areas; moreover, +conditions of existence involving changes of habit, and thus of +organisation, come for the most part gradually; so that time is given +during which the organism can endeavour to adapt itself in the requisite +respects, instead of being shocked out of existence by too sudden change. +Variations, on the other hand, that are ascribed to mere chance cannot be +supposed as likely to be accumulated, for chance is notoriously +inconstant, and would not purvey the variations in sufficiently unbroken +succession, or in a sufficient number of individuals, modified similarly +in all the necessary correlations at the same time and place to admit of +their being accumulated. It is vital therefore to the theory of +evolution, as was early pointed out by the late Professor Fleeming Jenkin +and by Mr. Herbert Spencer, that variations should be supposed to have a +definite and persistent principle underlying them, which shall tend to +engender similar and simultaneous modification, however small, in the +vast majority of individuals composing any species. The existence of +such a principle and its permanence is the only thing that can be +supposed capable of acting as rudder and compass to the accumulation of +variations, and of making it hold steadily on one course for each +species, till eventually many havens, far remote from one another, are +safely reached. + +It is obvious that the having fatally impaired the theory of his +predecessors could not warrant Mr. Darwin in claiming, as he most +fatuously did, the theory of evolution. That he is still generally +believed to have been the originator of this theory is due to the fact +that he claimed it, and that a powerful literary backing at once came +forward to support him. It seems at first sight improbable that those +who too zealously urged his claims were unaware that so much had been +written on the subject, but when we find even Mr. Wallace himself as +profoundly ignorant on this subject as he still either is, or affects to +be, there is no limit assignable to the ignorance or affected ignorance +of the kind of biologists who would write reviews in leading journals +thirty years ago. Mr. Wallace writes:-- + +"A few great naturalists, struck by the very slight difference between +many of these species, and the numerous links that exist between the most +different forms of animals and plants, and also observing that a great +many species do vary considerably in their forms, colours and habits, +conceived the idea that they might be all produced one from the other. +The most eminent of these writers was a great French naturalist, Lamarck, +who published an elaborate work, the _Philosophie Zoologique_, in which +he endeavoured to prove that all animals whatever are descended from +other species of animals. He attributed the change of species chiefly to +the effect of changes in the conditions of life--such as climate, food, +&c.; and especially to the desires and efforts of the animals themselves +to improve their condition, leading to a modification of form or size in +certain parts, owing to the well-known physiological law that all organs +are strengthened by constant use, while they are weakened or even +completely lost by disuse . . . + +"The only other important work dealing with the question was the +celebrated 'Vestiges of Creation,' published anonymously, but now +acknowledged to have been written by the late Robert Chambers." + +None are so blind as those who will not see, and it would be waste of +time to argue with the invincible ignorance of one who thinks Lamarck and +Buffon conceived that all species were produced from one another, more +especially as I have already dealt at some length with the early +evolutionists in my work, "Evolution, Old and New," first published ten +years ago, and not, so far as I am aware, detected in serious error or +omission. If, however, Mr. Wallace still thinks it safe to presume so +far on the ignorance of his readers as to say that the only two important +works on evolution before Mr. Darwin's were Lamarck's _Philosophie +Zoologique_ and the "Vestiges of Creation," how fathomable is the +ignorance of the average reviewer likely to have been thirty years ago, +when the "Origin of Species" was first published? Mr. Darwin claimed +evolution as his own theory. Of course, he would not claim it if he had +no right to it. Then by all means give him the credit of it. This was +the most natural view to take, and it was generally taken. It was not, +moreover, surprising that people failed to appreciate all the niceties of +Mr. Darwin's "distinctive feature" which, whether distinctive or no, was +assuredly not distinct, and was never frankly contrasted with the older +view, as it would have been by one who wished it to be understood and +judge upon its merits. It was in consequence of this omission that +people failed to note how fast and loose Mr. Darwin played with his +distinctive feature, and how readily he dropped it on occasion. + +It may be said that the question of what was thought by the predecessors +of Mr. Darwin is, after all, personal, and of no interest to the general +public, comparable to that of the main issue--whether we are to accept +evolution or not. Granted that Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck bore +the burden and heat of the day before Mr. Charles Darwin was born, they +did not bring people round to their opinion, whereas Mr. Darwin and Mr. +Wallace did, and the public cannot be expected to look beyond this broad +and indisputable fact. + +The answer to this is, that the theory which Messrs. Darwin and Wallace +have persuaded the public to accept is demonstrably false, and that the +opponents of evolution are certain in the end to triumph over it. Paley, +in his "Natural Theology," long since brought forward far too much +evidence of design in animal organisation to allow of our setting down +its marvels to the accumulations of fortunate accident, undirected by +will, effort and intelligence. Those who examine the main facts of +animal and vegetable organisation without bias will, no doubt, ere long +conclude that all animals and vegetables are derived ultimately from +unicellular organisms, but they will not less readily perceive that the +evolution of species without the concomitance and direction of mind and +effort is as inconceivable as is the independent creation of every +individual species. The two facts, evolution and design, are equally +patent to plain people. There is no escaping from either. According to +Messrs. Darwin and Wallace, we may have evolution, but are on no account +to have it as mainly due to intelligent effort, guided by ever higher and +higher range of sensations, perceptions, and ideas. We are to set it +down to the shuffling of cards, or the throwing of dice without the play, +and this will never stand. + +According to the older men, cards did indeed count for much, but play +counted for more. They denied the teleology of the time--that is to say, +the teleology that saw all adaptation to surroundings as part of a plan +devised long ages since by a quasi-anthropomorphic being who schemed +everything out much as a man would do, but on an infinitely vaster scale. +This conception they found repugnant alike to intelligence and +conscience, but, though they do not seem to have perceived it, they left +the door open for a design more true and more demonstrable than that +which they excluded. By making their variations mainly due to effort and +intelligence, they made organic development run on all-fours with human +progress, and with inventions which we have watched growing up from small +beginnings. They made the development of man from the amoeba part and +parcel of the story that may be read, though on an infinitely smaller +scale, in the development of our most powerful marine engines from the +common kettle, or of our finest microscopes from the dew-drop. + +The development of the steam-engine and the microscope is due to +intelligence and design, which did indeed utilise chance suggestions, but +which improved on these, and directed each step of their accumulation, +though never foreseeing more than a step or two ahead, and often not so +much as this. The fact, as I have elsewhere urged, that the man who made +the first kettle did not foresee the engines of the _Great Eastern_, or +that he who first noted the magnifying power of the dew-drop had no +conception of our present microscopes--the very limited amount, in fact, +of design and intelligence that was called into play at any one +point--this does not make us deny that the steam-engine and microscope +owe their development to design. If each step of the road was designed, +the whole journey was designed, though the particular end was not +designed when the journey was begun. And so is it, according to the +older view of evolution, with the development of those living organs, or +machines, that are born with us, as part of the perambulating carpenter's +chest we call our bodies. The older view gives us our design, and gives +us our evolution too. If it refuses to see a quasi-anthropomorphic God +modelling each species from without as a potter models clay, it gives us +God as vivifying and indwelling in all His creatures--He in them, and +they in Him. If it refuses to see God outside the universe, it equally +refuses to see any part of the universe as outside God. If it makes the +universe the body of God, it also makes God the soul of the universe. The +question at issue, then, between the Darwinism of Erasmus Darwin and the +neo-Darwinism of his grandson, is not a personal one, nor anything like a +personal one. It not only involves the existence of evolution, but it +affects the view we take of life and things in an endless variety of most +interesting and important ways. It is imperative, therefore, on those +who take any interest in these matters, to place side by side in the +clearest contrast the views of those who refer the evolution of species +mainly to accumulation of variations that have no other inception than +chance, and of that older school which makes design perceive and develop +still further the goods that chance provides. + +But over and above this, which would be in itself sufficient, the +historical mode of studying any question is the only one which will +enable us to comprehend it effectually. The personal element cannot be +eliminated from the consideration of works written by living persons for +living persons. We want to know who is who--whom we can depend upon to +have no other end than the making things clear to himself and his +readers, and whom we should mistrust as having an ulterior aim on which +he is more intent than on the furthering of our better understanding. We +want to know who is doing his best to help us, and who is only trying to +make us help him, or to bolster up the system in which his interests are +vested. There is nothing that will throw more light upon these points +than the way in which a man behaves towards those who have worked in the +same field with himself, and, again, than his style. A man's style, as +Buffon long since said, is the man himself. By style, I do not, of +course, mean grammar or rhetoric, but that style of which Buffon again +said that it is like happiness, and _vient de la douceur de l'ame_. When +we find a man concealing worse than nullity of meaning under sentences +that sound plausibly enough, we should distrust him much as we should a +fellow-traveller whom we caught trying to steal our watch. We often +cannot judge of the truth or falsehood of facts for ourselves, but we +most of us know enough of human nature to be able to tell a good witness +from a bad one. + +However this may be, and whatever we may think of judging systems by the +directness or indirectness of those who advance them, biologists, having +committed themselves too rashly, would have been more than human if they +had not shown some pique towards those who dared to say, first, that the +theory of Messrs. Darwin and Wallace was unworkable; and secondly, that +even though it were workable it would not justify either of them in +claiming evolution. When biologists show pique at all they generally +show a good deal of pique, but pique or no pique, they shunned Mr. +Spencer's objection above referred to with a persistency more unanimous +and obstinate than I ever remember to have seen displayed even by +professional truth-seekers. I find no rejoinder to it from Mr. Darwin +himself, between 1865 when it was first put forward, and 1882 when Mr. +Darwin died. It has been similarly "ostrichised" by all the leading +apologists of Darwinism, so far at least as I have been able to observe, +and I have followed the matter closely for many years. Mr. Spencer has +repeated and amplified it in his recent work, "The Factors of Organic +Evolution," but it still remains without so much as an attempt at serious +answer, for the perfunctory and illusory remarks of Mr. Wallace at the +end of his "Darwinism" cannot be counted as such. The best proof of its +irresistible weight is that Mr. Darwin, though maintaining silence in +respect to it, retreated from his original position in the direction that +would most obviate Mr. Spencer's objection. + +Yet this objection has been repeatedly urged by the more prominent anti- +Charles-Darwinian authorities, and there is no sign that the British +public is becoming less rigorous in requiring people either to reply to +objections repeatedly urged by men of even moderate weight, or to let +judgment go by default. As regards Mr. Darwin's claim to the theory of +evolution generally, Darwinians are beginning now to perceive that this +cannot be admitted, and either say with some hardihood that Mr. Darwin +never claimed it, or after a few saving clauses to the effect that this +theory refers only to the particular means by which evolution has been +brought about, imply forthwith thereafter none the less that evolution is +Mr. Darwin's theory. Mr. Wallace has done this repeatedly in his recent +"Darwinism." Indeed, I should be by no means sure that on the first page +of his preface, in the passage about "Darwin's theory," which I have +already somewhat severely criticised, he was not intending evolution by +"Darwin's theory," if in his preceding paragraph he had not so clearly +shown that he knew evolution to be a theory of greatly older date than +Mr. Darwin's. + +The history of science--well exemplified by that of the development +theory--is the history of eminent men who have fought against light and +have been worsted. The tenacity with which Darwinians stick to their +accumulation of fortuitous variations is on a par with the like tenacity +shown by the illustrious Cuvier, who did his best to crush evolution +altogether. It always has been thus, and always will be; nor is it +desirable in the interests of Truth herself that it should be otherwise. +Truth is like money--lightly come, lightly go; and if she cannot hold her +own against even gross misrepresentation, she is herself not worth +holding. Misrepresentation in the long run makes Truth as much as it +mars her; hence our law courts do not think it desirable that pleaders +should speak their _bona fide_ opinions, much less that they should +profess to do so. Rather let each side hoodwink judge and jury as best +it can, and let truth flash out from collision of defence and accusation. +When either side will not collide, it is an axiom of controversy that it +desires to prevent the truth from being elicited. + +Let us now note the courses forced upon biologists by the difficulties of +Mr. Darwin's distinctive feature. Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace, as is well +known, brought the feature forward simultaneously and independently of +one another, but Mr. Wallace always believed in it more firmly than Mr. +Darwin did. Mr. Darwin as a young man did not believe in it. He wrote +before 1889, "Nature, by making habit omnipotent and its effects +hereditary, has fitted the Fuegian for the climate and productions of his +country," {21} a sentence than which nothing can coincide more fully with +the older view that use and disuse were the main purveyors of variations, +or conflict more fatally with his own subsequent distinctive feature. +Moreover, as I showed in my last work on evolution, {22} in the +peroration to his "Origin of Species," he discarded his accidental +variations altogether, and fell back on the older theory, so that the +body of the "Origin of Species" supports one theory, and the peroration +another that differs from it _toto coelo_. Finally, in his later +editions, he retreated indefinitely from his original position, edging +always more and more continually towards the theory of his grandfather +and Lamarck. These facts convince me that he was at no time a thorough- +going Darwinian, but was throughout an unconscious Lamarckian, though +ever anxious to conceal the fact alike from himself and from his readers. + +Not so with Mr. Wallace, who was both more outspoken in the first +instance, and who has persevered along the path of Wallaceism just as Mr. +Darwin with greater sagacity was ever on the retreat from Darwinism. Mr. +Wallace's profounder faith led him in the outset to place his theory in +fuller daylight than Mr. Darwin was inclined to do. Mr. Darwin just +waved Lamarck aside, and said as little about him as he could, while in +his earlier editions Erasmus Darwin and Buffon were not so much as named. +Mr. Wallace, on the contrary, at once raised the Lamarckian spectre, and +declared it exorcised. He said the Lamarckian hypothesis was "quite +unnecessary." The giraffe did not "acquire its long neck by desiring to +reach the foliage of the more lofty shrubs, and constantly stretching its +neck for this purpose, but because any varieties which occurred among its +antitypes with a longer neck than usual at once secured a fresh range of +pasture over the same ground as their shorter-necked companions, and on +the first scarcity of food were thus enabled to outlive them." {23} + +"Which occurred" is evidently "which happened to occur" by some chance or +accident unconnected with use and disuse. The word "accident" is never +used, but Mr. Wallace must be credited with this instance of a desire to +give his readers a chance of perceiving that according to his distinctive +feature evolution is an affair of luck, rather than of cunning. Whether +his readers actually did understand this as clearly as Mr. Wallace +doubtless desired that they should, and whether greater development at +this point would not have helped them to fuller apprehension, we need not +now inquire. What was gained in distinctness might have been lost in +distinctiveness, and after all he did technically put us upon our guard. + +Nevertheless he too at a pinch takes refuge in Lamarckism. In relation +to the manner in which the eyes of soles, turbots, and other flat-fish +travel round the head so as to become in the end unsymmetrically placed, +he says:-- + +"The eyes of these fish are curiously distorted in order that both eyes +may be upon the upper side, where alone they would be of any use. . . . +Now if we suppose this process, which in the young is completed in a few +days or weeks, to have been spread over thousands of generations during +the development of these fish, those usually surviving _whose eyes +retained more and more of the position into which the young fish tried to +twist them_ [italics mine], the change becomes intelligible." {24} When +it was said by Professor Ray Lankester--who knows as well as most people +what Lamarck taught--that this was "flat Lamarckism," Mr. Wallace +rejoined that it was the survival of the modified individuals that did it +all, not the efforts of the young fish to twist their eyes, and the +transmission to descendants of the effects of those efforts. But this, +as I said in my book, "Evolution, Old and New," {25} is like saying that +horses are swift runners, not by reason of the causes, whatever they +were, that occasioned the direct line of their progenitors to vary +towards ever greater and greater swiftness, but because their more slow- +going uncles and aunts go away. Plain people will prefer to say that the +main cause of any accumulation of favourable modifications consists +rather in that which brings about the initial variations, and in the fact +that these can be inherited at all, than in the fact that the unmodified +individuals were not successful. People do not become rich because the +poor in large numbers go away, but because they have been lucky, or +provident, or more commonly both. If they would keep their wealth when +they have made it they must exclude luck thenceforth to the utmost of +their power, and their children must follow their example, or they will +soon lose their money. The fact that the weaker go to the wall does not +bring about the greater strength of the stronger; it is the consequence +of this last and not the cause--unless, indeed, it be contended that a +knowledge that the weak go to the wall stimulates the strong to exertions +which they would not otherwise so make, and that these exertions produce +inheritable modifications. Even in this case, however, it would be the +exertions, or use and disuse, that would be the main agents in the +modification. But it is not often that Mr. Wallace thus backslides. His +present position is that acquired (as distinguished from congenital) +modifications are not inherited at all. He does not indeed put his faith +prominently forward and pin himself to it as plainly as could be wished, +but under the heading, "The Non-Heredity of Acquired Characters," he +writes as follows on p. 440 of his recent work in reference to Professor +Weismann's Theory of Heredity:-- + +"Certain observations on the embryology of the lower animals are held to +afford direct proof of this theory of heredity, but they are too +technical to be made clear to ordinary readers. A logical result of the +theory is the impossibility of the transmission of acquired characters, +since the molecular structure of the germ-plasm is already determined +within the embryo; and Weismann holds that there are no facts which +really prove that acquired characters can be inherited, although their +inheritance has, by most writers, been considered so probable as hardly +to stand in need of direct proof. + +"We have already seen in the earlier part of this chapter that many +instances of change, imputed to the inheritance of acquired variations, +are really cases of selection." + +And the rest of the remarks tend to convey the impression that Mr. +Wallace adopts Professor Weismann's view, but, curiously enough, though I +have gone through Mr. Wallace's book with a special view to this +particular point, I have not been able to find him definitely committing +himself either to the assertion that acquired modifications never are +inherited, or that they sometimes are so. It is abundantly laid down +that Mr. Darwin laid too much stress on use and disuse, and a residuary +impression is left that Mr. Wallace is endorsing Professor Weismann's +view, but I have found it impossible to collect anything that enables me +to define his position confidently in this respect. + +This is natural enough, for Mr. Wallace has entitled his book +"Darwinism," and a work denying that use and disuse produced any effect +could not conceivably be called Darwinism. Mr. Herbert Spencer has +recently collected many passages from "The Origin of Species" and from +"Animals and Plants under Domestication," {26} which show how largely, +after all, use and disuse entered into Mr. Darwin's system, and we know +that in his later years he attached still more importance to them. It +was out of the question, therefore, that Mr. Wallace should categorically +deny that their effects were inheritable. On the other hand, the +temptation to adopt Professor Weismann's view must have been overwhelming +to one who had been already inclined to minimise the effects of use and +disuse. On the whole, one does not see what Mr. Wallace could do, other +than what he has done--unless, of course, he changed his title, or had +been no longer Mr. Wallace. + +Besides, thanks to the works of Mr. Spencer, Professor Mivart, Professor +Semper, and very many others, there has for some time been a growing +perception that the Darwinism of Charles Darwin was doomed. Use and +disuse must either do even more than is officially recognised in Mr. +Darwin's later concessions, or they must do a great deal less. If they +can do as much as Mr. Darwin himself said they did, why should they not +do more? Why stop where Mr. Darwin did? And again, where in the name of +all that is reasonable did he really stop? He drew no line, and on what +principle can we say that so much is possible as effect of use and +disuse, but so much more impossible? If, as Mr. Darwin contended, disuse +can so far reduce an organ as to render it rudimentary, and in many cases +get rid of it altogether, why cannot use create as much as disuse can +destroy, provided it has anything, no matter how low in structure, to +begin with? Let us know where we stand. If it is admitted that use and +disuse can do a good deal, what does a good deal mean? And what is the +proportion between the shares attributable to use and disuse and to +natural selection respectively? If we cannot be told with absolute +precision, let us at any rate have something more definite than the +statement that natural selection is "the most important means of +modification." + +Mr. Darwin gave us no help in this respect; and worse than this, he +contradicted himself so flatly as to show that he had very little +definite idea upon the subject at all. Thus in respect to the +winglessness of the Madeira beetles he wrote:-- + +"In some cases we might easily put down to disuse modifications of +structure, which are wholly or mainly due to natural selection. Mr. +Wollaston has discovered the remarkable fact that 200 beetles, out of the +550 species (but more are now known) inhabiting Madeira, are so far +deficient in wings that they cannot fly; and that of the 29 endemic +genera no less than 23 have all their species in this condition! Several +facts,--namely, that beetles in many parts of the world are frequently +blown out to sea and perish; that the beetles in Madeira, as observed by +Mr. Wollaston, lie much concealed until the wind lulls and the sun +shines; that the proportion of wingless beetles is larger on the exposed +Desertas than in Madeira itself; and especially the extraordinary fact, +so strongly insisted on by Mr. Wollaston, that certain large groups of +beetles, elsewhere excessively numerous, which absolutely require the use +of their wings are here almost entirely absent;--these several +considerations make me believe that the wingless condition of so many +Madeira beetles is mainly due to the action of natural selection, +_combined probably with disuse_ [italics mine]. For during many +successive generations each individual beetle which flew least, either +from its wings having been ever so little less perfectly developed or +from indolent habit, will have had the best chance of surviving, from not +being blown out to sea; and, on the other hand, those beetles which most +readily took to flight would oftenest have been blown to sea, and thus +destroyed." {27} + +We should like to know, first, somewhere about how much disuse was able +to do after all, and moreover why, if it can do anything at all, it +should not be able to do all. Mr. Darwin says: "Any change in structure +and function which can be effected by small stages is within the power of +natural selection." "And why not," we ask, "within the power of use and +disuse?" Moreover, on a later page we find Mr. Darwin saying:-- + +"_It appears probable that disuse has been the main agent in rendering +organs rudimentary_ [italics mine]. It would at first lead by slow steps +to the more and more complete reduction of a part, until at last it has +become rudimentary--as in the case of the eyes of animals inhabiting dark +caverns, and of the wings of birds inhabiting oceanic islands, which have +seldom been forced by beasts of prey to take flight, and