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diff --git a/39517-h/39517-h.htm b/39517-h/39517-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00b7fcd --- /dev/null +++ b/39517-h/39517-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9332 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Contemporary Review, October 1879, Vol 36, No. 2 + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + +h1,h2,h3,h4 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + +p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + +hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} +em.gesperrt {font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: .2em; padding-left: .2em;} + +table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 80%;} +.condat {text-align: center;} +.conpgh {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; font-size: 80%; padding-left:2em;} +.concht {text-align: left;} +.conpag {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + +.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: 70%; text-align: right;} + +.blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} +.blockquot hr {margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em;} +.blockright {margin-left: 50%; margin-right: 0%; font-size: 85%;} + +.center {text-align: center;} +.right {text-align: right;} +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} +.lowercase {text-transform: lowercase;} +.author {text-align: right; margin-right: 5%} +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right; text-decoration: none;} +.fnanchor {vertical-align: top; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; font-weight:normal;} +.greek {font-size: 90%; border-bottom: 1px dotted #666;} +.imgsym {vertical-align: text-bottom; height: 1em;} + +.poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} +.poem br {display: none;} +.poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + +div.notes {background-color: #eeeeee; color: #000; border: 1px solid black; + padding-top: 0em; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; + margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 4em; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 90%;} + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, +November 1879, by Various + +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/license + + +Title: The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, November 1879 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 23, 2012 [EBook #39517] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Nigel Blower and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="notes"> +<p>The first part of this volume (September 1879) was produced as Project +Gutenberg Ebook #30048. The relevant part of the table of contents has +been extracted from that document, and a brief title page added.</p> + +<p>This e-text includes characters that will only display in UTF-8 (Unicode) +file encoding, including Greek words, e.g. <span class="greek" title="scholê">σχολή</span>. +If any of these characters do not display properly, or if the apostrophes and quotation marks +in this paragraph appear as garbage, you may have an incompatible browser or unavailable fonts. +First, make sure that the browser’s “character set” or “file encoding” +is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change your browser’s +default font. All Greek words have mouse-hover transliterations.</p> + +<p>A few minor typographical errors have been silently corrected. +Some inconsistent hyphenation and accents have been retained.</p> +</div> + +<h1>THE<br />CONTEMPORARY<br />REVIEW</h1> +<h3>VOLUME XXXVI. NOVEMBER, 1879</h3> + +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<table summary="Contents"> + <tr> + <th class="condat" colspan="2">NOVEMBER, 1879.</th></tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="conpgh">PAGE</td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="concht">On Freedom. By Professor Max Müller</td> + <td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_369">369</a></td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="concht">Mr. Gladstone: Two Studies suggested by his "Gleanings of Past + Years." I. By a Liberal.—II. By a Conservative</td> + <td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_398">398</a></td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="concht">The Ancien Régime and the Revolution in France. By Professor von Sybel</td> + <td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_432">432</a></td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="concht">What is the Actual Condition of Ireland? By Edward Stanley Robertson</td> + <td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_451">451</a></td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="concht">The Deluge: Its Traditions in Ancient Nations. By François Lenormant</td> + <td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_465">465</a></td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="concht">Suspended Animation. By Richard A. Proctor</td> + <td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_501">501</a></td></tr> + <tr> + <td class="concht">John Stuart Mill's Philosophy Tested. IV.—Utilitarianism. + By Professor W. Stanley Jevons</td> + <td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_521">521</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span></p> + +<h2>ON FREEDOM.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2> + +<p>Not more than twenty years have passed since John Stuart Mill sent +forth his plea for Liberty.<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>If there is one among the leaders of thought in England who, by the +elevation of his character and the calm composure of his mind, deserved +the so often misplaced title of Serene Highness, it was, I think, +John Stuart Mill.</p> + +<p>But in his Essay "On Liberty," Mill for once becomes passionate. In +presenting his Bill of Rights, in stepping forward as the champion of +individual liberty, a new spirit seems to have taken possession of him. He +speaks like a martyr, or the defender of martyrs. The individual human +soul, with its unfathomable endowments, and its capacity of growing to +something undreamt of in our philosophy, becomes in his eyes a sacred +thing, and every encroachment on its world-wide domain is treated as +sacrilege. Society, the arch-enemy of the rights of individuality, is +represented like an evil spirit, whom it behoves every true man to resist +with might and main, and whose demands, as they cannot be altogether +ignored, must be reduced at all hazards to the lowest level.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> +I doubt whether any of the principles for which Mill pleaded so +warmly and strenuously in his Essay "On Liberty" would at the present +day be challenged or resisted, even by the most illiberal of philosophers, +or the most conservative of politicians. Mill's demands sound very +humble to <i>our</i> ears. They amount to no more than this, "that the individual +is not accountable to society for his actions so far as they +concern the interests of no person but himself, and that he may be subjected +to social or legal punishments for such actions only as are prejudicial +to the interests of others."</p> + +<p>Is there any one here present who doubts the justice of that principle, or +who would wish to reduce the freedom of the individual to a smaller +measure? Whatever social tyranny may have existed twenty years ago, +when it wrung that fiery protest from the lips of John Stuart Mill, can +we imagine a state of society, not totally Utopian, in which the individual +man need be less ashamed of his social fetters, in which he could +more freely utter all his honest convictions, more boldly propound all his +theories, more fearlessly agitate for their speedy realization; in which, +in fact, each man can be so entirely himself as the society of England, +such as it now is, such as generations of hard-thinking and hard-working +Englishmen have made it, and left it as the most sacred inheritance to +their sons and daughters?</p> + +<p>Look through the whole of history, not excepting the brightest days of +republican freedom at Athens and Rome, and I know you will not find one +single period in which the measure of Liberty accorded to each individual +was larger than it is at present, at least in England. And if you wish to +realize the full blessings of the time in which we live, compare Mill's +plea for Liberty with another written not much more than two hundred +years ago, and by a thinker not inferior either in power or boldness to +Mill himself. According to Hobbes, the only freedom which an individual +in his ideal state has a right to claim is what he calls "freedom of +thought," and that freedom of thought consists in our being able to +think what we like—so long as we keep it to ourselves. Surely, such +freedom of thought existed even in the days of the Inquisition, and we +should never call thought free, if it had to be kept a prisoner in solitary +and silent confinement. By freedom of thought we mean freedom of +speech, freedom of the press, freedom of action, whether individual or +associated, and of that freedom the present generation, as compared +with all former generations, the English nation, as compared with all +other nations, enjoys, there can be no doubt, a good measure, pressed +down, and shaken together, and sometimes running over.</p> + +<p>It may be said that some dogmas still remain in politics, in religion, +and in morality; but those who defend them claim no longer any +infallibility, and those who attack them, however small their minority, +need fear no violence, nay, may reckon on an impartial and even +sympathetic hearing, as soon as people discover in their pleadings the +true ring of honest conviction and the warmth inspired by an unselfish +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> +love of truth.</p> + +<p>It has seemed strange therefore to many readers of Mill, particularly +on the Continent, that this cry for Liberty, this demand for freedom for +every individual to be what he is, and to develop all the germs of his +nature, should have come from what is known as the freest of all +countries, England. We might well understand such a cry of indignation +if it had reached us from Russia; but why should English +philosophers, of all others, have to protest against the tyranny of +society? It is true, nevertheless, that in countries governed despotically, +the individual, unless he is obnoxious to the Government, enjoys far +greater freedom, or rather licence, than in a country like England, which +governs itself. Russian society, for instance, is extremely indulgent. +It tolerates in its rulers and statesmen a haughty defiance of the +simplest rules of social propriety, and it seems amused rather than +astonished or indignant at the vagaries, the frenzies, and outrages, of those +who in brilliant drawing-rooms or lecture-rooms preach the doctrines of what is called Nihilism or +Individualism,<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>—viz., +"that society must be regenerated by a struggle for existence and the survival of the strongest, +processes which Nature has sanctioned, and which have proved successful +among wild animals." If there is danger in these doctrines the Government +is expected to see to it. It may place watchmen at the doors of +every house and at the corner of every street, but it must not count on +the better classes coming forward to enrol themselves as special constables, +or even on the co-operation of public opinion which in England would +annihilate that kind of Nihilism with one glance of scorn and pity.</p> + +<p>In a self-governed country like England, the resistance which society, +if it likes, can oppose to the individual in the assertion of his rights, is +far more compact and powerful than in Russia, or even in Germany. +Even where it does not employ the arm of the law, society knows how +to use that softer, but more crushing pressure, that calm, but Gorgon-like +look which only the bravest and stoutest hearts know how to +resist.</p> + +<p>It is rather against that indirect repression which a well-organized +society exercises, both through its male and female representatives, that +Mill's demand for Liberty seems directed. He does not stand up for +unlimited licence; on the contrary, he would have been the most +strenuous defender of that balance of power between the weak and the +strong on which all social life depends. But he resents those smaller +penalties which society will always inflict on those who disturb its +dignified peace and comfort:—avoidance, exclusion, a cold look, a +stinging remark. Had Mill any right to complain of these social +penalties? Would it not rather amount to an interference with +individual liberty to wish to deprive any individual or any number of +individuals of those weapons of self-defence? Those who themselves +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> +think and speak freely, have hardly a right to complain, if others claim +the same privilege. Mill himself called the Conservative party the +stupid party <i>par excellence</i>, and he took great pains to explain that it +was so, not by accident, but by necessity. Need he wonder if those +whom he whipped and scourged used their own whips and scourges +against so merciless a critic?</p> + +<p>Freethinkers, and I use that name as a title of honour for all who, like +Mill, claim for every individual the fullest freedom in thought, word, or +deed, compatible with the freedom of others, are apt to make one mistake. +Conscious of their own honest intentions, they cannot bear to be mistrusted +or slighted. They expect society to submit to their often very +painful operations as a patient submits to the knife of the surgeon. +That is not in human nature. The enemy of abuses is always abused +by his enemies. Society will never yield one inch without resistance, and +few reformers live long enough to receive the thanks of those whom they +have reformed. Mill's unsolicited election to Parliament was a triumph +not often shared by social reformers; it was as exceptional as Bright's +admission to a seat in the Cabinet, or Stanley's appointment as Dean of +Westminster. Such anomalies will happen in a country fortunately so +full of anomalies as England; but, as a rule, a political reformer must +not be angry if he passes through life without the title of Right Honourable; +nor should a man, if he will always speak the truth, the whole truth, +and nothing but the truth, be disappointed if he dies a martyr rather +than a Bishop.</p> + +<p>But granting even that in Mill's time there existed some traces of +social tyranny, where are they now? Look at the newspapers and the +journals. Is there any theory too wild, any reform too violent, to be +openly defended? Look at the drawing-rooms or the meetings of learned +societies. Are not the most eccentric talkers the spoiled children of the +fashionable world? When young lords begin to discuss the propriety +of limiting the rights of inheritance, and young tutors are not afraid to +propose curtailing the long vacation, surely we need not complain of +the intolerance of English society.</p> + +<p>Whenever I state these facts to my German and French and Italian +friends, who from reading Mill's Essay "On Liberty" have derived the +impression that, however large an amount of political liberty England +may enjoy, it enjoys but little of intellectual freedom, they are generally +willing to be converted so far as London, or other great cities, are +concerned. But look at your Universities, they say, the nurseries of +English thought! Can you compare their mediæval spirit, their +monastic institutions, their scholastic philosophy, with the freshness and +freedom of the Continental Universities? Strong as these prejudices +about Oxford and Cambridge have always been, they have become still +more intense since Professor Helmholtz, in an inaugural address which +he delivered at his installation as Rector of the University of Berlin, lent +the authority of his great name to these misconceptions. "The tutors," he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> +says,<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> +"in the English Universities cannot deviate by a hair's-breadth from +the dogmatic system of the English Church, without exposing themselves +to the censure of their Archbishops and losing their pupils." In +German Universities, on the contrary, we are told that the extreme +conclusions of materialistic metaphysics, the boldest speculations within +the sphere of Darwin's theory of evolution, may be propounded without +let or hindrance, quite as much as the highest apotheosis of Papal +infallibility.</p> + +<p>Here the facts on which Professor Helmholtz relies are entirely +wrong, and the writings of some of our most eminent tutors supply a +more than sufficient refutation of his statements. Archbishops have no +official position whatsoever in English Universities, and their censure of +an Oxford tutor would be resented as impertinent by the whole +University. Nor does the University, as such, exercise any very strict +control over the tutors, even when they lecture not to their own +College only. Each Master of Arts at Oxford claims now the right +to lecture (<i>venia docendi</i>), and I doubt whether they would ever submit +to those restrictions which, in Germany, the Faculty imposes on every +<i>Privat-docent</i>. <i>Privat-docents</i> in German Universities have been rejected +by the Faculty for incompetence, and silenced for insubordination. +I know of no such cases at Oxford during my residence of +more than thirty years, nor can I think it likely that they should ever +occur.</p> + +<p>As to the extreme conclusions of materialistic metaphysics, there are +Oxford tutors who have grappled with the systems of such giants as +Hobbes, Locke, or Hume, and who are not likely to be frightened by +Büchner and Vogt.</p> + +<p>I know comparisons are odious, and I am the last man who would +wish to draw comparisons between English and German Universities +unfavourable to the latter. But with regard to freedom of thought, +of speech, and action, Professor Helmholtz, if he would spend but a few +weeks at Oxford, would find that we enjoy a fuller measure of freedom +here than the Professors and <i>Privat-docents</i> in any Continental +University. The publications of some of our professors and tutors +ought at least to have convinced him that if there is less of brave +words and turbulent talk in their writings, they display throughout a +determination to speak the truth, which may be matched, but could not +easily be excelled, by the leaders of thought in France, Germany, or +Italy.</p> + +<p>The real difference between English and Continental Universities is +that the former govern themselves, the latter are governed. Self-government +entails responsibilities, sometimes restraints and reticences. +I may here be allowed to quote the words of another eminent Professor +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> +of the University of Berlin, Du Bois Reymond, who, in addressing his colleagues, ventured to tell +them,<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +"We have still to learn from the English how the greatest independence of the individual is compatible +with willing submission to salutary, though irksome, statutes." That is +particularly true when the statutes are self-imposed. In Germany, as +Professor Helmholtz tells us himself, the last decision in almost all the +more important affairs of the Universities rests with the Government, +and he does not deny that in times of political and ecclesiastical tension, +a most inconsiderate use has been made of that power. There are, +besides, the less important matters, such as raising of salaries, leave of +absence, scientific missions, even titles and decorations, all of which +enable a clever Minister of Instruction to assert his personal influence +among the less independent members of the University. In Oxford the +University does not know the Ministry, nor the Ministry the University. +The acts of the Government, be it Liberal or Conservative, are freely +discussed, and often powerfully resisted by the academic constituencies, and +the personal dislike of a Minister or Ministerial Councillor could as little +injure a professor or tutor as his favour could add one penny to his salary.</p> + +<p>But these are minor matters. What gives their own peculiar +character to the English Universities is a sense of power and responsibility: +power, because they are the most respected among the +numerous corporations in the country; responsibility, because the +higher education of the whole country has been committed to their +charge. Their only master is public opinion as represented in Parliament, +their only incentive their own sense of duty. There is no country +in Europe where Universities hold so exalted a position, and where those +who have the honour to belong to them may say with greater truth, +<i>Noblesse oblige</i>.</p> + +<p>I know the dangers of self-government, particularly where higher and +more ideal interests are concerned, and there are probably few who wish +for a real reform in schools and Universities who have not occasionally +yielded to the desire for a Dictator, of a Bismarck or a Falk. But such a +desire springs only from a momentary weakness and despondency; and +no one who knows the difference between being governed and governing +oneself, would ever wish to descend from that higher though +dangerous position to a lower one, however safe and comfortable it +might seem. No one who has tasted freedom would ever wish to +exchange it for anything else. Public opinion is sometimes a hard task-master, +and majorities can be great tyrants to those who want to be +honest to their own convictions. But in the struggle of all against all, +each individual feels that he has his rightful place, and that he may +exercise his rightful influence. If he is beaten, he is beaten in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> +fair fight; if he conquers, he has no one else to thank. No +doubt despotic Governments have often exercised the most beneficial +patronage in encouraging and rewarding poets, artists, and men of +science. But men of genius who have conquered the love and admiration +of a whole nation are greater than those who have gained the +favour of the most brilliant Courts; and we know how some of the +fairest reputations have been wrecked on the patronage which they had +to accept at the hands of powerful Ministers or ambitious Sovereigns.</p> + +<p>But to return to Mill and his plea for Liberty. Though I can hardly +believe that, were he still among us, he would claim a larger measure of +freedom for the individual than is now accorded to every one of us in +the society in which we move, yet the chief cause on which he founded +his plea for Liberty, the chief evil which he thought could be remedied +only if society would allow more elbow-room to individual genius, +exists in the same degree as in his time—aye, even in a higher degree. +The principle of Individuality has suffered more at present than perhaps +at any former period of history. The world is becoming more and more +gregarious, and what the French call our <i>nature moutonnière</i>, "our mutton-like +nature," our tendency to leap where any bell-wether has leapt before, +becomes more and more prevalent in politics, in religion, in art, and +even in science. M. de Tocqueville expressed his surprise how much +more Frenchmen of the present day resemble one another than did +those of the last generation. The same remark, adds John Stuart +Mill, might be made of England in a greater degree. "The modern +<i>régime</i> of public opinion," he writes, "is in an unorganized form +what the Chinese educational and political systems are in an organized; +and unless individuality shall be able successfully to assert itself against +this yoke, Europe, notwithstanding its noble antecedents and its professed +Christianity, will tend to become another China."</p> + +<p>I fully agree with Mill in recognizing the dangers of uniformity, but +I doubt whether what he calls the <i>régime</i> of public opinion is alone, or +even chiefly, answerable for it. No doubt there are some people in +whose eyes uniformity seems an advantage rather than a disadvantage. +If all were equally strong, equally educated, equally honest, equally rich, +equally tall, or equally small, society would seem to them to have +reached the highest ideal. The same people admire an old French +garden, with its clipped yew-trees, forming artificial walls and towers +and pyramids, far more than the giant yews which, like large serpents, clasp +the soil with their coiling roots, and overshadow with their dark green +branches the white chalk cliffs of the Thames. But those French gardens, +unless they are constantly clipped and prevented from growing, soon +fall into decay. As in nature, so in society, uniformity means but too +often stagnation, while variety is the surest sign of health and vigour. +The deepest secret of nature is its love of continued novelty. Its +tendency, if unrestrained, is towards constantly creating new varieties, +which, if they fulfil their purpose, become fixed for a time, or, it may +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> +be, for ever; while others, after they have fulfilled their purpose, vanish +to make room for new and stronger types.</p> + +<p>The same is the secret of human society. It consists and lives in +individuals, each being meant to be different from all the others, and to +contribute his own peculiar share to the common wealth. As no tree is +like any other tree, and no leaf on the same tree like any other leaf, no +human being is exactly like any other human being, nor is it meant to +be. It is in this endless, and to us inconceivable, variety of human +souls that the deepest purpose of human life is to be realized; and the +more society fulfils that purpose, the more it allows free scope for the +development of every individual germ, the richer will be the harvest in +no distant future. Such is the mystery of individuality that I do not +wonder if even those philosophers who, like Mill, reduce the meaning of +the word <i>sacred</i> to the very smallest compass, see in each individual +soul something sacred, something to be revered, even where we cannot +understand it, something to be protected against all vulgar violence.</p> + +<p>Where I differ from Mill and his school is on the question as to the +quarter from whence the epidemic of uniformity springs which threatens +the free development of modern society. Mill points to the society in +which we move; to those who are in front of us, to our contemporaries. +I feel convinced that our real enemies are at our back, and that the +heaviest chains which are fastened on us are those made, not by the present, +but by past generations—by our ancestors, not by our contemporaries.</p> + +<p>It is on this point, on the trammels of individual freedom with which +we may almost be said to be born into the world, and on the means by +which we may shake off these old chains, or at all events carry them +more lightly and gracefully, that I wish to speak to you this evening.</p> + +<p>You need not be afraid that I am going to enter upon the much discussed +subject of heredity, whether in its physiological or psychological +aspects. It is a favourite subject just now, and the most curious facts +have been brought together of late to illustrate the working of what is +called heredity. But the more we know of these facts, the less we seem +able to comprehend the underlying principle. Inheritance is one of +those numerous words which by their very simplicity and clearness are +so apt to darken our counsel. If a father has blue eyes and the son +has blue eyes, what can be clearer than that he inherited them? If the +father stammers and the son stammers, who can doubt but that it came +by inheritance? If the father is a musician and the son a musician, we +say very glibly that the talent was inherited. But what does <i>inherited</i> +mean? In no case does it mean what <i>inherited</i> usually means—something +external, like money, collected by a father, and, after his death, +secured by law to his son. Whatever else inherited may mean, it does +not mean that. But unfortunately the word is there, it seems almost +pedantic to challenge its meaning, and people are always grateful if an +easy word saves them the trouble of hard thought.</p> + +<p>Another apparent advantage of the theory of heredity is that it never +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> +fails. If the son has blue, and the father black, eyes, all is right +again, for either the mother, or the grandmother, or some historic or +prehistoric ancestor, may have had blue eyes, and atavism, we know, will +assert itself after hundreds and thousands of years.</p> + +<p>Do not suppose that I deny the broad facts of what is called by the +name of heredity. What I deny is that the name of heredity offers any +scientific solution of a most difficult problem. It is a name, a metaphor, +quite as bad as the old metaphor of <i>innate ideas</i>; for there is hardly a +single point of similarity between the process by which a son may share +the black eyes, the stammering, or the musical talent of his father, and +that by which, after his father's death, the law secures to the son the possession +of the pounds, shillings, and pence which his father held in the Funds.</p> + +<p>But whatever the true meaning of heredity may be, certain it is +that every individual comes into the world heavy-laden. Nowhere +has the consciousness of the burden which rests on each generation as it +enters on its journey through life found stronger expression than among +the Buddhists. What other people call by various names, "fate or providence," +"tradition or inheritance," "circumstances or environment," +they call <i>Karman</i>, deed—what has been done, whether by ourselves or by +others, the accumulated work of all who have come before us, the consequences +of which we have to bear, both for good and for evil. Originally +this <i>Karman</i> seems to have been conceived as personal, as the work +which we ourselves have done in former existences. But, as personally +we are not conscious of having done such work in former ages, that +kind of <i>Karman</i>, too, might be said to be impersonal. To the question +how <i>Karman</i> began, the accumulation of what forms the condition of all +that exists at present, Buddhism has no answer to give, any more than +any other system of religion or philosophy. The Buddhists say it began +with <i>avidyâ</i>, and <i>avidyâ</i> means +ignorance.<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> They are much more deeply +interested in the question how <i>Karman</i> may be annihilated, how each +man may free himself from the influence of <i>Karman</i>, and Nirvâna, the +highest object of all their dreams, is often defined by Buddhist philosophers +as "freedom from <i>Karman</i>."<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>What the Buddhists call by the general name of <i>Karman</i>, comprehends +all influences which the past exercises on the present, both physically +and mentally.<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> +It is not my object to examine or even to name all +these influences, though I confess nothing is more interesting than to +look upon the surface of our modern life as we look on a geological +map, and to see the most ancient formations cropping out everywhere +under our feet. Difficult as it is to colour a geological map of England, +it would be still more difficult to find a sufficient variety of colours to +mark the different ingredients of the intellectual surface of this island.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> +That all of us, whether we speak English or German, or French or +Russian, are really speaking an ancient Oriental tongue, incredible as +it would have sounded a hundred years ago, is now admitted by everybody. +Though the various dialects now spoken in Europe have been +separated many thousands of years from the Sanskrit, the ancient +classical language of India, yet so unbroken is the bond that holds the +West and East together that in many cases an intelligent Englishman +might still guess the meaning of a Sanskrit word. How little difference +is there between Sanskrit <i>sûnu</i> and English <i>son</i>, between Sanskrit +<i>duhitar</i> and English <i>daughter</i>, between Sanskrit <i>vid</i>, to know, and +English <i>to wit</i>, between Sanskrit <i>vaksh</i>, to grow, and English <i>to wax</i>! +Think how we value a Saxon urn, or a Roman coin, or a Celtic weapon! +how we dig for them, clean them, label them, and carefully deposit them +in our museums! Yet what is their antiquity compared with the +antiquity of such words as <i>son</i> or <i>daughter</i>, <i>father</i> and <i>mother</i>? There +are no monuments older than those collected in the handy volumes +which we call Dictionaries, and those who know how to interpret those +English antiquities—as you may see them interpreted, for instance, in +Grimm's Dictionary of the German, in Littré's Dictionary of the French, +or in Professor Skeats' Etymological Dictionary of the English Language—will +learn more of the real growth of the human mind than by studying +many volumes on logic and psychology.</p> + +<p>And as by our language we belong to the Aryan stratum, we belong +through our letters to the Hamitic. We still write English in hieroglyphics; +and in spite of all the vicissitudes through which the ancient +hieroglyphics have passed in their journey from Egypt to Phœnicia, +from Phœnicia to Greece, from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to +England, when we write a capital F +<img src="images/sym1.jpg" alt="Script F" class="imgsym" />, +when we draw the top line +and the smaller line through the middle of the letter, we really draw +the two horns of the cerastes, the horned serpent which the ancient +Egyptians used for representing the sound of f. They write the +name of the king whom the Greeks called <i>Cheops</i>, and they themselves +<i>Chu-fu</i>, like this:<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +<span style="padding-left:1em; padding-right:1em;"> +<img src="images/sym2.jpg" height="100" alt="Sieve, horned serpent and bird representing sounds chu, fu, u" +style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></span> + +Here the first sign, the sieve, is to be pronounced +<i>chu</i>; the second, the horned serpent, <i>fu</i>, and the +little bird, again, <i>u</i>. In the more cursive or Hieratic writing +the horned serpent appears as +<img src="images/sym3.jpg" alt="Hieratic serpent" class="imgsym" />; in the later Demotic as +<img src="images/sym4.jpg" alt="Demotic serpent" class="imgsym" /> +and +<img src="images/sym5.jpg" alt="Demotic serpent" class="imgsym" />. +The Phœnicians, who borrowed their letters from the Hieratic +Egyptian, wrote <img src="images/sym6.jpg" alt="Phœnician serpent" class="imgsym" /> +and <img src="images/sym7.jpg" alt="Phœnicians serpent" class="imgsym" />. The Greeks, who took their letters from +the Phœnicians, wrote <img src="images/sym8.jpg" alt="Mirrored F" class="imgsym" />. +When the Greeks, instead of writing like +the Phœnicians from right to left, began to write from left to right, +they turned each letter, and as <img src="images/sym9.jpg" alt="Mirrored K" class="imgsym" /> +became K, our k, so <img src="images/sym10.jpg" alt="Mirrored F" class="imgsym" />, vau, became +F, the Greek so-called Digamma, the Latin F.</p> + +<p>The first letter in <i>Chu-fu</i>, too, still exists in our alphabet, and in the +transverse line of our H we must recognize the last remnant of the +lines which divide the sieve. The sieve appears in Hieratic as +<img src="images/sym11.jpg" alt="Hieratic sieve" class="imgsym" />, in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> +Phœnician as <img src="images/sym12.jpg" alt="Phœnician sieve" class="imgsym" />, +in ancient Greek as <img src="images/sym13.jpg" alt="Greek sieve" class="imgsym" />, which occurs on an inscription +found at Mycenæ and elsewhere as the sign of the spiritus asper, +while in Latin it is known to us as the letter +H.<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> In the same +manner the undulating line of our capital +<img src="images/sym14.jpg" alt="Script L" class="imgsym" /> still recalls very strikingly +the bent back of the crouching lion, which in the later hieroglyphic +inscriptions represents the sound of L.</p> + +<p>If thus in our language we are Aryan, in our letters Egyptian, we +have only to look at our watches to see that we are Babylonian. +Why is our hour divided into sixty minutes, our minutes into sixty +seconds? Would not a division of the hour into ten, or fifty, or a +hundred minutes have been more natural? We have sixty divisions on +the dials of our watches simply because the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, +who lived in the second century <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, accepted the Babylonian system +of reckoning time, that system being sexagesimal. The Babylonians knew +the decimal system, but for practical purposes they counted by <i>sossi</i> +and <i>sari</i>, the <i>sossos</i> representing 60, the <i>saros</i> 60 × 60, or 3600. From +Hipparchus that system found its way into the works of Ptolemy, about +150 <span class="smcap lowercase">A.D.</span>, and thence it was carried down the stream of civilization, +finding its last resting-place on the dial-plates of our clocks.</p> + +<p>And why are there twenty shillings to our sovereign? Again the +real reason lies in Babylon. The Greeks learnt from the Babylonians +the art of dividing gold and silver for the purpose of trade. It has +been proved that the current gold piece of Western Asia was exactly +the sixtieth part of a Babylonian <i>mnâ</i>, or <i>mina</i>. It was nearly equal +to our sovereign. The difficult problem of the relative value of gold +and silver in a bi-monetary currency had been solved to a certain extent +in the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom, the proportion between gold and +silver being fixed at 1 to 13⅓. The silver shekel current in Babylon +was heavier than the gold shekel in the proportion of 13⅓ to 10, and +had therefore the value of one-tenth of a gold shekel; and the half +silver shekel, called by the Greeks a drachma, was worth one-twentieth +of a gold shekel. The drachma, or half silver shekel, may therefore be +looked upon as the most ancient type of our own silver shilling in its +relation of one-twentieth of our gold +sovereign.<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>I shall mention only one more of the most essential tools of our +mental life—namely, our <i>figures</i>, which we call Arabic, because we +received them from the Arabs, but which the Arabs called Indian, +because they received them from the Indians—in order to show you how +this nineteenth century of ours is under the sway of centuries long +past and forgotten; how we are what we are, not by ourselves, but by +those who came before us, and how the intellectual ground on which +we stand is made up of the detritus of thoughts which were first thought, +not on these isles nor in Europe, but on the shores of the Oxus, the +Nile, the Euphrates, and the Indus.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> +Now you may well ask <i>Quorsum hæc omnia?</i>—What has all this to +do with freedom and with the free development of individuality? +Because a man is born the heir of all the ages, can it be said that +he is not free to grow and to expand, and to develop all the faculties +of his mind? Are those who came before him, and who left him this +goodly inheritance, to be called his enemies? Is that chain of tradition +which connects him with the past really a galling fetter, and not rather +the leading-strings without which he would never learn to walk +straight?</p> + +<p>Let us look at the matter more closely. No one would venture to +say that every individual should begin life as a young savage, and be +left to form his own language, and invent his own letters, numerals, +and coins. On the contrary, if we comprehend all this and a great deal +more, such as religion, morality, and secular knowledge, under the +general name of <i>education</i>, even the most advanced defenders of individualism +would hold that no child should enter society without submitting, +or rather without being submitted, to education. Most of us would +even go further, and make it criminal for parents or even for communities +to allow children to grow up uneducated. The excuse of worthless +parents that they are at liberty to do with their children as they like, +has at last been blown to the winds. I still remember the time when +pseudo-Liberals were not ashamed to say that, whatever other nations, +such as the Germans, might do, England would never submit to compulsory +education. That wicked sophistry, too, has at last been silenced, +and among the principal advocates of compulsory education, and of the +necessity of curtailing the freedom of savage parents of savage children, +have been Mill and his friends, the apostles of liberty and +individualism.<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> +A new era may be said to date in the history of every nation from the +day on which "compulsory education" becomes part of their statute-book; +and I may congratulate the most Liberal town in England on having +proved itself the most inexorable tyrant in carrying out the principle of +compulsory education.</p> + +<p>But do not let us imagine that compulsory education is without its +dangers. Like a powerful engine, it must be carefully watched, if it is +not to produce, what all compulsion will produce, a slavish receptivity, +and, what all machines do produce, monotonous uniformity.</p> + +<p>We know that all education must in the beginning be purely dogmatic. +Children are taught language, religion, morality, patriotism, and +afterwards at school, history, literature, mathematics, and all the rest, +long before they are able to question, to judge, or choose for themselves, +and there is hardly anything that a child will not believe if it +comes from those in whom the child believes.</p> + +<p>Reading, writing, and arithmetic, no doubt, must be taught dogmatically, +and they take up an enormous amount of time, particularly in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> +English schools. English spelling is a national misfortune, and in the +keen international race between all the countries of Europe, it handicaps +the English child to a degree that seems incredible till we look at +statistics. I know the difficulties of a Spelling Reform, I know what +people mean when they call it impossible; but I also know that +personal and national virtue consists in doing so-called impossible things, +and that no nation has done, and has still to do, so many impossible +things as the English.</p> + +<p>But, granted that reading, writing, and arithmetic occupy nearly the +whole school-time and absorb the best powers of the pupils, cannot something +be done in play-hours? Is there not some work that can be turned +into play, and some play that can be turned into work? Cannot the +powers of observation be called out in a child while collecting flowers, +or stones, or butterflies? Cannot his judgment be strengthened either +in gymnastic exercises, or in measuring the area of a field or the height +of a tower? Might not all this be done without a view to examinations +or payment by results, simply for the sake of filling the little dull minds +with one sunbeam of joy, such sunbeams being more likely hereafter to +call hidden precious germs into life than the deadening weight of such +lessons as, for instance, that <i>th-ough</i> is though, <i>thr-ough</i> is through, +<i>en-ough</i> is enough. A child who believes that will hereafter believe +anything. Those who wish to see Natural Science introduced into +elementary schools frighten schoolmasters by the very name of Natural +Science. But surely every schoolmaster who is worth his salt should +be able to teach children a love of Nature, a wondering at Nature, a +curiosity to pry into the secrets of Nature, an acquisitiveness for some of +the treasures of Nature, and all this acquired in the fresh air of the +field and the forest, where, better than in frouzy lecture-rooms, the edge +of the senses can be sharpened, the chest be widened, and that freedom +of thought fostered which made England what it was even before the +days of compulsory education.</p> + +<p>But in addressing you here to-night it was my intention to speak of +the higher rather than of elementary education.</p> + +<p>All education, as it now exists in most countries of Europe, may be +divided into three stages—<i>elementary</i>, <i>scholastic</i>, and <i>academical</i>; or +call it <i>primary</i>, <i>secondary</i>, and <i>tertiary</i>.</p> + +<p>Elementary education has at last been made compulsory in most +civilized countries. Unfortunately, however, it seems impossible to +include under compulsory education anything beyond the very elements +of knowledge—at least for the present; though, with proper management, +I know from experience that a well-conducted elementary school +can afford to provide instruction in extra subjects—such as natural +science, modern languages, and political economy—and yet, with the +present system of Government grants, be +self-supporting.<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>The next stage above the elementary is <i>scholastic</i> education, as it is +supplied in grammar schools, whether public or private. According as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> +the pupils are intended either to go on to a university, or to enter at +once on leaving school on the practical work of life, these schools are +divided into two classes. In the one class, which in Germany are +called <i>Real-schulen</i>, less Latin is taught, and no Greek, but more of +mathematics, modern languages, and physical science; in the other, +called <i>Gymnasia</i> on the Continent, classics form the chief staple of +instruction.</p> + +<p>It is during this stage that education, whether at private or public +schools, exercises its strongest levelling influence. Little attention can +be paid at large schools to individual tastes or talents. In Germany, +even more perhaps than in England, it is the chief object of a good +and conscientious master to have his class as uniform as possible at the +end of the year; and he receives far more credit from the official +examiner if his whole class marches well and keeps pace together, than +if he can parade a few brilliant and forward boys, followed by a number +of straggling laggards.</p> + +<p>And as to the character of the teaching at school, how can it be +otherwise than authoritative or dogmatic? The Socratic method is very +good if we can find the <i>viri Socratici</i> and leisure for discussion. But +at school, which now may seem to be called almost in mockery +<span class="greek" title="scholê">σχολή</span>, +or leisure, the true method is, after all, that patronized by the great +educators of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Boys at school +must turn their mind into a row of pigeon-holes, filling as many as +they can with useful notes, and never forgetting how many are empty. +There is an immense amount of positive knowledge to be acquired +between the ages of ten and eighteen—rules of grammar, strings of +vocables, dates, names of towns, rivers, and mountains, mathematical +formulas, &c. All depends here on the receptive and retentive powers +of the mind. The memory has to be strengthened, without being +overtaxed, till it acts almost mechanically. Learning by heart, I +believe, cannot be too strongly recommended during the years spent at +school. There may have been too much of it when, as the Rev. H. C. +Adams informs us in his "Wykehamica" (p. 357), boys used to say by +heart 13,000 and 14,000 lines, when one repeated the whole of Virgil, +nay, when another was able to say the whole of the English Bible by +rote:—"Put him on where you would, he would go fluently on, as +long as any one would listen."</p> + +<p>No intellectual investment, I feel certain, bears such ample and such +regular interest as gems of English, Latin, or Greek literature deposited +in our memory during our childhood and youth, and taken up from time +to time in the happy hours of our solitude.</p> + +<p>One fault I have to find with most schools, both in England and on +the Continent. Boys do not read enough of the Greek and Roman +classics. The majority of our masters are scholars by profession, and +they are apt to lay undue stress on what they call accurate and minute +scholarship, and to neglect wide and cursory reading. I know the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> +arguments for minute accuracy, but I also know the mischief that is +done by an exclusive devotion to critical scholarship before we have +acquired a real familiarity with the principal works of classical literature. +The time spent in our schools in learning the rules of grammar +and syntax, writing exercises, and composing verses, is too large. Look +only at our Greek and Latin grammars, with all their rules and exceptions, +and exceptions on exceptions! It is too heavy a weight for any boy +to carry; and no wonder that when one of the thousand small rules +which they have learnt by heart is really wanted, it is seldom forthcoming. +The end of classical teaching at school should be to make our boys +acquainted not only with the language, but with the literature and +history, the ancient thought of the ancient world. Rules of grammar, +syntax, or metre, are but means towards that end; they must never be +mistaken for the end itself. A young man of eighteen, who has +probably spent on an average ten years in learning Greek and Latin, +ought to be able to read any of the ordinary Greek or Latin classics +without much difficulty; nay, with a certain amount of pleasure. He +might have to consult his dictionary now and then, or guess the +meaning of certain words; he might also feel doubtful sometimes +whether certain forms came from +<span class="greek" title="hiêmi">ἵημι</span>, I send, or +<span class="greek" title="eimi">εἶμι</span>, I go, or +<span class="greek" title="eimi">εἰμί</span>, +I am, particularly if preceded by prepositions. In these matters +the best scholars are least inclined to be pharisaical; and whenever I +meet in the controversies of classical scholars the favourite phrase, +"Every schoolboy knows, or ought to know, this," I generally say to +myself, "No, he ought not." Anyhow, those who wish to see the +study of Greek and Latin retained in our public schools ought to feel +convinced that it will certainly not be retained much longer, if it can +be said with any truth that young men who leave school at eighteen +are in many cases unable to read or to enjoy a classical text, unless +they have seen it before.</p> + +<p>Classical teaching, and all purely scholastic teaching, ought to be +finished at school. When a young man goes to University, unless he +means to make scholarship his profession, he ought to be free to +enter upon a new career. If he has not learnt by that time so +much of Greek and Latin as is absolutely necessary in after-life +for a lawyer, or a student of physical science, or even a clergyman, +either he or his school is to blame. I do not mean to say that +it would not be most desirable for every one during his University +career to attend some lectures on classical literature, on ancient +history, philosophy, or art. What is to be deprecated is, that the +University should have to do the work which belongs properly to the +school.</p> + +<p>The best colleges at Oxford and Cambridge have shown by their +matriculation examinations what the standard of classical knowledge +ought to be at eighteen or nineteen. That standard can be reached by +boys while still at school, as has been proved both by the so-called local +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> +examinations, and by the examinations of schools held under the +Delegates appointed by the Universities. If, therefore, the University +would reassert her old right, and make the first examination, called at +Oxford Responsions, a general matriculation examination for admission +to the University, not only would the public schools be stimulated to +greater efforts, but the teaching of the University might assume, from +the very beginning, that academic character which ought to distinguish +it from mere schoolboy work.</p> + +<p>Academic teaching ought to be not merely a continuation, but in one +sense a correction of scholastic teaching. While at school instruction +must be chiefly dogmatic, at University it is to be Socratic, for I find +no better name for that method which is to set a man free from the +burden of purely traditional knowledge; to make him feel that the +words which he uses are often empty, that the concepts he employs are, +for the most part, mere bundles picked up at random; that even where +he knows facts, he does not know their evidence; and where he +expresses opinions, they are mostly mere dogmas, adopted by him without +examination.</p> + +<p>But for the Universities, I should indeed fear that Mill's prophecies +might come true, and that the intellect of Europe might drift into +dreary monotony. The Universities always have been, and, unless +they are diverted from their original purpose, always will be, the +guardians of the freedom of thought, the protectors of individual +spontaneity; and it was owing, I believe, to Mill's ignorance of true +academic teaching that he took so desponding a view of the generation +growing up under his eyes.</p> + +<p>When we leave school, our heads are naturally brimful of dogma, +that is, of knowledge and opinions at second-hand. Such dead knowledge +is extremely dangerous, unless it is sooner or later revived by the +spirit of free inquiry. It does not matter whether our scholastic +dogmas be true or false. The danger is the same. And why? Because +to place either truth or error above the reach of argument is certain to +weaken truth and to strengthen error. Secondly, because to hold as +true on the authority of others anything which concerns us deeply, +and which we could prove ourselves, produces feebleness, if not dishonesty. +And, thirdly, because to feel unwilling or unable to meet +objections by argument is generally the first step towards violence and +persecution.</p> + +<p>I do not think of religious dogmas only. They are generally the +first to rouse inquiry, even during our schoolboy days, and they are by +no means the most difficult to deal with. Dogma often rages where we +least expect it. Among scientific men the theory of evolution is at +present becoming, or has become, a dogma. What is the result? No +objections are listened to, no difficulties recognized, and a man like Virchow, +himself the strongest supporter of evolution, who has the moral courage +to say that the descent of man from any ape whatsoever is, as yet, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> +before the tribunal of scientific zoology, "not proven," is howled down in +Germany in a manner worthy of Ephesians and Galatians. But at present I +am thinking not so much of any special dogmas, but rather of that dogmatic +state of mind which is the almost inevitable result of the teaching at school. +I think of the whole intellect, what has been called the <i>intellectus sibi +permissus</i>, and I maintain that it is the object of academic teaching to +rouse that intellect out of its slumber by questions not less startling than +when Galileo asked the world whether the sun was really moving and the +earth stood still; or when Kant asked whether time and space were objects, +or necessary forms of our sensuous intuition. Till our opinions have thus +been tested and stood the test, we can hardly call them our own.</p> + +<p>How true this is with regard to religion has been boldly expressed by +Bishop Beveridge.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Being conscious to myself," he writes in his "Private Thoughts on Religion," +"how great an ascendant Christianity holds over me beyond the rest, as being +that religion whereinto I was born and baptized; that which the supreme authority +has enjoined and my parents educated me in; that which every one I meet +withal highly approves of, and which I myself have, by a long-continued profession, +made almost natural to me: I am resolved to be more jealous and suspicious +of this religion than of the rest, and be sure not to entertain it any longer +without being convinced, by solid and substantial arguments, of the truth and +certainty of it."</p></div> + +<p>This is bold and manly language from a Bishop nearly two hundred +years ago, and I certainly think that the time has come when some of +the divinity lecturers at Oxford and Cambridge might well be employed +in placing a knowledge of the sacred books of other religions +within the reach of undergraduates. Many of the difficulties—most of +them of our own making—with regard to the origin, the handing +down, the later corruptions and misinterpretations of sacred texts, +would find their natural solution, if it was shown how exactly the +same difficulties arose and had to be dealt with by theologians of other +creeds. If some—ay, if many—of the doctrines of Christianity were +met with in other religions also, surely that would not affect their +value, or diminish their truth; while nothing, I feel certain, would more +effectually secure to the pure and simple teaching of Christ its true place in +the historical development of the human mind than to place it side by side +with the other religions of the world. In the series of translations of +the "Sacred Books of the East," of which the first three volumes have +just appeared,<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> +I wished myself to include a new translation of the Old +and New Testaments; and when that series is finished it will, I believe, +be admitted that nowhere would these two books have had a grander +setting, or have shone with a brighter light, than surrounded by the Veda, +the Zendavesta, the Buddhist Tripi<i>t</i>aka, and the Qur'än.</p> + +<p>But as I said before, I was not thinking of religious dogmas only, +or even chiefly, when I maintained that the character of academic +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> +teaching must be Socratic, not dogmatic. The evil of dogmatic teaching +lies much deeper, and spreads much further.</p> + +<p>Think only of language, the work of other people, not of ourselves, +which we pick up at random in our race through life. Does not every +word we use require careful examination and revision? It is not +enough to say that language assists our thoughts or colours them, or +possibly obscures them. No, we know now that language and thought +are indivisible. It was not from poverty of expression that the Greek +called reason and language by the same word, +<span class="greek" title="logos">λόγος</span>. It was because +they knew that, though we may distinguish between thought and speech, +as we distinguish between body and soul, it is as impossible to tear the +one by violence away from the other as it is to separate the concave +side of a lens from its convex side. This is something to learn and to +understand, for, if properly understood, it will supply the key to most +of our intellectual puzzles, and serve as the safest thread through the +whole labyrinth of philosophy.</p> + +<p>"It is evident," as Hobbes +remarks,<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> +"that truth and falsity have no place but amongst such living creatures as use speech. For though +some brute creatures, looking upon the image of a man in a glass, may +be affected with it, as if it were the man himself, and for this reason +fear it or fawn upon it in vain; yet they do not apprehend it as true or +false, but only as like; and in this they are not deceived. Wherefore, +as men owe all their true ratiocination to the right understanding of +speech, so also they owe their errors to the misunderstanding of the +same; and as all the ornaments of philosophy proceed only from man, +so from man also is derived the ugly absurdity of false opinion. For +speech has something in it like to a spider's web (as it was said of old +of Solon's laws), for by contexture of words tender and delicate wits are +ensnared or stopped, but strong wits break easily through them."</p> + +<p>Let me illustrate my meaning by at least one instance.</p> + +<p>Among the words which have proved spider's webs, ensnaring even +the greatest intellects of the world from Aristotle down to Leibniz, the +terms <i>genus</i>, <i>species</i>, and <i>individual</i> occupy a very prominent place. +The opposition of Aristotle to Plato, of the Nominalists to the Realists, +of Leibniz to Locke, of Herbart to Hegel, turns on the true meaning of +these words. At school, of course, all we can do is to teach the received +meaning of <i>genus</i> and <i>species</i>; and if a boy can trace these terms back +to Aristotle's +<span class="greek" title="genos">γένος</span> and +<span class="greek" title="eidos">εἶδος</span>, and show in what sense that philosopher +used them, every examiner would be satisfied.</p> + +<p>But the time comes when we have to act as our own examiners, and +when we have to give an account to ourselves of such words as <i>genus</i> +and <i>species</i>. Some people write, indeed, as if they had seen a <i>species</i> and +a <i>genus</i> walking about in broad daylight; but a little consideration +will show us that these words express subjective concepts, and that, if +the whole world were silent, there would never have been a thought of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> +a <i>genus</i> or a <i>species</i>. There are languages in which we look in vain for +corresponding words; and if we had been born in such a language, +these terms and thoughts would not exist for us. They came to us, +directly or indirectly, from Aristotle. But Aristotle did not invent +them, he only defined them in his own way, so that, for instance, +according to him, all living beings would constitute a <i>genus</i>, men a +<i>species</i>, and Socrates an <i>individual</i>.</p> + +<p>No one would say that Aristotle had not a perfect right to define +these terms, if those who use them in his sense would only always +remember that they are thinking the thoughts of Aristotle, and not +their own. The true way to shake off the fetters of old words, and to +learn to think our own thoughts, is to follow them up from century to century, +to watch their development, and in the end to bring ourselves face +to face with those who first found and framed both words and thoughts. +If we do this with <i>genus</i> and <i>species</i>, we shall find that the words which +Aristotle defined—viz., +<span class="greek" title="genos">γένος</span> and +<span class="greek" title="eidos">εἶδος</span>—had originally a very different +and far more useful application than that which he gave to them. +<span class="greek" title="Genos">Γένος</span>, +<i>genus</i>, meant generation, and comprehended such living beings only +as were known to have a common origin, however they might differ in +outward appearance, as, for instance, the spaniel and the bloodhound, +or, according to Darwin, the ape and the man. +<span class="greek" title="Eidos">Εἶδος</span> or species, on +the contrary, meant appearance, and comprehended all such things as +had the same form or appearance, whether they had a common origin or +not, as if we were to speak of a species of four-footed, two-footed, +horned, winged, or blue animals.</p> + +<p>That two such concepts, as we have here explained, had a natural justification +we may best learn from the fact that exactly the same thoughts +found expression in Sanskrit. There, too, we find <em class="gesperrt"><i>g</i>âti</em>, generation, used +in the sense of <i>genus</i>, and opposed to <em class="gesperrt">âk<i>ri</i>ti</em>, appearance, used in the +sense of <i>species</i>.</p> + +<p>So long as these two words or thoughts were used independently +(much as we now speak of a genealogical as independent of a morphological +classification) no harm could accrue. A family, for instance, +might be called a +<span class="greek" title="genos">γένος</span>, the <i>gens</i> or clan was a +<span class="greek" title="genos">γένος</span>, the nation +(gnatio) was a +<span class="greek" title="genos">γένος</span>, the whole human kith and kin was a +<span class="greek" title="genos">γένος</span>; in +fact, all that was descended from common ancestors was a true +<span class="greek" title="genos">γένος</span>. +There is no obscurity of thought in this.</p> + +<p>On the other side, taking +<span class="greek" title="eidos">εἶδος</span> or species in its original sense, one +man might be said to be like another in his +<span class="greek" title="eidos">εἶδος</span> or appearance. An +ape, too, might quite truly be said to have the same +<span class="greek" title="eidos">εἶδος</span> or species or +appearance as a man, without any prejudice as to their common origin. +People might also speak of different +<span class="greek" title="eidê">εἴδη</span> or forms or classes of things, +such as different kinds of metals, or tools, or armour, without committing +themselves in the least to any opinion as to their common descent.</p> + +<p>Often it would happen that things belonging to the same +<span class="greek" title="genos">γένος</span>, such +as the white man and the negro, differed in their +<span class="greek" title="eidos">εἶδος</span> or appearance; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> +often also that things belonging to the same +<span class="greek" title="eidos">εἶδος</span>, such as eatables, +differed in their +<span class="greek" title="genos">γένος</span>, as, for instance, meat and vegetables.</p> + +<p>All this is clear and simple. The confusion began when these two +terms, instead of being co-ordinate, were subordinated to each other +by the philosophers of Greece, so that what from one point of view was +called a <i>genus</i>, might from another be called a species, and <i>vice versâ</i>. +Human beings, for instance, were now called a <i>species</i>, all living +beings a <i>genus</i>, which may be true in logic, but is utterly false in what +is older than logic—viz., language, thought, or fact. According to language, +according to reason, and according to Nature, all human beings +constitute a +<span class="greek" title="genos">γένος</span>, or generation, so long as they are supposed to have +common ancestors; but with regard to all living beings we can +only say that they form an +<span class="greek" title="eidos">εἶδος</span>—that is, agree in certain appearances, +until it has been proved that even Mr. Darwin was too modest +in admitting at least four or five different ancestors for the whole animal +world.<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p>In tracing the history of these two words, +<span class="greek" title="genos">γένος</span> and +<span class="greek" title="eidos">εἶδος</span>, you may +see passing before your eyes almost the whole panorama of philosophy, +from Plato's ideas down to Hegel's <i>Idee</i>. The question of <i>genera</i>, their +origin and subdivision, occupied chiefly the attention of natural philosophers, +who, after long controversies about the origin and classification of +<i>genera</i> and <i>species</i>, seem at last, thanks to the clear sight of Darwin, to +have arrived at the old truth which was prefigured in language—namely, +that Nature knows nothing but <i>genera</i>, or generations, to be traced +back to a limited number of ancestors, and that the so-called <i>species</i> are +only <i>genera</i>, whose genealogical descent is <i>as yet</i> more or less obscure.</p> + +<p>But the question as to the nature of the +<span class="greek" title="eidos">εἶδος</span> became a vital question +in every system of philosophy. Granting, for instance, that women in +every clime and country formed one species, it was soon asked what +constituted a species? If all women shared a common form, what was +that form? Where was it? So long as it was supposed that all women +descended from Eve, the difficulty might be slurred over by the name +of heredity. But the more thoughtful would ask even then how it +was that, while all individual women came and went and vanished, the +form in which they were cast remained the same?</p> + +<p>Here you see how philosophical mythology springs up. The very +question what +<span class="greek" title="eidos">εἶδος</span> or species or form was, and where these things +were kept, changed those words from predicates into subjects. +<span class="greek" title="Eidos">Εἶδος</span> was +conceived as something independent and substantial, something within or +above the individuals participating in it, something unchangeable and +eternal. Soon there arose as many +<span class="greek" title="eidê">εἴδη</span> or forms or types as there +were general concepts. They were considered the only true realities of +which the phenomenal world is only as a shadow that soon passeth +away. Here we have, in fact, the origin of Plato's ideas, and of the +various systems of idealism which followed his lead, while the opposite +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> +opinions that ideas have no independent existence, and that the one is +nowhere found except in the many +(<span class="greek" title="to hen para ta polla">τὸ ἕν παρὰ τὰ πολλά</span>), +was strenuously defended by Aristotle and his +followers.<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>The same red thread runs through the whole philosophy of the +Middle Ages. Men were cited before councils and condemned as +heretics because they declared that <i>animal</i>, <i>man</i>, or <i>woman</i> were mere +names, and that they could not bring themselves to believe in an ideal +animal, an ideal man, an ideal woman as the invisible, supernatural, or +metaphysical types of the ordinary animal, the individual man, the single +woman. Those philosophers, called <i>Nominalists</i>, in opposition to the +<i>Realists</i>, declared that all general terms were <i>names only</i>, and that +nothing could claim reality but the individual.</p> + +<p>We cannot follow this controversy further, as it turns up again +between Locke and Leibniz, between Herbart and Hegel. Suffice it to +say that the knot, as it was tied by language, can be untied by +the science of language alone, which teaches us that there is and +can be no such thing as "a name only." That phrase ought to be +banished from all works on philosophy. A name is and always has been +the subjective side of our knowledge, but that subjective side is as impossible +without an objective side as a key is without a lock. It is +useless to ask which of the two is the more real, for they are real only +by being, not two, but one. Realism is as one-sided as Nominalism. +But there is a higher Nominalism, which might better be called the +Science of Language, and which teaches us that, apart from sensuous +perception, all human knowledge is by names and by names only, and +that the object of names is always the general.