diff options
Diffstat (limited to '39680-h/39680-h.htm')
| -rw-r--r-- | 39680-h/39680-h.htm | 12128 |
1 files changed, 12128 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/39680-h/39680-h.htm b/39680-h/39680-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..553dfa0 --- /dev/null +++ b/39680-h/39680-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12128 @@ +<!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"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies, by Mrs. Jameson. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + p.indent { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em; + margin-bottom: .75em; font-size: .9em; + } + + p.name { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: right; padding-right: 2em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + + p.tb { margin-top: 1.50em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; font-weight: normal; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + .gesperrt {letter-spacing: 3em; text-align: center;} + + .dropcap {float: left; font-size: 2.5em; line-height: 83%; margin-right: .1em;} + + .oldtype {font-family: "Old English Text MT", fantasy, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + .box {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: 1px solid black;} + td.right2 {text-align: right; vertical-align: top;} + + td.right {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + td.left {text-align: left;} + td.left2 {text-align: left; width: 10%;} + td.poem {padding: 0em;} + + .padl1 { padding-left: 1em; } + .padt05 { padding-top: .5em; } + .padb05 { padding-bottom: .5em; } + .padl3 { padding-left: 3em; } + .top {vertical-align: top;} + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 94%; + font-size: .7em; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .padb07 {padding-bottom: .7em;} + small {font-size: .9em;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem { margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; font-size: .9em; text-align: left;} + .poem2 { margin-left: 2%; margin-right: 15%; font-size: .9em; text-align: left;} + .poem2 .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem2 span.i05 {display: block; margin-left: -0.4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i05 {display: block; margin-left: -0.4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i3 {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i5 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i9 {display: block; margin-left: 9em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 12em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i13 {display: block; margin-left: 13em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem2 span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem2 span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Commonplace Book of Thoughts, Memories, +and Fancies., by Anna Jameson + +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: A Commonplace Book of Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies. + 2nd ed. + +Author: Anna Jameson + +Release Date: May 12, 2012 [EBook #39680] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COMMONPLACE BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">i</a></span></p> + +<h5>A</h5> + +<h2>COMMONPLACE BOOK</h2> + +<h5>OF</h5> + +<h2><span class="oldtype">Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies.</span></h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/frontispiece.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="675" width="500" /></div> + +<h2>A COMMONPLACE BOOK</h2> + +<h5>OF</h5> + +<h2><span class="oldtype">Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies.</span></h2> + +<h4>ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.</h4> + +<h5>PART I.—ETHICS AND CHARACTER.<br /> + +PART II.—LITERATURE AND ART.</h5> + +<h3>BY MRS. JAMESON.</h3> + +<h5>“Un peu de chaque chose, et rien du tout,—à la française!”—<span class="smcap">Montaigne.</span></h5> + +<h4><span class="oldtype">With Illustrations and Etchings.</span></h4> + +<h5>SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED.</h5> + +<h4>LONDON:<br /> +LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.<br /> +1855.</h4> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-iv.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="264" width="500" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">v</a></span></p> + +<h3>PREFACE.</h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">must</span> be allowed to say a few words in explanation +of the contents of this little volume, which is truly +what its name sets forth—a book of common-places, and +nothing more. If I have never, in any work I have +ventured to place before the public, aspired to <i>teach</i>, +(being myself a <i>learner</i> in all things,) at least I have +hitherto done my best to deserve the indulgence I have +met with; and it would pain me if it could be supposed +that such indulgence had rendered me presumptuous or +careless.</p> + +<p>For many years I have been accustomed to make a +memorandum of any thought which might come across +me—(if pen and paper were at hand), and to mark (and +<i>remark</i>) any passage in a book which excited either a +sympathetic or an antagonistic feeling. This collection +of notes accumulated insensibly from day to day. The +volumes on Shakspeare’s Women, on Sacred and Legendary +Art, and various other productions, sprung from seed thus +lightly and casually sown, which, I hardly know how, +grew up and expanded into a regular, readable form, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">vi</a></span> +a beginning, a middle, and an end. But what was to be +done with the fragments which remained—without beginning, +and without end—links of a hidden or a broken +chain? Whether to preserve them or destroy them became +a question, and one I could not answer for myself. +In allowing a portion of them to go forth to the world in +their original form, as unconnected fragments, I have +been guided by the wishes of others, who deemed it not +wholly uninteresting or profitless to trace the path, sometimes +devious enough, of an “inquiring spirit,” even by +the little pebbles dropped as vestiges by the way side.</p> + +<p>A book so supremely egotistical and subjective can do +good only in one way. It may, like conversation with +a friend, open up sources of sympathy and reflection; excite +to argument, agreement, or disagreement; and, like +every spontaneous utterance of thought out of an earnest +mind, suggest far higher and better thoughts than any to +be found here to higher and more productive minds. If +I had not the humble hope of such a possible result, +instead of sending these memoranda to the printer, I +should have thrown them into the fire; for I lack that +creative faculty which can work up the teachings of +heart-sorrow and world-experience into attractive forms +of fiction or of art; and having no intention of leaving +any such memorials to be published after my death, they +must have gone into the fire as the only alternative left.</p> + +<p>The passages from books are not, strictly speaking, +<i>selected</i>; they are not given here on any principle of +choice, but simply because that by some process of assimilation +they became a part of the individual mind. They +“found <i>me</i>,”—to borrow Coleridge’s expression,—“found +me in some depth of my being;” I did not “find <i>them</i>.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">vii</a></span></p> + +<p>For the rest, all those passages which are marked by +inverted commas must be regarded as borrowed, though I +have not always been able to give my authority. All +passages not so marked are, I dare not say, original or +new, but at least the unstudied expression of a free discursive +mind. Fruits, not advisedly plucked, but which +the variable winds have shaken from the tree: some ripe, +some “harsh and crude.”</p> + +<p>Wordsworth’s famous poem of “The Happy Warrior” +(of which a new application will be found at page 87.), +is supposed by Mr. De Quincey to have been first +suggested by the character of Nelson. It has since been +applied to Sir Charles Napier (the Indian General), as +well as to the Duke of Wellington; all which serves +to illustrate my position, that the lines in question are +equally applicable to any man or any woman whose moral +standard is irrespective of selfishness and expediency.</p> + +<p>With regard to the fragment on Sculpture, it may be +necessary to state that it was written in 1848. The first +three paragraphs were inserted in the Art Journal for +April, 1849. It was intended to enlarge the whole into +a comprehensive essay on “Subjects fitted for Artistic +Treatment;” but this being now impossible, the fragment +is given as originally written; others may think +it out, and apply it better than I shall live to do.</p> + +<p><small> August, 1854.</small></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">viii</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-viii.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="618" width="500" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">ix</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-ix.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="152" width="500" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<h3>CONTENTS.</h3> + +<h4>PART I.</h4> + +<h4><span class="oldtype">Ethics and Character.</span></h4> + +<table width="100%" summary="contents" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Ethical Fragments.</span></td> +<td class="right">Page</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left2" rowspan="80"> </td> +<td class="left">Vanity</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Truths and Truisms</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Beauty and Use</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">What is Soul?</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">The Philosophy of Happiness</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Cheerfulness a Virtue</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Intellect and Sympathy</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Old Letters</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">The Point of Honour</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Looking up</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Authors</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Thought and Theory</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Impulse and Consideration</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Principle and Expediency</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Personality of the Evil Principle</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">The Catholic Spirit</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Death-beds</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">x</a></span> +Thoughts on a Sermon</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Love and Fear of God</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Social Opinion</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Balzac</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Political</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Celibacy</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Landor’s Wise Sayings</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Justice and Generosity</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Roman Catholic Converts</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Stealing and Borrowing</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Good and Bad</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Italian Proverb. Greek Saying</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Silent Grief</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Past and Futur</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Suicide. Countenance</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Progress and Progression</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Happiness in Suffering</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Life in the Future</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Strength. Youth</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Moral Suffering</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">The Secret of Peace</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Motives and Impulses</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Principle and Passion</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Dominant Ideas</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Absence and Death</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Sydney Smith. Theodore Hook</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Werther and Childe Harold</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Money Obligations</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Charity. Truth</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Women. Men</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Compensation for Sorrow</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Religion. Avarice</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Genius. Mind</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Hieroglyphical Colours</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">xi</a></span> +Character</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Value of Words</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Nature and Art</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Spirit and Form</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Penal Retribution. The Church</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Woman’s Patriotism</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Doubt. Curiosity</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Tieck. Coleridge</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Application of a Bon Mot of Talleyrand</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Adverse Individualities</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Conflict in Love</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">French Expressions</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Practical and Contemplative Life</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Joanna Baillie. Macaulay’s Ballads</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Cunning</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Browning’s Paracelsus</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Men, Women, and Children</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Letters</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Madame de Staël. Dejà</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Thought too free</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Good Qualities, not Virtues</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Sense and Phantasy</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Use the Present</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Facts</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Wise Sayings</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Pestilence of Falsehood</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Signs instead of Words. Relations with the World</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Milton’s Adam and Eve</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Thoughts, sundry</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">A Revelation of Childhood</span></td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Indian Hunter and the Fire</span>; an Allegory</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Poetical Fragments</span></td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">xii</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="oldtype">Theological.</span></h4> + +<table width="100%" summary="contents" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="left" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Hermit and the Minstrel</span></td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_155">155</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left2" rowspan="5"> </td> +<td class="left">Pandemonium</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Southey on the Religious Orders</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Forms in Religion—Image Worship</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Religious Differences</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Expansive Christianity</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left" colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Notes from various Sermons</span>:—</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left2" rowspan="6"> </td> +<td class="left">A Roman Catholic Sermon</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Another</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Church of England Sermon</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_178">178</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Another</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Dissenting Sermon</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Father Taylor of Boston</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<h4>PART II.</h4> + +<h4><span class="oldtype">Literature and Art.</span></h4> + +<table width="100%" summary="contents" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="left" colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Notes from Books</span>:—</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left2" rowspan="10"> </td> +<td class="left">Dr. Arnold</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Niebuhr</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Lord Bacon</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Chateaubriand</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_240">240</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Bishop Cumberland</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Comte’s Philosophy</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Goethe</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_261">261</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Hazlitt’s “Liber Amoris”</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_263">263</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Francis Horner, “The Nightingale”</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Thackeray’s “English Humourists”</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_271">271</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left" colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Notes on Art</span>:—</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left2" rowspan="24"> </td> +<td class="left">Analogies</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">xiii</a></span> +Definition of Art</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">No Patriotic Art</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Verse and Colour</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Dutch Pictures</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Morals in Art</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Physiognomy of Hands</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Mozart and Chopin</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_289">289</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Music</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Rachel, the Actress</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_294">294</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">English and German Actresses</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_298">298</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Character of Imogen</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_303">303</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Shakspeare Club</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_305">305</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">“Maria Maddalena”</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_305">305</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">The Artistic Nature</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_307">307</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Woman’s Criticism</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_309">309</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Artistic Influences</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_310">310</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">The Greek Aphrodite</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_311">311</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Love, in the Greek Tragedy</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_312">312</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Wilkie’s Life and Letters</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_313">313</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Wilhelm Schadow</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_317">317</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Artist Life</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left">Materialism in Art</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_323">323</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left" colspan="1">A Fragment on Sculpture, and on certain Characters in +History and Poetry, considered as Subjects for Modern +Art</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_326">326</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left2" rowspan="16"> </td> +<td class="left padl3">Helen of Troy</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_332">332</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Penelope—Laodamia</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_336">336</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Hippolytus</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_339">339</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Iphigenia</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_343">343</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Eve</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_347">347</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Adam</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_350">350</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Angels</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_351">351</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Miriam—Ruth</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_354">354</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Christ—Solomon—David</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_355">355</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">xiv</a></span> +Hagar—Rebecca—Rachel—Queen of Sheba</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_356">356</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Lady Godiva</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_357">357</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Joan of Arc</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_359">359</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Characters from Shakspeare</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_364">364</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">Characters from Spenser</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_366">366</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">From Milton. The Lady—Comus—Satan</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_367">367</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="left padl3">From the Italian and Modern Poets</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Page_370">370</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<h3>LIST OF ETCHINGS.</h3> + +<table width="100%" summary="etchings"> +<tr> +<td class="right2">1.</td> +<td class="left">Fruits and Flowers. After an old drawing.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="right2">2.</td> +<td class="left">Out of my garden.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="right2">3.</td> +<td class="left">Virgin Martyrs. Thought. Memory. Fancy. After Benedetto</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="right2">4.</td> +<td class="left">La Penserosa. After Ambrogio Lorenzette.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="right2">5.</td> +<td class="left">La Fille du Feu. From a sketch by Von Schwind.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="right2">6.</td> +<td class="left">Laus Dei. Angel after Hans Hemmeling.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="right2">7.</td> +<td class="left">Eve and Cain. After Steinle.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="right2">8.</td> +<td class="left">Study. After an old print.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="right2">9.</td> +<td class="left">The Parcæ. From a sketch by Carstens.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="right2">10.</td> +<td class="left">Antique Owlet. In Goethe’s collection at Weimar.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="right2"> </td> +<td class="left"> </td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="right2"><small><sup>*</sup><sub>*</sub><sup>*</sup></small></td> +<td class="left">The woodcuts are inserted to divide the paragraphs and subjects, +and are ornamental rather than illustrative. Where the +same vignette heads several paragraphs consecutively, it is to signify +that the <i>ideas</i> expressed stand in relation to each other.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<h4>PART I.</h4> + +<h4><span class="oldtype">Ethics and Character.</span></h4> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-028-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="208" width="400" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-001.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="574" width="500" /></div> + +<h4><span class="oldtype">Ethical Fragments.</span></h4> + +<h5>1.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">B</span><span class="smcap">acon</span> says, how wisely! that “there is often as +great vanity in withdrawing and retiring men’s +conceits from the world, as in obtruding them.” +Extreme vanity sometimes hides under the garb of +ultra modesty. When I see people haunted by the +idea of self,—spreading their hands before their +faces lest they meet the reflection of it in every +other face, as if the world were to them like a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> +French drawing-room, panelled with looking glass,—always +fussily putting their obtrusive self behind +them, or dragging over it a scanty drapery of consciousness, +miscalled modesty,—always on their +defence against compliments, or mistaking sympathy +for compliment, which is as great an error, and a +more vulgar one than mistaking flattery for sympathy,—when +I see all this, as I have seen it, I am +inclined to attribute it to the immaturity of the +character, or to what is worse, a total want of simplicity. +To some characters fame is like an intoxicating +cup placed to the lips,—they do well to turn +away from it, who fear it will turn their heads. But +to others, fame is “love disguised,” the love that +answers to love, in its widest most exalted sense. It +seems to me, that we should all bring the best that +is in us (according to the diversity of gifts which +God has given us), and lay it a reverend offering on +the altar of humanity,—if not to burn and enlighten, +at least to rise in incense to heaven. So will the +pure in heart, and the unselfish do; and they will +not heed if those who <i>can</i> bring nothing or <i>will</i> +bring nothing, unless they can blaze like a beacon, +call out “<span class="smcap">VANITY!</span>”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-002.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="163" width="300" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span></p> + +<h5>2.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">here</span> +are truths which, by perpetual repetition, +have subsided into passive truisms, till, in some +moment of feeling or experience, they kindle into +conviction, start to life and light, and the truism +becomes again a vital truth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-023-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="124" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>3.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> +It is well that we obtain what we require at the +cheapest possible rate; yet those who cheapen +goods, or beat down the price of a good article, or buy +in preference to what is good and genuine of its kind +an inferior article at an inferior price, sometimes do +much mischief. Not only do they discourage the +production of a better article, but if they be anxious +about the education of the lower classes they undo +with one hand what they do with the other; they +encourage the mere mechanic and the production of +what may be produced without effort of mind and +without education, and they discourage and wrong +the skilled workman for whom education has done +much more and whose education has cost much more.</p> + +<p>Every work so merely and basely mechanical, +that a man can throw into it no part of his own life +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span> +and soul, does, in the long run, degrade the human +being. It is only by giving him some kind of mental +and moral interest in the labour of his hands, making +it an exercise of his understanding, and an object of +his sympathy, that we can really elevate the workman; +and this is not the case with very cheap production +of any kind. <small>(Southampton, Dec. 1849.)</small></p> + +<p class="tb">Since this was written the same idea has been +carried out, with far more eloquent reasoning, in a +noble passage which I have just found in Mr. Ruskin’s +last volume of “The Stones of Venice” (the +Sea Stories). As I do not <i>always</i> subscribe to his +theories of Art, I am the more delighted with this +anticipation of a moral agreement between us.</p> + +<p>“We have much studied and much perfected of +late, the great civilised invention of the division of +labour, only we give it a false name. It is not, truly +speaking, the labour that is divided, but the men:—divided +into mere segments of men,—broken into +small fragments and crumbs of life; so that all the +little piece of intelligence that is left in a man is not +enough to make a pin or a nail, but exhausts itself +in making the point of a pin or the head of a nail. +Now, it is a good and desirable thing truly to make +many pins in a day, but if we could only see with +what crystal sand their points are polished—sand of +human soul, much to be magnified before it can be +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> +discerned for what it is,—we should think there +might be some loss in it also; and the great cry that +rises from all our manufacturing cities, louder than +their furnace-blast, is all in very deed for this,—that +we manufacture everything there except men,—we +blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine +sugar, and shape pottery; but to brighten, to +strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, +never enters into our estimate of advantages; and +all the evil to which that cry is urging our myriads, +can be met only in one way,—not by teaching nor +preaching; for to teach them is but to show them +their misery; and to preach to them—if we do +nothing more than preach,—is to mock at it. It +can be met only by a right understanding on the +part of all classes, of what kinds of labour are good +for men, raising them and making them happy; by +a determined sacrifice of such convenience, or beauty +or cheapness, as is to be got only by the degradation +of the workman, and by equally determined demand +for the products and results of a healthy and ennobling +labour.” ...</p> + +<p>“We are always in these days trying to separate +the two (intellect and work). We want one man +to be always thinking, and another to be always +working; and we call one a gentleman and the +other an operative; whereas, the workman ought to +be often thinking, and the thinker often working, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> +and both should be gentlemen in the best sense. It +is only by labour that thought can be made healthy, +and only by thought that labour can be made +happy; and the two cannot be separated with +impunity.”</p> + +<p>Wordsworth, however, had said the same thing +before either of us:</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i9">“Our life is turn’d</span> +<span class="i0">Out of her course wherever man is made</span> +<span class="i0">An offering or a sacrifice,—a tool</span> +<span class="i0">Or implement,—a passive thing employed</span> +<span class="i0">As a brute mean, without acknowledgment</span> +<span class="i0">Of common right or interest in the end,</span> +<span class="i0">Used or abused as selfishness may prompt.</span> +<span class="i0">Say what can follow for a rational soul</span> +<span class="i0">Perverted thus, but weakness in all good</span> +<span class="i0">And strength in evil?”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-006.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="119" width="300" /></div> + +<p>And this leads us to the consideration of another +mistake, analogous with the above, but referable in +its results chiefly to the higher, or what Mr. Ruskin +calls the <i>thinking</i>, classes of the community.