have ultimately +lost the power of flying. Again, an organ, useful under certain +conditions, might become injurious under others, _as with the wings of +beetles living on small and exposed islands_; and in this case natural +selection will have aided in reducing the organ, until it was rendered +harmless and rudimentary [italics mine]." {28} + +So that just as an undefined amount of use and disuse was introduced on +the earlier page to supplement the effects of natural selection in +respect of the wings of beetles on small and exposed islands, we have +here an undefined amount of natural selection introduced to supplement +the effects of use and disuse in respect of the identical phenomena. In +the one passage we find that natural selection has been the main agent in +reducing the wings, though use and disuse have had an appreciable share +in the result; in the other, it is use and disuse that have been the main +agents, though an appreciable share in the result must be ascribed to +natural selection. + +Besides, who has seen the uncles and aunts going away with the uniformity +that is necessary for Mr. Darwin's contention? We know that birds and +insects do often get blown out to sea and perish, but in order to +establish Mr. Darwin's position we want the evidence of those who watched +the reduction of the wings during the many generations in the course of +which it was being effected, and who can testify that all, or the +overwhelming majority, of the beetles born with fairly well-developed +wings got blown out to sea, while those alone survived whose wings were +congenitally degenerate. Who saw them go, or can point to analogous +cases so conclusive as to compel assent from any equitable thinker? + +Darwinians of the stamp of Mr. Thiselton Dyer, Professor Ray Lankester, +or Mr. Romanes, insist on their pound of flesh in the matter of +irrefragable demonstration. They complain of us for not bringing forward +some one who has been able to detect the movement of the hour-hand of a +watch during a second of time, and when we fail to do so, declare +triumphantly that we have no evidence that there is any connection +between the beating of a second and the movement of the hour-hand. When +we say that rain comes from the condensation of moisture in the +atmosphere, they demand of us a rain-drop from moisture not yet +condensed. If they stickle for proof and cavil on the ninth part of a +hair, as they do when we bring forward what we deem excellent instances +of the transmission of an acquired characteristic, why may not we, too, +demand at any rate some evidence that the unmodified beetles actually did +always, or nearly always, get blown out to sea, during the reduction +above referred to, and that it is to this fact, and not to the masterly +inactivity of their fathers and mothers, that the Madeira beetles owe +their winglessness? If we began stickling for proof in this way, our +opponents would not be long in letting us know that absolute proof is +unattainable on any subject, that reasonable presumption is our highest +certainty, and that crying out for too much evidence is as bad as +accepting too little. Truth is like a photographic sensitised plate, +which is equally ruined by over and by under exposure, and the just +exposure for which can never be absolutely determined. + +Surely if disuse can be credited with the vast powers involved in Mr. +Darwin's statement that it has probably "been the main agent in rendering +organs rudimentary," no limits are assignable to the accumulated effects +of habit, provided the effects of habit, or use and disuse, are supposed, +as Mr. Darwin supposed them, to be inheritable at all. Darwinians have +at length woke up to the dilemma in which they are placed by the manner +in which Mr. Darwin tried to sit on the two stools of use and disuse, and +natural selection of accidental variations, at the same time. The knell +of Charles-Darwinism is rung in Mr. Wallace's present book, and in the +general perception on the part of biologists that we must either assign +to use and disuse such a predominant share in modification as to make it +the feature most proper to be insisted on, or deny that the +modifications, whether of mind or body, acquired during a single +lifetime, are ever transmitted at all. If they can be inherited at all, +they can be accumulated. If they can be accumulated at all, they can be +so, for anything that appears to the contrary, to the extent of the +specific and generic differences with which we are surrounded. The only +thing to do is to pluck them out root and branch: they are as a cancer +which, if the smallest fibre be left unexcised, will grow again, and kill +any system on to which it is allowed to fasten. Mr. Wallace, therefore, +may well be excused if he casts longing eyes towards Weismannism. + +And what was Mr. Darwin's system? Who can make head or tail of the +inextricable muddle in which he left it? The "Origin of Species" in its +latest shape is the reduction of hedging to an absurdity. How did Mr. +Darwin himself leave it in the last chapter of the last edition of the +"Origin of Species"? He wrote:-- + +"I have now recapitulated the facts and considerations which have +thoroughly convinced me that species have been modified during a long +course of descent. This has been effected chiefly through the natural +selection of numerous, successive, slight, favourable variations; aided +in an important manner by the inherited effects of the use and disuse of +parts, and in an unimportant manner--that is, in relation to adaptive +structures whether past or present--by the direct action of external +conditions, and by variations which seem to us in our ignorance to arise +spontaneously. It appears that I formerly underrated the frequency and +value of these latter forms of variation, as leading to permanent +modifications of structure independently of natural selection." + +The "numerous, successive, slight, favourable variations" above referred +to are intended to be fortuitous, accidental, spontaneous. It is the +essence of Mr. Darwin's theory that this should be so. Mr. Darwin's +solemn statement, therefore, of his theory, after he had done his best or +his worst with it, is, when stripped of surplusage, as follows:-- + +"The modification of species has been mainly effected by accumulation of +spontaneous variations; it has been aided in an important manner by +accumulation of variations due to use and disuse, and in an unimportant +manner by spontaneous variations; I do not even now think that +spontaneous variations have been very important, but I used once to think +them less important than I do now." + +It is a discouraging symptom of the age that such a system should have +been so long belauded, and it is a sign of returning intelligence that +even he who has been more especially the _alter ego_ of Mr. Darwin should +have felt constrained to close the chapter of Charles-Darwinism as a +living theory, and relegate it to the important but not very creditable +place in history which it must henceforth occupy. It is astonishing, +however, that Mr. Wallace should have quoted the extract from the "Origin +of Species" just given, as he has done on p. 412 of his "Darwinism," +without betraying any sign that he has caught its driftlessness--for +drift, other than a desire to hedge, it assuredly has not got. The +battle now turns on the question whether modifications of either +structure or instinct due to use or disuse are ever inherited, or whether +they are not. Can the effects of habit be transmitted to progeny at all? +We know that more usually they are not transmitted to any perceptible +extent, but we believe also that occasionally, and indeed not +infrequently, they are inherited and even intensified. What are our +grounds for this opinion? It will be my object to put these forward in +the following number of the _Universal Review_. + + + +THE DEADLOCK IN DARWINISM--PART II {29} + + +At the close of my article in last month's number of the _Universal +Review_, I said I would in this month's issue show why the opponents of +Charles-Darwinism believe the effects of habits acquired during the +lifetime of a parent to produce an effect on their subsequent offspring, +in spite of the fact that we can rarely find the effect in any one +generation, or even in several, sufficiently marked to arrest our +attention. + +I will now show that offspring can be, and not very infrequently is, +affected by occurrences that have produced a deep impression on the +parent organism--the effect produced on the offspring being such as +leaves no doubt that it is to be connected with the impression produced +on the parent. Having thus established the general proposition, I will +proceed to the more particular one--that habits, involving use and disuse +of special organs, with the modifications of structure thereby +engendered, produce also an effect upon offspring, which, though seldom +perceptible as regards structure in a single, or even in several +generations, is nevertheless capable of being accumulated in successive +generations till it amounts to specific and generic difference. I have +found the first point as much as I can treat within the limits of this +present article, and will avail myself of the hospitality of the +_Universal Review_ next month to deal with the second. + +The proposition which I have to defend is one which no one till recently +would have questioned, and even now, those who look most askance at it do +not venture to dispute it unreservedly; they every now and then admit it +as conceivable, and even in some cases probable; nevertheless they seek +to minimise it, and to make out that there is little or no connection +between the great mass of the cells of which the body is composed, and +those cells that are alone capable of reproducing the entire organism. +The tendency is to assign to these last a life of their own, apart from, +and unconnected with that of the other cells of the body, and to cheapen +all evidence that tends to prove any response on their part to the past +history of the individual, and hence ultimately of the race. + +Professor Weismann is the foremost exponent of those who take this line. +He has naturally been welcomed by English Charles-Darwinians; for if his +view can be sustained, then it can be contended that use and disuse +produce no transmissible effect, and the ground is cut from under +Lamarck's feet; if, on the other hand, his view is unfounded, the +Lamarckian reaction, already strong, will gain still further strength. +The issue, therefore, is important, and is being fiercely contested by +those who have invested their all of reputation for discernment in +Charles-Darwinian securities. + +Professor Weismann's theory is, that at every new birth a part of the +substance which proceeds from parents and which goes to form the new +embryo is not used up in forming the new animal, but remains apart to +generate the germ-cells--or perhaps I should say "germ-plasm"--which the +new animal itself will in due course issue. + +Contrasting the generally received view with his own, Professor Weismann +says that according to the first of these "the organism produces germ- +cells afresh again and again, and that it produces them entirely from its +own substance." While by the second "the germ-cells are no longer looked +upon as the product of the parent's body, at least as far as their +essential part--the specific germ-plasm--is concerned; they are rather +considered as something which is to be placed in contrast with the _tout +ensemble_ of the cells which make up the parent's body, and the +germ-cells of succeeding generations stand in a similar relation to one +another as a series of generations of unicellular organisms arising by a +continued process of cell-division." {30} + +On another page he writes:-- + +"I believe that heredity depends upon the fact that a small portion of +the effective substance of the germ, the germ-plasm, remains unchanged +during the development of the ovum into an organism, and that this part +of the germ-plasm serves as a foundation from which the germ-cells of the +new organism are produced. There is, therefore, continuity of the germ- +plasm from one generation to another. One might represent the germ-plasm +by the metaphor of a long creeping root-stock from which plants arise at +intervals, these latter representing the individuals of successive +generations." {31} + +Mr. Wallace, who does not appear to have read Professor Weismann's essays +themselves, but whose remarks are, no doubt, ultimately derived from the +sequel to the passage just quoted from page 266 of Professor Weismann's +book, contends that the impossibility of the transmission of acquired +characters follows as a logical result from Professor Weismann's theory, +inasmuch as the molecular structure of the germ-plasm that will go to +form any succeeding generation is already predetermined within the still +unformed embryo of its predecessor; "and Weismann," continues Mr. +Wallace, "holds that there are no facts which really prove that acquired +characters can be inherited, although their inheritance has, by most +writers, been considered so probable as hardly to stand in need of direct +proof." {32} + +Professor Weismann, in passages too numerous to quote, shows that he +recognises this necessity, and acknowledges that the non-transmission of +acquired characters "forms the foundation of the views" set forth in his +book, p. 291. + +Professor Ray Lankester does not commit himself absolutely to this view, +but lends it support by saying (_Nature_, December 12, 1889): "It is +hardly necessary to say that it has never yet been shown experimentally +that _anything_ acquired by one generation is transmitted to the next +(putting aside diseases)." + +Mr. Romanes, writing in _Nature_, March 18, 1890, and opposing certain +details of Professor Weismann's theory, so far supports it as to say that +"there is the gravest possible doubt lying against the supposition that +any really inherited decrease is due to the inherited effects of disuse." +The "gravest possible