</p> + +<p>This is but one out of hundreds and thousands of cases to show how +names and concepts which come to us by tradition must be submitted +to very careful snuffing before they will yield a pure light. What +I mean by academic teaching and academic study is exactly this +process of snuffing, this changing of traditional words into living words, +this tracing of modern thought back to ancient primitive thought, +this living, as it were, once more, so far as it concerns us, the whole +history of human thought ourselves, till we are as little afraid to differ +from Plato or Aristotle as from Comte or Darwin.</p> + +<p>Plato and Aristotle are, no doubt, great names; every schoolboy is +awed by them, even though he may have read very little of their +writings. This, too, is a kind of dogmatism that requires correction. +Now, at University, a young student might hear the following, +by no means respectful, remarks about Aristotle, which I copy from +one of the greatest English scholars and philosophers:—"There is +nothing so absurd that the old philosophers, as Cicero saith, who +was one of them, have not some of them maintained; and I believe +that scarce anything can be more absurdly said in natural philosophy +than that which now is called Aristotle's Metaphysics; or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> +more repugnant to government than much of that he hath said in his +Politics; nor more ignorantly than a great part of his Ethics." I am +far from approving this judgment, but I think that the shock +which a young scholar receives on seeing his idols so mercilessly +broken is salutary. It throws him back on his own resources; it +makes him honest to himself. If he thinks the criticism thus passed +on Aristotle unfair, he will begin to read his works with new eyes. +He will not only construe his words, but try to reconstruct in his +own mind the thoughts so carefully elaborated by that ancient +philosopher. He will judge of their truth without being swayed by +the authority of a great name, and probably in the end value what is +valuable in Aristotle, or Plato, or any other great philosopher far more +highly and honestly than if he had never seen them trodden under foot.</p> + +<p>But do not suppose that I look upon the Universities as purely +iconoclastic, as chiefly intended to teach us how to break the idols of +the schools. Far from it! But I do look upon them as meant +to freshen the atmosphere which we breathe at school, and to shake +our mind to its very roots, as a storm shakes the young oaks, not to +throw them down, but to make them grasp all the more firmly the +hard soil of fact and truth! "<i>Stand upright on thy feet</i>" ought to be +written over the gate of every college, if the epidemic of uniformity +and sequacity which Mill saw approaching from China, and which since +his time has made such rapid progress Westward, is ever to be stayed.</p> + +<p>Academic freedom is not without its dangers; but there are dangers +which it is safer to face than to avoid. In Germany—so far as my +own experience goes—students are often left too much to themselves, +and it is only the cleverest among them, or those who are personally +recommended, who receive from the professors that personal guidance +and encouragement which should and could be easily extended to all.</p> + +<p>There is too much time given in the German Universities to mere +lecturing, and often in simply retailing to a class what each student +might read in books often in a far more perfect form. Lectures are +useful if they teach us how to teach ourselves; if they stimulate; if +they excite sympathy and curiosity; if they give advice that springs +from personal experience; if they warn against wrong roads; if, in fact, +they have less the character of a show-window than of a workshop. Half +an hour's conversation with a tutor or a professor often does more than +a whole course of lectures in giving the right direction and the right +spirit to a young man's studies. Here I may quote the words of Professor +Helmholtz, in full agreement with him. "When I recall the +memory of my own University life," he writes, "and the impression +which a man like Johannes Müller, the professor of physiology, made +on us, I must set the highest value on the personal intercourse with +teachers from whom one learns how thought works on independent +heads. Whoever has come in contact but once with one or several +first-class men will find his intellectual standard changed for life."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> +In English Universities, on the contrary, there is too little of academic +freedom. There is not only guidance, but far too much of constant +personal control. It is often thought that English undergraduates +could not be trusted with that amount of academic freedom which is +granted to German students, and that most of them, if left to choose +their own work, their own time, their own books, and their own +teachers, would simply do nothing. This seems to me unfair and +untrue. Most horses, if you take them to the water, will drink; and +the best way to make them drink is to leave them alone. I have lived +long enough in English and in German Universities to know that the +intellectual fibre is as strong and sound in the English as in the German +youth. But if you supply a man, who wishes to learn swimming, with +bladders—nay, if you insist on his using them—he will use them, but he +will probably never learn to swim. Take them away, on the contrary, +and depend on it, after a few aimless strokes and a few painful gulps, +he will use his arms and his legs, and he will swim. If young men do +not learn to use their arms, their legs, their muscles, their senses, their +brain, and their heart too, during the bright years of their University +life, when are they to learn it? True, there are thousands who never +learn it, and who float happily on through life buoyed up on mere +bladders. The worst that can happen to them is that some day the +bladders may burst, and they may be left stranded or drowned. But +these are not the men whom England wants to fight her battles. It +has often been pointed out of late that many of those who, during this +century, have borne the brunt of the battle in the intellectual warfare +in England, have not been trained at our Universities, while others who +have been at Oxford and Cambridge, and have distinguished themselves +in after-life, have openly declared that they attended hardly any +lectures in college, or that they derived no benefit from them. What +can be the ground of that? Not that there is less work done at +Oxford than at Leipzig, but that the work is done in a different spirit. +It is free in Germany; it has now become almost compulsory in +England. Though an old professor myself, I like to attend, when +I can, some of the professorial lectures in Germany; for it is a real +pleasure to see hundreds of young faces listening to a teacher on the +history of art, on modern history, on the science of language, or on +philosophy, without any view to examinations, simply from love of the +subject or of the teacher. No one who knows what the real joy of +learning is, how it lightens all drudgery and draws away the mind from +mean pursuits, can see without indignation that what ought to be the +freest and happiest years in a man's life should often be spent between +cramming and examinations.</p> + +<p>And here I have at last mentioned the word, which to many friends +of academic freedom, to many who dread the baneful increase of uniformity, +may seem the cause of all mischief, the most powerful engine +for intellectual levelling—<i>Examination</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> +There is a strong feeling springing up everywhere against the tyranny +of examinations, against the cramping and withering influence which +they are supposed to exercise on the youth of England. I cannot join +in that outcry. I well remember that the first letters which I ventured +to address to the <i>Times</i>, in very imperfect English, were in favour of +examinations. They were signed <i>La Carrière ouverte</i>, and were written +long before the days of the Civil Service Commission! I well remember, +too, that the first time I ventured to speak, or rather to stammer, in public, +was in favour of examinations. That was in 1857, at Exeter, when the +first experiment was made, under the auspices of Sir T. Acland, in establishing +the Oxford and Cambridge Local Examinations. I have been an +examiner myself for many years, I have watched the growth of that system +in England from year to year, and in spite of all that has been said and +written of late against examinations, I confess I do not see how it would +be possible to abolish them, and return to the old system of appointment +by patronage.</p> + +<p>But though I have not lost my faith in examinations, I cannot conceal +the fact that I am frightened by the manner in which they are +conducted, and by the results which they produce. As you are interested +yourselves at this Midland Institute, in the successful working of +examinations, you will perhaps allow me in conclusion to add a few +remarks on the safeguards necessary for the efficient working of examinations.</p> + +<p>All examinations are a means to ascertain how pupils have been +taught; they ought never to be allowed to become the end for which +pupils are taught.</p> + +<p>Teaching with a view to examinations lowers the teacher in the +eyes of his pupils; learning with a view to examinations is apt to +produce shallowness and dishonesty.</p> + +<p>Whatever attractions learning possesses in itself, and whatever efforts +were formerly made by boys at school from a sense of duty, all this is +lost if they once imagine that the highest object of all learning is gaining +marks in examinations.</p> + +<p>In order to maintain the proper relation between teacher and pupil, +all pupils should be made to look to their teachers as their natural examiners +and fairest judges, and therefore in every examination the +report of the teacher ought to carry the greatest weight. This is the +principle followed abroad in all examinations of candidates at public +schools; and even in their examination on leaving school, which gives them +the right to enter the University, they know that their success depends +far more on the work which they have done during the years at school, +than on the work done on the few days of their examination. There are +outside examiners appointed by Government to check the work done at +schools and during the examinations; but the cases in which they have +to modify or reverse the award of the master are extremely rare, and +they are felt to reflect seriously on the competency or impartiality of the +school authorities.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> +To leave examinations entirely to strangers reduces them to the level +of lotteries, and fosters a cleverness in teachers and taught often akin to +dishonesty. An examiner may find out what a candidate knows <i>not</i>, +he can hardly ever find out all he knows; and even if he succeeds in +finding out <i>how much</i> a candidate knows, he can never find out <i>how</i> he +knows it. On these points the opinion of the masters who have +watched their pupils for years is indispensable for the sake of the +examiner, for the sake of the pupils, and for the sake of their +teachers.</p> + +<p>I know I shall be told that it would be impossible to trust the masters, +and to be guided by their opinion, because they are interested parties. +Now, first of all, there are far more honest men in the world than dishonest, +and it does not answer to legislate as if all schoolmasters were +rogues. It is enough that they should know that their reports would +be scrutinized, to keep even the most reprobate of teachers from bearing +false witness in favour of their pupils.</p> + +<p>Secondly, I believe that unnecessary temptation is now being placed +before all parties concerned in examinations. The proper reward for a +good examination should be honour, not pounds, shillings, and pence. +The mischief done by pecuniary rewards offered in the shape of scholarships +and exhibitions at school and University, begins to be recognized +very widely. To train a boy of twelve for a race against all England is +generally to overstrain his faculties, and often to impair his usefulness +in later life; but to make him feel that by his failure he will entail on +his father the loss of a hundred a year, and on his teacher the loss of +pupils, is simply cruel at that early age.</p> + +<p>It is always said that these scholarships and exhibitions enable the +sons of poor parents to enjoy the privilege of the best education in +England, from which they would otherwise be debarred by the excessive +costliness of our public schools. But even this argument, strong as it +seems, can hardly stand, for I believe it could be shown that the majority +of those who are successful in obtaining scholarships and exhibitions at +school or at University are boys whose parents have been able to pay the +highest price for their children's previous education. If all these prizes were +abolished, and the funds thus set free used to lessen the price of education +at school and in college, I believe that the sons of poor parents +would be far more benefited than by the present system. It might also +be desirable to lower the school-fees in the case of the sons of poor +parents, who were doing well at school from year to year; and, in order +to guard against favouritism, an examination, particularly <i>vivâ voce</i>, +before all the masters of a school, possibly even with some outside examiner, +might be useful. But the present system bids fair to degenerate +into mere horse-racing, and I shall not wonder if, sooner or later, the +two-year olds entered for the race have to be watched by their trainer +that they may not be overfed or drugged against the day of the race. It +has come to this, that schools are bidding for clever boys in order to run +them in the races, and in France, I read, that parents actually extort +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> +money from schools by threatening to take away the young racers that +are likely to win the +Derby.<a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>If we turn from the schools to the Universities we find here, too, the +same complaints against over-examination. Now it seems to me that +every University, in order to maintain its position, has a perfect right +to demand two examinations, but no more: one for admission, the other +for a degree. Various attempts have been made in Germany, in Russia, +in France, and in England to change and improve the old academic +tradition, but in the end the original, and, as it would seem, the natural +system, has generally proved its wisdom and reasserted its right.</p> + +<p>If a University surrenders the right of examining those who wish to +be admitted, the tutors will often have to do the work of schoolmasters, +and the professors can never know how high or how low they should aim +in their public lectures. Besides this, it is almost inevitable, if the +Universities surrender the right of a matriculation-examination, that +they should lower, not only their own standard, but likewise the +standard of public schools. Some Universities, on the contrary, like +over-anxious mothers, have multiplied examinations so as to make quite +sure, at the end of each term or each year that the pupils confided to +them have done at least some work. This kind of forced labour may +do some good to the incorrigibly idle, but it does the greatest harm to all +the rest. If there is an examination at the end of each year, there can +be no freedom left for any independent work. Both teachers and +taught will be guided by the same pole-star—examinations; no deviation +from the beaten track will be considered safe, and all the pleasure +derived from work done for its own sake, and all the just pride and joy, +which those only know who have ever ventured out by themselves on +the open sea of knowledge, must be lost.</p> + +<p>We must not allow ourselves to be deceived by the brilliant show of +examination papers.</p> + +<p>It is certainly marvellous what an amount of knowledge candidates +will produce before their examiners; but those who have been both +examined and examiners know best how fleeting that knowledge is, +and how different from that other knowledge which has been acquired +slowly and quietly, for its own sake, for our own sake, without a +thought as to whether it would ever pay at examinations or not. A +candidate, after giving most glibly the dates and the titles of the +principal works of Cobbett, Gibbon, Burke, Adam Smith, and David +Hume, was asked whether he had ever seen any of their writings, and +he had to answer, No. Another, who was asked which of the works of +Pheidias he had seen, replied that he had only read the first two books. +That is the kind of dishonest knowledge which is fostered by too +frequent examinations. There are two kinds of knowledge, the one +that enters into our very blood, the other which we carry about in our +pockets. Those who read for examinations have generally their pockets +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> +cram full; those who work on quietly and have their whole heart in +their work are often discouraged at the small amount of their knowledge, +at the little life-blood they have made. But what they have +learnt has really become their own, has invigorated their whole frame, +and in the end they have often proved the strongest and happiest men +in the battle of life.</p> + +<p>Omniscience is at present the bane of all our knowledge. From the +day he leaves school and enters the University a man ought to make up +his mind that in many things he must remain either altogether ignorant, +or be satisfied with knowledge at second-hand. Thus only can he +clear the deck for action. And the sooner he finds out what his own +work is to be, the more useful and delightful will be his life at University +and later. There are few men who have a passion for all knowledge, +there is hardly one who has not a hobby of his own. Those so-called +hobbies ought to be utilized, and not, as they are now, discouraged, if +we wish our Universities to produce more men like Faraday, Carlyle, +Grote, or Darwin. I do not say that in an examination for a University +degree a minimum of what is now called general culture should not be +insisted on; but in addition to that, far more freedom ought to be given +to the examiner to let each candidate produce his own individual work. +This is done to a far greater extent in Continental than in English +Universities, and the examinations are therefore mostly confided to the +members of the <i>Senatus Academicus</i>, consisting of the most experienced +teachers, and the most eminent representatives of the different branches +of knowledge in the University. Their object is not to find out how +many marks each candidate may gain by answering a larger or smaller +number of questions, and then to place them in order before the world +like so many organ pipes. They want to find out whether a man, by +the work he has done during his three or four years at University, +has acquired that vigour of thought, that maturity of judgment, and +that special knowledge, which fairly entitle him to an academic status, +to a degree, with or without special honours. Such a degree confers no +material advantages;<a name="FNanchor_19" id="FNanchor_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> +it does not entitle its holder to any employment +in Church or State; it does not vouch even for his being a fit person to +be made an Archbishop or Prime Minister. All this is left to the later +struggle for life; and in that struggle it seems as if those who, after +having surveyed the vast field of human knowledge, have settled on a +few acres of their own and cultivated them as they were never cultivated +before, who have worked hard and have tasted the true joy and happiness +of hard work, who have gladly listened to others, but always +depended on themselves, were, after all, the men whom great nations +delighted to follow as their royal leaders in their onward march towards +greater enlightenment, greater happiness, and greater freedom.</p> + +<p>To sum up. No one can read Mill's Essay "On Liberty" at the present +moment without feeling that even during the short period of the last +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> +twenty years the cause which he advocated so strongly and passionately, +the cause of individual freedom, has made rapid progress, aye, +has carried the day. In no country <i>may</i> a man be so entirely himself, +so true to himself and yet loyal to society, as in England.</p> + +<p>But, although the enemy whose encroachments Mill feared most and +resented most has been driven back and forced to keep within his own +bounds,—though such names as Dissent and Nonconformity, which were +formerly used in society as fatal darts, seem to have lost all the poison +which they once contained,—Mill's principal fears have nevertheless not +been belied, and the blight of uniformity which he saw approaching +with its attendant evils of feebleness, indifference, and sequacity, has +been spreading more widely than ever in his days.</p> + +<p>It has even been maintained that the very freedom which every +individual now enjoys has been detrimental to the growth of individuality; +that you must have an Inquisition if you want to see martyrs; +that you must have despotism and tyranny to call forth heroes. The +very measures which Mill and his friends advocated so warmly, compulsory +education and competitive examinations, are pointed out as +having chiefly contributed to produce that large array of pass-men, that +dead level of uninteresting excellence, which is the <i>beau idéal</i> of a +Chinese Mandarin, while it frightened and disheartened such men as +Humboldt, Tocqueville, and John Stuart Mill.</p> + +<p>There may be some truth in all this, but it is certainly not the +whole truth. Education, as it has to be carried on, whether in +elementary or in public schools, is no doubt a heavy weight which +might well press down the most independent spirit; it is, in fact, +neither more nor less than placing, in a systematized form, on the +shoulders of every generation the ever-increasing mass of knowledge, +experience, custom, and tradition that has been accumulated by former +generations. We need not wonder, therefore, if in some schools all +spring, all vigour, all joyousness of work is crushed out under that load +of names and dates, of anomalous verbs and syntactic rules, of mathematical +formulas and geometrical axioms, which boys are expected to +bring up for competitive examinations.</p> + +<p>But a remedy has been provided, and we are ourselves to blame if +we do not avail ourselves of it to the fullest extent. Europe erected +its Universities, and called them the homes of the Liberal Arts, and +determined that between the slavery of the school and the routine of +practical life every man should have at least three years of freedom. +What Socrates and his great pupil Plato had done for the youth of +Greece,<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> +these new academies were to do for the youth of Italy, +France, England, Spain, and Germany; and, though with varying +success, they have done it. The mediæval and modern Universities +have been from century to century the homes of free thought. Here +the most eminent men have spent their lives, not merely in retailing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> +traditional knowledge, as at school, but in extending the frontiers of +science in all directions. Here, in close intercourse with their teachers, +or under their immediate guidance, generation after generation of +boys, fresh from school, have grown up into men during the three +years of their academic life. Here, for the first time, each man has +been encouraged to dare to be himself, to follow his own tastes, to +depend on his own judgment, to try the wings of his mind, and, lo, +like young eagles thrown out of their nest, they could fly. Here the +old knowledge accumulated at school was tested, and new knowledge +acquired straight from the fountain-head. Here knowledge ceased to +be a mere burden, and became a power invigorating the whole mind, +like snow which during winter lies cold and heavy on the meadows, +but when it is touched by the sun of spring melts away, and fructifies +the ground for a rich harvest.</p> + +<p>That was the original purpose of the Universities; and the more they +continue to fulfil that purpose the more will they secure to us that +real freedom from tradition, from custom, from mere opinion and +superstition, which can be gained by independent study only; the more +will they foster that "human development in its richest diversity" +which Mill, like Humboldt, considered as the highest object of all +society.</p> + +<p>Such academic teaching need not be confined to the old Universities. +There is many a great University that sprang from smaller beginnings +than your Midland Institute. Nor is it necessary, in order to secure +the real benefits of academic teaching, to have all the paraphernalia of +a University, its colleges and fellowships, its caps and gowns. What is +really wanted are men who have done good work in their life, and who +are willing to teach others how to work for themselves, how to think +for themselves, how to judge for themselves. That is the true academic +stage in every man's life, when he learns to work, not to please others, +be they schoolmasters or examiners, but to please himself, when he +works from sheer love of work, and for the highest of all purposes, the +conquest of truth. Those only who have passed through that stage +know the real blessings of work. To the world at large they may +seem mere drudges—but the world does not know the triumphant joy +with which the true mountaineer, high above clouds and mountain +walls that once seemed unsurpassable, drinks in the fresh air of the High +Alps, and away from the fumes, the dust, and the noises of the city, +revels alone, in freedom of thought, in freedom of feeling, and in the +freedom of the highest faith.</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">F. Max Müller.</span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +An Address delivered on the 20th October, before the Birmingham and Midland +Institute.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +Mill tells us that his Essay "On Liberty" was planned and written down in 1854. It +was in mounting the steps of the Capitol in January, 1855, that the thought first arose of +converting it into a volume, and it was not published till 1859. The author, who in his +Autobiography speaks with exquisite modesty of all his literary performances, allows himself +one single exception when speaking of his Essay "On Liberty." "None of my writings," he +says, "have been either so carefully composed or so sedulously corrected as this." Its final +revision was to have been the work of the winter of 1858 to 1859 which he and his wife +had arranged to pass in the South of Europe, a hope which was frustrated by his wife's +death. "The 'Liberty,'" he writes, "is likely to survive longer than anything else that I have +written (with the possible exception of the 'Logic'), because the conjunction of her mind with +mine has rendered it a kind of philosophic textbook of a single truth, which the changes +progressively taking place in modern society tend to bring out into stronger relief: the importance, +to man and society, of a large variety of character, and of giving full freedom to +human nature to expand itself in innumerable and conflicting directions."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +Herzen defined Nihilism as "the most perfect freedom from all settled concepts, from +all inherited restraints and impediments which hamper the progress of the Occidental intellect +with the historical drag tied to its foot."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +Ueber die Akademische Freiheit der Deutschen Universitäten, Rede beim Antritt +des Rectorats an der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin, am 15 October 1877, +gehalten von Dr. H. Helmholtz.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> +Ueber eine Akademie der Deutschen Sprache, p. 34. Another keen observer of +English life, Dr. K. Hillebrand, in an article in the October number of the <i>Nineteenth +Century</i>, remarks: "Nowhere is there greater individual liberty than in England, and nowhere +do people renounce it more readily of their own accord."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> +Spencer Hardy, "Manual of Buddhism," p. 391.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> +<i>Ibid.</i>, p. 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> +"As one generation dies and gives way to another, the heir of the consequences of all +its virtues and all its vices, the exact result of pre-existent causes, so each individual, in the +long chain of life, inherits all, of good or evil, which all its predecessors have done or been; +and takes up the struggle towards enlightenment precisely there where they left it."—Rhys +Davids, <i>Buddhism</i>, p. 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> +Bunsen, "Egypt," ii., pp. 77, 150.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> +Mémoire sur l'Origine Egyptienne de l'Alphabet Phénicien, par E. de Rougé, Paris, 1874.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> +See Brandis, "Das Münzwesen."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> +"Is it not almost a self-evident axiom, that the State should require and compel the +education, up to a certain standard, of every human being who is born its citizen? +Yet who is there that is not afraid to recognize and assert this truth?"—<i>On Liberty</i>, +p. 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> +<i>Times</i>, January 25, 1879.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> +"Sacred Books of the East," edited by M. M., vols. i., ii., iii.; Clarendon Press, +Oxford, 1879.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> +"Computation or Logic," t. iii., viii., p. 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> +Lectures on Mr. Darwin's "Philosophy of Language," <i>Fraser's Magazine</i>, June, 1873, p. 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> +Prantl, "Geschichte der Logik," vol. i. p. 121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> +L. Noiré, "Pädagogisches Skizzenbuch," p. 157; "Todtes Wissen."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> +Mill, "On Liberty," p. 193.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> +Zeller, "Ueber den wissenschaftlichen Unterricht bei den Griechen," 1878, p. 9.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span></p> + +<h2>MR. GLADSTONE.</h2> + +<h4>TWO STUDIES SUGGESTED BY HIS "GLEANINGS OF PAST YEARS."</h4> + +<div class="blockright"><p><i>Gleanings of Past Years: 1843-1878.</i> By the Right +Hon. W. E. <span class="smcap">Gladstone</span>, M.P. Seven vols. London: +John Murray.</p></div> + +<h4>I.</h4> + +<p>Lord Beaconsfield and his party are still holding on. All the +over-praised Disraelian craft has dwindled somehow to this merely +muscular operation. An attempt is, indeed, made to disguise the attitude +by keeping strict silence, and arranging the facial expression of the +Cabinet, if not of the Party, in a way not agreeing with the strain; +but the country is fast finding out that the real posture of the +Conservatives at this moment is that of clutching at office, and +nothing more. However, no amount of not talking about the elections +will put them off finally. In his most efficient days Lord Beaconsfield +was hardly clever enough to operate upon the almanack, and a certain +terrible date is approaching upon him with increasing swiftness. It +will be rather humiliating at last for a Premier to be brought up by +the day of the month, and to be reminded by the great officials of +Parliament what year of Our Lord it is. But these latter personages are +partly paid for watching the efflux of time, and no doubt they will do +their duty. It may be unpleasant for them to have to tell Lord Beaconsfield +that dates make it impossible for him to go on any longer, but +they must get what consolation they can from the remembrance that it is +the first time they ever had to say this to a Minister. Several Parliaments +in our history have been nicknamed rather uglily, but it is likely that the +Beaconsfield House of Commons will be known under a description more +humiliating than any, because so inescapeably accurate. It will literally +be the run-to-the-last-dregs Parliament, and when, on there not being +another moment left, the dissolution has necessarily to be ordered, the +not-any-longer-to-be-put-off elections will take place.</p> + +<p>When that unpostponeable day comes, it is very well known beforehand +whose will be the most towering figure on the hustings, whose the form +towards which all eyes must turn. It will be that of him whose name is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> +written at the head of this paper—Mr. Gladstone. Most Englishmen +will at first feel a crick in the neck in having to look behind them so far +north as Midlothian. But Liberals and Conservatives alike understand that +wherever Mr. Gladstone chooses to take up his position that becomes the +centre of the fight. If he stood for the Orkneys, he would still be too +near for his opponents; and, as for his friends, they remember that with +Ulysses' bow it did not greatly signify whether the hero was a few yards +further off or nearer. The bolts will reach. It is, indeed, not unlikely +that Mr. Gladstone may force on the conflict, and, after the speech at +Chester, the other side cannot say that they were left without warning. +The Conservative leaders have, in fact, a nearer date to calculate than the +final one of the Parliamentary calendar—that, namely, of Mr. Gladstone's +appearance in Midlothian. It may be supposed that they are already +anxiously counting the days of the dwindling interval. Whenever he +gives instructions for his hustings to be put up, the Conservatives will +have to send for their own carpenters, and order planks.</p> + +<p>The present moment, while he is temporarily absent, and just before +he again necessarily reappears in the very front of the public stage, may +not be an ill time for taking a hasty review of him and his career. It is, +in fact, a favourable chance. Mr. Gladstone, by stress of glorious hard +work and sheer public efficiency, has so unceasingly filled the passing +hour, always being fully occupied himself in dealing with a special +matter, and enforcing the attention of the nation to it, that he has +left people very little at leisure to take in a retrospect of him. The +result is, that there is great inadequacy in the public appreciation +of the dimensions of his career; it stretches back further, expands +wider, rises higher than most of us commonly keep in our minds. +Lately, it is true, Mr. Gladstone has taken great pains to remind +the country of his years; he has rather ostentatiously postured as +an old man. But without meaning to impugn his veracity, or to dispute +the register, we may say that he has scarcely got anybody to +believe it. He has gone on felling trees, writing letters and articles, and +publishing volumes, with utterances of more and better speeches between +than anybody else can make, in a way which has led not a few to +congratulate themselves that he was not any younger. In particular, his +opponents, so soon as they found out that his announcement of retirement +into ease meant that he was going to take the truest rest of all, to work +a little harder in another kind of way, positively made an outcry as if he +had pledged himself to gratify them by doing nothing. They seem rather +to complain that he has retired into greater publicity; but there is something +to be said about that matter. The implied bargain on Mr. +Gladstone's side at the time obviously was that the Conservatives were +themselves not to do anything in particular. It was to be a time of +stagnation, and they have not kept to that understanding; no sooner had +he turned his back than they began to swagger up and down the world as +Imperialists. They have risked the highest interests of the empire and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> +have made England figure on the wrong side, arrayed against the oppressed +and blustering for war. Mr. Gladstone could only keep quiet by +foregoing all patriotism. It was too much to ask from an old-fashioned +English statesman, who had always himself stood on the side of freedom +and peace, and had grown accustomed to seeing his country ranged there +too. However, we will speak again a little later on this point of his +announced retirement.</p> + +<p>It is nearly superfluous to remind any one that there is no statesman +now before the public with an official record which can in any way be +set beside Mr. Gladstone's even in the mere matters of length of +time and diversity of parts. There are a number of men in the House +of Commons older than Mr. Gladstone; there are some, though not +many, who have had a seat in it longer than he has; but there is no +one whose Ministerial life goes back nearly so far. He held office +forty-five years ago. Nearly a score of years had to pass after his first +appointment to a post before Mr. Disraeli joined a Ministry, and then +he stepped into the place which had been refused by Mr. Gladstone. +The latter's range of official experience excels others in breadth even more +than in length. Before he became Prime Minister he had been Under-Secretary +for the Colonies, Vice-President of the Board of Trade and +Master of the Mint, President of the Board of Trade, full Secretary +for the Colonies, and Chancellor of the Exchequer more than once. +There is no other journeyman politician with a stroke of work left in +him who has anything like this list of credentials of apprenticeship to +show. Mr. Gladstone learnt his craft under Peel, Aberdeen, Palmerston, +Russell; and then himself became the selecter and instructor of a +group of younger men for whom renewed office is only biding a not +very distant date. It is an honour alike to name the men he served +under and those whom he commanded; including in the association +with him some whom he attracted, and to whom the latter phrase might +scarcely fully apply; for Mr. Cobden worked with him without an office, +and Mr. Bright in one. These latter were achievements of personal +influence which may fairly rank a trifle higher than merely taking +precedence of a Duke in a Cabinet. If we go on to consider what has +happened in his time in the way of legislation and social reform, and +his connection with it, it may be said, speaking generally, that he has +witnessed the political and economical remoulding of this kingdom; and, +taking all things together, has helped it forward in more ways than +anybody else who still survives. If while Mr. Bright lives his name must +always have the honour of first mention when the Repeal of the Corn Laws +is spoken of, it was Mr. Gladstone who wrought out all the details of +Peel's fiscal reforms. He too it was who, much later, gave effect to +Cobden's negotiation of the French Commercial Treaty; and also, +again, made the best bargain that could be made when that first +international arrangement lapsed. Every amelioration bearing on +taxation and trade in our time has been naturally fated in some +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> +way to touch the hands of Mr. Gladstone. So, too, it was his conversion, +or rather his progress, on the question of the Franchise—proved by +his bringing in of the Russell measure—which made the immediate +granting of the vote certain, and challenged the Tory trick of the last +Reform Bill. The Ballot Act, without which the vote was but a sinister +gift, came from his Ministry. But let us turn from England to the sister +country. If Ireland is ever pacified, it will be then seen that it was Mr. +Gladstone who, by the Disestablishment of the Irish Church and by his +Land Act, laid the foundations of the peace. If the Roman Catholics get a +University now, they will only get what he offered them years ago. The +prosperity of Ireland is, indeed, sure some day to give to Mr. Gladstone's +memory a splendid revenge for the ingratitude she showed to the man +who brought legislating for Ireland into vogue. If we shift our regard to +diplomacy, the future is still clearly with him in several of the chiefest +international arrangements this generation has witnessed. When the +Berlin Treaty is cobwebbed, and forgotten by everybody but historians and +bookworms, the Treaty of Washington will be a living, ruling precedent +between the mighty English-speaking nations on both sides of the Atlantic; +and on the day that the Turks are thrust out of Europe, and the peoples +of those regions are settling the Eastern Question finally for themselves, +the then British Government, in begging somebody to take Cyprus off +our hands, will hear a larger Greece gratefully couple Mr. Gladstone's +name with the cession of the Ionian Islands.</p> + +<p>In every one of these matters Mr. Gladstone gets his good fortune +with posterity, as we believe, from having acted on Liberal principles. +It is the merit of those principles that, to borrow a phrase of his own, +they put Time on a man's side. He has trusted himself to the popular +impulses, which are the breezes blowing towards the future, giving +auspicious omens by the very working out of the world's events. But +if, apart from Liberalism, he would have had not much more significance +for the coming generations than Lord Beaconsfield will have when his +foreign policy has once been undone and set aside, Mr. Gladstone must +not be defrauded of a tittle of his due credit. He who has done all +this was once a Conservative, and, to make it still more wonderful, a +Peelite. Of that pale group of a Parliamentary section, which never +could be a party, he is the only one who escaped from the vain middle +region of ineffectiveness. For a man who was once a Peelite and has +never ceased to be a High Churchman to have gained supreme power in +this country is a political miracle. It was worked by sheer mental +force. Mr. Gladstone's greatest feat, making all the rest possible, was +the slowly but ever-ripeningly turning himself into a good, sound, +robust Liberal; but he not only had the wit to appreciate the inevitableness +of popular progress, he made himself a shaper and a helper +of it in ways which showed a willing adoption of its cause. For we may +scrutinize his career more closely than in the above rapid sketch, may look +down lower than these great pictorial incidents we have been recapitulating; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> +and, if we do so, we shall see a set of administrative reforms, +less showy, but very hard to carry, and which exhibit genuine Liberalism +in the grain of every one of them. It was under his auspices that the +Civil Service was thrown open to unlimited competition; he, in spite of +the Lords, with Earl Derby at their head, took the duty off paper, giving +us cheap newspapers; he consolidated the Law Courts, doing away a +whole web of legal artificialities; it was as his colleague that Mr. +Forster gave to the country its first national educational scheme; +but for him Mr. Cardwell would never have succeeded in altering +the principle of our military organization from long-period enlistments +to the short-term service; while Mr. Gladstone's opponents are willing +to thrust upon him the whole honour of abolishing purchase in the +army, because they think the issue of the Royal Warrant which, thanks +to their resistance of the reform, was the only means of effecting it, +lends itself to a taunt. Add to this list, the fact that although he, at +first, for easily seen reasons of mere habit of mind, going back to the +earlier days when he was Conservative, did not favour University +Reform, yet he finally lent himself fully to it, and it is not difficult to +understand the successive outcries raised against him in the higher +social quarters. He gave all the "interests" splendidly sufficient +reasons for their dislike, since wherever there was an abuse Mr. Gladstone +was as certain in the end to confront it as he is to appear, axe on +his shoulder, before any tree in Hawarden woods which has lived past +its time.</p> + +<p>But there is another way, more compendious still, of summing up +his political chronicle. His opponents at times exult over the fact of +his having often changed his constituencies. It is true, but it was +always for his growing Liberalism. Certainly, there are those who +once ensconced in a shire—say, in Buckinghamshire—remain there as +long as they need a seat. They never offend any one by progress of +view. Mr. Gladstone has not acted by that rule; he has got himself +turned out of constituency after constituency; but, we repeat, it was +always for the same reason—he became too big for them. Among his +highest distinctions are these,—he is the resigner of Newark, the +rejected of Oxford, the loser of South Lancashire. The thing has +occurred too often to admit of a casual explanation. It was not for +Liberalism, as it is now understood, that he, when still in his youth, +offended the mighty Duke of Newcastle and had to give up Newark, +but it was for reasoned-out consistency which gave hope of Liberalism. +He would not stultify his intellect by voting for Peel's proposed increase +of the Maynooth Grant in contradiction of his own book on Church and +State. But all the world knows that it was for Liberalism somewhat +developed that he quitted Oxford; and the cause of his defeat in Lancashire +was that he had for years been too busy in pushing forward +reforms on all hands. It was a noble vanquishment for him, whatever +it was for his party, for Lancashire, or for the country. Test his career +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> +how we will, the result still comes out to his honour. He, for +conscience' sake, offended the great patron on whom his whole prospects +then depended, remaining out of Parliament for a time; later, he went +over with Peel, knowing that it meant an ineffective hanging between +two parties for an indefinite time, sharing the hopes and chances of +neither; when Lord Derby came into power, he refused office on its +being offered. In a word, he has evidenced his sincerity and proved +his patriotism in every way for which it is allowed to other men to +claim honour. When a man has risked personal prospects, refused +place, held office in all its kinds, left one lagging constituency after +another behind him, and finally, by sheer insisting on rapid progress, +temporarily wearied the weak and lazy of his countrymen throughout +the whole nation, as the last general election showed that he had, what +more is there left for him to do for his country? Only one thing +remained: the sacrificing his retirement after the formal announcement +of the close of his career, and, afresh taking up his old post in the +front of the battle as if he were still young and had place and public +life to secure, striving his hardest a last time for the sake of his principles +and his party. It is this final possibility of sacrificing ease and +renewing labour which Mr. Gladstone undertakes in the Midlothian +campaign now so very soon to be opened by him.</p> + +<p>The above is the merest bird's-eye glance at his career, but it seemed +to us a retrospect which all Liberals should have in their minds more +completely than is common when he again draws to him the national +gaze, as he of necessity will do.</p> + +<p>But on reading back, how inadequate does the above record seem +for Mr. Gladstone! It is simply the background of the picture; a +field of industry and achievements, on which the portraiture of the +man himself needs yet making to stand out. We have been speaking +of the ex-Premier, for instance, just as we might talk of any +politician, and Mr. Gladstone, though our chiefest politician, has +throughout been so much more than that. It is perfectly true +that there is no public man among us who has projected less +of a special atmosphere of personality than he has through which +his doings are to be beheld. He has been too busy with his work to +think of any attitudinizing or trick in doing it. Mr. Gladstone's only +mannerism has been that of superior excellence of thinking, speaking, +and doing. Anybody else might have done and said what he has +uttered and effected, if only they had had the same ability and industry. +His one comprehensive distinction, summing up all the others, lies in +his having developed more of these two simple, old-fashioned things than +his best contemporaries. He has invented no mysteries, traded in no +artificialities, given us no pyrotechnics; only a plain common air lies +along his track, in which, if we perhaps except two or three points +where a little mist hangs, everything can be clearly seen in white light, +without exaggeration or distortion. His whole style has been the old +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> +traditionary English one, accentuated only by Scotch earnestness +and seriousness of religious feeling. If Mr. Gladstone, however, has +not made any eccentric or theatrical impression on the public mind, he +has done something larger and better. He has kept all the three +kingdoms continuously aware of him as an element in our general +thinking, as well as being a power in our practical affairs. If we put +aside Mr. Carlyle, Mr. Mill, and Mr. Ruskin, scarcely any one has had +so much to do with the general mental activity of the last two generations +as Mr. Gladstone. The result is what we have just pointed out,—that +if we sketch him as a statesman only, everybody sees that the +canvas is not big enough. It is a sufficiently full description of most +men who have been politicians to ascribe to them statesmanship; but +in Mr. Gladstone's case we want a yet larger phrase; his business has +not been politics merely, it has been patriotism; and he has made +time, nobody quite knows how, to do nearly as much work outside +Parliament as within it. We may cut a scholar able to adorn a +university out of Mr. Gladstone, and then carve from him a fine +student and reverencer of Art; next mark off a reviewer and general +<i>littérateur</i> whom professed authors will respectfully make room for in +their ranks; and not only is there still left, solid and firm, the great +Parliamentary Minister, but of the scattered fragments a couple of +Bishops might easily be made, with, if nothing at all is to be wasted, +several preachers for the denominations. The latter would be derived +from a morsel or two of material which Mr. Gladstone himself is not +fully aware of as being in his composition. It is not very easy to give +a complete impression offhand of such a multiform personage as this. +We must take him a little simpler. The general effect of it all has been, +as we said above, that the mental activity of the community in all +matters relating to politics and practical affairs has had to take its rate +and much of its scale largely from him, and he has been thinking with +the speed, not of the old jog-trot political life, but with the rapidity of +ethical and religious cogitation, and has insisted on giving thought to +everything. In fact, the ultimate impression which Mr. Gladstone +has made upon the community has been that of an intellect weaponed +with a perfectly fluent tongue, and a hand holding the quickest of +pens, occupying the very highest national posts, ceaselessly going on +reasoning, insisting upon doing it, whether the reasoning might +occasionally go wrong or not, just as if thinking, speaking, and writing +were man's right employment. His chief opponents would, perhaps, +hesitate in flatly saying that they were not; but, at any rate, they +have continually been wanting him to stop. Nearly all the complaint +that was ever made of Mr. Gladstone resolves itself into a charge that +he has thought and spoken and written too much. The accusation is +one which it would task a great many men to lay themselves open to; +it is never thought of in the case of the bulk of us. Above all, he has +kept on thinking; he would use his mind. Possibly the other side might +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> +have forgiven it, if only he had not done it so well; if only this promptest, +quickest ratiocination on the part of a practical politician in our times +had not, as it progressed, brought him ever nearer to the conclusions +of Liberalism. He has, we are, however, rather ashamed to admit, +had to suffer from his own party for this unusualness of mental +activity. Our practical politics for generations past had been carried +on upon such shallow reasoning, on such a hand-to-mouth principle +of mere party expediency, that even some Liberals were surprised +when he brought a little subtlety of intellect into public life. It +was enough to make a smaller man despair of his countrymen's +sanity when he found that for years many of them could not +distinguish between an Anglican High Churchman and an admirer +of Rome.</p> + +<p>To speak plainly, there was never such a humiliating spectacle +of public stolidity as that which for so long a time was witnessed in the +popular mystification as to Mr. Gladstone's religious position. It went +for nothing that his first critical Parliamentary step was to give up his +seat rather than vote more money to Maynooth; nobody seemed to bear +in mind that as far back as 1852 he both predicted and publicly hoped for +the downfall of the temporal power of the Papacy, and that ten years +later Sir George Bowyer openly attacked him on that very point in +Parliament; it did not avail that he it was who paved the way for the +unification of Italy by dragging into the light before all Europe the +prison secrets of Neapolitan tyranny. Because he had the good sense +to oppose the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, and the loyalty to remain on +terms of friendship with the companions of his youth after they became +Puseyites, and avowed that he held the same views as to Church doctrine +which some of the greatest Church of England divines taught, he was +called on to explain, every month or so, that he was not a Jesuit. Not +until he published his pamphlet on the Vatican Decrees, and by so +doing threw all the Roman Catholics in England and elsewhere into +a white heat of rage, was the silliness quite exploded. It is true that +the dull public might plead that a real profession of religiousness on +the part of a leading politician was such a novelty that it might be +excused being a little puzzled, and believing the worst in its perplexity. +Worst or best, Mr. Gladstone has gone on speaking and writing about +his religion just as if a man's ethics and faith ought to have some +connection with his politics, and, as time has passed, people appear to +think it less strange. This non-reticence on the score of religion has +made more serious the impression Mr. Gladstone has produced upon +the public mind; but in reality it is no specialty in his mode of +public thinking, but only a necessary part of it. He tracks his commonest +politics to their fundamental principles, and makes of them a +system. He has always in his reasoning to go back to history, and +this has delayed his advance in comparison with men who dispense +with that; but there never yet was a public man who explained so +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> +fully as Mr. Gladstone the reasons of his changes. All the progress +of his mind is to be traced in speeches, articles, pamphlets, volumes. +He has given too much explanation, not too little, for his mind has an +insatiability for reasons. Most people are content when they get hold +of a good one; but he wants three or four—in fact, all that can be got +by searching for; and if it be true, as it certainly is, that he likes the +last to have a little subtlety about it, long-sustained thinking cannot +take people too deep in politics, whatever it may do now and then in +religion. For instance, on the question of Reform Mr. Gladstone has +certainly exhausted the process, having at last got at the final ideal +argument. It turns out, as he stated it to Mr. Lowe, to be this,—that, +apart from, or rather in addition to, all the hard reasons of justice and +safety that Mr. Bright can urge for extending the franchise, the vote +ought to be given because it has an educative power, and will make +our humbler fellow-countrymen better citizens. It is open to any one, +who is stupid enough, to call that argument subtle, but no one can deny +that it is truly Liberal. There is not a man among us to-day who keeps +the main Liberal issues so broad and clear as Mr. Gladstone does, and +this simply because he will get to a principle. He adds a tremendous +multiplicity of ideas in the way of side issues, but, as we above put it, +they are all reasons in addition. There is a very simple test of it,—he +has never recanted a single article of his Liberal progress, never gone +back a single step. This hardly can be said of either Mr. Lowe or a +few others who might be named. It could not even be said of so +thorough a Liberal as Earl Russell. Mr. Gladstone's alleged over-refining +has ended in placing and keeping him in the practical lead of his party, at a +time of life when many born in the faith grow faint-hearted. Even the +one bit of mysticism which his political feeling has developed—namely, +the belief that the popular judgment is truest of all in very large matters—is +only the full flowering of the popular trust which every Liberal +professes to have. The bulk of the nation will forgive him that excess of +political belief, if it be an excess, for it is the last compliment a statesman +can pay them, and they have but to merit it, and it then turns to Mr. +Gladstone's praise as well as theirs. But, at any rate, it will not do for +Liberals to set out to argue the point with Mr. Gladstone, or they will +quickly find themselves tripped up by a principle; for it is no sentimentality +in him which underlies the view, but completed logic and +wide recollection of historical instances.</p> + +<p>Indeed, although it was necessary in trying to reproduce the general +impression Mr. Gladstone has made upon his contemporaries to speak +of this alleged over-refining, what is meant by it has been after all a +kind of superfluity of mental operation. His intricacy of thinking has +never hindered his activity; least of all living men has Mr. Gladstone +been a dreamer. He stands in history as a reviser of fiscal policies; an +introducer of new administrative modes; a widener of the boundaries of +political rights; a ceaseless overthrower of public abuses. From first to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> +last he has been, as the hatred of his opponents has too well witnessed, +a man of practice. You may add to this that he reasons too minutely, +if you like; but it was not by a transcendental casuistry of politics that +he wearied the country: it was by his enormous energy in ceaselessly +proposing wide sweeping measures. The casuistry was all in addition. +The over-refining of Mr. Gladstone has, in fact, been of a wholly different +kind from what is common among men; it has consisted in finding +justifications afterwards for very prompt vigorous doing. Examine, if +any one thinks it worth while at this time of day, the Ewelme Rectory +case, or the issue of the Royal Warrant on Purchase, or the Collier +appointment, and it will appear that it was for bold decision in +taking a practical step that he was arraigned as much as for subsequently +finding too many reasons for it. For ourselves, as we have +not set out to apologize for Mr. Gladstone (men of his dimensions +must be taken as they are), but simply to put down hints recalling +more fully than is usual the great features of his career, there is +no need for our not saying that we wish he had in some cases dispensed +with these arguments in excess of the conclusion. In some +instances it is as wise after all, though not so clever, to be satisfied +with urging one good reason, and not to confuse ordinary people +by adding five or six more not so good, the risk being that there +will be a bad one among them. But the fact remains that Mr. Gladstone +has not busied himself in tying mental knots for the purpose of +entanglement; he has indulged in no such waste of time. The mental +puzzle has always referred to some practical doing. Owing to this, his +opponents have had to admit his mental sincerity, while accusing him +of over-subtlety. It nearly all turned, in fact, into the psychological +question of whether Mr. Gladstone's mind had not at one part of its +machinery a twist, and in the meantime while this point was being discussed +he went on carrying his measures. If there were Liberals who +did not quite follow him in his defence of the issue of the Royal +Warrant, when he drew distinctions between prerogative and statutory +power, they had not the least doubt that in abolishing purchase he had +effected a capital Liberal reform, and they might hope that his reasoning +as well as his practice was right. Is Mr. Gladstone to be the only +one to whose idiosyncrasy nothing is to be allowed? The hullabaloo +which was raised when somebody could say that he had broken through +a technicality seemed very like, after all, as though from this one politician +perfection was expected, which was not an ill compliment at bottom; +and any admirers who may admit that perfection was not always got, +do not, in granting that, depreciate him much as this world goes, and may +still think him the most upright of our public men. His mental +machinery is complicated, whilst there is no apparatus like it for +rapidity, and once set going he himself cannot always stop it; his +mind, as we have said, riots in ratiocination, and will multiply arguments +to the last shred of the material which any case in hand affords. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> +But, to return to the main point,—it never leaves go of the real business. +Even what has seemed to some persons his off-work, his voluminous +writing, has, with the one exception of his classical studies, been no +mere leisurely literature, but persistent advocacy of special objects. +These productions have been meant to frame public opinion, and to +give him openings for legislation, if that became possible. He has +used the press because it had become the hugest instrument of the time +he lived in; but it was not for the purpose of multiplying books that +Mr. Gladstone wrote, but with a view to practically influencing men.</p> + +<p>This relentless subordination of everything to practical ends—this +iron determination to keep doing, even while ready frankly to depend +upon his power of speaking and writing to produce conviction and +popular persuasion as the means for effecting his objects, gives as +the final imprint of Mr. Gladstone on one's mind that he was +always meant for a Liberal. A man of this kind might be born +a Conservative; it might take him time to break fully with old +ties; but for him to stay finally in the ranks where thought was +allowed to remain muddled, where abuses were looked on with toleration, +and ease was enjoyed at the cost of others, was an impossibility. +Mr. Gladstone, if only from the fact that he was a born +financier and an inveterate thinker, and a man with a passion for +publicly talking, belonged to the Liberals from the first. His +whole life, too, has consistently lent itself to that style. If it has +had in it a touch of austerity, that excellently befitted the social +condition of the masses of our people. His gaze has been fixed too +much upon them to be attracted by the glitter of the narrow upper +circle, which so foolishly persists, amidst its gaudy splendour, in believing +itself the nation. That silliness was not for Mr. Gladstone. He has +been subjected to some tests. If his family was not highly placed, his +father was a baronet, and he himself was educated at Eton and Oxford. +Nobles have been among his friends at all periods of his life, as well as +his official subordinates more than once in it. But he has passed +the whole of his long career without a sparkle of the glitter of +adventitious display: that proudest title of all, which it is not in the +power of the Crown to bestow but only to take away—"the Great +Commoner"—has descended upon him, and is still his. Then he has +fenced himself off with no stiffness of manner; the only dignity he has +assumed has been the natural seriousness of ardent sincerity, warning off +triflers only. To everybody else he has been accessible; any person +could impose on him the trouble of a written reply. His post-cards +were known to be public property. But putting aside that joke, +which is now worn bare, scarcely has any one so fully and ungrudgingly +accepted the responsibilities of his position. He has been the public's +faithful, ready servant in every particular. Nor has it been mere complaisance, +or a drudging of mechanical industry; he has exhibited a real +faculty of interesting himself in all that anybody has been doing actively +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> +and well. To say that he is the only statesman who, while clinging to +the Church of England, has commanded the sympathies of the Dissenters, +might provoke an enemy, embittered by the fact, to reply that he had +tactical reasons for trying to do that; but it could have been nothing +else than real width of mind and a robust versatility which enabled this +High Churchman largely to divide impartial admiration between the +Evangelical party and the Romanists, pointing out fully and exactly +what is to be praised in each. Any one who wishes it can find the +estimates set out in detail in the third and seventh volumes of "The +Gleanings." This wide range of intellectual appreciation is really as +much a characteristic of Mr. Gladstone as has been his unyielding +tenacity and doctrinal hold within the limits of his personal confession +of belief. He, a firm acceptor of the tenets of sacramental efficacy, apostolical +succession, and the authority of the Church in her own sphere, could +take up the semi-rationalistic book "Ecce Homo," and turn it round-and-round +admiringly as a most curious and valuable mental production. +Nothing in which thought was really shown has escaped his notice, or +failed to arouse his interest. He has bent his look on Secularism, as +a scientific inquirer might scrutinize a new species, and he has stooped +to quote Mr. Bradlaugh. In one place you will find him, very likely +on the page after giving a passage from Isaiah or the Psalms, citing the +old poet Dunbar, or speaking of Rowe or Swift, or alluding to Rousseau; +while long before it became a fashion he had words of sympathizing +praise for Shelley, selecting, of all other places, <i>The Quarterly Review</i> to +print them in. But, perhaps, the clearest proof of all, alike of his +power to bear testimony in spite of personal disliking, and his standing +hard and fast upon a principle when he has reached it, is that he, whom +Macaulay nearly half a century ago described as "a young man of unblemished +character," and whom his Lordship, if he were now alive, +would speak of as "the old man with personal fame unspotted," could +step aside in one of his articles to recognize the public debt due to Jack +Wilkes as a helper forward of our freedom. Wherever a national +service has been done, Mr. Gladstone's eulogy always has been ready.</p> + +<p>Down to this point we have not spared so much as a hint to his magnificent +oratory, his unsurpassed debating skill, his not infrequent successes +in literary style. These were not the things that anybody +needed reminding of, and that necessity was the prescribed limit of our +self-imposed task. Who has forgotten when the expounding of the +Budget was the greatest intellectual treat of the Session, when sugar +and railway duties and tea became natural themes for eloquence, and +the unfolding of the surplus was breathlessly waited for like the <i>dénouement</i> +of a novelist's plot? Those scenes are long past, it is true, but +the echoes of them can still be heard, for each year since has brought a +disappointing reminder to awaken them. But the matchless vigour and +splendour of his debating fence has never slackened, never weakened; +the only privilege of the older generation in respect of it, is that they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> +can boast to have witnessed more of it, not to have seen better displays. +As to his writings, there least of all is any reminder wanted, for +he presents the public with an improving specimen each month. If any +one laid themselves out to find fault with Mr. Gladstone's literature, the +very worst thing they could discover to say of it, would be that it still +was oratory, only written down.</p> + +<p>This is the man who, after a few weeks of leisure, reappears next +month in Midlothian; first in the field, as if that appearance was his by +right of custom. How well he compares with the rest of our older +party leaders! Mr. Bright, grown a little pursy, though also stricken +by domestic misfortune, rests rather inertly on his laurels, which certainly +are plentiful enough to invite repose; Mr. Forster has never succeeded +in quite finding his way out of the clauses of his own Education +Act, where he sees himself confronted with the Church of England at +the end of so many vistas, that he is lost in admiration of its architecture; +Mr. Goschen, by some strange weakness (which, let us hope, is +only temporary) has got a scare from meeting the County Franchise +wearing Joseph Arch's coat and hat; while Mr. Lowe is riding hobbies, +bicycle-wise, in and out before the very select constituency of the London +University, with readers of <i>The Fortnightly Review</i> for outside spectators, +just by way of showing off his little feats of mental gymnastic. In the +meanwhile, Mr. Gladstone, the veteran of them all, is putting on his +harness for a fresh contest, a riper, better Liberal to-day than on any +previous day of fight. It is for the younger men to rally round him.