</p> + +<p>It is not good for us to have all that we value +of worldly material things in the form of money. +It is the most vulgar form in which value can be invested. +Not only books, pictures, and all beautiful +things are better; but even jewels and trinkets are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span> +sometimes to be preferred to mere hard money. Lands +and tenements are good, as involving duties; but +still what is valuable in the market sense should +sometimes take the ideal and the beautiful form, and +be dear and lovely and valuable for its own sake as +well as for its convertible worth in hard gold. I +think the character would be apt to deteriorate when +all its material possessions take the form of money, +and when money becomes valuable for its own +sake, or as the mere instrument or representative +of power.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-007.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="265" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>4.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">e</span> +are told in a late account of Laura Bridgeman, +the blind, deaf, and dumb girl, that her +instructor once endeavoured to explain the difference +between the material and the immaterial, and used +the word “soul.” She interrupted to ask, “What +is soul?”</p> + +<p>“That which thinks, feels, hopes, loves,——”</p> + +<p>“And <i>aches</i>?” she added eagerly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>5.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap"> was</span> +reading to-day in the Notes to Boswell’s +Life of Johnson that “it is a theory which every +one knows to be <i>false in fact</i>, that virtue in real life +is always productive of happiness, and vice of misery.” +I should say that all my experience teaches me that +the position is not false but true: that virtue <i>does</i> +produce happiness, and vice <i>does</i> produce misery. +But let us settle the meaning of the words. By +<i>happiness</i>, we do not necessarily mean a state of +worldly prosperity. By <i>virtue</i>, we do not mean a +series of good actions which may or may not be rewarded, +and, if done for reward, lose the essence of +virtue. Virtue, according to my idea, is the habitual +sense of right, and the habitual courage to act up to +that sense of right, combined with benevolent sympathies, +the charity which thinketh no evil. This +union of the highest conscience and the highest sympathy +fulfils my notion of virtue. Strength is essential +to it; weakness incompatible with it. Where +virtue is, the noblest faculties and the softest feelings +are predominant; the whole being is in that state of +harmony which I call happiness. Pain may reach it, +passion may disturb it, but there is always a glimpse +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> +of blue sky above our head; as we ascend in dignity +of being, we ascend in happiness, which is, in my +sense of the word, the feeling which connects us +with the infinite and with God.</p> + +<p>And vice is necessarily misery: for that fluctuation +of principle, that diseased craving for excitement, +that weakness out of which springs falsehood, that +suspicion of others, that discord with ourselves, with +the absence of the benevolent propensities,—these +constitute misery as a state of being. The most +miserable person I ever met with in my life had +12,000<i>l.</i> a year; a cunning mind, dexterous to compass +its own ends; very little conscience, not enough, +one would have thought, to vex with any retributive +pang; but it was the absence of goodness that made +the misery, obvious and hourly increasing. The +perpetual kicking against the pricks, the unreasonable +<i>exigéance</i> with regard to things, without any high +standard with regard to persons,—these made the +misery. I can speak of it as misery who had it daily +in my sight for five long years.</p> + +<p>I have had arguments, if it be not presumption to +call them so, with Carlyle on this point. It appeared +to me that he confounded happiness with pleasure, +with self-indulgence. He set aside with a towering +scorn the idea of living for the sake of happiness, so +called: he styled this philosophy of happiness, “the +philosophy of the frying-pan.” But this was like +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> +the reasoning of a child, whose idea of happiness is +plenty of sugar-plums. Pleasure, pleasurable sensation, +is, as the world goes, something to thank God +for. I should be one of the last to undervalue it; +I hope I am one of the last to live for it; and pain +is pain, a great evil, which I do not like either to +inflict or suffer. But happiness lies beyond either +pain or pleasure—is as sublime a thing as virtue +itself, indivisible from it; and under this point of +view it seems a perilous mistake to separate them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-010.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="95" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>6.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="smcap">ante</span> +places in his lowest Hell those who in life +were melancholy and repining without a cause, +thus profaning and darkening God’s blessed sunshine—<i>Tristi +fummo nel’ aer dolce</i>; and in some of +the ancient Christian systems of virtues and vices, +Melancholy is unholy, and a vice; Cheerfulness is +holy, and a virtue.</p> + +<p>Lord Bacon also makes one of the characteristics +of moral health and goodness to consist in “a constant +quick sense of felicity, and a noble satisfaction.”</p> + +<p>What moments, hours, days of exquisite felicity +must Christ, our Redeemer, have had, though it has +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> +become too customary to place him before us only in +the attitude of pain and sorrow! Why should he be +always crowned with thorns, bleeding with wounds, +weeping over the world he was appointed to heal, to +save, to reconcile with God? The radiant head of +Christ in Raphael’s Transfiguration should rather +be our ideal of Him who came “to bind up the +broken-hearted, to preach the acceptable year of the +Lord.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-011.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="203" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>7.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap"> profound</span> +intellect is weakened and narrowed in +general power and influence by a limited range of +sympathies. I think this is especially true of C——: +excellent, honest, gifted as he is, he does not do half +the good he might do, because his sympathies are so +confined. And then he wants gentleness: he does +not seem to acknowledge that “the wisdom that is +from above is <i>gentle</i>.” He is a man who carries his +bright intellect as a light in a dark-lantern; he sees +only the objects on which he chooses to throw that +blaze of light: those he sees vividly, but, as it were, +exclusively. All other things, though lying near,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> +are dark, because perversely he <i>will</i> not throw the +light of his mind upon them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-012-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="125" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>8.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">ilhelm von humboldt</span> +says, “Old letters +lose their vitality.”</p> + +<p>Not true. It is because they retain their vitality +that it is so dangerous to keep some letters,—so +wicked to burn others.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-012-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="228" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>9.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap"> man</span> +thinks himself, and is thought by others +to be insulted when another man gives him the +lie. It is an offence to be retracted at once, or only to +be effaced in blood. To give a woman the lie is not +considered in the same unpardonable light by herself +or others,—is indeed a slight thing. Now, whence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> +this difference? Is not truth as dear to a woman as +to a man? Is the virtue itself, or the reputation of +it, less necessary to the woman than to the man? +If not, what causes this distinction,—one so injurious +to the morals of both sexes?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="112" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>10.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> is good for us to look up, morally and mentally. +If I were tired I would get some help to hold my +head up, as Moses got some one to hold up his arms +while he prayed.</p> + +<p>“<span class="smcap">Ce</span> qui est moins que moi m’éteint et m’assomme; +ce qui est à côté de moi m’ennuie et me fatigue. II +n’y a que ce qui est au-dessus de moi qui me soutienne +et m’arrache à moi-même.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="185" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>11.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">here</span> is an order of writers who, with characters +perverted or hardened through long practice of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> +iniquity, yet possess an inherent divine sense of the +good and the beautiful, and a passion for setting it +forth, so that men’s hearts glow with the tenderness +and the elevation which live not in the heart of the +writer,—only in his head.</p> + +<p>And there is another class of writers who are excellent +in the social relations of life, and kindly and +true in heart, yet who, intellectually, have a perverted +pleasure in the ridiculous and distorted, the cunning, +the crooked, the vicious,—who are never weary of +holding up before us finished representations of folly +and rascality.</p> + +<p>Now, which is the worst of these? the former, +who do mischief by making us mistrust the good? +or the latter, who degrade us by making us familiar +with evil?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-017-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="134" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>12.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">hought</span> and theory,” said Wordsworth, “must +precede all action that moves to salutary purposes. +Yet action is nobler in itself than either +thought or theory.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span></p> + +<p>Yes, and no. What we <i>act</i> has its consequences +on earth. What we <i>think</i>, its consequences in heaven. +It is not without reason that action should +be preferred before barren thought; but all action +which in its result is worth any thing, must result +from thought. So the old rhymester hath it:</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“He that good thinketh good may do,</span> +<span class="i0">And God will help him there unto;</span> +<span class="i0">For was never good work wrought,</span> +<span class="i0">Without beginning of good thought.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>The result of impulse is the positive; the result +of consideration the negative. The positive is essentially +and abstractedly better than the negative, +though relatively to facts and circumstances it may +not be the most expedient.</p> + +<p>On my observing how often I had had reason to regret +not having followed the first impulse, <span class="smcap">O. G.</span> said, +“In <i>good</i> minds the first impulses are generally +right and true, and, when altered or relinquished +from regard to expediency arising out of complicated +relations, I always feel sorry, for they remain right. +Our first impulses always lean to the positive, our +second thoughts to the negative; and I have no +respect for the negative,—it is the vulgar side of +every thing.”</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it must be conceded, that one +who stands endowed with great power and with great +responsibilities in the midst of a thousand duties and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> +interests, can no longer take things in this simple +fashion; for the good first impulse, in its flow, meets, +perhaps, some rock, and splits upon it; it recoils on +the heart, and becomes abortive. Or the impulse +to do good <i>here</i> becomes injury <i>there</i>, and we are +forced to calculate results; we cannot trust to them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap"> have</span> +not sought to deduce my principles from +conventional notions of expediency, but have believed +that out of the steady adherence to certain +fixed principles, the right and the expedient <i>must</i> +ensue, and I believe it still. The moment one begins +to solder right and wrong together, one’s conscience +becomes like a piece of plated goods.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> +requires merely passive courage and strength +to resist, and in some cases to overcome evil. But +it requires more—it needs bravery and self-reliance +and surpassing faith—to act out the true inspirations +of your intelligence and the true impulses of your +heart.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span><span class="smcap">ut</span> +of the attempt to harmonise our actual life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> +with our aspirations, our experience with our faith, +we make poetry,—or, it may be, religion.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p>F—— used the phrase “<i>stung into heroism</i>” as +Shelley said, “<i>cradled into poetry</i>,” by wrong.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-017-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="134" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>13.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">oleridge</span> +calls the personal existence of the +Evil Principle, “a mere fiction, or, at best, +an allegory supported by a few popular phrases and +figures of speech, used incidentally or dramatically +by the Evangelists.” And he says, that “the existence +of a personal, intelligent, Evil Being, the +counterpart and antagonist of God, is in direct contradiction +to the most express declarations of Holy +Writ. ‘<i>Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord +hath not done it?</i>’—Amos, iii. 6. ‘<i>I make peace and +create evil.</i>’—Isaiah, xlv. 7. This is the deep mystery +of the abyss of God.”</p> + +<p>Do our theologians go with him here? I think +not: yet, as a theologian, Coleridge is constantly +appealed to by Churchmen.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-018.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="184" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>14.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“W</span><span class="smcap">e</span> find (in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians), +every where instilled as the essence +of all well-being and well-doing, (without +which the wisest public and political constitution is +but a lifeless formula, and the highest powers of +individual endowment profitless or pernicious,) the +spirit of a divine sympathy with the happiness and +rights,—with the peculiarities, gifts, graces, and endowments +of other minds, which alone, whether in +the family or in the Church, can impart unity and +effectual working together for good in the communities +of men.”</p> + +<p class="tb">“The Christian religion was, in fact, a charter of +freedom to the whole human race.”—<i>Thom’s Discourses +on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians.</i></p> + +<p>And this is the true Catholic spirit,—the spirit +and the teaching of Paul,—in contradistinction to +the Roman Catholic spirit,—the spirit and tendency +of Peter, which stands upon forms, which has no +respect for individuality except in so far as it can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> +imprison this individuality within a creed, or use it +to a purpose.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-019.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="225" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>15.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="smcap">r. Baillie</span> +once said that “all his observation of +death-beds inclined him to believe that nature intended +that we should go out of the world as unconscious +as we came into it.” “In all my experience,” +he added, “I have not seen one instance in fifty to +the contrary.”</p> + +<p>Yet even in such a large experience the occurrence +of “one instance in fifty to the contrary” +would invalidate the assumption that such was the +law of nature (or “nature’s intention,” which, if it +means any thing, means the same).</p> + +<p>The moment in which the spirit meets death is +perhaps like the moment in which it is embraced by +sleep. It never, I suppose, happened to any one +to be conscious of the immediate transition from the +waking to the sleeping state.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-020.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="183" width="500" /></div> + +<h5>16.</h5> + +<h5><i>Thoughts on a Sermon.</i></h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> +is really sublime, this man! with his faith in +“the religion of pain,” and “the deification of +sorrow!” But is he therefore right? What has he +preached to us to-day with all the force of eloquence, +all the earnestness of conviction? that “pain is the +life of God as shown forth in Christ;”—“that we +are to be crucified to the world and the world to +us.” This perpetual presence of a crucified God +between us and a pitying redeeming Christ, leads +many a mourner to the belief that this world is all a +Golgotha of pain, and that we are here to crucify +each other. Is this the law under which we are to +live and strive? The missionary Bridaine accused +himself of sin in that he had preached fasting, +penance, and the chastisements of God to wretches +steeped in poverty and dying of hunger; and is +there not a similar cruelty and misuse of power in +the servants of Him who came to bind up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> +broken-hearted, when they preach the necessity, or +at least the theory, of moral pain to those whose +hearts are aching from moral evil?</p> + +<p>Surely there is a great difference between the +resignation or the endurance of a truthful, faithful, +loving, hopeful spirit, and this dreadful theology of +suffering as the necessary and appointed state of +things! I, for one, will not accept it. Even while +most miserable, I will believe in happiness; even +while I do or suffer evil, I will believe in goodness; +even while my eyes see not through tears, I will believe +in the existence of what I do not see—that +God is benign, that nature is fair, that the world is +not made as a prison or a penance. While I stand +lost in utter darkness, I will yet wait for the return +of the unfailing dawn,—even though my soul be +amazed into such a blind perplexity that I know not +on which side to look for it, and ask “where is the +East? and whence the dayspring?” For the East +holds its wonted place, and the light is withheld only +till its appointed time.</p> + +<p>God so strengthen me that I may think of pain +and sin only as accidental apparent discords in his +great harmonious scheme of good! Then I am ready—I +will take up the cross, and hear it bravely, while +I <i>must</i>; but I will lay it down when I can, and in +any case I will never lay it on another.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-022-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="214" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>17.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">f</span> +I fear God it is because I love him, and believe +in his love; I cannot conceive myself as standing +in fear of any spiritual or human being in whose +love I do not entirely believe. Of that Impersonation +of Evil, who goes about seeking whom he may +devour, the image brings to me no fear, only intense +disgust and aversion. Yes, it is because of his love +for me that I fear to offend against God; it is because +of his love that his displeasure must be terrible. +And with regard to human beings, only the +being I love has the power to give me pain or +inspire me with fear; only those in whose love I +believe, have the power to injure me. Take away +my love, and you take away my fear: take away +<i>their</i> love, and you take away the power to do me +any harm which can reach me in the sources of life +and feeling.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-022-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="105" width="400" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span></p> + +<h5>18.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="smcap">ocial</span> +opinion is like a sharp knife. There are +foolish people who regard it only with terror, +and dare not touch or meddle with it. There are +more foolish people, who, in rashness or defiance, +seize it by the blade, and get cut and mangled for +their pains. And there are wise people, who grasp +it discreetly and boldly by the handle, and use it to +carve out their own purposes.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-023-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="138" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>19.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">hile</span> +we were discussing Balzac’s celebrity as +a romance writer, she (<span class="smcap">O. G.</span>) said, with a +shudder: “His laurels are steeped in the tears of +women,—every truth he tells has been wrung in +tortures from some woman’s heart.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-023-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="124" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span></p> + +<h5>20.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="smcap">ir Walter Scott,</span> +writing in 1831, seems to +regard it as a terrible misfortune that the whole +burgher class in Scotland should be gradually preparing +for representative reform. “I mean,” he +says, “the middle and respectable classes: when +a borough reform comes, which, perhaps, cannot +long be delayed, ministers will no longer return a +member for Scotland from the towns.” “The gentry,” +he adds, “will abide longer by <i>sound</i> principles, for +they are needy, and desire advancement for themselves, +and appointments for their sons and so on. But +this is a very hollow dependence, and those who sincerely +hold ancient opinions are waxing old,” &c. &c.</p> + +<p>With a great deal more, showing the strange +moral confusion which his political bias had caused +in his otherwise clear head and honest mind. The +sound principles, then, by which educated people are +to abide,—over the decay of which he laments,—are +such as can only be upheld by the most vulgar self-interest! +If a man should utter openly such sentiments +in these days, what should we think of him?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> +the order of absolutism lurk the elements of +change and destruction. In the unrest of freedom +the spirit of change and progress.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-025.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="170" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>21.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“A</span><span class="smcap"> single</span> +life,” said Bacon, “doth well with +churchmen, for charity will hardly water the +ground where it must first fill a pool.”</p> + +<p>Certainly there are men whose charities are +limited, if not dried up, by their concentrated domestic +anxieties and relations. But there are others +whose charities are more diffused, as well as healthier +and warmer, through the strength of their domestic +affections.</p> + +<p>Wordsworth speaks strongly of the evils of ordaining +men as clergymen in places where they had been +born or brought up, or in the midst of their own +relatives: “Their habits, their manners, their talk, +their acquaintanceships, their friendships, and let me +say, even their domestic affections, naturally draw +them one way, while their professional obligations +point out another.” If this were true universally, or +even generally, it would be a strong argument in +favour of the celibacy of the Roman Catholic clergy, +which certainly is one element, and not the least, of +their power.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-026.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="188" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>22.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">L</span><span class="smcap">andor</span> says truly: “Love is a secondary passion +in those who love most, a primary in those who +love least: he who is inspired by it in the strongest +degree is inspired by honour in a greater.”</p> + +<p>“Whatever is worthy of being loved for any +thing is worthy to be preserved.”</p> + +<p>Again:—“Those are the worst of suicides who +voluntarily and prepensely stab or suffocate their +own fame, when God hath commanded them to +stand on high for an example.”</p> + +<p>“Weak motives,” he says, “are sufficient for +weak minds; whenever we see a mind which we +believed a stronger than our own moved habitually +by what appears inadequate, we may be certain that +there is—to bring a metaphor from the forest—<i>more +top than root</i>.”</p> + +<p>Here is another sentence from the same writer—rich +in wise sayings:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span>—</p> + +<p>“Plato would make wives common to abolish +selfishness; the very mischief which, above all others, +it would directly and immediately bring forth. There +is no selfishness where there is a wife and family. +There the house is lighted up by mutual charities; +everything achieved for them is a victory; everything +endured a triumph. How many vices are suppressed +that there may be no <i>bad</i> example! How +many exertions made to recommend and inculcate +a <i>good</i> one.”</p> + +<p>True: and I have much more confidence in the +charity which begins in the home and diverges into a +large humanity, than in the world-wide philanthropy +which begins at the outside of our horizon to converge +into egotism, of which I could show you many +and notable examples.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-027.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="132" width="400" /></div> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap">ll</span> my experience of the world teaches me that in +ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the safe side +and the just side of a question is the generous side +and the merciful side. This your mere worldly +people do not seem to know, and therein make the +sorriest and the vulgarest of all mistakes. “<i>Pour +être assez bon il faut l’être trop</i>:” we all need more +mercy than we deserve.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span></p> + +<p>How often in this world the actions that we condemn +are the result of sentiments that we love and +opinions that we admire!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-017-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="134" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>23.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>.—— observed in reference to some of her +friends who had gone over to the Roman Catholic +Church, “that the peace and comfort which +they had sought and found in that mode of faith was +like the drugged sleep in comparison with the natural +sleep: necessary, healing perhaps, where there is +disease and unrest, not otherwise.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-028-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="208" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>24.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“A</span><span class="smcap"> poet,</span>” says Coleridge, “ought not to pick +nature’s pocket. Let him borrow, and so +borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> +Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, +and trust more to your imagination than your +memory.”</p> + +<p>This advice is even more applicable to the painter, +but true perhaps in its application to all artists. +Raphael and Mozart were, in this sense, great +borrowers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-029-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="136" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>25.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“W</span><span class="smcap">hat</span> is the difference between being good and +being bad? the good do not yield to temptation +and the bad do.”</p> + +<p>This is often the distinction between the good and +the bad in regard to act and deed; but it does not +constitute the difference between <i>being</i> good and +<i>being</i> bad.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-048.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="274" width="400" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span></p> + +<h5>26.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> Italians say (in one of their characteristic +proverbs) <i>Sospetto licenzia Fede</i>. Lord Bacon +interprets the saying “as if suspicion did give a passport +to faith,” which is somewhat obscure and ambiguous. +It means, that suspicion discharges us from +the duty of good faith; and in this, its original sense, +it is, like many of the old Italian proverbs, worldly +wise and profoundly immoral.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="112" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>27.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> was well said by Themistocles to the King of +Persia, that “speech was like cloth of arras +opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth +appear in figure, whereas in thoughts they lie but in +packs” (<i>i. e.</i> rolled up or packed up). Dryden had +evidently this passage in his mind when he wrote +those beautiful lines:</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Speech is the light, the morning of the mind;</span> +<span class="i0">It spreads the beauteous images abroad,</span> +<span class="i0">Which else lie furled and shrouded in the soul.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>Here the comparison of Themistocles, happy in itself, +is expanded into a vivid poetical image.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-031-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="165" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>28.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">hose</span> are the killing griefs that do not speak,” +is true of some, not all characters. There are +natures in which the killing grief finds utterance +while it kills; moods in which we cry aloud, “as the +beast crieth, expansive not appealing.” That is my +own nature: so in grief or in joy, I say as the birds +sing:</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Und wenn der Mensch in seiner Qual verstummt,</span> +<span class="i0">Gab mir ein Got zu sagen was ich leide!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-031-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="133" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>29.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">B</span><span class="smcap">lessed</span> is the memory of those who have kept +themselves unspotted <i>from</i> the world!—yet +more blessed and more dear the memory of those who +have kept themselves unspotted <i>in</i> the world!</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-032-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="207" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>30.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">E</span><span class="smcap">verything</span> that ever has been, from the beginning +of the world till now, belongs to us, is +ours, is even a part of us. We belong to the future, +and shall be a part of it. Therefore the sympathies +of <i>all</i> are in the past; only the poet and the prophet +sympathise with the future.</p> + +<p>When Tennyson makes Ulysses say, “I am a +part of all that I have seen,” it ought to be rather +the converse,—“What I have seen becomes a part +of me.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-032-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="138" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>31.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> what regards policy—government—the interest +of the many is sacrificed to the few; in what +regards society, the morals and happiness of individuals +are sacrificed to the many.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span></p> + +<h5>32.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">e </span>spoke to-night of the cowardice, the crime of +a particular suicide: <span class="smcap">O. G.</span> agreed as to this +instance, but added: “There is a different aspect +under which suicide might be regarded. It is not +always, I think, from a want of religion, or in a spirit +of defiance, or a want of confidence in God that we +quit life. It is as if we should flee to the feet of +the Almighty and embrace his knees, and exclaim, +‘O my father! take me home! I have endured as +long as it was possible; I can endure no more, so I +come to you!’”