doubt" should mean that Mr. Romanes regards it as a +moral certainty that disuse has no transmitted effect in reducing an +organ, and it should follow that he holds use to have no transmitted +effect in its development. The sequel, however, makes me uncertain how +far Mr. Romanes intends this, and I would refer the reader to the article +which Mr. Romanes has just published on Weismann in the _Contemporary +Review_ for this current month. + +The burden of Mr. Thiselton Dyer's controversy with the Duke of Argyll +(see _Nature_, January 16, 1890, _et seq._) was that there was no +evidence in support of the transmission of any acquired modification. The +orthodoxy of science, therefore, must be held as giving at any rate a +provisional support to Professor Weismann, but all of them, including +even Professor Weismann himself, shrink from committing themselves to the +opinion that the germ-cells of any organisms remain in all cases +unaffected by the events that occur to the other cells of the same +organism, and until they do this they have knocked the bottom out of +their case. + +From among the passages in which Professor Weismann himself shows a +desire to hedge I may take the following from page 170 of his book:-- + +"I am also far from asserting that the germ-plasm which, as I hold, is +transmitted as the basis of heredity from one generation to another, is +absolutely unchangeable or totally uninfluenced by forces residing in the +organism within which it is transformed into germ-cells. I am also +compelled to admit it as conceivable that organisms may exert a modifying +influence upon their germ-cells, and even that such a process is to a +certain extent inevitable. The nutrition and growth of the individual +must exercise some influence upon its germ-cells . . . " + +Professor Weismann does indeed go on to say that this influence must be +extremely slight, but we do not care how slight the changes produced may +be provided they exist and can be transmitted. On an earlier page (p. +101) he said in regard to variations generally that we should not expect +to find them conspicuous; their frequency would be enough, if they could +be accumulated. The same applies here, if stirring events that occur to +the somatic cells can produce any effect at all on offspring. A very +small effect, provided it can be repeated and accumulated in successive +generations, is all that even the most exacting Lamarckian will ask for. + +Having now made the reader acquainted with the position taken by the +leading Charles-Darwinian authorities, I will return to Professor +Weismann himself, who declares that the transmission of acquired +characters "at first sight certainly seems necessary," and that "it +appears rash to attempt to dispense with its aid." He continues:-- + +"Many phenomena only appear to be intelligible if we assume the +hereditary transmission of such acquired characters as the changes which +we ascribe to the use or disuse of particular organs, or to the direct +influence of climate. Furthermore, how can we explain instinct as +hereditary habit, unless it has gradually arisen by the accumulation, +through heredity, of habits which were practised in succeeding +generations?" {33} + +I may say in passing that Professor Weismann appears to suppose that the +view of instinct just given is part of the Charles-Darwinian system, for +on page 889 of his book he says "that many observers had followed Darwin +in explaining them [instincts] as inherited habits." This was not Mr. +Darwin's own view of the matter. He wrote:-- + +"If we suppose any habitual action to become inherited--and I think it +can be shown that this does sometimes happen--then the resemblance +between what originally was a habit and an instinct becomes so close as +not to be distinguished. . . But it would be the most serious error to +suppose that the greater number of instincts have been acquired by habit +in one generation, and then transmitted by inheritance to succeeding +generations. It can be clearly shown that the most wonderful instincts +with which we are acquainted, namely, those of the hive-bee and of many +ants, could not possibly have been thus acquired."--["Origin of Species," +ed., 1859, p. 209.] + +Again we read: "Domestic instincts are sometimes spoken of as actions +which have become inherited solely from long-continued and compulsory +habit, but this, I think, is not true."--_Ibid._, p. 214. + +Again: "I am surprised that no one has advanced this demonstrative case +of neuter insects, against the well-known doctrine of inherited habit, as +advanced by Lamarck."--["Origin of Species," ed. 1872, p. 283.] + +I am not aware that Lamarck advanced the doctrine that instinct is +inherited habit, but he may have done so in some work that I have not +seen. + +It is true, as I have more than once pointed out, that in the later +editions of the "Origin of Species" it is no longer "the _most_ serious" +error to refer instincts generally to inherited habit, but it still +remains "a serious error," and this slight relaxation of severity does +not warrant Professor Weismann in ascribing to Mr. Darwin an opinion +which he emphatically condemned. His tone, however, is so offhand, that +those who have little acquaintance with the literature of evolution would +hardly guess that he is not much better informed on this subject than +themselves. + +Returning to the inheritance of acquired characters, Professor Weismann +says that this has never been proved either by means of direct +observation or by experiment. "It must be admitted," he writes, "that +there are in existence numerous descriptions of cases which tend to prove +that such mutilations as the loss of fingers, the scars of wounds, &c., +are inherited by the offspring, but in these descriptions the previous +history is invariably obscure, and hence the evidence loses all +scientific value." + +The experiments of M. Brown-Sequard throw so much light upon the +question at issue that I will quote at some length from the summary given +by Mr. Darwin in his "Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication." {34} Mr. Darwin writes:-- + +"With respect to the inheritance of structures mutilated by injuries or +altered by disease, it was until lately difficult to come to any definite +conclusion." [Then follow several cases in which mutilations practised +for many generations are not found to be transmitted.] "Notwithstanding," +continues Mr. Darwin, "the above several negative cases, we now possess +conclusive evidence that the effects of operations are sometimes +inherited. Dr. Brown-Sequard gives the following summary of his +observations on guinea-pigs, and this summary is so important that I will +quote the whole:-- + +"'1st. Appearance of epilepsy in animals born of parents having been +rendered epileptic by an injury to the spinal cord. + +"'2nd. Appearance of epilepsy also in animals born of parents having +been rendered epileptic by the section of the sciatic nerve. + +"'3rd. A change in the shape of the ear in animals born of parents in +which such a change was the effect of a division of the cervical +sympathetic nerve. + +"'4th. Partial closure of the eyelids in animals born of parents in +which that state of the eyelids had been caused either by the section of +the cervical sympathetic nerve or the removal of the superior cervical +ganglion. + +"'5th. Exophthalmia in animals born of parents in which an injury to the +restiform body had produced that protrusion of the eyeball. This +interesting fact I have witnessed a good many times, and I have seen the +transmission of the morbid state of the eye continue through four +generations. In these animals modified by heredity, the two eyes +generally protruded, although in the parents usually only one showed +exophthalmia, the lesion having been made in most cases only on one of +the corpora restiformia. + +"'6th. Haematoma and dry gangrene of the ears in animals born of parents +in which these ear-alterations had been caused by an injury to the +restiform body near the nib of the calamus. + +"'7th. Absence of two toes out of the three of the hind leg, and +sometimes of the three, in animals whose parents had eaten up their hind- +leg toes which had become anaesthetic from a section of the sciatic nerve +alone, or of that nerve and also of the crural. Sometimes, instead of +complete absence of the toes, only a part of one or two or three was +missing in the young, although in the parent not only the toes but the +whole foot was absent (partly eaten off, partly destroyed by +inflammation, ulceration, or gangrene). + +"'8th. Appearance of various morbid states of the skin and hair of the +neck and face in animals born of parents having had similar alterations +in the same parts, as effects of an injury to the sciatic nerve.' + +"It should be especially observed that Brown-Sequard has bred during +thirty years many thousand guinea-pigs from animals which had not been +operated upon, and not one of these manifested the epileptic tendency. +Nor has he ever seen a guinea-pig born without toes, which was not the +offspring of parents which had gnawed off their own toes owing to the +sciatic nerve having been divided. Of this latter fact thirteen +instances were carefully recorded, and a greater number were seen; yet +Brown-Sequard speaks of such cases as one of the rarer forms of +inheritance. It is a still more interesting fact, 'that the sciatic +nerve in the congenitally toeless animal has inherited the power of +passing through all the different morbid states which have occurred in +one of its parents from the time of the division till after its reunion +with the peripheric end. It is not, therefore, simply the power of +performing an action which is inherited, but the power of performing a +whole series of actions, in a certain order.' + +"In most of the cases of inheritance recorded by Brown-Sequard only one +of the two parents had been operated upon and was affected. He concludes +by expressing his belief that 'what is transmitted is the morbid state of +the nervous system,' due to the operation performed on the parents." + +Mr. Darwin proceeds to give other instances of inherited effects of +mutilations:-- + +"With the horse there seems hardly a doubt that exostoses on the legs, +caused by too much travelling on hard roads, are inherited. Blumenbach +records the case of a man who had his little finger on the right hand +almost cut off, and which in consequence grew crooked, and his sons had +the same finger on the same hand similarly crooked. A soldier, fifteen +years before his marriage, lost his left eye from purulent ophthalmia, +and his two sons were microphthalmic on the same side." + +The late Professor Rolleston, whose competence as an observer no one is +likely to dispute, gave Mr. Darwin two cases as having fallen under his +own notice, one of a man whose knee had been severely wounded, and whose +child was born with the same spot marked or scarred, and the other of one +who was severely cut upon the cheek, and whose child was born scarred in +the same place. Mr. Darwin's conclusion was that "the effects of +injuries, especially when followed by disease, or perhaps exclusively +when thus followed, are occasionally inherited." + +Let us now see what Professor Weismann has to say against this. He +writes:-- + +"The only cases worthy of discussion are the well-known experiments upon +guinea-pigs conducted by the French physiologist, Brown-Sequard. But the +explanation of his results is, in my opinion, open to discussion. In +these cases we have to do with the apparent transmission of artificially +produced malformations . . . All these effects were said to be +transmitted to descendants as far as the fifth or sixth generation. + +"But we must inquire whether these cases are really due to heredity, and +not to simple infection. In the case of epilepsy, at any rate, it is +easy to imagine that the passage of some specific organism through the +reproductive cells may take place, as in the case of syphilis. We are, +however, entirely ignorant of the nature of the former disease. This +suggested explanation may not perhaps apply to the other cases; but we +must remember that animals which have been subjected to such severe +operations upon the nervous system have sustained a great shock, and if +they are capable of breeding, it is only probable that they will produce +weak descendants, and such as are easily affected by disease. Such a +result does not, however, explain why the offspring should suffer from +the same disease as that which was artificially induced in the parents. +But this does not appear to have been by any means invariably the case. +Brown-Sequard himself says: 'The changes in the eye of the offspring were +of a very variable nature, and were only occasionally exactly similar to +those observed in the parents.' + +"There is no doubt, however, that these experiments demand careful +consideration, but before they can claim scientific recognition, they +must be subjected to rigid criticism as to the precautions taken, the +nature and number of the control experiments, &c. + +"Up to the present time such necessary conditions have not been +sufficiently observed. The recent experiments themselves are only +described in short preliminary notices, which, as regards their accuracy, +the possibility of mistake, the precautions taken, and the exact +succession of individuals affected, afford no data on which a scientific +opinion can be founded" (pp. 81, 82). + +The line Professor Weismann takes, therefore, is to discredit the facts; +yet on a later page we find that the experiments have since been repeated +by Obersteiner, "who has described them in a very exact and unprejudiced +manner," and that "the fact"--(I imagine that Professor Weismann intends +"the facts")--"cannot be doubted." + +On a still later page, however, we read:-- + +"If, for instance, it could be shown that artificial mutilation +spontaneously reappears in the offspring with sufficient frequency to +exclude all possibilities of chance, then such proof [_i.e._, that +acquired characters