</p> + +<p>But, before taking our leave of Mr. Gladstone, we have finally to enlarge +our view of him. Early in these remarks it seemed well to give a very +hasty summary of his whole career; but there remains to be attempted +an exact sketch of his actual position in respect of opinions and practical +relations at the moment when he ceased to be Minister. Let us, first +of all, at this moment when a Brummagem Imperialism is only yet half-faded, +recall what was Mr. Gladstone's opinion of the historic position +and natural function of England among the nations; for it has been +craftily made to appear that he was willing, and indeed anxious, for this +country to efface itself. In 1870, when he was still at the height of +power, he published in <i>The Edinburgh Review</i> his article on "Germany, +France, and England," and the following was the view he then put +forward of the international obligations and duties of his country, in spite +of the sea dividing us from other lands:—</p> + +<p>"Yet we are not isolated.... With vast multitudes of persons in +each of the Continental countries we have constant relations, both of +personal and commercial intercourse, which grow from year to year; +and as, happily, we have no conflict of interests, real or supposed, nor +scope for evil passions afforded by our peaceful rivalry, there is nothing +to hinder the self-acting growth of concord.... So far from this +implying either a condition or a policy of isolation, it marks out England +as the appropriate object of the general confidence.... All that is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> +wanted is that she should discharge the functions, which are likely more +and more to accrue to her, modestly, kindly, impartially.... But +in order that she may act fully up to a part of such high distinction, +the kingdom of Queen Victoria must be in all things worthy of it. The +world-wide cares and responsibilities with which the British people have +charged themselves are really beyond the ordinary measure of human +strength; and until a recent period it seemed the opinion of our rulers +that we could not do better than extend them yet further, wherever an +opening could easily, or even decently, be found. With this avidity +for material extension was joined a preternatural and morbid sensibility. +Russia at the Amoor, America at the Fee-jee or the Sandwich Islands, +France in New Caledonia or Cochin China—all these, and the like, were +held to be good reasons for a feverish excitement lest other nations +should do for themselves but the fiftieth part of what we have done for +ourselves.... The secret of strength lies in keeping some proportion +between the burden and the back."</p> + +<p>Is it necessary to ask whether this is a policy combining dignified +patriotism and prudently-restrained common sense? Compare it for a +moment with the gewgaw skimble-skamble diplomatic sensationalism +with which we have been presented since. But let us go a little more +into detail as to Mr. Gladstone's standing with reference to international +relations. This present Government has perhaps forgotten that there is +such a nation in the world as the United States of America; but Mr. +Gladstone kept it well in mind, and we suppose every one will admit +that he, of all statesmen, stands well with that people of our own blood, +who very shortly will be the most powerful community upon the earth, +and the one with whom we shall, for all time, have most to do. However, +we will keep within the bounds of Europe. It is the fashion now +to give precedence to Germany. Well, Mr. Gladstone was among the +first to predict the success of Prussia, and she is not likely to forget +who it was who preserved neutrality at a moment most critical to her. +Is it France that he is not on good relations with? Why this Minister, who +invited her wine trade, and strove unceasingly to increase commerce to and +fro across the Channel, and who is for giving further and further political +rights to his countrymen, is the only English statesman whom the bulk +of Frenchmen can understand. To them our Tories must be as antiquated +as their own Royalists. Italy is a growing Power in the European +comity, and who is there among our statesmen who can in her fair cities +arouse half the enthusiasm he can? He is, literally, the only English +politician they familiarly know. With Austria, it is true, he during +the recent war lost patience for a moment, but her conduct since has +told that her rulers must at the time have known that he had good +reasons for it; and no one has more fully appreciated the difficulties of +Austria's position than he has done, or was more early in giving her, years +ago, the very counsel which she has since proved was the wisest for her. +There remains one other great Power to be named—Russia; the State +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> +with whom we shall have directly of necessity to stand face to face in the +far East, and with whom terms will in the end have somehow to be made. +It is urged against Mr. Gladstone that he has not rendered himself +obnoxious enough to this remaining Power—that is, that he did not +incapacitate himself for negotiating with her, and, having postponed +defiance of her, might make some peaceful arrangement. Can any +friend of peace think this a very grievous accusation? Mr. Gladstone +has gained this position of goodwill all round at what cost?—that of +having fallen into disfavour with the Turks. That is his one terrible +disqualification for affairs; or, if you wish to be precisely exhaustive, +and at the same time to elicit the absurdity fully, you may add to it +that he has irritated the Bourbons. It is quite true, and we, indeed, +wish to put it clearly forward, that he was for abating a little of our +national swagger, and was prepared to see, and to welcome, advancement +in other nations. But every well-grounded Liberal knows that it +is only on those two conditions that England can permanently pursue +her own paths of industrial development, and the world make progress. +Mr. Gladstone's single sin in reference to our external relations was his +readiness to favour those two results.</p> + +<p>But how does he show when a last view is taken of him from within +our politics? Here, again, first look to the circumference. In dealing +with the colonies, he was for all being put in possession of a free autonomy, +and then urging them to self-reliance—in those ways welding them into +the integrity of the empire; and as to India, he insisted that we should +strive more and more to realize what he termed the generous conception +of a moral trusteeship, to be administered for the benefit of those over +whom we rule. Here, once more, we get the true ring of a sound +Liberalism, for those are the only principles, we venture to affirm, on +which such an empire as this of ours can ever be made permanent. Treating +the colonies as babies and biting the thumb at Russia, even from the +most scientific frontier India can furnish, though you shout "Empress" +from it as loudly as you will, has nothing truly English about it. +Empire is not kept in such a mawkish, artificial manner.</p> + +<p>But now narrow the gaze within our own home limits. The chief +domestic questions for the British public are these,—extension of the +County Franchise, the Redistribution of Seats, the Disestablishment of +the Church, and Retrenchment of Expenditure. The Land Question +will yet have to grow, and may not ripen in his time. But on three of +the above pending matters Mr. Gladstone stands at the very front. He +is for making our field cultivators citizens no less than our artizans; he +is for re-allotting members in a manner which will give us a Parliament +truly representative; and it is hardly necessary to speak of economical +benefits in connection with the Minister who used the nation to +reduction of taxation and surpluses arriving together, and whose last +promise under that head was the total abolition of the Income Tax. +On the other of these great domestic matters, that which stands third +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> +in the above list, the Disestablishment of the Church, it has seemed to +advanced Liberals that Mr. Gladstone has lagged. But the lively fear +of his opponents on this very matter is full of hope. Since he last +dissented from Mr. Miall's motion, he has written a very significant +phrase in an article in this Review. In treating of "The Courses of +Religious Thought," when reviewing the churches of the United States +and of the British Colonies he spoke of their vigorous growth, "far from +the possibly chilling shadow of National Establishments of Religion." In +that phrase, for a man so practical as is Mr. Gladstone, Disestablishment +seems to cast its shadow before, and not a few persons on the other side +of the question shivered from the chilliness it made. But these topics +of the first class do not depend upon any one statesman; the biggest of +men have these capital problems thrust upon them; all that you +can do is to take note how a leader stands in reference to them. +And the above is Mr. Gladstone's standing. But there was another +class of legislative reforms which he was the man to have gone in search +of. In one of his most recent articles he has given us a hint of a dream +of this kind which was in his mind. He stated it thus:—"Our +currency, our local government, our liquor laws, portions even of our +taxation, remain in a state either positively disgraceful, or at the least +inviting and demanding improvement." That programme of the further +benefits which we should have owed to Mr. Gladstone was put aside by the +giddiness of twenty-five or thirty constituencies at the last elections, but it +will fittingly serve to give the finishing touch to our presentation of +him in this paper. Liberals have, in fact, to thank him for offering more +of reform and of benefit than the country would let him give it. Splendid +as his achievements have been, he really had others in reserve.</p> + +<p>Is it too late? is the question that naturally arises. Certainly there +is no hope of having the five years of administration by him which +we have lost since 1874. That is irretrievable; and if Mr. Gladstone +felt then his growing years, and had a wish to finish other tasks apart +from politics, he is no younger now; while the aims of his purposed +leisure must have been greatly interfered with by his partial recall +to affairs owing to the dangers to which freedom in Bulgaria and our +own national credit were exposed. It is wholly a matter for Mr. +Gladstone to decide. If the next elections go in favour of the +Liberals, all the world knows that office is there for him to take or +to leave. Earl Granville, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Hartington would, +we need not say, be among the first even to urge it as far as it was right +to do so, and the whole party would welcome him back to power with a +shout of joy. Who knows? Mr. Gladstone's patriotism is great, and our +financial muddle will, also, be very great about that time. Between the +two he might be tempted; he may yet do us the final service of putting the +national finances right again. It is, we repeat, wholly for him to say. +Earlier in this paper a further word was promised on the subject of +his retirement; but, upon second thoughts, it scarcely seems necessary. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span> +Mr. Gladstone was too experienced in Parliamentary doings +not to know that the Conservatives would take care to keep enough +of their majority until time itself forced them back to the unwished-for +hustings. He did his party not an atom of practical injury by +retiring; rather, it was a good opportunity for giving a younger leader +practice. It would be quite idle, on the other hand, to argue with +his opponents for complaining that he did not retire enough. He has +made speeches, they say; he has written articles in every organ there +is; he has even republished previous writings. As we before said, they +have themselves to blame for it in great measure: if they wanted Mr. +Gladstone to stay in retirement, they should have carefully kept quiet. +Instead of that they made a noise before his door, disturbing him in his +studies. What more natural than that he should come out? He did so, +and found that, disguised like harlequins in the flimsy bedizenment which +they call Imperialism, they were playing high jinks with Britain's +reputation and the chances of freedom for the oppressed in the East. It +was too much for him; but if they complain of the number of the weapons +he attacked them with, we know that it would have been impossible for +him to please them there. They never have been satisfied on that +score. What they really find fault with are the blows they got.</p> + +<p>And there are more to come. Directly we shall have them complaining +that he has chosen a constituency so far away as Scotland; +the real fact being that they wish he had gone much farther still. +They never are sincere with Mr. Gladstone; he cannot please them. +We leave them anxiously listening for his approach again unto these +shores, knowing very well that to their thinking they will hear his +voice all too soon.</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">A Liberal.</span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h4>II.</h4> + +<p>Description is said to be only possible by comparing, and when one +is asked to sketch Mr. Gladstone, how is it to be set about? His +admirers will have it that he has been a very great Minister, so that +if we adopt the comparative method, we ought to look high for +standards. Shall we match him alongside Bismarck or Cavour? The +latter, to give him precedence, stands renowned for building up his +country in evil days, when every omen was against her. But Mr. +Gladstone, succeeding to power when England was in the full tide of +prosperity and at the height of fame, gave up her prospects, and would +have acquiesced in her decadence. There is no likeness whatever +between him and Cavour. Then take Bismarck. The great German +Chancellor shares with the Italian Minister the glory of having widened +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span> +the bounds and raised the position of his land, and he stands now head +and shoulders above all in the midst of the diplomatic world a very +Colossus. But Mr. Gladstone is and has always been outside that world +altogether. Prince Bismarck has his hand on all the springs of action, and +will let pass no chance of exalting his country. Mr. Gladstone, we repeat, +never made the slightest impression in the regions of diplomacy; +Courts did not know him, foreign statesmen left him out of their +reckoning of the men that had to be dealt with. The great international +achievements for which he has alone been talked of have been +the surrender of British territory and the paying down of English +money lavishly to another State for preposterous claims. But it +will be said that it is not fair to Mr. Gladstone to compare him to +Prince Bismarck and Count Cavour, for they were men who found their +country in unusual circumstances. Look, then, to names in our own +history. Pitt must not be spoken of for the reasons just allowed in the +other cases; but there are Canning and Palmerston. How does +Mr. Gladstone look alongside them? He has himself more than +once alluded to Canning, as if not unwilling to be thought to have +received his mantle. It was, however, always only in connection with +Greece that he spoke of Canning; but that Minister looked much +farther than the Mediterranean. One would have thought that so fine +a rhetorician as Mr. Gladstone would not have forgotten the famous +phrase in which Canning claimed to have called the New World into +existence to redress the balance of the Old. Lord Palmerston was +without any such fine phrases, but in foreign affairs he acted boldly, +though he had to fall back on a musty Latin quotation to describe it. +Every Englishman, however, understood Latin when their Minister said, +<i>Civis Romanus sum</i>. Yet neither of these Ministers at any part of their +career lived in times more stirring than Mr. Gladstone has done, nor +when the interests of England were more endangered. He has still later +had magnificent opportunities, but he did worse than lose them.</p> + +<p>From all this, it would seem that, whether we look abroad or at home, +there is no possibility of describing Mr. Gladstone by hints of comparison +with these historical personages. What is said in that way +appears, in fact, to turn into contrast; which is, also, itself a mode of +delineation, though not usually of the kind the chief object of it +wishes. We can find no Minister to couple along with him as having +deliberately despaired of his country. However, Mr. Gladstone is +certainly great in some way, for although other nations while we were +under his sway were gradually losing sight of England herself as well as +of him, he was making plenty of noise all the time at home. If it should +turn out, as we go on, that he was not a great Minister but a great +orator, that would seem to account for both the things. If Bismarck +and Cavour have made affairs, Mr. Gladstone has made speeches, +beating them as much in that as they did him in the other respect. +But it is not exactly the same thing to the countries the men represent.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> +It is, therefore, under a humbler, more domestic aspect than that +of this high supreme style of Minister which we have first tried that +we must begin Mr. Gladstone's portraiture. The task may be divided +into two portions. There is the opinion which we Conservatives hold +of the general influence and effect he has had upon our national interests, +in which we may be credited with at least trying to estimate his acts and +measures on their merits; and, besides that, there is a judgment of +him from a narrower party view, arising out of his historic relation to +ourselves. We will take the latter first.</p> + +<p>To hear Liberals talk, one might suppose that Conservatives had +always cherished a special hatred against Mr. Gladstone simply for +ceasing to be a Tory and becoming a Radical. That the Conservatives +rather late in his career came to show much irritation against Mr. Gladstone +is perfectly correct; but it was, as I hope to show as I go on, for +very different reasons than simply because he had made one Conservative +less and one Liberal more. A great political party has no such +immortal animosities as that supposes: party feeling is not based +on merely sentimental grounds. Both sides are used to losing men. +It is the common fate of Parliamentary warfare. Now and then, +some rather idle person who has time to waste in going back a long +way in his recollections bethinks himself that Lord Beaconsfield was +not always a Conservative; but we never yet heard of any one among +the party challenging sympathy for him on the score that he had +been hunted by the Liberals through half a century or so for having +deserted them. Yet it will be admitted that Lord Beaconsfield has +injured the Liberals more than ever Mr. Gladstone has done the +Conservatives. What is the reason, then, of this difference of alleged +treatment in the two cases? The answer may be given in half a +sentence,—Lord Beaconsfield, alike when he was Mr. Disraeli and +since, has always fought fair. That is enough in politics to make +your opponents acquiesce in your being such; but Mr. Gladstone +as his career developed surprised and puzzled everybody, his own friends +included; and those who blame the Conservatives for, in the end, +losing temper and showing exasperation, should bear in mind that +he finally produced the very same effect upon the country at large.</p> + +<p>It is worth while following this point a little further, for it would not +be of much use attempting to sketch Mr. Gladstone if we are supposed +to dislike him from some mere party instinct. Will anybody be good +enough to tell us when this inscrutable emotion of hatred of Mr. Gladstone +arose? Liberals are not supposed to be strong in history, but they +have very short memories indeed if they have forgotten both their own +career and his. Why, in 1852—that is, in the twentieth year of +Mr. Gladstone's Parliamentary life—the Conservatives were offering +him office, which was not refused by him with over-much promptness. +For nearly fourteen years after that he was retained as the representative +of the University of Oxford. It is, in fact, not yet very +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> +much more than a dozen years since this victim of political persecution, +and present champion of the Radicals, was quietly ensconced +in a seat for what is sometimes spoken of as the head-quarters of +Toryism. He has roved a good deal among the constituencies since, +but he was then willing to have gone on remaining at Oxford, if +his constituents had also been willing to have been made laughing-stocks +by letting him remain. Surely a man who represented Tory electors until +he was getting fast on for sixty could scarcely up to that point have been +much hunted and worried for Liberal principles. To speak plainly, +there never was so late a conversion made of so much histrionic use as +this of Mr. Gladstone's. But though it has suited both his and his +present party's ends, it rather puzzles plain people who have kept their +recollections a little trim to think that if he lives on into senatorial +decrepitude, he will never have sat for Radical constituencies anything +like so long a time as he did for Conservative ones. For between +thirty and forty years this Liberal ex-Premier was a Tory member.</p> + +<p>In fact, a glance at the right honourable gentleman's wonderfully +prosperous career will show that in the list of our public men he has +of all others made the fewest, the briefest, the least sacrifices either for +principle or party. There are very simple ways of testing it; Mr. +Gladstone has not been out of office long enough for a man who was +innocent of business prudence in his career. He has, in fact, reaped +the official spoils of two parties, if not of three. The dates and appointments +are on record for anybody to trace out. On the very face of it, +a man who has served under Peel, Aberdeen, Palmerston, and Russell, +and then come out as a full-blown Liberal Prime Minister himself, +must of necessity be said to offer rather a miscellaneous career. +His warmest admirer must admit that he has been either the most fortunate +or else the most prudent of men; and, as we do not wish to be +stingy in our recognition of his skill, we prefer to compliment him +by attributing his great prosperity throughout so many years and +under so many different chiefs to his prudence.</p> + +<p>If this very hasty review of Mr. Gladstone's chronicle does not agree +with the impression of him which is the prevailing one on the Liberal +side, it is the one which the bare facts of his career would produce on +every side if they could be seen without the misleading effect of his +very fine words and exceedingly solemn attitudes. Very fortunately +for him it is only the Conservatives who have a full and accurate recollection +of Mr. Gladstone. They have necessarily observed him continuously +from their own unshifting party position, and so have been able +to perceive in a way that hardly was practicable to the Liberals, who +were always shifting and struggling among themselves, how invariably +and consistently his announcements of change of view have hit with the +opportunities for improvement of his Parliamentary position. On every +occasion, to the very moment, so soon as a Liberal question had fully ripened, +Mr. Gladstone presented himself to pluck it. It was so with Reform, it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> +was so with Church Rates, it was so with University Reform, it was so +with the Ballot, it was so with the spoliation of the Irish Church and the +unsettling of the Irish landowners, and it is so with the County Franchise, +and it will be so once more, if the Liberals ever get into power again, +with the English Church and the English Land Laws. Mr. Bright, Mr. +Miall, and all the Radicals have drudged for many a year for Mr. Gladstone, +who, when all the outdoor work has been done, has always +allowed himself to be persuaded to bring in the Measure just in the nick +of time, and, by expounding it in a very fine speech, has robbed its +actual originators of two-thirds of the credit of making it possible.</p> + +<p>Luckily for the Conservatives, though he never had the courage to +attack a question of the very first class himself in the way of initiative, he +had an insatiable ambition for meddling with smaller ones, and by making +vents in these ways for his restlessness and his ambition, he finally +ruined all that his skilful prudence in the larger affairs had gained him, +disgusting the country till it determined to get him off its hands at any +price. Still, that is not just now the point in question.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone's so slowly passing through all the stages from Conservatism +to Radicalism has had this effect,—that while all other public +men of his standing have grown more or less antiquated in steady loyal +service to their party, and by presenting a fixed if monotonous aspect to +the public, this one Parliamentary personage kept a perennial freshness, +simply by skilfully dividing his prolonged career into distinct periods and +going on changing. Some political section has been always welcoming +Mr. Gladstone newly into its ranks and to its spoils, for, as we have said, +the two things unfailingly went together; and the shouts with which he +was received were always strengthened by fainter murmurs of applause +from other sections more advanced along the line, who hoped to receive +him themselves later on. They did so. Really to each one of them he was +a recruit from the last party. To the Palmerstonians he ought at the +most to have been only a Peelite; to the Liberals at worst only a +Palmerstonian. But by a surprising adroitness, it was always made to +appear that in all his migrations from party to party, he joined each +successive group as a new retreater from the Tories. It certainly was +true in one sense; he was always going further away from them. But +for all party purposes and reckoning, he had as much left them when +he joined Palmerston as when he shook hands with Mr. Bright and +took his place in front of the Radicals.</p> + +<p>These are only a first handful of specimens of a certain unfairness in +Mr. Gladstone's position and career from first to last, from which he +has largely profited, and which very naturally irked his opponents, who +have had to suffer its inconveniences. He has posed as a sort of political +orphan left lonely in the Parliamentary world at the death of Peel, who +has been persecuted by wicked Tories from one Chancellorship of the +Exchequer to another, until they finally drove him into the Premiership, +but all this time he was successfully seceding from them, though they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span> +continued in pursuit. It must have been Mr. Gladstone's portentous +earnestness of demeanour which has covered up from the general public +a joke so huge and prolonged as this, preventing everybody from seeing +that such a tale did not agree with his unprecedented prosperity. But +if in these ways he has kept himself interesting to the country, and fresh +and surprising for every group he has in rotation joined, both he and +his changes have long been stale to the Conservatives. They are able +to look along his whole track, and seeing him from behind, know him as +a Peelite, a follower of Aberdeen, a Palmerstonian, a Russellite, and a +Radical. They are debarred from applying his own name to the last +stage, and calling him a Gladstonian. Strangely enough, and indeed +very significantly, that term has never taken root in our politics. +There really have never been any Gladstonians: no one ever was +or ever will be called by that title. Mr. Gladstone will end his +days and depart without founding any school; he will stand recorded +only as the acceptor of office from those who did so, and the passer +of other people's measures. But in political life a man who attains +the first rank of conspicuousness without founding a line may fairly +be suspected. It will be found that he has been too busy in a narrower +way,—looking after not questions but himself. To that very +small party, numerically reckoned, consisting of only one member, +Mr. Gladstone has been consistently and untiringly faithful. He +has challenged for it sympathy in all the ways to which his very fine +oratory has lent itself, and he has not neglected the humbler art of perpetual +advertisement, keeping it by means of the press and the platform +ever before the public eye. But when he finally leaves us it is certain +to vanish entirely.</p> + +<p>Very likely some ardent Radical, whose mind is so full of having got Mr. +Gladstone at last that he forgets, or perhaps never knew, how many grades +and shades of politicians have in succession enjoyed him before, will say +that in all this we are only railing at Mr. Gladstone's success. His success! +In order to describe Mr. Gladstone, we had first to write retrospectively, +take in his earlier phases, and to look generally at his whole history. +In that retrospect, down to a late point in it, he was exceedingly +prosperous; but we never meant to say that he had been very successful +since the beginning of 1874. There is not the slightest need +for any Conservative to feel bitter against Mr. Gladstone now on any +grounds of personal envy. He has done them the greatest service of any +public man for three generations; and at any time he might have individually +prospered as much as he liked for them, if it had been possible +for him to do it without injuring his country. It is to this more +serious examination of his career that we now go.</p> + +<p>Not that we propose to entangle ourselves in the minute details of it, +for that is in no way necessary. We have already in part explained +why we may, in such a sketch as this, drop out many years of his political +life. For a great length of time Mr. Gladstone was only a Budget-maker. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> +It is true he made them for Governments that were not +Conservative, but he still was considered nearly a Conservative outside +his financial handicraft. And here, again, part of the explanation +we earlier gave applies. There is not the slightest reason why any +Conservative should pause long to consider Mr. Gladstone as the +passer of the Ballot, or even as the disestablisher of the Irish +Church and the interferer with the rights of landed property in Ireland. +The only thing special to be said about him in connection with these +things as distinguishing him from the ruck of Liberals would be, that he +was a very late ex-Tory, and at the time a professed High Churchman. He +somehow got the Liberals to let him write his name across every one +of those measures so soon as it was seen that they would pass, and he +has made the legislation in that way seem to be his; but the Conservatives +know with whom they had really to deal in the inception and +the pushing forward of those movements, and it was not Mr. Gladstone. +The real men were Mr. Bright, Mr. Dillwyn, Mr. Miall, and those who +for many a year worked with them while Mr. Gladstone was never heard +of, never thought of, in connection with the matters they had always +matured before he had anything to do with them.</p> + +<p>Nor was it on account of these affairs that Mr. Gladstone's fall +occurred when it came, which is another reason why it would be waste +of time to discuss them in connection with him. Who is proposing to +alter these things now that they have been fought out between the great +parties of the State and decided? As a supplement to his Irish Land +Bill, we now have the Irish peasants refusing to pay any rent at all: +but in these days when a thing is done in our Parliament it is done. +The Conservatives, in spite of the majority at their back, have never put +forward a finger to touch those settlements, nor do they mean to do so; +and yet not only our own country, but all Europe, and indeed realms +farther away still, have been keenly aware that the Beaconsfield +Ministry has been very busy for years undoing something that Mr. +Gladstone had done.</p> + +<p>What was this gigantic task, which was not the repealing of +legislation, or the passing of statutes of any kind, but which required +courage and effort more arduous than those things? There must +have been some cause for the bursts of applause which have again +and again echoed on our shores from all parts of the civilized globe +at something that was going on. It was, we hasten to answer, the +rehabilitation of England in the eyes of the world,—the restoration +of her ancient power as a factor in the enforcement and administration +of public right among the nations. Somehow, coincidently with +Mr. Gladstone's prosperity as a Minister, England, his country, had +sunk, and in exactly answering ratio, and was sinking lower and +lower still daily. He was very famous, or at least very notorious, at +home, but the renown of Britain abroad was clouding; and our people +never will bear that, as history had shown before. This man, who at heart +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span> +was but a financier, and who ought in the fitness of things never to +have risen higher in office than a Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose +function it should have been to find funds for some one else as a Prime +Minister capable of a policy in the higher international politics befitting +an Empire, was conducting our foreign affairs in the spirit of a commercial +traveller; willing to effect a little saving by giving up a group of +islands in one part or a bit of territory in another, and to effect an +economy at another time by backing out of a treaty. Though, at the +same time, if anybody insisted, and there loomed, however distantly, a +possibility of war, he would pay the money down in a hurry by millions, +as he did in the Alabama case. We should have had all the world insisting +very soon, making peace more costly than war itself, besides the shame of +unjustifiable surrender.</p> + +<p>But we were spared all this; though the undoing of the humiliation, as +far as it had gone, has fully occupied Mr. Gladstone's successors ever since.</p> + +<p>This is the great accusation which the Conservatives have to bring +against Mr. Gladstone—that of having degraded the position of his +country; and an arraignment more fatal than this cannot be made in the +case of a chief Minister. It is not alone the Conservatives who make +it. Did not Earl Russell, Liberal though he was, find enough English +blood in his aged veins when writing his last book, to say that Mr. +Gladstone had dragged the name of England through the mire? But +it would not be quite accurate to put this forward as the full +explanation of Mr. Gladstone's sudden tumble from office; for it was +not until after that occurred that the bulk of people quite knew the +whole extent of the injury he had worked in this respect. The Conservative +leaders guessed it, but they knew more about foreign affairs +than the rank and file of the nation. Everybody, of course, high and +low, was aware that he had unasked given up the Ionian Islands because +of some literary reasons which he had come upon in writing books about +Homer, that he had surrendered territory in the San Juan Boundary +Question, and that he had quietly gone to Geneva and paid America, +not indeed all she asked,—for even with Britain's wealth the whole +of the first modest request would only have been found with difficulty,—but +he had counted down a sum that made Brother Jonathan's +shrewd eyes twinkle with joy. The country, from these events +following one another, had come to have a very uneasy feeling that +somehow under his auspices everything was going against us abroad. +Still it was only later that it was made fully apparent how completely +England was effaced; not until the three Emperors had begun to +settle the rearrangement of Eastern Europe, without so much as saying +to Great Britain, "By your leave." There is difficulty when looking back +now to prevent oneself from suffering some illusion in this respect; +but it is a fact, and we may be glad of it, that Englishmen did not until +it was roughly forced upon them suppose beforehand that their position +had dwindled to quite so low an ebb.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> +At the elections of 1874, there was no distinct foreign policy before +the public, for though there were many on the Conservative side who +sympathized with France in her adversity, and saw clearly that Germany's +mutilation of her territory meant trouble in time to come, not a +voice was raised in deprecation of our neutrality. But, for the +matter of that, it may be just as correctly said that there was no +matured domestic question before the country, for it will not be +supposed that there was a single Tory any more than a Liberal who +wished the Income Tax to be retained on his shoulders. It was hardly +for proposing to do away with that impost that everybody voted so unanimously +against Mr. Gladstone; they only did so at the polling-booths in +spite of his proposing it, which somehow seems rather mysterious. If his +opponents were not proposing to recall any of the recent legislation, and +if there was no special question of foreign affairs pending, and if nobody +had any desire not to be lightened of taxation, how was it, pray, that Mr. +Gladstone was so ignominiously hurled from power? In reality, there +is not the slightest difficulty about it—Mr. Gladstone was decisively +rejected by his countrymen, not on any question of policy, either home +or foreign, but because of the <i>personal impression</i> he had slowly but +surely imprinted on their minds. The real issue before the country was +whether it would have any more of Mr. Gladstone, and it said No.</p> + +<p>It is a common artifice on the part of his apologisers to insinuate +that he had wearied the nation by offering it too many things +for its good. But neither individuals nor communities are much in +the habit of refusing gifts; it is the one thing, and nearly the only +thing, in this world for which there is an excellent reason whenever +so strange a proceeding happens. There is another way of +representing the matter, one much less complimentary but far more +true—the country was sick of Mr. Gladstone. Even the sight of +Mr. Lowe standing at his side with four millions of surplus in +his hands was not enough to tempt them. The promise to abolish the +Income Tax was the most tremendous bribe ever offered to the constituencies, +but, to their credit, it did not corrupt them. They would +not accept Mr. Gladstone any longer at any price whatever. The +believers in democracy, and Mr. Gladstone in particular, according to +some of his very latest reasonings, ought to have accepted this universal +disgust as being a popular inspiration. However, they have done +nothing of the kind, but avow that it was a public delusion, which they +at first hinted would be temporary; but if the public is liable to +delusions, and to fits of them which continue for seven or eight years +at a stretch, for that is now the duration of this one, what becomes of +these very radical gentlemen's democracy? For it is not really open to +them to plead, though they will go on doing it, that the people's eyes +were dazzled by a glitter of diplomatic success, and their blood infuriated +by a skilfully aroused anti-Russian feeling. It is not open to +them for a simple reason, but a very conclusive one: the elections came +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span> +before anything of this could have happened; and the elections themselves +arrived with the suddenness they did owing to something which had +preceded them—namely, a steady run of Ministerial defeats in the +by-contests, wherever a vacancy occurred in a constituency. Mr. +Gladstone avowed all this in the address with which he startled the +Greenwich electors and the whole country, though he and his friends +have never mentioned the fact since. It was for the purpose of +putting all things right that the elections which put them all more +wrong still were so unexpectedly ordered. It was not because of being +intoxicated by the diplomatic triumph of Lord Beaconsfield and Lord +Salisbury at Berlin—which did not occur till years after—that the +constituencies rejected Mr. Gladstone. We have no wish to be unnecessarily +impolite, but the true reason for it was that which we have +named already—they had come not to like Mr. Gladstone. If we +trace that fact backwards in a natural way, we shall find that one cause +of it was that they felt the honour and the interest of England were +not safe in his hands; but this was only one among other causes. It +swelled afterwards into the biggest reason of all, and now practically +includes all the others; but, at the moment, it was not actually known +that the safety of England was about to be imperilled.</p> + +<p>The voters were affected by other reasons. What were those other +reasons? The public must have known them pretty clearly at the +time, since it acted so promptly and decidedly upon them, and it, +therefore, ought not to need very much recalling of them now, for the +time, after all, is not so very long ago. But it may be as well to go +into them a little, since it was through the incidents furnishing them +that the general public was led to form the very same estimate +of Mr. Gladstone which the Conservatives had held for about a +score of years before. At last the popular judgment coincided with +that of his Parliamentary opponents, and he fell from power. But +any one who will give a moment's consideration to the cases of the +Collier appointment, the Ewelme Rectory affair, and the issue of the +Royal Warrant on purchase in the army, will see that we are right in +affirming that Mr. Gladstone's ignominious expulsion from office was +owing to moral rather than political causes. It stands recorded that this +Minister, who had put religious professions in the front of his politics +in a way novel to public life, had to defend his conduct over and over +again in the House of Commons by quoting the mere letter of the law. +Parliament became not unlike the Old Bailey when a legal wrangle is +going on over the technicalities of an indictment; and the unwonted +spectacle of Lord Chief Justices accusing a theological Premier of +having somehow evaded a statute was not made any less unedifying +by Mr. Gladstone showing great skill in being his own attorney. +Everybody must admit that he certainly did that.</p> + +<p>It is possible to recall each of the cases in very few words. An Act +of Parliament had been passed with a view to strengthening the Judicial +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span> +Committee of the Privy Council, and, as this Court was one of Appeal, +it stood to reason that those appointed to it to revise other Judges' +decisions should have had judicial experience themselves. It was expressly +provided in the Act that those to be raised to this Court should +be already Judges. To the surprise of the whole country, Sir Robert +Collier, well known as Mr. Gladstone's Attorney-General, and, therefore, +conspicuously only a waiter for a judgeship, not a judge already, +was announced as the filler of one of these vacancies, before half the +readers of the newspapers knew that he had ceased to be Attorney-General. +It turned out, however, that he was in reality a judge at the +moment, and that he had been one for some few moments previously, +having, in fact, sat on the bench of the Common Pleas for just two +days. There is not space to follow Mr. Gladstone's wonderful reasoning, +but it chiefly turned on a point so fine as this, that what the Act meant +to stipulate was not experience, but <i>status</i>. In other words, that a +man should be made a judge of one kind for five minutes, in order to be +turned into one of another kind, just for the say of the thing. +Amazed members of the Legislature which had passed the enactment protested +that they were not so foolishly subtle as this, and that they had +never, before Mr. Gladstone mentioned it, thought of any such distinction +as that between <i>status</i> and experience.</p> + +<p>But this was not the only instance in which he has told people +what they had intended better than they knew, and all differently. +In the Ewelme Rectory business he would have it that when a statute +said Oxford it meant Cambridge, or at least that its specifying Oxford +did not signify, or that it included Cambridge, or, in fact, might be +construed to prescribe anything else which it did not say and which +was contrary to what everybody had thought of it before. However, +here, again, as the lawyers would otherwise have been troublesome, the +technicality was found to have been formally complied with. The +words of the enactment did really require that the man who was to be +made rector of Ewelme parish should be a member of Oxford Convocation, +and Mr. Harvey, Mr. Gladstone's friend, who had been educated +at Cambridge, and who, until that living became vacant, had never +dreamed of connection with Oxford, was made a member of the Convocation, +in order to receive the living. Of course, Mr. Gladstone argued +that Mr. Harvey's being a Master of Arts was enough, though the +statute said nothing of that, and everybody else had thought it expressly +stated a certain University where the Master of Arts was to come +from.</p> + +<p>But let us go on to the third case, that of the issue of the Royal +Warrant abolishing purchase. Not a few of the Liberals who exulted at +the success of the party measure had a misgiving at the way in which +it was secured. It was felt to be a victory which could not be repeated, +and one of a style which, if they who snatched it had been Conservatives, +would have thrown the country into a convulsion. The most violent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span> +act in the name of the Crown which the oldest man living in England has +witnessed, was counselled by Mr. Gladstone. Because the Lords, in +the exercise of the power which the Constitution gives them, +were not willing instantly to pass his Bill for giving an entirely new +social aspect to the army, he caused the Queen to do nothing short of +superseding them entirely, and practically reduced the Constitution at a +stroke to the Commons and the Crown. It is just now part of the +tactics of the Liberals to protest against some imagined wish to bring +in "personal rule." If any such preposterous design existed, it would +be Mr. Gladstone's own act which would be fallen back upon for the +precedent. The feeling which has best enabled the most thoughtful +among Englishmen to understand the kind of shock which foreigners +experience on the occurrence of one of the political earthquakes which +they call on the Continent by the name <i>coup d'état</i>, was that which ran +through the country when Mr. Gladstone announced that there was +nothing for the Lords to discuss, that he had advised the Queen to issue +a Royal Warrant. We had lost all recollection of the particular sensation, +but he brought back just a twinge of it. Mr. Gladstone, however, +can do Radical acts and then explain them historically. Once more we +found ourselves all inextricably entangled in his casuistry. He now +argued that the Royal Warrant had not been issued by exercise of prerogative, +but in strict pursuance of statutory power, there being some +Act of the Georges to that effect, which ordinary people had forgotten. +It is not necessary to follow the thing further. In the end, Mr. +Gladstone became too clever for the country. Even the dullest began +to perceive that Mr. Gladstone could conscientiously do whatever he +liked. The more subtly he argued, the more plain John Bull got +puzzled.</p> + +<p>It may, at first sight, seem tasking the public memory too much to +ask people if they remember the tension there was in the political +atmosphere towards the end of Mr. Gladstone's career. But a very +great many will not have forgotten it. The political weather is so far +like the other sort that it is only borne in mind for its badness; that, +however, was a terrible season. At the last, Mr. Gladstone seemed to +have got into the air, and he did not improve the climate. He may urge, +certainly, that Mr. Lowe had made himself very obnoxious, that Mr. +Ayrton had been found to be intolerable, and that the great trade of the +publicans, with all its supporters, was in arms against Mr. Bruce. +That is all true; the country disliked each one of these his chief colleagues. +But neither Mr. Lowe's hard cynicism, nor Mr. Ayrton's dogmatic +inæstheticism, nor Mr. Bruce's stolid mechanical interference, stirred +the large keen dissatisfaction which Mr. Gladstone's own incomprehensibility +in the end did. He gave men's consciences a shock, and none +of the others affected to feel so deeply as that: it was only he who +had stood forward as a political moralist, and then set everybody by the +ears discussing his conduct. It was the same outside Parliament and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> +within it. Everybody was arguing Mr. Gladstone; nobody could make +him out, nobody felt safe, or could imagine what was coming next. If +the atmosphere had but been charged a little more with him, England +would not have been worth living in. Luckily the elections came, and +the air was cleared.</p> + +<p>But if in the more exaggerated instances we have above spoken of, the +general public became aware of a certain obliquity, an unreliability, a +dissatisfied restlessness, an imperiousness in Mr. Gladstone, the Conservatives +had been more or less continuously aware of those qualities +for many years. They, as we said earlier, have had to observe the +right hon. gentleman closer, more continuously, and it would be easy +for any one of them who is of middle age to give from his own memory +a string of instances, just the same in kind as those above, though not +so broadly striking, beginning much earlier in his career, and coming +down much later. Very recently, Lord Salisbury at Manchester +recalled Mr. Gladstone's dealings with his Oxford constituents in +reference to the disestablishment of the Irish Church. But his lordship +courteously spared his opponent the details. Has the world forgotten +the famous letter to Dr. Hannah, bearing the date of June, +1865, written, as Mr. Gladstone himself with unlooked-for <i>naïveté</i> +admits in his "Chapter of Autobiography," for the appeasing of doubts? +He in it asserted, first of all, that the question was "remote and +apparently out of all bearing on the practical politics of the day;" +second, he avowed that he was probably going "to be silent" on the +topic; third, he said that "he scarcely expected ever to be called on to +share in such a measure;" and, as his finishing words, spoke of it as "a +question lying at a distance he could not measure." These were far too +many causes for not doing a thing, and the Conservatives accordingly +began to look out. In 1869, Mr. Gladstone disestablished the Irish +Church. The "remoteness" and the "distance which was not +measurable" somehow came to be packed within these two dates,—1865-9. +What had so hurried matters? Well, one can only recall +what had happened in the interim, and among the events there had +been these two occurrences—he had been expelled from Oxford and +rejected by South Lancashire. The like suddenness attended his conversion +on the subject of the Ballot. After half a lifetime of opposition, +he one fine morning announced that it must pass, hardly a hint of +warning having been given beforehand.</p> + +<p>But his whole career has shown this suddenness of advance, +at distinct periods, which, as we have said, always coincided with +the brightening of the prospects of the respective agitations. It +is true, as is earlier pointed out, that he took something like +a quarter of a century to travel the ground between the Conservative +starting-point and the Radical position, but the length of +time was not owing to his creeping between the bounds; he has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> +traversed it at successive leaps, standing still between, and, at +the places where he remained stationary, there was always the +warm shelter of office. This style of progress has characterized him +down to the present moment. As late as 1874 he told a deputation +that he did not consider the question of the County Franchise +ripe. There has been a good deal of very indifferent weather +since then; but whether or not the field crops have matured, it +seems now that the agricultural labourer has been growing fast. +Mr. Joseph Arch has been the sun that has shone upon him, and Mr. +Gladstone, as usual, is quite ready to reap the harvest. Examples +might be multiplied manifold. Take the boasted case of the Liberal +surplus, of which we have never ceased to hear—just as if Mr. Lowe +and Mr. Gladstone had between them coined the money. Its history, +stated in three words, was this: Mr. Lowe had mulcted the public in +an unnecessary twopence of Income Tax, and, instead of shamefully +confessing the incompetency it showed in a Chancellor of the +Exchequer, presented himself before the constituencies, on the eve of +the elections, with his hands full of gold, and with the air of presenting +it to them.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone, great financier as he is, was not above profiting by +his subordinate's miscalculation. Instead of administering a rebuke, +as a good journeyman might have been expected to do to a bad +apprentice, he patted Mr. Lowe on the back. Indeed, in the Greenwich +address, when he so magniloquently spoke of the money being +given back in the shape of abolishing the Income Tax, he seemed to +take some credit to himself.</p> + +<p>It will be beginning, perforce, to dawn upon the reader that this was +a Minister very difficult to be dealt with by an Opposition. If we had +space in this paper, a part of the task of sketching Mr. Gladstone +would be to point out how injuriously he has confused the demarcation +of parties; how unscrupulous he has been in seeking allies which on +no principle of fair classification belonged to him. It may be nothing +that he can half apologize for Irish Obstructionists—the Liberals have +always exploited Irish members. But this very high Churchman, who +clings to a tenet so ridiculous in the eyes of Dissenters as apostolical +succession, can figure in Dr. Joseph Parker's chapel, and +betray a close and not uncomplimentary knowledge of the trust-deed +of the Rev. Newman Hall's congregation. This austere gentleman, +who, when inquiring into the "Theses of Erastus" (see his article), +finds out that moral offences are at the root and source of all heresy, +has a kindly word for such free-thinkers as happen to be also political +leaders of the working men—Mr. Bradlaugh, for example. This +objector to divorce, on such stupendously elevated grounds as that we +are all members of a mystical body, and who cannot bring himself to +allow more than a civil marriage to a deceased wife's sister, mingles in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> +the ruck of Radicals. But if he has what they must think ecclesiastical +crotchets, he always manages them with most skilful prudence. If he +has to satisfy his most private feelings by bringing in no fewer than six +resolutions in more or less opposition to the Public Worship Bill, he +can withdraw them again. But was this the gentleman to champion +Radicals and Dissenters? An Opposition which had to keep its own +consistent lines, and which was closely restricted as to its allies, was at +a perpetual disadvantage with one whose own opinions, subtle and +complicated as they might be, cut him off from nobody who could be +of aid.</p> + +<p>Fortunately the country itself, at a certain rather tardy point, +rallied its patriotism in that spontaneous way which always practically +reinforces the Conservative party. The "Alabama" claims gave those +who did not meddle much in politics their first shock, while for more +thoughtful persons it brought back a reminiscence of the surrender of +the Ionian Islands; and when, later, the public saw him stand tamely +by while Russia tore up the Black Sea clauses of the Treaty of Paris, +every student of our history knew that Mr. Gladstone's fate was sealed. +The nation, stirred by arousings of the deeper instincts of the English +character, at last reckoned with him on general grounds—dislike of +his personal demeanour, and dread of what he was bringing on the +country. It refused to be won either by the finest oratory or the +prospect of reduced taxation.</p> + +<p>The Conservatives came into power on the highest tide of popular +feeling which living Englishmen have witnessed. But the change was +too late to prevent mischief; Russia, encouraged by England's effacement +during Mr. Gladstone's sway, had matured her further plans, and +had already put her secret intrigues into motion. The Treaty of San +Stefano showed plainly what her plan was, and just as clearly does +everybody not blinded by party feeling now know that to Russia's +amazement, and amidst the surprised and grateful admiration of the whole +civilized globe, the present Ministry have thwarted that plan and made +England again safe and famous. It would be a waste of time to retrace +the details: a summary of them is to be found in Lord Salisbury's +Manchester speech. What alone further concerns us here is the manner +in which Mr. Gladstone has borne himself in Opposition. We have +already seen how he did so as a Minister. It was understood, indeed, +that he had retired, with something which was meant to pass for dignity, +though to the eyes of the nation there was never anything which was +not sulk which had so much the look of it. However, on the plea that +something had happened in the world, he was quickly back again in +front, elbowing Lord Hartington aside. Speeches, in Parliament and +out, articles in every magazine, republication in pamphlet and volume, +letters to everybody, which, practically, meant to all the newspapers: +there never was such an active resuscitation of one who had so publicly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span> +become politically defunct. It is, however, not for coming to life +again that we find fault with Mr. Gladstone, for, in truth, we always +expected it.</p> + +<p>Our complaint is simply this, that if such a style of opposition as he +has resorted to became habitual, the government of the country would be +made impossible. No means were left untried to make Russia hope, +and other nations fear, that Lord Beaconsfield had not the nation at his +back, and, when owing to this encouragement, Russia showed obstinacy, +and it was necessary to risk something by exhibiting boldness, that very +necessity was sought to be turned into a reproach. Mr. Gladstone's +own tactics made it imperative that in the matter of Cyprus, and some +other negotiations, secrecy should be observed, and the Government +was charged with acting unconstitutionally, as if constitutional +usage imposed no limits on the Opposition, or as if those limits +had not been transgressed. Just so, again, in the Afghan war. If Lord +Northbrook had acted with spirit years before, that war would never +have been necessary; but that trifling fact Mr. Gladstone overlooked, +he and the Duke of Argyll making it appear that Lord Lytton had +been at great pains to get himself and his Government into a difficulty. +Why Mr. Gladstone has had so little to say about the Cape war is a +mystery, which may be explained some day; all that can now be said of +it is that it shows a striking inconsistency. Luckily his efforts, though +his industry was gigantic, have failed, and even he must be now aware +that his renewal of them, though we suppose it must go on, having +been arranged so long and announced so pompously, is a trifle late, +with the Cape war ended, our troops in Cabul, those of Austria at Novi +Bazar, and checkmated, scolding Russia gnashing her teeth at Germany. +However, no doubt we shall have some very fine speeches, proving that +nothing of this ought to have happened, or that it won't last long, or +that the Beaconsfield Administration did not bring it about, or any +thing else, just as reasonable, for fine words can be arranged in many +different ways by a practised orator.</p> + +<p>What, then, we may finally ask, was the secret of Mr. Gladstone's +success so long as he was prosperous, and what was the explanation of +his fall when it so suddenly arrived? The thrifty skill of calculation +in estimating the growth of questions which his whole career so irresistibly +points to was spoken of early in this sketch; but a man, no +matter how judicious in the management of his own approaches to a +party, cannot impose himself upon it. The Liberals, on the successive +occasions, welcomed Mr. Gladstone, and did so gladly, never making +his very late conversions a reproach. Its leaders were more vociferous +in hailing him at each renewed arrival one stage farther on than were the +rank and file, though some of them, as the thing was repeated, must have +been struck with the unfailing punctuality of his approach. Not that +we are professing to sympathize with these gentlemen. If it satisfied +them that whenever they had upset a Government, be it that of Aberdeen +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span> +or of Palmerston, the inevitable Mr. Gladstone always emerged out of +the wreck, just a little more Liberal than the day before, ready to take +the first pick of places in the new Cabinet, all well and good. But the +fact was that his arrival always was a convenience, for, no matter how +the sections differed among themselves, the rallying round Mr. Gladstone +as a further seceder from Toryism was a proceeding in which +they could all join, and it gave them, again and again, an appearance of +unanimity and cohesion. This was, in fact, his great function, and in it +he has been very valuable to the party. Besides, though so late and +seemingly slow in politics, he had from the first been great, and at the +outset even precocious, in finance; and, further, he was a wonderful +orator, even quicker in debating than Mr. Bright. Such a personage, +so largely prudent and so highly gifted, was sure to succeed, +and to do so for a long time; but he was also certain to fail in the end, +and that completely.</p> + +<p>His temperament made that nearly certain. He was always too +busy making speeches, or writing for the press, or answering letters, +to be any power in social life. A strange kind of semi-recluse, +but combining with bookworm habits a passion for speechifying +and for using the penny post, was not likely to conciliate London, +and he never did. By-and-by he was railing at the Clubs, +because they did not agree with him; and then he had next to appeal +from the metropolitan journals to the superior politicians and brighter +wits who preside over the provincial newspapers. All this prognosticated +failure. Even his special gifts and the kind of successes which +fell to him turned into the means of helping it. His turn for figures +not unnaturally made immediate economy his great object, forgetful of +the larger connection in such a land as ours between an imperial position +in the world and the preservation of our commerce, and overlooking +also the costliness of reasserting our position when a crisis came; +while his ready eloquence, having no longer open to it the old patriotic +themes, had to expend itself in the adornment of British abnegation, +and the excited applause given to his rhetoric was mistaken by him for +assent to his views, till he was amazed to find himself suddenly quite +out of accord with the nation, and falling, he knew not why, headlong +from power.</p> + +<p>Even to this hour he seems never to have had the least misgiving +that the man who could speak with such complacency +of the trading supremacy of the world passing to America (see his +article on "Kin Beyond the Sea"), and who could urge as a reason +for our not caring to interfere in Egypt that it would be the egg of a +North African empire (see his article on "Aggression on Egypt and +Freedom in the East"), was not the man to be England's Minister. But +the country had found it out even before he wrote those articles; his +threatening his countrymen with the calamity of finding another +empire on their hands, in the only part of the world yet remaining +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span> +to be explored and civilized, has only proved that they were right, and +will not terrify Englishmen.</p> + +<p>But a fluent orator has always left to him a kind of gambler's hope of +retrieving everything by talking. Mr. Gladstone is going to alter everything +by making a dozen or two of speeches in Scotland. Are these +Midlothian harangues to be longer than that made at Greenwich, or +more numerous than those uttered in Lancashire? They may be as +fine as they will for anything it signifies to Conservatives, if the result +is only again the same as on the other occasions, and it is hardly likely +that he will persuade Englishmen now amidst their returning renown to +despair of the future of England.</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">A Conservative.</span></p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span></p> + +<h2>THE ANCIEN RÉGIME AND THE +REVOLUTION IN FRANCE.</h2> + +<div class="blockright"> +<p><i>Histoire de l'Ancien Régime</i>, par <span class="smcap">Henri Taine</span>. Paris.<br /> +<i>Histoire de la Revolution française</i>, par <span class="smcap">Henri Taine</span>. Paris.</p> +</div> + +<p>When De Tocqueville,in his celebrated work upon the Ancien Régime +and the Revolution, had described the downfall of the Bourbon +monarchy, he ended with these words:—"I have now reached the +threshold of the great Revolution; on this occasion I shall not cross it, +but perhaps I may soon be in a position to do so, and then I shall no +longer consider its causes, but its nature, and shall finally venture to +pass judgment on the society that has proceeded from it."</p> + +<p>Death prevented this admirable inquirer from accomplishing his +purpose, a loss to the historical literature of Europe for ever to be +regretted, and certainly not least by the author who has now undertaken +to fill up the blank, and complete De Tocqueville's projected +task—the description, namely, of modern France as the outcome +of the immense transformation which the Revolution brought upon +the Old French State. The fundamental principles which appear so +clearly and sharply in Tocqueville's development are prominent in +Taine's; the activity of the earlier author prepared the ground for +the later to build on. But we must admit that Taine's work is pre-eminently +independent, and his descriptions more striking, broad, and +richly coloured than those of his precursor, while the material contents +of his work are often different. But what, in spite of this, constitutes +the resemblance between the two men is, their having for basis a +common conception both of the State and what it presupposes, and of +the historian and his task. It is the very opposite of the manner of +thinking entertained in the eighteenth century which, without any heed +to the peculiar character of the necessities of a given people, was bent +on constructing, according to simple rules of reason and natural +law, the best State for all time. Taine, in a very striking manner, +declares himself free from such an error. "In 1849," he observes, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span> +"I was an elector, and had to take part in the naming of a large +number of Deputies. Therefore it was necessary not only to decide as +to persons, but as to theories as well; I was required to be Royalist +or Republican, Democrat or Conservative, Socialist or Bonapartist, +and I was nothing of the kind—nay, I was nothing at all, and envied +those who had the luck to be something. These worthy men built a +constitution as they would a house, on the most ornamental, most new, +or most simple plan; a row of models stood ready for choice, a baronial +castle, a burgher's house, a workshop, a barrack, a phalanstery, a +cottage, and each said of his favourite model: 'That is the only +proper dwelling, the only one a rational man would inhabit.' To me +this seemed an utter mistake. A people, as I thought, may indeed +be able to say what house they admire, but some experience is needed +to teach them what house they need, whether it be commodious and +lasting, stands the weather well, and harmonizes with the customs, +occupations, and fancy of its occupant. We here in France have +never been content with our political erections; in the course of eighty +years we have pulled them down and rebuilt them thirteen times. Other +nations have acted differently, and found their advantage in so doing. +They have preserved an old, substantial building, enlarged, built around, +and beautified it according to their needs, but never attempted to build +an ideal house at one stroke, according to the rules of pure reason. It +would therefore appear that the sudden invention of an entirely new, +and at the same time suitable and durable constitution is an undertaking +that transcends human capacity. The political and social form +which a people permanently assumes is no matter of choice, but fixed +by its character and its past. It must be suited to its idiosyncrasy, +even in the minutest points, or it will crack and fall. Therefore we +must know ourselves before we can discover what the proper constitution +for us is. We must invert the accustomed method, and first form to +ourselves a picture of the nation before we sketch a constitution. At +the same time this is a far harder and wider task than the one hitherto +in favour. What inquiries into past and present, what labour in all +domains of thought and action, are needed to understand with precision +and completeness the nature and growth of a great people through +centuries! But it is the only way to avoid putting out first empty +discussions and then incoherent constructions; and, as regards myself, +I shall not think of a political opinion until I have learnt to know +France."</p> + +<p>From this rejection of the rationalistic State theory, it follows, of +course, that the author declines the style of historical writing that +corresponds with it. We all know how parties who contended in the +course of the Revolution have gone on attempting to justify their +historical representation of it—Emigrants and Feuillans, Girondists and +Montagnards, Bonapartists and Communists. They all knew exactly at +the beginning of their historical labours what the conclusions arrived at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span> +would be. Their own party had the ideal of the only healthy State cut +and dry, and hence the sentence upon companions, allies, and enemies was +pronounced beforehand. The desirable aspects of the Revolution were +owing to the activity of that party, the undesirable to the worthlessness +of its adversaries. The study of isolated facts only awoke real interest +in so far as it sharpened the perception of the main point—our party is +right, all others are wrong. To this disposition of mind more than to +any other hindrances we may attribute the small advance made, up to +the middle of our century, in the knowledge of facts, in the history of +the Revolution; this is what explains the else inexplicable phenomenon +that, spite of the large interest felt in the period, no history of +Louis XVI. drawn from authentic documents has as yet been written. +For that even the books of De Tocqueville and Taine, spite of the +strength of their authors' intellect and the wealth of their material, +have not afforded us this, we shall soon convincingly see.