</p> + +<p class="tb">Of an amiable man with a disagreeable expressionless +face, she said: “His countenance always gives +me the idea of matter too strong, too hard for the +soul to pierce through. It is as a plaster mask +which I long to break (making the gesture with her +hand), that I may see the countenance of his heart, +for that must be beautiful!”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-iv.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="264" width="500" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span></p> + +<h5>33.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">arlyle</span> said to me: “I want to see some institution +to teach a man the truth, the worth, the +beauty, the heroism of which his present existence is +capable; where’s the use of sending him to study +what the Greeks and Romans did, and said, and +wrote? Do ye think the Greeks and Romans would +have been what they were, if they had just only +studied what the Phœnicians did before them?” I +should have answered, had I dared: “Yet perhaps +the Greeks and Romans would not have been what +they were if the Egyptians and Phœnicians had not +been before them.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-034.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="141" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>34.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">an</span> there be <i>progress</i> which is not <i>progression</i>—which +does not leave a past from which to start—on +which to rest our foot when we spring forward? +No wise man kicks the ladder from beneath him, or +obliterates the traces of the road through which he +has travelled, or pulls down the memorials he has +built by the way side. We cannot <i>get on</i> without +linking our present and our future with our past. All +reaction is destructive—all progress conservative.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> +When we have destroyed that which the past built +up, what reward have we?—we are forced to fall +back, and have to begin anew. “Novelty,” as Lord +Bacon says, “cannot be content to add, but it must +deface.” For this very reason novelty is not progress, +as the French would try to persuade themselves and +us. We gain nothing by defacing and trampling +down the idols of the past to set up new ones in their +places—let it be sufficient to leave them behind us, +measuring our advance by keeping them in sight.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-035-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="115" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>35.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">E</span>—— was compassionating to-day the old and the +invalided; those whose life is prolonged in spite +of suffering; and she seemed, even out of the excess +of her pity and sympathy, to wish them fairly out of +the world; but it is a mistake in reasoning and feeling. +She does not know how much of happiness may +consist with suffering, with physical suffering, and +even with mental suffering.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-027.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="132" width="400" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span></p> + +<h5>36.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“R</span><span class="smcap">enoncez</span> dans votre âme, et renoncez y fermement, +une fois pour toutes, à vouloir vous +connaître au-delà de cette existence passagère qui +vous est imposée, et vous redeviendrez agréable à +Dieu, utile aux autres hommes, tranquille avec vous-mêmes.”</p> + +<p>This does not mean “renounce hope or faith in the +future.” No! But renounce that perpetual craving +after a selfish interest in the unrevealed future life +which takes the true relish from the duties and the +pleasures of this. We can conceive of no future life +which is not a continuation of this: to anticipate in +that <i>future</i> life, <i>another</i> life, a <i>different</i> life; what is +it but to call in doubt our individual identity?</p> + +<p>If we pray, “O teach us where and what is +peace!” would not the answer be, “In the grave ye +shall have it—not before?” Yet is it not strange +that those who believe most absolutely in an after-life, +yet think of the grave as peace? Now, if we +carry this life with us—and what other life can we +carry with us, unless we cease to be ourselves—how +shall there be peace?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<p>As to the future, my soul, like Cato’s, “shrinks +back upon herself and startles at destruction;” but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> +I do not think of my own destruction, rather of that +which I love. That I should cease to be is not very +intolerable; but that what I love, and do now in my +soul possess, should cease to be—there is the pang, +the terror! I desire that which I love to be immortal, +whether I be so myself or not.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<p>Is not the idea which most men entertain of +another, of an eternal life, merely a continuation of +this present existence under pleasanter conditions? +We cannot conceive another state of existence,—we +only fancy we do so.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<p>“I conceive that in all probability we have +immortality already. Most men seem to divide life +and immortality, making them two distinct things, +when, in fact, they are one and the same. What is +immortality but a continuation of life—life which is +already our own? We have, then, begun our immortality +even now.”</p> + +<p>For the same reason, or, rather, through the +same want of reasoning by which we make <i>life</i> and +<i>immortality</i> two (distinct things), do we make <i>time</i> +and <i>eternity</i> two, which like the others are really one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> +and the same. As immortality is but the continuation +of life, so eternity is but the continuation of +time; and what we call time is only that part of +eternity in which we exist <i>now</i>.—<i>The New Philosophy.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-079.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="134" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>37.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="smcap">trength</span> does not consist only in the <i>more</i> or the +<i>less</i>. There are different sorts of strength as +well as different degrees:—The strength of marble +to resist; the strength of steel to oppose; the strength +of the fine gold, which you can twist round your +finger, but which can bear the force of innumerable +pounds without breaking.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-038-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="186" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>38.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">G</span><span class="smcap">oethe</span> used to say, that while intellectual attainment +is progressive, it is difficult to be as good +when we are old, as we were when young. Dr. +Johnson has expressed the same thing.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span></p> + +<p>Then are we to assume, that to <i>do</i> good effectively +and wisely is the privilege of age and experience? +To <i>be</i> good, through faith in goodness, the privilege +of the young.</p> + +<p>To preserve our faith in goodness with an extended +knowledge of evil, to preserve the tenderness +of our pity after long contemplation of pain, and the +warmth of our charity after long experience of falsehood, +is to be at once good and wise—to understand +and to love each other as the angels who look down +upon us from heaven.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<p>We can sometimes love what we do not understand, +but it is impossible completely to understand +what we do not love.</p> + +<p class="tb">I observe, that in our relations with the people +around us, we forgive them more readily for what +they <i>do</i>, which they <i>can</i> help, than for what they <i>are</i>, +which they <i>cannot</i> help.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-039-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="145" width="300" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span></p> + +<h5>39.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“W</span><span class="smcap">hence</span> springs the greatest degree of moral +suffering?” was a question debated this +evening, but not settled. It was argued that it +would depend on the texture of character, its more +or less conscientiousness, susceptibility, or strength. +I thought from two sentiments—from <i>jealousy</i>, that +is, the sense of a wrong endured, in one class of +characters; from <i>remorse</i>, that is, from the sense of a +wrong inflicted, in another.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-025.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="170" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>40.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> bread of life is love; the salt of life is work; +the sweetness of life, poesy; the water of life, +faith.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-040-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="149" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>41.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">have</span> seen triflers attempting to draw out a deep +intellect; and they reminded me of children +throwing pebbles down the well at Carisbrook, that +they might hear them sound.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-018.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="184" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>42.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="smcap">bond</span> is necessary to complete our being, only +we must be careful that the bond does not become +bondage.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<p>“The secret of peace,” said <span class="smcap">A. B.</span>, “is the resolution +of the lesser into the greater;” meaning, +perhaps, the due relative appreciation of our duties, +and the proper placing of our affections: or, did she +not rather mean, the resolving of the lesser duties +and affections into the higher? But it is true in +either sense.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<p>The love we have for Genius is to common love +what the fire on the altar is to the fire on the hearth. +We cherish it not for warmth or for service, but for +an offering, as the expression of our worship.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<p>All love not responded to and accepted is a species +of idolatry. It is like the worship of a dumb +beautiful image we have ourselves set up and deified,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> +but cannot inspire with life, nor warm with sympathy. +No!—though we should consume our own +hearts on the altar. Our love of God would be idolatry +if we did not believe in his love for us—his +responsive love.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<p>In the same moment that we begin to speculate +on the possibility of cessation or change in any strong +affection that we feel, even from that moment we +may date its death: it has become the <i>fetch</i> of the +living love.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<p>“Motives,” said Coleridge, “imply weakness, +and the reasoning powers imply the existence +of evil and temptation. The angelic nature would +act from impulse alone.” This is the sort of +angel which Angelico da Fiesole conceived and +represented, and <i>he</i> only.</p> + +<p>Again:—“If a man’s conduct can neither be +ascribed to the angelic or the bestial within him, it +must be fiendish. Passion without appetite is +<i>fiendish</i>.”</p> + +<p>And, he might have added, appetite without +passion, <i>bestial</i>. Love in which is neither appetite +nor passion is <i>angelic</i>. The union of all is human; +and according as one or other predominates, does the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span> +human being approximate to the fiend, the beast, or +the angel.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="112" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>43.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">don’t</span> mean to say that principle is not a finer +thing than passion; but passions existed before +principles: they came into the world with us; principles +are superinduced.</p> + +<p>There are bad principles as well as bad passions; +and more bad principles than bad passions. Good +principles derive life, and strength, and warmth from +high and good passions; but principles do not give +life, they only bind up life into a consistent whole. +One great fault in education is, the pains taken to +inculcate principles rather than to train feelings. +It is as if we took it for granted that passions could +<i>only</i> be bad, and are to be ignored or repressed altogether,—the +old mischievous monkish doctrine.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-012-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="228" width="300" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span></p> + +<h5>44.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> is easy to be humble where humility is a condescension—easy +to concede where we know +ourselves wronged—easy to forgive where vengeance +is in our power.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p>“You and I,” said <span class="smcap">H. G.</span>, yesterday, “are alike in +this:—both of us so abhor injustice, that we are +ready to fight it with a broomstick if we can find +nothing better!”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-031-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="165" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>45.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> wise only <i>possess</i> ideas—the greater part of +mankind are <i>possessed by</i> them. When once +the mind, in despite of the remonstrating conscience, +has abandoned its free power to a haunting impulse +or idea, then whatever tends to give depth and vividness +to this idea or indefinite imagination, increases +its despotism, and in the same proportion renders the +reason and free will ineffectual.” This paragraph +from Coleridge sounds like a <i>truism</i> until we have +felt its <i>truth</i>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span></p> + +<h5>46.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“L</span><span class="smcap">a</span> Volonté, en se déréglant, devient passion; +cette passion continuée se change en habitude, +et faute de résister à cette habitude elle se transforme +en besoin.”—<i>St. Augustin</i>. Which may be rendered—“out +of the unregulated will, springs <i>passion</i>, +out of passion gratified, <i>habit</i>; out of habits +unresisted, <i>necessity</i>.” This, also, is one of the truths +which become, from the impossibility of disputing +or refuting them, <i>truisms</i>—and little regarded, till +the truth makes itself felt.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-045.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="136" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>47.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">wish</span> I could realise what you call my “<i>grand</i> +idea of being independent of the absent.” I have +not a friend worthy the name, whose absence is not +pain and dread to me;—death itself is terrible only +as it is absence. At some moments, if I could, I +would cease to love those who are absent from me, +or to speak more correctly, those whose path in life +diverges from mine—whose dwelling house is far +off;—with whom I am united in the strongest bonds +of sympathy while separated by duties and interests +by space and time. The presence of those whom we +love is as a double life; absence, in its anxious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> +longing, and sense of vacancy, is as a foretaste of +death.</p> + +<p>“La mort de nos amis ne compte pas du moment +où ils meurent, mais de celui où nous cessons de vivre +avec eux;” or, it might rather be said, <i>pour eux</i>; +but I think this arises from a want either of <i>faith</i> or +<i>faithfulness</i>.</p> + +<p>“La peur des morts est une abominable faiblesse! +c’est la plus commune et la plus barbare des profanations; +<i>les mères ne la connaissent pas</i>!”—And why? +Because the most <i>faithful</i> love is the love of the +mother for her child.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-046.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="181" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>48.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap">t</span> dinner to-day there was an attempt made +by two very clever men to place Theodore Hook +above Sydney Smith. I fought with all my might +against both. It seems to me that a mind must be +strangely warped that could ever place on a par +two men with aspirations and purposes so different, +whether we consider them merely as individuals, or +called before the bar of the public as writers. I +do not take to Sydney Smith personally, because +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> +my nature feels the want of the artistic and imaginative +in <i>his</i> nature; but see what he has done for +humanity, for society, for liberty, for truth,—for +us women! What has Theodore Hook done that +has not perished with him? Even as wits—and +I have been in company with both—I could not +compare them; but they say the wit of Theodore +Hook was only fitted for the company of men—the +strongest proof that it was not genuine of its kind, +that when most bearable, it was most superficial. I +set aside the other obvious inference, that it required +to be excited by stimulants and those of the coarsest, +grossest kind. The wit of Sydney Smith almost +always involved a thought worth remembering for +its own sake, as well as worth remembering for its +brilliant vehicle: the value of ten thousand pounds +sterling of sense concentrated into a cut and polished +diamond.</p> + +<p>It is not true, as I have heard it said, that after +leaving the society of Sydney Smith you only remembered +how much you had laughed, not the good +things at which you had laughed. Few men—wits +by profession—ever said so many memorable things +as those recorded of Sydney Smith.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-047.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="143" width="400" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span></p> + +<h5>49.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> we would show any one that he is mistaken +our best course is to observe on what +side he considers the subject,—for his view of it is +generally right on <i>this</i> side,—and admit to him +that he is right so far. He will be satisfied with +this acknowledgment, that he was not wrong in +his judgment, but only inadvertent in not looking +at the whole of the case.”—<i>Pascal.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-048.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="274" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>50.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“W</span><span class="smcap">e</span> should reflect,” says Jeremy Taylor, +preaching against ambition, “that whatever +tempts the pride and vanity of ambitious +persons is not so big as the smallest star which we +see scattered in disorder and unregarded on the +pavement of heaven.”</p> + +<p>Very beautiful and poetical, but certainly no good +argument against the sin he denounces. The star is +inaccessible, and what tempts our pride or our ambi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span>tion +is only that which we consider with hope as <i>accessible</i>. +That we look up to the stars not desiring, +not aspiring, but only loving—therein lies our +hearts’ truest, holiest, safest <i>devotion</i> as contrasted +with <i>ambition</i>.</p> + +<p>It is the “<i>desire</i> of the moth for the star,” that +leads to its burning itself in the candle.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-049.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="126" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>51.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> brow stamped “with the hieroglyphics of an +eternal sorrow,” is a strong and beautiful expression +of Bishop Taylor’s.</p> + +<p>He says truly: “It is seldom that God sends +such calamities upon men as men bring upon themselves +and suffer willingly.” And again: “What +will not tender women suffer to hide their shame!” +What indeed! And again: “Nothing is intolerable +that is necessary.” And again: “Nothing is to be +esteemed evil which God and nature have fixed with +eternal sanctions.”</p> + +<p>There is not one of these ethical sentences which +might not be treated as a text and expounded, opening +into as many “branches” of consideration as ever +did a Presbyterian sermon. Yet several involve a +fallacy, as it seems to me;—others a deeper, wider, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> +and more awful signification than Taylor himself +seems to have contemplated when he uttered them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-050.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="107" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>52.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> same reasons which rendered Goethe’s “Werther” +so popular, so passionately admired at the +time it appeared—just after the seven years’ war,—helped +to render Lord Byron so popular in his time. +It was not the individuality of “Werther,” nor the +individuality of “Childe Harold” which produced +the effect of making them, for a time, a pervading +power,—a <i>part</i> of the life of their contemporaries. +It was because in both cases a chord was struck +which was ready to vibrate. A phase of feeling preexistent, +palpitating at the heart of society, which +had never found expression in any poetic form since +the days of Dante, was made visible and audible as +if by an electric force; words and forms were given +to a diffused sentiment of pain and resistance, caused +by a long period of war, of political and social +commotion, and of unhealthy moral excitement. +“Werther” and “Childe Harold” will never perish; +because, though they have ceased to be the echo +of a wide despair, there will always be, unhappily, +individual minds and hearts to respond to the individuality.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p>Lord Byron has sometimes, to use his own expression, +“curdled” a whole world of meaning into +the compass of one line:—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0 padb07">“The starry Galileo and his woes.”</span> +<span class="i0">“The blind old man of Chio’s rocky isle.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>Here every word, almost every syllable, paints an +idea. Such lines are <i>picturesque</i>. And I remember +another, from Thomson, I think:—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Placed far amid the melancholy main.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>In general, where words are used in description, +the objects and ideas flow with the words in succession. +But in each of these lines the mind takes in a +wide horizon, comprising a multitude of objects at +once, as the eye takes in a picture, with scene, and +action, and figures, fore-ground and background, all +at once. That is the reason I call such lines <i>picturesque</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-026.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="188" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span></p> + +<h5>53.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">have</span> a great admiration for power, a great terror +of weakness—especially in my own sex,—yet +feel that my love is for those who overcome the +mental and moral suffering and temptation, through +excess of tenderness rather than through excess of +strength; for those whose refinement and softness of +nature mingling with high intellectual power and the +capacity for strong passion, present to me a problem +to solve, which, when solved, I take to my +heart. The question is not, which of the two diversities +of character be the highest and best, but +which is most sympathetic with my own.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-035-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="115" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>54.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span>—— told me, that some time ago, when poor +Bethune the Scotch poet first became known, +and was in great hardship, C—— himself had collected +a little sum (about 30<i>l.</i>), and sent it to him +through his publishers. Bethune wrote back to +refuse it absolutely, and to say that, while he had +head and hands, he would not accept <i>charity</i>. C—— +wrote to him in answer, still anonymously, arguing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> +against the principle, as founded in false pride, &c. +Now poor Bethune is dead, and the money is found +untouched,—left with a friend to be returned to the +donors!</p> + +<p>This sort of disgust and terror, which all finely +constituted minds feel with regard to pecuniary obligation,—my +own utter repugnance to it, even from +the hands of those I most love,—makes one sad to +think of. It gives one such a miserable impression +of our social humanity!</p> + +<p>Goethe makes the same remark in the Wilhelm +Meister:—“Es ist sonderbar welch ein wunderliches +Bedenken man sich macht, Geld von Freunden +und Gönnern anzunehmen, von denen man jede +andere Gabe mit Dank und Freude empfangen +würde.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-020.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="183" width="500" /></div> + +<h5>55.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> the celestial hierarchy, according to Dionysius +Areopageta, the angels of Love hold the first +place, the angels of Light the second, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> +Thrones and Dominations the third. Among terrestrials, +the Intellects, which act through the imagination +upon the heart of man—<i>i. e.</i> poets and +artists—may be accounted first in order; the merely +scientific intellects the second; and the merely +ruling intellects—those which apply themselves to +the government of mankind, without the aid of +either science or imagination—will not be disparaged +if they are placed last.”</p> + +<p>All government, all exercise of power—no matter +in what form—which is not based in love and +directed by knowledge, is a tyranny. It is not of +God, and shall not stand.</p> + +<p>“A time will come when the operations of +charity will no longer be carried on by machinery, +relentless, ponderous, indiscriminate, but by human +creatures, watchful, tearful, considerate, and wise.”—<i>Westminster +Review.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-054.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="126" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>56.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">hose</span> writers who never go further into a subject +than is compatible with making what they say +indisputably clear to man, woman, and child, may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> +the lights of <i>this</i> age, but they will not be the lights +of <i>another</i>.”</p> + +<p class="tb">“It is not always necessary that truth should +take a bodily form,—a material palpable form. It is +sometimes better that it should dwell around us +spiritually, creating harmony,—sounding through +the air like the solemn sweet tone of a bell.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-055.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="210" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>57.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">omen</span> are inclined to fall in love with priests +and physicians, because of the help and comfort +they derive from both in perilous moral and +physical maladies. They believe in the presence of +real pity, real sympathy, where the tone and look of +each have become merely habitual and conventional,—I +may say professional. On the other hand, +women are inclined to fall in love with criminal and +miserable men out of the pity which in our sex is +akin to love, and out of the power of bestowing +comfort or love. “Car les femmes out un instinct +céleste pour le malheur.” So, in the first instance, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> +they love from gratitude or faith; in the last, from +compassion or hope.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-056-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="150" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>58.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“M</span><span class="smcap">en</span> of all countries,” says Sir James Mackintosh, +“appear to be more alike in their +best qualities than the pride of civilisation would be +willing to allow.”</p> + +<p>And in their <i>worst</i>. The distinction between +savage and civilised humanity lies not in the <i>qualities</i>, +but the <i>habits</i>.</p> + +<h5>59.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">oleridge</span> notices “the increase in modern times +of vicious associations with things in themselves indifferent,” +as a sign of unhealthiness in taste, in feeling, +in conscience.</p> + +<p>The truth of this remark is particularly illustrated +in the French literature of the last century.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-022-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="105" width="400" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span></p> + +<h5>60.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“A</span><span class="smcap">nd</span> yet the compensations of calamity are made +apparent to the understanding also after long +intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel +disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, +seems at the moment unpaid loss and unpayable, but +the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that +underlies all facts. The death of a dear friend, wife, +brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, +somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or +genius; for it commonly operates a revolution in +our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or +youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up +a wonted occupation, or a household, or a style of +living, and allows the formation of new influences +that prove of the first importance during the next +years.”—<i>Emerson.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-022-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="214" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>61.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">R</span><span class="smcap">eligion</span>, in its general sense, is properly the +comprehension and acknowledgment of an +unseen spiritual power and the soul’s allegiance to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> +it; and <span class="smcap">Christianity</span>, in its particular sense, is +the comprehension and appreciation of the personal +character of Christ, and the heart’s allegiance to +that.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-025.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="170" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>62.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap">varice</span> is to the intellect what <i>sensuality</i> is to the +morals. It is an intellectual form of sensuality, +inasmuch as it is the passion for the acquisition, the +enjoyment in the possession, of a palpable, tangible, +selfish pleasure; and it would have the same +tendency to unspiritualise, to degrade, and to harden +the higher faculties that a course of grosser sensualism +would have to corrupt the lower faculties. +Both dull the edge of all that is fine and tender +within us.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="112" width="300" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span></p> + +<h5>63.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="smcap">king</span> or a prince becomes by accident a part of +history. A poet or an artist becomes by +nature and necessity a part of universal humanity.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-059-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="89" width="350" /></div> + +<p>As what we call Genius arises out of the disproportionate +power and size of a certain faculty, so the +great difficulty lies in harmonising with it the rest of +the character.</p> + +<p>“Though it burn our house down, who does not +venerate fire?” says the Hindoo proverb.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-059-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="89" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>64.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap">n</span> elegant mind informing a graceful person is +like a spirit lamp in an alabaster vase, shedding +round its own softened radiance and heightening the +beauty of its medium. An elegant mind in a plain +ungraceful person is like the same lamp enclosed in a +vase of bronze; we may, if we approach near enough, +rejoice in its influence, though we may not behold +its radiance.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span></p> + +<h5>65.