can be transmitted] would be forthcoming. The +transmission of mutilations has been frequently asserted, and has been +even recently again brought forward, but all the supposed instances have +broken down when carefully examined" (p. 390). + +Here, then, we are told that proof of the occasional transmission of +mutilations would be sufficient to establish the fact, but on p. 267 we +find that no single fact is known which really proves that acquired +characters can be transmitted, "_for the ascertained facts which seem to +point to the transmission of artificially produced diseases cannot be +considered as proof_" [Italics mine.] Perhaps; but it was mutilation in +many cases that Professor Weismann practically admitted to have been +transmitted when he declared that Obersteiner had verified +Brown-Sequard's experiments. + +That Professor Weismann recognises the vital importance to his own theory +of the question whether or no mutilations can be transmitted under any +circumstances, is evident from a passage on p. 425 of his work, on which +he says: "It can hardly be doubted that mutilations are acquired +characters; they do not arise from any tendency contained in the germ, +but are merely the reaction of the body under certain external +influences. They are, as I have recently expressed it, purely +somatogenic characters--viz., characters which emanate from the body +(_soma_) only, as opposed to the germ-cells; they are, therefore, +characters that do not arise from the germ itself. + +"If mutilations must necessarily be transmitted" [which no one that I +know of has maintained], "or even if they might occasionally be +transmitted" [which cannot, I imagine, be reasonably questioned], "a +powerful support would be given to the Lamarckian principle, and the +transmission of functional hypertrophy or atrophy would thus become +highly probable." + +I have not found any further attempt in Professor Weismann's book to deal +with the evidence adduced by Mr. Darwin to show that mutilations, if +followed by diseases, are sometimes inherited; and I must leave it to the +reader to determine how far Professor Weismann has shown reason for +rejecting Mr. Darwin's conclusion. I do not, however, dwell upon these +facts now as evidence of a transmitted change of bodily form, or of +instinct due to use and disuse or habit; what they prove is that the germ- +cells within the parent's body do not stand apart from the other cells of +the body so completely as Professor Weismann would have us believe, but +that, as Professor Hering, of Prague, has aptly said, they echo with more +or less frequency and force to the profounder impressions made upon other +cells. + +I may say that Professor Weismann does not more cavalierly wave aside the +mass of evidence collected by Mr. Darwin and a host of other writers, to +the effect that mutilations are sometimes inherited, than does Mr. +Wallace, who says that, "as regards mutilations, it is generally admitted +that they are not inherited, and there is ample evidence on this point." +It is indeed generally admitted that mutilations, when not followed by +disease, are very rarely, if ever, inherited; and Mr. Wallace's appeal to +the "ample evidence" which he alleges to exist on this head, is much as +though he should say that there is ample evidence to show that the days +are longer in summer than in winter. "Nevertheless," he continues, "a +few cases of apparent inheritance of mutilations have been recorded, and +these, if trustworthy, are difficulties in the way of the theory." . . . +"The often-quoted case of a disease induced by mutilation being inherited +(Brown-Sequard's epileptic guinea-pigs) has been discussed by Professor +Weismann and shown to be not conclusive. The mutilation itself--a +section of certain nerves--was never inherited, but the resulting +epilepsy, or a general state of weakness, deformity, or sores, was +sometimes inherited. It is, however, possible that the mere injury +introduced and encouraged the growth of certain microbes, which, +spreading through the organism, sometimes reached the germ-cells, and +thus transmitted a diseased condition to the offspring." {35} + +I suppose a microbe which made guinea-pigs eat their toes off was +communicated to the germ-cells of an unfortunate guinea-pig which had +been already microbed by it, and made the offspring bite its toes off +too. The microbe has a good deal to answer for. + +On the case of the deterioration of horses in the Falkland Islands after +a few generations, Professor Weismann says:-- + +"In such a case we have only to assume that the climate which is +unfavourable, and the nutriment which is insufficient for horses, affect +not only the animal as a whole but also its germ-cells. This would +result in the diminution in size of the germ-cells, the effects upon the +offspring being still further intensified by the insufficient nourishment +supplied during growth. But such results would not depend upon the +transmission by the germ-cells of certain peculiarities due to the +unfavourable climate, which only appear in the full-grown horse." + +But Professor Weismann does not like such cases, and admits that he +cannot explain the facts in connection with the climatic varieties of +certain butterflies, except "by supposing the passive acquisition of +characters produced by the direct influence of climate." + +Nevertheless in his next paragraph but one he calls such cases +"doubtful," and proposes that for the moment they should be left aside. +He accordingly leaves them, but I have not yet found what other moment he +considered auspicious for returning to them. He tells us that "new +experiments will be necessary, and that he has himself already begun to +undertake them." Perhaps he will give us the results of these +experiments in some future book--for that they will prove satisfactory to +him can hardly, I think, be doubted. He writes:-- + +"Leaving on one side, for the moment, these doubtful and insufficiently +investigated cases, we may still maintain that the assumption that +changes induced by external conditions in the organism as a whole are +communicated to the germ-cells after the manner indicated in Darwin's +hypothesis of pangenesis, is wholly unnecessary for the explanation of +these phenomena. Still we cannot exclude the possibility of such a +transmission occasionally occurring, for even if the greater part of the +effects must be attributable to natural selection, there might be a +smaller part in certain cases which depends on this exceptional factor." + +I repeatedly tried to understand Mr. Darwin's theory of pangenesis, and +so often failed that I long since gave the matter up in despair. I did +so with the less unwillingness because I saw that no one else appeared to +understand the theory, and that even Mr. Darwin's warmest adherents +regarded it with disfavour. If Mr. Darwin means that every cell of the +body throws off minute particles that find their way to the germ-cells, +and hence into the new embryo, this is indeed difficult of comprehension +and belief. If he means that the rhythms or vibrations that go on +ceaselessly in every cell of the body communicate themselves with greater +or less accuracy or perturbation, as the case may be, to the cells that +go to form offspring, and that since the characteristics of matter are +determined by vibrations, in communicating vibrations they in effect +communicate matter, according to the view put forward in the last chapter +of my book "Luck or Cunning," {36} then we can better understand it. I +have nothing, however, to do with Mr. Darwin's theory of pangenesis +beyond avoiding the pretence that I understand either the theory itself +or what Professor Weismann says about it; all I am concerned with is +Professor Weismann's admission, made immediately afterwards, that the +somatic cells may, and perhaps sometimes do, impart characteristics to +the germ-cells. + +"A complete and satisfactory refutation of such an opinion," he +continues, "cannot be brought forward at present"; so I suppose we must +wait a little longer, but in the meantime we may again remark that, if we +admit even occasional communication of changes in the somatic cells to +the germ-cells, we have let in the thin end of the wedge, as Mr. Darwin +did when he said that use and disuse did a good deal towards +modification. Buffon, in his first volume on the lower animals, {37} +dwells on the impossibility of stopping the breach once made by admission +of variation at all. "If the point," he writes, "were once gained, that +among animals and vegetables there had been, I do not say several +species, but even a single one, which had been produced in the course of +direct descent from another species; if, for example, it could be once +shown that the ass was but a degeneration from the horse--then there is +no farther limit to be set to the power of Nature, and we should not be +wrong in supposing that with sufficient time she could have evolved all +other organised forms from one primordial type." So with use and disuse +and transmission of acquired characteristics generally--once show that a +single structure or instinct is due to habit in preceding generations, +and we can impose no limit on the results achievable by accumulation in +this respect, nor shall we be wrong in conceiving it as possible that all +specialisation, whether of structure or instinct, may be due ultimately +to habit. + +How far this can be shown to be probable is, of course, another matter, +but I am not immediately concerned with this; all I am concerned with now +is to show that the germ-cells not unfrequently become permanently +affected by events that have made a profound impression upon the somatic +cells, in so far that they transmit an obvious reminiscence of the +impression to the embryos which they go subsequently towards forming. +This is all that is necessary for my case, and I do not find that +Professor Weismann, after all, disputes it. + +But here, again, comes the difficulty of saying what Professor Weismann +does, and what he does not, dispute. One moment he gives all that is +wanted for the Lamarckian contention, the next he denies common-sense the +bare necessaries of life. For a more exhaustive and detailed criticism +of Professor Weismann's position, I would refer the reader to an +admirably clear article by Mr. Sidney H. Vines, which appeared in +_Nature_, October 24, 1889. I can only say that while reading Professor +Weismann's book, I feel as I do when I read those of Mr. Darwin, and of a +good many other writers on biology whom I need not name. I become like a +fly in a window-pane. I see the sunshine and freedom beyond, and buzz up +and down their pages, ever hopeful to get through them to the fresh air +without, but ever kept back by a mysterious something, which I feel but +cannot either grasp or see. It was not thus when I read Buffon, Erasmus +Darwin, and Lamarck; it is not thus when I read such articles as Mr. +Vines's just referred to. Love of self-display, and the want of +singleness of mind that it inevitably engenders--these, I suppose, are +the sins that glaze the casements of most men's minds; and from these, no +matter how hard he tries to free himself, nor how much he despises them, +who is altogether exempt? + +Finally, then, when we consider the immense mass of evidence referred to +briefly, but sufficiently, by Mr. Charles Darwin, and referred to without +other, for the most part, than off-hand dismissal by Professor Weismann +in the last of the essays that have been recently translated, I do not +see how any one who brings an unbiased mind to the question can hesitate +as to the side on which the weight of testimony inclines. Professor +Weismann declares that "the transmission of mutilations may be dismissed +into the domain of fable." {38} If so, then, whom can we trust? What is +the use of science at all if the conclusions of a man as competent as I +readily admit Mr. Darwin to have been, on the evidence laid before him +from countless sources, is to be set aside lightly and without giving the +clearest and most cogent explanation of the why and wherefore? When we +see a person "ostrichising" the evidence which he has to meet, as clearly +as I believe Professor Weismann to be doing, we shall in nine cases out +of ten be right in supposing that he knows the evidence to be too strong +for him. + + + +THE DEADLOCK IN DARWINISM--PART III + + +Now let me return to the recent division of biological opinion into two +main streams--Lamarckism and Weismannism Both Lamarckians and +Weismannists, not to mention mankind in general, admit that the better +adapted to its surroundings a living form may be, the more likely it is +to outbreed its compeers. The world at large, again, needs not to be +told that the normal course is not unfrequently deflected through the +fortunes of war; nevertheless, according to Lamarckians and +Erasmus-Darwinians, habitual effort, guided by ever-growing +intelligence--that is to say, by continued increase of power in the +matter of knowing our likes and dislikes--has been so much the main +factor throughout the course of organic development, that the rest, +though not lost sight of, may be allowed to go without saying. According, +on the other hand, to extreme Charles-Darwinians and Weismannists, habit, +effort and intelligence acquired during the experience of any one life +goes for nothing. Not even a little fraction of it endures to the +benefit of offspring. It dies with him in whom it is acquired, and the +heirs of a man's body take no interest therein. To state this doctrine +is to arouse instinctive loathing; it is my fortunate task to maintain +that such a nightmare of waste and death is as baseless as it is +repulsive. + +The split in biological opinion occasioned by the deadlock to which +Charles-Darwinism has been reduced, though comparatively recent, widens +rapidly. Ten years ago Lamarck's name was mentioned only as a byword for +extravagance; now, we cannot take up a number of _Nature_ without seeing +how hot the contention is between his followers and those of Weismann. +This