</p> + +<p>Both these works, however, are invaluable preparations for the +writing of such a history. With firm and decided political principles +of their own, both authors have determined to serve no party, but knowledge +only. Both desire to know men and circumstances before they judge +of the political experiments made. Both are full of the spirit of the old +saying: "Human affairs are neither to be wept over nor laughed at, but +to be understood." It is only when we know the soil and the seed +from which the Revolution sprang that we can understand its nature and +working, and only from the understanding of the whole can we pronounce +upon the details with which factions have hitherto concerned themselves +in endless and unprofitable debate. We will illustrate our meaning by +a contrary procedure. I have not unfrequently heard the question: +"How can Taine, whose first volume reveals more fully than any previous +work the utter corruption of the Ancien Régime, place the Revolution in +his second in an equally unfavourable light? If the old state were +so completely good for nothing, the French were perfectly right in +utterly destroying it." Accordingly, there has been no want of critics +who, after the appearance of the first volume, declared the author to be +a thorough Liberal, and, after the second, in deep disappointment, proclaimed +him a thoroughly reactionary politician. There are, indeed, +certain passages that might lead to such a conclusion, certain inconsistencies +do appear, but on the whole it is self-evident, from an historical +standpoint, that out of so evil a condition as the first volume paints +the dark pictures of the second must needs grow. Rather should we +have had cause to wonder if from a diseased root there had sprung a +healthy tree. The men of the Revolution had grown up on no other +soil and in no other atmosphere than that of the Ancien Régime; it +was under it that their notions had arisen, their passions been fostered, +and their ideal formed; it was there that their nature had received its +stamp and their strivings their direction; and if all relations were dislocated, +political feeling perverted, all portions of the people filled with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span> +bitter hatred against the State and each other, how should pupils in +such a school amidst the final shock of catastrophes show themselves +men of ripe experience, practical wisdom, and determined energy? He +who has once taken in this simple truth will be much inclined to a mild +judgment of individual men and parties; at all events, he will not be +able abruptly to take sides either for or against the Ancien Régime or +the Revolution. For one thing will have grown clear to him, that the +Revolution was not the destroyer alone, but the undeniable offspring, of +the old condition of things.</p> + +<p>That a work of Henri Taine's displays literary ability of the first +order there is no need to say. His representation of events is grounded +on most industrious study; unpublished documents of all kinds are +cited, as well as printed works, and among the latter we have not only +French, but foreign authorities—English more especially—while +German are hardly so much as noticed. At all events, the mass of +thoroughly explored material is enormous, and our historical knowledge +is frequently extended, rectified, and cleared thereby. We shall attempt +to follow the general line of thought running through the book, and +now and then to controvert it on certain points.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered to what pregnant results Tocqueville's +inquiries led. The centralized government of France is by no means a +creation of our century, but a production of the Ancien Régime. Since +the days of Richelieu, ministers of finance and their intendants and +delegates had taken the exclusive charge of police of every kind, public +works and plans, the economic and spiritual welfare of the people. +The elementary principles of political liberty and parliamentary constitution, +of independent local administration and commercial freedom, +were destroyed thereby. Spiritual and temporal magnates had been almost +sovereigns in the districts in which they fulfilled the duties of government, +preserved internal and external peace, protected local interests, +and consequently imposed taxes and corvées upon their dependents, +while often successfully resisting royal aggression—all these magnates +were now as unconditionally as the mass of the people subjected to the +royal bureaucracy and forced out of all political activity—thenceforth, as +hated parasites, they had to live at the cost of the working people. The +King, therefore, assembled them at his Court, where, in compensation +for their loss of liberty and honour, pensions and presents—always at +the cost of the people—were heaped upon them. Thus the popular +hatred went on intensifying with every generation, and was at length +the source and essential element of the great Revolution.</p> + +<p>It is on this thesis that Taine bases his representation of the subject. +Privileges were once the reward of political service done by the heads +and leaders of the people in their own territories. Then, the landlord +lived in the midst of his dependents—his own interest was identical +with their welfare, he was linked with them by natural and traditional +ties, and appeared as their powerful advocate whenever the State +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span> +attempted any arbitrary and oppressive measure. Now bureaucratic +government divided the landowners from the people, and by the unjustified +continuance of their privileges set the two henceforth in opposition. +For because the nobleman paid no taxes, the burgher and farmer +had to make up the deficit. Because he retained the right of chase, +his game had to be fed on the crops of his tenants. If a not inconsiderable +number of the higher middle classes gained the special +privileges of nobility, the burthens of the rest of the people were +only increased thereby. The author has rendered us praiseworthy +service by exposing the extent of privileges and feudal rights on one +hand, and of the increase of taxes and duties on the other, more fully +and precisely than any other writer has done. Thorough investigation +has brought out a still more appalling condition than had been +imagined. After the State, the Church, and the landlord had received +their rates, the share of the farmer in the proceeds of his land never +amounted to more than a half, and often his taxes rose to eighty per +cent. of his income. On the other hand, the privileged classes paid +at least a fifth less than the just proportion, and knew how to obtain on +a yearly average at least a hundred millions in the shape of presents, +pensions, &c. With increasingly few exceptions, there was no more thought +of any care to be taken of the lower classes by the higher. Prelates and +magnates streamed towards Versailles; all that the peasants knew of +them was from their unmerciful agents coming for rent and taxes. Thus +France fell asunder into two worlds without, unfortunately, any reciprocal +knowledge or common interest, divided by contempt and hatred—worlds +that lived on side by side, the smaller in wealth, enjoyment, elegance, +and luxury, and, above all, brilliant idleness; the larger in poverty, +wretchedness, ignorance, savagery, and, above all, in ever-growing and +devouring bitterness of heart—a condition such as no other nation of +Christian Europe had ever before come to.</p> + +<p>Now all this is perfectly correct, and Taine proves it by a mass of +authentic testimony: nevertheless it may be observed that it is only a +part of the truth, and by this one-sidedness the author has been led +into error.</p> + +<p>I am now alluding to the first part of this exposition, that which +treats of the centralization of the government in the hands of royal +officials as the deepest root of all this mischief. The worst side of this +centralization had been incontrovertibly exposed by De Tocqueville, +but none the less his representation was unfair and unjust, because it +made no mention of the brighter side. No one can contest that the +political inactivity of men of all positions in a system that referred the +general interests of France to a bureaucracy, demoralized the higher classes +and left the lower ignorant and inexperienced. Still the historian should +not forget the actual achievements of this great bureaucracy. Under +Colbert's guidance it created the civic order and economical beginnings +of modern France. It, for the first time in France, rendered throughout +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span> +a century a burghers' war an impossible thing, and it stimulated internal +traffic by roads and canals, which gave rise to countless industrial +and commercial undertakings. Later, under Turgot and Necker, it +waged, on behalf of the people, war against the pressure of privileges, +thought primarily of reform and progress, and saw with bitter regret the +defeat of its popular efforts by the opposition of the nobles. Tocqueville +himself tells how the Liberal parties before the Revolution thought +more of reforms than liberties—that is to say, they expected the improvement +of their condition from a further strengthening of the Monarchy. +It came to a Revolution first, however. The Monarchy, wielded by the +feeble hand of Louis XVI., was unequal to the task; then privileges +fell for ever, but after ten years monarchical centralization arose anew +in order a second time to satisfy the needs and inclinations of the +French people throughout three generations. It seems therefore a +mistake to paint this institution so out and out black. We may +lament that it has not merely done nothing to educate the French in +political liberty, but has as much as possible stifled liberty and the very +sense of it among them. But how without it, under the circumstances +that succeeded to the religious wars and the Fronde, anything like a positive +constitution ever could have arisen in France, De Tocqueville does +not say. We are indeed amazed when Taine, in his enumeration of the +privileged classes as those luxurious idlers, those once political servants +who had now renounced all political influence, numbers, as third with the +clergy and nobility, the King—the head of that Government, which was +only too zealous in working, and thereby drew all the power of the State +to itself and excluded all others from care for the common weal. Here +there is an evident contradiction, nor is it any way cleared up by +the circumstance that personally Louis XV. vied in indolence and +debauchery with the worst of his courtiers, or that his unfortunate +successor spent much of his time and energy in Court etiquette +and the chase. For the reign of Louis XVI. was from first to last +spent in efforts, by the setting aside of feudal privileges, alike to +strengthen the Crown and promote the good of the people, and in no +case can it be more incorrect to look upon the Crown as a devouring +parasitical growth upon the body of the State. This brings me back to +my former remark: had Taine instead of or by the side of his picture +of society under the Ancien Régime written the history of its last +monarch, most assuredly he would have avoided this misconception.</p> + +<p>But he admirably describes how the brilliant and empty position of +the higher class led step by step to ruin. These distinguished +personages had no earnest and strenuous activity; to be civil officials +appeared to the majority of them below their dignity. They adopted +the army as a mere sphere of chivalrous adventure, for even there, +there was no question for them of rigid discipline; they left the drilling +and care of their troops to subalterns and sergeants. Bishops and +abbots drew immense revenues, and gallantly offered their devotion to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span> +fair dames, but as to divine services and cure of souls, they were the +affair of needy priests and hungry vicars. The only field for their +ambition and interest was the Court, the salon, good society. To +shine there was the object of their distinguished lives. And as the French +people have ever been largely endowed with grace and <i>esprit</i>, these efforts +resulted in a perfection of personal appearance, a virtuoso-ship of social +intercourse, a fixed and yet highly elastic code of <i>bon ton</i>, such as the world +never saw before or since. Until then the first class of a great nation +had never been known to make the formation of an exquisite society +its highest, nay, its only life-purpose, to subordinate and sacrifice +mental activity, moral strength, and individuality of character to the +promotion and claims of this cultus. Here the final end of existence +was enjoyment in all imaginable degrees, and thought and action were +rigidly directed to it. That the greatest part of life should be spent +in society was the most pressing requirement of politeness, the +reciprocal recognition without which all society becomes unendurable. +The conventional forms in which this recognition clothed itself became +the law of this great world, and the consequences were felt on all sides. +Any appearance of individual peculiarity or opinion came to be held +unfitting; to be other or better than the rest was an offence against +manners. Equally forbidden was the manifestation of any strong +passion, a thing by its very nature opposed to the sway of conventionality. +Vice therefore was excused if it presented itself gracefully, +and almost honoured if it brought a startling and exciting variety into +the monotony of daily life. Mental enjoyments were as welcome as +sensual, provided they could be had without trouble or labour, for the +aim was not to be informed, but amused, and so any kind of knowledge +was good, with the exception of the tedious. Hence it followed that all +mental acquirement was estimated not by the worth of its content but +the excellence of its form: abstract intelligence in the service of enjoyment, +such was the motto of this society. Genial originality, unconscious +creative power, native vigour, were thoroughly antipathetic +there, or only tolerated in so far as they made themselves subservient +to the ruling mood.</p> + +<p>A further consideration of how essentially these characteristics +of good society tended to strengthen and sharpen the revolutionary +theories of its deadly foes, here becomes instructive. The development +of this process may indeed be looked upon as the salient point in Taine's +work, for often as the French literature and philosophy of the eighteenth +century have been treated of, I know of no earlier author who with such +extensive material and penetrating insight has clearly brought out +the continuous reciprocal action of circumstances and theories, and thus +gained an unalterable scale for the measurement of both by history. +Taine begins, as is just, with the mighty impetus given to natural science +since the middle of the seventeenth century throughout Europe, by which a +way was opened for an utterly new view of the world and of men, in opposition +to the speculative and theological conceptions of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> +Next comes under consideration the prevalence of the inductive +method, the rejection of all dogmatic assumption, the repugnance to +all intuitive ideas, the proclamation of observation and experiment +as the only sources of verifiable knowledge. These principles having +been at once unconditionally acknowledged in the sphere of natural +science, the next step was to apply the tone of thought they had +engendered to the phenomena of spiritual and social life, and here also +to demand thorough investigation by the one true authority—criticism. +Whatever the consequence of this investigation might in particular cases +be, the very fact that it had been demanded, that the right of the existing, +<i>as such</i>, was denied, that the authority of tradition was subjected +to that of critical reason—this betokened a new epoch in the world's +history, and opened out possibilities of hitherto undreamed-of progress +in politics and religion, State and Church, material and spiritual +culture. It is now plain that if the inductive method can lead to such +positive results, its application should be thorough and universal. No +naturalist delivers a general law as to the life of an organism before he +has considered its origin, existence, and decay in all their stages, compared +it with its like, separated it from its unlike; for it is just through +the discovery and recognition of the eminently special that analysis leads +him to the comprehension of universal truth. And according to this +same rule, in order to arrive at a just and practicable idea of reform for +any State, a great mass of special observations by technically practised +and prepared eyes would have been required; legal, economical, and +historical inquiries made; the peculiarities of individuals and peoples, of +the epoch and stage of culture, must have been known; the not merely +personal but collective functions of human nature in their bases and +action investigated: for only when all this had been accomplished could it +be asserted that the organism of the State and its laws had been dealt +with after the manner of a genuine naturalist, and that we were now +in a condition to judge of single actualities according to these laws.</p> + +<p>How came it that in the France of the eighteenth century the +very opposite occurred—that politicians, stimulated by young natural +science, should from the very first turn their backs upon the inductive +method, and evolve the future State rationalistically, according to a +few abstract principles?</p> + +<p>Taine convincingly shows the reason of this: it was chiefly the influence +of fashionable society upon literature which led to this fatal +tendency.</p> + +<p>The highest circles in Paris and Versailles, in their brilliant but +idle existence, were, as we have seen, as intent upon mental as sensual +excitement, and therefore prepared to open their doors to every littérateur +who could satisfy this demand. Now, owing to the actual structure +of society in France, the writer who did not choose merely to devote +himself to a few professional subjects had no other public than this distinguished +class. They and they alone were in a position to secure him +praise, honours, and a certain income, therefore it was most natural +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span> +that the writer should conform to requirements upon the satisfaction of +which his literary career was so absolutely dependent. We have now +to inquire what were the characteristics of the prevalent tone of thought +among the highest class. First a horror of all thoroughness, all enduring +and laborious perseverance, all deep earnestness and spiritual +recollection. For all this was the very opposite of enjoyment and diversion, +it was a falling into the deadly sin of tediousness. It was desirable, +indeed, to have much and varied knowledge, but rapidly and lightly, by +vivid and pungent discussion, to reach the quintessence of the most +interesting points and conclusions. Consequently the author's productions +became restless, many-sided, and superficial. The mass of +information in every department of knowledge which Voltaire, for +instance, had at his disposal was immense; but the working out and +application of it were strongly hasty, aphoristic, and frivolous. To this +was added the dislike the public of the time had to any individual +peculiarity, its tendency to force all personalities into one conventional +form—an effort equally fatal to poetic creation and to the historical sense. +For such men as these the world was comprehended in what they called the +great world; they had lost the power of imagining that there was +or ever had been an existence outside of it and absolutely unlike it; or if +in any particular case the astounding fact could not be entirely concealed, +it was understood that among cultivated persons it could never +be given any importance. Even on the stage it was no longer considered +becoming that peasants or labourers, a Peruvian or Iroquois, should speak +in their own natural manner; they were all alike rendered polite, +sententious, and fluent as their distinguished audience. Each local and +individual tone was rubbed away, every person of the drama was but a +mouthpiece for the eighteenth-century eloquence of the author. As +with the drama, so with other literature. Taine correctly observes +that if we read an English romance of the period, we have before our +eyes a section of the English people; but a French one, though widely +varying in garb, contains invariably a picture of a French salon, and that +only. In presence of so universal a mood as this, how could any one +come to the study of the State by means of difficult and distant +researches on historical ground? Montesquieu did it, but he remained +solitary among his contemporaries, won much celebrity, but exercised +very little influence. The other reformers used quickly to turn +over the pages of histories in order to find piquant quotations for some +ready-made theory; as, for instance, the ambition of priests, the +falsehood of diplomatists, the insatiability of princely greed. As to +the complicated task of judging any individual State and its constitution +according to its climatic and geographic conditions and its +historical antecedents, with the exception of Montesquieu, no man +dreamt of that. The public, with whom the decision lay, did not require +anything of the kind, nay, would have repaid the severe toil with disapproval. +It placed, as we have before said, far more stress on a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> +pleasant form than an instructive purpose, cared but little for any +subject in itself, but only as affording material for the most intelligent, +yet at the same time most comprehensible and exciting conversation. +In debate no trace of previous knowledge won by personal effort was +pre-supposed; all that was needed was never to be commonplace, and in +every case to bring forward new and amazing truths. Accordingly +speech and style strove neither for fulness nor depth, but so much the +more for clearness and conclusiveness. In exposition, the progress was +regular from syllogism to syllogism, great care being taken never to skip +over a middle term. In order to be impressive the speaker became +rhetorical, in order to convince he endeavoured to reduce every subject +to one universal and easily inculcated proposition. Good society was +delighted to be thus agreeably put in possession of the most advanced +views of the world; but literature thus allowed itself to deviate from +real knowledge into the way of empty abstraction.</p> + +<p>That the literature thus fostered and guided should from the beginning +of the eighteenth century have been in opposition, that since the middle +of it it should have undermined with savage impetuosity all the foundations +of existing conditions, this gave not the least shock to distinguished +society. Disgust at their own impotence and the omnipotence of royal +officials, dislike to an intolerant orthodoxy, vexation at some personal +neglect at Court,—altogether there was cause enough for malicious satisfaction +when philosophers, by biting criticisms, made clear the standpoint +of burdensome potentates. And when an ever-growing and strengthening +Materialism taught the doctrine of physical enjoyment and judicious +selfishness as the guiding principle of human conduct, it only spoke +out what had half-unconsciously been the sum of all the motives and +activities of high society. But above all, theories were but theories, +merely conversation, excitement, pastime. The nobles declaimed against +obsolete abuses, but naturally each meant to keep his own rightful +possessions, and among these were privileges and feudal rights. They +felt conscious of a fresh superiority to the ignorant masses, because they +professed humanitarianism and liberalism, and spoke against superstition +and subordination. That these much-admired theories might by-and-by +become common to the whole community, and then bring +about horrible explosions—of this they had not the remotest suspicion. +Any one who had in 1780 prophesied such a thing to the ladies of +Versailles, would have been looked upon as we should look upon a +prophet nowadays, who told us that in the next century cats and dogs, +instead of men, were to be lords of creation.</p> + +<p>This, then, was the public in whose atmosphere and with whose +co-operation the philosophy of revolutionary enlightenment sprung up. +It was here that it learned its rapid and superficial mode of study, its +rejection of an historical spirit in favour of multitudinous present +actualities, its taste for rhetorically adorned formulæ and commonplaces. +When the construction of the best State was to be set about, common +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span> +characteristics were collected from the natural history of mankind, such +as the dislike to pain, the impulse towards pleasure, the capacity of +forming, from sensations, representations and conclusions. These +characteristics were merely put together as the concept man, +and from this abstract man were deduced, as in a mathematical +formula, the laws of politics, morals, and rights. Since all men had +the same natural impulse towards happiness, the State must render it +possible for them all to reach that aim. Since all had a natural +capacity to form concepts and conclusions, they would be sure to employ +the right means to that end so soon as their hands were left free, or +in case of a momentary mistake these right means logically pointed out +to them. That passion is, in point of fact, in the great majority of +men, stronger than reason, and desire more impetuous than thought, +was disregarded by these admirers of abstract reason; the fact that +each man had the faculty of drawing a logical conclusion appeared to +them to insure his conforming his conduct to the requirements of that +conclusion. If a logically formulated proof of the excellence of one +of the Constitutions they had sketched could be arrived at, they fancied +that the security and durability of its construction was perfectly +guaranteed. On the other hand, that the preservation of constitutional +order required other forces besides logical discussions, this was altogether +outside their range of thought.</p> + +<p>But logic knows no limits beyond the evolution of its own conceptions. +The existing condition of things lent itself to being ground to +powder. Before the critical assault of the new teaching no defence of +the hoary unrighteousness of the Old Régime could make a stand; the +pity was that, according to its own principles, the former found it impossible +to attain to a firm and enduring constitution of any sort or colour.</p> + +<p>But, if possible, the theories afloat set in against the existing +ecclesiastical system even more strongly than against the political +constitution. The natural science of the day afforded far more material +for battle on that ground than the other. Astronomy, physiology, and +anthropology joined with the efforts of philosophy to demonstrate that +miracle was a delusion, revelation unthinkable, and an extra-mundane +God unverifiable. Soon numerous voices exalted negation into the +positive statement that every idea of God should be rejected, and that +the so-called soul in man was only the highest function of organized +matter. True, Voltaire remained through life a Deist, and Rousseau +declared his faith in God and in the immortality of the soul; but the +one all the more resolutely contended against the divine institution of +the Church, and the other against the fundamental Christian doctrines +of Sin and Justification. However different each may have been from +the other, they waged in common a war for life and death against the +Church, the war of utterly opposed principles. Tocqueville was wrong +in saying that the Revolution was only inimical to the Church as a +feudal and aristocratic institution; that after it had lost its wealth and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span> +privileges, democratic society recognized how strong a democratic +momentum the Church itself contained, and accordingly gave itself up +with increased warmth to religious feelings. Here there is no doubt +Taine's record is the more correct one. The Revolution knew well +that it desired not the wealth only, but the fall of the Church; and +not the partisans of the Revolution, but its adversaries, whose numbers +were largely swelled by the cruelties of the Terror, have brought about +the elevation of the Church in our own century.</p> + +<p>If we now contemplate somewhat more narrowly the Constitutional +theory of the illumination, we shall discern two characteristic and +prominent features, which, on the one hand, show its descent from the +innermost core of the Ancien Régime, and, on the other, very energetically +determined the whole course of the Revolution. The ideal state deduced +from the universal characteristics of mankind was as cosmopolitan as +levelling. Just as on the stage of the period, Frenchman and savage, +ancient Greek and modern Parisian, spoke the same language,—that of +the salons of Versailles,—so political theories recognized neither +Frenchman nor Englishman, Catholic nor Protestant, educated nor uneducated, +only Man in general. They never considered what institutions +would be adequate, in France, to the needs and capacities of the +educated ranks and uneducated masses, or how far the habits and +opinions of their nation would render the adoption of a foreign institution +practicable or injurious; rather they formulated the rights of +men, of abstract instead of actually existing men, and were convinced +that a constitution based thereupon was for all men, and consequently +for all peoples, the only good, and therefore the only lawful one. And +just as clear as the equality of nations under the new political law, +appeared the equality of all men in the new State, by which was meant +not merely a claim to equal protection by law, or equal facility in +obtaining one's rights, but a demand for the realization of an inborn +and material equality of rights. This, as is well known, was the point +on which Rousseau took his stand, and gave the last and decisive +direction to the impending democratic revolution. Taine justly +observes how frequently, in spite of their common principles, Rousseau's +character and way of life led him to take different views +from those of Voltaire and the Encyclopædists. The deepest and most +unqualified indignation of these last was inspired by what they called +superstition, stupidity, and priestcraft, the transformation of the old +State being with them more an affair of the intellect than the feelings, +a conclusion drawn from their universal theory and an ideal requirement +of philanthropy. It was generosity that led them to appear as the +advocates of the poor and their woes, while they themselves were high +in the approval and favour of the best society. Rousseau, on the other +hand, had himself led the life of the proletaire; in the nervous excitability +and measureless vanity which made him almost prouder of his +weaknesses and vices than of the greatness and strength of his talents +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span> +he—poor, often hungry, not seldom degraded and reviled—had filled +himself with burning wrath against the favoured of earthly fortune, +the noble and the rich, the revellers in idleness and luxury. This +growing hatred he transferred to the State and the laws which had +produced so unrighteous a contrast between man and man. Men, he +maintained, were in their original condition good, because equal. It was +the State, culture, society, that first introduced inequality, and vice and +crime thereby. The existing order was not merely incompetent, as the +Encyclopædists asserted, but hurtful, poisonous, deadly. And, in contrast +to it, he sketches a picture of the true human State.</p> + +<p>Equal and good men assemble in their natural condition to think on +the basis of their future State. Each endows the new community +with all liberty and property, in order to receive back an equal share of +the management and the possessions of the whole. But this whole is +omnipotent. No laws bind its will, for its will is the source of all law. +No king, no official, no superior rules over it; each individual is only +empowered to act, so far and so long as he upholds the plenipotence of +the sovereign mass. It is not the upper classes who command the +people, but the people which require obedience from its officers and +throws them away when they no longer please it. For individual +liberty there is here no place; but owing to the equality of all, the free +will of the masses joyously and harmoniously prevails.</p> + +<p>For a season these doctrines only served to afford a welcome mental +stimulant to the minds, if not of the nobility, of the cultivated and +property-possessing classes. The higher, and soon the lower, bourgeoisie +inflated themselves with these views. At this period they shared +certain of the privileges of the nobles, filled numerous and prominent +offices in the State, gave to the nation its largest number of famous +thinkers and poets, promoted industry and commerce, and daily increased +in wealth, while the nobles, by their extravagance, ruined themselves +financially. The former were, therefore, full of the consciousness +of their own dignity, and found the continued precedence claimed by +the nobles to be unendurable. They believed with inward satisfaction +in this doctrine of the equality of all men and the sovereignty of the +whole. For, instead of the privileged, it seemed to them self-evident +that owing to their culture they, the hitherto unprivileged, ought to stand +out prominently among the people as leaders of that governing +whole. Thus the state of freedom and equality would be the state of +pure reason as well, and, therefore, the leading position could not fail +to fall to them, the masters of reasonable discussion. Meanwhile the +mass of the poor, wholly cut off from the sources of culture and the +mental movements of their country, for long years knew nothing of this +absolute governing power which, according to the new discoveries, inalienably +belonged to it, and was so surprisingly soon to fall into its +lap. The only change in their condition, and thus the only preparation +for their future sovereignty, was an increase of outward distress and of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span> +inward confusion and embitterment; and then came the time when the +small circle to which education and enjoyment were limited, and the State +power they wielded, fell into internal demoralization, strife of factions, and +financial embarrassments, till the very Crown itself was obliged to summon +popular forces to war against the privileged. All the springs of State +machinery refused to work, coffers were empty, authorities and classes at +bitter internecine strife, the army unreliable and undisciplined. It was +under circumstances like these that the mass of the people in towns and +villages heard from their candidates, advocates, and demagogues, what +in truth their rights were. In their ignorance and want, their rudeness +and embitterment, they suddenly learnt that for them—as sovereign—limits, +obligations, authority no longer existed, that the old corruption +and slavish condition was to be thoroughly got rid of, and that then +everything would belong to them. They listened with greedy ears, and +rushed forward to trample under foot whatever sought to contest these +rights of theirs.</p> + +<p>The highest and noblest aims lured the century on, and animated the +hearts of countless worthy men: liberty, well-being, and culture for +all, no difference between man and man but that of talent and virtue, +fraternity among all citizens in the State and all nations on the earth; +these were the ideals that 1780 proclaimed to the world and the future, +and therefore the French still love to speak of the deathless principles +and fair days of this first epoch of the Revolution. All this, +Thiers tells us, would have been admirably realized had not evil-hearted +emigrants and foreign Powers by their malignant attacks, driven the +most humane of all Revolutions into desperation, a fight for existence, +and bloodshed. All would have gone well, says Louis Blanc, had not the +wicked Thermidorians, on the occasion of Robespierre's fall, brought in a +policy of vice and self-seeking instead of one of virtue and brotherly love. +Probably, on the other side the Vosges, eighty men out of every hundred +adopt one or other of these views, and so it is easily intelligible that +the merciless facts by which Taine shatters these fair pictures should be +received with repugnance and surprise by his countrymen. The contrast +between such a reality and such an ideal is indeed enormous; fair days, +or so much even as one fair day in the course of the Revolution, can +no longer be spoken of; in the very hour when absolute monarchy +collapsed, a wild, rude, and cruel anarchy covered the land, filling +France with violence and crime of every kind for a decade, and lastly +causing an unparalleled despotism to appear to the French people +salvation and deliverance. The conclusion is unavoidable, either the +ideal was good for nothing, and the Coblentz emigrants had right on +their side against the nation, or the French people had set about their +high task in a quite impracticable way, and their historical fame has +this time to be limited to the motto, <i>In magnis voluisse sat est</i>. Neither +of these alternatives will have a pleasing sound in the ears of a Liberal +Frenchman.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span> +But, pleasing or not, the facts are indisputable, and up to the present +time each new investigation of authentic documents has only served to +give them a wider range and a more assured basis. We have seen the +end of the Ancien Régime. The nobles of the former State were +unnerved by idleness, debilitated by enjoyment, degraded by immorality; +never had the aristocracy of a great nation fallen and been brushed +away from the soil of their country, making so feeble a resistance. +The leaders of the movement followed a political teaching based on a most +one-sided and therefore radically false conception of human nature, and +had no idea of the real nature of their fellow-citizens, or of the principles +and needs of genuine political life. Finally the masses were unmoved +by any political thought whatever, but were darkly conscious of their +own wretched state up to the present time, and their hatred of those who +had, or were supposed to have, occasioned it, were credulous and impressionable, +and penetrated with the rightfulness of their wildest passions +and desires. With such materials as these it is possible indeed to +blow up an old and half-useless house, but not to construct on its ruins +a well-planned and lasting new one.</p> + +<p>Thus Taine shows by details from documents contemporaneous with +the events, how, even before the opening of the National Assembly, +the condition of things was out of joint at a hundred points. Tumults +and plunder, disobedience to authorities, and maltreatment of obnoxious +persons, were the order of the day; public officials were spiritless, and +dared not command the already murmuring troops to restore order. +The first weeks of the Assembly brought hot discussions as to the +union of the three orders, attempts at reactionary State measures, and +the taking of the Bastille. Excitement grew from day to day; the suspense +throughout the country was tremendous. With the Parisian catastrophes +the whole Ancien Régime rocked and gave way from side to side; +and not merely privileges and feudal rights, but all State authorities +vanished at one blow, or at the first threat from an armed mob resigned +their functions. The French nation had positively no government, no +laws, no police, no taxation. In place of these they had journals, clubs, +societies, popular songs, and Lynch law; security for person and property +no longer existed; every one did according to his heart's desire till a +stronger than he preferred the opposite and knocked him down. This +state of anarchy actually went on thus till the culmination of the +Reign of Terror; every now and then it quieted down here or there, to +burst out the following day at some other point with redoubled fury. +In the midst of the omnipresent turmoil and confusion, the King, a +powerless prisoner, sat in the Tuileries. The only quarter which +afforded a possibility of the restoration of the State was the National +Assembly, which was sufficiently respected and popular both with the +people and the National Guard, to have enforced obedience had it set +about it the right way. But there were two reasons which forbade the +adoption of that way. One was that the Assembly was deprived of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span> +free action by the ruling theory of the Rights of Man, Liberty and +Equality. This included the rights of resistance against oppression, +and accordingly every citizen might at any moment consider himself +oppressed and authorized in resisting. It had been borne in upon +these sovereign citizens that the will of the sovereign people stood +higher than that of its representatives, and that the people was at any +time capable of re-entering upon the direct exercise of its sovereignty. +It is plain that under the influence of theories such as these any +control over street-riots and local deeds of violence was a difficult, if +not hopeless task. And, on the same ground, it was impracticable to +attempt any control or regulation of press or clubs, which looked upon +their boundless activity as the highest expression and most precious +jewel of revolutionary liberty. As, according to theory, State officials +were to be, not the lords, but the servants of the sovereign people, it +became expedient that they should not be named by the Central +Government, but chosen, and that only for a short time, by the citizens. +In the same spirit the affairs of Government were entrusted not to +individual officials, but to deliberating colleagues; while, as to the +passing of laws, the principle of equality rendered impossible the +formation of an Upper House, or any finally decisive action on the part +of the King. Thus the Government remained powerless, legislation +was hasty and uncertain, the lower classes unmanageable, and on very +many occasions it was plain that club orators and journalists who knew +how to flatter the demands of the masses bent both Government and +National Assembly beneath their sway. More than once there arose +indignation in the Assembly at so unworthy and dangerous a condition; +but at each attempt to grapple with and remove it, the fear +of a monarchical or aristocratic reaction fell upon it and paralyzed +its action.</p> + +<p>In order to control the anarchical wilfulness of demagogues and +proletaires there was but one thing to be done, to strengthen the authority +of the executive. This meant restoration of discipline in the army, and +energetic organization of Government, extensive powers conferred on the +police officials, sharp punishments, and swift justice. But how then? If +power were thus conferred upon the Government to restrain proletaires +and rioters, who could guarantee liberty and the National Assembly +against the head of the reinforced Government, against the King, who +had hitherto been by these chronic riots kept in defenceless subjection? +This dilemma led to the revolutionary spirit invariably triumphing at the +National Assembly. The present fear of the violence of the crowd +attendant at the sittings combined with the apprehension of a future +monarchical reaction. When, some years later, at the organization of the +Republican Government, the weakness of authority was again felt, more +than one orator freely declared the existing arrangements to be undoubtedly +bad throughout, and to be amended as soon as possible; owned that +this had, indeed, been perfectly known at the time of their creation in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span> +1790, but that they were intentionally framed thus, in the interests of +liberty, to prevent the King from exercising any power. Enough—the +Constitutional Assembly did nothing to surround personal safety and +political order with any inviolable defence; on the contrary, they did +much to open the door wide to the passionate and arbitrary action of the +masses. We may say that they thoughtlessly sowed the seeds of all the +horrors of the Terror, and had the sad beginnings of that development +before their eyes, without even an attempt to avert them. This is true, most +especially in the economical department: the colossal transformation +of the laws of property in France, which brought half the soil into new +hands, and irresistibly threw the population at large into communistic +paths, was out and out the work of the Constituent Assembly.</p> + +<p>For more than twenty years I have, in my "History of the Revolution +Period," established these circumstances from authentic documents, and +thus given repeated offence to the French public. I may therefore be +permitted to feel all the greater satisfaction at such a distinguished +investigator as Taine, after drawing forth numberless documents from +Parisian archives, coming to absolutely the same conclusion. All I +have heard in the way of objection to his statements is utterly +unimportant. As it is not possible to drive the facts he has proved +from original documents out of existence, the observation is made that +though his information may be true, it is one-sided; that while he +never wearies of describing revolts and misdeeds, he does not sufficiently +point out in how many places the Civil Guard bravely and loyally +upheld civil order. Taine would be the last to dispute this fact; had +it not been so there would have been no longer any France left in the +nineteenth century. But he would venture to inquire whether praise +be deserved by an Assembly which, as ruler of a great State, surrendered +without resistance now the third of it, now the half, during three years, to +a bloody anarchy; whether we can speak of "fair days" or "humane +Revolution," when in this short period six horrible Jacqueries laid the +land waste, when countless political murders remained unpunished, and +military <i>émeutes</i> and ecclesiastical brawls thrust the weapons of civil +war into the hands of the masses. We are told of a pure and ideal +inspiration then filling millions of liberty-loving and patriotic spirits; +and well may we call that a fair time in which noble aims and infinite +hopes set all pulses beating higher, and stimulate a whole people to +youthful efforts, and fill it with fresh and energetic life. Yes, there +were moments of golden dreams and illusions like these. Only they +should have lasted longer. It is not through their feelings, speeches, +wishes, but their deeds, that nations assume their historical position +and receive their historical sentence. Taine writes the last, indeed, +with an incisive pen, and often with glaring colours, but essentially he +gives nothing but what follows by indissoluble sequence from the +facts of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>On certain points, indeed, one may notice a few omissions in his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span> +work, or raise a few objections, though they do not affect it as a +whole. Space does not permit me to dwell on all particular instances; +I must be satisfied with pointing out a few. While during the first +months of the Revolution the agitation of the lower classes was +identical in town and country, and the lawless violence of artisans and +peasants pursued the same ends by the same means, one of the most +prominent features of the later phase, the Terror, was the gradual +introduction of a war of interest between the people of the capital and +the villages. The more the power of the Mountain and the Parisian +Commune increased, the more absolutely the booty of the Revolution +fell to the share of the town proletaires, at the cost not only of the +great landed proprietors, but the small farmers as well. Our first +impression at the aspect of this rivalry is the selfishness and greed of +the Parisian demagogues; but we may easily convince ourselves that +these could never have attained to so extended an activity if existing +circumstances had not offered the possibility of a class war. But for +any disquisition on this subject, or allusion to the causes that, in the +first years of the Revolution, prepared its way, we look through +Taine's pages in vain. Again, in the representation of the Ancien +Régime, his attention is pre-eminently turned to social relations connected +with the land. Had he with an equally comprehensive and +minute care studied the different strata, the interests and wants of the +town population, the problem alluded to would have solved itself.</p> + +<p>It is with admirable insight and incontrovertible reasoning that +Taine shows the logical untenableness and practical mischief of +the theory of equality, both in the writings of Rousseau and the +action of the Constituent Assembly. He proves the contradiction +between this equality and the very nature of man, and how, consequently, +pure democracy rendered the development of political liberty +unattainable. In perfect agreement with Tocqueville, he points to the +absolute necessity, under the circumstances of the time, of aristocratic +institutions, for the creation and preservation of a free State, and explains +how deeply seated these are in the needs and claims of human nature. +This portion of his work is indeed masterly; and the more widely extended +the equalitarian superstition among the Liberal parties of our day, +the more one could desire Taine's views to exercise a strong and wide-spread +influence. But, on the other hand, it appears to me that by this +very conception of political institutions, our author has been led to +show himself something more than just in the sentence he passes on the +representatives of this period, the nobles and prelates of 1789. This is +one of the few incongruities already alluded to between the first and +second volume. After reading of the luxury, artificiality, and idleness +of aristocratic society in the former, and coming with the author to the +conviction that terrible consequences must attend such a condition, one +is surprised to find in the latter that these privileged ones were the best, +the most discerning and patriotic portion of the nation, whose +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span> +annihilation or exile brought about the same injurious results that the +expulsion of the Huguenots had done. This contradiction is not cleared +up by the fact that in the years immediately preceding the Revolution, +and chiefly through the influence of Rousseau, a sentimental humanity +had prevailed in high circles, that here, too, it was the fashion to speak +of a return to an idyllic life of nature, of universal brotherly love, and +of the relief of every form of distress. For these transformations +remained, in point of fact, only fanciful phrases of the salons. When +Louis XVI., Turgot, and Calonne, really desired to set about such philanthropic +reforms in good earnest, it was, as we have already seen, these +sentimental nobles themselves who hindered their effort, and by nullifying +reform brought about the Revolution. When the catastrophe +came, many of them had sufficient insight into the new position of +affairs to make haste and repudiate those privileges which throughout +the land had been already trampled under foot by an unchained people. +The horrible persecution to which they were subjected, in utter disregard +of all existing rights and all human feeling, with bloodthirsty cruelty +and shameless greed, must ever insure for the victims the compassion +and sympathy of every right-minded observer; and in order fully to +justify revolutionary laws against emigrants, one would be driven to +advance sophisms only, not arguments. But all this does not affect the +question, whether, as Taine assumes, these persecuted ones did hold a +distinguished place in the nation for political virtue, intellectual culture, +and capacity for action. Neighbouring nations, so far as I know, +without exception took at the time an entirely different view. Doubtless, +there were among the emigrants many who won respect and regard in +the regions whither their flight had led them. But the great majority, +by their thoughtless arrogance, mutual bickerings, and shameless +frivolity, left behind them a bad reputation; whereas a hundred years +before the exiled Huguenots, by their unity, earnestness, and industry, +won, wherever they went, the respect and gratitude of their new +countrymen.</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Heinrich von Sybel.</span></p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span></p> + +<h2>WHAT IS THE ACTUAL CONDITION OF IRELAND?</h2> + +<p>Returning to settle in Ireland after an absence that began more +than twenty years ago, I found two things strongly claiming my +attention. One, was the very great advance in material well-being +which my country appeared to have made. The other, was the fact +that both Englishmen and Irishmen appeared resolutely to ignore this +progress. Nearly all who write and speak about Ireland, either dwell +upon her grievances or assume poverty as her normal condition. I +know not of any who have attempted to record her returning prosperity. +Yet there are few facts in modern history better worthy of notice than +the advance in material wealth which has taken place in Ireland during +the thirty years between 1846 and 1876.</p> + +<p>The year 1879 marks the close of just one-third of a century from +the great famine. The first thirty years of this period, 1846-76, were +years of continual advance in well-being. From 1877 and down to the +present year a reaction has been going on, which is largely connected +with a general depression of trade all over the world. For reasons +which will appear hereafter, I do not hold that this reaction is likely to be +permanent.</p> + +<p>It is true that at the beginning of that period the country was in the +very lowest depths of poverty and depression. The starting-point +therefore was a very backward one: and the wonder is that so much +advance should have been made, considering not only the backwardness +of the starting-point but the difficulties of the road.</p> + +<p>I shall not attempt to depict the state of things which prevailed at +the close of the great potato famine. The condition of the country is +well known; the facts are in the recollection of many persons now +living; and the evidence is within the reach of all inquirers. I may +safely assume that Ireland then was among the very poorest of all the +countries in Europe. What is her position now?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span> +In discussing the social condition of any country, the population +question naturally comes to the front. Is the population pressing +unduly on the means of subsistence? then there is something wrong, +and until this is set right progress is impossible. On the other hand, if +the population is so sparse as to leave the resources of the country undeveloped, +there is also something wrong, though in this case the evil +is far less. The population, such as it is, may be prosperous and +advancing, though it is not producing all it might.</p> + +<p>The former was notoriously the state of things in Ireland before +1847.<a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> +In 1845 (the year immediately preceding the famine) the population +was at the highest point it attained during the present century, and +probably the highest it ever reached. It was estimated at 8,295,061. +In 1847, the year when the famine was at its height, the numbers are +given as 8,025,274. In 1875, just thirty years after the maximum, the +numbers had fallen to 5,309,494. In 1877 they were estimated at +5,338,906, showing an increase over 1875 of 29,412.</p> + +<p>It is a familiar fact that the population of 1845 and 1847 was excessive. +Whether the present population may not be defective in regard +of productive power is a question not without importance, but not +immediately relevant. What we are now dealing with is the material +welfare of the existing population; and it is clear that five millions can +live where eight cannot. But are the five millions better off in some +proportion to the price the country has paid for the decrease in population? +And is there a real advance in the condition of the people, +not a mere rise out of beggary and starvation?</p> + +<p>In attempting an answer to a question of this nature, one looks +naturally to the rate of wages first. But this test is an imperfect one: +partly because local variations are still considerable; partly because +money payments in many places and among large classes are more or +less supplemented by subsistence drawn directly from the land. +Besides, a mere increase in money wages may mean little or nothing, +unless the increased wages possess increased purchasing power, and there +be at the same time an upward tendency in the standard of living. +Putting aside the wages question accordingly (to be discussed hereafter), +let us try to find other indications of the extent and nature of the +changes in the people's condition since the famine. A test of some +value, though not absolutely conclusive by itself, will be afforded by +changes in the area of farms. It is notorious that one of the causes +which most contributed to bring about the famine and its miseries was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span> +the small size of holdings. Now the census returns show that from +1851, very shortly after the famine, there has been a steady decrease in +the number of farms under fifteen acres, and a steady increase in the +number of farms between fifteen and thirty acres, as well as in farms +exceeding thirty acres in area. Up to 1861 the number of holdings +not exceeding fifteen acres had declined fifty-five per cent., while those +above fifteen acres had increased 133 per cent. The number of farms +between fifteen and thirty acres was in 1861 double what it had been in +1841, and the farms above thirty acres amounted in 1861 to 157,833, +against 48,625, which had been their number twenty years before. +Between 1861 and 1871 farms under fifteen acres decreased by 12,548, +and farms above thirty acres increased by 1470. According to the +latest returns (1875) the farms not exceeding one acre in area were +51,459; those of one to five acres were 69,098; those of five to fifteen +acres, 166,959; fifteen to thirty acres, 137,669; the total above thirty +acres being 160,298 holdings.</p> + +<p>This distribution of the land seems to indicate a considerable improvement +compared with the state of things prevailing before the +famine. Unfortunately the increase in the size of holdings has not +been attended by a corresponding decrease in the number held on an +insecure tenure. Tenancy at will continues to be the rule, and permanency +the exception, in our land tenure. I have made an attempt +to estimate roughly the classes of landholders. The "Domesday" list +of proprietors of land gives the number of owners of one acre and +under ten as 6892, holding 28,968 acres, or an average of a little over +four acres each: between ten acres and fifty there are 7746 owners, +holding 195,525 acres, or an average a little over twenty-six acres: +between fifty acres and a hundred there are 3479 owners, holding +250,147 acres, or an average of just under seventy-two acres. These +make up a body of small proprietors, owning from one to a hundred +acres, numbering 18,117. <i>Eason's Almanac</i> for 1879, which has been +published while I write, estimates the number of "proprietors in fee" +of agricultural holdings at 20,217. The same authority gives the +number of leaseholders in perpetuity as 10,298; for terms of years +exceeding thirty-one as 13,712; for thirty-one years and under, 47,623 +(many of which may be short leases); and of leases for lives, or lives +and years alternative, as 63,759. The number of tenancies at will is +526,628, or 77.2 per cent, of the whole number of holdings. These +statistics were collected in 1870, and they have doubtless been in some +degree modified by the working of the Church Act and the Land Act. +I have omitted from my extracts from the Domesday list the proprietors +of under one acre. These are given in <i>Thom's Directory</i> as 36,144, +holding 9065 acres; but their holdings do not affect the present +question, as they are mostly non-agricultural. The estimate in <i>Eason's +Almanac</i> purports to relate wholly to agricultural holdings. Domesday +includes all classes.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span> +Another index of the condition of a people may be found in the way +they are housed. Mean and comfortless dwellings imply not only a low +standard of comfort, but often a low morality. Let us see how this +matter has stood in Ireland. The Census Commissioners of 1841 +divided the dwellings of the people into four classes. The fourth, or +lowest, comprised all mud cabins having only one room. Of this class +there were in all Ireland, according to the 1841 census, 491,278. In +the last census, 1871, the number had fallen to 155,675. The third-class +dwellings were also built of mud, but contained three or four +rooms, with windows; the latter convenience being by no means +universally present in the one-roomed cabin of the fourth class. Of +the third class the census of 1841 enumerated 533,297; by 1871 this +number had fallen to 357,126. The second class are described as good +farmhouses, and in towns, houses having from five to nine rooms. Of this +class in 1841 there were 264,184; and in 1871 the number had increased +to 387,660. The first class of houses increased during the same period +from 40,080 to 60,919. Let us see now in what way the population +has been distributed in the different classes of houses. In 1841 the +number of families occupying first-class houses was 31,333. In 1871 +the number had risen to 49,693. During the same period the number +of families in second-class houses rose from 241,664 to 357,752. On +the other hand, the families in third-class houses decreased from +574,386 to 432,774; and those in the fourth-class, or one-roomed +cabins, from 625,356 to 227,379. By a curious coincidence, the <i>proportion</i> +of families to houses was the same in 1841 and in 1871—one +hundred and eleven families to one hundred houses. In this way the +very great shifting in the <i>classes</i> is all the more clearly proved to indicate +a real rise in the condition of the people.</p> + +<p>In connection with this part of my subject, I may now proceed to +discuss the wages question and the condition of the labouring population. +Of the actual number of this class I can find no accurate return. +But we have already seen that the number of families inhabiting the +lowest class of houses (and these may be assumed all to belong to the +lowest class of labourers) was about 227,400. As the census of 1871 +gave the average number of a family as 5.07, or 507 persons to 100 +families, we may estimate the number of this class at 2274 multiplied +by 507, or 1,152,918. Those who inhabit a better class of house may +be safely assumed on the whole to be better off in other respects. Now +the money wages of the ordinary agricultural labourer are 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> a day +in the most remote and backward places. This is the minimum, and in +harvest time the labourers earn 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> a day. A great many labourers +have small holdings; but as these are not rent-free they do not count +directly as an element in wages. The way in which they do count is +that the people are not so overworked but that the labourer and his +family can attend to the holding, grow their own potatoes, feed the pig, +&c.—thereby eking out the actual money payment.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span> +The diet of these labourers (I am still referring to the most backward +and remote parts of Ireland) is tea and bread for breakfast, +potatoes and a little bacon for dinner, and oatmeal porridge for supper. +The people have quite risen out of the "potatoes and point" stage of +feeding. Of course, on Fridays and other fast-days, Roman Catholics +abstain from flesh meat; but there are few places so remote from the +sea that fresh herrings are not to be had, and at any rate salt ones are +always available. On the other hand, on Sundays and holidays many +of the labouring families contrive to have butcher's meat; and I am +told that in certain districts there is one day in the year when every +family among the peasantry makes an invariable rule to eat a dinner of +fresh meat, some animal (often a fowl) being killed on purpose to furnish +this meal. This is probably some relic of a sacrificial observance.</p> + +<p>The condition of the people being such as I have described, one +would naturally expect not to find pauperism very prevalent. As a +matter of fact it is not. The average daily number of paupers in the +workhouses throughout 1876 was 43,235, and of recipients of out-door +relief 31,600: bringing up the total to 74,835. The average of persons +in receipt of relief was 140.6 in 10,000 of population. This daily +average represents the current subsisting mass of pauperism, and is in a +considerable measure made up of the old, infirm, and sick. Of able-bodied +paupers, the males were only 1697 in the daily average of +workhouse inmates, and the females were 4130. There were 10,134 +healthy children under fifteen in the workhouses, and the other inmates +were either sick in hospital or permanently unable to work. These +figures seem to be the very reverse of alarming. Permanent pauperism +is not a very virulent social disorder when only two able-bodied persons +to every five hundred of the population are in receipt of in-door relief, +and when the whole permanent pauper population barely exceeds fourteen +in a thousand. But though permanent pauperism may be well in hand, +casual pauperism may be at a high pitch. Let us see how this matter +has stood. I shall first take the statistics of 1876, and then try to +modify my conclusions by such later figures as may be available. In +1876 the population of England and Wales stood at 24,244,000, and +the total of paupers in receipt of relief, in-door and out-door, on the +1st of January of that year, was 752,887; Scotland, with a population +of 3,527,000, had a total pauper population on the 1st of January, +1876, of 66,733. In Ireland, on the same date, the total population +being 5,321,600, the paupers amounted to 77,913. In other words, at +a rough estimate, on the 1st of January, 1876, about one person in +every thirty-three in England and Wales was in receipt of relief as a +pauper; in Scotland, about one in every fifty-three; while in Ireland +the proportion was only one in sixty-eight. A similar proportion +appears in the incidence of the poor-rate. In 1876 England and Wales +paid at the rate of 6<i>s.</i> 0¾<i>d.</i> per head of population; Scotland 5<i>s</i>. 0½<i>d.</i>; +Ireland only 3<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span> +Of course these figures must undergo modification in view of the +altered circumstances of the present time. The statistics of 1876 are +not an accurate guide to the facts of 1879. During the last three +years there has been considerable depression of trade; and it may very +well be that the returns of this year will indicate an ebb in the tide of +prosperity. But, unless I am very much mistaken, after making all +allowances, it will probably be found that Ireland is the part of the +United Kingdom least affected by the present prolonged commercial +crisis.<a name="FNanchor_22" id="FNanchor_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>The figures and facts recorded above will probably astonish the considerable +class of persons to whom the word "Irish" has an air of +wanting something, unless it is followed by "pauper." A smaller but +perhaps not less intelligent class—that of English travellers in Ireland—will +promptly jump to the conclusion that the figures are cooked; they +will argue, "We have travelled in Ireland, and have been beset with +beggars; how, then, can the country be so free from pauperism? Surely +the true state of the case is that the people keep out of the workhouses +merely in order to live on public charity in another form?" It cannot, I +regret to say, be denied that mendicancy is very common in Ireland; so +common as to be little less than a national scandal. There is, however, +something to be said in mitigation of judgment, though perhaps not in +defence. It is a matter in which figures are of little use; for no one +could, by any possibility, estimate how many persons live wholly by +begging. That there are in every community some persons who do may +be taken as certain. That their number is larger in proportion to the +bulk of the population in a Roman Catholic than in a Protestant community, +is antecedently probable. The theory of the Roman Catholic +religion positively encourages mendicancy. It is held to be no sin to +live on alms, and to be a positive merit to give alms. <i>Never turn +away thy face from any poor man</i>, is a text acted on by devout +Romanists in its most literal acceptation. The result is not difficult to +foresee. It must, however, be recorded to the credit of the Irish +Catholic clergy, that they are beginning to see the folly of indiscriminate +almsgiving; and though they are hampered in no small degree by +the traditions of their Church, they have made many successful efforts +in the direction of the organization of charity. Another influence, +which largely contributes to the existence of the mendicancy that scandalizes +the traveller, is the tradition of recent poverty. The habits of +centuries are not effaced in a generation. Not much more than twenty +years ago, begging was a recognized necessity in the life of the Irish +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span> +poor. But now, when times are moderately prosperous, begging is +limited almost wholly to old people who hang about the doors of +Catholic chapels, and about places frequented by tourists. On the +roads leading to such "show places," also, the tourist will be often +beset by little knots of children clamouring for half-pence; but these +are no more professional beggars than a gentleman who amuses himself +with pheasant shooting is a professional dealer in game. It is a form of +excitement with them; not a very high one to be sure, but not meaner +or more vicious than baccarat or rouge-et-noir.