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">L</span><span class="smcap">andor</span>, in a passage I was reading to-day, speaks +of a language of criticism, in which qualities +should be graduated by colours; “as, for instance, +<i>purple</i> might express grandeur and majesty of +thought; <i>scarlet</i>, vigour of expression; <i>pink</i>, liveliness; +<i>green</i>, elegant and equable composition, and +so on.”</p> + +<p><i>Blue</i>, then, might express contemplative power? +<i>yellow</i>, wit? <i>violet</i>, tenderness? and so on.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-060-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="109" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>66.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">quoted</span> to <span class="smcap">A.</span> the saying of a sceptical philosopher: +“The world is but one enormous <span class="smcap">WILL</span>, +constantly rushing into life.”</p> + +<p>“Is that,” she responded quickly, “another new +name for God?”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-060-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="151" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>67.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="smcap">death-bed</span> repentance has become proverbial +for its fruitlessness, and a death-bed forgiveness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> +equally so. They who wait till their own death-bed +to make reparation, or till their adversary’s death-bed +to grant absolution, seem to me much upon a +par in regard to the moral, as well as the religious, +failure.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-018.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="184" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>68.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="smcap">character</span> endued with a large, vivacious, active +intellect and a limited range of sympathies, +generally remains immature. We can grow <i>wise</i> +only through the experience which reaches us +through our sympathies and becomes a part of our +life. All other experience may be gain, but it +remains in a manner extraneous, adds to our +possessions without adding to our strength, and +sharpens our implements without increasing our +capacity to use them.</p> + +<p class="tb">Not always those who have the quickest, keenest, +perception of character are the best to deal with it, +and perhaps for that very reason. Before we can +influence or deal with mind, contemplation must be +lost in sympathy, observation must be merged in +love.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-017-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="134" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>69.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="smcap">ontaigne</span>, in his eloquent tirade against melancholy, +observes that the Italians have the same +word, <i>Tristezza</i>, for melancholy and for malignity or +wickedness. The noun <i>Tristo</i>, “a wretch,” has the +double sense of our English word corresponding with +the French noun <i>misérable</i>. So Judas Iscariot is +called <i>quel tristo</i>. Our word “wretchedness” is not, +however, used in the double sense of <i>tristezza</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<p>“On ne considère pas assez les paroles comme des +faits:” that was well said!</p> + +<p>Since for the purpose of circulation and intercommunication +we are obliged to coin truth into +words, we should be careful not to adulterate the +coin, to keep it pure, and up to the original standard +of significance and value, that it may be reconvertible +into the truth it represents.</p> + +<p>If I use a term in a sense wherein I know it is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> +not understood by the person I address, then I am +guilty of using words (in so far as they represent +truth), if not to ensnare intentionally, yet to mislead +consciously; it is like adulterating coin.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<p>“Common people,” said Johnson, “do not accurately +adapt their words to their thoughts, nor their +thoughts to the objects;”—that is to say, they +neither apprehend truly nor speak truly—and in +this respect children, half-educated women, and ill-educated +men, are the “common people.”</p> + +<p>It is one of the most serious mistakes in Education +that we are not sufficiently careful to habituate children +to the accurate use of words. Accuracy of +language is one of the bulwarks of truth. If we +looked into the matter we should probably find that +all the varieties and modifications of conscious and +unconscious lying—as exaggeration, equivocation, +evasion, misrepresentation—might be traced to the +early misuse of words; therefore the contemptuous, +careless tone in which people say sometimes “words—words—mere +words!” is unthinking and unwise. +It tends to debase the value of that which is the only +medium of the inner life between man and man:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> “Nous +ne sommes hommes, et nous ne tenons les +uns aux autres, que par la parole,” said Montaigne.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-064.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="258" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>70.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“W</span><span class="smcap">e</span> are happy, good, tranquil, in proportion as +our inner life is accessible to the external life, +and in harmony with it. When we become dead to +the moving life of Nature around us, to the changes +of day and night (I do not speak here of the sympathetic +influences of our fellow-creatures), then we +may call ourselves philosophical, but we are surely +either bad or mad.”</p> + +<p>“Or perhaps only sad?”</p> + +<p class="tb">There are moments in the life of every contemplative +being, when the healing power of Nature +is felt—even as Wordsworth describes it—felt in +the blood, in every pulse along the veins. In such +moments converse, sympathy, the faces, the presence +of the dearest, come so near to us, they make us +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> +shrink; books, pictures, music, anything, any object +which has passed through the medium of mind, and +has been in a manner humanised, is felt as an intrusive +reflection of the busy, weary, thought-worn +self within us. Only Nature, speaking through no +interpreter, gently steals us out of our humanity, +giving us a foretaste of that more diffused disembodied +life which may hereafter be ours. Beautiful +and genial, and not wholly untrue, were the old +superstitions which placed a haunting divinity in +every grove, and heard a living voice responsive in +every murmuring stream.</p> + +<p class="tb">This present Sunday I set off with the others to +walk to church, but it was late; I could not keep +up with the pedestrians, and, not to delay them, +turned back. I wandered down the hill path to the +river brink, and crossed the little bridge and strolled +along, pensive yet with no definite or continuous +subject of thought. How beautiful it was—how +tranquil! not a cloud in the blue sky, not a breath +of air! “And where the dead leaf fell there did it +rest;” but so still it was that scarce a single leaf did +flutter or fall, though the narrow pathway along the +water’s edge was already encumbered with heaps of +decaying foliage. Everywhere around, the autumnal +tints prevailed, except in one sheltered place under +the towering cliff, where a single tree, a magnificent +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span> +lime, still flourished in summer luxuriance, with not +a leaf turned or shed. I stood still opposite, looking +on it quietly for a long time. It seemed to me a +happy tree, so fresh and fair and grand, as if its +guardian Dryad would not suffer it to be defaced. +Then I turned, for close beside me sounded the soft, +interrupted, half-suppressed warble of a bird, sitting +on a leafless spray, which seemed to bend with its +tiny weight. Some lines which I used to love in +my childhood came into my mind, blending softly +with the presences around me.</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“The little bird now to salute the morn</span> +<span class="i0">Upon the naked branches sets her foot,</span> +<span class="i0">The leaves still lying at the mossy root,</span> +<span class="i0">And there a silly chirruping doth keep,</span> +<span class="i0">As if she fain would sing, yet fain would weep;</span> +<span class="i0">Praising fair summer that too soon is gone,</span> +<span class="i0">And sad for winter, too soon coming on!” <i>Drayton.</i></span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>The river, where I stood, taking an abrupt turn, +ran wimpling by; not as I had seen it but a few +days before,—rolling tumultuously, the dead leaves +whirling in its eddies, swollen and turbid with the +mountain torrents, making one think of the kelpies, +the water wraiths, and such uncanny things,—but +gentle, transparent, and flashing in the low sunlight; +even the barberries, drooping with rich crimson +clusters over the little pools near the bank, and reflected +in them as in a mirror, I remember vividly as +a part of the exquisite loveliness which seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> +melt into my life. For such moments we are grateful: +we feel then what God <i>can</i> do for us, and what +man can not.—<i>Carolside, November 5th, 1843.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="112" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>71.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> the early ages of faith, the spirit of Christianity +glided into and gave a new significance +to the forms of heathenism. It was not the forms of +heathenism which encrusted and overlaid the spirit of +Christianity, for in that case the spirit would have +burst through such extraneous formulæ, and set them +aside at once and for ever.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-038-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="186" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>72.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">Q</span><span class="smcap">uestions</span>. In the execution of the penal statutes, +can the individual interest of the convict be re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span>conciled +with the interest of society? or must the +good of the convict and the good of society be considered +as inevitably and necessarily opposed?—the +one sacrificed to the other, and at the best only a +compromise possible?</p> + +<p>This is a question pending at present, and will +require wise heads to decide it? How would Christ +have decided it? When He set the poor accused +woman free, was He considering the good of the culprit +or the good of society? and how far are we +bound to follow His example? If He consigned +the wicked to weeping and gnashing of teeth, was it +for atonement or retribution, punishment or penance? +and how far are we bound to follow His example?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-023-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="138" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>73.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">marked</span> the following passage in Montaigne as +most curiously applicable to the present times, in +so far as our religious contests are concerned; and I +leave it in his quaint old French.</p> + +<p>“C’est un effet de la Providence divine de permettre +sa saincte Eglise être agitée, comme nous la +voyons, de tant de troubles et d’orages, pour éveiller<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> +par ce contraste les âmes pies et les ravoir de +l’oisiveté et du sommeil ou les avail plongées une si +longue tranquillité. Si nous contrepèsons la perte +que nous avons faite par le nombre de ceux qui se +sont dévoyés, au gain qui nous vient par nous être +remis en haleine, ressuscité notre zêle et nos forces à +l’occasion de ce combat, je ne sais si l’utilité ne surmonte +point le dommage.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-059-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="89" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>74.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">hey</span> (the friends of Cassius) were divided in +opinion,—some holding that servitude was +the extreme of evils, and others that tyranny was +better than civil war.”</p> + +<p>Unhappy that nation, wherever it may be, where +the question is yet pending between servitude and +civil war! such a nation might be driven to solve +the problem after the manner of Cassius—with the +dagger’s point.</p> + +<p>“Surely,” said Moore, “it is wrong for the lovers +of liberty to identify the principle of resistance to +power with such an odious person as the devil!”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-027.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="132" width="400" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span></p> + +<h5>75.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“W</span><span class="smcap">here</span> the the question is of a great deal of good +to ensue from a small injustice, men must +pursue the things which are just in present, and leave +the future to Divine Providence.”</p> + +<p>This so simple rule of right is seldom attended to +as a rule of life till we are placed in some strait in +which it is forced upon us.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-011.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="203" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>76.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="smcap">woman’s</span> patriotism is more of a sentiment than +a man’s,—more passionate: it is only an extension +of the domestic affections, and with her <i>la +patrie</i> is only an enlargement of <i>home</i>. In the same +manner, a woman’s idea of fame is always a more +extended sympathy, and is much more of a presence +than an anticipation. To her the voice of fame is +only the echo—fainter and more distant—of the +voice of love.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-023-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="124" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span></p> + +<h5>77.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“L</span><span class="smcap">a</span> doute s’introduit dans l’âme qui rêve, la foi +descend dans l’âme qui souffre.”</p> + +<p>The reverse is equally true,—and judging from +my own experience, I should say oftener true.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-049.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="126" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>78.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“L</span><span class="smcap">a</span> curiosité est si voisine à la perfidie qu’elle +peut enlaidir les plus beaux visages.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-012-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="228" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>79.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> I told Tieck of the death of Coleridge (I +had just received the sad but not unexpected +news in a letter from England), he exclaimed with +emotion, “A great spirit has passed away from the +earth, and has left no adequate memorial of its greatness.” +Speaking of him afterwards he said, “Coleridge +possessed the creative and inventive spirit of +poetry, not the productive; he <i>thought</i> too much to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> +produce,—the analytical power interfered with the +genius: Others with more active faculties seized and +worked out his magnificent hints and ideas. Walter +Scott and Lord Byron borrowed the first idea of the +form and spirit of their narrative poems from +Coleridge’s ‘Christabelle.’” This judgment of one +great poet and critic passed on another seemed to me +worth preserving.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-032-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="207" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>80.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">oleridge</span> says, “In politics what begins in fear +usually ends in folly.”</p> + +<p>He might have gone farther, and added: In morals +what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness. In +religion what begins in fear usually ends in fanaticism. +Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the +beginning of all evil.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p>In another place he says,—</p> + +<p>“Talent lying in the understanding is often inherited; +genius, being the action of reason and +imagination, rarely or never.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span></p> + +<p>There seems confusion here, for genius lies not +in the amount of intellect—it is a quality of the +intellect apart from quantity. And the distinction +between talent and genius is definite. Talent combines +and uses; genius combines and creates.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p>Of Sara Coleridge, Mr. Kenyon said very truly +and beautifully, “that like her father she had +the controversial <i>intellect</i> without the controversial +<i>spirit</i>.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-073-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="226" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>81.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">e</span> all remember the famous <i>bon mot</i> of Talleyrand. +When seated between Madame de Staël and +Madame Récamier, and pouring forth gallantry, first +at the feet of one, then of the other, Madame de Staël +suddenly asked him if she and Madame Récamier +fell into the river, which of the two he would save +first? “Madame,” replied Talleyrand, “je crois que +vous savez nager!” Now we will match this +pretty <i>bon mot</i> with one far prettier, and founded on +it. Prince S., whom I knew formerly, was one day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> +loitering on the banks of the Isar, in the English +garden at Munich, by the side of the beautiful +Madame de V., then the object of his devoted admiration. +For a while he had been speaking to her +of his mother, for whom, <i>vaurien</i> as he was, he +had ever shown the strongest filial love and respect. +Afterwards, as they wandered on, he began to pour +forth his soul to the lady of his love with all the +eloquence of passion. Suddenly she turned and said +to him, “If your mother and myself were both to +fall into this river, whom would you save first?” +“My mother!” he instantly replied; and then, looking +at her expressively, immediately added, “To +save <i>you</i> first would be as if I were to save <i>myself</i> +first!”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>82.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">f</span> we were not always bringing ourselves into +comparison with others, we should know them +better.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="185" width="300" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span></p> + +<h5>83.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">here</span> are ways of governing every mind which +lies within the circle described by our own; +the only question is, whether the means required be +such as we <i>can</i> use? and if so, whether we shall +think it right to do so?</p> + +<p class="tb">You think I do not know you, or that I mistake +you utterly, because I am actuated by the impulses +of my own nature, rather than by my perception of +the impulses of yours? It is not so.</p> + +<p class="tb">If we would retain our own consistency, without +which there is no moral strength, we must stand +firm upon our own moral life.</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Be true unto thyself;</span> +<span class="i05">And it shall follow as the night to day,</span> +<span class="i05">Thou canst not then be false to any man.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>But to be true to others as well as ourselves, is +not merely to allow to them the same independence, +but to sympathise with it. Unhappily here lies the +chief difficulty. There are brains so large that they +unconsciously swamp all individualities which come +in contact or too near, and brains so small that they +cannot take in the conception of any other individuality +as a whole, only in part or parts. As in +Religion, where there is a strong, sincere, definite +faith, there is generally more or less intolerance; so +in character, where there is strong individuality,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> +self-assurance, and defined principles of action, there +is usually something hard and intolerant of the individuality +of others. In some characters we meet +with, toleration is a principle of the reason, and +intolerance a quality of the mind, and then the +whole being strikes a discord.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-012-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="125" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>84.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">f</span> we can still love those who have made us suffer, +we love them all the more. It is as if the principle, +that conflict is a necessary law of progress, +were applicable even to love. For there is no love +like that which has roused up the intensest feelings +of our nature,—revealed us to ourselves, like lightning +suddenly disclosing an abyss,—yet has survived +all the storm and tumult of such passionate discord +and all the terror of such a revelation.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-029-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="136" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>85.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">F</span> <span class="smcap">has</span> much, much to learn! Through power, +through passion, through feeling we do much, but +only through observation, reflection, and sympathy +we learn much; hence it is that minds highly gifted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> +often remain immature. Artist minds especially, so +long as they live only or chiefly for their art, their +faculties bent on creating or representing, remain +immature on one side—the reasoning and reflecting +side of the character.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-002.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="163" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>86.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="smcap">aid</span> a Frenchman of his adversary, “Il se croit +supérieur à moi de toute la hauteur de sa bêtise!” +There is a mingled felicity, politeness, and acrimony, +in this phrase quite untranslatable.</p> + +<h5>87.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> is a pity that we have no words to express the +French distinction between <i>rêver</i> and <i>rêvasser</i>. +The one implies meditation on a definite subject: the +other the abandonment of the mind to vague discussion, +aimless thoughts.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><img src="images/illus-077-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="213" width="450" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span></p> + +<h5>88.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> seems to me that the conversation of the first +converser in the world would <i>tire</i> me, <i>pall</i> on me +at last, where I am not sure of the sincerity. Talk +without truth is the hollow brass; talk without love +is like the tinkling cymbal, and where it does not +tinkle it gingles, and where it does not gingle, it jars.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-078.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="215" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>89.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">here</span> are few things more striking, more interesting +to a thoughtful mind, than to trace +through all the poetry, literature, and art of the +Middle Ages that broad ever-present distinction between +the practical and the contemplative life. This +was, no doubt, suggested and kept in view by the one +grand division of the whole social community into +those who were devoted to the religious profession +(an immense proportion of both sexes) and those who +were not. All through Dante, all through the +productions of mediæval art, we find this pervading +idea; and we must understand it well and keep +it in mind, or we shall never be able to apprehend +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> +the entire beauty and meaning of certain +religious groups in sculpture and painting, and the +significance of the characters introduced. Thus, +in subjects from the Old Testament, Leah always +represents the practical, Rachel, the contemplative +life. In the New Testament, Martha and Mary +figure in the same allegorical sense; and among +the saints we always find St. Catharine and St. +Clara patronising the religious and contemplative +life, while St. Barbara and St. Ursula preside +over the military or secular existence. It was +a part, and a very important part, of that beautiful +and expressive symbolism through which art in all +its forms spoke to the popular mind.</p> + +<p>For myself, I have the strongest admiration for +the <i>practical</i>, but the strongest sympathy with the +<i>contemplative</i> life. I bow to Leah and to Martha, +but my love is for Rachel and for Mary.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-079.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="134" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>90.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">B</span><span class="smcap">ettina</span> does not describe nature, she informs it, +with her own life: she seems to live in the elements, +to exist in the fire, the air, the water, like a +sylph, a gnome, an elf; she does not contemplate +nature, she <i>is</i> nature; she is like the bird in the air,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> +the fish in the sea, the squirrel in the wood. It is +one thing to describe nature, and quite another unconsciously +so to inform nature with a portion of our +own life.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-022-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="105" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>91.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">J</span><span class="smcap">oanna Baillie</span> had a great admiration of Macaulay’s +Roman Ballads. “But,” said some +one, “do you really account them as poetry?” She +replied, “They <i>are</i> poetry if the sounds of the +trumpet be music!”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>92.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap">ll</span> my own experience of life teaches me the +<i>contempt</i> of cunning, not the <i>fear</i>. The phrase +“profound cunning” has always seemed to me a +contradiction in terms. I never knew a cunning +mind which was not either shallow, or on some point +diseased. People dissemble sometimes who yet hate +dissembling, but a “cunning mind” emphatically +delights in its own cunning, and is the ready prey +of cunning. That “pleasure in deceiving and aptness +to be deceived” usually go together, was one of +the wise sayings of the wisest of men.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-007.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="265" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>93.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> was a saying of Paracelsus, that “Those who +would understand the course of the heavens above +must first of all recognise the heaven in man:” +meaning, I suppose, that all pursuit of knowledge +which is not accompanied by praise of God and love +of our fellow-creatures must turn to bitterness, +emptiness, foolishness. We must imagine him to +have come to this conclusion only late in life.</p> + +<p>Browning, in that wonderful poem of Paracelsus,—a +poem in which there is such a profound +far-seeing philosophy, set forth with such a luxuriance +of illustration and imagery, and such a wealth +of glorious eloquence, that I know nothing to be +compared with it since Goethe and Wordsworth,—represents +his aspiring philosopher as at first impelled +solely by the appetite to <i>know</i>. He asks +nothing of men, he despises them; but he will serve +them, raise them, after a sort of God-like fashion, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> +independent of their sympathy, scorning their applause, +using them like instruments, cheating them +like children,—all for their good; but it will not do. +In Aprile, “who would love infinitely, and be beloved,” +is figured the type of the poet-nature, desiring +only beauty, resolving all into beauty; while +in Paracelsus we have the type of the reflecting, the +inquiring mind desiring only knowledge, resolving +all into knowledge, asking nothing more to crown +his being. And both find out their mistake; both +come to feel that love without knowledge is blind +and weak, and knowledge without love barren and +vain.</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“I too have sought to <span class="smcap">know</span> as thou to <span class="smcap">LOVE</span>,</span> +<span class="i0">Excluding love as thou refused’st knowledge;</span> +<span class="i0">Still thou hast beauty and I power. We wake!</span> +<span class="i0"><span class="gesperrt"><sub> *****</sub></span></span> +<span class="i0">“Are we not halves of one dissever’d world,</span> +<span class="i0">Whom this strange chance unites once more? Part?—Never!</span> +<span class="i0">Till thou, the lover, know, and I, the knower,</span> +<span class="i0">Love—until both are saved!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>After all, perhaps, only the same old world-renowned +myth in another form—the marriage of +Cupid and Psyche; Love and Intelligence long +parted, long suffering, again embracing, and lighted +on by Beauty to an immortal union. But to return +to our poet. Aprile, exhausted by his own aimless, +dazzling visions, expires on the bosom of him who +knows; and Paracelsus, who began with a self +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> +sufficing scorn of his kind, dies a baffled and degraded +man in the arms of him who loves;—yet +wiser in his fall than through his aspirations, he dies +trusting in the progress of humanity so long as +humanity is content to be <i>human</i>; to <i>love</i> as well +as to <i>know</i>;—to fear, to hope, to worship, as well as +to aspire.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-048.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="274" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>94.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">L</span><span class="smcap">ord Bacon</span> says: “I like a plantation (in the +sense of colony) in a <i>pure</i> soil; that is, where +people are not displanted to the end to plant in +others: for else it is rather an extirpation than a +plantation.” (Bacon, who wrote this, counselled to +James I. the plantation of Ulster exactly on the +principle he has here deprecated.)</p> + +<p>He adds, “It is a shameful and unblessed thing to +take the scum of people, and wicked condemned men, +to be the people with whom you plant” (<i>i. e.</i> colonise). +And it is only now that our politicians are +beginning to discover and act upon this great moral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> +truth and obvious fitness of things!—like Bacon, +adopting practically, and from mere motives of expediency, +a principle they would theoretically abjure!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="185" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>95.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">B</span><span class="smcap">ecause</span> in real life we cannot, or do not, reconcile +the high theory with the low practice, +we use our wit to render the theory ridiculous, and +our reason to reconcile us to the practice. We ought +to do just the reverse.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p>Many would say, if they spoke the truth, that it +had cost them a life-long effort to unlearn what they +had been taught.</p> + +<p>For as the eye becomes blinded by fashion to +positive deformity, so through social conventionalism +the conscience becomes blinded to positive +immorality.</p> + +<p>It is fatal in any mind to make the moral standard +for men high and the moral standard for women low, +or <i>vice versâ</i>. This has appeared to me the very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> +commonest of all mistakes in men and women who +have lived much in the world, but <i>fatal</i> nevertheless, +and in three ways; first, as distorting the moral +ideal, so far as it exists in the conscience; secondly, +as perplexing the bounds, practically, of right and +wrong; thirdly, as being at variance with the spirit +and principles of Christianity. Admit these premises, +and it follows inevitably that such a mistake +is <i>fatal</i> in the last degree, as disturbing the consistency +and the elevation of the character, morally, +practically, religiously.