must be referred, as I implied earlier, to growing perception that +Mr. Darwin should either have gone farther towards Lamarckism or not so +far. In admitting use and disuse as freely as he did, he gave +Lamarckians leverage for the overthrow of a system based ostensibly on +the accumulation of fortunate accidents. In assigning the lion's share +of development to the accumulation of fortunate accidents, he tempted +fortuitists to try to cut the ground from under Lamarck's feet by denying +that the effects of use and disuse can be inherited at all. When the +public had once got to understand what Lamarck had intended, and wherein +Mr. Charles Darwin had differed from him, it became impossible for +Charles-Darwinians to remain where they were, nor is it easy to see what +course was open to them except to cast about for a theory by which they +could get rid of use and disuse altogether. Weismannism, therefore, is +the inevitable outcome of the straits to which Charles-Darwinians were +reduced through the way in which their leader had halted between two +opinions. + +This is why Charles-Darwinians, from Professor Huxley downwards, have +kept the difference between Lamarck's opinions and those of Mr. Darwin so +much in the background. Unwillingness to make this understood is nowhere +manifested more clearly than in Dr. Francis Darwin's life of his father. +In this work Lamarck is sneered at once or twice, and told to go away, +but there is no attempt to state the two cases side by side; from which, +as from not a little else, I conclude that Dr. Francis Darwin has +descended from his father with singularly little modification. + +Proceeding to the evidence for the transmissions of acquired habits, I +will quote two recently adduced examples from among the many that have +been credibly attested. The first was contributed to _Nature_ (March 14, +1889) by Professor Marcus M. Hartog, who wrote:-- + +"A. B. is moderately myopic and very astigmatic in the left eye; +extremely myopic in the right. As the left eye gave such bad images for +near objects, he was compelled in childhood to mask it, and acquired the +habit of leaning his head on his left arm for writing, so as to blind +that eye, or of resting the left temple and eye on the hand, with the +elbow on the table. At the age of fifteen the eyes were equalised by the +use of suitable spectacles, and he soon lost the habit completely and +permanently. He is now the father of two children, a boy and a girl, +whose vision (tested repeatedly and fully) is emmetropic in both eyes, so +that they have not inherited the congenital optical defect of their +father. All the same, they have both of them inherited his early +acquired habit, and need constant watchfulness to prevent their hiding +the left eye when writing, by resting the head on the left forearm or +hand. Imitation is here quite out of the question. + +"Considering that every habit involves changes in the proportional +development of the muscular and osseous systems, and hence probably of +the nervous system also, the importance of inherited habits, natural or +acquired, cannot be overlooked in the general theory of inheritance. I +am fully aware that I shall be accused of flat Lamarckism, but a nickname +is not an argument." + +To this Professor Ray Lankester rejoined (_Nature_, March 21, 1889):-- + +"It is not unusual for children to rest the head on the left forearm or +hand when writing, and I doubt whether much value can be attached to the +case described by Professor Hartog. The kind of observation which his +letter suggests is, however, likely to lead to results either for or +against the transmission of acquired characters. An old friend of mine +lost his right arm when a schoolboy, and has ever since written with his +left. He has a large family and grandchildren, but I have not heard of +any of them showing a disposition to left-handedness." + +From _Nature_ (March 21, 1889) I take the second instance communicated by +Mr. J. Jenner-Weir, who wrote as follows:-- + +"Mr. Marcus M. Hartog's letter of March 6th, inserted in last week's +number (p. 462), is a very valuable contribution to the growing evidence +that acquired characters may be inherited. I have long held the view +that such is often the case, and I have myself observed several instances +of the, at least I may say, apparent fact. + +"Many years ago there was a very fine male of the _Capra megaceros_ in +the gardens of the Zoological Society. To restrain this animal from +jumping over the fence of the enclosure in which he was confined, a long, +and heavy chain was attached to the collar round his neck. He was +constantly in the habit of taking this chain up by his horns and moving +it from one side to another over his back; in doing this he threw his +head very much back, his horns being placed in a line with the back. The +habit had become quite chronic with him, and was very tiresome to look +at. I was very much astonished to observe that his offspring inherited +the habit, and although it was not necessary to attach a chain to their +necks, I have often seen a young male throwing his horns over his back +and shifting from side to side an imaginary chain. The action was +exactly the same as that of his ancestor. The case of the kid of this +goat appears to me to be parallel to that of child and parent given by +Mr. Hartog. I think at the time I made this observation I informed Mr. +Darwin of the fact by letter, and he did not accuse me of 'flat +Lamarckism.'" + +To this letter there was no rejoinder. It may be said, of course, that +the action of the offspring in each of these cases was due to accidental +coincidence only. Anything can be said, but the question turns not on +what an advocate can say, but on what a reasonably intelligent and +disinterested jury will believe; granted they might be mistaken in +accepting the foregoing stories, but the world of science, like that of +commerce, is based on the faith or confidence, which both creates and +sustains them. Indeed the universe itself is but the creature of faith, +for assuredly we know of no other foundation. There is nothing so +generally and reasonably accepted--not even our own continued +identity--but questions may be raised about it that will shortly prove +unanswerable. We cannot so test every sixpence given us in change as to +be sure that we never take a bad one, and had better sometimes be cheated +than reduce caution to an absurdity. Moreover, we have seen from the +evidence given in my preceding article that the germ-cells issuing from a +parent's body can, and do, respond to profound impressions made on the +somatic-cells. This being so, what impressions are more profound, what +needs engage more assiduous attention than those connected with +self-protection, the procuring of food, and the continuation of the +species? If the mere anxiety connected with an ill-healing wound +inflicted on but one generation is sometimes found to have so impressed +the germ-cells that they hand down its scars to offspring, how much more +shall not anxieties that have directed action of all kinds from birth +till death, not in one generation only but in a longer series of +generations than the mind can realise to itself, modify, and indeed +control, the organisation of every species? + +I see Professor S. H. Vines, in the article on Weismann's theory referred +to in my preceding article, says Mr. Darwin "held that it was not the +sudden variations due to altered external conditions which become +permanent, but those slowly produced by what he termed 'the accumulative +action of changed conditions of life.'" Nothing can be more soundly +Lamarckian, and nothing should more conclusively show that, whatever else +Mr. Darwin was, he was not a Charles-Darwinian; but what evidence other +than inferential can from the nature of the case be adduced in support of +this, as I believe, perfectly correct judgment? None know better than +they who clamour for direct evidence that their master was right in +taking the position assigned to him by Professor Vines, that they cannot +reasonably look for it. With us, as with themselves, modification +proceeds very gradually, and it violates our principles as much as their +own to expect visible permanent progress, in any single generation, or +indeed in any number of generations of wild species which we have yet had +time to observe. Occasionally we can find such cases, as in that of +_Branchipus stagnalis_, quoted by Mr. Wallace, or in that of the New +Zealand Kea whose skin, I was assured by the late Sir Julius von Haast, +has already been modified as a consequence of its change of food. Here +we can show that in even a few generations structure is modified under +changed conditions of existence, but as we believe these cases to occur +comparatively rarely, so it is still more rarely that they occur when and +where we can watch them. Nature is eminently conservative, and fixity of +type, even under considerable change of conditions, is surely more +important for the well-being of any species than an over-ready power of +adaptation to, it may be, passing changes. There could be no steady +progress if each generation were not mainly bound by the traditions of +those that have gone before it. It is evolution and not incessant +revolution that both parties are upholding; and this being so, rapid +visible modification must be the exception, not the rule. I have quoted +direct evidence adduced by competent observers, which is, I believe, +sufficient to establish the fact that offspring can be and is sometimes +modified by the acquired habits of a progenitor. I will now proceed to +the still more, as it appears to me, cogent proof afforded by general +considerations. + +What, let me ask, are the principal phenomena of heredity? There must be +physical continuity between parent, or parents, and offspring, so that +the offspring is, as Erasmus Darwin well said, a kind of elongation of +the life of the parent. + +Erasmus Darwin put the matter so well that I may as well give his words +in full; he wrote:-- + +"Owing to the imperfection of language the offspring is termed a new +animal, but is in truth a branch or elongation of the parent, since a +part of the embryon animal is, or was, a part of the parent, and +therefore, in strict language, cannot be said to be entirely new at the +time of its production; and therefore it may retain some of the habits of +the parent system. + +"At the earliest period of its existence the embryon would seem to +consist of a living filament with certain capabilities of irritation, +sensation, volition, and association, and also with some acquired habits +or propensities peculiar to the parent; the former of these are in common +with other animals; the latter seem to distinguish or produce the kind of +animal, whether man or quadruped, with the similarity of feature or form +to the parent." {39} + +Those who accept evolution insist on unbroken physical continuity between +the earliest known life and ourselves, so that we both are and are not +personally identical with the unicellular organism from which we have +descended in the course of many millions of years, exactly in the same +way as an octogenarian both is and is not personally identical with the +microscopic impregnate ovum from which he grew up. Everything both is +and is not. There is no such thing as strict identity between any two +things in any two consecutive seconds. In strictness they are identical +and yet not identical, so that in strictness they violate a fundamental +rule of strictness--namely, that a thing shall never be itself and not +itself at one and the same time; we must choose between logic and dealing +in a practical spirit with time and space; it is not surprising, +therefore, that logic, in spite of the show of respect outwardly paid to +her, is told to stand aside when people come to practice. In practice +identity is generally held to exist where continuity is only broken +slowly and piecemeal, nevertheless, that occasional periods of even rapid +change are not held to bar identity, appears from the fact that no one +denies this to hold between the microscopically small impregnate ovum and +the born child that springs from it, nor yet, therefore, between the +impregnate ovum and the octogenarian into which the child grows; for both +ovum and octogenarian are held personally identical with the newborn +baby, and things that are identical with the same are identical with one +another. + +The first, then, and most important element of heredity is that there +should be unbroken continuity, and hence sameness of personality, between +parents and offspring, in neither more nor less than the same sense as +that in which any other two personalities are said to be the same. The +repetition, therefore, of its developmental stages by any offspring must +be regarded as something which the embryo repeating them has already done +once, in the person of one or other parent; and if once, then, as many +times as there have been generations between any given embryo now +repeating it, and the point in life from which we started--say, for +example, the amoeba. In the case of asexually and sexually produced +organisms alike, the offspring must be held to continue the personality +of the parent or parents, and hence on the occasion of every fresh +development, to be repeating something which in the person of its parent +or parents it has done once, and if once, then any number of times, +already. + +It is obvious, therefore, that the germ-plasm (or whatever the fancy word +for it may be) of any one generation is as physically identical with the +germ-plasm of its predecessor as any two things can be. The difference +between Professor Weismann and, we will say, Heringians consists in the +fact that the first maintains the new germ-plasm when on the point of +repeating its developmental processes to take practically no cognisance +of anything that has happened to it since the last occasion on which it +developed itself; while the latter maintain that offspring takes much the +same kind of account of what has