</p> + +<p>Still, when all is said, there is more mendicancy in Ireland than would +exist if things were in a healthier state; and where mendicancy is common, +pauperism must fluctuate largely. In more prosperous times, a +larger number of mendicants can find support from a more copious +supply of alms. When evil times curtail the fund whence alms are +supplied, the mendicant must fall back on legal relief. From this point +of view the small increase of six in ten thousand, already referred +to,<a name="FNanchor_23" id="FNanchor_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> +seems to show that the commercial depression of 1877 has not largely +touched the revenues of the Irish mendicant!</p> + +<p>An account of the condition of the Irish people would be incomplete +without some reference to the statistics of drunkenness and crime. +Here we shall find some results of a rather surprising kind. Thus, in +England and Wales in 1876, the population being 24,244,000, the +number of drunkards brought before magistrates was 205,567; being, at +an approximate estimate, one in every 118 of the population. In +Scotland, the population being 3,527,800, the drunkards arrested +numbered 26,209, or about one in 134. In Ireland, the population +being 5,321,600, the drunkards brought before magistrates were 112,253; +showing the enormous proportion of one in every 47 of the people. +Of course these figures in all three kingdoms include very many cases of +repeated conviction, so that it would not be fair to say that one man in +every 118 in England, still less in every 47 in Ireland, is actually a drunkard. +All the same, this comparison is sufficiently alarming as well as perplexing. +It is rather paradoxical to find Scotland showing a smaller proportion +of apparent drunkards than either of the other kingdoms; and +some people might be ill-natured enough to hint that this result depended +mainly on greater skill in keeping out of the hands of the police. +On the other hand, a patriotic Irishman might, without any very +flagrant paradox, argue that the fact of so many Irish being arrested for +being drunk proves that they are actually a more sober people. It takes +less to make an Irishman drunk, partly because he is more excitable in +temperament, and partly because he drinks but seldom. The habitually +temperate man, when he does casually exceed, shows his condition very +promptly; the habitual toper can dissemble it far longer. Another +reason that may be given for the state of things here indicated, is that +the police force is more numerous in Ireland in proportion to the population +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span> +than in England or Scotland;<a name="FNanchor_24" id="FNanchor_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> +and as, for reasons which will be +hereafter seen, the police have actually less to do, they are able to +expend a quantity of surplus energy in arresting drunkards whom the +busier constables of England and Scotland would allow to stagger quietly +home. That some or all these causes are in operation to bring about +the startling excess of apparent drunkenness in Ireland, is manifest when +we come to discuss the statistics of crime. The connection of crime +with drink is a commonplace of moralists; but, like most other commonplaces, +it requires to be seriously tested by the light of facts.</p> + +<p>The crimes with which drink is most closely connected are naturally +those which come under the class of offences against the person. Drink +may, indeed, prompt offences against property; but chiefly in an indirect +fashion. A drunkard is very likely to be in want of things which he +may seek to obtain by theft; but drink is not the sole cause of poverty, +and professional thieves are not habitual drunkards. Referring then +to the class of offences against the person, we find that in 1876 only four +persons were sentenced to death in all Ireland. The number sentenced +in England was 32. Here is already a considerable discrepancy; for +the population of England is to that of Ireland in the proportion of only +about four and two-fifths to one, and the death sentences in England +were eight times as numerous as in +Ireland.<a name="FNanchor_25" id="FNanchor_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> But this is not all. +Nearly all the murders in Ireland are agrarian, and with these drink is +only casually if at all connected. On the other hand, nearly every +murder in England is committed more or less under the influence of +intoxication. Turning to the secondary punishments, we find twelve +sentences of penal servitude for life in England, while there were none +in Ireland. Ten of these twelve ought perhaps to be discounted, as +representing ten commutations of capital punishment, for of the thirty-two +persons sentenced to death in England only twenty-two were +executed. But the most remarkable discrepancy is seen when we come +to sentences of penal servitude for terms of years. Of these there were +only fifty in Ireland against 280 in England. In the absence of +returns of crime actually committed (including undetected offences), it +is not easy to pronounce an opinion of much value; but from the +statistics of conviction it would appear that violent crimes against the +person are much less prevalent in proportion to the population in Ireland +than in England. These results are by no means contrary to reasonable +expectation, when we consider the vast congestion of population in +London and other cities in England, to which there is no parallel anywhere +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span> +in Ireland. But, such as they are, they seem to show that the +apparent addiction of Irishmen to strong drink is not attended by a +proportionate addiction to the more serious forms of crime. On the +other hand (and this must be recorded for whatever it may be worth), +we have 1078 sentences of imprisonment and other minor penalties +inflicted in Ireland, against only 1533 similar sentences in England.</p> + +<p>Turning now to the class of offences against property with violence, +we find two sentences of penal servitude for life in England, against +none in Ireland; 271 sentences for terms of years in England, against +26 in Ireland; 898 sentences of minor terms of imprisonment against +only 69 in Ireland. In cases of this nature one might naturally expect +drink to be a considerable predisposing cause. On the other hand, there +is no assignable connection between drink and crime unaccompanied by +violence, except in so far as poverty is an effect of drink and a cause for +crime. Even here, however, the proportion fails; for the convictions for +minor offences against property in Ireland were only 798, against +10,674 in England: and of these only 104 suffered penal servitude for +terms of years, against 1063 in England.</p> + +<p>All this, it may be said, simply shows that there must be a great deal +of undetected crime in Ireland. To a certain extent, no doubt, this is +true; but the remark applies chiefly to some of the more serious crimes, +especially agrarian murder. There is not the same motive for concealing +minor forms of crime, nor perhaps would even the Ribbon organization +make such concealment practicable. To be sure it may be urged that, +though minor crime is not purposely concealed, the police are too busy +keeping the peace and looking after Fenians and Ribbonmen to have +time for detecting ordinary thefts. This fact may, indeed, have something +to do with the apparent scarcity of petty crime in Ireland; but +this is certainly not the aspect of the case usually dwelt upon, by Judges +of Assizes, for instance, when a Grand Jury sends up a pair of white +gloves instead of a sheaf of criminal indictments. However this may +be, I merely record the facts as I find them; leaving readers, for the +most part, to draw what inferences the facts seem to suggest. One inference +they suggest to me is, that Irishmen are not such very drunken +animals after all; or else that they are somehow or other an exception +to the rule which connects drink and crime. The undeniable blot on +the Irish character—agrarian outrage—is not to be accounted for by +drink. The true explanation is familiar to all who really know the +country. The Irish peasant is very largely dependent on the soil for his +support, and believes himself to be wholly so. He also believes himself +to have a moral and a historical right to the possession of the soil; a +belief which contains a considerable admixture of truth, provided it be +stated with the proper limitations. Unluckily, the Irish peasant holds it +without any limitation at all; and herein lies the secret of his hostility to +the law. The peasant ejected, or in fear of ejectment, looks on himself +as a ruined man (which he need not be), and as a wronged man (which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span> +he is only very partially). Men ruined and wronged have always been +raw material for brigands; and the Ribbonman is simply a brigand in a +frieze coat.</p> + +<p>I have no desire to compose an Essay on the Land Question; but it +is absolutely impracticable to discuss Irish social economy without finding +the Land Question in one's way. It is the question which most +closely concerns the industrial classes; for the land is the mainstay of +Irish industry. It is the pivot upon which all Irish politics turn; for +although priestly influence counts for a great deal, that influence itself +depends in great measure on the land hunger of the peasantry. I feel +that I should be leaving Hamlet out of the play if I did not say a few +words on the matter. As I have already hinted, the Irish peasant has +three reasons for his desire to be "rooted in the soil." One is a traditional +reason. He thinks that his forefathers were unjustly ousted by +foreign conquerors. His belief rests on an utterly distorted view of +history. It is true that eight hundred years ago a few of the ancestors +of a few of the existing peasantry might in a sort of sense have been +called landowners. But so far as the Gaelic race survives, it would be +equally true to say that the ancestors of the existing peasantry had been +the serfs or the slaves of barbarous chieftains. The old Gaelic tribal +ownership, if left to itself, might or might not have ripened into a +peasant proprietary; but the only real grievance which the existing +Gaelic peasantry can allege, is that the English conquest forcibly interrupted +the natural process of evolution. Moreover, a large number of +the existing peasants are no true Gael at all, but the descendants of +Danes, Normans, and the various waves of Saxon settlers from Elizabeth +to William of Orange. In parts of Ireland there are even to be found +the descendants of French Huguenots, of Scotch fugitives involved in the +Stuart insurrections, and of refugees of 1793. That such a <i>colluvies +gentium</i> should claim to be the heirs of Septs which occupied the land</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"Ere the emerald gem of the Western world<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had been set in the crown of a stranger,"<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>is simply a proof of profound ignorance of history. Such, however, is +the vague traditional belief; and it is complicated with a moral sentiment, +that he who tills the land has a right to live by the land. The +sentiment is open to no objection, provided it be understood that the +land is an instrument of production in which the whole community is +interested. The cultivator has the same right to live by the land as +the artisan to live by his handicraft, and no more—that is, both peasant +and artisan have a right to expect that the social system shall be so +adjusted that neither shall be unjustly deprived of the fruit of his +labour. But neither peasant nor artisan can claim that any instrument +of production shall be used for the sole sake of the producer. +Hence, even if peasant proprietorship were undeniably the best thing +for the peasant, it does not follow that he has a moral right to it, unless +it be good for the whole community as well. This consideration is too +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span> +often neglected by the thorough-going advocates of peasant proprietorship. +They assume that the interests of the peasants are the only +interests to be considered. In Ireland, indeed, they are not far wrong; +for the peasantry <i>are</i> very nearly the whole community. This, however, +only raises the previous question, whether peasant proprietorship +would be a success in Ireland—of which hereafter. The last and most +practical of the agrarian arguments is that a tenant evicted is a man +ruined. Even this is only partially true, and at most is only an argument +against capricious eviction. It is conclusive as against the system +of tenancy at will, or any of those short tenures which are, in fact, a +standing notice to quit. It holds good in favour of peasant proprietorship +to this extent—that the ruin of a peasant proprietor can only +occur through his own fault or misfortune, and not through the caprice +of a landlord. In short, the discontent of the Irish peasantry proves +that the Anglo-Irish system of tenure is about the worst of all possible +systems; but it proves little or nothing in favour of peasant ownership.</p> + +<p>My own opinion (<i>valeat quantum</i>) is that the soil and climate of +Ireland render the country utterly unfit to maintain a considerable +body of peasant proprietors; but that, nevertheless, it would be wise +and politic to establish peasant properties as widely as may be practicable. +The climate is notoriously damp, and variable in the extreme. +Grain crops are inferior and precarious—root crops are not much better—even +meadows are untrustworthy, because of the difficulty of haymaking—but +Irish pasture is perhaps the best in the world. Natural +conditions mark out Ireland as a pastoral and cattle-breeding country; +and such a country is the destined home of <i>latifundia</i>. It is not +merely that cattle require large spaces of pasture; but the trade in +cattle requires capital, and requires the power of staying through seasons +of adversity. An attempt to breed or deal in cattle by a class of +peasant proprietors, acting singly, could only end in ruin; a ruin even +more complete than bad seasons would bring upon unsuccessful cultivators +of grain. Another product for which Ireland is eminently fitted +is timber.<a name="FNanchor_26" id="FNanchor_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> +This also obviously requires spaces of land, and intervals +of idle capital, utterly incompatible with any system of small holdings. +Nature would seem to have marked out Ireland as a country to be +thinly populated; historical accident once made her one of the most +populous of countries, and we all know what came of it. The people +were dependent on a single kind of food; it failed, and misery ensued +such as modern Europe had never beheld. The scenes of 1847 we may +devoutly hope will never be witnessed again; but such a season as +1878-79 would be a trial that few peasant proprietors could stand. +Why then do I say that a peasant proprietary ought to be created? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span> +Because I believe that in the experiment is to be found the sole method +of convincing the Irish peasants that their true interest lies in quite +another direction. The peasant now believes that all he wants in +order to be prosperous is to be "rooted in the soil." It is of no use to +appeal to abstract reasoning. He knows that he has to pay rent, and +that he is liable to eviction for non-payment. Carefully as recent legislation +has guarded him against capricious eviction, he knows that if his +landlord chooses to pay for turning him out, out he must go. The few +of his neighbours who do acquire freeholds, he perceives to be comparatively +prosperous. He does not take into account that the +prosperity of the freeholder is maintained by precisely the same +exceptional energy and thrift which in the first instance enabled him to +secure the freehold. Besides, it is undeniable that <i>cæteris paribus</i> a +man who holds rent-free is likely to be better off than one who pays +rent; and so long as rent is the rule and freehold the exception, the +few freeholders will seem at least to possess an advantage over the +many rentpayers. In short, the peasant farmer will never cease to +believe ownership a panacea for all his ills, until he shall have tried +it, and failed. Of course it does not absolutely follow that the +experiment of creating a peasant proprietary must needs fail. It may +succeed; and then the Irish land problem is solved. For the reasons +given above, however, I think it would fail. If all the holdings of fifteen acres and under (there are +285,000<a name="FNanchor_27" id="FNanchor_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> +of them, or nearly half the whole number of farms in Ireland) were turned into peasant properties tomorrow, +I believe they would in thirty, or at most in fifty, years be +recast into large cattle farms, owned probably for the most part by +joint-stock companies. The process of consolidation would be partly +the buying out of ruined peasants after some such seasons as we are +now undergoing; partly a voluntary union of the residue, who would +find association desirable in order to secure a sufficiency of land and +capital. But those who might be compelled to part with their lands +could no longer ascribe their ruin to the tenure by which they held. It +would be made clear to them and to all concerned that it is the laws of +Nature and not the laws of England which hinder Ireland from maintaining +a dense agricultural population.</p> + +<p>It may be urged against what I have here said, that it is hardly +worth while engaging in a social revolution merely in order that the +last state of things may turn out on the whole very similar to the first. +I cannot deny the force of this remark; though I may suggest, in my +turn, that perhaps it is worth while to make some sacrifice for the sake +of attaining stable equilibrium in the social system. I am persuaded +that the one great difficulty in Irish affairs is to convince the peasant +that the law is a power not hostile but friendly to him. This is no +easy task. It is not so very long since the law actually was the hard +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span> +master it is still supposed to be. Nor is the peasant's own attitude of +mind a very easy one to deal with. He clamours loudly to be "rooted +in the soil," or, in other words, to be made absolute owner of his farm; +but he clamours not less loudly against the absenteeship of his landlord. +He utterly fails to perceive the inconsistency of his position. +He cannot eat his cake and have his cake. He cannot be at +one and the same time tenant to a resident lord of the manor, and +owner in fee-simple of his own holding. Absolute peasant ownership +is <i>primâ facie</i> incompatible with the very existence of a landed aristocracy; +and it may be some perception of this that induces certain of +the land agitators to propose fixity of tenure at a quit-rent rather than +absolute peasant proprietorship. But it is clear that this is a mere +evasion of the difficulty. A landlord, who is merely a rent-charger, +has no more motive to reside on his estate than if he sold it and lived +on the interest of the purchase-money. There is no doubt a sense +in which the two things are not absolutely incompatible. Peasant +properties might be intermixed with large estates owned by resident +landlords. And this would certainly constitute a state of things by no +means undesirable; in fact, it is what might possibly emerge from the +experiment I have mentioned above. I think it more than probable +that a great deal of the land, after such an experiment, would fall into +the hands of joint-stock companies; but a considerable portion might +also be bought up by individuals, who might choose to become resident +landlords. It must, however, be remembered that there are many +things besides agrarian agitation which tempt Irish landlords to become +absentees. Residence in Ireland is attended with many drawbacks and +discomforts, even when a landlord is on the best of terms with his +tenantry. Absenteeism is no new complaint; Adam Smith discussed +proposals for an absentee-tax. Its prevalence is not uncommonly +ascribed to the Union, but it might as well be ascribed to the +Deluge. The most potent causes of absenteeism in the latter +half of the nineteenth century are the City of Dublin Steam +Navigation Company, and the London and North-Western Railway. +These, and kindred institutions, are also the channels which conduct a +vast deal of wealth into Ireland; and if absenteeism constitutes a +perennial drain on her resources, the facilities of locomotion cause the +drain to return ten-fold.<a name="FNanchor_28" id="FNanchor_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> +If these facilities did not exist, it does not +follow that the landlords who remained at home would necessarily be of +much use to the community. The squires and <i>squireens</i> in Lever's +and Maxwell's novels are very amusing to read about; but they are a +race that nobody at the present day would seriously wish to revive. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span> +However this may be, there is little inducement for the existing landlords +to remain resident in a country where they are continually +threatened, and occasionally shot. I cannot help thinking that in the +tendency to absenteeism, courageous statesmanship might find the +means of solving the Land problem. There should be little difficulty, +one would imagine, in persuading a number of existing Irish landlords +to part with their estates for a reasonable +compensation.<a name="FNanchor_29" id="FNanchor_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> The Church +Surplus is at hand to provide the purchase-money. After deducting +the sums to be paid to the Intermediate Education Board, and to the +National School Teachers' Pension Fund, there will remain nearly four +millions in the hands of the Temporalities Commission. This money +judiciously advanced to tenant farmers would enable a considerable +number of them to acquire the freehold of their farms, and thus the +foundations of a peasant proprietary might be laid without any confiscation +or disturbance of vested rights. The Royal Commission on +Agriculture would perhaps be a good medium for acquiring information on +this subject. They might include in the scope of their inquiry the best +method of carrying out some such scheme as has been here indicated.</p> + +<p>Having set out with no intention beyond that of offering a general +view of a few leading facts and figures relating to Irish affairs, I find +myself insensibly gliding into a political discussion. So far as I have +any excuse for this, it must be found in the irrepressible character of +the Land problem; which, as I before remarked, can by no possibility +be evaded by any one who writes on Irish social economy. Yet this +problem itself is in one aspect simply a phase of the struggle going on +all over the world between, labour and capital. Side by side with this +there is yet another struggle going on, which is also a phase of a +world-wide conflict. It is the old story of Priesthood against Free +Thought; but in Ireland, like nearly all things Irish, it bears a peculiar +aspect of its own. Many a man here would be amazed to be told that he is +fighting on the side of the priests; yet the Irish Orange Tory, and to +some extent even the Irish Evangelical clergyman, is really and truly +(though of course unconsciously) helping the policy of the Roman +Church. But it would extend my essay beyond all reasonable limits to +discuss this matter; and besides, I set out to write on statistics, and not +on politics.<a name="FNanchor_30" id="FNanchor_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Edward Stanley Robertson.</span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> +The statistics in this Essay are chiefly taken from <i>Thom's Almanac and Official +Directory for 1878</i>. The tables given in that Almanac are for the most part brought down +no later than 1876. It so happens, however, that 1876 is a very convenient date for the +purpose of this paper. It marks the conclusion of a period of just thirty years from the +worst crisis of the Potato Famine; and it marks also the conclusion of a cycle of commercial +inflation, some of whose results were strongly felt in Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +I have, of course, consulted other authorities besides <i>Thom's Directory</i>, but I shall +specify these as occasion arises. When no special reference is given, my authority is +Thom.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> +While I write <i>Eason's Almanac for 1879</i> has been published. This authority gives +the total average of paupers daily in receipt of relief through 1877 as 78,223, or 146.5 +in 10,000 of the population. An increase of less than six in ten thousand is not very +alarming, and the fact seems in some measure to justify the opinion I have ventured to +express in the text, that Ireland will be found to suffer less from the present crisis than +other parts of the United Kingdom. It must, however, be taken into consideration that +the present year (1879) threatens a very poor harvest: and this circumstance is absolutely +certain to enhance whatever distress already exists.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23" id="Footnote_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> +See note on previous page.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24" id="Footnote_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> +The 24¼ millions in England and Wales are kept in order by a police force of 29,689. +In Scotland 3½ millions of population have only 3356 policemen. In Ireland, with +a population well under 5½ millions, there are 12,081 policemen. And yet, as will +appear presently, there is far less crime in Ireland relatively than in either of the other +kingdoms.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25" id="Footnote_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> +It is only just to admit that the death sentences are not a fair test. Too many murders +remain undetected, owing to the existence of agrarian conspiracy. The number of murders +known to have been committed is unluckily not to be found in the returns to which I have +access. But the very fact of their remaining undetected is a proof that they are not directly +connected with intoxication, for it shows that they are for the most part agrarian.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26" id="Footnote_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> +It has been calculated, apparently on trustworthy data, that an acre of land planted with +larch or fir, at an expense of about £20, would be worth £2000 at the end of forty +years, besides the intermediate yield from clearings of young timber, game cover, and so forth. +This is a very high return for a small outlay; but it is completely beyond the means of any +peasant proprietor.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27" id="Footnote_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> +<i>Eason's Almanac</i>, 1879. The actual number is 285,464. The total of agricultural +holdings is 581,963.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28" id="Footnote_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> +I have unfortunately been unable to obtain any statistics of the cross-channel trade. I +find it stated in <i>Thom's Directory</i> that the trade of Belfast alone was valued in the year +1866 at £24,332,000—viz., £12,417,000 imports and £11,915,000 exports. The year 1866 +was a bad year: so it may be assumed that these figures represent a low average. I find +no means of estimating the import and export trade of Cork and Dublin. +</p> + +<p> +I may mention here that one cause of interruption in the composition of this paper was +an unsuccessful search for complete trade statistics.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29" id="Footnote_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> +A few of the Home Rule M.P.'s who are now stumping the country on the Land +grievance are themselves landlords. It has been suggested that they should introduce +fixity of tenure on their estates, in one or other of its various forms. Mr. Errington (who +is <i>not</i> one of the stump orators of the party) has, I am told, notified his intention to +give long leases to his tenantry. In a case like this the <i>argumentum ad hominem</i>, though a +perfectly fair one, is a perfectly useless one.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30" id="Footnote_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> +I have referred above (note, p. 463) to my failure to obtain trade statistics. +This circumstance has caused me to fail also in fully carrying out the original plan of this +paper. I had intended not only to give a general view of the recent condition of the Irish +people, but to enter somewhat fully into its causes, and discuss the probabilities of the +future. The great revival in prosperity, which I have imperfectly sketched, was closely +connected with the cross-channel trade. At present, affairs look sufficiently gloomy both +here and in England; and the forecast of the future depends mainly upon the prospect of +revival in English trade.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span></p> + +<h2>THE DELUGE:</h2> + +<h4>ITS TRADITIONS IN ANCIENT NATIONS.</h4> + +<p>Of all traditions relating to the history of primitive humanity, by +far the most universal is that of the Deluge. Our present purpose +is to pass under review the principal versions of it extant among the +leading races of men. The concordance of these with the Biblical +narrative will bring out their primary unity, and we shall thus be +able to recognize the fact of this tradition being one of those which +date before the dispersion of peoples, go back to the very dawn of the +civilized world, and can only refer to a real and definite event.</p> + +<p>But we have previously to get rid of certain legendary recollections +erroneously associated with the Biblical Deluge, their essential features +forbidding sound criticism to assimilate them therewith. We allude to +such as refer to local phenomena, and are of historic and comparatively +recent date. Doubtless the tradition of the great primitive cataclysm +may have been confused with these, and thus have led to an exaggeration +of their importance; but the characteristic points of the narrative +admitted into the Book of Genesis are wanting, and even under the +legendary form it has assumed these events retain a decidedly special +and restricted character. To group recollections of this nature with +those that really relate to the Deluge would be to invalidate, rather +than confirm, the consequences we are entitled to draw from the latter.</p> + +<p>Take, for instance, the great inundation placed by the historic books +of China in the reign of Yao. This has no real relation, or even +resemblance, to the Biblical Deluge; it is a purely local event, the +date of which, spite of the uncertainty of Chinese chronology previous +to the eighth century <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, we may yet determine as long subsequent +to the fully historic periods of Egypt and +Babylon.<a name="FNanchor_31" id="FNanchor_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> +Chinese authors +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span> +describe Yu, minister and engineer of the day, as restoring the course +of rivers, raising dykes, digging canals, and regulating the taxation of +every province throughout China. A learned Sinologist, Edouard Biot, +has proved, in a treatise on the changes of the lower course of the +Hoang-ho, that it was to one of its frequent inundations the above +catastrophe was due, and that the early Chinese settlements on its +banks had had much to suffer from this cause. These works of Yu were +but the beginning of embankments necessary to contain its waters, +carried on further in following ages. A celebrated inscription graven +on the rocky face of one of the mountain peaks of Ho-nan passes for +contemporaneous with these works, and is consequently the most +ancient specimen of Chinese epigraphy extant. This inscription appears +to present an intrinsically authentic character, sufficient to dispel the +doubts suggested by Mr. Legge, although there is this rather suspicious +fact connected with it, that we are only acquainted with it through +ancient copies, and that for many centuries past the minutest research +has failed to re-discover the original.</p> + +<p>Nor is the character of a mere local event less conspicuous in the +legend of Botchica, such as we have it reported by the Muyscas, the +ancient inhabitants of the province of Cundinamarca, in South America, +although here mythological fable is mingled much more largely with +the fundamental historic element.</p> + +<p>Huythaca, the wife of a divine man, or rather a god, called Botchica, +having practised abominable witchcraft in order to make the river +Funzha leave its bed, the whole plain of Bogota is devastated by its +waters; men and beasts perish in the inundation, and only a few +escape by flight to the loftiest mountains. The tradition adds that +Botchica broke asunder the rocks inclosing the valley of Canoas and +Tequendama, in order to facilitate the escape of the waters, next +reassembled the dispersed remnant of the Muyscas, taught them Sun-worship, +and went up to heaven, after having lived 500 years in +Cundinamarca.</p> + +<h4>I.</h4> + +<p><i>Chaldean and Biblical Narratives.</i>—Of the traditions relating to the +great cataclysm the most curious, no doubt, is that of the Chaldeans. +Its influence has stamped itself in an unmistakable manner on the +tradition of India; and, of all the accounts of the Deluge, it comes +nearest to that in Genesis. To whoever compares the two it becomes +evident that they must have been one and the same up to the time +when Terah and his family left Ur of the Chaldees to go into +Palestine.</p> + +<p>We have two versions of the Chaldean story—unequally developed +indeed, but exhibiting a remarkable agreement. The one most anciently +known, and also the shorter, is that which Berosus took from the +sacred books of Babylon and introduced into the history that he wrote +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span> +for the use of the Greeks.<a name="FNanchor_32" id="FNanchor_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> +After speaking of the last nine antediluvian +kings, the Chaldean priest continues thus:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Obartès Elbaratutu being dead, his son Xisuthros (Khasisatra) reigned +eighteen sares (64,800 years). It was under him that the Great Deluge took +place, the history of which is told in the sacred documents as follows:—Cronos +(Êa) appeared to him in his sleep, and announced that on the fifteenth of +the month of Daisios (the Assyrian month Sivan—a little before the summer +solstice), all men should perish by a flood. He therefore commanded him to +take the beginning, the middle, and the end of whatever was consigned to +writing,<a name="FNanchor_33" id="FNanchor_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> +and to bury it in the City of the Sun, at Sippara; then to build a +vessel, and to enter into it with his family and dearest friends; to place in this +vessel provisions to eat and drink, and to cause animals, birds, and quadrupeds +to enter it; lastly, to prepare everything for navigation. And when Xisuthros +inquired in what direction he should steer his bark, he was answered, 'towards +the gods,' and enjoined to pray that good might come of it for men.</p> + +<p>"Xisuthros obeyed, and constructed a vessel five stadia long and five broad; +he collected all that had been prescribed to him, and embarked his wife, his +children, and his intimate friends.</p> + +<p>"The Deluge having come, and soon going down, Xisuthros loosed some of +the birds. These finding no food nor place to alight on returned to the ship. +A few days later Xisuthros again let them free, but they returned again to the +vessel, their feet full of mud. Finally, loosed the third time the birds came no +more back. Then Xisuthros understood that the earth was bare. He made an +opening in the roof of the ship, and saw that it had grounded on the top of a +mountain. He then descended with his wife, his daughter, and his pilot, +worshipped the earth, raised an altar, and there sacrificed to the gods; at the +same moment he vanished with those who accompanied him.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile those who had remained in the vessel not seeing Xisuthros return, +descended too and began to seek him, calling him by his name. They +saw Xisuthros no more; but a voice from heaven was heard commanding them +piety towards the gods; that he, indeed, was receiving the reward of his +piety in being carried away to dwell thenceforth in the midst of the gods, and +that his wife, his daughter, and the pilot of the ship shared the same honour. +The voice further said that they were to return to Babylon, and conformably to +the decrees of fate, disinter the writings buried at Sippara in order to transmit +them to men. It added that the country in which they found themselves was +Armenia. These, then, having heard the voice, sacrificed to the gods and +returned on foot to Babylon. Of the vessel of Xisuthros, which had finally +landed in Armenia, a portion is still to be found in the Gordyan Mountains in +Armenia, and pilgrims bring thence asphalte that they have scraped from its +fragments. It is used to keep off the influence of witchcraft. As to the +companions of Xisuthros, they came to Babylon, disinterred the writings left at +Sippara, founded numerous cities, built temples, and restored Babylon."</p></div> + +<p>By the side of this version, which, interesting though it be, is, after +all, second hand, we are now able to place an original Chaldeo-Babylonian +edition, which the lamented George Smith was the first to decipher on +the cuneiform tablets exhumed at Nineveh and now in the British +Museum. Here the narrative of the Deluge appears as an episode in +the eleventh tablet, or eleventh chaunt of the great epic of the town of +Uruk. The hero of this poem, a kind of Hercules, whose name has not as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span> +yet been made out with +certainty,<a name="FNanchor_34" id="FNanchor_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> +being attacked by disease (a kind of leprosy), goes, with a view to its cure, to consult the patriarch saved +from the Deluge, Khasisatra, in the distant land to which the gods +have transported him, there to enjoy eternal felicity. He asks Khasisatra +to reveal the secret of the events which led to his obtaining the +privilege of immortality, and thus the patriarch is induced to relate the +cataclysm.</p> + +<p>By a comparison of the three copies of the poem that the library of +the palace of Nineveh contained, it has been possible to restore the narrative with hardly any +breaks.<a name="FNanchor_35" id="FNanchor_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> +These three copies were, by order of the King of Assyria, Asshurbanabal, +made in the eighth century <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, +from a very ancient specimen in the sacerdotal library of the town of +Uruk, founded by the monarchs of the first Chaldean empire. It is +difficult precisely to fix the date of the original, copied by Assyrian +scribes, but it certainly goes back to the ancient empire, seventeen +centuries, at least, before our era, and even probably beyond; it was +therefore much anterior to Moses, and nearly contemporaneous with +Abraham. The variations presented by the three existing copies prove +that the original was in the primitive mode of writing called the +<i>hieratic</i>, a character which must have already become difficult +to decipher in the eighth century <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span>, as the copyists have differed as +to the interpretation to be given to certain signs, and in other cases have +simply reproduced exactly the forms of such as they did not understand. +Finally, it results from a comparison of these variations, that the +original, transcribed by order of Asshurbanabal, must itself have been a +copy of some still more ancient manuscript, in which the original text +had already received interlinear comments. Some of the copyists +have introduced these into their text, others have omitted them. With +these preliminary observations I proceed to give integrally the narrative +ascribed in the poem to Khasisatra:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I will reveal to thee, O Izdhubar, the history of my preservation—and tell to +thee the decision of the gods.</p> + +<p>"The town of Shurippak, a town which thou knowest, is situated on the +Euphrates—it was ancient and in it [men did not honour] the gods. [I alone, +I was] their servant, to the great gods—[The gods took counsel on the appeal +of] Anu—[a deluge was proposed by] Bel—[and approved by Nabon, Nergal +and] Adar.</p> + +<p>"And the god [Êa] the immutable lord,—repeated this command in a +dream.—I listened to the decree of fate that he announced, and he said to me:—'Man +of Shiruppak, son of Ubaratutu—thou, build a vessel and finish it +[quickly].—[By a deluge] I will destroy substance and life.—Cause thou to go +up into the vessel the substance of all that has life.—The vessel thou shall +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span> +build—600 cubits shall be the measure of its length—and 60 cubits the amount +of its breadth and of its height.—[Launch it] thus on the ocean and cover it +with a roof.'—I understood, and I said to Êa, my lord:—'[The vessel] that +thou commandest me to build thus—[when] I shall do it,—young and old [shall +laugh at me.]'—[Êa opened his mouth and] spoke.—He said to me, his +servant:—'[If they laugh at thee] thou shalt say to them: [shall be punished] +he who has insulted me, [for the protection of the gods] is over me.— ... +like to caverns ... —— ... I will exercise my judgment on that which +is on high and that which is below ... —— ... Close the vessel ... +—— ... At a given moment that I shall cause thee to know,—enter into it +and draw the door of the ship towards thee.—Within it, thy grains, thy +furniture, thy provisions,—thy riches, thy men-servants, and thy maid-servants, +and thy young people—the cattle of the field and the wild beasts of the plain +that I will assemble—and that I will send thee, shall be kept behind thy door.'—Khasisatra +opened his mouth and spoke;—he said to Êa, his lord:—'No one +has made [such a] ship.—On the prow I will fix....—I shall see ... +and the vessel ...—the vessel thou commandest me to build [thus]—which +in....<a name="FNanchor_36" id="FNanchor_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>"On the fifth day [the two sides of the bark] were raised.—In its covering +fourteen in all were its rafters—fourteen in all did it count above.—I placed its +roof and I covered it.—I embarked in it on the sixth day; I divided its floors +on the seventh;—I divided the interior compartments on the eighth. I stopped +up the chinks through which the water entered in;—I visited the chinks and +added what was wanting.—I poured on the exterior three times 3,600 measures +of asphalte,—and three times 3,600 measures of asphalte within.—Three times +3,600 men, porters, brought on their heads the chests of provisions.—I kept 3,600 +chests for the nourishment of my family,—and the mariners divided among +themselves twice 3,600 chests.—For [provisioning] I had oxen slain;—I instituted +[rations] for each day.—In [anticipation of the need of] drinks, of barrels and +of wine—[I collected in quantity] like to the waters of a river, [of provisions] +in quantity like to the dust of the earth.—[To arrange them in] the chests I set +my hand to.— ... of the sun ... the vessel was completed.— ... +strong and—I had carried above and below the furniture of the ship.—[This +lading filled the two-thirds.]</p> + +<p>"All that I possessed I gathered together; all I possessed of silver I gathered +together; all that I possessed of gold I gathered—all that I possessed of the +substance of life of every kind I gathered together.—I made all ascend into the +vessel; my servants male and female,—the cattle of the fields, the wild beasts of +the plains, and the sons of the people, I made them all ascend."</p> + +<p>"Shamash (the sun) made the moment determined and——he announced +it in these terms: 'In the evening I will cause it to rain abundantly from +heaven; enter into the vessel and close the door.'——The fixed moment had +arrived, which he announced in these terms: 'In the evening I will cause it to +rain abundantly from heaven.'——When the evening of that day arrived, I was +afraid,——I entered into the vessel and shut my door.——In shutting the vessel, +to Buzur-shadi-rabi, the pilot——I confided this dwelling, with all that it +contained.</p> + +<p>"Mu-sheri-ina-namari<a name="FNanchor_37" id="FNanchor_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a>—rose +from the foundations of heaven in a black +cloud;—Ramman<a name="FNanchor_38" id="FNanchor_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> +thundered in the midst of the cloud—and Nabon and Sharru +marched before;—they marched, devastating the mountain and the +plain;—Nergal<a name="FNanchor_39" id="FNanchor_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> +the powerful, dragged chastisements after +him;—Adar<a name="FNanchor_40" id="FNanchor_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> +advanced, overthrowing before him;—the Archangels of the abyss brought destruction—in +their terrors they agitated the earth.—The inundation of Ramman swelled +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span> +up to the sky—and [the earth] became without lustre, was changed into a +desert.</p> + +<p>"They broke ... of the surface of the earth like ...;—[they destroyed] +the living beings of the surface of the earth.—The terrible [Deluge] on men +swelled up to [heaven].—The brother no longer saw his brother; men no +longer knew each other. In heaven—the gods became afraid of the water-spout, +and—sought a refuge; they mounted up to the heaven of +Anu.<a name="FNanchor_41" id="FNanchor_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a>—The +gods were stretched out motionless, pressing one against another like dogs.—Ishtar +wailed like a child,—the great goddess pronounced her discourse:—'Here +is humanity returned into mud, and—this is the misfortune that I have announced +in the presence of the gods.—So I announced the misfortune in the presence of +the gods,—for the evil I announced the terrible [chastisement] of men who are +mine.—I am the mother who gave birth to men, and—like to the race of fishes, +there they are filling the sea;—and the gods by reason of that—which the +archangels of the abyss are doing, weep with me.'—The gods on their seats were +seated in tears—and they held their lips closed, [revolving] future things.</p> + +<p>"Six days and as many nights passed; the wind, the water-spout, and the +diluvian rain were in all their strength. At the approach of the seventh day +the diluvian rain grew weaker, the terrible water-spout—which had assailed +after the fashion of an earthquake—grew calm, the sea inclined to dry up, and the +wind and the water-spout came to an end. I looked at the sea, attentively +observing—and the whole of humanity had returned to mud; like unto seaweeds +the corpses floated. I opened the window, and the light smote on my +face. I was seized with sadness; I sat down and I wept;—and my tears came +over my face.</p> + +<p>"I looked at the regions bounding the sea; towards the twelve points of the +horizon; not any continent.—The vessel was borne above the land of Nizir—the +mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over.—A +day and a second day the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did +not permit it to pass over;—the third and fourth day the mountain of Nizir +arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over;—the fifth and sixth +day the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass +over.—At the approach of the seventh day, I sent out and loosed a dove. The +dove went, turned, and—found no place to light on, and it came back. I sent +out and loosed a swallow; the swallow went, turned, and—found no place to +light on, and it came back. I sent out and loosed a raven; the raven went and +saw the corpses on the waters; it ate, rested, turned and came not back.</p> + +<p>"I then sent out (what was in the vessel) towards the four winds, and I offered +a sacrifice. I raised the pile of my burnt offering on the peak of the mountain; +seven by seven I disposed the measured +vases,<a name="FNanchor_42" id="FNanchor_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a>—and +beneath I spread rushes, cedar, and juniper wood. The gods were seized with the desire of it—the gods were +seized with a benevolent desire of it;—and the gods assembled like flies above the +master of the sacrifice. From afar, in approaching, the great goddess raised +the great zones that Anu has made for their glory +(the gods).<a name="FNanchor_43" id="FNanchor_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> These gods, +luminous crystal before me, I will never leave them; in that day I prayed that +I might never leave them. 'Let the gods come to my sacrificial pile!—but never +may Bel come to my sacrificial pile! for he did not master himself, and he has +made the water-spout for the Deluge, and he has numbered my men for the pit.'</p> + +<p>"From far, in drawing near, Bel—saw the vessel, and Bel stopped;—he was +filled with anger against the gods and the celestial archangels:—</p> + +<p>"'No one shall come out alive! No man shall be preserved from the abyss!'—Adar +opened his mouth and said; he said to the warrior Bel:—'What other +than Êa should have formed this resolution?—for Êa possesses knowledge and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span> +[he foresees] all.'—Êa opened his mouth and spake; he said to the warrior +Bel:—'O thou, herald of the gods, warrior,—as thou didst not master thyself, +thou hast made the water-spout of the deluge.—Let the sinner carry the weight +of his sins, the blasphemer the weight of his blasphemy.—Please thyself with this +good pleasure and it shall never be infringed; faith in it never [shall be +violated.]—Instead of thy making a new deluge, let lions appear and reduce +the number of men; instead of thy making a new deluge, let hyenas appear +and reduce the number of men;—instead of thy making a new deluge, let there +be famine and let the earth be [devastated];—instead of thy making a new +deluge, let Dibbara<a name="FNanchor_44" id="FNanchor_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> +appear, and let men be [mown down]. I have not revealed +the decision of the great gods;—it is Khasisatra who interpreted a dream and +comprehended what the gods had decided.'</p> + +<p>"Then, when his resolve was arrested, Bel entered into the vessel.—He took +my hand and made me rise.—He made my wife rise and made her place herself +at my side.—He turned around us and stopped short; he approached our +group.—'Until now Khasisatra has made part of perishable humanity;—but lo, +now, Khasisatra and his wife are going to be carried away to live like the gods,—and +Khasisatra will reside afar at the mouth of the rivers.'—They carried me +away and established me in a remote place at the mouth of the streams."</p></div> + +<p>This narrative follows with great exactness the same course as that, +or rather as those of Genesis, and the analogies are on both sides +striking. It is well known, and has long been critically demonstrated, +that chapters vi., vii., viii. and ix. of Genesis contain two different +narratives of the Deluge, the one taken from the Elohist document, the +other from the Jehovist, both being skilfully combined by the final editor. +Reverencing their text, which he evidently considered sacred, he omitted +no fact given by either, so that we have the whole story twice narrated in +different terms; and, in spite of the way the verses are mixed up, it is +easy so to disentangle the two versions as that each should form a continuous +and unbroken narrative. Some critics have recently pretended +that, with regard to the stories of the Creation and Deluge, both cuneiform +documents disproved the distinction between the two sources of +Genesis, and proved the primitive unity of its composition; that the same +repetitions, in effect, were to be found there. This was a premature +conclusion, drawn from translations very imperfect as yet, and requiring +thorough revision; and, indeed, confining ourselves to the story of the +Deluge, such revision, carried on according to strict philological principles, +does away with the arguments that had been based on the +version of George Smith. None of the repetitions of the final text of +Genesis are observable in the Chaldean poem; which, on the contrary, +decisively confirms the distinction made between the two narratives, +the Elohist and Jehovist, interwoven by the last compiler of the Pentateuch. +It is with each of these separately—when disentangled and +compared—that the Chaldean narrative coincides in its order—it is not +with the result of their combination. And nothing could be easier +than to demonstrate this by a synoptic table, in which the three narratives +were collated.</p> + +<p>Such a table would at once show their agreement and their difference, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span> +what the three records have in common, and what each has added of its +own to the primitive outline. They are certainly three versions +of the same traditional history, and with the Chaldeo-Babylonians on +the one hand, and the Hebrews on the other, we have two parallel +streams proceeding from one source. Nevertheless, we must note on +both sides divergences of certain importance which prove the bifurcation +of the two traditions to have taken place at a very remote era, +and the one of which the Bible affords us the expression to be not +merely an edition of that preserved by the Chaldean priesthood, expurgated +from a severely monotheistic point of view.</p> + +<p>The Biblical narrative bears the impress of an inland people, ignorant +of navigation. In Genesis, the name of the ark, <i>têbâh</i>, signifies "coffer," +and not "vessel." Nothing is said about the launching of the ark; +there is no mention made of the sea, or of navigation; there is no pilot. +In the Epic of Uruk, on the contrary, everything shows it to have been +composed amidst a maritime population; every circumstance bears a +reflex of the manners and customs of people living on the shore of the +Persian Gulf. Khasisatra enters a vessel, properly so called; it is +launched, undergoes a trial trip, all its seams are caulked with bitumen, +it is entrusted to a pilot.</p> + +<p>The Chaldeo-Babylonian narrative represents Khasisatra as a king, +who goes up into the ship surrounded by a whole population of servants +and companions; in the Bible, we have only Noah and his family who +are saved; the new human race has no other source than the patriarch's +three sons. Nor is there any trace in the Chaldean poem of the distinction +(in the Bible peculiar indeed only to the Jehovist) between +clean and unclean beasts, and of each kind of the former being numbered +by sevens, although in Babylonia the number seven had a specially +sacramental character.</p> + +<p>As to the dimensions of the ark, we find a disagreement not only +between the Bible and the tablet copied by order of Asshurbanabal, +but between the latter and Berosus. Both Genesis and the cuneiform +documents measure the ark's dimensions by cubits, Berosus +by stadia. Genesis states its length and breadth to have been in the +proportion of 6 to 1, Berosus of 5 to 2, the tablet in the British Museum +of 10 to 1. On the other hand, the fragments of Berosus do not treat +of the relative dimensions of height and breadth, and the tablet gives +them as equal, while the Bible speaks of thirty cubits of height and fifty +of breadth. But these differences as to figures have but a secondary +importance; nothing so liable to alterations and variations in different +editions of the same narrative. We may observe, however, that in +Genesis it is only the Elohist—always much addicted to figures—who +gives the dimensions of the ark. And, on the other hand, it is the +Jehovist alone who tells of the sending forth of the birds, which occupies +a considerable place in the Chaldean tradition. As to the variations +here between the Biblical story and that in the poem of Uruk, the latter +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span> +adding the swallow to the dove and the raven, and not attributing to +the dove the part of a messenger of good tidings, I do not think they +go for much. The agreement as to the main point is, in my eyes, of +far more importance.</p> + +<p>But what is, on the contrary, of very decided importance, is the +absolute disagreement as to the duration of the Deluge between the +Elohist and Jehovist, as well as between the two and the Chaldeo-Babylonian +narrator. Here we have a manifest trace of different +systems applying to the ancient tradition calendrical conceptions, dissimilar +in each record, and yet all seeming to have proceeded from +Chaldea.</p> + +<p>By the Elohist the periods of the Deluge are indicated by the +ordinal numbers of the months, but these ordinal numbers relate to a +lunar year, beginning on the 1st of Tishri (September-October), +at the autumnal equinox. This is admitted by Josephus, and by the +Author of the Targum of the pseudo-Jonathan, as well as by Rashi +and Kimchi, among the Jewish commentators of the Middle Ages; and +proved, as I conceive, by Michaelis among the moderns. The rain +begins to fall, and Noah enters into the ark the 17th day of the +second month—<i>i.e.</i>, Marcheshvan. The great force of the waters lasts +150 days, and the 17th of the seventh month—<i>i.e.</i>, Nisan +(March-April)—the ark grounds on Mount Ararat. The 1st day of the tenth +month, or Tammuz (June-July), about the summer solstice, the +mountains are laid bare. The 1st day of the first month of the following +year—that is, of Tishri, at the autumnal equinox—the waters +have completely retired, and Noah leaves the ark on the 27th of the +second month. Thus the Deluge lasted a whole lunar year, plus +eleven days—that is to say, as Ewald well remarks, a solar year of 365 +days. Now, under the climatic conditions of Babylonia and Assyria, +the rains of late autumn begin towards the end of November, and at +once the level of the Euphrates and Tigris rises. The periodic overflow +of the two rivers occurs in the middle of March, and culminates at +the end of May, from which time the waters go down. At the end of +June they have left the plains, and from August to November are at +their lowest level. Now the dates of the Deluge, given by the Elohist, +and re-stated as we have been doing according to Michaelis and Knobel, +accord perfectly with these phases of the rising and falling of the two +Mesopotamian rivers. They accord even better in the primitive system +which served for starting-point to that of the Elohist, and which has +been so ingeniously restored by +M. Schræder,<a name="FNanchor_45" id="FNanchor_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> +a system attributing to the Deluge 300 days in all, or a ten months' duration: 150 days for its +greatest height and 150 for its decrease. According to this system, +the leaving of the ark must have taken place on the first day of the +601st year of Noah's life—that is to say, on the 1st of Tishri, at the +autumnal equinox. Thus the deliverance of the father of the new +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span> +humanity, as well as the Covenant made by God with him and his +race, were fixed on the very day to which an ancient opinion which +has maintained itself among the Jews assigned the creation of the +world. As to the beginning of the Deluge, it occurred, according to +the same system, on the 1st day of the third month—that is to say, +at the commencement of the lunation whose end coincided with +the Sun's entry into Capricorn, when the conjunction of planets +brought about periodic deluges according to an astrological conception +of Chaldean origin, which does not indeed appear a very ancient one; +but must have been based on data adopted by some of the sacerdotal +schools of Babylonia as to the epoch of the cataclysm.</p> + +<p>It is also with the winter rains, and not with the swelling of the +Euphrates and Tigris in spring, that the calendrical construction, according +to which the antediluvian kings or patriarchs have been placed in +relation with solar mansions (a construction followed in Uruk's Epic +poem), causes the commencement of the Deluge to coincide. It connects, +in point of fact, the tradition of the cataclysm with the month of +Shabut (January-February), and with the sign of Aquarius. Accordingly, +I find great difficulty in admitting the exactness of the date, 15th of +Daisios, given in the extract of Alexander Polybister, as that assigned +by Berosus to the Deluge, for this would make the event occur in the +middle of the Assyrian month Sivan, at the beginning of July, in a +season of complete drought, when the rivers have reached their lowest +level. I hold this to be an evident error, due not to the author of the +Chaldean History himself, but to his transcriber. Berosus must have +written +<span class="greek" title="mênos ogdou; pemptê kai dekatê">μηνὸς ὀγδόυ· πέμπτῃ καὶ δεκάτῃ</span> +the 15th of the eighth month, translating into Greek the Assyrian name of the Arakh-Shanina. +And by a readily explicable error Cornelius Alexander must have turned +it into Daisios, which was the eighth month of the Syro-Macedonian +Calendar, forgetting the difference between the initial point of its year +and that of the Chaldeo-Assyrian. In reality, then, the date given by +Berosus only differed by two days from that adopted by the Elohist +compiler of Genesis. Besides, as Knobel rightly insists, in placing the +commencement of the Deluge at the 15th or 17th of a month, we +place it always at the full moon, for it is also with this phase of the +light that lights the night that popular belief in Egypt and Mesopotamia +links the periodic rise of Nile or Tigris.</p> + +<p>The system of the Jehovist is quite a different one. According to +him, Jahveh announces the Deluge to Noah only seven days beforehand. +The waters are at their height for forty days, and decrease +during forty more. After these eighty days Noah sends out the three +birds at intervals of seven days, and thus it is on the 21st day after he +has opened the window of the ark for the first time that he, too, goes +out of the ark and offers his sacrifice to the Lord. Here the phases of +the cataclysm are evidently calculated on those of the annual spring +outflow of the Euphrates and Tigris, so that we need not hesitate to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span> +assign the origin of the very form of the tradition received by the +Jehovist writer, to the cradle of the race of the Terahites in Chaldea. +The overflow of the two rivers of Mesopotamia lasts, in fact, for an average +of seventy-five days from the middle of March to the end of May; and +twenty-six days later—that is, at the end of the 101 in all (80 + 21 = +75 + 26 = 101), when the Jehovist makes Noah leave the ark—the lands +which have been inundated become once more practicable.</p> + +<p>What, moreover, in the Jehovist narrative bears a very marked +impress of Chaldean origin is the part played in it by septennial +periods; seven days intervening between the announcement and the +beginning of the Deluge, seven between each sending forth of the +birds. That religious and mystic importance attached to the heptade +which gave rise to the conception of the seven days of creation, and to +the invention of the week, is an essentially Chaldean idea. It is among +the Chaldeo-Babylonians that we discover its origin and find its most +numerous applications. The story of Khasisatra, in the poem of Uruk, +invariably proceeds hebdomadally. The violence of the Deluge lasts +seven days, and so does the stay of the vessel on Mount Nizir +when the waters begin to go down. It is true, indeed, that the building +of the vessel occupies eight instead of seven days; but we must add +the time necessary for the embarkation of provisions, animals, passengers, +and this will enable us to calculate the whole duration of Khasisatra's +preparations between the vision sent him by Êa and the moment when +he closes the vessel at the approach of the rain, as consisting of fourteen +days or two hebdomades. This being granted, if the poem does not +state precisely the intervals at which the three birds were sent forth, +we are justified in applying here the figures used by the Jehovist in +Genesis, and counting seven days between the first and second sending +forth, seven between the second and third, and seven, lastly, between +the departure of the bird which does not return, and the leaving the +vessel. The whole interval, then, between the warning of Êa and the +sacrifice of Khasisatra, amounts to seven hebdomades—plainly a number +intentionally assigned. And the whole duration of the Deluge is +doubled by the sacred writer, who was the author of the Jehovist +document, 7 × 2 × 7, instead of 7 × 7; that is, fourteen weeks with just +three days over, owing to the writer having employed the round +numbers 40 + 40 = 80 days, instead of the precise number seventy-seven +days or eleven hebdomades (7 + 4 × 7), to indicate the interval +between the beginning of the diluvian rain and the sending forth of +the first bird. And now, if we keep count of the time between the +announcing of the cataclysm by Jahveh and its commencement, the +figures of the Jehovist are in all 7 × 2 × 7 + 7 days, and those of the +system of the Chaldean poem 7 × 7. But they are on both sides combinations +of seven.</p> + +<p>Where the Chaldeo-Babylonian narrative and that of the Bible +absolutely diverge, is in their statement of what, after the Deluge, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span> +befell the righteous man saved from it. According to the figures of the +Elohist, Noah lives on among his descendants for 350 years, and dies +at the age of 950. Khasisatra receives the privilege of immortality; +is carried away "to live like the gods," and transported into "a distant +place," where the hero of Uruk goes to visit him in order to +learn the secrets of life and death. But in the Bible we have something +of the same kind told us of Noah's great-grandfather Enoch, who +"walked with God, and was not, because God took him." We see, +then, that the Babylonian tradition united in the person of Khasisatra +facts which the Bible distributes between Enoch and Noah, the two +whom Holy Scripture equally characterizes as having "walked with +God."</p> + +<p>The author of the treatise "On the Syrian Goddess," erroneously +attributed to Lucian, acquaints us with the diluvian tradition of the +Arameans, directly derived from that of Chaldea, as it was narrated in +the celebrated Sanctuary of Hierapolis or Bambyce.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The generality of people, he says, tell us that the founder of the temple +was Deucalion Sisythes, that Deucalion in whose time the great inundation +occurred. I have also heard the account given by the Greeks themselves of +Deucalion; the myth runs thus:—The actual race of men is not the first, for +there was a previous one, all the members of which perished. We belong to a +second race, descended from Deucalion, and multiplied in the course of +time. As to the former men, they are said to have been full of insolence and +pride, committing many crimes, disregarding their oath, neglecting the +rights of hospitality, unsparing to suppliants, accordingly they were punished +by an immense disaster. All on a sudden enormous volumes of water +issued from the earth, and rains of extraordinary abundance began to fall; the +rivers left their beds, and the sea overflowed its shores; the whole earth was +covered with water, and all men perished. Deucalion alone, because of his virtue +and piety, was preserved alive to give birth to a new race. This is how he was +saved:—He placed himself, his children, and his wives in a great coffer that he +had, in which pigs, horses, lions, serpents, and all other terrestrial animals came +to seek refuge with him. He received them all, and while they were in the +coffer Zeus inspired them with reciprocal amity which prevented their devouring +one another. In this manner, shut up within one single coffer, they floated as +long as the waters remained in force. Such is the account given by the Greeks +of Deucalion.</p> + +<p>"But to this which they equally tell, the people of Hierapolis add a marvellous +narrative:—That in their country a great chasm opened, into which all the waters +of the deluge poured. Then Deucalion raised an altar and dedicated a temple +to Hera (Atargatis) close to this very chasm. I have seen it; it is very narrow, +and situated under the temple. Whether it was once large and has now shrunk, +I do not know; but I have seen it, and it is quite small. In memory of the +event the following is the rite accomplished:—Twice a year sea water is +brought to the temple. This is not only done by the priests, but numerous +pilgrims come from the whole of Syria and Arabia, and even from beyond the +Euphrates, bringing water. It is poured out in the temple and goes into the +cleft which, narrow as it is, swallows up a considerable quantity. This is said to +be in virtue of a religious law instituted by Deucalion to preserve the memory of +the catastrophe and of the benefits that he received from the gods. Such is the +ancient tradition of the temple."</p></div> + +<p>It appears to me difficult not to recognize an echo of fables popular +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span> +in all Semitic countries about this chasm of Hierapolis, and the part it +played in the Deluge,—in the enigmatic expressions of the Koran +respecting the oven <i>tannur</i> which began to bubble and disgorge water +all around at the commencement of the Deluge. We know that this +<i>tannur</i> has been the occasion of most grotesque imaginings of Mussulman +commentators, who had lost the tradition of the story to which +Mahomet made allusion. And, moreover, the Koran formally states that +the waters of the Deluge were absorbed in the bosom of the earth.</p> + +<h4>II.</h4> + +<p><i>Indian Traditions.</i>—India, in its turn, affords us an account of the +Deluge, which by its poverty strikingly contrasts with that of the Bible +and the Chaldeans. Its most simple and ancient form is found in the +<i>Çatapatha Brâhmana</i> of the Rig-Veda. It has been translated for the +first time by M. Max Müller.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"One morning water for washing was brought to Manu, and when he had +washed himself a fish remained in his hands. And it addressed these words to +him:—'Protect me and I will save thee.' 