</p> + +<p class="tb">Akin to this mistake, or identical with it, is the +belief that there are essential masculine and feminine +virtues and vices. It is not, in fact, the quality +itself, but the modification of the quality, which is +masculine or feminine: and on the manner or degree +in which these are balanced and combined in the +individual, depends the perfection of that individual +character—its approximation to that of Christ. +I firmly believe that as the influences of religion are +extended, and as civilisation advances, those qualities +which are now admired as essentially <i>feminine</i> will be +considered as essentially <i>human</i>, such as gentleness, +purity, the more unselfish and spiritual sense of +duty, and the dominance of the affections over the +passions. This is, perhaps, what Buffon, speaking +as a naturalist, meant, when he said that with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> +progress of humanity, “<i>Les races se féminisent</i>;” +at least I understand the phrase in this sense.</p> + +<p class="tb">A man who requires from his own sex manly +direct truth, and laughs at the cowardly subterfuges +and small arts of women as being <i>feminine</i>;—a +woman who requires from her own sex tenderness +and purity, and thinks ruffianism and sensuality +pardonable in a man as being <i>masculine</i>,—these +have repudiated the Christian standard of morals +which Christ, in his own person, bequeathed to us—that +standard which we have accepted as Christians—theoretically +at least—and which makes no distinction +between “the highest, holiest manhood,” +and the highest, holiest womanhood.</p> + +<p>I might illustrate this position not only scripturally +but philosophically, by quoting the axiom of +the Greek philosopher Antisthenes, the disciple of +Socrates,—“The virtue of the man and the woman +is the same;” which shows a perception of the moral +truth, a sort of anticipation of the Christian doctrine, +even in the pagan times. But I prefer an +illustration which is at once practical and poetical, +and plain to the most prejudiced among men or +women.</p> + +<p>Every reader of Wordsworth will recollect, if he +does not know by heart, the poem entitled “The +Happy Warrior.” It has been quoted often as an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> +epitome of every manly, soldierly, and elevated +quality. I have heard it applied to the Duke of +Wellington. Those who make the experiment of +merely substituting the word <i>woman</i> for the word +<i>warrior</i>, and changing the feminine for the masculine +pronoun, will find that it reads equally well; +that almost from beginning to end it is literally +as applicable to the one sex as to the other. As +thus:—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0 padl1">CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WOMAN.</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">Who is the happy <i>woman</i>? Who is <i>she</i></span> +<span class="i0">That every <i>woman</i> born should wish to be?</span> +<span class="i0">It is the generous spirit, who, when brought</span> +<span class="i0">Among the tasks of real life, had wrought</span> +<span class="i0">Upon the plan that pleased <i>her</i> childish thought;</span> +<span class="i0">Whose high endeavours are an inward light,</span> +<span class="i0">That make the path before <i>her</i> always bright:</span> +<span class="i0">Who, with a natural instinct to discern</span> +<span class="i0">What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn;</span> +<span class="i0">Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,</span> +<span class="i0">But makes <i>her</i> moral being <i>her</i> prime care;</span> +<span class="i0">Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,</span> +<span class="i0">And Fear, and Sorrow, miserable train!</span> +<span class="i0">Turns <i>that</i> necessity to glorious gain;</span> +<span class="i0">In face of these doth exercise a power</span> +<span class="i0">Which is our human nature’s highest dower:</span> +<span class="i0">Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves</span> +<span class="i0">Of their bad influence, and their good receives;</span> +<span class="i0">By objects, which might force the soul to abate</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Her</i> feeling, rendered more compassionate;</span> +<span class="i0">Is placable—because occasions rise</span> +<span class="i0">So often that demand such sacrifice;</span> +<span class="i0">More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure</span> +<span class="i0">As tempted more; more able to endure,</span> +<span class="i0"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span></span> +<span class="i0">As more exposed to suffering and distress;</span> +<span class="i0">Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.</span> +<span class="i0">’Tis <i>she</i> whose law is reason; who depends</span> +<span class="i0">Upon that law as on the best of friends;</span> +<span class="i0">Whence in a state where men are tempted still</span> +<span class="i0">To evil for a guard against worse ill,</span> +<span class="i0">And what in quality or act is best,</span> +<span class="i0">Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,</span> +<span class="i0"><i>She</i> fixes good on good alone, and owes</span> +<span class="i0">To virtue every triumph that <i>she</i> knows.</span> +<span class="i0">Who, if <i>she</i> rise to station of command,</span> +<span class="i0">Rises by open means; and there will stand</span> +<span class="i0">On honourable terms, or else retire.</span> +<span class="i0 padt05"><span class="gesperrt"> *****</span></span> +<span class="i0">Who comprehends <i>her</i> trust, and to the same</span> +<span class="i0">Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;</span> +<span class="i0">And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait</span> +<span class="i0">For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state;</span> +<span class="i0">Whom they must follow; on whose head must fall</span> +<span class="i0">Like showers of manna, if they come at all:</span> +<span class="i0">Whose powers shed round <i>her</i> in the common strife</span> +<span class="i0">Or mild concerns of ordinary life,</span> +<span class="i0">A constant influence, a peculiar grace;</span> +<span class="i0">But who, if <i>she</i> be called upon to face</span> +<span class="i0">Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined</span> +<span class="i0">Great issue, good or bad for human kind,</span> +<span class="i0">Is happy as a lover; and attired</span> +<span class="i0">With sudden brightness, like to one inspired;</span> +<span class="i0">And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law</span> +<span class="i0">In calmness made, and sees what <i>she</i> foresaw;</span> +<span class="i0">Or if an unexpected call succeed,</span> +<span class="i0">Come when it will, is equal to the need!</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>In all these fifty-six lines there is only one line +which cannot be feminised in its significance,—that +which I have filled up with asterisks, and which is +totally at variance with our ideal of <span class="smcap">A Happy +Woman</span>. It is the line—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span></p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“And in himself possess his own desire.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>No woman could exist happily or virtuously in +such complete independence of all external affections +as these words express. “Her desire is to her husband,”—this +is the sort of subjection prophesied for +the daughters of Eve. A woman doomed to exist +without this earthly rest for her affections, does not +“in herself possess her own desire;” she turns +towards God; and if she does not make her life a +life of worship, she makes it a life of charity, (which +in itself is worship,) or she dies a spiritual and a +moral death. Is it much better with the man who +concentrates his aspirations in himself? I should +think not.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p>Swift, as a man and a writer, is one of those who +had least sympathy with women; and I have sometimes +thought that the exaggeration, even to morbidity, +of the coarse and the cruel in his character, +arose from this want of sympathy; but his strong +sense showed him the one great moral truth as +regards the two sexes, and gave him the courage to +avow it.</p> + +<p>He says, “I am ignorant of any one quality that +is amiable in a woman which is not equally so in a +man. I do not except even modesty and gentleness +of nature; nor do I know one vice or folly which is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> +not equally detestable in both.” Then, remarking +that cowardice is an <i>infirmity</i> generally allowed to +women, he wonders that they should fancy it becoming +or graceful, or think it worth improving by +affectation, particularly as it is generally allied to +cruelty.</p> + +<p class="tb">Here is a passage from one of Humboldt’s letters, +which I have seen quoted with sympathy and admiration, +as applied to the manly character only:—</p> + +<p>“Masculine independence of mind I hold to be +in reality the first requisite for the formation of a +character of real manly worth. The man who suffers +himself to be deceived and carried away by his own +weakness, may be a very amiable person in other +respects, but cannot be called a good man; such +beings should not find favour in the eyes of a woman, +for a truly beautiful and purely feminine nature +should be attracted only by what is highest and +noblest in the character of man.”</p> + +<p class="tb">Now we will take this bit of moral philosophy, +and, without the slightest alteration of the context, +apply it to the female character.</p> + +<p>“Feminine independence of mind I hold to be +in reality the first requisite for the formation of a +character of real feminine worth. The woman who +allows herself to be deceived and carried away by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> +her own weakness may be a very amiable person in +other respects, but cannot be called a good woman; +such beings should not find favour in the eyes of a +man, for the truly beautiful and purely manly nature +should be attracted only by what is highest and +noblest in the character of woman.”</p> + +<p class="tb">After reading the above extracts, does it not seem +clear, that by the exclusive or emphatic use of certain +phrases and epithets, as more applicable to one sex +than to the other, we have introduced a most un-christian +confusion into the conscience, and have +prejudiced it early against the acceptance of the +larger truth?</p> + +<p>It might seem, that where we reject the distinction +between masculine and feminine virtues, one +and the same type of perfection should suffice for +the two sexes; yet it is clear that the moment we +come to consider the personality, the same type will +not suffice: and it is worth consideration that when +we place before us the highest type of manhood, as +exemplified in Christ, we do not imagine him as the +father, but as the son; and if we think of the most +perfect type of womanhood, we never can exclude +the mother.</p> + +<p class="tb">Montaigne deals with the whole question in his +own homely straightforward fashion:—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span></p> + +<p>“Je dis que les mâles et les fémelles sont jettés en +même moule; sauf l’institution et l’usage la différence +n’y est pas grande. Platon appelle indifféremment +les uns et les autres à la société de touts études, +exercises, charges, et vocations guerrières et paisibles +en sa république, et le philosophe Antisthènes ôtait +toute distinction entre leur vertu et la nôtre. Il est +bien plus aisé d’accuser un sexe que d’excuser +l’autre: c’est ce qu’on dit, ‘le fourgon se moque de +la poële.’”</p> + +<p>Not that I agree with Plato,—rather would +leave all the fighting, military and political, if there +must be fighting, to the men.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p>Among the absurdities talked about women, one +hears, perhaps, such an aphorism as the following +quoted with a sort of ludicrous complacency,—“The +woman’s strength consists in her weakness!” as if it +were not the weakness of a woman which makes her +in her violence at once so aggravating and so contemptible, +in her dissimulation at once so shallow +and so dangerous, and in her vengeance at once so +cowardly and so cruel.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p>I should not say, from my experience of my own +sex, that a woman’s nature is flexible and impressible,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> +though her feelings are. I know very few instances +of a very inferior man ruling the mind of a superior +woman, whereas I know twenty—fifty—of a very +inferior woman ruling a superior man. If he love +her, the chances are that she will in the end weaken +and demoralise him. If a superior woman marry a +vulgar or inferior man he makes her miserable, but +he seldom governs her mind, or vulgarises her +nature, and if there be love on his side the chances +are that in the end she will elevate and refine him.</p> + +<p>The most dangerous man to a woman is a man of +high intellectual endowments morally perverted; for +in a woman’s nature there is such a necessity to +approve where she admires, and to believe where +she loves,—a devotion compounded of love and +faith is so much a part of her being,—that while +the instincts remain true and the feelings uncorrupted, +the conscience and the will may both be led +far astray. Thus fell “our general mother,”—type +of her sex,—overpowered, rather than deceived, by +the colossal intellect,—half serpent, half angelic.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p>Coleridge speaks, and with a just indignant +scorn, of those who consider chastity as if it were a +<i>thing</i>—a thing which might be lost or kept by +external accident—a thing of which one might be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> +robbed, instead of a state of being. According to +law and custom, the chastity of Woman is as the +property of Man, to whom she is accountable for it, +rather than to God and her own conscience. Whatever +people may say, such is the common, the social, +the legal view of the case. It is a remnant of +Oriental barbarism. It tends to much vice, or, at +the best, to a low standard of morality, in both +sexes. This idea of property in the woman survives +still in our present social state, particularly among +the lower orders, and is one cause of the ill treatment +of wives. All those who are particularly +acquainted with the manners and condition of the +people will testify to this; namely, that when a +child or any weaker individual is ill treated, those +standing by will interfere and protect the victim; +but if the sufferer be <i>the wife</i> of the oppressor, it is a +point of etiquette to look on, to take no part in the +fray, and to leave the brute man to do what he likes +“with his own.” Even the victim herself, if she be +not pummelled to death, frequently deprecates such +an interference with the dignity and the rights of +her owner. Like the poor woman in the “Médecin +malgré lui:”—“Voyez un peu cet impertinent qui +vent empêcher les maris de battre leurs femmes!—et +si je veux qu’il me batte, moi?”—and so ends by +giving her defender a box on the ear.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span></p> + +<p>“Au milieu de tous les obstacles que la nature et +la société out semés sur les pas de la femme, la seule +condition de repos pour elle est de s’entourer de +barrières que les passions ne puissent franchir; incapable +de s’approprier l’existence, elle est toujours +semblable a la Chinoise dont les pieds ont été mutilés +et pour laquelle toute liberté est un leurre, toute +espace ouverte une cause de chute. En attendant +que l’éducation ait donné aux femmes leur véritable +place, malheur à celles qui brisent les lisses accoutumées! +pour elles l’indépendance ne sera, comme la +gloire, qu’un deuil éclatant du bonheur!”—<i>B. +Constant.</i></p> + +<p>This also is one of those common-places of well-sounding +eloquence, in which a fallacy is so wrapt +up in words we have to dig it out. If this be true, +it is true only so long as you compress the feet and +compress the intellect,—no longer.</p> + +<p>Here is another:—</p> + +<p>“L’expérience lui avait appris que quel que fut +leur âge, ou leur caractère, toutes les femmes vivaient +avec le même rêve, et qu’elles avaient toutes au fond +du cœur un roman commencé dont elles attendaient +jusqu’à la mort le héros, comme les juifs attendent +le Messie.”</p> + +<p>This “roman commencé,” (et qui ne finit jamais), +is true as regards women who are idle, and who have +not replaced dreams by duties. And what are the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> +“barrières” which passion cannot overleap, from the +moment it has subjugated the will? How fine, how +true that scene in Calderon’s “Magico Prodigioso,” +where Justina conquers the fiend only by not <i>consenting</i> +to ill!</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">——“This agony</span> +<span class="i0">Of passion which afflicts my heart and soul</span> +<span class="i0">May sweep imagination in its storm;</span> +<span class="i0">The will is firm.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>And the baffled demon shrinks back,—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Woman, thou hast subdued me</span> +<span class="i0">Only by not owning thyself subdued!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-011.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="203" width="300" /></div> + +<p>A friend of mine was once using some mincing +elegancies of language to describe a high degree of +moral turpitude, when a man near her interposed, +with stern sarcasm, “Speak out! Give things their +proper names! <i>Half words are the perdition of +women!</i>”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<p>“I observe,” said Sydney Smith, “that <i>generally</i> +about the age of forty, women get tired of being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> +virtuous and men of being honest.” This was said +and received with a laugh as one of his good things; +but, like many of his good things, how dreadfully +true! And why? because, <i>generally</i>, education has +made the virtue of the woman and the honesty of the +man a matter of external opinion, not a law of the +inward life.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<p>Dante, in his lowest hell, has placed those who +have betrayed women; and in the lowest deep of the +lowest deep those who have betrayed trust.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<p>Inveterate sensuality, which has the effect of +utterly stupifying and brutifying lower minds, gives +to natures more sensitively or more powerfully organised +a horrible dash of ferocity. For there is +an awful relation between animal blood-thirstiness +and the proneness to sensuality, and in some sensualists +a sort of feline propensity to torment and +lacerate the prey they have not the appetite to +devour.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span></p> + +<p>“La Chevalerie faisait une tentative qui n’a +jamais réussi, quoique souvent essayée; la tentative +de se servir des passions humaines, et particulièrement +de l’amour pour conduire l’homme à la vertu. +Dans cette route l’homme s’arrête toujours en chemin. +L’amour inspire beaucoup de bons sentiments—le +courage, le dévouement, le sacrifice des biens et de la +vie; mais il ne se sacrifie pas lui-même, et c’est là +que la faiblesse humaine reprend ses droits.”—<i>St. +Marc-Girardin.</i></p> + +<p class="tb">I am not sure that this well-sounding remark is +true—or, if true, it is true of the mere passion, +not of love in its highest phase, which is self-sacrificing, +which has its essence in the capability of +self-sacrifice.</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">“Love was given,</span> +<span class="i1">Encouraged, sanctioned, chiefly for this end;</span> +<span class="i0">For this the passion to excess was driven,</span> +<span class="i1">That <i>self</i> might be annull’d.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<p>In every mind where there is a strong tendency +to fear, there is a strong capacity to hate. Those +who dwell in fear dwell next door to hate; and I +think it is the cowardice of women which makes +them such intense haters.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<p>Our present social opinion says to the man, “You +may be a vulgar brutal sensualist, and use the basest +means to attain the basest ends; but so long as you +do not offend against conventional good manners you +shall be held blameless.” And to the woman it says, +“You shall be guilty of nothing but of yielding to +the softest impulses of tenderness, of relenting pity; +but if you cannot add hypocrisy you shall be +punished as the most desperate criminal.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-055.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="210" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>96.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> is worthy of notice that the external expressions +appropriated to certain feelings undergo change +at different periods of life and in different constitutions. +The child cries and sobs from fear or pain, +the adult more generally from sudden grief or warm +affection, or sympathy with the feeling of others.”—<i>Dr. +Holland.</i></p> + +<p>Those who have been accustomed to observe the +ways of children will doubt the accuracy of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> +remark, though from the high authority of one of +the most accomplished physiologists of our time. +Children cry from grief, and from sympathy with +grief, at a very early age. I have seen an infant in +its mother’s arms, before it could speak, begin to +whimper and cry when it looked up in her face, +which was disturbed and bathed with tears; and that +has always appeared to me an exquisite touch of +most truthful nature in Wordsworth’s description of +the desolation of Margaret:—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">“Her little child</span> +<span class="i0">Had from its mother caught the trick of grief,</span> +<span class="i0">And sighed amid its playthings.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-060-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="151" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>97.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“L</span><span class="smcap">etters,”</span> said Sir James Mackintosh, “must +not be on a subject. Lady Mary Wortley’s +letters on her journey to Constantinople are an admirable +book of travels, but they are not letters. A +meeting to discuss a question of science is not conversation, +nor are papers written to another to +inform or discuss, letters. Conversation is relaxation, +not business, and must never appear to be occupation;—nor +must letters.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span></p> + +<p>“A masculine character may be a defect in a +female, but a masculine genius is still a praise to a +writer of whatever sex. The feminine graces of +Madame de Sevigné’s genius are exquisitely charming, +but the philosophy and eloquence of Madame de +Staël are above the distinctions of sex.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-046.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="181" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>98.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span><span class="smcap">f</span> the wars between Napoleon and the Holy +Alliance, Madame de Staël once said with most +admirable and prophetic sense:—“It is a contest +between a <i>man</i> who is the enemy of liberty, and a +<i>system</i> which is equally its enemy.” But it is easier +to get rid of a man than of a system: witness the +Russians, who assassinate their czars one after another, +but cannot get rid of their <i>system</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-023-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="138" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>99.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> Empress Elizabeth of Russia during the war +with Sweden commanded the old Hetman of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> +the Cossacks to come to court on his way to Finland. +“If the Emperor, your father,” said the Hetman, +“had taken my advice, your Majesty would not now +have been annoyed by the Swedes.” “What was +your advice?” asked the Empress. “To put all the +nobility to death, and transplant the people into +Russia.” “But that,” said the Empress, “would +have been cruel!” “I do not see that,” he replied +quietly; “they are all dead now, and they would +only have been dead if my advice had been taken.”</p> + +<p>Something strangely comprehensive and unanswerable +in this barbarian logic!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-002.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="163" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>100.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> was the Abbé Boileau who said of the Jesuits, +that they had lengthened the Creed and shortened +the Decalogue. The same witty ecclesiastic +being asked why he always wrote in Latin, took a +pinch of snuff, and answered gravely, “Why, for +fear the bishops should read me!”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span></p> + +<h5>101.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> Talleyrand once visited a certain reprobate +friend of his, who was ill of cholera, the +patient exclaimed in his agony, “Je sens les tourmens +de l’enfer!”</p> + +<p>“Déjà?” said Talleyrand.</p> + +<p>Much in a word! I remember seeing a pretty +French vaudeville wherein a lady is by some accident +or contrivance shut up perforce with a lover she has +rejected. She frets at the <i>contretemps</i>. He makes +use of the occasion to plead his cause. The cruel +fair one will not relent. Still he pleads—still she +turns away. At length they are interrupted.</p> + +<p>“Déjà!” exclaims the lady, in an accent we may +suppose to be very different from that of Talleyrand; +and on the intonation of this one word, pronounced +as only an accomplished French actress could pronounce +it, depends the <i>dénouement</i> of the piece.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-029-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="136" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>102.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">L</span><span class="smcap">ouis XVI</span>. sent a distinguished physician over +to England to inquire into the management of +our hospitals. He praised them much, but added, +“Il y manque deux choses; nos curés et nos +hospitalières;” that is, he felt the want of the re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span>ligious +element in the official and medical treatment +of the sick. A want which, I think, is felt at +present and will be supplied.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-012-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="125" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>103.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">hose</span> who have the largest horizon of thought, +the most extended vision in regard to the +relation of things, are not remarkable for self-reliance +and ready judgment. A man who sees limitedly +and clearly, is more sure of himself, and more direct +in his dealings with circumstances and with others, +than a man whose many-sided capacity embraces an +immense extent of objects and <i>objections</i>,—just as, +they say, a horse with blinkers more surely chooses +his path, and is less likely to shy.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-056-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="150" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>104.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">hat</span> we truly and earnestly aspire <i>to be</i>, that in +some sense we <i>are</i>. The mere aspiration, by +changing the frame of the mind, for the moment +realises itself.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>105.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">here</span> are no such self-deceivers as those who +think they reason when they only feel.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-054.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="126" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>106.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">here</span> are moments when the liberty of the inner +life, opposed to the trammels of the outer, becomes +too oppressive: moments when we wish that +our mental horizon were less extended, thought less +free; when we long to put the discursive soul into a +narrow path like a railway, and force it to run on in +a straight line to some determined goal.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-011.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="203" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>107.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">f</span> the deepest and best affections which God has +given us sometimes brood over the heart like +doves of peace,—they sometimes suck out our life-blood +like vampires.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>108.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">o</span> a Frenchman the words that express things +seem often to suffice for the things themselves, +and he pronounces the words <i>amour</i>, <i>grâce</i>, <i>sensibilité</i>, +as if with a relish in his mouth—as if he tasted them—as +if he possessed them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span></p> + +<h5>109.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">here</span> are many good qualities, and valuable ones +too, which hardly deserve the name of virtues. +The word Virtue was synonymous in the old time +with valour, and seems to imply contest; not merely +passive goodness, but active resistance to evil. I +wonder sometimes why it is that we so continually +hear the phrase, “a virtuous woman,” and scarcely +ever that of a “virtuous man,” except in poetry or +from the pulpit.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-039-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="145" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>110.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="smcap">lie</span>, though it be killed and dead, can sting sometimes,—like +a dead wasp.</p> + +<h5>111.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“O</span><span class="smcap">n</span> me dit toute la journée dans le monde, telle +opinion, telle idée, sont <i>reçues</i>. On ne sait +donc pas qu’en fait d’opinion, et d’idées j’aime beaucoup +mieux les choses qui sont rejettées que celles +qui sont reçues?”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="112" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>112.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“S</span><span class="smcap">ense</span> can support herself handsomely in most +countries on some eighteenpence a day, but for +phantasy, planets and solar systems will not suffice.” +And <i>thence</i> do you infer the superiority of sense +over phantasy? Shallow reasoning! God who made +the soul of man of sufficient capacity to embrace +whole worlds and systems of worlds, gave us thereby +a foretaste of our immortality.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-028-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="208" width="400" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span></p> + +<h5>113.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“F</span><span class="smcap">aith</span> in the <i>hereafter</i> is as necessary for the +intellectual as the moral character, and to the +man of letters as well as to the Christian, the present +forms but the slightest portion of his existence.”—<i>Southey.</i></p> + +<p>Goethe did not think so. “Genutzt dem Augenblick,” +“<i>Use</i> the present,” was <i>his</i> favourite maxim; +and always this notion of sacrificing or slighting the +present seems to me a great mistake. It ought to be +the most important part of our existence, as it is the +only part of it over which we have power. It is in +the present only that we absolve the past and lay the +foundation for the future.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-064.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="258" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>114.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“J</span><span class="smcap">e</span> allseitigen, je individueller,” is a beautiful +significant phrase, quite untranslateable, used, +I think, by Rahel (Madame Varnhagen). It means +that the more the mind can multiply on every side +its capacities of thinking and feeling, the more individual, +the more original, that mind becomes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>115.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“I</span> <span class="smcap">wonder,”</span> said C., “that facts should be +called <i>stubborn</i> things.” I wonder, too, seeing +you can always oppose a fact with another fact, and +that nothing is so easy as to twist, pervert, and argue +or misrepresent a fact into twenty different forms. +“Il n’y a rien qui s’arrange aussi facilement que les +faits,”—Nothing so <i>tractable</i> as facts,—said Benjamin +Constant. True; so long as facts are only material,—or +as one should say, mere matter of fact,—you +can modify them to a purpose, turn them upside +down and inside out; but once vivify a fact with a +feeling, and it stands up before us a living and a very +stubborn thing.