happened to it in the persons of its +parents since the last occasion on which it developed itself, as people +in ordinary life take of things that happen to them. In daily life +people let fairly normal circumstances come and go without much heed as +matters of course. If they have been lucky they make a note of it and +try to repeat their success. If they have been unfortunate but have +recovered rapidly they soon forget it; if they have suffered long and +deeply they grizzle over it and are scared and scarred by it for a long +time. The question is one of cognisance or non-cognisance on the part of +the new germs, of the more profound impressions made on them while they +were one with their parents, between the occasion of their last preceding +development, and the new course on which they are about to enter. Those +who accept the theory put forward independently by Professor Hering of +Prague (whose work on this subject is translated in my book, "Unconscious +Memory") {40} and by myself in "Life and Habit," {41} believe in +cognizance, as do Lamarckians generally. Weismannites, and with them the +orthodoxy of English science, find non-cognisance more acceptable. + +If the Heringian view is accepted, that heredity is only a mode of +memory, and an extension of memory from one generation to another, then +the repetition of its development by any embryo thus becomes only the +repetition of a lesson learned by rote; and, as I have elsewhere said, +our view of life is simplified by finding that it is no longer an +equation of, say, a hundred unknown quantities, but of ninety-nine only, +inasmuch as two of the unknown quantities prove to be substantially +identical. In this case the inheritance of acquired characteristics +cannot be disputed, for it is postulated in the theory that each embryo +takes note of, remembers and is guided by the profounder impressions made +upon it while in the persons of its parents, between its present and last +preceding development. To maintain this is to maintain use and disuse to +be the main factors throughout organic development; to deny it is to deny +that use and disuse can have any conceivable effect. For the detailed +reasons which led me to my own conclusions I must refer the reader to my +books, "Life and Habit" {42} and "Unconscious Memory," {42} the +conclusions of which have been often adopted, but never, that I have +seen, disputed. A brief _resume_ of the leading points in the argument +is all that space will here allow me to give. + +We have seen that it is a first requirement of heredity that there shall +be physical continuity between parents and offspring. This holds good +with memory. There must be continued identity between the person +remembering and the person to whom the thing that is remembered happened. +We cannot remember things that happened to some one else, and in our +absence. We can only remember having heard of them. We have seen, +however, that there is as much _bona-fide_ sameness of personality +between parents and offspring up to the time at which the offspring quits +the parent's body, as there is between the different states of the parent +himself at any two consecutive moments; the offspring therefore, being +one and the same person with its progenitors until it quits them, can be +held to remember what happened to them within, of course, the limitations +to which all memory is subject, as much as the progenitors can remember +what happened earlier to themselves. Whether it does so remember can +only be settled by observing whether it acts as living beings commonly do +when they are acting under guidance of memory. I will endeavour to show +that, though heredity and habit based on memory go about in different +dresses, yet if we catch them separately--for they are never seen +together--and strip them there is not a mole nor strawberry-mark, nor +trick nor leer of the one, but we find it in the other also. + +What are the moles and strawberry-marks of habitual action, or actions +remembered and thus repeated? First, the more often we repeat them the +more easily and unconsciously we do them. Look at reading, writing, +walking, talking, playing the piano, &c.; the longer we have practised +any one of these acquired habits, the more easily, automatically and +unconsciously, we perform it. Look, on the other hand, broadly, at the +three points to which I called attention in "Life and Habit":-- + +I. That we are most conscious of and have most control over such habits +as speech, the upright position, the arts and sciences--which are +acquisitions peculiar to the human race, always acquired after birth, and +not common to ourselves and any ancestor who had not become entirely +human. + +II. That we are less conscious of and have less control over eating and +drinking [provided the food be normal], swallowing, breathing, seeing, +and hearing--which were acquisitions of our prehuman ancestry, and for +which we had provided ourselves with all the necessary apparatus before +we saw light, but which are still, geologically speaking, recent. + +III. That we are most unconscious of and have least control over our +digestion and circulation--powers possessed even by our invertebrate +ancestry, and, geologically speaking, of extreme antiquity. + +I have put the foregoing very broadly, but enough is given to show the +reader the gist of the argument. Let it be noted that disturbance and +departure, to any serious extent, from normal practice tends to induce +resumption of consciousness even in the case of such old habits as +breathing, seeing, and hearing, digestion and the circulation of the +blood. So it is with habitual actions in general. Let a player be never +so proficient on any instrument, he will be put out if the normal +conditions under which he plays are too widely departed from, and will +then do consciously, if indeed he can do it at all, what he had hitherto +been doing unconsciously. It is an axiom as regards actions acquired +after birth, that we never do them automatically save as the result of +long practice; the stages in the case of any acquired facility, the +inception of which we have been able to watch, have invariably been from +a nothingness of ignorant impotence to a little somethingness of highly +self-conscious, arduous performance, and thence to the +unselfconsciousness of easy mastery. I saw one year a poor blind lad of +about eighteen sitting on a wall by the wayside at Varese, playing the +concertina with his whole body, and snorting like a child. The next year +the boy no longer snorted, and he played with his fingers only; the year +after that he seemed hardly to know whether he was playing or not, it +came so easily to him. I know no exception to this rule. Where is the +intricate and at one time difficult art in which perfect automatic ease +has been reached except as the result of long practice? If, then, +wherever we can trace the development of automatism we find it to have +taken this course, is it not most reasonable to infer that it has taken +the same even when it has risen in regions that are beyond our ken? Ought +we not, whenever we see a difficult action performed, automatically to +suspect antecedent practice? Granted that without the considerations in +regard to identity presented above it would not have been easy to see +where a baby of a day old could have had the practice which enables it to +do as much as it does unconsciously, but even without these +considerations it would have been more easy to suppose that the necessary +opportunities had not been wanting, than that the easy performance could +have been gained without practice and memory. + +When I wrote "Life and Habit" (originally published in 1877) I said in +slightly different words:-- + +"Shall we say that a baby of a day old sucks (which involves the whole +principle of the pump and hence a profound practical knowledge of the +laws of pneumatics and hydrostatics), digests, oxygenises its +blood--millions of years before any one had discovered oxygen--sees and +hears, operations that involve an unconscious knowledge of the facts +concerning optics and acoustics compared with which the conscious +discoveries of Newton are insignificant--shall we say that a baby can do +all these things at once, doing them so well and so regularly without +being even able to give them attention, and yet without mistake, and +shall we also say at the same time that it has not learnt to do them, and +never did them before? + +"Such an assertion would contradict the whole experience of mankind." + +I have met with nothing during the thirteen years since the foregoing was +published that has given me any qualms about its soundness. From the +point of view of the law courts and everyday life it is, of course, +nonsense; but in the kingdom of thought, as in that of heaven, there are +many mansions, and what would be extravagance in the cottage or +farmhouse, as it were, of daily practice, is but common decency in the +palace of high philosophy, wherein dwells evolution. If we leave +evolution alone, we may stick to common practice and the law courts; +touch evolution and we are in another world; not higher, not lower, but +different as harmony from counterpoint. As, however, in the most +absolute counterpoint there is still harmony, and in the most absolute +harmony still counterpoint, so high philosophy should be still in touch +with common sense, and common sense with high philosophy. + +The common-sense view of the matter to people who are not over-curious +and to whom time is money, will be that a baby is not a baby until it is +born, and that when born it should be born in wedlock. Nevertheless, as +a sop to high philosophy, every baby is allowed to be the offspring of +its father and mother. + +The high-philosophy view of the matter is that every human being is still +but a fresh edition of the primordial cell with the latest additions and +corrections; there has been no leap nor break in continuity anywhere; the +man of to-day is the primordial cell of millions of years ago as truly as +he is the himself of yesterday; he can only be denied to be the one on +grounds that will prove him not to be the other. Every one is both +himself and all his direct ancestors and descendants as well; therefore, +if we would be logical, he is one also with all his cousins, no matter +how distant, for he and they are alike identical with the primordial +cell, and we have already noted it as an axiom that things which are +identical with the same are identical with one another. This is +practically making him one with all living things, whether animal or +vegetable, that ever have existed or ever will--something of all which +may have been in the mind of Sophocles when he wrote:-- + + "Nor seest thou yet the gathering hosts of ill + That shall en-one thee both with thine own self + And with thine offspring." + +And all this has come of admitting that a man may be the same person for +two days running! As for sopping common sense it will be enough to say +that these remarks are to be taken in a strictly scientific sense, and +have no appreciable importance as regards life and conduct. True they +deal with the foundations on which all life and conduct are based, but +like other foundations they are hidden out of sight, and the sounder they +are, the less we trouble ourselves about them. + +What other main common features between heredity and memory may we note +besides the fact that neither can exist without that kind of physical +continuity which we call personal identity? First, the development of +the embryo proceeds in an established order; so must all habitual actions +based on memory. Disturb the normal order and the performance is +arrested. The better we know "God save the Queen," the less easily can +we play or sing it backwards. The return of memory again depends on the +return of ideas associated with the particular thing that is +remembered--we remember nothing but for the presence of these, and when +enough of these are presented to us we remember everything. So, if the +development of an embryo is due to memory, we should suppose the memory +of the impregnate ovum to revert not to yesterday, when it was in the +persons of its parents, but to the last occasion on which it was an +impregnate ovum. The return of the old environment and the presence of +old associations would at once involve recollection of the course that +should be next taken, and the same should happen throughout the whole +course of development. The actual course of development presents +precisely the phenomena agreeable with this. For fuller treatment of +this point I must refer the reader to the chapter on the abeyance of +memory in my book "Life and Habit," already referred to. + +Secondly, we remember best our last few performances of any given kind, +so our present performance will probably resemble some one or other of +these; we remember our earlier performances by way of residuum only, but +every now and then we revert to an earlier habit. This feature of memory +is manifested in heredity by the way in which offspring commonly +resembles most its nearer ancestors, but sometimes reverts to earlier +ones. Brothers and sisters, each as it were giving their own version of +the same story, but in different words, should generally resemble each +other more closely than more distant relations. And this is what +actually we find. + +Thirdly, the introduction of slightly new elements into a method already +established varies it beneficially; the new is soon fused with the old, +and the monotony ceases to be oppressive. But if the new be too foreign, +we cannot fuse the old and the new--nature seeming to hate equally too +wide a deviation from ordinary practice and none at all. This fact +reappears in heredity as the beneficial effects of occasional crossing on +the one hand, and on the other, in the generally observed sterility of +hybrids. If heredity be an affair of memory, how can an embryo, say of a +mule, be expected to build up a mule on the strength of but two +mule-memories? Hybridism causes a fault in the chain of memory, and it +is