'From what wilt thou save me?' +'A deluge will sweep all creatures away; it is from that I will save thee.' 'How +shall I protect thee?' The fish replied: 'While we are small we run great dangers, +for fish swallow fish. Keep me at first in a vase; when I become too large for +it dig a basin to put me into. When I shall have grown still more, throw me +into the ocean; then I shall be preserved from destruction.' Soon it grew a +large fish. It said to Manu, 'The very year I shall have reached my full growth +the Deluge will happen. Then build a vessel and worship me. When the waters +rise, enter the vessel and I will save thee.'</p> + +<p>"After keeping him thus, Manu carried the fish to the sea. In the year +indicated Manu built a vessel and worshipped the fish. And when the Deluge +came he entered the vessel. Then the fish came swimming up to him, and +Manu fastened the cable of the ship to the horn of the fish, by which means the +latter made it pass over the mountain of the North. The fish said, 'I have saved +thee; fasten the vessel to a tree that the water may not sweep it away +while thou art on the mountain; and in proportion as the waters decrease thou +shalt descend.' Manu descended with the waters, and this is what is called the +<i>descent of Manu</i> on the mountain of the North. The deluge had carried away +all creatures, and Manu remained alone."</p></div> + +<p>Next in order of date and complication, which always goes on loading +the narrative more and more with fantastic and parasitical details, comes +the version in the enormous epic of <i>Mahâbhârata</i>. That of the poem +called <i>Bhâgavata-Purâna</i> is still more recent and fabulous. Finally, the +same tradition forms the subject of an entire poem of very low date, the +<i>Matsya-Purâna</i>, of which an analysis has been given by the great Indian +scholar, Wilson.</p> + +<p>In the preface to the third volume of his edition of <i>Bhâgavata-Purâna</i>, +Eugene Burnouf has carefully compared the three narratives known at +the time he wrote (that of the <i>Çatapatha Brâhmana</i> has been since +discovered), with a view to clearing up the origin of the Indian tradition +of the Deluge. He points out in a discussion that deserves to remain a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span> +model of erudition and subtle criticism, that it is absolutely wanting in +the Vedic hymns, where we only find distant allusions to it that +seem to belong to a different kind of legend altogether, and also +that this tradition was primitively foreign to the essentially Indian +system of <i>Manvantaras</i>, or periodic destructions of the world. He +thence concludes that it must have been imported into India +subsequently to the adoption of this system, which is, however, very +ancient, being common to Brahmanism and Buddhism, and therefore +inclines to look upon it as a Semitic importation that took place in +historic times, not, indeed, of Genesis, but more probably of the Babylonian +tradition.</p> + +<p>The discovery of an original edition of the latter confirms the theory +of the French savant. The leading feature which distinguishes the +Indian narrative is the part assigned to a god who puts on the form of +a fish, in order to warn Manu, to guide his vessel and save him from the +flood. The nature of the metamorphosis is the only fundamental and +primitive point, for different versions vary as to the personality of the +god who assumes this form—the <i>Brâhmana</i> leaves it uncertain, the <i>Mahâbhârata</i> +fixes on Brahma, and the compilers of the <i>Purânas</i> on Vishnu. +This is the more remarkable that this metamorphosis into a fish +<i>Matsyavatara</i> remains isolated in Indian mythology, is foreign to its +habitual symbolism, and gives rise to no ulterior developments: no trace +being found in India of that fish-worship which was so important and +widespread among other ancient people. Burnouf rightly saw in this +a sign of importation from without, and especially of its Babylonian +origin, for classic testimony, recently confirmed by native monuments, +shows us that in the religion of Babylon the conception of ichthyomorphic +gods held a more prominent place than elsewhere. The part played +by the divine fish with regard to Manu in the Indian legend, is attributed +both by the Epic of Uruk and by Berosus to the god Êa, who is +also designated Schalman, "the Saviour." Now this god, whose type +of representation we now know certainly from Assyrian and Babylonian +monuments, is essentially the ichthyomorphic god, and his image almost +invariably combines the forms of fish and man. In astronomical tables +frequent mention is made of the catasterism of the "fish of Êa," which +is indubitably our sign Pisces, since it presides over the month Adar. +It is to a connection of ideas based on the diluvian record, that we must +attribute the placing of Pisces—primarily of the "fish of Êa"—next +to Aquarius, whose relation to the history of the Deluge we have already +pointed out. Here we have an evident allusion to the part of Saviour +attributed by the people who invented the Zodiac, to the god Êa in the +flood, and to the idea of an ichthyomorphic nature especially belonging +to this aspect of his personality. Êa is, moreover, the Oannès, lawgiver +of the fragments of Berosus, half-man, half-fish, whose form, answering +to the description given by the Chaldean history, has been discovered +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span> +in the sculptures of Assyrian palaces and on cylinders, the Euahanès +of Hygin, and the Oès of +Helladios.<a name="FNanchor_46" id="FNanchor_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p> + +<p>Whenever we find among two different peoples one same legend, with +as <i>special</i> a circumstance which does not spring <i>naturally</i> and <i>necessarily</i> +from the fundamental facts of the narrative, and when, moreover, this +circumstance is closely connected with the whole religious conceptions of +one of these peoples, and remains isolated and alien from the customary +symbolism of the other, criticism lays it down as an absolute rule that +we must conclude the legend to have been transmitted from the one to the +other in an already fixed form, to be a foreign importation, superimposed, +not fused with the national, and as it were genial, traditions of +the people, who have received, without having created it.</p> + +<p>We must also remark that in the <i>Purânas</i> it is no longer Manu +Vaivasata that the divine fish saves from the Deluge, but a different +personage, the King of the Dâsas—<i>i.e.</i>, fishers, Satyravata, "the man +who loves justice and truth," strikingly corresponding to the Chaldean +Khasisatra. Nor is the Puranic version of the Legend of the Deluge +to be despised, though it be of recent date and full of fantastic and +often puerile details. In certain aspects it is less Aryanized than that of +<i>Brâhmana</i> or than the <i>Mahâbhârata</i>, and above all it gives some circumstances +omitted in these earlier versions, which must yet have belonged +to the original foundation, since they appear in the Babylonian legend; +a circumstance preserved no doubt by the oral tradition—popular and +not Brahmanic—with which the <i>Purânas</i> are so deeply imbued. This +has been already observed by Pictet, who lays due stress on the following +passage of the <i>Bhâgavata-Purâna</i>: "In <i>seven days</i>," said Vishnu +to Satyravata, "the three worlds shall be submerged." There is +nothing like this in the <i>Brâhmana</i> nor the <i>Mahâbhârata</i>, but in Genesis +the Lord says to Noah, "<i>Yet seven days</i> and I will cause it to rain +upon the earth;" and a little further we read, "<i>After seven days</i> the +waters of the flood were upon the earth." And we have just pointed +out the parts played by hebdomades as successive periods in that system +of the duration of the flood, adopted by the author of the Jehovist +documents inserted in Genesis, as well as by the compiler of the +Chaldean Epic of Uruk. Nor must we pay less attention to what the +<i>Bhâgavata-Purâna</i> says of the directions given by the fish-god to +Satyravata for the placing of the sacred Scriptures in a safe place in +order to preserve them from Hayagrîva, a marine horse dwelling in +the abyss, and of the conflict of the god with this Hayagrîva, who had +stolen the Vedas and thus produced the cataclysm by disturbing the +order of the world. This circumstance too is wanting in the more +ancient compositions, even in the <i>Mahâbhârata</i>, but it is a most important +one, and cannot be looked on as a spontaneous product of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span> +Indian soil, for we recognize in it under an Indian garb the very tradition +of the interment of the sacred writings at Sippara by Khasisatra, +such as we have it in the fragments of Berosus.</p> + +<p>It is the Chaldean form, then, of the tradition that the Indians have +adopted owing to communications which the commercial relations +between the countries render historically natural, and they afterwards +amplified it with the exuberance peculiar to their imagination. But +they must have adopted it all the more readily because it agreed with a +tradition, which under a somewhat different form had been brought by +their ancestors from the primitive cradle of the Aryan race. That the +recollection of the flood did indeed form part of the original groundwork +of the legends as to the origin of the world held by this great +race, is beyond all doubt. For if Indians have accepted the Chaldean +form of the story, so nearly allied to that of Genesis, all other nations +of Aryan descent show themselves possessed of entirely original versions +of the cataclysm which cannot be held to have been borrowed either +from Babylonian or Hebrew sources.</p> + +<h4>III.</h4> + +<p><i>Traditions of other Aryan Peoples.</i>—Among the Iranians, in the +sacred books containing the fundamental Zoroastrian doctrines, and +dating very far back, we meet with a tradition which must assuredly be +looked upon as a variety of that of the Deluge, though possessing a +special character, and diverging in some essential particulars from those +we have been examining. It relates how Yima, who in the original and +primitive conception was the father of the human race, was warned +by Ahuramazda, the good deity, of the earth being about to be devastated +by a flood. The god ordered Yima to construct a refuge, a square +garden, <i>vara</i>, protected by an enclosure, and to cause the germs of men, +beasts, and plants to enter it, in order to escape annihilation. Accordingly, +when the inundation occurred, the garden of Yima with all that +it contained was alone spared, and the message of safety was brought +thither by the bird Karshipta, the envoy of +Ahuramazda.<a name="FNanchor_47" id="FNanchor_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>A comparison has also been made, but erroneously as I think, between +the Biblical and Chaldean Deluge and a story only found complete +in the <i>Bundahesh-pahlavi</i>;<a name="FNanchor_48" id="FNanchor_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> +though, as a few of the older books contain allusions to some of its +circumstances;<a name="FNanchor_49" id="FNanchor_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> +it must date further back than this edition of it, which is recent. Ahuramazda determines to +destroy the Khafçtras—<i>i.e.</i>, the maleficent spirits created by Angrômainyus, +the spirit of evil: Tistrya, the genius of the star Sirius, descends at his +command to earth, and, assuming the form of a man, causes it to rain +for ten days. The waters cover the earth, and all maleficent beings are +drowned. A violent wind dries the earth, but some germs of the evil +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span> +spirit's creation remain, and may reappear, therefore Tistrya descends +again under the form of a white horse, and produces a second Deluge +by another rainfall of ten days. To prevent him accomplishing his +task, the demon Apusha assumes the appearance of a black horse, and +engages in combat; but he is struck with lightning by Ahuramazda, as +well as the demon Çpendjaghra, who had come to his aid. Finally, to +bring about the complete destruction of evil, Tistrya descends the third +time under the form of a bull, and produces a third Deluge by a third +rainfall of ten days, after which the waters divide to form the four +great and the twenty-four small seas. Now all this relates to a cosmogonic +fact, anterior to the creation of man. The Khafçtras, from +which Tistrya undertakes to purge the earth, are the hurtful and +venomous beasts created by Angrômainyus which fervent Mazedans +make it a duty to destroy in our actual world—such as scorpions, +lizards, toads, serpents, rats, &c. There is no allusion here to humanity, +or the punishment of its sins. If we were bent on finding in our Bible +any parallel to this first rain falling on the surface of the earth—which +both destroys the hurtful creatures by which it was infested and renders +it productive of a fertile vegetation—we should turn, not to the account +of the Deluge, but to what is said in Gen. ii. 5, 6.</p> + +<p>The Greeks had two principal legends as to the cataclysm by which +primitive humanity was destroyed. The first was connected with the +name of Ogyges, the most ancient of the kings of Bœotia or Attica; +a quite mythical personage, lost in the night of ages, his very name +seemingly derived from one signifying deluge in Aryan idioms, in +Sanscrit <i>Ângha</i>. It is said that in his time the whole land was covered +by a flood, whose waters reached the sky, and from which he, together +with some companions, escaped in a vessel.</p> + +<p>The second tradition is the Thessalian legend of Deucalion. Zeus +having worked to destroy the men of the age of bronze, with whose +crimes he was wroth, Deucalion, by the advice of Prometheus, his +father, constructed a coffer, in which he took refuge with his wife, +Pyrrha. The Deluge came, the chest or coffer floated at the mercy of +the waves for nine days and nine nights, and was finally stranded on +Mount Parnassus. Deucalion and Pyrrha leave it, offer sacrifice, and +according to the command of Zeus re-people the world by throwing +behind them "the bones of the earth"—namely, stones, which change +into men. This Deluge of Deucalion is in Grecian tradition what most +resembles a universal Deluge. Many authors affirm that it extended to +the whole earth, and that the whole human race perished. At Athens, in +memory of the event, and to appease the manes of its victims, a ceremony +called <i>Hydrophoria</i> was observed, having so close a resemblance to that +in use at Hierapolis in Syria, that we can hardly fail to look upon it as +a Syro-Phœnician importation, and the result of an assimilation established +in remote antiquity between the Deluge of Deucalion and that of +Khasisatra, as described by the author of the treatise "On the Syrian +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span> +Goddess."<a name="FNanchor_50" id="FNanchor_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> +Close to the temple of the Olympian Zeus a fissure in the +soil was shown, in length but one cubit, through which it was said the +waters of the Deluge had been swallowed up. Thus, every year, on the +third day of the festival of the Anthestéria, a day of mourning consecrated +to the dead,—that is, on the thirteenth of the month of Anthestérion, +towards the beginning of March—it was customary, as at Bambyce, to +pour water into the fissure, together with flour mixed with honey, +poured also into the trench dug to the west of the tomb, in the funereal +sacrifices of the Athenians.</p> + +<p>Others, on the contrary, limit Deucalion's flood to Greece, even declare +that it only destroyed the larger portion of the community, a great many +men saving themselves on the highest mountains. Thus the Delphian +legend told how the inhabitants of that town, following the wolves in +their flight, had taken refuge in a cave on the summit of Parnassus, +where they built the town of Lycorea, whose foundation is, on the other +hand, attributed by the Chronicle of Paros to Deucalion, after the reproduction +by him of a new human race. Later mythographers +necessarily adopted this idea of several points of simultaneous escape +from a desire to reconcile the local legends of several places in Greece, +which named some other than Deucalion as the hero saved from the +flood. For instance, at Megara it was the eponym of the city Megaros, +son of Zeus and of one of the nymphs Sithnides, who, warned by the +cry of cranes of the imminence of the danger, took refuge on Mount +Geranien. Again, there was the Thessalian Cerambos, who was said to +have escaped the flood by rising into the air on wings given him by the +nymphs, and it was Perirrhoos, son of Eolus, that Zeus Naios had +preserved at Dodona. For the inhabitants of the Isle of Cos the hero +of the Deluge was Merops, son of Hyas, who there assembled under +his rule the remnant of humanity preserved with him. The traditions +of Rhodes only supposed the Telchines, those of Crete Jasion, to have +escaped the cataclysm. In Samothracia the same character was attributed +to Saon, said to be the son of Zeus or of Hermes; he seems only +to have been a heroic form of the Hermès Saos or Sôcos, the object +of special worship in the island, a divinity in whom M. Philippe +Berges recognizes with good reason a Phœnician importation, the +Sakan of Canaan identified elsewhere with Hermes Dardanos, supposed +to have arrived in Samothracia immediately after these events, +being driven by the Deluge from Arcadia.</p> + +<p>In all these flood stories of Greece we cannot doubt that the +tradition of a cataclysm fatal to the whole of humanity—a tradition +common to all Aryan peoples—was mixed up, as Knobel rightly +observes, more or less precisely with local catastrophes produced by +extraordinary overflows of lakes or rivers, or the rupture of their natural +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span> +embankments, the sinking of some portions of the sea-coast, or tidal +waves consequent upon earthquakes or sudden upheavals of the ocean bed. +Such events were frequent in Greece, in the district between Egypt and +Palestine, near Pelusium and Mount Casius, as well as in the Cimbric +Chersonese. The Greeks used to relate how often their country had in +primitive ages been the theatre of such catastrophes. Istros numbered +four of these, one of which had opened the Straits of the Bosphorus +and Hellespont, when the waters of the Euxine, rushing into the +Ægean, submerged the islands and neighbouring coasts. This is +evidently the Deluge of Samothracia; where the inhabitants who +succeeded in saving themselves did so only by gaining the highest +peak of the mountain that rises there; then, in gratitude for their +preservation, consecrated the whole island by surrounding its shores +with a belt of altars dedicated to the gods. In like manner the tradition +of the Deluge of Ogyges seems connected with the recollection of +an extraordinary rise of the Lake Capaïs, inundating the whole of the +great Bœotian Valley, a recollection amplified later—as is ever the case +with legends—by applying to the local disaster all the details popularly told +of the primitive Deluge which had taken place before the separation of +the ancestors of the two races, Semitic and Aryan. It is also probable +that some event that had occurred in Thessaly, or rather in the region +of Parnassus, determined the localization of the legend of Deucalion. +Nevertheless, it always retained, as we have seen, a more general +character than the others, whether the Deluge be extended to the +whole earth or limited to the whole of Greece.</p> + +<p>Be that as it may, the different narratives were reconciled by +admitting three successive Deluges, those of Ogyges, Deucalion, and +Dardanos. The general opinion pronounced the former the most +ancient, placing it 600 or 250 years before that of Deucalion. But +this chronology is far from being universally accepted; and the inhabitants +of Samothracia maintain their Deluge to have been the earliest. +Christian chronographers of the third and fourth century, as, for +instance, Julius Africanus and Eusebius, adopted the Hellenic dates of +the Deluges of Ogyges and Deucalion, and inscribed them in their +records as different events from the Mosaic Deluge, which, for their part, +they fixed at 1000 years before that of Ogyges.</p> + +<p>In Phrygia the diluvian tradition was as natural as in Greece. The +town of Apamea derived thence its surname <i>Kibotos</i>, or ark, and +claimed to be the place where the Ark had stopped. Iconium had the +like pretensions. In the same way the people of Milyas, in Armenia, +showed the fragments of the Ark on the top of the mountain called +Baris; and these were also exhibited in early Christian times to pilgrims +on Ararat, as Berosus tells us that in his day the remnants of the +vessel of Khasisatra were visited on the Gordyan range.</p> + +<p>In the second and third centuries of our era, by means of the +syncretic infiltration of Jewish and Christian traditions even into minds +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span> +still attached to Paganism, the sacerdotal authorities of Apamea and +Phrygia had coins struck bearing an open ark, in which the patriarch +and his wife were seen receiving back the dove with the olive branch, +and side by side were the two same personages, having left the Ark to +retake possession of the earth. On the Ark is inscribed the name +<span class="greek" title="NÔE">ΝΩΕ</span>, the very form the name assumes in the Septuagint. Thus, at +this time the Pagan priesthood of the Phrygian city had, we see, +adopted the Biblical narrative, even down to its names, and had grafted +it on the old native tradition. They related that a short while before +the Deluge there reigned a holy man called Annacos, who had predicted +it, and occupied the throne more than 300 years, an evident reproduction +of the Enoch of the Bible, who walked with God for 365 years.</p> + +<p>As to the branch of the Celts—in the bardic poems of Wales, we have +a tradition of the Deluge, which, although recent under the concise +form of the Triads, is still deserving of attention. As usual, the legend +is localized in the country, and the Deluge counts among three terrible +catastrophes of the island of Prydain, or Britain, the other two consisting +of devastation by fire and by drought.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The first of these events," it is said, "was the irruption of Llyn-llion, or 'the +lake of waves,' and the inundation (<i>bawdd</i>) of the whole country, by which all +mankind was drowned with the exception of Dwyfan and Dwyfach, who saved +themselves in a vessel without rigging, and it was by them that the island of +Prydain was re-peopled."<a name="FNanchor_51" id="FNanchor_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p></div> + +<p>Pictet here observes—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Although the triads in their actual form hardly date further than the thirteenth +or fourteenth century, some of them are undoubtedly connected with very +ancient traditions, and nothing here points to a borrowing from Genesis.</p> + +<p>"But it is not so, perhaps, with another +triad<a name="FNanchor_52" id="FNanchor_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> +speaking of the vessel Nefydd-naf-Neifion, +which at the time of the overflow of Llyn-llion, bore a pair of all +living creatures, and rather too much resembles the ark of Noah. The very name +of the patriarch may have suggested this triple epithet, obscure as to its meaning, +but evidently formed on the principle of Cymric alliteration. In the same +triad we have the enigmatic story of the horned oxen (<i>ychain bannog</i>) of Hu +the mighty, who drew out of Llyn-llion the <i>avanc</i> (beaver or crocodile?) +in order that the lake should not overflow. The meaning of these enigmas +could only be hoped from deciphering the chaos of bardic monuments of the +Welsh middle age; but meanwhile we cannot doubt that the Cymri possessed +an indigenous tradition of the Deluge."</p></div> + +<p>We also find a vestige of the same tradition in the Scandinavian +Ealda.<a name="FNanchor_53" id="FNanchor_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> +But here the story is combined with a cosmogonic myth. +The three sons of Borr, Othin, Wili, and We, grandsons of Buri, the +first man, slay Ymir, the father of the Hrimthursar or Ice giants, and +his body serves them for the construction of the world. Blood flows +from his wounds in such abundance that all the race of giants is drowned +in it, except Bergelmir, who saves himself, with his wife, in a boat, and +reproduces the race. "Thus," Pictet again observes, "the myth only +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span> +belongs to the general tradition through these last features, by which, +however, we trace it up to a common source."</p> + +<p>Of all European peoples the Lithuanians were the last to embrace +Christianity, and their language remains nearest to the original Aryan. +They have a legend of the Deluge, the groundwork of which appears +very ancient, although it has assumed the simple character of a popular +tale, and some of its details may have been borrowed from Genesis at the +time of the first Christian missions. According to +it<a name="FNanchor_54" id="FNanchor_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> the god Pramzimras, +seeing the whole earth to be full of iniquity, sends two giants, Wandu +and Wêjas (fire and wind), to lay it waste. These overthrew everything +in their fury, and only a few men saved themselves on a mountain. +Pramzimras, who was engaged in eating celestial walnuts, dropped a shell +near the mountain, and in it the men took refuge, the giants respecting +it. Having escaped from the calamity, they afterwards disperse, and +only one very aged couple remain in the country, greatly bewailing their +childless condition. Pramzimras, to console them, sends his rainbow +and bids them jump "on the bones of the earth," which curiously recalls +the oracle to Deucalion. The two old people jump nine times, and nine +pairs are the result, who became the ancestors of the nine Lithuanian +tribes.</p> + +<h4>IV.</h4> + +<p><i>Egyptian Traditions.</i>—While the tradition of the Deluge holds so +considerable a place in the legendary memories of all branches of the +Aryan race, the monuments and original texts of Egypt, with their many +cosmogonic speculations, have not afforded one, even distant, allusion to +this cataclysm. When the Greeks told the Egyptian priests of the +Deluge of Deucalion, their reply was that they had been preserved from +it as well as from the conflagration produced by Phaëton; they even +added that the Hellenes were childish in attaching so much importance to +that event, as there had been several other local catastrophes resembling +it. According to a passage in Manetho, much suspected, however, of +being an interpolation, Thoth or Hermes Trismegistus had himself, +before the cataclysm, inscribed on stelæ in hieroglyphical and sacred +language the principles of all knowledge. After it the second Thoth +translated into the vulgar tongue the contents of these stelæ. This +would be the only Egyptian mention of the Deluge, the same Manetho +not speaking of it in what remains to us of his "Dynasties," his only +complete authentic work. The silence of all other myths of the +Pharaonic religion on this head render it very likely that the above is +merely a foreign tradition, recently introduced, and no doubt of Asiatic +and Chaldean origin. "Thus," says M. Maury, "the Seriadic land, +where the passage in question places these hieroglyphic columns, might +very well be no other than Chaldea. This tradition, though not in the +Bible, existed as a popular legend among the Jews at the beginning +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span> +of our era, which confirms our supposition; as the Hebrews might +have learnt it during the Babylonian captivity. Josephus tells us that +the patriarch Seth, in order that wisdom and astronomical knowledge +should not perish, erected, in prevision of the double destruction by fire +and water predicted by Adam, two columns, the one in brick, the other +in stone, on which this knowledge was engraved, and which subsisted in +the Seriadic country." This history is evidently only a variety of the +Chaldean legend of the terra-cotta tables bearing the divine revelations, +and the principles of all sciences which Êa ordered Khasisatra to bury +before the Deluge, "in the city of the Sun at Sippara," as we have had +it above in the extracts from Berosus.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the Egyptians did admit a destruction by the gods of +primal men on account of their rebellion and their sins. This event +was related in a chapter of the sacred books of Thoth, those famous +Hermetic books of the Egyptian priesthood which are graven on the +sides of one of the inmost chambers of the funereal hypogeum of Seti +the First at Thebes. The text has been published and translated by +M. Edouard Naville.<a name="FNanchor_55" id="FNanchor_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></p> + +<p>The scene is laid at the close of the reign of the god Râ, the earliest +terrestrial reign, according to the system of the priests of Thebes, the +second, according to that of the priests of Memphis, which is the one +followed by Manetho, who placed at the very origin of things the reign +of Phtah, previous to that of Râ. Irritated by the impiety and crimes +of the men he has made, the god assembles the other gods to hold +counsel with them in profound secrecy, "so that men should not see it, +nor their heart be afraid."</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Said by Râ to +Nun:<a name="FNanchor_56" id="FNanchor_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> +'Thou, the eldest of the gods, of whom I am born, and +ye ancient gods, here are the men who are born from myself; they speak words +against me, tell me what you would do in the matter; lo, I have waited, and +have not slain them before hearing your words.'</p> + +<p>"Said by the Majesty of Nun: 'My son Râ, a greater god than he who has +made him and created him, I stand in great fear of thee; do thou deliberate +alone.'</p> + +<p>"Said by the Majesty of Râ: 'Lo, they take to flight through the country, +and their hearts are afraid....'</p> + +<p>"Said by the Gods: 'Let thy face permit, and let those men be smitten who +plot evil things, thine enemies, and let none [of them remain.]'"</p></div> + +<p>A goddess, whose name has unfortunately disappeared, but who seems +to have been Tefnut, identified with Hathor and Sekhet, is then sent +to accomplish the sentence of destruction.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"This goddess left, and slew the men upon the earth.</p> + +<p>"Said by the Majesty of this God: 'Come in peace, Hathor; thou hast done +[what was ordained thee.]'</p> + +<p>"Said by this Goddess: 'Thou art living; for I have been stronger than men, +and my heart is satisfied.'</p> + +<p>"Said by the Majesty of Râ: 'I am living, for I will rule over them [and +I will complete] their ruin.'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span> +"And lo, Sekhet, during several nights, trod their blood under-foot as far as +the town of Hâ-klinen-su (Héracléopolis.)"</p></div> + +<p>But the massacre ended, the anger of Râ was appeased; he began to +repent of what he had done. A great expiatory sacrifice succeeded in +finally calming him. Fruits were gathered throughout Egypt, bruised, +and their juice mingled with human blood, 7000 pitchers being filled with +it and presented to the god.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"And lo, the Majesty of Râ, the god of Upper and Lower Egypt, comes with +the gods in three days of sailing to see these vases of drink, after he had ordered +the goddess to slay men.</p> + +<p>"Said by the Majesty of Râ: 'This is well; I will protect men because +of it.' Said by Râ: 'I raise my hand concerning this, to say that I will no more +destroy men.'</p> + +<p>"The Majesty of Râ, the god of Upper and Lower Egypt, commanded in the +middle of the night to overthrow the liquid in the vases, and the fields were +completely filled with water by the will of this god. The goddess arrived in +the morning, and found the fields full of water. Her face grew joyous, and she +drank abundantly and went away satisfied. She no more perceived any men.</p> + +<p>"Said by the Majesty of Râ to the goddess: 'Come in peace, gracious +goddess.'</p> + +<p>"And he caused the young priestesses of Amu to be born.</p> + +<p>"Said by the Majesty of Râ to this goddess: 'Libations shall be made to her +at each of the festivals of the new year, under the superintendence of my +priestesses.'</p> + +<p>"Hence it comes that libations are made under the superintendence of the +priestesses of Hathor by all men since the ancient days."</p></div> + +<p>Nevertheless, some men have escaped the destruction commanded by +Râ, and renewed the population of the earth. As for the solar god +who reigns over the world, he feels himself old, sick and weary; he has +had enough of living among men, whom he regrets not to have +completely annihilated, but has sworn henceforth to spare.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Said by the Majesty of Râ: 'There is a smarting pain that torments me; +what is it then that hurts me?' Said by the Majesty of Râ: 'I am living, +but my heart is weary of being with them [men], and I have in no way destroyed +them. That destruction is not one that I have made myself.'</p> + +<p>"Said by the gods who accompany him: 'Away with lassitude, thou hast +obtained all thou didst desire.'"</p></div> + +<p>The god Râ decides, however, to accept the help of the men of the +new human race who offer themselves to him to combat his enemies, +and a great battle takes place, out of which they come victorious. But +in spite of this success the god, disgusted with earthly life, resolves to quit +it for ever, and has himself carried into heaven by the goddess Nut, who +takes the form of a cow. Then he creates a region of delight, the +fields of Aalu, the Elysium of Egyptian mythology, which he peoples +with stars. Entering into rest, he assigns to different gods the government +of different parts of the world. Shu, who is to succeed him as +king, is to administer celestial matters with Nut; Seb and Nun receive +the charge of the things of earth and water. Finally, Râ, a sovereign +who has voluntarily abdicated, goes to dwell with Thoth, his favourite +son, on whom he has bestowed the superintendence of the under-world.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span> +Such is this strange narrative, "in which," as M. Naville has well +said, "in the midst of fantastic and often puerile inventions, we do nevertheless +find the two terms of existence as understood by the ancient +Egyptians. Râ begins with earth, and passing through heaven stops in +the region of profundity, Ament, in which he apparently wishes to +sojourn. This then is a symbolic and religious representation of life, +which for every Egyptian—and especially for a royal conqueror—had to +begin and end like the sun. This explains the chapter being inscribed +in a tomb."</p> + +<p>Hence it was the last portion of the narrative—which we can analyse +but very briefly—the abdication of Râ and his retreat, first, in heaven, +next in the Ament, a symbol of death which is to be followed by resurrection +as the setting of the sun by its rising—it is this which constituted +its interest in the conception of the doctrine of a future life, +illustrated in the decoration of the interior of the tomb of Seti I. +For our present purpose, on the contrary, it is the beginning of the +story which constitutes its importance, it is that destruction of primal +humanity by the gods of which no mention has been hitherto found +elsewhere. Although the means of destruction employed by Râ are +quite dissimilar, although he does not proceed by submersion but by +a massacre in which the lion-headed goddess Tefnut or Sekhet, the +dreadful form of Hathor, is the agent, the other sides of the story bear +a sufficiently striking analogy to that of the Mosaic or Chaldean +Deluge to show that it is the special and very individual form assumed +in Egypt by that tradition. In both we have human corruption exciting +divine wrath, and punished by a divinely ordained annihilation of the +race, from which there escapes but a very small number destined to +give birth to a new humanity. Finally, after the event an expiatory +sacrifice appeases the celestial anger, and a solemn covenant is made +between men and the deity, who swears never so to destroy them again. +To me, the agreement of these principal features outweighs the divergence +in detail. And we have also to observe how singularly akin is the part +ascribed by the Egyptian priest to Râ with that assigned in the epic +poem of Uruk to the god Bel, in the deluge of Khasisatra. The +Egyptians believed, as did other nations, in the destruction of mankind; +but as inundation meant for them prosperity and life, they changed the +primitive tradition; the human race, instead of perishing by water, was +otherwise exterminated; and the inundation—that crowning benefit to +the valley of the Nile—became in their eyes the sign that the wrath of +Râ was appeased.</p> + +<h4>V.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>American Stories of the Flood.</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It is a very remarkable fact," says M. Alfred Maury, "that we find +in America traditions of the Deluge coming infinitely nearer to that of the +Bible and the Chaldean religion than among any people of the Old World. +It is difficult to suppose that the emigration that certainly took place +from Asia into North America by the Kourile and Aleutian islands, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span> +still does so in our day, should have brought in these memories, since no trace is +found of them among those Mongol or Siberian +populations,<a name="FNanchor_57" id="FNanchor_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> which were fused +with the natives of the New World.... No doubt certain American +nations, the Mexicans and Peruvians, had reached a very advanced social +condition at the time of the Spanish conquest, but this civilization had a special +character, and seems to have been developed on the soil where it flourished. +Many very simple inventions, such as the use of weights, were unknown +to these people, and this shows that their knowledge was not derived from India +or Japan. The attempts that have been made to trace the origin of Mexican +civilization to Asia have not as yet led to any sufficiently conclusive facts. +Besides, had Buddhism, which we doubt, made its way into America, it could +not have introduced a myth not found in its own +Scriptures.<a name="FNanchor_58" id="FNanchor_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> The cause of these +similarities between the diluvian traditions of the nations of the New World +and that of the Bible remains therefore unexplained."</p></div> + +<p>I have particular pleasure in quoting these words by a man of +immense erudition, because he does not belong to orthodox writers, +and will not therefore be thought biassed by a preconceived opinion. +Others also, no less rationalistic than he, have pointed out this likeness +between American traditions of the Deluge and those of the Bible +and the Chaldeans.</p> + +<p>The most important among the former are the Mexican, for they +appear to have been definitively fixed by symbolic and mnemonic +paintings before any contact with Europeans. According to these +documents, the Noah of the Mexican cataclysm was Coxcox, called +by certain peoples Teocipactli or Tezpi. He had saved himself, together +with his wife Xochiquetzal, in a bark, or, according to other traditions, +on a raft, made of cypress wood (<i>Cupressus disticha</i>). Paintings retracing +the deluge of Coxcox have been discovered among the Aztecs, Miztecs, +Zapotecs, Tlascaltecs, and Mechoacaneses. The tradition of the latter +is still more strikingly in conformity with the story as we have it in +Genesis and in Chaldean sources. It tells how Tezpi embarked in a +spacious vessel with his wife, his children, and several animals, and grain, +whose preservation was essential to the subsistence of the human race. +When the great god Tezcatlipoca decreed that the waters should +retire, Tezpi sent a vulture from the bark. The bird, feeding on the +carcases with which the earth was laden, did not return. Tezpi sent +out other birds, of which the humming-bird only came back with a +leafy branch in its beak. Then Tezpi, seeing that the country began +to vegetate, left his bark on the mountain of Colhuacan.</p> + +<p>The document, however, that gives the most valuable information as +to the cosmogony of the Mexicans is one known as "Codex Vaticanus," +from the library where it is preserved. It consists of four symbolic +pictures, representing the four ages of the world preceding the actual +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span> +one. They were copied at Chobula from a manuscript anterior to the +conquest, and accompanied by the explanatory commentary of Pedro de +los Rios, a Dominican monk, who in 1566, less than fifty years after +the arrival of Cortez, devoted himself to the research of indigenous +traditions as being necessary to his missionary work.</p> + +<p>The first age is marked with the cipher 13×400+6, or 5206, which +Alexander von Humboldt understands as giving the number of years of +the period, and Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg as the date of its commencement, +from a proleptic era going back from the period of the execution +of the manuscript. This age is called <i>Tlatonatiuh</i>, "Sun of Earth." +It is that of the giants, or Quinames, the earliest inhabitants of Anahuac, +whose end was destruction by famine.</p> + +<p>The number of the second age is 12×400+4, or 4804, and it is +called <i>Tlatonatiuh</i>, "Sun of Fire." It closes with the descent on +Earth of Xiuhteuchli, the god of fire. Mankind are all transformed +into birds, and only thus escape the conflagration. Nevertheless, one +human pair find refuge in a cave, and repeople the world.</p> + +<p>As to the third age, <i>Ehécatonatiuh</i>, "Sun of Wind," its number is +10×400+10, or 4010. Its final catastrophe is a terrible hurricane +raised by Quetzalcoatl, the "god of the air." With few exceptions, men +are metamorphosed into monkeys.</p> + +<p>Then comes the fourth age, <i>Atonatiuh</i>, "Sun of Water," whose +number is 10×400+8, or 4008. It ends by a great inundation, a +veritable deluge. All mankind are changed into fish, with the exception +of one man and his wife, who save themselves in a bark made of the +trunk of a cypress-tree. The picture represents Matlalcueye, goddess +of waters, and consort of Tlaloc, god of rain, as darting down towards +earth. Coxcox and Xochiquetzal, the two human beings preserved, are +seen seated on a tree-trunk and floating in the midst of the waters. +This flood is represented as the last cataclysm that devastates the earth.</p> + +<p>All this is most important, as a mind of the order of Humboldt's did +not hesitate to acknowledge. However, M. Girard de Realle wrote +quite recently:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The myth of the deluge has been met with in several parts of America, and Christian +writers have not failed to see in it a reminiscence of the Biblical tradition, nay, +in connection with the pyramid of Chobula, they have found traces of the Tower +of Babel. We shall not waste time in pointing out how out of a fish-god, Coxcox, +among the Chichimecs, Teocipactli among the Aztecs, and a goddess of flowers, +Xochiquetzal, it was easy to concoct the Mexican figures of Noah and his wife +by joining on to them the story of the ark and the dove. It is enough to observe +that all these legends have only been collected and published at a relatively +recent period.<a name="FNanchor_59" id="FNanchor_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> +The first chroniclers, so cautious already despite their honest simplicity, +such as Sahagun, Mendieta, Olmos, and the Hispano-indigenous authors, +such as the Tezcucan Ixthilxochitl and the Tlascaltec Camargo, never breathe +a word of stories they could not have failed to bring to light, had they existed in their days. Lastly, we find in +Mr. Bancroft's<a name="FNanchor_60" id="FNanchor_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> +work a criticism of these legends, due to Don José Fernando Ramirez, keeper of the National Museum, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span> +which proves incontestably that all these stories spring from all too ready and +tendency-fraught interpretations of old Mexican paintings, which according to him +only represent episodes in the migration of Aztecs around the central lakes of the +plateau of Anahuac."</p></div> + +<p>I much fear that the <i>tendency</i> here is not on the side of writers +who are looked on as ground to powder by the epithet Christian; +which, indeed, be it said in passing, might well surprise a few +among them. And this tendency, when resolved at any cost to +attack the Bible, is as anti-scientific as when grasping at any uncritical +argument in its defence. No doubt the identical character of +Xochiquetzal or Maciulxochiquetzal, as goddess of the fertilizing rain +and of vegetation, with that of Chalchihuitlicué or Mallalcuéyé, is a +well-known fact, more certain even than the character of fish-god of +Coxcox or Teocipactli. But the transformation of gods into heroes is a +very common fact in all polytheisms, and most common in the kind of +unconscious euhemerism from which infant peoples never free themselves. +There is therefore nothing here to contradict the fact that these two +divine personages, contemplated as heroes, may be taken as the two +survivors of the Flood, and the ancestors of the new humanity. As to +the theory of Don José Ramirez, about the symbolic pictures that have +been interpreted as expressing the diluvian tradition, it is very ingenious +and scientifically presented, but not so absolutely proved as M. +Girard de Realle considers. But even granting its incontestability, it +only removes part of the evidence which may have been unintentionally +forced by those naturally disposed to see in it a parallel to Genesis; as +for instance, with regard to the sending out the birds by Tezpi. Still +the existence of the tradition among Mexican peoples would not be +shaken, for it rests upon a whole of indubitable testimony, confirming +in a striking manner the interpretation hitherto given of the "Codex +Vaticanus."</p> + +<p>The valuable work in the Aztec language, and in Latin letters, compiled +by a native, subsequently to the Spanish conquest, called <i>Codex +Chimalpopoca</i> by Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, who gives an analysis +and partial translation of it in the first volume of his "Histoire des +Nations Civilisees du Mexique," contains in its third portion a history of +the suns, or successive ages of the world. Each takes its name from the +way in which humanity is destroyed at its close. The first is the age of +jaguars, who devour the primordial +giants;<a name="FNanchor_61" id="FNanchor_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> +the second, the age of wind; +at its close men lost themselves, and were carried off by the hurricane, +and transformed themselves into monkeys. Houses, woods, everything +was swept away by the wind. Then comes the age of fire, whose +sun is called Tlalocan-Teuctli, "Lord of the lower regions," the usual +appellation of Mictlanteuctli, the Mexican Pluto, which seems to point +to the idea of an age of special volcanic activity. At its close, mankind +is destroyed by a rain of fire, and such as do not perish escape under +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span> +the form of birds. Finally, the fourth age is that of water, which immediately +precedes our present epoch, and closes with the Deluge.</p> + +<p>Here is the narrative according to Abbé Brasseur's version, held +correct by Americanists:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"This is the sun called <i>Nahui-atl</i>, +'4 water.'<a name="FNanchor_62" id="FNanchor_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> +Now the water was tranquil +for forty years, plus twelve, and men lived for the third and fourth times. When +the sun <i>Nahui-atl</i> came there had passed away four hundred years, plus two +ages, plus seventy-six years. Then all mankind was lost and drowned and +found themselves changed into fish. The sky came nearer the water. In a +single day all was lost and the day <i>Nahui-xochitl</i> '4 flower,' destroyed all our +flesh.</p> + +<p>"And that year was that of <i>cé-calli</i>, +'1 house,'<a name="FNanchor_63" id="FNanchor_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> +and the day <i>Nahui-atl</i> all was +lost. Even the mountains sank into the water, and the water remained tranquil +for fifty-two springs.</p> + +<p>"Now at the end of the year the god Titlacahuan had warned Nata and his +spouse Nena, saying: 'Make no more wine of Agave, but begin to hollow out a +great cypress, and you will enter into it when in the month Tozontli the water +approaches the sky.'</p> + +<p>"Then they entered in, and when the god had closed the door he said: 'Thou +shalt eat but one ear of maize and thy wife one also.'</p> + +<p>"But as soon as they had finished they went out, and the water remained calm, +for the wood no longer moved, and on opening it they began to see fish.</p> + +<p>"Then they lit a fire, by rubbing together pieces of wood, and they roasted fish.</p> + +<p>"The gods Citlallinicué and Citlalatonac instantly looking down said: 'Divine +Lord, what is that fire that is making there. Why do they thus smoke the sky?' +At once Titlacahuan-Tezcatlipoca descended. He began to chide, saying, 'Who +has made this fire here?' And seizing hold of the fish he shaped their loins and +heads, and they were transformed into dogs (<i>chichime</i>)."</p></div> + +<p>This last touch is a satire on the Chichimecs, or "barbarians of the +North," founders of the kingdom of Tezcuco. It proves the decidedly +indigenous character of the story, and removes any such suspicion of a +Biblical imitation, as the date might have led to.</p> + +<p>The manuscript, written in Spanish by Motolina, who belonged to +the generation of the "conquistadores," has hitherto only been known by +extracts given from it by Abbé Brasseur in his "Recherches sur les +Ruines de Palenque," a work containing many useful documents, though +already pervaded by the delusions which towards the end of his career so +strangely misled this learned pioneer of Mexican antiquarianism. Here, +too, we find the theory of the four suns, or four ages, given in the same +order as by the author of the "Codex Chimalpopoca."</p> + +<p>The first is called "age of Tezcatlipoca," because that god had then +added on a half to the sun, which was only half luminous, or had "made +himself sun in its place." This was the age of the Quinames, or giants, +who were almost all exterminated by famine. After this, Quetzlcoatl, +the god of the air, having armed himself with a great stick, struck Tezcatlipoca +with it, threw him into the water, and "and made himself sun +in his place." The fallen god, transforming himself into a jaguar, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span> +devoured such of the Quinames as had escaped from the famine. The +statements of the "Codex Vaticanus" and the "Codex Chimalpopoca" +as to the final catastrophe of the world's first age, are thus reconciled +by this last narrative.</p> + +<p>Motolina calls the two next ages those of wind and fire; they are +closed in the way we have seen.</p> + +<p>The fourth is the age of the "Sun of Water," placed under the +patronage of the goddess Chalchihuitlicué. The Deluge terminates it, +and after this last cataclysm, we enter upon our present era.</p> + +<p>We come next to the "History of the Chichimecs," by Don Fernando +d'Alva Ixtlilxochitl, descendant of the old pagan kings of Tezcuco, whose +pretended silence on the subject we have seen appealed to as disproving +the authenticity of these Mexican diluvian traditions. In the first +chapter of his first book, Ixtlilxochitl relates the story of the cosmic +ages according to the traditions of his native city. He only gives four +in all, including the actual period. The first is the <i>Atonatiuh</i>, or "Sun +of Waters," which begins with the creation, and ends with a universal +deluge. Then comes the <i>Thlachitonatiuh</i>, or "Sun of Earth," when the +giants called Quinametziu-Tzocuilhioxime lived, descendants of the survivors +of the first epoch. A frightful earthquake, overthrowing the +mountains, and destroying the greater part of the dwellers on earth, closes +this age. It is in the third age, <i>Ehecatonatiuh</i>, "Sun of Wind," that +Olmecs and Xicalanques came from the east to settle in the south of +Mexico. At first they were conquered by the remnant of the Quinames, +but ended by massacring these. Quetzalcoatl next appears as a religious +reformer, but is not listened to by men, whose indocility is punished +by the appalling hurricane during which such as escaped became monkeys. +Then begins the present age, <i>Tlatonatiuh</i>, or "Sun of Fire," thus +called because it is to end by a rain of fire. We see, therefore, that +Ixtlilxochitl was perfectly acquainted with the diluvian tradition, and if +he does not enter into its details, he assigns it an important place in his +series of ages.</p> + +<p>Therefore we must needs acknowledge the diluvian tradition to be +really indigenous in Mexico and not an invention of missionaries. +We may doubt as to some particulars in some of the versions, though +this arises chiefly from a preconceived idea, because they too much +resemble the story in Genesis; but as to the fundamental tradition it +is unassailable, and intimately connected with a conception not drawn +from the Bible—and universally admitted to have existed—that, namely, of +the four ages of the world. Between this conception, and that of the +four ages or Yugas of India, and of the <i>manvantaras</i> where the destruction +of the world and the renewals of humanity alternate, there is an +analogy which appeared very significant to Humboldt, MacCulloch, and +M. Maury. It is one that justifies us in asking whether the Mexicans +devised it independently or borrowed it more or less directly from India. +The system of the four ages, inseparable in Mexico from that of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span> +diluvian tradition, confronts us with the problem—ever recurring with +regard to American civilization—of how far these are spontaneous and +how far derived from Asia through Buddhist or other missionaries. In +the present state of our knowledge we can as little solve this problem +negatively as affirmatively, and all attempts made to come to a positive +conclusion are premature and unproductive. Before discovering whence +American civilizations came, we must thoroughly know what they were, +nor attempt the arduous and obscure question of their origin till we +frame a real American archæology on the same scientific basis and by +the same methods as other archæologies. And in this respect Messrs. +T. G. Müller and Herbert Bancroft appear to me greatly in advance of +their precursors in this field of inquiry.</p> + +<p>For the present, all that can be done is, as I have attempted with +Flood stories, to determine facts without pretending to draw inferences. +Hence I should no longer boldly write, as I did eight years ago: "The +Flood stories of Mexico positively prove the tradition of the Deluge to +be one of the oldest held by humanity—a tradition so primitive as +to be anterior to the dispersion of human families and the final developments +of material civilization; which the Red race peopling America +brought from the common cradle of our species into their new home, at +the same time that the Semites, Chaldeans, and Aryans respectively +carried it into theirs."<a name="FNanchor_64" id="FNanchor_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> +The fact is that among American peoples this +tradition may not be primitive. We may indeed affirm that it was not +borrowed from the Bible after the arrival of the Spaniards, but we cannot +be equally confident that it was not the result of some previous foreign +importation, the precise date of which we have no means of fixing.</p> + +<p>Be that as it may, the doctrines of successive ages, and of the destruction +of the men of the first age by a Deluge, is also found in the curious book +of <i>Popol-vuh</i> that collection of the mythological traditions of Guatemala, +written after the conquest in the native tongue, by a secret adept of +the old religion; discovered, copied, and translated into Spanish in the +beginning of the last century by the Dominican Francisco Ximenez, curé +of St. Thomas of Chiula. His Spanish version has been published by +M. Schelzer, the original text with a French translation by Abbé +Brasseur. Here we read that the gods, seeing that animals were neither +capable of speaking nor of adoring them, determined to make men in +their own image. They fashioned them at first in clay. But those men +had no consistency, could not turn their heads; spoke, indeed, but +understood nothing. The gods then destroyed their imperfect work by +a Deluge. Setting about it for the second time, they made a man +of wood and a woman of resin. These creatures were far superior to +the former; they moved and lived, but only like other animals; they +spoke, but unintelligibly; and gave no thought to the gods. Then +Hurakan, "the heart of heaven," the god of storm, caused a rain of +burning resin to fall, while the ground was shaken by a fearful earthquake. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span> +All the descendants of the wood-and-resin pair perished, with +a few exceptions, who became monkeys of the forest. Finally, out of +white and yellow maize, the gods produced four perfect men: Balam-Quitze, +"the smiling jaguar;" Balam-agab, "the jaguar of the night;" +Mahuentah, "the distinguished name;" and Igi-Balam, "the jaguar of +the moon." They were tall and strong; saw and knew everything, and +rendered thanks to the gods. But the latter were alarmed at this their +final success, and feared for their supremacy: accordingly, they threw a +light veil, like a mist, over the vision of the four men, which became +like that of the men of to-day. While they slept the gods created for +them four wives of great beauty, and from three of these pairs the +Quichés were born—Igi-Balam and his wife Cakixaha having no children. +This series of awkward attempts at creation is sufficiently removed +from the Biblical narrative to do away with any suspicion of Christian +missionary influence over this indigenous quadrennial legend, where, as +usual, we find the belief in the destruction of primal mankind by a +great flood.</p> + +<p>We meet with it in Nicaragua as well. Oviedo relates that Pedsarias +Davila, governor of the province in 1538, charged F. Bobadilla, of the +Order of St. Dominic, to inquire into the spiritual condition of those +Indians whom his predecessors boasted of having converted in great +numbers to Catholicism, which he, Davila, with good reason, doubted. +The monk accordingly examined the natives, and Oviedo has transmitted +several dialogues which show us the creed of the Nicaraguans a few years +after the Spanish conquest. The following bears directly on our subject:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Question by Bobadilla.</i> Who has created heaven and earth, the stars and +moon, man and all else?</p> + +<p>"<i>Answer (by the Cacique Avogoaltegoan).</i> Tamagastad and Cippatoval, the one +is a man, the other a woman.</p> + +<p>"<i>Q.</i> Who created that man and woman?</p> + +<p>"<i>A.</i> No one. On the contrary, all men and women descend from them.</p> + +<p>"<i>Q.</i> Did they create Christians?</p> + +<p>"<i>A.</i> I do not know, but the Indians descend from Tamagastad and Cippatoval.</p> + +<p>"<i>Q.</i> Are there any gods greater than they?</p> + +<p>"<i>A.</i> No; we believe them to be the greatest.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>"<i>Q.</i> Are they gods of flesh or wood, or any other substance?</p> + +<p>"<i>A.</i> They are of flesh; they are man and woman, brown in colour like us +Indians. They walked on earth dressed like us, and ate what Indians eat.</p> + +<p>"<i>Q.</i> Who gave them to eat?</p> + +<p>"<i>A.</i> Everything belongs to them.</p> + +<p>"<i>Q.</i> Where are they now?</p> + +<p>"<i>A.</i> In heaven, according to what our ancestors have told us.</p> + +<p>"<i>Q.</i> How did they ascend thither?</p> + +<p>"<i>A.</i> I only know that it is their home. I do not know how they were born, +for they have no father nor mother.</p> + +<p>"<i>Q.</i> How do they live at present?</p> + +<p>"<i>A.</i> They eat what Indians eat, for maize and all food proceeds from the +place where dwell the <i>teotes</i> (gods).</p> + +<p>"<i>Q.</i> Do you know, or have you heard tell, whether since the <i>teotes</i> created the +world it has been destroyed?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span> +"<i>A.</i> Before the present race existed, the world was destroyed by water and +all became sea.</p> + +<p>"<i>Q.</i> How did that man and woman escape?</p> + +<p>"<i>A.</i> They were in heaven, for that was their dwelling, and afterwards they +came down to earth and re-made all things as they now are, and we are their +issue.</p> + +<p>"<i>Q.</i> You say the whole world was destroyed by water. Did not some +individuals save themselves in a canoe, or by some other way?</p> + +<p>"<i>A.</i> No. All the world was drowned, according to what my ancestors +told me."</p></div> + +<p>The great god Tamagastad, of whom mention is made in this dialogue, +is evidently the same as Thomagata, the awful-visaged spirit of +fire, whose cultus was anterior among a portion of the Muyscas at +Tunga and Sogamosa to that of Botchica. This, therefore, brings us +back to the religious and cosmogonic traditions of the very advanced +civilization in the high table-land of Cundinamarca, and we are led to +recognize in the Flood-legend of Botchica a certain echo of the so +universally spread tradition of the Deluge of early ages, mingled with +the memory of a local event, from which the ancestors of the Muyscas +had suffered at the time of their first settlement. Neither must we +forget that Botchica and his wicked spouse, who brought about the +inundation of Cundinamarca, are no other than personifications of +the sun and moon, as were the pair Manco-Capac and Mama-Oello +in the empire of the Incas. "The moon of Peru is gentle and +beneficent," well observes M. Girard de Realle, "she helps her brother +and husband in the work of civilization; on the plateau of Cundinamarca, +on the contrary, she is a witch, a veritable deity of night and +of evil, worthily represented by the lugubrious owl."</p> + +<p>Some have believed themselves to have discovered the Flood-tradition +among the Peruvians, but careful criticism disproves this. For it +only arises from an unintelligent interpretation of the myth of Viracocha +or Con, god of waters, or more precisely, the personification of +the element, as shown by the legend which represents him as having no +bones, and yet stretching himself out afar, lowering the mountains and +filling up the valleys in his course. He was the chief god of the +Aymaras, who, according to them, had created the earth; and who, +issuing from Lake Titicaca, to manifest himself on earth, had assembled +the earliest men at Tiahuanaco. Later, the official cosmogony of the +Incas led to his undergoing an euhemeristic transformation diminishing +his religious importance; and he is represented as one of the sons of the +Sun, come upon earth to dwell among and civilize mankind, a younger +brother of Manco-Capac. Now it is under the government of Viracocha +that the Deluge is placed by the writers of very recent date, who +mention this event, of which the native tradition was unknown to the +Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, to Montesinos, Balboa, Gomara, F. Oliva, +and, in short, to all authorities of any weight in Peruvian matters. +MacCulloch does indeed quote Acosta and Herrera, but these authors +never speak of a Deluge involving all humanity; they only say that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span> +Viracocha gave laws to the earliest men at the close of a primordial +period anterior to their creation, when the whole surface of the earth +had been under water.</p> + +<p>Numerous legends of the great inundation of earliest times have +been found among the savage tribes of America. But by their very +nature these leave room for doubt. They have not been committed to +writing by the natives, we only know them by intermediaries who may, +in perfectly good faith, have altered them considerably in an unconscious +desire to assimilate them to the Bible story. Besides, they have +been only collected very lately, when the tribes had been for a long +time in contact with Europeans, and had often had living among them +more than one adventurer who might well have introduced new elements +into their traditions. They are therefore very inferior in importance +to those we have found existing in Mexico, Guatemala, and +Nicaragua, previous to the arrival of the Spanish conquerors.</p> + +<p>The most remarkable of them, as excluding by its very form the idea +of European communication, is that of the Cherokees. It seems a +childish version of the Indian tradition, only that it is a dog instead +of a fish who plays the part of deliverer to the man who escapes the +catastrophe; but this brings us back to a myth special to America—that +of the transformation of fish into dogs, as we have seen in the +Flood-story of the "Codex Chimalpopoca."</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The dog," says the legend of the Cherokees, "never ceased for several days to +run up and down the banks of the river, looking fixedly at the water and howling +as in distress. His master was annoyed by his ways and roughly ordered +him to go home, upon which he began speaking and revealed the impending +calamity, ending his prediction by saying that the only way in which his master +and his family could escape was by throwing him at once into the water, for he +would become their deliverer by swimming to seek a boat, but that there was +not a moment to lose, for a terrible rain was at hand which would lead to a +general inundation in which everything would perish. The man obeyed his dog, +was saved with his family, and they repeopled the earth."</p></div> + +<p>It is said that the Tamanakis, a Carib tribe on the banks of the +Orinoco, have a legend of the man and woman who escaped the flood +by reaching the summit of Mount Tapanacu. There they threw cocoa-nuts +behind them, from which sprung a new race of men and women. +If the report be true, which, however, we cannot affirm, this would be a +very singular agreement with one of the distinctive features of the +Greek story of Deucalion and Pyrrha.</p> + +<p>Russian explorers have reported a childlike narrative of the flood in +the Aleutian Islands, forming the geographical link between Asia and +North America, and at the extremity of the north-east of America +among the Kolosks. Henry the traveller gives the following tradition +as current among the Indians of the Great Lakes:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In former times the father of the Indian tribes dwelt towards the rising sun. +Having been warned in a dream that a deluge was coming upon the earth, he +built a raft, on which he saved himself with his family and all the animals. He +floated thus for several months. The animals, who at that time spoke, loudly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span> +complained and murmured against him. At last a new earth appeared, on which +he landed with all the animals, who from that time lost the power of speech as a +punishment for their murmurs against their deliverer."</p></div> + +<p>According to Father Charlevoix, the tribes of Canada and the valley +of the Mississippi relate in their rude legends that all mankind was destroyed +by a flood, and that the good spirit, to repeople the earth, had +changed animals into men. It is to J. S. Kohl we owe our acquaintance +with the version of the Chippeways—full of grotesque and perplexing +touches—in which the man saved from the deluge is called +Menaboshu.<a name="FNanchor_65" id="FNanchor_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> +To know if the earth be drying he sends a bird, the diver, out of his +bark; then becomes the restorer of the human race and the founder of +existing society. Catlin relates a story, current among the Mandans, +of the earth being a great tortoise borne on the waters, and that when +one day, in digging the soil, a tribe of white men pierced the shell of +the tortoise, it sank, and the water covering it drowned all men, with +the exception of one, who saved himself in a boat; and when the earth +re-emerged, sent out a dove, who returned with a branch of willow in +its beak. Here we have Noah's dove, as in the story of Tezpi and +Menaboshu we have other birds substituted for it. But the native +originality of this detail, as of the whole diluvian tradition among the +Mandans, may well be doubted when we remember that the physical +peculiarities of this curious tribe on the banks of the Missouri led Catlin +to consider it of mixed blood, and partly white origin.</p> + +<p>In the songs of the inhabitants of New California allusion was made +to a very remote period when the sea left its bed and covered the earth. +The whole race of men and animals perished in this deluge, sent by the +supreme god Chinigchinig, with the exception of a few who had taken +refuge on a high mountain which the water failed to reach. The Commissioners +of the United States who explored New Mexico before its +annexation, tell of the existence of a similar tradition among the different +native tribes of that vast territory. Other travellers give us kindred +narratives, more or less strikingly resembling the Bible record. But +for the most part they are too vaguely reported to be entirely trusted.</p> + +<h4>VI.</h4> + +<p><i>Polynesian Traditions.