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>116.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">E</span><span class="smcap">very</span> human being is born to influence some +other human being; or many, or all human +beings, in proportion to the extent and power of the +sympathies, rather than of the intellect.</p> + +<p>It was said, and very beautifully said, that “one +man’s wit becomes all men’s wisdom.” Even more +true is it that one man’s virtue becomes a standard +which raises our anticipation of possible goodness +in all men.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span></p> + +<h5>117.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> is curious that the memory, most retentive of +images, should yet be much more retentive of +feelings than of facts: for instance, we remember with +such intense vividness a period of suffering, that it +seems even to renew itself through the medium of +thought; yet, at the same time, we perhaps find +difficulty in recalling, with any distinctness, the +causes of that pain.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-007.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="265" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>118.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">ruth</span> has never manifested itself to me in such +a broad stream of light as seems to be poured +upon some minds. Truth has appeared to my +mental eye, like a vivid, yet small and trembling star +in a storm, now appearing for a moment with a +beauty that enraptured, now lost in such clouds, as, +had I less faith, might make me suspect that the previous +clear sight had been a delusion.”—<i>Blanco +White.</i></p> + +<p>Very exquisite in the aptness as well as poetry of +the comparison! Some walk by daylight, some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> +walk by starlight. Those who see the sun do not +see the stars; those who see the stars do not see the +sun.</p> + +<p>He says in another place:—</p> + +<p>“I am averse to too much activity of the imagination +on the future life. I hope to die full of confidence +that no evil awaits me: but any picture of a +future life distresses me. I feel as if an eternity of +existence were already an insupportable burden on +my soul.”</p> + +<p>How characteristic of that lassitude of the soul and +sickness of the heart which “asks not happiness, but +longs for rest!”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-060-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="151" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>119.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">hose</span> are the worst of suicides who voluntarily +and prepensely stab or suffocate their fame +when God hath commanded them to stand on high +for an example.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-050.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="107" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>120.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">arlyle</span> thus apostrophised a celebrated orator, +who abused his gift of eloquence to insincere +purposes of vanity, self-interest, and expediency:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span>—“You +blasphemous scoundrel! God gave you that +gifted tongue of yours, and set it between your teeth, +to make known your true meaning to us, not to be +rattled like a muffin-man’s bell!”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-050.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="107" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>121.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">think</span>, with Carlyle, that a lie should be trampled +on and extinguished wherever found. I am for +fumigating the atmosphere when I suspect that falsehood, +like pestilence, breathes around me. A. thinks +this is too <i>young</i> a feeling, and that as the truth is +sure to conquer in the end, it is not worth while +to fight every separate lie, or fling a torch into every +infected hole. Perhaps not, so far as we are ourselves +concerned; but we should think of others. +While secure in our own antidote, or wise in our +own caution, we should not leave the miasma to +poison the healthful, or the briars to entangle the +unwary. There is no occasion perhaps for truth to +sally forth like a knight-errant tilting at every vizor, +but neither should she sit self-assured in her tower +of strength, leaving pitfalls outside her gate for the +blind to fall into.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-079.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="134" width="300" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span></p> + +<h5>122.</h5> + +<p>“There is a way to separate memory from imagination—we +may narrate without painting. +I am convinced that the mind can employ certain +indistinct signs to represent even its most vivid +impressions; that instead of picture writing, it can +use something like algebraic symbols: such is the +language of the soul when the paroxysm of pain has +passed, and the wounds it received formerly are +skinned over, not healed:—it is a language very +opposite to that used by the poet and the novel-writer.”—<i>Blanco +White.</i></p> + +<p>True; but a language in which the soul can converse +only with itself; or else a language more conventional +than words, and like paper as a tender for +gold, more capable of being defaced and falsified. +There is a proverb we have heard quoted: “Speech +is silver, silence is golden.” But better is the silver +diffused than the talent of gold buried.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-032-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="207" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>123.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">owever</span> distinguished and gifted, mentally and +morally, we find that in conduct and in our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> +external relations with, society there is ever a levelling +influence at work. Seldom in our relations with the +world, and in the ordinary commerce of life, are the +best and highest within us brought forth; for the +whole system of social intercourse is levelling. As +it is said that law knows no distinction of persons +but that which it has itself instituted; so of society +it may be said, that it allows of no distinction but +those which it can recognise—external distinctions.</p> + +<p>We hear it said that general society—the <i>world</i>, +as it is called—and a public school, are excellent +educators; because in one the man, in the other the +boy, “finds, as the phrase is, his own level.” He +does not; he finds the level of others. <i>That</i> may +be good for those below mediocrity, but for those +above it <i>bad</i>: and it is for those we should most +care, for if once brought down in early life by the +levelling influence of numbers, they seldom rise +again, or only partially. Nothing so dangerous as +to be perpetually measuring ourselves against what +is beneath us, feeling our superiority to that which +we force ourselves to assimilate to. This has been +the perdition of many a schoolboy and many a man.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><img src="images/illus-114.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="212" width="450" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span></p> + +<h5>124.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“I</span><span class="smcap">l</span> me semble que le plus noble rapport entre le +ciel et la terre, le plus beau don que Dieu ait fait +à l’homme, la pensée, l’inspiration, se décompose en +quelque sorte dès qu’elle est descendue dans son âme. +Elle y vient simple et désintéressée; il la reproduit +corrompue par tous les intérêts auxquels il l’associe; +elle lui a été confiée pour la multiplier à l’avantage +de tous; il la publie au profit de son amour-propre.”—<i>Madame +de Saint-Aulaire.</i></p> + +<p>There would be much to say about this, for it is +not always, nor generally, <i>amour-propre</i> or interest; +it is the desire of sympathy, which impels the artist +mind to the utterance in words, or the expression in +form, of that thought or inspiration which God has +sent into his soul.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>125.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="smcap">ilton’s</span> Eve is the type of the masculine standard +of perfection in woman; a graceful figure, +an abundance of fine hair, much “coy submission,” +and such a degree of unreasoning wilfulness as shall +risk perdition.</p> + +<p>And the woman’s standard for the man is Adam, +who rules and demands subjection, and is so indulgent +that he gives up to blandishment what he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> +would refuse to reason, and what his own reason +condemns.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>126.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">E</span><span class="smcap">very</span> subject which excites discussion impels to +thought. Every expression of a mind humbly +seeking truth, not assuming to have found it, helps +the seeker after truth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>128.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap">s</span> a man just released from the rack stands +bruised and broken,—bleeding at every pore, +and dislocated in every limb, and raises his eyes to +heaven, and says, “God be praised! I suffer no +more!” because to that past sharp agony the respite +comes like peace—like sleep,—so we stand, after +some great wrench in our best affections, where they +have been torn up by the root; when the conflict is +over, and the tension of the heart-strings is relaxed, +then comes a sort of rest,—but of what kind?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>129.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">o</span> trust religiously, to hope humbly, to desire +nobly, to think rationally, to will resolutely, +and to work earnestly,—may this be mine.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><img src="images/illus-114.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="212" width="450" /></div> + +<h4>A REVELATION OF CHILDHOOD.</h4> + +<h5>(FROM A LETTER.)</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">e</span> are all interested in this great question of +popular education; but I see others much +more sanguine than I am. They hope for some immediate +good result from all that is thought, written, +spoken on the subject day after day. I see such +results as possible, probable, but far, far off. All +this talk is of systems and methods, institutions, +school houses, schoolmasters, schoolmistresses, school +books; the ways and the means by which we are to +instruct, inform, manage, mould, regulate, that +which lies in most cases beyond our reach—the +spirit sent from God. What do we know of the +mystery of child-nature, child-life? What, indeed, +do we know of any life? All life we acknowledge +to be an awful mystery, but child-life we treat as if +it were no mystery whatever—just so much material +placed in our hands to be fashioned to a certain +form according to our will or our prejudices,—fitted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> +to certain purposes according to our notions of expediency. +Till we know how to <i>reverence</i> childhood we +shall do no good. Educators commit the same mistake +with regard to childhood that theologians +commit with regard to our present earthly existence; +thinking of it, treating of it, as of little value or +significance in itself, only transient, and preparatory +to some condition of being which is to follow—as if +it were something separate from us and to be left +behind us as the creature casts its skin. But as in +the sight of God this life is also something for its +own sake, so in the estimation of Christ, childhood +was something for its own sake,—something holy +and beautiful in itself, and dear to him. He saw it +not merely as the germ of something to grow out of +it, but as perfect and lovely in itself as the flower +which precedes the fruit. We misunderstand childhood, +and we misuse it; we delight in it, and we +pamper it; we spoil it ingeniously, we neglect it +sinfully; at the best we trifle with it as a plaything +which we can pull to pieces and put together at +pleasure—ignorant, reckless, presumptuous that we +are!</p> + +<p>And if we are perpetually making the grossest +mistakes in the physical and practical management +of childhood, how much more in regard to what is +spiritual! What do we know of that which lies in +the minds of children? we know only what we put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> +there. The world of instincts, perceptions, experiences, +pleasures, and pains, lying there without self-consciousness,—sometimes +helplessly mute, sometimes +so imperfectly expressed, that we quite +mistake the manifestation—what do we know of all +this? How shall we come at the understanding of +it? The child lives, and does not contemplate its +own life. It can give no account of that inward, +busy, perpetual activity of the growing faculties and +feelings which it is of so much importance that we +should know. To lead children by questionings to +think about their own identity, or observe their own +feelings, is to teach them to be artificial. To waken +self-consciousness before you awaken conscience is +the beginning of incalculable mischief. Introspection +is always, as a habit, unhealthy: introspection +in childhood, fatally so. How shall we come at a +knowledge of life such as it is when it first gushes +from its mysterious fountain head? We cannot reascend +the stream. We all, however we may remember +the external scenes lived through in our +infancy, either do not, or cannot, consult that part +of our nature which remains indissolubly connected +with the inward life of that time. We so forget it, +that we know not how to deal with the child-nature +when it comes under our power. We seldom reason +about children from natural laws, or psychological +data. Unconsciously we confound our matured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> +experience with our memory: we attribute to children +what is not possible, exact from them what is +impossible;—ignore many things which the child +has neither words to express, nor the will nor the +power to manifest. The quickness with which children +perceive, the keenness with which they suffer, +the tenacity with which they remember, I have +never seen fully appreciated. What misery we +cause to children, what mischief we do them by +bringing our own minds, habits, artificial prejudices +and senile experiences, to bear on their young life, +and cramp and overshadow it—it is fearful!</p> + +<p>Of all the wrongs and anomalies that afflict our +earth, a sinful childhood, a suffering childhood, are +among the worst.</p> + +<p>O ye men! who sit in committees, and are called +upon to legislate for children,—for children who are +the offspring of diseased or degenerate humanity, +or the victims of a yet more diseased society,—do +you, when you take evidence from jailors, and policemen, +and parish schoolmasters, and doctors of divinity, +do you ever call up, also, the wise physician, +the thoughtful physiologist, the experienced mother? +You have accumulated facts, great blue books full of +facts, but till you know in what fixed and uniform +principles of nature to seek their solution, your facts +remain a dead letter.</p> + +<p>I say nothing here of teaching, though very few +in truth understand that lowest part of our duty to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> +children. Men, it is generally allowed, <i>teach</i> better +than women because they have been better taught +the things they teach. Women <i>train</i> better than +men because of their quick instinctive perceptions +and sympathies, and greater tenderness and patience. +In schools and in families I would have some things +taught by men, and some by women: but we will +here put aside the art, the act of teaching: we will +turn aside from the droves of children in national +schools and reformatory asylums, and turn to the +individual child, brought up within the guarded +circle of a home or a select school, watched by an +intelligent, a conscientious influence. How shall we +deal with that spirit which has come out of nature’s +hands unless we remember what we were ourselves +in the past? What sympathy can we have with +that state of being which we regard as immature, +so long as we commit the double mistake of sometimes +attributing to children motives which could +only spring from our adult experience, and sometimes +denying to them the same intuitive tempers and +feelings which actuate and agitate our maturer life? +We do not sufficiently consider that our life is not +made up of separate parts, but is <i>one</i>—is a progressive +whole. When we talk of leaving our +childhood behind us, we might as well say that the +river flowing onward to the sea had left the fountain +behind.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-028-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="208" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>121.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">will</span> here put together some recollections of my +own child-life; not because it was in any respect +an exceptional or remarkable existence, but +for a reason exactly the reverse, because it was like +that of many children; at least I have met with +many children who throve or suffered from the same +or similar unseen causes even under external conditions +and management every way dissimilar. +Facts, therefore, which can be relied on, may be +generally useful as hints towards a theory of conduct +in education. What I shall say here shall be simply +the truth so far as it goes; not something between +the false and the true, garnished for effect,—not +something half-remembered, half-imagined,—but +plain, absolute, matter of fact.</p> + +<p>No; certainly I was not an extraordinary child. +I have had something to do with children, and have +met with several more remarkable for quickness of +talent, and precocity of feeling. If any thing in +particular, I believe I was particularly naughty,—at +least so it was said twenty times a day. But +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> +looking back now, I do not think I was particular +even in this respect; I perpetrated not more than +the usual amount of mischief—so called—which +every lively active child perpetrates between five +and ten years old. I had the usual desire to know, +and the usual dislike to learn; the usual love of +fairy tales, and hatred of French exercises. But +not of what I learned, but of what I did <i>not</i> learn; +not of what they taught me, but of what they could +<i>not</i> teach me; not of what was open, apparent, +manageable, but of the under current, the hidden, +the unmanaged or unmanageable, I have to speak, +and you, my friend, to hear and turn to account, if +you will, and how you will. As we grow old the +experiences of infancy come back upon us with a +strange vividness. There is a period when the overflowing, +tumultuous life of our youth rises up +between us and those first years; but as the torrent +subsides in its bed we can look across the impassable +gulf to that haunted fairy land which we shall never +more approach, and never more forget!</p> + +<p class="tb">In memory I can go back to a very early age. +I perfectly remember being sung to sleep, and can +remember even the tune which was sung to me—blessings +on the voice that sang it! I was an affectionate, +but not, as I now think, a loveable nor an +attractive child. I did not, like the little Mozart,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> +ask of every one around me, “Do you love me?” +The instinctive question was, rather, “Can I love +you?” Yet certainly I was not more than six years +old when I suffered from the fear of not being loved +where I had attached myself, and from the idea that +another was preferred before me, such anguish as had +nearly killed me. Whether those around me regarded +it as a fit of ill-temper, or a fit of illness, I do +not know. I could not then have given a name to +the pang that fevered me. I knew not the cause, +but never forgot the suffering. It left a deeper impression +than childish passions usually do; and the +recollection was so far salutary, that in after life I +guarded myself against the approaches of that hateful, +deformed, agonising thing which men call jealousy, +as I would from an attack of cramp or cholera. +If such self-knowledge has not saved me from the +pain, at least it has saved me from the demoralising +effects of the passion, by a wholesome terror, and +even a sort of disgust.</p> + +<p>With a good temper, there was the capacity of +strong, deep, silent resentment, and a vindictive +spirit of rather a peculiar kind. I recollect that +when one of those set over me inflicted what +then appeared a most horrible injury and injustice, +the thoughts of vengeance haunted my fancy +for months: but it was an inverted sort of vengeance. +I imagined the house of my enemy on fire, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> +and rushed through the flames to rescue her. She +was drowning, and I leaped into the deep water to +draw her forth. She was pining in prison, and I +forced bars and bolts to deliver her. If this were +magnanimity, it was not the less vengeance; for, +observe, I always fancied evil, and shame, and humiliation +to my adversary; to myself the <i>rôle</i> of superiority +and gratified pride. For several years this +sort of burning resentment against wrong done to +myself and others, though it took no mean or cruel +form, was a source of intense, untold suffering. No +one was aware of it. I was left to settle it; and +my mind righted itself I hardly know how: not +certainly by religious influences—they passed over +my mind, and did not at the time sink into it,—and +as for earthly counsel or comfort, I never had either +when most needed. And as it fared with me then, +so it has been in after life; so it has been, <i>must</i> be, +with all those who, in fighting out alone the pitched +battle between principle and passion, will accept no +intervention between the infinite within them and +the infinite above them; so it has been, <i>must</i> be, with +all strong natures. Will it be said that victory in +the struggle brings increase of strength? It may +be so with some who survive the contest; but then, +how many sink! how many are crippled morally +for life! how many, strengthened in some particular +faculties, suffer in losing the harmony of the character +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> +as a whole! This is one of the points in which the +matured mind may help the childish nature at strife +with itself. It is impossible to say how far this sort +of vindictiveness might have penetrated and hardened +into the character, if I had been of a timid or retiring +nature. It was expelled at last by no outer +influences, but by a growing sense of power and self-reliance.</p> + +<p class="tb">In regard to truth—always such a difficulty in +education,—I certainly had, as a child, and like +most children, confused ideas about it. I had a more +distinct and absolute idea of honour than of truth,—a +mistake into which our conventional morality +leads those who educate and those who are educated. +I knew very well, in a general way, that to tell a lie +was <i>wicked</i>; to lie for my own profit or pleasure, or +to the hurt of others, was, according to my infant +code of morals, worse than wicked—it was <i>dishonourable</i>. +But I had no compunction about +telling <i>fictions</i>;—inventing scenes and circumstances, +which I related as real, and with a keen +sense of triumphant enjoyment in seeing the listener +taken in by a most artful and ingenious concatenation +of impossibilities. In this respect “Ferdinand +Mendez Pinto, that liar of the first magnitude,” was +nothing in comparison to me. I must have been +twelve years old before my conscience was first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> +awakened up to a sense of the necessity of truth as a +principle, as well as its holiness as a virtue. Afterwards, +having to set right the minds of others cleared +my own mind on this and some other important +points.</p> + +<p class="tb">I do not think I was naturally obstinate, but remember +going without food all day, and being sent +hungry and exhausted to bed, because I would not +do some trifling thing required of me. I think it +was to recite some lines I knew by heart. I was +punished as wilfully obstinate: but what no one +knew then, and what I know now as the fact, was, +that after refusing to do what was required, and +bearing anger and threats in consequence, I lost the +power to do it. I became stone: the <i>will</i> was petrified, +and I absolutely <i>could</i> not comply. They might +have hacked me in pieces before my lips could have +unclosed to utterance. The obstinacy was not in +the mind, but on the nerves; and I am persuaded +that what we call obstinacy in children, and grownup +people, too, is often something of this kind, and +that it may be increased, by mismanagement, by +persistence, or what is called firmness, in the controlling +power, into disease, or something near to it.</p> + +<p class="tb">There was in my childish mind another cause of +suffering besides those I have mentioned, less acute, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> +but more permanent and always unacknowledged. +It was fear—fear of darkness and supernatural influences. +As long as I can remember anything, I +remember these horrors of my infancy. How they +had been awakened I do not know; they were never +revealed. I had heard other children ridiculed for +such fears, and held my peace. At first these +haunting, thrilling, stifling terrors were vague; afterwards +the form varied; but one of the most permanent +was the ghost in Hamlet. There was a volume +of Shakspeare lying about, in which was an engraving +I have not seen since, but it remains distinct +in my mind as a picture. On one side stood +Hamlet with his hair on end, literally “like quills +upon the fretful porcupine,” and one hand with all +the fingers outspread. On the other strided the +ghost, encased in armour with nodding plumes; one +finger pointing forwards, and all surrounded with a +supernatural light. O that spectre! for three years +it followed me up and down the dark staircase, or +stood by my bed: only the blessed light had power +to exorcise it. How it was that I knew, while I +trembled and quaked, that it was unreal, never cried +out, never expostulated, never confessed, I do not +know. The figure of Apollyon looming over Christian, +which I had found in an old edition of the “Pilgrim’s +Progress,” was also a great torment. But worse, +perhaps, were certain phantasms without shape, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> +things like the vision in Job—“<i>A spirit passed before +my face; it stood still, but I could not discern the +form thereof</i>:”—and if not intelligible voices, there +were strange unaccountable sounds filling the air +around with a sort of mysterious life. In daylight +I was not only fearless, but audacious, inclined to +defy all power and brave all danger,—that is, all +danger I could see. I remember volunteering to +lead the way through a herd of cattle (among which +was a dangerous bull, the terror of the neighbourhood) +armed only with a little stick; but first I said +the Lord’s Prayer fervently. In the ghastly night +I never prayed; terror stifled prayer. These visionary +sufferings, in some form or other, pursued me +till I was nearly twelve years old. If I had not +possessed a strong constitution and a strong understanding, +which rejected and contemned my own +fears, even while they shook me, I had been destroyed. +How much weaker children suffer in this way, I have +since known; and have known how to bring them +help and strength, through sympathy and knowledge, +the sympathy that soothes and does not encourage—the +knowledge that dispels, and does not suggest, +the evil.</p> + +<p class="tb">People, in general, even those who have been +much interested in education, are not aware of the +sacred duty of <i>truth</i>, exact truth in their intercourse +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> +with children. Limit what you tell them according +to the measure of their faculties; but let what you +say be the truth. Accuracy not merely as to fact, +but well-considered accuracy in the use of words, is +essential with children. I have read some wise book +on the treatment of the insane, in which absolute +veracity and accuracy in speaking is prescribed +as a <i>curative</i> principle; and deception for any purpose +is deprecated as almost fatal to the health +of the patient. Now, it is a good sanatory principle, +that what is curative is preventive; and +that an unhealthy state of mind, leading to madness, +may, in some organisations, be induced by that sort +of uncertainty and perplexity which grows up where +the mind has not been accustomed to truth in its +external relations. It is like breathing for a continuance +an impure or confined air.</p> + +<p>Of the mischief that may be done to a childish mind +by a falsehood uttered in thoughtless gaiety, I remember +an absurd and yet a painful instance. A +visitor was turning over, for a little girl, some prints, +one of which represented an Indian widow springing +into the fire kindled for the funeral pile of her husband. +It was thus explained to the child, who +asked innocently, whether, if her father died, her +mother would be burned? The person to whom +the question was addressed, a lively, amiable woman, +was probably much amused by the question, and an +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span>swered, +giddily, “Oh, of course,—certainly!” and +was believed implicitly. But thenceforth, for many +weary months, the mind of that child was haunted +and tortured by the image of her mother springing +into the devouring flames, and consumed by fire, with +all the accessories of the picture, particularly the +drums beating to drown her cries. In a weaker organisation, +the results might have been permanent +and serious. But to proceed.</p> + +<p>These terrors I have described had an existence +external to myself: I had no power over them +to shape them by my will, and their power over +me vanished gradually before a more dangerous +infatuation,—the propensity to reverie. This +shaping spirit of imagination began when I was +about eight or nine years old to haunt my <i>inner</i> +life. I can truly say that, from ten years old to +fourteen or fifteen, I lived a double existence; one +outward, linking me with the external sensible world, +the other inward, creating a world to and for itself, +conscious to itself only. I carried on for whole +years a series of actions, scenes, and adventures; +one springing out of another, and coloured and modified +by increasing knowledge. This habit grew so +upon me, that there were moments—as when I came +to some crisis in my imaginary adventures,—when I +was not more awake to outward things than in sleep,—scarcely +took cognisance of the beings around me. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> +When punished for idleness by being placed in solitary +confinement (the worst of all punishments for +children), the intended penance was nothing less than +a delight and an emancipation, giving me up to my +dreams. I had a very strict and very accomplished +governess, one of the cleverest women I have ever +met with in my life; but nothing of this was known +or even suspected by her, and I exulted in possessing +something which her power could not reach. My +reveries were my real life: it was an unhealthy state +of things.</p> + +<p>Those who are engaged in the training of children +will perhaps pause here. It may be said, in the first +place, How are we to reach those recesses of the +inner life which the God who made us keeps from +every eye but his own? As when we walk over +the field in spring we are aware of a thousand +influences and processes at work of which we +have no exact knowledge or clear perception, yet +must watch and use accordingly,—so it is with +education. And secondly, it may be asked, if +such secret processes be working unconscious mischief, +where the remedy? The remedy is in employment. +Then the mother or the teacher echoes +with astonishment, “Employment! the child is employed +from morning till night; she is learning a +dozen sciences and languages; she has masters and +lessons for every hour of every day: with her pencil, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> +her piano, her books, her companions, her birds, her +flowers,—what can she want more?” An energetic +child even at a very early age, and yet farther as the +physical organisation is developed, wants something +more and something better; employment which +shall bring with it the bond of a higher duty than +that which centres in self and self-improvement; +employment which shall not merely cultivate the +understanding, but strengthen and elevate the conscience; +employment for the higher and more generous +faculties; employment addressed to the sympathies; +employment which has the aim of utility, not +pretended, but real, obvious, direct utility. A girl +who as a mere child is not always being taught or +being amused, whose mind is early restrained by the +bond of definite duty, and thrown out of the limit of +self, will not in after years be subject to fancies that +disturb or to reveries that absorb, and the present +and the actual will have that power they ought to +have as combined in due degree with desire and +anticipation.