to this cause that the usual sterility of hybrids must be referred. + +Fourthly, it requires many repeated impressions to fix a method firmly, +but when it has been engrained into us we cease to have much recollection +of the manner in which it came to be so, or indeed of any individual +repetition, but sometimes a single impression, if prolonged as well as +profound, produces a lasting impression and is liable to return with +sudden force, and then to go on returning to us at intervals. As a +general rule, however, abnormal impressions cannot long hold their own +against the overwhelming preponderance of normal authority. This appears +in heredity as the normal non-inheritance of mutilations on the one hand, +and on the other as their occasional inheritance in the case of injuries +followed by disease. + +Fifthly, if heredity and memory are essentially the same, we should +expect that no animal would develop new structures of importance after +the age at which its species begins ordinarily to continue its race; for +we cannot suppose offspring to remember anything that happens to the +parent subsequently to the parent's ceasing to contain the offspring +within itself. From the average age, therefore, of reproduction, +offspring should cease to have any farther steady, continuous memory to +fall back upon; what memory there is should be full of faults, and as +such unreliable. An organism ought to develop as long as it is backed by +memory--that is to say, until the average age at which reproduction +begins; it should then continue to go for a time on the impetus already +received, and should eventually decay through failure of any memory to +support it, and tell it what to do. This corresponds absolutely with +what we observe in organisms generally, and explains, on the one hand, +why the age of puberty marks the beginning of completed development--a +riddle hitherto not only unexplained but, so far as I have seen, unasked; +it explains, on the other hand, the phenomena of old age--hitherto +without even attempt at explanation. + +Sixthly, those organisms that are the longest in reaching maturity should +on the average be the longest-lived, for they will have received the most +momentous impulse from the weight of memory behind them. This harmonises +with the latest opinion as to the facts. In his article on Weismann in +the _Contemporary Review_ for May 1890, Mr. Romanes writes: "Professor +Weismann has shown that there is throughout the metazoa a general +correlation between the natural lifetime of individuals composing any +given species, and the age at which they reach maturity or first become +capable of procreation." This, I believe, has been the conclusion +generally arrived at by biologists for some years past. + +Lateness, then, in the average age of reproduction appears to be the +principle underlying longevity. There does not appear at first sight to +be much connection between such distinct and apparently disconnected +phenomena as 1, the orderly normal progress of development; 2, atavism +and the resumption of feral characteristics; 3, the more ordinary +resemblance _inter se_ of nearer relatives; 4, the benefit of an +occasional cross, and the usual sterility of hybrids; 5, the +unconsciousness with which alike bodily development and ordinary +physiological functions proceed, so long as they are normal; 6, the +ordinary non-inheritance, but occasional inheritance of mutilations; 7, +the fact that puberty indicates the approach of maturity; 8, the +phenomena of middle life and old age; 9, the principle underlying +longevity. These phenomena have no conceivable bearing on one another +until heredity and memory are regarded as part of the same story. +Identify these two things, and I know no phenomenon of heredity that does +not immediately become infinitely more intelligible. Is it conceivable +that a theory which harmonises so many facts hitherto regarded as without +either connection or explanation should not deserve at any rate +consideration from those who profess to take an interest in biology? + +It is not as though the theory were unknown, or had been condemned by our +leading men of science. Professor Ray Lankester introduced it to English +readers in an appreciative notice of Professor Hering's address, which +appeared in _Nature_, July 18, 1876. He wrote to the _Athenaeum_, March +24, 1884, and claimed credit for having done so, but I do not believe he +has ever said more in public about it than what I have here referred to. +Mr. Romanes did indeed try to crush it in _Nature_, January 27, 1881, but +in 1883, in his "Mental Evolution in Animals," he adopted its main +conclusion without acknowledgment. The _Athenaeum_, to my unbounded +surprise, called him to task for this (March 1, 1884), and since that +time he has given the Heringian theory a sufficiently wide berth. Mr. +Wallace showed himself favourably enough disposed towards the view that +heredity and memory are part of the same story when he reviewed my book +"Life and Habit" in _Nature_, March 27, 1879, but he has never since +betrayed any sign of being aware that such a theory existed. Mr. Herbert +Spencer wrote to the _Athenaeum_ (April 5, 1884), and claimed the theory +for himself, but, in spite of his doing this, he has never, that I have +seen, referred to the matter again. I have dealt sufficiently with his +claim in my book, "Luck or Cunning." {43} Lastly, Professor Hering +himself has never that I know of touched his own theory since the single +short address read in 1870, and translated by me in 1881. Every one, +even its originator, except myself, seems afraid to open his mouth about +it. Of course the inference suggests itself that other people have more +sense than I have. I readily admit it; but why have so many of our +leaders shown such a strong hankering after the theory, if there is +nothing in it? + +The deadlock that I have pointed out as existing in Darwinism will, I +doubt not, lead ere long to a consideration of Professor Hering's theory. +English biologists are little likely to find Weismann satisfactory for +long, and if he breaks down there is nothing left for them but Lamarck, +supplemented by the important and elucidatory corollary on his theory +proposed by Professor Hering. When the time arrives for this to obtain a +hearing it will be confirmed, doubtless, by arguments clearer and more +forcible than any I have been able to adduce; I shall then be delighted +to resign the championship which till then I shall continue, as for some +years past, to have much pleasure in sustaining. Heretofore my +satisfaction has mainly lain in the fact that more of our prominent men +of science have seemed anxious to claim the theory than to refute it; in +the confidence thus engendered I leave it to any fuller consideration +which the outline I have above given may incline the reader to bestow +upon it. + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{1} Published in the _Universal Review_, July 1888. + +{2} Published in the _Universal Review_, December 1890. + +{3} Published in the _Universal Review_, May 1889. As I have several +times been asked if the letters here reprinted were not fabricated by +Butler himself, I take this opportunity of stating that they are +authentic in every particular, and that the originals are now in my +possession.--R. A. S. + +{4} An address delivered at the Somerville Club, February 27, 1895. + +{5} "The Foundations of Belief," by the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour. +Longmans, 1895, p. 48. + +{6} Published in the _Universal Review_, November 1888. + +{7} Since this essay was written it has been ascertained by Cavaliere +Francesco Negri, of Casale Monferrato, that Tabachetti died in 1615. If, +therefore, the Sanctuary of Montrigone was not founded until 1631, it is +plain that Tabachetti cannot have worked there. All the latest +discoveries about Tabachetti's career will be found in Cavaliere Negri's +pamphlet "Il Santuario di Crea" (Alessandria, 1902). See also note on p. +154.--R. A. S. + +{8} Published in the _Universal Review_, December 1889. + +{9} Longmans & Co., 1890. + +{10} Longmans & Co., 1890. + +{11} Published in the _Universal Review_, November 1890. + +{12} Longmans & Co., 1890. + +{13} M. Ruppen's words run: "1687 wurde die Kapelle zur hohen Stiege +gebaut, 1747 durch Zusatz vergrossert und 1755 mit Orgeln ausgestattet. +Anton Ruppen, ein geschickter Steinhauer mid Maurermeister leitete den +Kapellebau, und machte darin das kleinere Altarlein. Bei der hohen +Stiege war fruher kein Gebetshauslein; nur ein wunderthatiges Bildlein +der Mutter Gottes stand da in einer Mauer vor dem fromme Hirten und viel +andachtiges Volk unter freiem Himmel beteten. + +"1709 wurden die kleinen Kapellelein die 15 Geheimnisse des Psalters +vorstelland auf dem Wege zur hohen Stiege gebaut. Jeder Haushalter des +Viertels Fee ubernahm den Bau eines dieser Geheimnisskapellen, und ein +besonderer Gutthater dieser frommen Unternehmung war Heinrich +Andenmatten, nachher Bruder der Geselischaft Jesu." + +{14} The story of Tabachetti's incarceration is very doubtful. Cavaliere +F. Negri, to whose book on Tabachetti and his work at Crea I have already +referred the reader, does not mention it. Tabachetti left his native +Dinant in 1585, and from that date until his death in 1615 he appears to +have worked chiefly at Varallo and Crea. There is a document in +existence stating that in 1588 he executed a statue for the hermitage of +S. Rocco, at Crea, which, if it is to be relied on, disposes both of the +incarceration and of the visit to Saas. It is possible, however, that +the date is 1598, in which case Butler's theory of the visit to Saas may +hold good. In 1590 Tabachetti was certainly at Varallo, and again in +1594, 1599, and 1602. He died in 1615, possibly during a visit to +Varallo, though his home at that time was Costigliole, near Asti.--R. A. +S. + +{15} This is thus chronicled by M. Ruppen: "1589 den 9 September war +eine Wassergrosse, die viel Schaden verursachte. Die Thalstrasse, die +von den Steinmatten an bis zur Kirche am Ufer der Visp lag, wurde ganz +zerstort. Man ward gezwungen eine neue Strasse in einiger Entfernung vom +Wasser durch einen alten Fussweg auszuhauen welche vier und einerhalben +Viertel der Klafter, oder 6 Schuh und 9 Zoll breit soilte." (p. 43). + +{16} A lecture delivered at the Working Men's College in Great Ormond +Street, March 15, 1890; rewritten and delivered again at the Somerville +Club, February 13, 1894. + +{17} "Correlation of Forces": Longmans, 1874, p. 15. + +{18} "Three Lectures on the Science of Language," Longmans, 1889, p. 4. + +{19} "Science of Thought," Longmans, 1887, p. 9. + +{20} Published in the _Universal Review_, April, May, and June 1890. + +{21} "Voyages of the _Adventure_ and _Beagle_," iii. p. 237. + +{22} "Luck, or Cunning, as the main means of Organic Modification?" +(Longmans), pp. 179, 180. + +{23} _Journals of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society_ (Zoology, vol. +iii.), 1859, p. 61. + +{24} "Darwinism" (Macmillan, 1889), p. 129. + +{25} Longmans, 1890, p. 376. + +{26} See _Nature_, March 6, 1890. + +{27} "Origin of Species," sixth edition, 1888, vol. i. p. 168. + +{28} "Origin of Species," sixth edition, 1888, vol. ii. p. 261. + +{29} Mr. J. T. Cunningham, of the Marine Biological Laboratory, +Plymouth, has called my attention to the fact that I have ascribed to +Professor Ray Lankester a criticism on Mr. Wallace's remarks upon the +eyes of certain fiat-fish, which Professor Ray Lankester was, in reality, +only adopting--with full acknowledgment--from Mr. Cunningham. Mr. +Cunningham has left it to me whether to correct my omission publicly or +not, but he would so plainly prefer my doing so that I consider myself +bound to insert this note. Curiously enough I find that in my book +"Evolution Old and New," I gave what Lamarck actually said upon the eyes +of flat-fish, and having been led to return to the subject, I may as well +quote his words. He wrote:-- + +"Need--always occasioned by the circumstances in which an animal is +placed, and followed by sustained efforts at gratification--can not only +modify an organ--that is to say, augment or reduce it--but can change its +position when the case requires its removal. + +"Ocean fishes have occasion to see what is on either side of them, and +have their eyes accordingly placed on either side of their head. Some +fishes, however, have their abode near coasts on submarine banks and +inclinations, and are thus forced to flatten themselves as much as +possible in order to get as near as they can to the shore. In this +situation they receive more light from above than from below, and find it +necessary to pay attention to whatever happens to be above them; this +need has involved the displacement of their eyes, which now take the +remarkable position which we observe in the case of soles, turbots, +plaice, &c. The transfer of position is not even yet complete in the +case of these fishes, and the eyes are not, therefore, symmetrically +placed; but they are so with the skate, whose head and whole body are +equally disposed on either side a longitudinal section. Hence the eyes +of this fish are placed symmetrically upon the uppermost +_side_."--_Philosophie Zoologique_, tom. i., pp. 250, 251. Edition C. +Martins. Paris, 1873. + +{30} "Essays on Heredity," &c., Oxford, 1889, p. 171. + +{31} "Essays on Heredity," &c., Oxford, 1889, p. 266. + +{32} "Darwinism," 1889, p. 440. + +{33} Page 83. + +{34} Vol. i. p. 466, &c. Ed. 1885. + +{35} "Darwinism," p. 440. + +{36} Longmans, 1890. + +{37} Tom. iv. p. 383. Ed. 1753. + +{38} Essays, &c., p. 447. + +{39} "Zoonomia," 1794, vol. i. p. 480. + +{40} Longmans, 1890. + +{41} Longmans, 1890. + +{42} Longmans, 1890. + +{43} Longmans, 1890. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS ON LIFE, ART AND SCIENCE*** + + +******* This file should be named 3461.txt or 3461.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/6/3461 + + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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