</i>—In Oceania even, and not among the Pelagian +negroes or Papoos,<a name="FNanchor_66" id="FNanchor_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> +but the Polynesian, racenatives of the archipelago +of Australasia, the diluvian tradition has been traced, mingled with recollections +of sudden rises of the sea, which are one of the most frequent +scourges of those islands. The most noted is that of Tahiti, which +has been specially referred to the primeval tradition. Here it is as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</a></span> +given by M. Gaussin,<a name="FNanchor_67" id="FNanchor_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> +who has published a translation of it, as well as +the Tahitian text, written by a native named Maré:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Two men had gone out to sea to fish with the line, Roo and Teahoroa by +name. They threw their hooks into the sea, which caught in the hair of the +god Ruahatu. They exclaimed, 'A fish!' They drew up the line and saw that +it was a man they had caught. At sight of the god they bounded to the other +end of their bark, and were half dead with fear. Ruahatu asked them, 'What +is this?' The two fishermen replied, 'We came to fish, and we did not know +that our hooks would catch thee.' The god then said, 'Unfasten my hair;' and +they did so. Then Ruahatu asked, 'What are your names?' They replied, +'Roo and Teahoroa.' Ruahatu next said, 'Return to the shore, and tell men +that the earth will be covered with water, and all the world will perish. +To-morrow morning repair to the islet called Toa-marama; it will be a place of +safety for you and your children.'</p> + +<p>"Ruahatu caused the sea to cover the lands. All were covered, and all +men perished except Roo, Teahoroa, and their families."</p></div> + +<p>This story, like all in this part of the world currently referred to +the memory of the Deluge, has assumed the childish character peculiar +to Polynesian legends, and moreover, as M. Maury justly observes, it +may be naturally explained by the recollection of one of those tidal +waves so common in Polynesia. The most essential feature of all +traditions properly called diluvian is wanting here. The island, +observes M. Maury, has no resemblance to the +Ark.<a name="FNanchor_68" id="FNanchor_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> It is true that +one of the versions of the Tahitian legend states that the two fishermen +repaired to Toa-marama, not only with their families, but with a pig, a +dog, and a couple of fowls, which recalls the entry of the animals into +the Ark. On the other hand, some details of a similar story among +the Fijis, especially one in which, for many years after the event, +canoes were kept ready in case of its repetition, far better fit a local +phenomenon, a tidal wave, than a universal deluge.</p> + +<p>However, if all these legends were exclusively related to local +catastrophes, it would be strange that they should appear and be +almost similar in a certain number of localities at a great distance +from each other, and only where the Polynesian race has taken root, or +left indubitable traces of its passage;—this race, indigenous in the +Malay Archipelago, not having migrated thence till about the fourth +century of the Christian era—<i>i.e.</i>, at a time when, in consequence of the +communication between India and a portion of +Malaysia,<a name="FNanchor_69" id="FNanchor_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> the Flood-tradition +under its Indian form might well have entered in. Without, +therefore, deciding the question one way or other, we do not think that +that opinion can absolutely be condemned which finds in these Polynesian +legends an echo of the tradition of the Deluge, much weakened, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</a></span> +much changed, and more inextricably confused than anywhere else with +local disasters of recent date.</p> + +<p>The result, then, of this long review authorizes us to affirm the story of +the Deluge to be a universal tradition among all branches of the human +race, with the one exception, however, of the black. Now a recollection +thus precise and concordant cannot be a myth voluntarily invented. No +religious or cosmogonic myth presents this character of universality. It +must arise from the reminiscence of a real and terrible event, so powerfully +impressing the imagination of the first ancestors of our race, as +never to have been forgotten by their descendants. This cataclysm +must have occurred near the first cradle of mankind, and before the dispersion +of the families from which the principal races were to spring; +for it would be at once improbable and uncritical to admit that at as +many different points of the globe as we should have to assume in +order to explain the wide spread of these traditions—local phenomena so +exactly alike should have occurred, their memory having assumed an +identical form, and presenting circumstances that need not necessarily +have occurred to the mind in such cases.</p> + +<p>Let us observe, however, that probably the diluvian tradition is not primitive +but imported in America; that it undoubtedly wears the aspect of +an importation among the rare populations of the yellow race where it +is found; and lastly, that it is doubtful among the Polynesians of Oceania. +There will still remain three great races to which it is undoubtedly peculiar, +who have not borrowed it from each other, but among whom the +tradition is primitive, and goes back to the most ancient times; and +these three races are precisely the only ones of which the Bible speaks +as being descended from Noah, those of which it gives the ethnic filiation +in the tenth chapter of Genesis. This observation, which I hold to +be undeniable, attaches a singularly historic and exact value to the tradition +as recorded by the Sacred Book, even if, on the other hand, it may lead +to giving it a more limited geographical and ethnological significance. +In another paper I propose to inquire whether, in the conception of the +inspired writers, the Deluge really was universal, in the sense customarily +supposed.</p> + +<p>But as the case now stands, we do not hesitate to declare that, far +from being a myth, the Biblical Deluge is a real and historical fact, +having, to say the least, left its impress on the ancestors of three +races—Aryan or Indo-European, Semitic or Syro-Arabian, Chamitic or +Kushite—that is to say, on the three great civilized races of the ancient +world, those which constitute the higher humanity—before the ancestors +of those races had as yet separated, and in the part of Asia they together +inhabited.</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">François Lenormant.</span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31" id="Footnote_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> +The date of the termination of the works undertaken by Yu, in order to repair the +damage done by this flood, lies between 2278 and 2062 <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> according to the chronological +system adopted.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32" id="Footnote_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> +This work of Berosus was already out of existence in the fourth century of our era, +when Eusebius of Cesarea, to whom we owe such fragments as we possess, wrote. Only +two abridgments remained, due to later polygraphers, Abydenus and Alexander Polybistor. +Eusebius gives the version of each editor, the one I quote is that of Alexander.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33" id="Footnote_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> +Abydenus says, "all that composed the scriptures."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34" id="Footnote_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> +He is provisionally called Izdhubar or Ghirdhubar, transcribing for want of a more +certain method, according to their phonetic value, the characters composing the ideographic +spelling of his name.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35" id="Footnote_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> +The text is published in "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," vol. iv. pp. 50 and 51. +The two principal translations hitherto given are those of George Smith and M. Oppert. +The one we now offer contains a large share of personal work. We avail ourselves of the +labours of our illustrious precursors, but believe that we have also added some important +steps towards a precise understanding of the text.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36" id="Footnote_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> +Here several verses are wanting.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37" id="Footnote_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> +"The water of the twilight at break of day," one of the personifications of rain.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38" id="Footnote_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> +The god of thunder.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39" id="Footnote_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> +The god of war and death.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40" id="Footnote_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> +The Chaldeo-Assyrian Hercules.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41" id="Footnote_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> +The superior heaven of the fixed stars.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42" id="Footnote_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> +Vases of the measure called in Hebrew <i>Seäh</i>. This relates to a detail of the ritualistic +prescriptions for sacrifice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43" id="Footnote_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> +These metaphorical expressions appear to designate the rainbow.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44" id="Footnote_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> +The god of epidemics.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45" id="Footnote_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> +<i>Studien zur Kritik und Erklarung der Biblischen Urgeschichte</i>, p. 150.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46" id="Footnote_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> +Oannès and Euahanès belong to an Accadian form: Êa-Khan, "Êa the fish;" Oès to +the simple Êa, as the Aos of Damascus.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47" id="Footnote_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> +<i>Vendidâd</i>, ii. 46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48" id="Footnote_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> +Chapter vii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49" id="Footnote_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> +See especially <i>Yesht</i> viii., 13 <i>Vendidâd</i>, xix. 135.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50" id="Footnote_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> +It is in virtue of this assimilation that Plutarch (De Solert anim. 13) speaks of the +dove sent out by Deucalion to see if the Deluge had ceased, a circumstance mentioned by +no other Greek mythographer.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51" id="Footnote_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> +"Myvyrian Archæology of Wales," vol. ii. p. 50, triad 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52" id="Footnote_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> +<i>Ibid.</i> p. 71, triad 97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53" id="Footnote_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> +Vafthrudnismal, st. 29.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54" id="Footnote_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> +Hanwsch, <i>Slawischer Mythus</i>, p. 234.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55" id="Footnote_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> +"Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology," vol. iv. pp. 1-19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56" id="Footnote_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> +Personification of the primordial abyss.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57" id="Footnote_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> +Nevertheless, the Deluge holds an important place among the cosmogonic traditions—decidedly +original in character—which Reguly has found among the Voguls. We also hear +of a diluvian story among the Eulets or Kalmuks, where it seems to have come in with +Buddhism.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58" id="Footnote_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> +We must, however, observe that Buddhist missionaries appear to have introduced the +diluvian tradition of Judea into China. Gutzlaff, "On Buddhism in China," in the Journal +of the Royal Asiatic Society (1st series, vol. xii. p. 78), affirms that he saw its principal +episode represented in a very fine painting of a temple to the goddess Kivan-yin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59" id="Footnote_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> +Recently published, not recently collected. The date of Pedro de los Rios shows this.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60" id="Footnote_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> +"The Native Races of the Pacific States," vol. iii. p. 68.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61" id="Footnote_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> +By a singular alteration of the text it is said that the jaguars "were devoured," instead +of "they devoured."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62" id="Footnote_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> +From the day of the year when the final cataclysm was supposed to have occurred.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63" id="Footnote_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> +This designation of the year accords with the system of Mexican cycles, containing four +groups of years, each named after some object or animal.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64" id="Footnote_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> +"Essai de commentaire des fragments de Berose," p. 283.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65" id="Footnote_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> +This name looks like a corruption of that of the Indian Manu Vaivasvata.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66" id="Footnote_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> +Except in the Fiji Islands, where the Polynesians have been for some time settled among +the Melanians, and have only been destroyed by these after having infused into the population +an element sufficiently marked to render the Fijis a mixed rather than a purely +black race.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67" id="Footnote_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> +Gaussin: "Du Dialecte de Tahiti et de la Langue polynésienne," p. 235. See also Ellis's +"Polynesian Researches."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68" id="Footnote_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> +We may, however, observe that in the Iranian myth of Yima, which we have reported +above, a square enclosure (<i>vara</i>) miraculously preserved from the deluge, holds the place of +the Biblical Ark and of the vessel of Chaldean tradition.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69" id="Footnote_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> +The date of the first establishment of Indian Brahmanists in Java remains uncertain, but +from the end of the second century <span class="smcap lowercase">B.C.</span> the Greek Iambulos (Diod. Sicul. ii. 57) very +exactly described as the way of writing in this island the syllabic system Kavi, borrowed +from India.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[Pg 501]</a></span></p> + +<h2>SUSPENDED ANIMATION.</h2> + +<p>Some time since an article appeared in the <i>Times</i>, quoted from the +<i>Brisbane Courier</i> (an Australian paper of good credit), stating +that one Signor Rotura had devised a plan by which animals might be +congealed for weeks or months without being actually deprived of life, +so that they might be shipped from Australia for English ports as dead +meat, yet on their arrival here be restored to full life and activity. +Many regarded this account as intended to be received seriously, though +a few days later an article appeared, the opening words of which +implied that only persons from north of the Tweed should have taken +the article <i>au grand sérieux</i>. Of course it was a hoax; but it is +worthy of notice that the editor of the <i>Brisbane Courier</i> had really been +misled, as he admitted a few weeks later, with a candour which did him +credit.<a name="FNanchor_70" id="FNanchor_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p> + +<p>This wonderful discovery, however, besides being worth publishing as +a joke (though rather a mischievous one, as will presently be shown), +did good service also by eliciting from a distinguished physician certain +statements respecting the possibility of suspending animation, which +otherwise might have remained for some time unpublished. I propose +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[Pg 502]</a></span> +here to consider these statements, and the strange possibilities which some +of them seem to suggest. In the first place, however, it may be worth +while to recall the chief statements in the clever Australian story, as +some of Dr. Richardson's statements refer specially to that narrative. +I shall take the opportunity of indicating certain curious features of +resemblance between the Australian story, which really had its origin in +America (I am assured that it was published a year earlier in a New +York paper), and an American hoax which acquired a wide celebrity +some forty years ago, the so-called Lunar Hoax. As it is certain that +the two stories came from different persons, the resemblance referred to +seems to suggest that the special mental qualities (defects, <i>bien entendu</i>) +which cause some to take delight in such inventions, are commonly +associated with a characteristic style of writing. If Buffon was right, +indeed, in saying, <i>Le style c'est de l'homme même</i>, we can readily +understand that clever hoaxers should thus have a style peculiar to +themselves.</p> + +<p>It can hardly be considered essential to the right comprehension of +scientific experiments that a picturesque account should be given of +the place where the experiments were made. The history of the +wonderful Australian discovery opens nevertheless as follows:—"Many +of the readers of the <i>Brisbane Courier</i> who know Sydney Harbour will +remember the long inlet opposite the heads known as Middle Harbour, +which, in a succession of land-locked reaches, stretches away like a +chain of lakes for over twenty miles. On one of these reaches, made +more than ordinarily picturesque by the bold headlands that drop almost +sheer into the water, stand, on about an acre of grassy flat, fringed by +white beach on which the clear waters of the harbour lap, two low brick +buildings. Here, in perfect seclusion, and with a careful avoidance of +publicity, is being conducted an experiment, the success of which, now +established beyond any doubt, must have a wider effect upon the future +prosperity of Australia than any project ever contemplated." It was +precisely in this tone that the author of the +"Lunar Hoax"<a name="FNanchor_71" id="FNanchor_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> opened his +account of those "recent discoveries in astronomy which will build an +imperishable monument to the age in which we live, and confer upon +the present generation of the human race a proud distinction through +all future time." "It has been poetically said," he remarks—though +probably he would have found some difficulty in saying where or by +whom this had been said,—"that the stars of heaven are the hereditary +regalia of man, as the intellectual sovereign of the animal creation; he +may now fold the zodiac around him with a loftier consciousness of his +mental supremacy" (a sublime idea, irresistibly suggestive of the +description which an American humourist gave of a certain actor's +representation of the death of Richard III., "he wrapped the star-spangled +banner round him, and died like the son of a hoss").</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[Pg 503]</a></span> +It next becomes necessary to describe the persons engaged in pursuing +the experiments by which the art of freezing animals alive is to +be attained. "The gentlemen engaged in this enterprise are Signor +Rotura, whose researches into the botany and natural history of South +America have rendered his name eminent; and Mr. James Grant, a +pupil of the late Mr. Nicolle, so long associated with Mr. Thomas Mort +in his freezing process. Next to the late Mr. Nicolle, Mr. James Grant +can claim pre-eminence of knowledge in the science of generating cold, +and his freezing chamber at Woolhara has long been known as the +seat of valuable experiments originated in his, Mr. Nicolle's, lifetime." +Is it merely an accident, by the way, or is it due to the circumstance +that exceptional powers of invention in general matters are often found +in company with singular poverty of invention as to details, that two of +the names here mentioned closely resemble names connected with the +Lunar Hoax? It was Nicollet who in reality devised the Lunar Hoax, +though Richard Alton Locke, the reputed author, probably gave to +the story its final form; and, again, the story purported to come from +Dr. Grant, of Glasgow. In the earlier narrative, again, as in the later, +due care was taken to impress readers with the belief that those who +had made the discovery, or taken part in the work, were worthy of all +confidence. Sir W. Herschel was the inventor of the optical device by +which the inhabitants of the moon were to be rendered visible, a plan +which "evinced the most profound research in optical science, and the +most dexterous ingenuity in mechanical contrivance. But his son, Sir +John Herschel, nursed and cradled in the observatory, and a practical +astronomer from his boyhood, determined upon testing it at whatever +cost." Among his companions he had "Dr. Andrew Grant, Lieutenant +Drummond of the Royal Engineers, and a large party of the best +English mechanics."</p> + +<p>The accounts of preliminary researches, doubts, and difficulties are in +both cases very similar in tone. "It appears that five months ago," +says the narrator of the Australian hoax, "Signor Rotura called upon +Mr. Grant to invoke his assistance in a scheme for the transmission of +live stock to Europe. Signor Rotura averred that he had discovered a +South American vegetable poison, allied to the well-known <i>woolara</i> (<i>sic</i>) +that had the power of perfectly suspending animation, and that the +trance thus produced continued until the application of another vegetable +essence caused the blood to resume its circulation and the heart its functions. +So perfect, moreover, was this suspension of life that Signor +Rotura had found in a warm climate decomposition set in at the extremities +after a week of this living death, and he imagined that if the +body in this inert state were reduced to a temperature sufficiently low +to arrest decomposition, the trance might be kept up for months, +possibly for years. He frankly owned that he had never tried this preserving +of the tissues by cold, and could not confidently speak as to its +effect upon the after-restoration of the animal operated on. Before he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[Pg 504]</a></span> +left Mr. Grant he had turned that gentleman's doubts into wondering +curiosity by experimenting on his dog." The account of this experiment +I defer for a moment till I have shown how closely in several respects +this portion of the Australian hoax resembles the corresponding part of +the American story. It will be observed that the great discovery is +presented as simply a very surprising development of a process which is +strictly within the limits, not only of what is possible, but of what is +known. So also in the case of the Lunar Hoax, the amazing magnifying +power by which living creatures in the moon were said to have been +rendered visible, was presented as simply a very remarkable development +of the familiar properties of the telescope. In both cases, the circumstances +which in reality limit the possible extension of the properties +in question were kept conveniently concealed from view. In +both cases, doubts and difficulties were urged with an apparent frankness +intended to disarm suspicion. In both cases, also, the inventor of the +new method by which difficulties were to be overcome is represented as +in conference with a man of nearly equal skill, who urges the doubts +naturally suggested by the wonderful nature of the promised achievements. +In the Lunar Hoax, Sir John Herschel and Sir David Brewster +are thus represented in conference. Herschel asks whether the difficulty +arising from deficient illumination may not be overcome by +effecting a transfusion of artificial light through the focal image. +Brewster, startled at the novel thought, as he well might be, hesitatingly +refers "to the refrangibility of rays and the angle of incidence," which +is effective though glorious in its absurdity. (Yet it has been gravely +asserted that this nonsense deceived Arago.) "Sir John, grown more +confident, adduced the example of the Newtonian reflector, in which +the refrangibility was arrested by the second speculum and the angle of +incidence restored by the third" (a bewilderingly ridiculous statement). +"'And,' continued he, 'why cannot the illuminated microscope, say the +hydro-oxygen, be applied to render distinct, and if necessary even to +magnify, the focal object?' Sir David sprang from his chair in an +ecstasy of conviction, and leaping half-way to the ceiling" (from which +we may infer that he was somewhat more than <i>tête montée</i>), "exclaimed, +'Thou art the man!'"</p> + +<p>The method devised in each case being once accepted as sound, the +rest of course readily follows. In the case of the Lunar Hoax a number +of discoveries are made which need not here be +described<a name="FNanchor_72" id="FNanchor_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> (though I +shall take occasion presently to quote some passages relating to them +which closely resemble in style certain passages in the Australian narrative). +In the later hoax, the illustrative experiments are forthwith +introduced. Signor Rotura, having so far persuaded Mr. Grant of the +validity of the plan as to induce him to allow a favourite dog to be experimented +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[Pg 505]</a></span> +upon, "injected two drops of his liquid, mixed with a little +glycerine, into a small puncture made in the dog's ear. In three or four +minutes the animal was perfectly rigid, the four legs stretched backward, +eyes wide open, pupils very much dilated, and exhibiting symptoms +very similar to those caused by strychnine, except that there had been no +previous struggle or pain. Begging his owner to have no apprehension +for the life of his favourite animal, Signor Rotura lifted the dog carefully +and placed him on a shelf in a cupboard, where he begged he might be +left till the following day, when he promised to call at ten o'clock and +revive the apparently dead brute. Mr. Grant continually during that +day and night visited the cupboard, and so perfectly was life suspended +in his favourite—no motion of the pulse or heart giving any indication +of the possibility of revival—that he confesses he felt all the sharpest +reproaches of remorse at having sacrificed a faithful friend to a doubtful +and dangerous experiment. The temperature of the body, too, in the +first four hours gradually lowered to 25 degrees Fahrenheit below ordinary +blood temperature, which increased his fears as to the result; and by morning +the body was as cold as in natural death. At ten o'clock next morning, +according to promise, Signor Rotura presented himself, and laughing +at Mr. Grant's fears, requested a tub of warm water to be brought. +He tested this with the thermometer at 32 degrees Fahrenheit" (which, +being the temperature of freezing water, can hardly be called warm), +"and in this laid the dog, head under." In reply to Mr. Grant's +objections Signor Rotura assured him that, as animation must remain +entirely suspended until the administration of the antidote, no water +could be drawn into the lungs, and that the immersion of the body was +simply to bring it again to a blood-heat. After about ten minutes of +this bath the body was taken out, and another liquid injected in a +puncture made in the neck. "Mr. Grant tells me," proceeds the veracious +narrator, "that the revival of Turk was the most startling thing +he ever witnessed; and having since seen the experiment made upon a +sheep, I can fully confirm his statement. The dog first showed the return +of life in the eye" (winking, doubtless, at the joke), "and after five and a +half minutes he drew a long breath, and the rigidity left his limbs. In a +few minutes more he commenced gently wagging his tail, and then slowly +got up, stretched himself, and trotted off as though nothing had happened." +From this moment Mr. Grant had full faith in Signor Rotura's +discovery, and promised him all the assistance in his power. They next +determined to try freezing the body. But the first two experiments +were not encouraging. Mr. Grant fortunately did not allow his favourite +dog to be experimented upon further, so a strange dog was put into the +freezing room at Mr. Grant's works for four days, after having in the first +place had his animation suspended by Signor Rotura. Although this +animal survived so far as to draw a long breath, the vital energies +appeared too exhausted for a complete rally, and the animal died. So +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[Pg 506]</a></span> +also did the next two animals experimented on, a cat and a dog. "In +the meantime, however, Dr. Barker had been taken into their counsels, +and at his suggestion respiration was encouraged, as in the case of persons +drowned, by artificial compression and expansion of the lungs. Dr. +Barker was of opinion that, as the heart in every case began to beat, it +was a want of vital force to set the lungs in proper motion that caused +death. The result showed his surmises to be entirely correct. A +number of animals whose lives had been sealed up in this artificial +death have been kept in the freezing chamber from one to five weeks, +and it is found that though the shock to the system from this freezing +is very great, it is not increased by duration of time."</p> + +<p>I need not follow the hoaxer's account of the buildings erected for +the further prosecution of these researches. One point, however, may +be mentioned illustrating the resemblance to which I have already +referred as existing between this Australian narrative and the Lunar +Hoax. In describing the works erected at Middle Harbour, the +Australian account carefully notes that the necessary funds were +provided by Mr. Christopher Newton, of Pitt Street. In like manner, +in the Lunar Hoax we are told that the plate-glass required for the +optical arrangement devised by Sir J. Herschel was "obtained, by +consent be it observed, from the shop-window of M. Desanges, the +jeweller to his ex-majesty Charles X., in High Street."</p> + +<p>Now comes the culminating experiment, the circumstances of which +are the more worthy of being carefully noted, because it is distinctly +stated by Dr. Richardson that none of the experiments described in +this narrative, apocryphal though they may really be, can be regarded +as beyond the range of scientific possibilities:—"Arrived at the works +in Middle Harbour, I was taken into the building that contains Mr. +Grant's apparatus for generating cold.... Attached to this is the +freezing chamber, a small, dark room, about eight feet by ten. Here +were fourteen sheep, four lambs, and three pigs, stacked on their sides +in a heap, <i>alive</i>, which Mr. Grant told me had been in their present +position for nineteen days, and were to remain there for another three +months. Selecting one of the lambs, Signor Rotura put it on his +shoulder, and carried it outside into the other building, where a number +of shallow cemented tanks were in the floor, having hot and cold water +taps to each tank, with a thermometer hanging alongside. One of +these tanks was quickly filled, and its temperature tested by the Signor, +I meantime examining with the greatest curiosity and wonder the +nineteen-days-dead lamb. The days of miracles truly seem to have come +back to us, and many of those stories discarded as absurdities seem to +me less improbable than this fact, witnessed by myself. There was the +lamb, to all appearance dead, and as hard almost as a stone, the only +difference perceptible to me between his condition and actual death +being the absence of dull glassiness about the eye, which still retained +its brilliant transparency. Indeed, this brilliancy of the eye, which is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[Pg 507]</a></span> +heightened by the enlargement of the pupil, is very striking, and lends +a rather weird appearance to the bodies. The lamb was gently dropped +into the warm bath, and was allowed to remain in it about twenty-three +minutes, its head being raised above the water twice for the introduction +of the thermometer into its mouth, and then it was taken out and +placed on its side on the floor, Signor Rotura quickly dividing the wool +on its neck, and inserting the sharp point of a small silver syringe +under the skin and injecting the antidote. This was a pale green +liquid, and, as I believe, a decoction from the root of the <i>Astracharlis</i>, +found in South America. The lamb was then turned on its back, +Signor Rotura standing across it, gently compressing its ribs with his +knees and hands in such a manner as to imitate their natural depression +and expansion during breathing. In ten minutes the animal was +struggling to free itself, and when released skipped out through the +door and went gambolling and bleating over the little garden in front. +Nothing has ever impressed me so entirely with a sense of the +marvellous. One is almost tempted to ask, in the presence of such a +discovery, whether death itself may not ultimately be baffled by +scientific investigation." In the Lunar Hoax there is a passage +resembling in tone the lively account of the lamb's behaviour when +released. Herds of agile creatures like antelopes were seen in the +moon, "abounding in the acclivitous glades of the woods." "This +beautiful creature afforded us," says the narrator, "the most exquisite +amusement. The mimicry of its movements upon our white-painted +canvas was as faithful and luminous as that of animals within a few +yards of the <i>camera obscura</i>. Frequently, when attempting to put our +fingers upon its beard, it would suddenly bound away, as if conscious of +our earthly impertinence; but then others would appear, whom we +could not prevent nibbling the herbage, say or do to them what we +would." And again, a little further on, "We fairly laughed at the +recognition of so familiar an acquaintance as a sheep in so distant a +land—a good large sheep, which would not have disgraced the farms of +Leicestershire or the shambles of Leadenhall Market; presently they +appeared in great numbers, and on reducing the lenses we found them +in flocks over a great part of the valley. I need not say how desirous +we were of finding shepherds to these flocks, and even a man with blue +apron and rolled-up sleeves would have been a welcome sight to us, if +not to the sheep; but they fed in peace, lords of their own pastures, +without either protector or destroyer in human shape."</p> + +<p>Not less amusing, though more gravely written, is the account of +the benefits likely to follow from the use of the wonderful process for +freezing animals alive. Cargoes of live sheep can be readily sent from +Australia to Europe. Any that cannot be restored to life will still be +good meat; while the rest can be turned to pasture or driven alive to +market. With bullocks the case would not be quite so simple, because +of their greater size and weight, which would render them more difficult +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[Pg 508]</a></span> +to handle with safety. The carcass being rendered brittle by freezing, +they are so much the more liable to injury. "It sounded odd to hear +Mr. Grant and Signor Rotura laying stress upon the danger of breakage +in a long voyage." This one can readily imagine.</p> + +<p>Some of the remoter consequences of the discovery are touched on +by the narrator, though but lightly, as if he saw the necessity of keeping +his wonders within reasonable limits. Signor Rotura, "though he had +never attempted his experiment on a human being," which was considerate +on his part, "had no doubt at all as to its perfect safety." He +had requested Sir Henry Parkes to allow him to operate on the next +felon under capital sentence. This, by the way, was a compromising +statement on our hoaxer's part. It requires very little acquaintance +with our laws to know that no one could allow a felon condemned to +death to be experimented on in this or in any other manner. Such a +man is condemned to die, and to die without any preliminary tortures, +bodily or mental, other than those inseparable from the legally adopted +method of bringing death about. He can neither be allowed to remain +alive after an experiment, and necessarily free (because he has not been +condemned to other punishment than the death penalty), nor can he be +first experimented upon and then hanged. So that that single sentence +in the narrative should have shown every one that it was a hoax, even +if the inherent absurdity of many other parts of the story had not +shown this very clearly. As to whether a temporary suspension of the +vital faculties would affect the longevity of the patient, Signor Rotura +expressed himself somewhat doubtful; he believed, however, that the +duration of life might in this way be prolonged for years. "I was +anxious," says the hoaxer, "to know if a period of, say, five years of +this inertness were submitted to, whether it would be so much cut out +of one's life, or if it would be simply five years of unconscious existence +tacked on to one's sentient life. Signor Rotura could give no positive +answer, but he believes, as no change takes place or can take place +while this frozen trance continues, no consumption, destruction, or +reparation of tissue being possible, it would be so many unvalued and +profitless years added to a lifetime." Of some of the strange ideas +suggested by this conception I shall take occasion to speak further on; +I must for the present turn, however, from the consideration of this +ingenious hoax to discuss the scientific possibilities which underlie the +narrative, or at least some parts of the narrative.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it must be noticed that in the phenomena of hibernation +we have what at a first view seems closely to resemble the results +of Signor Rotura's apocryphal experiments. As was remarked in the +<i>Times</i>, the idea underlying the Australian story is that the hibernation of +animals can be artificially imitated and extended, so that as certain +animals lie in a state of torpor and insensibility throughout the winter +months, all animals also may perhaps be caused to lie in such a state for +an indefinite length of time, if only a suitable degree of cold is maintained, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[Pg 509]</a></span> +and some special contrivance adopted to prevent insensibility from passing +into death. The phenomena of hibernation are indeed so surprising, +when rightly understood, that inexperienced persons might well believe +in almost any wonders resulting from the artificial production (which, be +it remembered, is altogether possible) of the hibernating condition, and +the artificial extension of this condition to other animals than those which +at present hibernate, and to long periods of time. It has been justly +said, that if hibernation had only been noticed among cold-blooded +animals, its possibility in the case of mammals would have seemed inconceivable. +The first news that the bat and hedgehog pass into the state of +complete hibernation, would probably have bean received as either a +daring hoax or a very gross blunder.</p> + +<p>Let us consider what hibernation really is. When, as winter approaches +and their insect food disappears, the bat and the hedgehog +resign themselves to torpor, the processes which we are in the habit of +associating with vitality gradually diminish in activity. The breathing +becomes slower and slower, the heart beats more and more slowly, more +and more feebly. At last the breathing ceases altogether. The circulation +does not wholly cease, however. So far as is known, the life of +warm-blooded animals cannot continue after the circulation has entirely +ceased for more than a certain not very considerable length of +time.<a name="FNanchor_73" id="FNanchor_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> +The chemical changes on which animal heat depends, and without which +there can be no active vitality, cease with the cessation of respiration. +But dormant vitality is still maintained in hibernation, because the +heart's fibre, excited to contract by the carbonized blood, continues to +propel the blood through the torpid body. This slow circulation of +venous blood continues during the whole period of hibernation. It is +the only vital process which can be recognised; and it is not easy to +understand how the life of any warm-blooded animal can be maintained +in this way. The explanation usually offered is that the material conveyed +by the absorbents suffices to counterbalance the process of waste +occasioned by the slow circulation. But this does not in reality touch +the chief difficulty presented by the phenomena of hibernation. +So far as mere waste is concerned (as I have elsewhere pointed +out) the imagined Australian process is as effectual as hibernation; in +that process, of course the circulation would be as completely checked as +the respiration; thus there would be no waste, and the absorbents (which +would also be absolutely dormant) would not have to do even that slight +amount of work which they accomplish during hibernation. Science +can only say that the known cases of hibernation among warm-blooded +animals show that the vital forces may be reduced much lower without +destroying life, than but for them we should have deemed conceivable.</p> + +<p>But next let us consider what science has to say as to the artificial +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[Pg 510]</a></span> +suspension of vitality. In Dr. Richardson's paper on this subject there is +much which seems almost as surprising as anything in the Australian +story. Indeed, he seems scarcely to have felt assured that that story +really was a hoax. "The statements," he says, "which, under the head +of 'A Wonderful Discovery,' are copied from the <i>Brisbane Courier</i>, seem +greatly to have astonished the reading public. To what extent the +statements are true or untrue it is impossible to say. The whole may +be a cleverly-written fiction, and certain of the words and names used +seem, according to some readers, to suggest that view; but be this so +or not, I wish to indicate that some part at all events of what is stated +might be true, and is certainly within the range of possibility." "The +discovery," he proceeds, "which is described in the communication under +notice, is not in principle new; on the subject of suspension of animation +I have myself been making experimental inquiries for twenty-five +years at least, and have communicated to the scientific world many +essays, lectures, and demonstrations, relating to it. I have twice read +papers bearing on this inquiry to the Royal Society, once to the British +Association for the Advancement of Science, two or three times in my +lectures on Experimental and Practical Medicine, and published one in +<i>Nature</i>. In respect to the particular point of the preservation of animal +bodies for food, I dwelt on this topic in the lectures delivered before the +Society of Arts, in April and May of last year (1878), explaining very +definitely that the course of research in the direction of preservation +must ultimately lead to a process by which we should keep the structures +of animals in a form of suspended molecular life." In other words, Dr. +Richardson had indicated the possibility of doing precisely that which +would have constituted the chief value of the Australian discovery, if +this had been real.</p> + +<p>Let us next consider what is known respecting the possibility of +suspending a conscious and active life. This is first stated in general +terms by Dr. Richardson, as follows:—"If an animal perfectly free from +disease be subjected to the action of some chemical agents or physical +agencies which have the property of reducing to the extremest limit the +motor forces of the body, the muscular irritability, and the nervous +stimulus to muscular action, and if the suspension of the muscular +irritability and of the nervous excitation be made at once and equally, +the body even of a warm-blooded animal may be brought down to a +condition so closely resembling death, that the most careful examination +may fail to detect any signs of life." This general statement +must be carefully studied if the reader desires thoroughly to understand +at once the power and the limits of the power of science in this direction. +The motor forces, the muscular irritability, and the nervous +stimulus to muscular action, can be reduced to a certain extent without +destroying life, but not absolutely without destroying life. The +reduction of the muscular irritability must be made at once and equally; +if the muscular irritability is reduced to its lowest limit while the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[Pg 511]</a></span> +nervous excitation remains unaltered, or is less reduced, death ensues; and +<i>vice versâ</i>, if the nervous excitation is reduced to its lowest limits while +the muscular irritability remains unaltered, or is little reduced, death +equally follows. Then it is to be noticed that though when the state of +seeming death is brought about, the most careful examination may fail to +detect any signs of life, it does not follow that science may not find +perfectly sure means of detecting cases where life still exists but is at +its very lowest. Of course all the ordinary tests, in which so many +place complete reliance—a mirror placed close to the mouth, a finger +on the pulse, hand, or ear applied to the +breast<a name="FNanchor_74" id="FNanchor_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> over the heart, and so +forth—would be utterly inadequate, in such a case, to reveal any signs of +life. That doctors have been deceived by cases of suspended vitality +not artificially produced, but presenting similar phenomena, is well +known. A case in point may not be out of place here, as illustrating +well certain features of suspended animation, and showing the possibility +that in <i>some</i> cases consciousness may remain, even when the most careful +examination detects no traces of life. The case is described by Dr. +Alexander Crichton, in his "Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of +Mental Derangement." "A young lady, who had seemed gradually to +sink until she died, had been placed in her coffin, careful scrutiny +revealing no signs of vitality. On the day appointed for her funeral, +several hymns were sung before her door. She was conscious of all +that happened around her, and heard her friends lamenting her death. +She felt them put on the dead-clothes, and lay her in the coffin, which +produced an indescribable mental anxiety. She tried to cry, but her +mind was without power, and could not act on the body. It was +equally impossible to her to stretch out her arms or to open her eyes +or to cry, although she continually endeavoured to do so. The internal +anguish of her mind was, however, at its utmost height when the funeral +hymns began to be sung and when the lid of the coffin was about to be +nailed on. The thought that she was to be buried alive was the first +one which gave activity to her mind, and caused it to operate on +her corporeal frame. Just as the people were about to nail on the lid, a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[Pg 512]</a></span> +kind of perspiration was observed to appear on the surface of the body. +It grew greater every moment, and at last a kind of convulsive motion +was observed in the hands and feet of the corpse. A few minutes after, +during which fresh signs of returning life appeared, she at once opened +her eyes, and uttered a most pitiable shriek." In this case it was considered +that the state of trance had been brought about by the excessive +contractile action of the nervous centres. St. Augustine, by the way, +remarks in his "De Civitate Dei" on the case of a certain priest called +Restitutus (appropriately enough), who could when he wished withdraw +himself from life in such sort that he did not feel when twitched or +stung, but might even be burned without suffering pain except afterwards +from the wound so produced. Not only did he not struggle or +even move, but like a dead person he did not breathe, yet afterwards he +said that he could hear the voices of those around him (if they spoke +loudly) as if from a great distance (<i>de longinquo</i>).</p> + +<p>To return, however, to Dr. Richardson's discussion of the artificial +suspension of active life.</p> + +<p>He recognises three degrees of muscular irritability, to which he has +given the names of active efficient, passive efficient, and negative,—though +doubtless he would recognize the probability that the line separating +the first from the second may not always be easily traced, and that, +though there is a most definite distinction between the second and the +third, the actual position of the boundary line has not as yet been determined. +In other words, so far as the first and second states are +concerned, there are not two degrees only, but many. As regards the +third or negative state, which is only another way of describing death, +there is, of course, only one degree, though the evidence as to the +existence of this state may be more or less complete and obvious. Dr. +Richardson defines the active efficient state of muscular irritability as +that "represented in the ordinary living muscle in which the heart is +working at full tension, and all parts of the body are thoroughly +supplied with blood, with perfection of consciousness in waking hours, +and, in a word, full life." The second, or passive efficient state, "is +represented in suspended animation, in which the heart is working +regularly but at low tension, supplying the muscles and other parts with +sufficient blood to maintain the molecular life, but no more." The +third of these states—the negative—"is represented when there is no +motion whatever of blood through the body, as in an animal entirely +frozen."</p> + +<p>With the first and third of these states I have in reality nothing to +do, unless indeed it could be shown that the third or negative state can +be produced without causing death. Perhaps in assuming, as I did +above, that this state is identical with the state of the dead, I was, +in fact, assuming what science has yet to demonstrate. I may at any +rate, however, say without fear of valid contradiction, that science has +as yet never succeeded in showing that this negative state may be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</a></span> +attained even for a moment without death ensuing; and the probability +(almost amounting to certainty) is that death and this change of state +have in every instance been simultaneous. Dr. Richardson speaks of +the second stage as that in which animation is <i>usually</i> suspended; but +he does not show that the third stage can even possibly be attained +without death.</p> + +<p>The second stage, or stage of passive efficiency, closely resembles the +third, "but differs from it in that, under favouring circumstances, the +whole of the phenomena of the active efficient stage may be perfectly +resumed, the heart suddenly enlarging in volume from its filling with +blood, and reanimating the whole organism by the force of its renewed +stroke in full tension. So far as we have yet proceeded," continues +Dr. Richardson, "the whole phenomena of restoration from death are +accomplished during this stage;" meaning, it would seem, that in all +instances of restoration the restoration has been from the second, never +from the third stage. "To those who are not accustomed to see them +they are no doubt very wonderful, looking like veritable restorations +from death. They surprise even medical men the first time they are +witnessed by them." He gives an interesting illustration. At a meeting +of the British Medical Association at Leeds, "a member of the Association +was showing to a large audience the action of nitrous oxide gas, +using a rabbit as the subject of his demonstration. The animal was +removed from the narcotizing chamber a little too late, for it had ceased +to breathe, and it was placed on the table to all appearance dead." "At +this stage," he proceeds, "I went to the table, and by use of a small +pair of double-acting bellows restored respiration. In about four +minutes there was revival of active irritability in the abdominal +muscles, and two minutes later the animal leaped again into life, as +if it had merely been asleep. There was nothing remarkable in the +fact; but it excited, even in so cultivated an audience as was then +present, the liveliest surprise."</p> + +<p>But when we learn the condition necessary that a body which has +once been reduced to the state of passive efficiency should be restored +to active life, we recognise that even when science has learned how to +reduce vitality to a minimum without destroying it, few will care to +risk the process, either in their own persons or in the case of those dear +to them. Besides the condition already indicated, that the muscular +irritability and the nervous excitation must be simultaneously and equally +reduced, it is essential that the blood, the muscular fluid, and the +nervous fluid should all three remain in what Dr. Richardson calls the +aqueous condition, and not become what he calls pectous, a word which +we must understand to bear the same relation to the word solid or +crystalline that the word "aqueous," as used by Dr. Richardson, bears +to the word watery. If all three fluids remain in the aqueous condition, +"the period during which life may be restored is left undefined. +It may be a very long period, including weeks, and possibly months, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</a></span> +granting that decomposition of the tissues is not established; and even +after a limited process of decomposition, there may be renewal of life +in cold-blooded animals. But if pectous change begins in any one of +the structures I have named, it extends like a crystallization quickly +through all the structures, and thereupon recovery is impossible, for the +change in one of the parts is sufficient to prevent the restoration of all. +Thus the heart may be beating, but the blood being pectous it beats in +vain; or the heart may beat and the blood may flow, but the voluntary +muscles being pectous the circulating action is vain; or the heart may +beat, the blood may flow, and the muscles may remain in the aqueous +condition, but the nerves being pectous the circulating action is in vain; +or sometimes the heart may come to rest, and the other parts may +remain susceptible, but the motion of the heart and blood not being +present to quicken them into activity, their life is in vain." Add to +this, that the restoration of the motor forces, of the muscular irritability, +and of the nervous excitation, must be as simultaneous and as equal as +their reduction had been, and we begin to recognise decided objections +to the too frequent suspension of animation, even when the most perfect +artificial means have been devised for bringing about that interesting +result.</p> + +<p>Although, however, we may not feel encouraged to believe that many +will care to have experiments tried on themselves in this direction, we +may still examine with interest the results of experimental research and +experience. These agree in showing that there are means by which +active life may be suspended, while at the same time the aqueous condition +of the fluids mentioned above (the blood, the muscular fluid, and +the nervous fluid, the two latter of which are for convenience called the +colloidal animal fluids, and are derived from the blood) is retained.</p> + +<p>The first and in some respects the most efficient of these means is +cold. The blood and the colloidal fluids remain in the aqueous +condition when the body is exposed to cold at freezing-point. "At +this same point all vital acts, excepting perhaps the motion of the +heart" (it is Dr. Richardson, be it remembered, who thus uses the +significant word "perhaps"), "may be temporarily arrested in an animal, +and then some animals may continue apparently dead for long intervals +of time, and may yet return to life under conditions favourable to +recovery." Dr. Richardson gives a singular illustration of this, +describing an experiment which must have appeared even more +surprising to those who witnessed it than that in which the rabbit was +restored to life. "In one of my lectures on death from cold," he +says, "which I delivered in the winter session of 1867, some fish +which during a hard frost had been frozen in a tank at Newcastle-on-Tyne, +were sent up to me by rail. They were produced in the +completely frozen state at the lecture, and by careful thawing many +of them were restored to perfect life. At my Croomian lecture on +muscular irritability after systemic death, a similar fact was illustrated +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</a></span> +from frogs." It would appear, indeed, that so far as cold-blooded +animals are concerned, there is no recognisable limit to the time during +which they may remain thus frozen yet afterwards recover. But, even +in their case, much skill is required to make the recovery sure. "If in +thawing them the utmost care is not taken to thaw gradually, and at a +temperature always below the natural temperature of the living animal, +the fluids will pass from the frozen state through the aqueous into the +pectous so rapidly that death from pectous change will be pronounced +without perceiving any intermediate or life stage at all." Naturally it +is much more difficult to restore life in the case of warm-blooded +animals. Indeed, Dr. Richardson remarks, that in the case of the +more complex and differently shielded organs of warm-blooded animals, +it is next to impossible to thaw equally and simultaneously all the +colloidal fluids. "In very young animals it can be done. Young +kittens, a day or two old, that have been drowned in ice-cold water, +will recover after two hours' immersion almost to a certainty, if brought +into dry air at a temperature of 98 degrees Fahrenheit. The gentlest +motion of the body will be sufficient to re-start the respiration, and +therewith the life."</p> + +<p>Remarking on such cases as these, Dr. Richardson notes that the +nearest natural approach to the stage of passive efficiency is seen in +hibernating animals. He states, however, that in hibernation the +complete state of passive efficiency is not produced. He does not +accept the opinion of those who consider that in true hibernation +breathing ceases as above described. A slow respiration continues, he +believes, as well as that low stage of active efficiency of circulation +which we have already indicated. "The hibernating animal sleeps +only; and while sleeping it consumes or wastes; and if the cold be +prolonged it may die from waking." More decisive, because surer, is +the evidence derived from the possibility of waking the hibernating +animals by the common methods used for waking a sleeper. This +certainly seems to show that animation is not positively suspended.</p> + +<p>He asks next the question whether an animal like a fish, frozen +equally through all its structures, is to be regarded as actually dead in +the strict sense of the word or not, seeing that if it be uniformly and +equally thawed it may recover from this perfectly frozen state. "In +like manner," he says, "it may be doubted whether a healthy warm-blooded +animal suddenly and equally frozen through all its parts is +dead, although it is not recoverable." If, as seems certainly to be the +case, the animal dies because in the very act of trying to restore it +some inequality in the process is almost sure to determine a fatal issue, +some vital centre passing into the pectous state, the animal could not +have been dead before restoration was attempted; for the dead cannot +die again. Albeit, the outlook is not encouraging, at any rate so far +as the use of cold alone for maintaining suspended animation in full-grown +warm-blooded animals is concerned. Cold will, however, for a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</a></span> +long time maintain ready for motion active organs locally subject to it +Even after death this effect of cold "may be locally demonstrated," +Dr. Richardson tells us, "and has sometimes been so demonstrated to +the wonder of the world." "For instance, on January 17, in the year +1803, Aldini, the nephew of Galvani, created the greatest astonishment +in London by a series of experiments which he conducted on a +malefactor, twenty-six years old, named John Forster, who was executed +at Newgate, and whose body, an hour after execution, was delivered +over to Mr. Keate, Master of the College of Surgeons, for research. +The body had been exposed for an hour to an atmosphere two degrees +below freezing-point,<a name="FNanchor_75" id="FNanchor_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> +and from that cause, though Aldini does not +seem to have recognised the fact, the voluntary muscles retained their +irritability to such a degree that when Aldini began to pass voltaic currents +through the body, some of the bystanders seem to have concluded that +the unfortunate malefactor had come again to life. It is significant +also that Aldini in his report says that his object was not to produce +reanimation, but to obtain a practical knowledge how far galvanism +might be employed as an auxiliary to revive persons who were accidentally +suffocated, <i>as though he himself were in some doubt</i>,"—that is, +not in doubt only about the power of galvanism, but in doubt whether +Forster had been restored to life for a while, or not! Dr. Richardson +has himself repeated, on lower animals, these experiments of Aldini's, +except that the animals on which he has experimented have passed into +death under chloroform, not through suffocation. His object, in fact, +was to determine the best treatment for human beings who sink under +chloroform and other anæsthetics. He finds that in warm weather he +fails to get the same results. Noticing this, he says, "I experimented +at and below the freezing-point, and then found that both by the +electrical discharge, and by injection of water heated to 130 degrees" +(again this terrible inexactness of expression) "into the muscles through +the arteries, active muscular movements could be produced in warm-blooded +animals many hours after death. Thus, for lecture experiment, +I have removed one muscle from the body of an animal that had slept +to death from chloroform, and putting the muscle in a glass tube +surrounded with ice and salt, I have kept it for several days in a condition +for its making a final muscular contraction, and, by gently +thawing it, have made it, in the act of final contraction, do some +mechanical work, such as moving a long needle on the face of a dial, or +discharging a pistol. In muscles so removed from the body and preserved +ready for motion there is, however, only one final act. For as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</a></span> +the blood and nervous supply are both cut off from it, there is nothing +left in it but the reserved something that was fixed by the cold. But I +do not see any reason why this should not be maintained in reservation +for weeks or months, as easily as for days, in a fixed cold atmosphere."</p> + +<p>Cold being, however, obviously insufficient of itself for the suspension +of active life in warm-blooded animals, at least if such life is eventually +to be restored, let us next consider some of the agencies which either +alone or aided by cold may suspend without destroying life.</p> + +<p>The first known of all such agencies was mandragora. Dioscorides +describes a wine, called <i>morion</i>, which was made from the leaves and +the root of mandragora, and possessed properties resembling those of +chloral hydrate. That it must have been an effective narcotic is shown +by the circumstance that painful operations were performed on patients +subjected to its influence, without their suffering the least pain, or even +feeling. The sleep thus produced lasted several hours. Dr. Richardson +considers that the use of this agent was probably continued until the +twelfth or thirteenth century. "From the use of it doubtless came," +he says, "the Shaksperian legend of Juliet." He strangely omits to +notice that Shakspeare elsewhere speaks of this narcotic by name, +where Iago says of Othello:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i4">"Not poppy, nor mandragora,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which thou own'dst yesterday."<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Probably the use of mandragora as a narcotic may have continued much +later than the thirteenth century. In earlier times it was certainly used as +opium is now used, not for medicinal purposes, but to produce for +a while an agreeable sensation of dreamy drowsiness. "There were +those," says Dr. Richardson, in his interesting article on Narcotics in the +<span class="smcap">Contemporary Review</span> for July last, "who drank of it for taste or +pleasure, and who were spoken of as 'mandragorites,' as we might speak +of 'alcoholists' or 'chloralists.' They passed into the land of sleep +and dream, and waking up in scare and alarm were the screaming mandrakes +of an ancient civilization." He has himself made the "morion" +of the ancients, dispensing the prescription of Dioscorides and Pliny. +"The same chemist, Mr. Hanbury," he says, "who first put chloral into +my hands for experiment, also procured for me the root of the true +mandragora. From that root I made the morion, tested it on myself, +tried its effects, and re-proved, after a lapse perhaps of four or five +centuries, that it had all the properties originally ascribed to it."</p> + +<p>The "deadly nightshade" has similar properties. (In fact, morion +was originally made from the <i>Atropa belladonna</i>, not from its ally +the <i>Atropa mandragora</i>.) In 1851, Dr. Richardson attended two +children who were poisoned for a time from eating the berries and +chewing the leaves of the nightshade, which they had gathered near +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</a></span> +Richmond. They were brought home insensible, he says, "and they lay +in a condition of suspended life for seven hours, the greatest care being +required to detect either the respiration or the movements of the heart; +they nevertheless recovered."</p> + +<p>With the nitrite of amyl, Dr. Richardson has suspended the life of a +frog for nine days, yet the creature was then restored to full and vigorous +life. He has shown also that the same power of suspension, though in +less degree, "could be produced in warm-blooded animals, and that the +heart of a warm-blooded animal would contract for a period of eighteen +hours after apparent death." The action of nitrite of amyl seems to +resemble that of cold. In the pleasing language of the doctors, "it +prevents the pectous change of colloidal matter, and so prevents <i>rigor +mortis</i>, coagulation of blood, and solidification of nervous centres and +cords." So long as this change is prevented, active life can be restored. +But when in these experiments "the pectous change occurred, all was +over, and resolution into new forms of matter by putrefaction was the +result." From the analogy of some of the symptoms resulting from the +use of nitrite of amyl with the symptoms of catalepsy, Dr. Richardson +has "ventured to suggest that under some abnormal conditions the +human body itself, in its own chemistry, may produce an agent which +causes the suspended life observed during the cataleptic condition." +The suggestion has an interest apart from the question of the possibility +of safely suspending animation for considerable periods of time: it +might be possible to detect the nature of the agent thus produced by +the chemistry of the human body (if the theory is correct), and thus to +learn how its power might be counteracted.</p> + +<p>Chloral hydrate seems singularly efficient in producing the semblance +of death,—so completely, indeed, as to deceive even the elect. Dr. +Richardson states that at the meeting of the British Association at +Exeter, some pigeons which had been put to sleep by the needle injection +of a large dose of chloral, "fell into such complete resemblance of +death that they passed for dead among an audience containing many +physiologists and other men of science. For my own part," he proceeds, +"I could detect no sign of life in them, and they were laid in one of +the out-offices of the museum of the infirmary as dead. In this condition +they were left late at night, but in the following morning they +were found alive, and as well as if nothing hurtful had happened to +them." Similar effects seem to be produced by the deadly poisons +cyanogen gas and hydrocyanic acid, though in the following case, +narrated by Dr. Richardson, the animal experimented upon (not with +the idea of eventually restoring it to life) belonged to a race so +specially tenacious of life that some may consider only one of its proverbial +nine lives to have been affected. In the laboratory of a large +drug establishment a cat, "by request of its owner, was killed, as was +assumed, instantaneously and painlessly by a large dose of Scheele's +acid. The animal appeared to die without a pang, and, presenting every +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</a></span> +appearance of death, was laid in a sink to be removed on the next +morning. At night the animal was lying still in form of death in the +tank beneath a tap. In the morning it was found alive and well, but +with the fur wet from the dropping of water from the tap." This fact +was communicated to Dr. Richardson by an eminent chemist under +whose direct observation it occurred, in corroboration of an observation +of his own similar in character.