</p> + +<p>The Roman Catholic priesthood understand this +well: employment, which enlists with the spiritual +the sympathetic part of our being, is a means through +which they guide both young and adult minds. +Physicians who have to manage various states of +mental and moral disease understand this well; they +speak of the necessity of employment (not mere +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> +amusement) as a curative means, but of employment +with the direct aim of usefulness, apprehended +and appreciated by the patient, else it is nothing. +It is the same with children. Such employment, +chosen with reference to utility, and in harmony +with the faculties, would prove in many cases either +preventive or curative. In my own case, as I now +think, it would have been both.</p> + +<p>There was a time when it was thought essential +that women should know something of cookery, +something of medicine, something of surgery. If +all these things are far better understood now than +heretofore, is that a reason why a well educated +woman should be left wholly ignorant of them? A +knowledge of what people call “common things”—of +the elements of physiology, of the conditions of +health, of the qualities, nutritive or remedial, of substances +commonly used as food or medicine, and the +most economical and most beneficial way of applying +both,—these should form a part of the system of +every girls’ school—whether for the higher or the +lower classes. At present you shall see a girl studying +chemistry, and attending Faraday’s lectures, who +would be puzzled to compound a rice-pudding or a +cup of barley-water: and a girl who could work +quickly a complicated sum in the Rule of Three, +afterwards wasting a fourth of her husband’s wages +through want of management.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span></p> + +<p>In my own case, how much of the practical and +the sympathetic in my nature was exhausted in airy +visions!</p> + +<p>As to the stuff out of which my waking dreams +were composed, I cannot tell you much. I have a +remembrance that I was always a princess-heroine +in the disguise of a knight, a sort of Clorinda or +Britomart, going about to redress the wrongs of the +poor, fight giants, and kill dragons; or founding a +society in some far-off solitude or desolate island, +which would have rivalled that of Gonsalez, where +there were to be no tears, no tasks, and no laws,—except +those which I made myself,—no caged +birds nor tormented kittens.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-039-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="145" width="300" /></div> + +<p>Enough of the pains, and mistakes, and vagaries +of childhood; let me tell of some of its pleasures +equally unguessed and unexpressed. A great, and +exquisite source of enjoyment arose out of an early, +instinctive, boundless delight in external beauty. +How this went hand in hand with my terrors and +reveries, how it could coexist with them, I cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> +tell now—it was so; and if this sympathy with the +external, living, beautiful world, had been properly, +scientifically cultivated, and directed to useful definite +purposes, it would have been the best remedy +for much that was morbid: this was not the case, +and we were, unhappily for me, too early removed +from the country to a town residence. I can remember, +however, that in very early years the appearances +of nature did truly “haunt me like a +passion;” the stars were to me as the gates of heaven; +the rolling of the wave to the shore, the graceful +weeds and grasses bending before the breeze as they +grew by the wayside; the minute and delicate forms +of insects; the trembling shadows of boughs and +leaves dancing on the ground in the highest noon; +these were to me perfect pleasures of which the +imagery now in my mind is distinct. Wordsworth’s +poem of “The Daffodils,” the one beginning—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“I wandered lonely as a cloud,”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>may appear to some unintelligible or overcharged, +but to me it was a vivid truth, a simple fact; and if +Wordsworth had been then in my hands I think I +must have loved him. It was this intense sense of +beauty which gave the first zest to poetry: I love +it, not because it told me what I did not know, but +because it helped me to words in which to clothe my +own knowledge and perceptions, and reflected back +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> +the pictures unconsciously hoarded up in my mind. +This was what made Thomson’s “Seasons” a favourite +book when I first began to read for my own amusement, +and before I could understand one half of it; +St. Pierre’s “Indian Cottage” (“La Chaumière Indienne”) +was also charming, either because it reflected +my dreams, or gave me new stuff for them in +pictures of an external world quite different from +that I inhabited,—palm-trees, elephants, tigers, +dark-turbaned men with flowing draperies; and the +“Arabian Nights” completed my Oriental intoxication, +which lasted for a long time.</p> + +<p>I have said little of the impressions left by +books, and of my first religious notions. A friend +of mine had once the wise idea of collecting together +a variety of evidence as to the impressions left by +certain books on childish or immature minds: If +carried out, it would have been one of the most +valuable additions to educational experience ever +made. For myself I did not much care about the +books put into my hands, nor imbibe much information +from them. I had a great taste, I am sorry to +say, for forbidden books; yet it was not the forbidden +books that did the mischief, except in their being +read furtively. I remember impressions of vice +and cruelty from some parts of the Old Testament +and Goldsmith’s “History of England,” which I +shudder to recall. Shakspeare was on the forbidden +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> +shelf. I had read him all through between seven +and ten years old. He never did me any moral +mischief. He never soiled my mind with any disordered +image. What was exceptionable and coarse +in language I passed by without attaching any meaning +whatever to it. How it might have been if +I had read Shakspeare first when I was fifteen +or sixteen, I do not know; perhaps the occasional +coarsenesses and obscurities might have shocked the +delicacy or puzzled the intelligence of that sensitive +and inquiring age. But at nine or ten I had +no comprehension of what was unseemly; what might +be obscure in words to wordy commentators, was to +me lighted up by the idea I found or interpreted for +myself—right or wrong.</p> + +<p>No; I repeat, Shakspeare—bless him!—never +did me any moral mischief. Though the Witches in +Macbeth troubled me,—though the Ghost in Hamlet +terrified me (the picture that is,—for the spirit in +Shakspeare was solemn and pathetic, not hideous),—though +poor little Arthur cost me an ocean of +tears,—yet much that was obscure, and all that was +painful and revolting was merged on the whole in +the vivid presence of a new, beautiful, vigorous, living +world. The plays which I now think the most +wonderful produced comparatively little effect on my +fancy: Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Macbeth, struck +me then less than the historical plays, and far less +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> +than the Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cymbeline. +It may be thought, perhaps, that Falstaff is not a +character to strike a child, or to be understood by +a child:—no; surely not. To me Falstaff was not +witty and wicked—only irresistibly fat and funny; +and I remember lying on the ground rolling with +laughter over some of the scenes in Henry the +Fourth,—the mock play, and the seven men in +buckram. But The Tempest and Cymbeline were +the plays I liked best and knew best.</p> + +<p>Altogether I should say that in my early years +books were known to me, not as such, not for their +general contents, but for some especial image or +picture I had picked out of them and assimilated to +my own mind and mixed up with my own life. For +example out of Homer’s Odyssey (lent to me by +the parish clerk) I had the picture of Nasicaa and +her maidens going down in their chariots to wash +their linen: so that when the first time I went +to the Pitti Palace, and could hardly see the +pictures through blinding tears, I saw <i>that</i> picture +of Rubens, which all remember who have been at +Florence, and it flashed delight and refreshment +through those remembered childish associations. +The Syrens and Polypheme left also vivid pictures +on my fancy. The Iliad, on the contrary, +wearied me, except the parting of Hector and Andromache, +in which the child, scared by its father’s +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> +dazzling helm and nodding crest, remains a vivid +image in my mind from that time.</p> + +<p>The same parish clerk—a curious fellow in his +way—lent me also some religious tracts and stories, +by Hannah More. It is most certain that more +moral mischief was done to me by some of these +than by all Shakspeare’s plays together. These so-called +pious tracts first introduced me to a knowledge +of the vices of vulgar life, and the excitements of a +vulgar religion,—the fear of being hanged and the +fear of hell became co-existent in my mind; and +the teaching resolved itself into this,—that it was +not by being naughty, but by being found out, that +I was to incur the risk of both. My fairy world +was better!</p> + +<p>About Religion:—I was taught religion as children +used to be taught it in my younger days, and +are taught it still in some cases, I believe—through +the medium of creeds and catechisms. I read the +Bible too early, and too indiscriminately, and too +irreverently. Even the New Testament was too +early placed in my hands; too early made a lesson +book, as the custom then was. The <i>letter</i> of the +Scriptures—the words—were familiarised to me by +sermonising and dogmatising, long before I could +enter into the <i>spirit</i>. Meantime, happily, another +religion was growing up in my heart, which, +strangely enough, seemed to me quite apart from +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> +that which was taught,—which, indeed, I never in +any way regarded as the same which I was taught +when I stood up wearily on a Sunday to repeat the +collect and say the catechism. It was quite another +thing. Not only the taught religion and the sentiment +of faith and adoration were never combined, +but it never for years entered into my head to combine +them; the first remained extraneous, the latter +had gradually taken root in my life, even from the +moment my mother joined my little hands in prayer. +The histories out of the Bible (the Parables especially) +were, however, enchanting to me, though my +interpretation of them was in some instances the +very reverse of correct or orthodox. To my infant +conception our Lord was a being who had come +down from heaven to make people good, and to tell +them beautiful stories. And though no pains were +spared to <i>indoctrinate</i> me, and all my pastors and +masters took it for granted that my ideas were quite +satisfactory, nothing could be more confused and +heterodox.</p> + +<p class="tb">It is a common observation that girls of lively +talents are apt to grow pert and satirical. I fell +into this danger when about ten years old. Sallies +at the expense of certain people, ill-looking, or ill-dressed, +or ridiculous, or foolish, had been laughed +at and applauded in company, until, without being +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> +naturally malignant, I ran some risk of becoming so +from sheer vanity.</p> + +<p>The fables which appeal to our higher moral sympathies +may sometimes do as much for us as the +truths of science. So thought our Saviour when he +taught the multitude in parables.</p> + +<p>A good clergyman who lived near us, a famous +Persian scholar, took it into his head to teach me +Persian (I was then about seven years old), and I +set to work with infinite delight and earnestness. +All I learned was soon forgotten; but a few years +afterwards, happening to stumble on a volume of +Sir William Jones’s works—his Persian grammar—it +revived my Orientalism, and I began to study it +eagerly. Among the exercises given was a Persian +fable or poem—one of those traditions of our Lord +which are preserved in the East. The beautiful +apologue of “St. Peter and the Cherries,” which +Goethe has versified or imitated, is a well known +example. This fable I allude to was something +similar, but I have not met with the original these +forty years, and must give it here from memory.</p> + +<p>“Jesus,” says the story, “arrived one evening at +the gates of a certain city, and he sent his disciples +forward to prepare supper, while he himself, intent +on doing good, walked through the streets into the +market place.</p> + +<p>“And he saw at the corner of the market some +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> +people gathered together looking at an object on the +ground; and he drew near to see what it might be. +It was a dead dog, with a halter round his neck, +by which he appeared to have been dragged through +the dirt; and a viler, a more abject, a more unclean +thing, never met the eyes of man.</p> + +<p>“And those who stood by looked on with abhorrence.</p> + +<p>“‘Faugh!’ said one, stopping his nose; ‘it pollutes +the air.’ ‘How long,’ said another, ‘shall this +foul beast offend our sight?’ ‘Look at his torn +hide,’ said a third; ‘one could not even cut a shoe +out of it.’ ‘And his ears,’ said a fourth, ‘all draggled +and bleeding!’ ‘No doubt,’ said a fifth, ‘he +hath been hanged for thieving!’</p> + +<p>“And Jesus heard them, and looking down compassionately +on the dead creature, he said, ‘Pearls +are not equal to the whiteness of his teeth!’</p> + +<p>“Then the people turned towards him with +amazement, and said among themselves, ‘Who is +this? this must be Jesus of Nazareth, for only <span class="smcap">He</span> +could find something to pity and approve even in a +dead dog;’ and being ashamed, they bowed their +heads before him, and went each on his way.”</p> + +<p>I can recall, at this hour, the vivid, yet softening +and pathetic impression left on my fancy by this old +Eastern story. It struck me as exquisitely humorous, +as well as exquisitely beautiful. It gave me +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> +a pain in my conscience, for it seemed thenceforward +so easy and so vulgar to say satirical things, and so +much nobler to be benign and merciful, and I took +the lesson so home, that I was in great danger of +falling into the opposite extreme,—of seeking the +beautiful even in the midst of the corrupt and the +repulsive. Pity, a large element in my composition, +might have easily degenerated into weakness, +threatening to subvert hatred of evil in trying to +find excuses for it; and whether my mind has ever +completely righted itself, I am not sure.</p> + +<p class="tb">Educators are not always aware, I think, how acute +are the perceptions, and how permanent the memories, +of children. I remember experiments tried upon +my temper and feelings, and how I was made aware +of this, by their being repeated, and, in some instances, +spoken of, before me. Music, to which I +was early and peculiarly sensitive, was sometimes +made the medium of these experiments. Discordant +sounds were not only hateful, but made me turn +white and cold, and sent the blood backward to my +heart; and certain tunes had a curious effect, I +cannot now account for: for though, when heard +for the first time, they had little effect, they became +intolerable by repetition; they turned up some +hidden emotion within me too strong to be borne. It +could not have been from association, which I believe +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> +to be a principal element in the <i>emotion</i> excited by +music. I was too young for that. What associations +could such a baby have had with pleasure or with +pain? Or could it be possible that associations with +some former state of existence awoke up to sound? +That our life “hath elsewhere its beginning, and +cometh from afar,” is a belief or at least an instinct, +in some minds, which music, and only music, seems +to thrill into consciousness. At this time, when I was +about five or six years old, Mrs. Arkwright—she was +then Fanny Kemble—used to come to our house, +and used to entrance me with her singing. I had a +sort of adoration for her, such as an ecstatic votary +might have for a Saint Cecilia. I trembled with +pleasure when I only heard her step. But her +voice!—it has charmed hundreds since; whom has +it ever moved to a more genuine passion of delight +than the little child that crept silent and tremulous +to her side? And she was fond of me,—fond of +singing to me, and, it must be confessed, fond also +of playing these experiments on me. The music of +“Paul and Virginia” was then in vogue, and there +was one air—a very simple air—in that opera, +which, after the first few bars, always made me stop +my ears and rush out of the room. I became at last +aware that this was sometimes done by particular +desire to please my parents, or amuse and interest +others by the display of such vehement emotion. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> +My infant conscience became perplexed between the +reality of the feeling and the exhibition of it. People +are not always aware of the injury done to children +by repeating before them things they say, or describing +things they do: words and actions, spontaneous +and unconscious, become thenceforth artificial +and conscious. I can speak of the injury done +to myself, between five and eight years old. There +was some danger of my becoming a precocious actress,—danger +of permanent mischief such as I have seen +done to other children,—but I was saved by the +recoil of resistance and resentment excited in my +mind.</p> + +<p>This is enough. All that has been told here +refers to a period between five and ten years old.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-146.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="300" width="500" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-147.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="556" width="400" /></div> + +<h4>THE INDIAN HUNTER AND THE FIRE.</h4> + +<h5>(FROM THE GERMAN.)</h5> + +<p>Once upon a time the lightning from heaven fell +upon a tree standing in the old primeval forest and +kindled it, so that it flamed on high. And it happened +that a young hunter, who had lost his path in that +wilderness, beheld the gleam of the flames from a +distance, and, forcing his way through the thicket, he +flung himself down in rapture before the blazing tree.</p> + +<p>“O divine light and warmth!” he exclaimed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> +stretching forth his arms. “O blessed! O heaven-descended +Fire! let me thank thee! let me adore +thee! Giver of a new existence, quickening thro’ +every pulse, how lost, how cold, how dark have I +dwelt without thee! Restorer of my life! remain +ever near me, and, through thy benign and celestial +influence, send love and joy to illuminate my soul!”</p> + +<p>And the Fire answered and said to him, “It is true +that my birth is from heaven, but I am now, through +mingling with earthly elements, subdued to earthly +influences; therefore, beware how you choose me +for thy friend, without having first studied my twofold +nature. O youth! take heed lest what appear to +thee now a blessing, may be turned, at some future +time, to fiery pain and death.” And the youth replied, +“No! O no! thou blessed Fire, this could +never be. Am I then so senseless, so inconstant, so +thankless? O believe it not! Let me stay near thee; +let me be thy priest, to watch and tend thee truly. +Ofttimes in my wild wintry life, when the chill darkness +encompassed me, and the ice-blast lifted my hair, +have I dreamed of the soft summer breath,—of the +sunshine that should light up the world within me and +the world around me. But still that time came not. +It seemed ever far, far off; and I had perished utterly +before the light and the warmth had reached me, had +it not been for thee!”</p> + +<p>Thus the youth poured forth his soul, and the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> +Fire answered him in murmured tones, while her +beams with a softer radiance played over his cheek +and brow: “Be it so then. Yet do thou watch +me constantly and minister to me carefully; neglect +me not, leave me not to myself, lest the light and +warmth in which thou so delightest fail thee suddenly, +and there be no redress; and O watch thyself +also! beware lest thou too ardently stir up my +impatient fiery being! beware lest thou heap too +much fuel upon me; once more beware, lest, instead +of life, and love, and joy, I bring thee only death +and burning pain!” And the youth passionately +vowed to keep her behest: and in the beginning all +went well. How often, for hours together, would +he lie gazing entranced toward the radiant beneficent +Fire, basking in her warmth, and throwing now a +leafy spray, now a fragment of dry wood, anon a +handful of odorous gums, as incense, upon the flame, +which gracefully curling and waving upwards, quivering +and sparkling, seemed to whisper in return divine +oracles; or he fancied he beheld, while gazing into +the glowing depths, marvellous shapes, fairy visions +dancing and glancing along. Then he would sing to +her songs full of love, and she, responding to the +song she had herself inspired, sometimes replied, in +softest whispers, so loving and so low, that even the +jealous listening woods could not overhear; at other +times she would shoot up suddenly in rapturous +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> +splendour, like a pillar of light, and revealed to him +all the wonders and the beauties which lay around +him, hitherto veiled from his sight.</p> + +<p>But at length, as he became accustomed to the +glory and the warmth, and nothing more was left for +the fire to bestow, or her light to reveal, then he +began to weary and to dream again of the morning, +and to long for the sun-beams; and it was to him as +if the fire stood between him and the sun’s light, and +he reproached her therefore, and he became moody +and ungrateful; and the fire was no longer the same, +but unquiet and changeful, sometimes flickering unsteadily, +sometimes throwing out a lurid glare. And +when the youth, forgetful of his ministry, left the +flame unfed and unsustained, so that ofttimes she +drooped and waned, and crept in dying gleams along +the damp ground, his heart would fail him with a +sudden remorse, and he would cast on the fuel with +such a rough and lavish hand that the indignant fire +hissed thereat, and burst forth in a smoky sullen +gleam,—then died away again. Then the youth, +half sorrowful, half impatient, would remember how +bright, how glowing, how dazzling was the flame in +those former happy days, when it played over his +chilled and wearied limbs, and shed its warmth upon +his brow, and he desired eagerly to recall that once +inspiring glow. And he stirred up the embers violently +till they burned him, and then he grew angry, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> +and then again he wearied of all the watching and +the care which the subtle, celestial, tameless element +required at his hand: and at length, one day in a +sullen mood, he snatched up a pitcher of water from +the fountain and poured it hastily on the yet living +flame.——</p> + +<p>For one moment it arose blazing towards heaven, +shed a last gleam upon the pale brow of the youth, +and then sank down in darkness extinguished for +ever!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-007.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="265" width="400" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-022-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="105" width="400" /></div> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">PAULINA.</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i4"><span class="smcap">from an unfinished tale, 1823.</span></span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">And think’st thou that the fond o’erflowing love</span> +<span class="i1">I bear thee in my heart could ever be</span> +<span class="i0">Repaid by careless smiles that round thee rove,</span> +<span class="i1">And beam on others as they beam on me?</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">Oh, could I speak to thee! could I but tell</span> +<span class="i0">The nameless thoughts that in my bosom swell,</span> +<span class="i0">And struggle for expression! or set free</span> +<span class="i0">From the o’er mastering spirit’s proud control</span> +<span class="i0">The pain that throbs in silence at my soul,</span> +<span class="i0">Perhaps—yet no—I will not sue, nor bend,</span> +<span class="i0">To win a heartless pity—Let it end!</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">I have been near thee still at morn, at eve;</span> +<span class="i0">Have mark’d thee in thy joy, have seen thee grieve;</span> +<span class="i0">Have seen thee gay with triumph, sick with fears,</span> +<span class="i0">Radiant in beauty, desolate in tears:</span> +<span class="i0">And communed with thy heart, till I made mine</span> +<span class="i0">The echo and the mirror unto thine.</span> +<span class="i0">And I have sat and looked into thine eyes</span> +<span class="i0">As men on earth look to the starry skies,</span> +<span class="i0">That seek to read in Heaven their human destinies!</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">Too quickly I read mine,—I knew it well,—</span> +<span class="i0">I judg’d not of thy heart by all it gave,</span> +<span class="i0">But all that it withheld; and I could tell</span> +<span class="i0">The very sea-mark where affection’s wave</span> +<span class="i0">Would cease to flow, or flow to ebb again,</span> +<span class="i0">And knew my lavish love was pour’d in vain,</span> +<span class="i0">As fruitless streams o’er sandy deserts melt,</span> +<span class="i0">Unrecompensed, unvalued, and unfelt!</span> +<span class="i0 padt05"><span class="gesperrt"> ****</span></span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p class="tb"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-017-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="134" width="300" /></div> + +<h4>LINES.—1840.</h4> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Take me, my mother Earth, to thy cold breast,</span> +<span class="i0">And fold me there in everlasting rest,</span> +<span class="i3">The long day is o’er!</span> +<span class="i3">I’m weary, I would sleep—</span> +<span class="i3">But deep, deep,</span> +<span class="i3">Never to waken more!</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">I have had joy and sorrow; I have proved</span> +<span class="i0">What life could give; have lov’d, have been belov’d;</span> +<span class="i3">I am sick, and heart sore,</span> +<span class="i3">And weary,—let me sleep!</span> +<span class="i3">But deep, deep,</span> +<span class="i3">Never to waken more!</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">To thy dark chambers, mother Earth, I come,</span> +<span class="i0">Prepare my dreamless bed in my last home;</span> +<span class="i3">Shut down the marble door,</span> +<span class="i3">And leave me,—let me sleep!</span> +<span class="i3">But deep, deep,</span> +<span class="i3">Never to waken more!</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">Now I lie down,—I close my aching eyes,</span> +<span class="i0">If on this night another morn must rise,</span> +<span class="i3">Wake me not, I implore!</span> +<span class="i3">I only ask to sleep,</span> +<span class="i3">And deep, deep,</span> +<span class="i3">Never to waken more!</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-146.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="300" width="500" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-155.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="386" width="400" /></div> + +<h3><span class="oldtype">Theological Fragments.</span></h3> + +<h5>1.</h5> + +<h4>THE HERMIT AND THE MINSTREL.</h4> + +<h5>(A PARABLE, FROM ST. JEROME.)</h5> + +<p>A certain holy anchorite had passed a long life in +a cave of the Thebaid, remote from all communion +with men; and eschewing, as he would the gates of +Hell, even the very presence of a woman; and he +fasted and prayed, and performed many and severe +penances; and his whole thought was how he should +make himself of account in the sight of God, that he +might enter into his paradise.</p> + +<p>And having lived this life for three score and ten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> +years he was puffed up with the notion of his own +great virtue and sanctity, and, like to St. Anthony, +he besought the Lord to show him what saint he +should emulate as greater than himself, thinking +perhaps, in his heart, that the Lord would answer +that none was greater or holier. And the same +night the angel of God appeared to him, and said, +“If thou wouldst excel all others in virtue and +sanctity, thou must strive to be like a certain minstrel +who goes begging and singing from door to door.”</p> + +<p>And the holy man was in great astonishment, and +he arose and took his staff and ran forth in search of +this minstrel; and when he had found him he questioned +him earnestly, saying, “Tell me, I pray thee, +my brother, what good works thou hast performed +in thy lifetime, and by what prayers and penances +thou hast made thyself acceptable to God?”</p> + +<p>And the man, greatly wondering and ashamed to +be so questioned, hung down his head as he replied, +“I beseech thee, holy father, mock me not! I have +performed no good works, and as to praying, alas! +sinner that I am, I am not worthy to pray. I do +nothing but go about from door to door amusing the +people with my viol and my flute.”</p> + +<p>And the holy man insisted and said, “Nay, but +peradventure in the midst of this thy evil life thou +hast done some good works?” And the minstrel +replied, “I know of nothing good that I have done.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span>” +And the hermit, wondering more and more, said, +“How hast thou become a beggar: hast thou spent +thy substance in riotous living, like most others of +thy calling?” and the man answering, said, “Nay; +but there was a poor woman whom I found running +hither and thither in distraction, for her husband and +her children had been sold into slavery to pay a debt. +And the woman being very fair, certain sons of +Belial pursued after her; so I took her home to my +hut and protected her from them, and I gave her all +I possessed to redeem her family, and conducted her +in safety to the city, where she was reunited to her +husband and children. But what of that, my father; +is there a man who would not have done the same?”</p> + +<p>And the hermit, hearing the minstrel speak these +words, wept bitterly, saying, “For my part, I have +not done so much good in all my life; and yet they +call me a man of God, and thou art only a poor minstrel!”</p> + +<p class="tb">At Vienna, some years ago, I saw a picture by +Von Schwind, which was conceived in the spirit +of this old apologue. It exhibited the lives of two +twin brothers diverging from the cradle. One of +them, by profound study, becomes a most learned +and skilful physician, and ministers to the sick; attaining +to great riches and honours through his +labours and his philanthropy. The other brother, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> +who has no turn for study, becomes a poor fiddler, +and spends his life in consoling, by his music, sufferings +beyond the reach of the healing art. In the +end, the two brothers meet at the close of life. He +who had been fiddling through the world is sick and +worn out: his brother prescribes for him, and is seen +culling simples for his restoration, while the fiddler +touches his instrument for the solace of his kind +physician.</p> + +<p>It is in such representations that painting did once +speak, and might again speak to the hearts of the +people.</p> + +<p>Another version of the same thought, we find in +De Berenger’s pretty ballad, “<i>Les deux Sœurs de +Charité</i>.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-032-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="207" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>2.