</p> + +<p>Our old friend alcohol (if friend it can be called) possesses the power +of suspending active vitality without destroying life, or at any rate +without depriving the muscles of their excitability. Dr. Richardson +records the case of a drunken man who, while on the ice at the Welsh +Harp lake, fell into the water through an opening in the ice, and was +for more than fifteen minutes completely immersed. He was extricated +to all appearance dead, but under artificial respiration was restored to +consciousness, though he did not survive for many hours. On the +whole, alcoholic suspension of life does not appear to be the best +method available. To test it, the patient must first get "very, very +drunk," and even then, like the soldiers in the old song, must go on +drinking, lest the experiment should terminate simply in the fiasco of a +drunken sleep.</p> + +<p>The last agent for suspending life referred to by Dr. Richardson is +pure oxygen. But he has not yet obtained such information on the +power of oxygen in this respect as he hopes to do.</p> + +<p>Summing up the results of the various experiments made with narcotics +and other agents for suspending life, Dr. Richardson remarks that +much is already known in the world of science in respect to the suspension +of animal life by artificial means: "cold as well as various +chemical agents has this power, and it is worthy of note that cold, +together with the agents named, is antiseptic, as though whatever suspended +living action, suspended also by some necessary and correlative +influence the process of putrefactive change." He points out that if the +news from Brisbane were reliable, it would be clear that what had been +done had been effected by the combination of one of the chemical +agents above named, or of a similar agent, with cold. The only question +which would remain as of moment is, not whether a new principle +has been developed, but whether in matter of detail a new product has +been discovered which, better than any of the agents we already possess, +destroys and suspends animation. "In organic chemistry," he proceeds, +"there are, I doubt not, hundreds of substances which, like mandragora +and nitrite of amyl, would suspend the vital process, and it may be a +new experimenter has met with such an agent. It is not incredible, +indeed, that the Indian Fakirs possess a vegetable extract or essence +which possesses the same power, and by means of which they perform +their as yet unexplained feat of prolonged living burial." But he is +careful to note the weak points of the Australian story—viz., first, the +statement that the method used is a secret, "for men of true science +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</a></span> +know no such word;" secondly, that the experimenter has himself to +go to America to procure more supplies of his agents; and, thirdly, that +he requires two agents, one of which is an antidote to the other. As +respects this third point, he asks very pertinently how an antidote +can be absorbed and enter into the circulation in a body practically +dead.</p> + +<p>It is, of course, now well known that the whole story was a hoax, +and a mischievous one. Several Australian farmers travelled long +distances to Sydney to make inquiries about a method which promised +such important results, only to find that there was not a particle of +truth in the story.</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Richard A. Proctor.</span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70" id="Footnote_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> +Many fail to see a joke when it is gravely propounded in print, who would at once +recognise it as such, were it uttered verbally, with however serious a countenance. Possibly +this is due to the necessary absence in the printed account of the indications by which we +recognise that a speaker is jesting—as a certain expression of countenance, or a certain +intonation of voice, by which the grave utterer of a spoken jest conveys his real meaning. +In a paper which recently appeared in the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, Mr. Foster (Thomas of that +ilk) propounded very gravely the theory that our Nursery Rhymes have in reality had +their origin in Nature Myths. He explained, for instance, that the rhymes relating to +Little Jack Horner were originally descriptive of sunrise in winter: Little Jack is the sun +in winter, the Christmas pie is the cloud-covered sky; the thumb represents the sun's first +ray piercing through the clouds; and Jack's rejoicing means the brightness of full sunlight. +So also the rhymes beginning Hey Diddle Diddle are shown to be of deep and solemn import, +all in manifest burlesque of some recent extravagant interpretations of certain ancient +stories by Goldziher, Steinthal, and others. Yet this fun was seriously criticized by more +than half the critics, by some approvingly, by some otherwise.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71" id="Footnote_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> +For a full account of this clever hoax the reader is referred to my "Myths and Marvels +of Astronomy."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72" id="Footnote_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> +The most curious are given in the ninth essay of my work referred to in the preceding +note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73" id="Footnote_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> +Few probably are aware how long some animals may remain without breathing and yet +survive. Kittens and puppies have been brought to life after being immersed in water for +nearly three-quarters of an hour.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74" id="Footnote_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> +Objection has been taken to the italicized words in the following passage from "No +Thoroughfare" (one of the parts certainly written by Dickens and not by Wilkie Collins): +"The cry came up: 'His heart still beats against mine. I warm him in my arms. I have +cast off the rope, for the ice melts under us, and the rope would separate me from him; +but I am not afraid.' ... The cry came up, 'We are sinking lower, but his heart still beats +against mine.' ... The cry came up, 'We are sinking still, and we are deadly cold. +<i>His heart no longer beats against mine.</i> Let no one come down to add to our weight. Lower +the rope only.' ... The cry came up with a deathly silence, 'Raise! softly!' ... +She broke from them all and sank over him on his litter, with both her loving hands upon +<i>the heart that stood still</i>." It has been supposed that Dickens wilfully departed here from +truth, in order to leave the impression on the reader that Vendale was assuredly dead. +That he wished to convey this impression is obvious. He often showed similar care to +remove, if possible, all hope from the anxious reader's mind (markedly so in his latest and +unfinished work, where nevertheless any one well acquainted with Dickens's manner knows +not only that Drood is alive, but that disguised as Datchery he was to have watched Jasper +to the end). But in reality, it has happened more than once that persons have been restored +to life who have been found in snow-drifts not merely reduced to complete insensibility, +but without any recognisable heart-beat. Dickens had probably heard of such cases when +in Switzerland.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75" id="Footnote_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> +Dr. Richardson will certainly excite the contempt of the northern professor who rebuked +me recently for speaking of heat when I should have said temperature. "An +atmosphere two degrees below freezing-point" is an expression as inadmissible, if we must +be punctilious in such matters, as the expressions "blood-heat," "a heat of ten degrees," +and so forth. Possibly, however, it is not desirable to be punctilious when there is no +possibility of being misunderstood, especially as it may be noticed (the Edinburgh professor +has often afforded striking illustrations of the fact by errors of his own) that too great an +effort to be punctilious often results in very remarkable incorrectness of expression.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</a></span></p> + +<h2>JOHN STUART MILL'S PHILOSOPHY TESTED.</h2> + +<h4>IV.—<span class="smcap">Utilitarianism</span>.</h4> + +<p>In some respects Mill's Essays, published under the title "Utilitarianism," +are among his best writings. They have, in the first place, +the excellence of brevity. Ninety-six pages, printed in handsome type, +make but a light task for the student who wishes to enter into the intricacies +of moral doctrine. Moreover, the last Essay consists of a +digression concerning the nature and origin of the idea of Justice, and it +occupies nearly one-third of the whole book. Thus Mill managed to +compress his discussion of so important a subject as the foundations of +Moral Right and Wrong into some sixty pleasant pages.</p> + +<p>And pleasant pages they certainly are, for they are written in Mill's +very best style. Now Mill, even when he is most prolix, when he is +pursuing the intricacies of the most involved points of logic and philosophy, +can seldom or never be charged with dulness and heaviness. His +language is too easy, polished, and apparently lucid. In these Essays +on Utilitarianism, he reaches his own highest standard of style. There +is hardly any other book in the range of philosophy, so far as my reading +has gone, which can be read with less effort. There is something +enticing in the easy flow of sentences and ideas, and without apparent +difficulty the reader finds himself agreeably borne into the midst of +the most profound questions of ethical philosophy, questions which +have been the battle-ground of the human intellect for two thousand +five hundred years.</p> + +<p>Partly to this excellence of style, partly to Mill's immense reputation, +acquired by other works and in other ways, must we attribute the importance +which has been generally attached to these ninety-six pages. +Probably no other modern work of the same small typographical extent +has been equally discussed, criticized, and admired, unless, indeed, it be +the Essay on Liberty of the same author. The result is, that Mill has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</a></span> +been generally regarded as the latest and best expounder of the great +Utilitarian Doctrine—that doctrine which is, by one and no doubt the +preponderating school, regarded as the foundation of all moral and +legislative progress. Many there are who think that, what Hume and +Paley and Jeremy Bentham began, Mill has carried nearly to perfection +in these agreeable Essays.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be more plain, too, than that Mill himself believed he +was dutifully expounding the doctrines of his father, of his father's +friend, the great Bentham, and of the other unquestionable Utilitarians +among whom he grew up. Mill seems to pride himself upon having +been the first, not indeed to invent, but to bring into general acceptance +the name of the school to which he supposed himself to belong. +He says:<a name="FNanchor_76" id="FNanchor_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> +"The author of this essay has reason for believing himself to +be the first person who brought the word utilitarian into use. He did +not invent it, but adopted it from a passing expression in Mr. Galt's +'Annals of the Parish.' After using it as a designation for several +years, he and others abandoned it from a growing dislike to anything +resembling a badge or watchword of sectarian distinction. But as a +name for one single opinion, not a set of opinions—to denote the recognition +of utility as a standard, not any particular way of applying it—the +term supplies a want in the language, and offers, in many cases, +a convenient mode of avoiding tiresome circumlocution."</p> + +<p>In the Autobiography (p. 79), Mill makes a statement to the same +effect, saying—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I did not invent the word, but found it in one of Galt's novels, the 'Annals +of the Parish,' in which the Scotch clergyman, of whom the book is a supposed +autobiography, is represented as warning his parishioners not to leave the +Gospel and become utilitarians. With a boy's fondness for a name and a banner +I seized on the word, and for some years called myself and others by it as a +sectarian appellation; and it came to be occasionally used by some others holding +the opinions it was intended to designate. As those opinions attracted more +notice, the term was repeated by strangers and opponents, and got into rather +common use just about the time when those who had originally assumed it, laid +down that along with other sectarian characteristics."</p></div> + +<p>It is pointed out, however, by Mr. Sidgwick in his article on +Benthamism,<a name="FNanchor_77" id="FNanchor_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> +that Bentham himself suggested the name "Utilitarian," +in a letter to Dumont, as far back as June, 1802.</p> + +<p>Mill explicitly states that it was his purpose in these Essays on +Utilitarianism to expound a previously received doctrine of utility. Towards +the close of his first chapter, containing General Remarks, he +says (p. 6): "On the present occasion, I shall, without further discussion +of the other theories, attempt to contribute something towards +the understanding and appreciation of the Utilitarian or Happiness +theory, and towards such proof as it is susceptible of." He proceeds to +explain that a preliminary condition of the rational acceptance or rejection +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</a></span> +of a doctrine is that its formula should be correctly understood. +The very imperfect notion ordinarily formed of the Utilitarian formula +was the chief obstacle which impeded its reception; the main work to +be done, therefore, by a Utilitarian writer was to clear the doctrine +from the grosser misconceptions. Thus the question would be greatly +simplified, and a large proportion of its difficulties removed. His Essays +purport throughout to be a defence and exposition of the Utilitarian +doctrine.</p> + +<p>But one characteristic of Mill's writings is that there is often a wide +gulf between what he intends and what he achieves. There is even a +want of security that what he is at any moment urging may not be the +logical contrary of what he thinks he is urging. This happens to be +palpably the case with the celebrated Essays before us. Mill explains +and defends his favourite doctrine with so much affection and so much +candour that he finally explains himself into the opposite doctrine. +Yet with that simplicity which is a pleasing feature of his personal +character, Mill continues to regard himself as a Utilitarian long after +he has left the grounds of Paley and Bentham. Lines of logical +distinction and questions of logical consistency are of little account to +one who cannot distinguish between fact and feeling, between sense and +sentiment. It is possible that no small part of the favour with which +these Essays have always been received by the general public is due to +the happy way in which Mill has combined the bitter and the sweet. +The uncompromising rigidity of the Benthamist formulas is softened +and toned down. An apparently scientific treatment is combined with +so many noble sentiments and high aspirations, that almost any one +except a logician may be disarmed.</p> + +<p>But nothing can endure if it be not logical. These Essays may be +very agreeable reading; they may make readers congratulate themselves +on so easily becoming moral philosophers; but they cannot really +advance moral science if they represent one thing as being another +thing. I make it my business therefore in this article to show that +Mill was intellectually unfitted to decide what was utilitarian and what +was not. In removing the obstacles to the reception of his favourite +doctrine he removed its landmarks too, and confused everything. It is +true that I come rather late in the day to show this. Some scores, if not +hundreds, of critics have shown the same fact more or less clearly. +Eminent men of the most different schools and tones of thought—such +as the Rev. Dr. Martineau, Mr. Sidgwick, Dr. Ward, Professor Birks, +the late Professor Grote—have criticized and refuted Mill time after +time.</p> + +<p>Since commencing my analysis of Mill's Philosophy, I have been +surprised to find, too, that some who were supposed to support Mill's +school through thick and thin, have long since discovered the inconsistencies +which I would now expose, at such wearisome length as if they +were new discoveries. Such is the ground which my friend, Professor +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</a></span> +Croom Robertson, takes in his quarterly review, <i>Mind</i>, which must +be considered our best authority on philosophical questions. As +to this matter of Utilitarianism, a very eminent author, formerly a +friend of Mill himself, assures me that the subject is quite threshed +out, and implies that there is no need for me to trouble the public any +more about it. In fact, it would seem to be allowed within philosophical +circles that Mill's works are often wrongheaded and unphilosophical. +Yet these works are supposed to have done so much good that obloquy +attaches to any one who would seek to diminish the respect paid to +them by the public at large. Philosophers, and teachers of the last +generation at least, have done their best to give Mill's groundless philosophy +a hold upon all the schools and all the press, and yet we of this +generation are to wait calmly until this influence dissolves of its own +accord. We are to do nothing to lessen the natural respect paid to the +memory of the dead, especially of the dead who have unquestionably +laboured with single-minded purpose for what they considered the good +of their fellow-creatures. But in nothing is it more true than in philosophy, +that "the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft +interred with their bones." Words and false arguments cannot be +recalled. Throw a stone into the surface of the still sea, and you are +powerless to prevent the circle of disturbance from spreading more and +more widely. True it is, that one disturbance may be overcome and +apparently obliterated by other deeper disturbances; but Mill's works +and opinions were disseminated by the immense former influence of the +united band of Benthamist philosophers. He is criticized and discussed +and repeated, in almost every philosophical work of the last thirty or +forty years. He is taken throughout the world as the representative of +British philosophy, and it is not sufficient for a few eminent thinkers in +Oxford, or Cambridge, or London, or Edinburgh, or Aberdeen, to acknowledge +in a tacit sort of way that this doctrine and that doctrine is +wrong. Eventually, no doubt, the opinion of the Lecture Halls and +Combination Rooms will guide the public opinion; but it may take a +generation for tacit opinions to permeate society. We must have them +distinctly and boldly expressed. It is especially to be remembered that the +public press throughout the English-speaking countries is mostly conducted +by men educated in the time when Mill's works were entirely +predominant. These men are now for the most part cut off, by geographical +or professional obstacles, from the direct influence of Oxford +or Cambridge. The circle of disturbance has spread beyond the immediate +reach of those centres of thought. To be brief, I do not believe +that Mill's immense philosophical influence, founded as it is on confusion +of thought, will readily collapse. I fear that it may remain as +a permanent obstacle in the way of sound thinking. <i>Citius emergit +veritas ex errore, quam ex confusione.</i> Had Mill simply erred as did +Hobbes about elementary geometry, and Berkeley about infinitesimals, +it would be necessary merely to point out the errors and consign them +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</a></span> +to merciful oblivion. But it is not so easy to consign to oblivion ponderous +works so full of confusion of thought that every inexperienced +and unwarned reader is sure to lose his way in them, and to take for +profound philosophy that which is really a kind of kaleidoscopic presentation +of philosophic ideas and phrases, in a succession of various +but usually inconsistent combinations. To the public at large, Mill's +works still undoubtedly remain as the standard of accurate thinking, +and the most esteemed repertory of philosophy. I cannot therefore +consider my criticism superfluous, and at the risk of repeating much that +has been said by the eminent critics already mentioned, or by others, I +must show that Mill has thrown ethical philosophy into confusion as +far as could well be done in ninety-six pages.</p> + +<p>The nature of the Utilitarian doctrine is explained by Mill with +sufficient accuracy in pp. 9 and 10, where he says—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest +Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to +promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By +happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, +and the privation of pleasure. To give a clear view of the moral standard set +up by the theory, much more requires to be said; in particular, what things it +includes in the ideas of pain and pleasure; and to what extent this is left an +open question. But these supplementary explanations do not affect the theory of +life on which this theory of morality is grounded—namely, that pleasure, and +freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends; and that all desirable +things (which are as numerous in the utilitarian as any other scheme) are desirable +either for the pleasure inherent in themselves, or as means to the promotion +of pleasure and the prevention of pain."</p></div> + +<p>Mill proceeds to say that such a theory of life excites inveterate +dislike in many minds, and among them some of the most estimable in +feeling and purpose. To hold forth no better end than pleasure is felt +to be utterly mean and grovelling—a doctrine worthy only of swine. +Mill accordingly proceeds to inquire whether there is anything really +grovelling in the doctrine—whether, on the contrary, we may not include +under pleasure, feelings and motives which are in the highest +degree noble and elevating. The whole inquiry turns upon this question—Do +pleasures differ in quality as well as in quantity? Can a +small amount of pleasure of very elevated character outweigh a large +amount of pleasure of low quality? We should never think of estimating +pictures by their size and number. The productions of West +and Fuseli, which were the wonder and admiration of our grandparents, +can now be bought by the square yard, to cover the +bare walls of eating-houses and music-halls. <i>Sic transit gloria +mundi.</i> But a choice sketch by Turner sometimes sells for many +pounds per square inch. It is clear, then, that in the opinion of connoisseurs, +which must, for our present purpose, be considered final, high +art is almost wholly a matter of quality. Two great pictures by West +may be nearly twice as valuable as one; and two equally choice +sketches by Turner are twice as good as one; but it would seem +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</a></span> +hardly possible in the present day for the disciple of "high art" to +bring West and Turner into the same category of thought. I suppose +that even Turner will presently begin to wane before "the higher +criticism."</p> + +<p>A corresponding difficulty lies at the very basis of the Utilitarian +theory of ethics. The tippler may esteem two pints of beer doubly as +much as one; the hero may feel double satisfaction in saving two lives +instead of one; but who shall weigh the pleasure of a pint of beer +against the pleasure of saving a fellow-creature's life.</p> + +<p>Paley, indeed, cut the Gordian knot of this difficulty in a summary +manner; he denied altogether that there is any difference +between pleasures, except in continuance and intensity. It must have +required some moral courage to write the paragraph to be next quoted; +yet Paley, however much he may be said to have temporized and +equivocated about oaths and subscription to Articles, cannot be accused +of want of explicitness in this passage. There is a directness and clear-hitting +of the point in Paley's writings which always charms me.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In strictness, any condition may be denominated happy, in which the amount +or aggregate of pleasure exceeds that of pain; and the degree of happiness +depends upon the quantity of this excess. And the greatest quantity of it +ordinarily attainable in human life, is what we mean by happiness, when we +inquire or pronounce what human happiness consists in. In which inquiry I +will omit much usual declamation on the dignity and capacity of our nature; the +superiority of the soul to the body, of the rational to the animal part of our +constitution; upon the worthiness, refinement, and delicacy of some satisfactions, +or the meanness, grossness, and sensuality of others; because I hold that +pleasures differ in nothing, but in continuance and intensity: from a just computation +of which, confirmed by what we observe of the apparent cheerfulness, +tranquillity, and contentment, of men of different tastes, tempers, stations, and +pursuits, every question concerning human happiness must receive its +decision."<a name="FNanchor_78" id="FNanchor_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p></div> + +<p>Bentham, it need hardly be said, adopted the same idea as the basis +of his ethical and legislative theories. In his uncompromising style he +tells us<a name="FNanchor_79" id="FNanchor_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, +<i>pain</i> and <i>pleasure</i>. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well +as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and +wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. +They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can +make to throw off our subjection will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. +In words a man may pretend to abjure their empire: but in reality he will +remain subject to it all the while. The <i>principle of utility</i> recognises this subjection, +and assumes it for the foundation of that system, the object of which is +to rear the fabric of felicity by the hands of reason and of law. Systems which +attempt to question it, deal in sounds instead of sense, in caprice instead of +reason, in darkness instead of light."</p></div> + +<p>Elsewhere Bentham proceeds to show how we may estimate the <i>values</i> +of pleasures and pains, meaning obviously by <i>values</i> the quantities or +forces. As these feelings are both the ends and the instruments of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</a></span> +moralist and legislator, it especially behoves us to learn how to estimate +these values aright, and Bentham tells us most +distinctly.<a name="FNanchor_80" id="FNanchor_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>To a person, he says, considered <i>by himself</i>, the value of a pleasure or pain +considered <i>by itself</i>, will be greater or less, according to the four following circumstances. +1. Its <i>intensity</i>. 2. Its <i>duration</i>. 3. Its <i>certainty</i> or <i>uncertainty</i>. +4. Its <i>propinquity</i> or <i>remoteness</i>. But when the value of any pleasure or pain is +to be considered for the purpose of estimating the general tendency of the act, +we have to take into account also, 5. The <i>fecundity</i>, or the chance it has of being +followed by sensations of the same kind, that is, pleasures, if it be a pleasure; +pains, if it be a pain. 6. Its <i>purity</i>, or the chance it has of <i>not</i> being followed by +sensations of the <i>opposite</i> kind: that is, pains, if it be a pleasure; pleasures, if it +be a pain. Finally, when we consider the interests of a number of persons, we +must also estimate a pleasure or pain with reference to, 7. Its extent; that is the +number of persons to whom it extends, or who are affected by it.</p></div> + +<p>Thus did Bentham clearly and explicitly lay the foundations of the +moral and political sciences, and to impress these fundamental propositions +on the memory he framed the following curious mnemonic lines, +which may be quoted for the sake of their quaintness:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Intense, long, certain, speedy, fruitful, pure</i>——<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such marks in pleasures and in pains endure.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such pleasures seek, if private be thy end:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If it be public, wide let them <i>extend</i>.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such <i>pains</i> avoid, whichever be thy view:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If pains <i>must</i> come, let them <i>extend</i> to few."<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>In all that Bentham says about pleasure and pain, there is not a +word about the intrinsic superiority of one pleasure to another. He +advocates our seeking <i>pure</i> pleasures; but with him a pure pleasure was +clearly defined as one not likely to be followed by feelings of the +opposite kind; the pleasure of opium-eating, for instance, would be +called impure, simply because it is likely to lead to bad health and +consequent pain; if not so followed by evil consequences, the pleasure +would be as pure as any other pleasure. With Bentham morality +became, as it were, a question of the ledger and the balance-sheet; +all feelings were reduced to the same denomination of value, and whenever +we indulge in a little enjoyment, or endure a pain, the consequences +in regard to subsequent enjoyment or suffering are to be inexorably +scored for or against us, as the case may be. Our conduct must be +judged wise or foolish according as, in the long-run, we find a favourable +"hedonic" balance-sheet.</p> + +<p>What Mill in his earlier life thought about these foundations of the +utilitarian doctrine, and the elaborate structure reared therefrom by +Bentham, he has told us in his Autobiography, pp. 64 to 70. Subsequently +Mill revolted, as we all know, against the narrowness of the +Benthamist creed. While wishing to +retain<a name="FNanchor_81" id="FNanchor_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> +the precision of expression, the definiteness of meaning, the contempt of declamatory phrases and +vague generalities, which were so honourably characteristic both of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</a></span> +Bentham and of his own father, James Mill, John Stuart decided to +give a wider basis and a more free and "genial" character to the utilitarian +speculations.</p> + +<p>Let us consider how Mill proceeded to give this "genial" character +to the utilitarian philosophy. It must be admitted, he +says,<a name="FNanchor_82" id="FNanchor_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> that +utilitarian writers in general have placed the superiority of mental over +bodily pleasures <i>chiefly</i> in the greater permanency, safety, uncostliness, &c., +of the former—that is, in their circumstantial advantages rather than in +their intrinsic nature. As regards Bentham, at least, Mill might have +omitted the word <i>chiefly</i>. But according to Mill, there is no need why +they should have taken such a ground.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"They might have taken the other, and, as it may be called, higher ground, +with entire consistency. It is quite compatible with the principle of utility to +recognise the fact, that some <i>kinds</i> of pleasure are more desirable and more valuable +than others. It would be absurd, that while, in estimating all other things, +quality is considered as well as quantity, the estimation of pleasures should be +supposed to depend on quantity alone."</p></div> + +<p>Then Mill proceeds to point out, with all the persuasiveness of his best +style, that there are higher feelings which we would not sacrifice for any +quantity of a lower feeling. Few human creatures, he holds, would +consent to be changed into any of the lower animals for a promise of +the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures; no intelligent human being +would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, +no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, and so +forth. Mill, in fact, treats us to a good deal of what Paley so cynically +called the "usual declamation," on the dignity and capacity of our +nature, and the worthiness of some satisfactions compared with the +grossness and sensuality of others. It must be allowed that Mill has +the best of it, at least with the majority of readers. Paley is simply +brutal as to the way in which he depresses everything to the same level +of apparent sensuality. Mill overflows with genial and noble aspirations; +he hardly deigns to count the lower pleasures as worth putting +in the scale; it is better, he thinks, to be a human being dissatisfied than +a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. +If the pig or the fool is of a different opinion, it is because they only +know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison +knows both sides. In the pages which follow there is much +nobleness and elevation of thought. But where is the logic? We +are nothing if we are not logical. But does Mill, in the fervour of his +revolt against the cold, narrow restraints of the Benthamist formulas, +consider the consistency and stability of his position? Let us examine +in some detail the position to which he has brought himself.</p> + +<p>It is plain, in the first place, that pleasure is with Mill the ultimate +purpose of existence; for the philosophy is that of utilitarianism, and +Mill distinctly assures us (Autobiography, p. 178) that he "never +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</a></span> +ceased to be a utilitarian." We must, of course, distinguish between +the pleasure of the individual and the pleasure of other individuals of +the race, between Egoistic and Universalistic Hedonism, as Mr. +Sidgwick calls these very different doctrines. But the happiness of the +race is, of course, made up of the happiness of its units, so that unless +most of the individuals pursue a course ensuring happiness, the race +cannot be happy in the aggregate. Now, to acquire happiness the +individual must, of course, select that line of conduct which is likely +to—that is, will in the majority of cases—bring happiness. He must aim +at something which is capable of being reached. Mill tells us (p. 18) +that if by happiness be meant a continuity of highly pleasurable excitement, +it is evident enough that this is impossible to attain.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A state of exalted pleasure lasts only moments, or in some cases, and with +some intermissions, hours or days, and is the occasional brilliant flash of enjoyment, +not its permanent and steady flame. Of this the philosophers who have +taught that happiness is the end of life were as fully aware as those who taunt +them. The happiness which they meant was not a life of rapture; but moments +of such, in an existence made up of few and transitory pains, many and various +pleasures, with a decided predominance of the actual over the passive, and <i>having +as the foundation of the whole, not to expect more from life than it is capable of +bestowing</i>.<a name="FNanchor_83" id="FNanchor_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> +A life thus composed, to those who have been fortunate enough to +obtain it, has always appeared worthy of the name of happiness."</p></div> + +<p>Then Mill goes on to point out what he considers has been sufficient +to satisfy great numbers of mankind (p. 19):</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The main constituents of a satisfied life appear to be two, either of which +by itself is often found sufficient for the purpose: tranquillity, and excitement. +With much tranquillity, many find that they can be content with very little +pleasure: with much excitement, many can reconcile themselves to a considerable +quantity of pain. There is assuredly no inherent impossibility in enabling even +the mass of mankind to unite both."</p></div> + +<p>From these passages we must gather that at any rate the mass of +mankind will attain happiness if they are satisfied with these main +constituents, and we are especially told that the foundation of the +whole utilitarian philosophy (Mill does not specify the substantive to +which the adjective <i>whole</i> applies in the above quotation, but it must +from the context be either "utilitarian philosophy," "search for happiness," +or some closely equivalent idea) is <i>not to expect from life more +than it is capable of bestowing</i>.</p> + +<p>The question, then, may fairly arise whether upon a fair calculation +of probabilities they are not wise, upon Mill's own showing, who aim +at moderate achievements in life, so that in accomplishing these they +may insure a satisfied life. This seems the more reasonable, if, as +Mill elsewhere tells us, the nobler feelings are very apt to be killed off +by the chilly realities of life.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Many," he says (p. 14), "who begin with youthful enthusiasm for everything +noble, as they advance in years sink into indolence and selfishness. But +I do not believe that those who undergo this very common change, voluntarily +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</a></span> +choose the lower description of pleasure in preference to the higher, I believe +that before they devote themselves exclusively to the one, they have already +become incapable of the other. Capacity for the nobler feelings is in most +natures a very tender plant, easily killed, not only by hostile influences, but by +mere want of sustenance; and in the majority of young persons it speedily dies +away if the occupations to which their position in life has devoted them, and the +society into which it has thrown them, are not favourable to keeping that higher +capacity in exercise. Men lose their high aspirations as they lose their intellectual +tastes, because they have not time or opportunity for indulging them; and they +addict themselves to inferior pleasures, not because they deliberately prefer them, +but because they are either the only ones to which they have access, or the only +ones which they are any longer capable of enjoying. It may be questioned whether +any one who has remained equally susceptible to both classes of pleasure, ever +knowingly and calmly preferred the lower; though many, in all ages, have +broken down in an ineffectual attempt to combine both."</p></div> + +<p>It would seem, then, that for the mass of mankind there is small +prospect indeed of achieving happiness through high aspirations. They +will not have time nor opportunity for indulging them. If they look +for happiness solely to such aspirations they must be disappointed, and +cannot have a satisfied life; if they attempt to combine the higher and +lower lives they are likely to "break down in the ineffectual attempt." +Now, I submit that, under these circumstances, it is folly, according to +Mill's scheme of morality, to aim high; it is equivalent to going into a +life-lottery, in which there are no doubt high prizes to be gained, but +few and far between. It is simply gambling with hedonic stakes; +preferring a small chance of high enjoyment to comparative certainty +of moderate pleasures. Mill clearly admits this when he says (p. 14), +"It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are +low has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a +highly endowed being will always feel that any happiness which he +can look for, as the world is constituted, is imperfect."</p> + +<p>Although, then, "the foundation of the whole" is not to expect from +life more than it is capable of bestowing, we are actually to prefer +becoming highly endowed, although we cannot expect life to satisfy +the corresponding aspirations. That is to say, although seeking for +happiness, we are to prefer the course in which we are approximately +certain of not obtaining it.</p> + +<p>But Mill goes on to give some explanations. He says that the +highly endowed being can learn to bear the imperfections of his happiness, +"if they are at all bearable" (p. 14). This is small comfort if +they happen to be <i>not at all bearable</i>, an alternative which is not further +pursued by Mill. And will not this intolerable fate be most likely to +befall those whose aspirations have been pitched most highly? But +Mill goes on:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"They (that is, the imperfections of life or happiness?) will not make him envy +the being who is indeed unconscious of the imperfections, but only because he +feels not at all the good which those imperfections qualify. It is better to be a +human being dissatisfied, than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied, +than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[Pg 531]</a></span> +because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the +comparison knows both sides."</p></div> + +<p>Concerning this position of affairs the most apposite remark I can +make is contained in the somewhat trite and vulgar saying, "Where +ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." If Socrates is pretty sure to +be dissatisfied, and yet, owing to his wisdom, cannot help wishing to be +Socrates, he seems to have no chance of that individual happiness which +depends on being satisfied, and not expecting from life more than it is +capable of bestowing. The great majority of people who do not know +what it is like to be Socrates, are surely to be congratulated that they +can, without scruple or remorse, seek a prize of happiness which there +is a fair prospect of securing. But Mill tells us that those who choose +the lower life do so "because they only know their own side of the +question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides." Then +Mill introduces a paragraph, already partially quoted, in which he +allows that men often do, <i>from infirmity of character</i>, make their +selection for the nearer good, though they know it to be the less +valuable. Many who begin with youthful enthusiasm for everything +noble, sink in later years into indolence and selfishness. The capacity +for the nobler feelings is easily killed, and men lose their high aspirations +because they have not time and opportunity for indulging them. +I submit that, <i>from Mill's point of view</i>, these are all valid reasons +why they should <i>not</i> choose the higher life. We are considering here, +not those who have always been devoid of the nobler feelings, but +those who have in earlier life been full of enthusiasm and high aspirations. +If such men, with few exceptions, decide eventually in favour +of the lower life, they are parties who <i>do</i> know both sides of the comparison, +and deliberately choose not to be Socrates, with the prospect +of the very imperfect happiness (probably involving short rations) which +is incident to the life of Socrates.</p> + +<p>Mill, indeed, calmly assumes that the vote goes in his own and +Socrates' favour. He says (p. 15):</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"From this verdict of the only competent judges, I apprehend there can be no +appeal. On a question which is the best worth having of two pleasures, or which +of two modes of existence is the most grateful to the feelings, apart from its +moral attributes and from its consequences, the judgment of those who are qualified +by knowledge of both, or, if they differ, that of the majority among them, +must be admitted as final. And there need be the less hesitation to accept this +judgment respecting the quality of pleasures, since there is no other tribunal to +be referred to, even on the question of quantity. What means are there of +determining which is the acutest of two pains, or the intensest of two pleasurable +sensations, except the general suffrage of those who are familiar with both?"</p></div> + +<p>Now, were we dealing with a writer of average logical accuracy +there would be considerable presumption that when he adduces evidence +and claims a result in his own favour in this confident way, there would +be some ground for the claim. But my scrutiny of Mill's "System of +Logic" has taught me caution in admitting such presumptions in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[Pg 532]</a></span> +respect of his writings, and here is a case in point. He claims that the +suffrage of the majority is in favour of Socrates' life, although he has +admitted that the vast majority of men somehow or other elect not to +be Socrates. He assumes, indeed, that this is because their aspirations +have been first killed off by unfavourable circumstances; his only residuum +of fact is contained in this somewhat hesitating conclusion already +quoted:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It may be questioned whether any one who has remained equally susceptible +to both classes of pleasures, ever knowingly and calmly preferred the lower; +though many, in all ages, have broken down in an ineffectual attempt to combine +both."</p></div> + +<p>Although, then, millions and millions are continually deciding +against Socrates' life, for one reason or another (and many in all ages +who make the ineffectual attempt at a combination break down), Mill +gratuitously assumes that they are none of them competent witnesses, +because they must have lost their higher feelings before they could +have descended to the lower level; then the comparatively few who do +choose the higher life and succeed in attaining it are adduced as giving +a large majority, or even a unanimous vote in favour of their own choice. +I submit that this is a fallacy probably to be best classed as a <i>petitio +principii</i>; Mill entirely begs the question when he assumes that every +witness against him is an incapacitated witness, because he must have +lost his capacity for the nobler feelings before he could have decided in +favour of the lower.</p> + +<p>The verdict which Mill takes in favour of his high-quality pleasures +is entirely that of a packed jury. It is on a par with the verdict which +would be given by vegetarians in favour of a vegetable diet. No doubt, +those who call themselves vegetarians would almost unanimously say +that it is the best and highest diet; but then, all those who have tried +such diet and found it impracticable have disappeared from the jury, +together with all those whose common sense, or scientific knowledge, or +weak state of health, or other circumstances, have prevented them from +attempting the experiment. By the same method of decision, we might +all be required to get up at five o'clock in the morning and do four +hours of head-work before breakfast, because the few hard-headed and +hard-bodied individuals who do this sort of thing are unanimously of +opinion that it is a healthly and profitable way of beginning the day.</p> + +<p>Of course, it will be understood that I am not denying the moral +superiority of some pleasures and courses of life over others. I am +only showing that Mill's attempt to reconcile his ideas on the subject +with the Utilitarian theory hopelessly fails. The few pleasant pages +in which he makes this attempt (Utilitarianism, pp. 8-28), form, in fact, +a most notable piece of sophistical reasoning. Much of the interest of +these undoubtedly interesting passages arises from the kaleidoscopic +way in which the standing difficulties of ethical science are woven +together, as if they were logically coherent in Mill's mode of presentation. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[Pg 533]</a></span> +The ideas involved are as old as Plato and Aristotle. The high +aspirations correspond to +<span class="greek" title="to kalon">τὸ καλὸν</span> of Plato. The superior man who can +judge both sides of the question is the +<span class="greek" title="beltistos anêr">βέλτιστος ἀνήρ</span> of Aristotle. +The Utilitarian doctrine is that of Epicurus. Now, Mill managed to +persuade himself that he could in twenty pages reconcile the controversies +of ages.</p> + +<p>Nor is it to be supposed that Bentham, in making his analysis of the +conditions of pleasure, overlooked the difference of high and low; he +did not overlook it at all—he analyzed it. A pleasure to be high must +have the marks of intensity, length, certainty, fruitfulness, and purity, +or of some of these at least; and when we take Altruism into account, +the feelings must be of wide extent—that is, fruitful of pleasure and +devoid of evil to great numbers of people. It is a higher pleasure to +build a Free Library than to establish a new Race Course; not +because there is a <i>Free-Library-building emotion</i>, which is essentially +better than a <i>Race-Course-establishing emotion</i>, each being a simple +unanalyzable feeling; but because we may, after the model of inquiry +given by Bentham, resolve into its elements the effect of one action and +the other upon the happiness of the community. Thus, we should +find that Mill proposed to give "geniality" to the Utilitarian philosophy +by throwing into confusion what it was the very merit of Bentham +to have distinguished and arranged scientifically. We must hold to the +dry old Jeremy, if we are to have any chance of progress in Ethics. +Mill, at some "crisis in his mental history," decided in favour of a genial +instead of a logical and scientific Ethics, and the result is the mixture +of sentiment and sophistry contained in the attractive pages under +review.</p> + +<p>In order to treat adequately of Mill's ethical doctrines it would no +doubt be necessary to go on to other parts of the Essays, and to inquire +how he treats other moral elements, such as the Social or +Altruistic Feelings. The existence of such feelings is admitted on +p. 46, and, indeed, insisted on as a basis of powerful natural sentiment, +constituting the strength of the Utilitarian morality. But it would +be an endless work to examine all phases of Mill's doctrines, and to +show whether or not they are logically consistent <i>inter se</i>. They are +really not worth the trouble. Just let us notice, however, how he +treats the question whether moral feelings are innate or not. On this +point Mill gives (p. 45) the following characteristic deliverance:—"If, +as is my own belief, the moral feelings are not innate, but acquired, +they are not for that reason the less natural. It is natural to man to +speak, to reason, to build cities, to cultivate the ground, though these +are acquired faculties. The moral feelings are not indeed a part of our +nature, in the sense of being in any perceptible degree present in all of +us; but this, unhappily, is a fact admitted by those who believe the +most strenuously in their transcendental origin. Like the other acquired +capacities above referred to, the moral faculty, if not a part of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[Pg 534]</a></span> +our nature, is a natural outgrowth from it; capable, like them, in a +certain small degree, of springing up spontaneously; and susceptible of +being brought by cultivation to a high degree of development." If +life were long enough, I should like, with the assistance of the +"Methods of Ethics," to analyze the ideas involved in this passage. +I can merely suggest the following questions:—If acquired capacities +are equally natural with those not acquired, what is the use of introducing +a distinction without a difference? If moral feelings can spring +up spontaneously, even in the smallest degree, and then be developed +by "natural outgrowths," how do any of our feelings differ from +natural ones? What does Mill mean, at the top of the next page, by +speaking of "moral associations which are wholly of artificial creation?" +Are these also not the less natural because they are of artificial creation? +If not, we should like to know how to draw the line between +<i>acquired</i> and <i>artificial</i> capacities. How, again, are we to interpret the +use of the word <i>natural</i>, on p. 50, where, speaking of the deeply-rooted +conception which every individual even now has of himself as a +social being, he says—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"This feeling in most individuals is much inferior in strength to their selfish +feelings, and is often wanting altogether. But to those who have it, it possesses +all the characters of a natural feeling. It does not present itself to their minds +as a superstition of education," &c.</p></div> + +<p>Here a natural feeling is contrasted to the product of education, +although we were before told that acquired capacities, like speaking, +building, cultivating, were none the less natural. But I must candidly +confess that when Mill introduces the words <i>nature</i> and <i>natural</i>, I am +completely baffled. I give it up. I can no longer find any logical +marks to assist me in tracking out his course of thought. The word +<i>nature</i> may be Mill's key to a profound philosophy; but I rather think +it is the key to many of his fallacies.</p> + +<p>I often amuse myself by trying to imagine what Bentham would +have said of Benthamism expounded by Mill. Especially would it be +interesting to hear Bentham on Mill's use of the word "natural." No +passage in which Bentham analyzes the meaning of "nature," or +"natural," occurs to me, but the following is his treatment of the word +"unnatural," as employed in Ethics:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Unnatural, when it means anything, means unfrequent: and there it means +something; although nothing to the present purpose. But here it means no such +thing: for the frequency of such acts is perhaps the great complaint. It therefore +means nothing; nothing, I mean, which there is in the act itself. All it can +serve to express is, the disposition of the person who is talking of it: the disposition +he is in to be angry at the thoughts of +it."<a name="FNanchor_84" id="FNanchor_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p></div> + +<p>Would that the grand old man, as he still sits benignly pondering in +his own proper bones and clothes, in the upper regions of a well-known +institution, could be got to deliver himself in like style about +feelings which are <i>not the less natural because they are acquired</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[Pg 535]</a></span> +Before passing on, however, I must point out, in the extract from +p. 45, the characteristic habit which Mill has of <i>minimizing</i> things +which he is obliged to admit. Instead of denying straightforwardly +that we have moral feelings, he says they are not present in all of us in +any "perceptible degree." The moral faculty is capable of springing +up spontaneously "in a certain small degree." This will remind every +reader of the way in which, in his "Essays on Religion," instead of flatly +adopting Atheism or Theism, which are clear logical negatives each of +the other, he concludes that though God is almost proved not to exist, +He may possibly exist, and we must "imagine" this chance to be as +large as we can, though it belongs only "to one of the lower degrees of +probability." Exactly the same manner of meeting a weighty question +will be discovered again in his demonstration of the non-existence of +necessary truths. I shall hope to examine carefully his treatment of +this important part of philosophy on a future occasion. We shall then +find, I believe, that his argument proves non-existence of such things as +necessary truths, because those truths which cannot be explained on the +association principle are very few indeed. I beg pardon for introducing +an incongruous illustration, but Mill's manner of minimizing an all-important +admission often irresistibly reminds me of the young woman +who, being taxed with having borne a child, replied that it was only a +very small one.</p> + +<p>Such are the intricacies and wide extent of ethical questions, that it +is not practicable to pursue the analysis of Mill's doctrine in at all a +full manner. We cannot detect the fallacious reasoning with the same +precision as in matters of geometric and logical science. This analysis +is the less needful too, because, since Mill's Essays appeared, Moral +Philosophy has undergone a revolution. I do not so much allude to +the reform effected by Mr. Sidgwick's "Methods of Ethics," though +that is a great one, introducing as it does a precision of thought and +nomenclature which was previously wanting. I allude, of course, to +the establishment of the Spencerian Theory of Morals, which has made +a new era in philosophy.<a name="FNanchor_85" id="FNanchor_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> +Mill has been singularly unfortunate from +this point of view. He might be defined as the last great philosophic +writer conspicuous for his ignorance of the principles of evolution. He +brought to confusion the philosophy of his master, Bentham; he +ignored that which was partly to replace, partly to complete it.</p> + +<p>I am aware that, in her Introductory Notice to the Essays on +Religion (p. viii.), Miss Helen Taylor apologizes for Mill having omitted +any references to the works of Mr. Darwin and Sir Henry Maine "in +passages where there is coincidence of thought with those writers, or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[Pg 536]</a></span> +where subjects are treated which they have since discussed in a manner +to which the Author of these Essays would certainly have referred +had their works been published before these were +written."<a name="FNanchor_86" id="FNanchor_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> Here it +is implied that Mill anticipated the authors of the Evolution philosophy +in some of their thoughts, and it is a most amiable and pardonable +bias which leads Miss Taylor to find in the works of one so dear +to her that which is not there. The fact is that the whole tone of +Mill's moral and political writings is totally opposed to the teaching of +Darwin and Spencer, Taylor and Maine. Mill's idea of human nature +was that we came into the world like lumps of soft clay, to be +shaped by the accidents of life, or the care of those who educate us. +Austin insisted on the evidence which history and daily experience +afford of "the extraordinary pliability of human nature," and Mill +borrowed the phrase from him.<a name="FNanchor_87" id="FNanchor_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> +No phrase could better express the +misapprehensions of human nature which, it is to be hoped, will cease +for ever with the last generation of writers. Human nature is one of +the last things which can be called "pliable." Granite rocks can be +more easily moulded than the poor savages that hide among them. We +are all of us full of deep springs of unconquerable character, which +education may in some degree soften or develop, but can neither create +nor destroy. The mind can be shaped about as much as the body; it +may be starved into feebleness, or fed and exercised into vigour and +fulness; but we start always with inherent hereditary powers of +growth. The non-recognition of this fact is the great defect in the +moral system of Bentham. The great Jeremy was accustomed to make +short work with the things which he did not understand, and it is thus +he disposes of "the pretended system" of a moral +sense:<a name="FNanchor_88" id="FNanchor_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"One man says he has a thing made on purpose to tell him what is right and +what is wrong, and that it is called a <i>moral sense</i>; and then he goes to his work +at his ease, and says such a thing is right and such a thing is wrong—Why? +because my moral sense tells me it is."</p></div> + +<p>Bentham then bluntly ignored the validity of innate feelings, but +this omission, though a great defect, did not much diminish the value +of his analysis of the good and bad effects of actions. Mill discarded +the admirable Benthamist analysis, but failed to introduce the true +Evolutionist principles; thus he falls between the two. It is to Herbert +Spencer we must look for a more truthful philosophy of morals +than was possible before his time.</p> + +<p>The publication of the first part of his Principles of Morality, under +the title "The Data of Ethics," gives us, in a definite form, and in his +form, what we could previously only infer from the general course of +his philosophy and from his brief letter on Utilitarianism addressed to +Mill. Although but fragments, these writings enable us to see that a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[Pg 537]</a></span> +definite step has been made in a matter debated since the dawn of intellect. +The moral sense doctrine, so rudely treated by Bentham, is +no longer incapable of reconciliation with the greatest happiness principle, +only it now becomes a moving and developable moral sense. An +absolute and unalterable moral standard was opposed to the palpable +fact that customs and feelings differ widely, and Paley, on this ground, +was induced to reject it. Now we perceive that we all have a moral +sense; but the moral sense of one individual, and still more of one race, +may differ from that of another individual or race. Each is more or +less fitted to its circumstances, and the best is ascertained by <i>eventual +success</i>.</p> + +<p>At the tail end of an article it is, of course, impossible to discuss the +grounds or results of the Spencerian philosophy. To me it presents +itself, in its main features, as unquestionably true; indeed, it is already +difficult to look back and imagine how philosophers could have denied +of the human mind and actions what is so obviously true of the animal +races generally. As a reaction from the old views about innate ideas, +the philosophers of the eighteenth century wished to believe that the +human mind was a kind of <i>tabula rasa</i>, or <i>carte blanche</i>, upon which +education could impress any character. But if so, why not harness the +lion, and teach the sheep to drive away the wolf? If the moral, not to +speak of the physical characteristics of the lower animals, are so distinct, +why should there not be moral and mental differences among ourselves, +descending, as we obviously do, from different stocks with different +physical characteristics? Notice what Mr. Darwin says on this point:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Mr. J. S. Mill speaks, in his celebrated work, 'Utilitarianism' (1864, p. 46), +of the social feelings as a 'powerful natural sentiment,' and as 'the natural basis +of sentiment for utilitarian morality;' but on the previous page he says, 'if, +as is my own belief, the moral feelings are not innate, but acquired, they are +not for that reason less natural.' It is with hesitation that I venture to differ +from so profound a thinker, but it can hardly be disputed that the social feelings +are instinctive or innate in the lower animals; and why should they not be so in +man? Mr. Bain and others believe that the moral sense is acquired by each individual +during his lifetime. On the general theory of evolution this is at least +extremely improbable."<a name="FNanchor_89" id="FNanchor_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p></div> + +<p>Many persons may be inclined to like the philosophy of Spencer no +better than that of Mill. But, if the one be true and the other false, +liking and disliking have no place in the matter. There may be many +things which we cannot possibly like; but if they are, they are. It is +possible that the Principles of Evolution, as expounded by Mr. Herbert +Spencer, may seem as wanting in "geniality" as the formulas of +Bentham. There is nothing genial, it must be confessed, about the +mollusca and other cold-blooded organisms with which Mr. Spencer +perpetually illustrates his principles. Heaven forbid that any one +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[Pg 538]</a></span> +should try to give geniality to Mr. Spencer's views of ethics by any +operation comparable to that which Mill performed upon Benthamism.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, I fully believe that all which is sinister and ungenial +in the Philosophy of Evolution is either the expression of unquestionable +facts, or else it is the outcome of misinterpretation. It is impossible to +see how Mr. Spencer, any more than other people, can explain away +the existence of pain and evil. Nobody has done this; perhaps nobody +ever shall do it; certainly systems of Theology will not do it. A true +philosopher will not expect to solve everything. But if we admit the patent +fact that pain exists, let us observe also the tendency which Spencer and +Darwin establish towards its <i>minimization</i>. Evolution is a striving ever +towards the better and the happier. There may be almost infinite +powers against us, but at least there is a deep-laid scheme working +towards goodness and happiness. So profound and wide-spread is this +confederacy of the powers of good, that no failure and no series of +failures can disconcert it. Let mankind be thrown back a hundred +times, and a hundred times the better tendencies of evolution will +re-assert themselves. Paley pointed out how many beautiful contrivances +there are in the human form, tending to our benefit. Spencer +has pointed out that the Universe is one deep-laid framework for the +production of such beneficent contrivances. Paley called upon us to +admire such exquisite inventions as a hand or an eye. Spencer calls +upon us to admire a machine which is the most comprehensive of all +machines, because it is ever engaged in inventing beneficial inventions +<i>ad infinitum</i>. Such at least is my way of regarding his Philosophy.</p> + +<p>Darwin, indeed, cautions us against supposing that natural selection +always leads towards the production of higher and happier types of +life. Retrogression may result as well as progression. But I apprehend +that retrogression can only occur where the environment of a living +species is altered to its detriment. Mankind degenerates when forced, +like the Esquimaux, to inhabit the Arctic regions. Still in retrograding, +in a sense, the being becomes more suited to its circumstances—more +capable therefore of happiness. The inventing machine of Evolution +would be working badly if it worked otherwise. But, however this may +be, we must accept the philosophy if it be true, and, for my part, I do +so without reluctance.</p> + +<p>According to Mill, we are little self-dependent gods, fighting with a +malignant and murderous power called Nature, sure, one would think, +to be worsted in the struggle. According to Spencer, as I venture to +interpret his theory, we are the latest manifestation of an all-prevailing +tendency towards the good—the happy. Creation is not yet concluded, +and there is no one of us who may not become conscious in his heart +that he is no Automaton, no mere lump of Protoplasm, but the Creature +of a Creator.</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">W. Stanley Jevons.</span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76" id="Footnote_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> +"Utilitarianism," fifth edition, p. 9, foot-note. Except where otherwise specified, the +references throughout this article will be to the pages of the fifth edition of "Utilitarianism."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77" id="Footnote_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> +<i>Fortnightly Review</i>, May, 1877, vol. xxi. p. 648.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78" id="Footnote_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> +"The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy," Book I. chap. vi. 2nd paragraph.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79" id="Footnote_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> +"An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation," p. 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80" id="Footnote_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> +"Principles," &c. chap. iv. sect. 2-5. The statement is not a verbatim extract but an +abridgment of the sections named.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81" id="Footnote_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> +"Autobiography," p. 214.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82" id="Footnote_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> +"Utilitarianism," p. 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83" id="Footnote_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> +Italicised by the present writer.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84" id="Footnote_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> +"Principles of Morals and Legislation," ed. 1823, vol. i. p. 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85" id="Footnote_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> +A very important article by Dr. E. L. Youmans upon Mr. Spencer's philosophy has +just appeared in the <i>North American Review</i> for October, 1879. Dr. Youmans traces the +history of the Evolution doctrines, and proves the originality and independence of Mr. +Spencer as regards the closely related views of Mr. Darwin, Mr. Wallace, and Professor +Huxley. The eminent men in question are no doubt in perfect agreement; but Dr. Youmans +seems to think that readers in general do not properly understand the singular originality +and boldness of Mr. Spencer's vast and partially accomplished enterprise in philosophy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86" id="Footnote_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> +Mr. Morley does not seem to countenance any such claims. On the contrary, he remarks +in his "Critical Miscellanies," p. 324, that Mill's Essays lose in interest by not dealing +with the Darwinian hypothesis.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87" id="Footnote_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> +"Autobiography," p. 187.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88" id="Footnote_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> +"Principles of Morals," &c., p. 29.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89" id="Footnote_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> +"The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex," 1871, vol. i. p. 71. I cannot +help thinking that Mr. Darwin felt the inconsistency and confusion of ideas in the passages +quoted, although he does not so express himself. Otherwise, why does he quote from two +pages?</p></div> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, +November 1879, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW *** + +***** This file should be named 39517-h.htm or 39517-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/5/1/39517/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Nigel Blower and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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