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> I was a child, and read Milton for the first +time, his Pandemonium seemed to me a magnificent +place. It struck me more than his Paradise, +for <i>that</i> was beautiful, but Pandemonium was terrible +and beautiful too. The wondrous fabric that “from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> +the earth rose like an exhalation to the sound of +dulcet symphonies and voices sweet,”—the splendid +piles of architecture sweeping line beyond line, +“Cornice and frieze with bossy sculptures graven,”—realised +a certain picture of Palmyra I had once +seen, and which had taken possession of my imagination: +then the throne, outshining the wealth of Ormuz +and of Ind,—the flood of light streaming from “starry +lamps and blazing cressets” quite threw the flames of +perdition into the shade. As it was said of Erskine, +that he always spoke of Satan with respect, as of a +great statesman out of place, a sort of leader of the +Opposition; so to me the grand arch-fiend was a hero, +like my <i>then</i> favourite Greeks and Romans, a Cymon, +a Curtius, a Decius, devoting himself for the good of +his country;—such was the moral confusion created +in my mind. Pandemonium inspired no horror; on +the contrary, my fancy revelled in the artistic +beauty of the creation. I felt that I should like to +go and see it; so that, in fact, if Milton meant to +inspire abhorrence, he has failed, even to the height +of his sublimity. Dante has succeeded better. +Those who dwell with complacency on the doctrine +of eternal punishments must delight in the ferocity +and the ingenuity of his grim inventions, worthy of +a vengeful theology. Wicked latitudinarians may +shudder and shiver at the images called up—grotesque, +abominable, hideous—but then Dante him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span>self +would sternly rebuke them for making their +human sympathies a measure for the judgments of +God, and compassion only a veil for treason and +rebellion:—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Chi è piu scellerato di colui</span> +<span class="i0">Ch’ al giudicio divin passion porta?”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Who can show greater wickedness than he</span> +<span class="i0">Whose passion by the will of God is moved?”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>However, it must be said in favour of Dante’s +Inferno, that no one ever wished to go there.</p> + +<p>These be the Christian poets! but they must +yield in depth of imagined horrors to the Christian +Fathers. Tertullian (writing in the second century) +not only sends the wicked into that dolorous region +of despair, but makes the endless measureless torture +of the doomed a part of the joys of the redeemed. +The spectacle is to give them the same sort of +delight as the heathen took in their games, and +Pandemonium is to be as a vast amphitheatre for the +amusement of the New Jerusalem. “How magnificent,” +exclaims this pious doctor of the Church, +“will be the scale of that game! With what +admiration, what laughter, what glee, what triumph, +shall I behold so many mighty monarchs, who had +been given out as received into the skies, moaning in +unfathomable gloom! Persecutors of the Christians +liquefying amid shooting spires of flame! Philosophers +blushing before their disciples amid those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> +ruddy fires! Then,” he goes on, still alluding to the +amphitheatre, “then is the time to hear the tragedians +doubly pathetic, now that they bewail their own +agonies! To observe actors released by the fierceness +of their torments from all restraints on their +gestures! Then may we admire the charioteer +glowing all over in his car of torture, and watch the +wrestlers struggling, not in the gymnasium but with +flames!” And he asks exultingly, “What prætor, +or consul, or questor, or priest, can purchase you by +his munificence a game of triumph like this?”</p> + +<p>And even more terrible are the imaginations of +good Bishop Taylor, who distils the essence from all +sins, all miseries, all sorrows, all terrors, all plagues, +and mingles them in one chalice of wrath and +vengeance to be held to the lips and forced down +the unwilling throats of the doomed “with violence +of devils and accursed spirits!” Are these mere +words? Did any one ever fancy or try to realise +what they express?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><img src="images/illus-114.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="212" width="450" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span></p> + +<h5>3.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">was</span> surprised to find this passage in one of +Southey’s letters:—</p> + +<p class="tb">“A Catholic Establishment would be the best, +perhaps the only means of civilising Ireland. Jesuits +and Benedictines, though they would not enlighten +the savages, would humanise them and bring the +country into cultivation. A petition that asked for +this, saying plainly, ‘We are Papists, and will be so, +and this is the best thing that can be done for us and +you too,’—such a petition I would support, considering +what the present condition of Ireland is, how +wretchedly it has always been governed, and how +hopeless the prospect.” (1805.)</p> + +<p class="tb">Southey was thinking of what the religious orders +had done for Paraguay; whether he would have +penned the same sentiments twenty or even ten +years later, is more than doubtful.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>4.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> old monks and penitents—dirty, ugly, emaciated +old fellows they were!—spent their days +in speaking and preaching of their own and others’ +sinfulness, yet seem to have had ever present before +them a standard of beauty, brightness, beneficence,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span> +aspirations which nothing earthly could satisfy, +which made their ideas of sinfulness and misery +<i>comparative</i>, and their scale was graduated from +themselves <i>upwards</i>. We philosophers reverse this. +We teach and preach the spiritual dignity, the lofty +capabilities of humanity. Yet, by some mistake, we +seem to be always speculating on the amount of evil +which may or can be endured, and on the amount of +wickedness which may or must be tolerated; and our +scale is graduated from ourselves <i>downwards</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>5.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“S</span><span class="smcap">o</span> long as the ancient mythology had any separate +establishment in the empire, the spiritual +worship which our religion demands, and so essentially +implies as only fitting for it, was preserved in its +purity by means of the salutary contrast; but no +sooner had the Church become completely triumphant +and exclusive, and the parallel of Pagan +idolatry totally removed, than the old constitutional +appetite revived in all its original force, and after a +short but famous struggle with the Iconoclasts, an +image worship was established, and consecrated by +bulls and canons, which, in whatever light it is +regarded, differed in no respect but the names of its +objects from that which had existed for so many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> +ages as the chief characteristic of the religious faith +of the Gentiles.”—<i>H. Nelson Coleridge.</i></p> + +<p>I think, with submission, that it differed in sentiment; +for in the mythology of the Pagans the worship +was to <i>beauty</i>, <i>immortality</i>, and <i>power</i>, and in +the Christian mythology—if I may call it so—of +the Middle Ages, the worship was to <i>purity</i>, <i>self-denial</i>, +and <i>charity</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>6.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“A</span> <span class="smcap">narrow</span> half-enlightened reason may easily +make sport of all those forms in which religious +faith has been clothed by human imagination, +and ask why they are retained, and why one should +be preferred to another? It is sufficient to reply, +that some forms there must be if Religion is to endure +as a social influence, and that the forms already +in existence are the best, if they are in unison with +human sympathies, and express, with the breadth +and vagueness which every popular utterance must +from its nature possess, the interior convictions of +the general mind. What would become of the most +sacred truth if all the forms which have harboured it +were destroyed at once by an unrelenting reason, +and it were driven naked and shivering about the +earth till some clever logician had devised a suitable +abode for its reception? It is on these outward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> +forms of religion that the spirit of artistic beauty +descends and moulds them into fitting expressions of +the invisible grace and majesty of spiritual truth.”—<i>Prospective +Review</i>, Feb. 24. 1845.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>7.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“H</span><span class="smcap">ave</span> not Dying Christs taught fortitude to the +virtuous sufferer? Have not Holy Families +cherished and ennobled domestic affections? The +tender genius of the Christian morality, even in its +most degenerate state, has made the Mother and her +Child the highest objects of affectionate superstition. +How much has that beautiful superstition by the +pencils of great artists contributed to humanise mankind?”—<i>Sir +James Mackintosh</i>, writing in 1802.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>8.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">remember</span> once at Merton College Chapel (May, +1844), while Archdeacon Manning was preaching +an eloquent sermon on the eternity of reward and +punishment in the future life, I was looking at the +row of windows opposite, and I saw that there were +seven, all different in pattern and construction, yet +all harmonising with each other and with the building +of which they formed a part;—a symbol they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> +might have been of differences in the Church of +Christ. From the varied windows opposite I looked +down to the faces of the congregation, all upturned +to the preacher, with expression how different! +Faith, hope, fear, in the open mouths and expanded +eyelids of some; a sort of silent protest in the compressed +lips and knitted brows of others; a speculative +inquiry and interest, or merely admiring acquiescence +in others; as the high or low, the wide or +contracted head prevailed; and all this diversity in +organisation, in habits of thought, in expression, harmonised +for the time by one predominant object, one +feeling! the hungry sheep looking up to be fed! +When I sigh over apparent disagreement, let me +think of those windows in Merton College Chapel, +and the same light from heaven streaming through +them all!—and of that assemblage of human faces, +uplifted with the same aspiration one and all!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-020.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="183" width="500" /></div> + +<h5>9.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">have</span> just read the article (by Sterling, I believe), +in the “Edinburgh Review” for July; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span> +as it chanced, this same evening, Dr. Channing’s +“Discourse on the Church,” and Captain Maconochie’s +“Report on Secondary Punishments” from +Sydney, came before me.</p> + +<p>And as I laid them down, one after another, <i>this</i> +thought struck me:—that about the same time, in +three different and far divided regions of the globe, +three men, one military, the other an ecclesiastic, the +third a lawyer, and belonging apparently to different +religious denominations, all gave utterance to nearly +the same sentiments in regard to a Christian Church. +Channing says, “A church destined to endure +through all ages, to act on all, to blend itself with +new forms of society, and with the highest improvements +of the race, cannot be expected to ordain an +immutable mode of administration, but must leave its +modes of worship and communion to conform themselves +silently and gradually to the wants and progress +of humanity. The rites and arrangements +which suit one period lose their significance or efficiency +in another; the forms which minister to the +mind <i>now</i> may fetter it hereafter, and must give +place to its free unfolding,” &c., and more to the +same purpose.</p> + +<p>The reviewer says, “We believe that in the +judgment of an enlightened charity, many Christian +societies who are accustomed to denounce each others’ +errors, will at length come to be regarded as members<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> +in common of one great and comprehensive Church, +in which diversity of forms are harmonised by an all-pervading +unity of spirit.” And more to the same +purpose. The soldier and reformer says, “I believe +there may be error because there must be imperfection +in the religious faith of the best among us; +but that the degree of this error is not vital in any +Christian denomination seems demonstrable by the +best fruits of faith—good works—being evidenced +by all.”</p> + +<p>It is pleasant to see benign spirits divided in +opinion, but harmonised by faith, thus standing hand +in hand upon a shore of peace, and looking out together +in serene hope for the dawning of a better +day, instead of rushing forth, each with his own +farthing candle, under pretence of illuminating the +world—every one even more intent on putting out +his neighbour’s light than on guarding his own.</p> + +<p class="name">(Nov. 15. 1841.)</p> + +<p class="tb">While the idea of possible harmony in the universal +Church of Christ (by which I mean all who +accept His teaching and are glad to bear His name) +is gaining ground theoretically, <i>practically</i> it seems +more and more distant; since 1841 (when the above +was written) the divergence is greater than ever; +and, as in politics, moderate opinions appear (since +1848) to merge on either side into the extremes of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span> +ultra conservatism and ultra radicalism, as fear of +the past or hope of the future predominate, so it is +in the Church. The sort of dualism which prevails +in politics and religion might give some colour to +Lord Lindsay’s theory of “progress through antagonism.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-045.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="136" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>10.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">incline</span> to agree with those who think it a great +mistake to consider the present conditions or +conception of Christianity as complete and final: +like the human soul to which it was fitted by Divine +love and wisdom, it has an immeasurable capacity of +development, and “The Lord hath more truth yet +to break forth out of his Holy Word.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-022-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="214" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>11.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> nations of the present age want not <i>less</i> religion, +but <i>more</i>. They do not wish for less com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span>munity +with the Apostolic times, but for more; but +above all, they want their wounds healed by a +Christianity showing a life-renewing vitality allied +to reason and conscience, and ready and able to +reform the social relations of life, beginning with the +domestic and culminating with the political. They +want no negations, but positive reconstruction—no +conventionality, but an honest <i>bonâ fide</i> foundation, +deep as the human mind, and a structure free and +organic as nature. In the meantime let no national +form be urged as identical with divine truth, let no +dogmatic formula oppress conscience and reason, and +let no corporation of priests, no set of dogmatists, +sow discord and hatred in the sacred communities of +domestic and national life. This view cannot be obtained +without national efforts, Christian education, +free institutions, and social reforms. Then no zeal +will be called Christian which is not hallowed by +charity,—no faith Christian which is not sanctioned +by reason.”—<i>Hippolitus.</i></p> + +<p>“Any author who in our time treats theological +and ecclesiastical subjects frankly, and therefore with +reference to the problems of the age, must expect to +be ignored, and if that cannot be done, abused and +reviled.”</p> + +<p>The same is true of moral subjects on which strong +prejudices (or shall I say strong <i>convictions</i>?) exist in +minds not very strong.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span></p> + +<p>It is not perhaps of so much consequence what we +believe, as it is important that we believe; that we +do not affect to believe, and so belie our own souls. +Belief is <i>not</i> always in our power, but truth is.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-050.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="107" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>12.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> seems an arbitrary limitation of the design of +Christianity to assume, as Priestley does, that “it +consists solely in the revelation of a future life confirmed +by the bodily resurrection of Christ.” This +is truly a very material view of Christianity. If I +were to be sure of annihilation I should not be less +certain of the truth of Christianity as a system of +morals exquisitely adapted for the improvement and +happiness of man as an individual; and equally +adapted to conduce to the amelioration and progressive +happiness of mankind as a species.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-iv.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="264" width="500" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-018.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="184" width="300" /></div> + +<h4>NOTES FROM VARIOUS SERMONS,</h4> + +<h5>MADE ON THE SPOT;</h5> + +<h5>SHOWING SOME THINGS IN WHICH ALL GOOD MEN ARE AGREED.</h5> + +<h4>I.</h4> + +<h4><i>From a Roman Catholic Sermon.</i></h4> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> travelling in Ireland, I stayed over one +Sunday in a certain town in the north, and +rambled out early in the morning. It was cold and +wet, the streets empty and quiet, but the sound of +voices drew me in one direction, down a court where +was a Roman Catholic chapel. It was so crowded +that many of the congregation stood round the door. +I remarked among them a number of soldiers and +most miserable-looking women. All made way for +me with true national courtesy, and I entered at the +moment the priest was finishing mass, and about to +begin his sermon. There was no pulpit, and he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> +stood on the step of the altar; a fine-looking man, +with a bright face, a sonorous voice, and a <i>very</i> +strong Irish accent. His text was from Matt. v. +43, 44.</p> + +<p>He began by explaining what Christ really meant +by the words “Love thy neighbour.” Then drew a +picture in contrast of hatred and dissension, commencing +with dissension in families, between kindred, +and between husband and wife. Then made a +most touching appeal in behalf of children brought +up in an atmosphere of contention where no love is. +“God help them! God pity them! small chance for +them of being either good or happy! for their young +hearts are saddened and soured with strife, and they +eat their bread in bitterness!”</p> + +<p>Then he preached patience to the wives, indulgence +to the husbands, and denounced scolds and +quarrelsome women in a manner that seemed to +glance at recent events: “When ye are found in the +streets vilifying and slandering one another, ay, and +fighting and tearing each other’s hair, do ye think +ye’re women? no, ye’re not! ye’re devils incarnate, +and ye’ll go where the devils will be fit companions +for ye!” &c. (Here some women near me, with +long black hair streaming down, fell upon their +knees, sobbing with contrition.) He then went on, +in the same strain of homely eloquence, to the evils +of political and religious hatred, and quoted the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> +text, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, +live peaceably with all men.” “I’m a Catholic,” he +went on, “and I believe in the truth of my own +religion above all others. I’m convinced, by long +study and observation, it’s the best that is; but +what then? Do ye think I hate my neighbour because +he thinks differently? Do ye think I <i>mane</i> to +force my religion down other people’s throats? If I +were to preach such uncharity to ye, my people, +you wouldn’t listen to me, ye oughtn’t to listen to +me. Did Jesus Christ force His religion down other +people’s throats? Not He! He endured all, He was +kind to all, even to the wicked Jews that afterwards +crucified Him.” “If you say you can’t love your +neighbour because he’s your enemy, and has injured +you, what does that mane? ‘<i>ye can’t! ye can’t!</i>’ as +if that excuse will serve God? hav’n’t ye done more +and worse against Him? and didn’t He send His +only Son into the world to redeem ye? My good +people, you’re all sprung from one stock, all sons of +Adam, all related to one another. When God +created Eve, mightn’t He have made her out of any +thing, a stock or a stone, or out of nothing at all, +at all? but He took one of Adam’s ribs and moulded +her out of that, and gave her to him, just to show +that we’re all from one original, all related together, +men and women, Catholics and Protestants, Jews +and Turks and Christians; all bone of one bone, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> +flesh of one flesh!” He then insisted and demonstrated +that all the miseries of life, all the sorrows +and mistakes of men, women, and children; and, in +particular, all the disasters of Ireland, the bankrupt +landlords, the religious dissensions, the fights domestic +and political, the rich without thought for the +poor, and the poor without food or work, all arose +from nothing but the want of love. “Down on +your knees,” he exclaimed, “and ask God’s mercy +and pardon; and as ye hope to find it, ask pardon +one of another for every angry word ye have spoken, +for every uncharitable thought that has come into +your minds; and if any man or woman have aught +against his neighbour, no matter what, let it be +plucked out of his heart before he laves this place, +let it be forgotten at the door of this chapel. Let +me, your pastor, have no more rason to be ashamed +of you; as if I were set over wild bastes, instead of +Christian men and women!”</p> + +<p>After more in this fervid strain, which I cannot +recollect, he gave his blessing in the same earnest +heartfelt manner. I never saw a congregation more +attentive, more reverent, and apparently more touched +and edified. (1848.)</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span></p> + +<h4>II.</h4> + +<h4><i>From another Roman Catholic Sermon, delivered in +the private chapel of a Nobleman.</i></h4> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">his</span> Discourse was preached on the festival of +St. John the Baptist, and was a summary of his +doctrine, life, and character. The text was taken +from St. Luke, iii. 9. to 14.; in which St. John +answers the question of the people, “what shall we +do then?” by a brief exposition of their several +duties.</p> + +<p>“What is most remarkable in all this,” said the +priest, “is truly that there is nothing very remarkable +in it. The Baptist required from his hearers +very simple and very familiar duties,—such as he +was not the first to preach, such as had been recognised +as duties by all religions; and do you think +that those who were neither Jews nor Christians +were therefore left without any religion? No! never +did God leave any of his creatures without religion; +they could not utter the words <i>right</i>, <i>wrong</i>,—<i>beautiful</i>, +<i>hateful</i>, without recognising a religion written +by God on their hearts from the beginning—a +religion which existed before the preaching of John, +before the coming of Christ, and of which the appearance +of John and the doctrine and sacrifice of Christ, +were but the fulfilment. For Christ came to <i>fulfil</i> +the law, not to destroy it. Do you ask what law?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span> +Not the law of Moses, but the universal law of God’s +moral truth written in our hearts. It is, my friends, +a folly to talk of <i>natural</i> religion as of something +different from <i>revealed</i> religion.</p> + +<p>“The great proof of the truth of John’s mission +lies in its comprehensiveness: men and women, artisans +and soldiers, the rich and the poor, the young +and the old, gathered to him in the wilderness; +and he included all in his teaching, for he was +sent to all; and the best proof of the truth of his +teaching lies in its harmony with that law already +written in the heart and the conscience of men. +When Christ came afterwards, he preached a doctrine +more sublime, with a more authoritative voice; but +here, also, the best proof we have of the truth of +that divine teaching lies in this—that he had prepared +from the beginning the heart and the conscience +of man to harmonise with it.”</p> + +<p class="tb">This was a very curious sermon; quiet, elegant, +and learned, with a good deal of sacred and profane +history introduced in illustration, which I am sorry +I cannot remember in detail. It made, however, no +appeal to feeling or to practice; and after listening +to it, we all went in to luncheon and discussed our +newspapers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span></p> + +<h4>III.</h4> + +<h4><i>Fragments of a Sermon (Anglican Church).</i></h4> + +<p>Text, Luke iv., from the 14th to the 18th, but more +especially the 18th verse. This sermon was extempore.</p> + +<p class="tb"><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> preacher began by observing, that our Lord’s +sermon at Nazareth established the second of two +principles. By his sermon from the Mount, in which +he had addressed the multitude in the open air, under +the vault of the blue heaven alone, he has left to us +the principle that all places are fitted for the service +of God, and that all places may be sanctified by the +preaching of his truth. While, by his sermon in the +Synagogue (that which is recorded by St. Luke in +this passage), he has established the principle, that it +is right to set apart a place to assemble together in +worship and to listen to instruction; and it is observable +that on this occasion our Saviour taught in +the synagogue, where there was no sacrifice, no +ministry of the priests, as in the Temple; but where +a portion of the law and the prophets might be read +by any man; and any man, even a stranger (as he +was himself), might be called upon to expound.</p> + +<p>Then reading impressively the whole of the narrative +down to the 32nd verse, the preacher closed +the sacred volume, and went on to this effect:—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span></p> + +<p>“There are two orders of evil in the world—Sin +and Crime. Of the second, the world takes strict +cognisance; of the first, it takes comparatively little; +yet <i>that</i> is worse in the eyes of God. There are two +orders of temptation: the temptation which assails +our lower nature—our appetites; the temptation +which assails our higher nature—our intellect. The +<i>first</i>, leading to sin in the body, is punished in the +body,—the consequence being pain, disease, death. +The <i>second</i>, leading to sins of the soul, as pride +chiefly, uncharitableness, selfish sacrifice of others to +our own interests or purposes,—is punished in the +soul—in the <span class="smcap">Hell of the Spirit.”</span></p> + +<p>(All this part of his discourse very beautiful, +earnest, eloquent; but I regretted that he did not +follow out the distinction he began with between <i>sin</i> +and <i>crime</i>, and the views and deductions, religious +and moral, which that distinction leads to.)</p> + +<p>He continued to this effect: “Christ said that it +was a part of his mission to heal the broken-hearted. +What is meant by the phrase ‘a broken heart?’” He +illustrated it by the story of Eli, and by the wife of +Phineas, both of whom died broken in heart; “and +our Saviour himself died on the cross heart-broken +by sorrow rather than by physical torture.”—</p> + +<p>(I lost something here because I was questioning +and doubting within myself, for I have always had +the thought that Christ must have been <i>glad</i> to die.)</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span></p> + +<p>He went on:—“To heal the broken-hearted is +to say to those who are beset by the remembrance +and the misery of sin, ‘My brother, the past is +past—think not of it to thy perdition; arise and +sin no more.’” (All this, and more to the same +purpose, wonderfully beautiful! and I became all +soul—subdued to listen.) “There are two ways of +meeting the pressure of misery and heart-break: +first, by trusting to time” (then followed a quotation +from Schiller’s “Wallenstein,” in reference to grief, +which sounded strange, and yet beautiful, from the +pulpit, “Was verschmerzte nicht der Mensch?”—what +cannot man grieve down?); “secondly, by +defiance and resistance, setting oneself resolutely to +endure. But Christ taught a different way from +either—by <i>submission</i>—by the complete surrender +of our whole being to the will of God.</p> + +<p>“The next part of Christ’s mission was to preach +deliverance to the captives.” (Then followed a most +eloquent and beautiful exposition of Christian freedom—of +who were free; and who were not free, but +properly spiritual captives.) “To be content within +limitations is freedom; to desire beyond those limitations +is bondage. The bird which is content within +her cage is free; the bird which can fly from tree to +tree, yet desires to soar like the eagle,—the eagle +which can ascend to the mountain peak yet desires +to reach the height of that sun on which his eye is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span> +fixed,—these are in bondage. The man who is not +content within his sphere of duties and powers, but +feels his faculties, his position, his profession; a perpetual +trammel,—<i>he</i> is spiritually in bondage. The +only freedom is the freedom of the soul, content +within its external limitations, and yet elevated spiritually +far above them by the inward powers and +impulses which lift it up to God.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<h4>IV.</h4> + +<p><i>Recollections of another Church of England Sermon +preached extempore.</i></p> + +<p class="indent">The text was taken from Matt. xii. 42.: “The Queen of +the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, +and shall condemn it,” &c.</p> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> preacher began by drawing that distinction +between knowledge and wisdom which so many +comprehend and allow, and so few apply. He then +described the two parties in the great question of +popular education. Those who would base all human +progress on secular instruction, on knowledge in +contradistinction to ignorance, as on light opposed to +darkness;—and the mistake of those who, taking the +contrary extreme, denounce all secular instruction +imparted to the poor as dangerous, or contemn it as +useless. The error of those who sneer at the triumph +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span> +of intellect he termed a species of idiocy; and the +error of those who do not see the insufficiency of +knowledge, blind presumption. Then he contrasted +worldly wisdom and spiritual; with a flow of gorgeous +eloquence he enlarged on the picture of worldly +wisdom as exhibited in the character of Solomon, and +of intellect, and admiration for intellect, in the character +of the Queen of Sheba. “In what consisted +the wisdom of Solomon? He made, as the sacred +history assures us, three thousand proverbs, mostly +prudential maxims relating to conduct in life; the +use and abuse of riches; prosperity and adversity. +His acquirements in natural philosophy seem to +have been confined to the appearances of material +and visible things; the herbs and trees, the beasts +and birds, the creeping things and fishes. His +political wisdom consisted in increasing his wealth, his +dominions, and the number of his subjects and cities. +On his temple he lavished all that art had then +accomplished, and on his own house a world of riches +in gold, and silver, and precious things: but all was +done for his own glory—nothing for the improvement +or the happiness of his people, who were ground +down by taxes, suffered in the midst of all his magnificence, +and remained ignorant in spite of all his +knowledge. Witness the wars, tyrannies, miseries, +delusions, and idolatries which followed after his +death.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span></p> + +<p>“But the Queen of Sheba came not from the +uttermost parts of the earth to view the magnificence +and wonder at the greatness of the King, she came +to hear his wisdom. She came not to ask anything +from him, but to prove him with hard questions. +No idea of worldly gain, or selfish ambition was +in her thoughts; she paid even for the pleasure of +hearing his wise sayings by rare and costly gifts.”</p> + +<p>“Knowledge is power; but he who worships +knowledge not for its own sake, but for the power it +brings, worships power. Knowledge is riches; but +he who worships knowledge for the sake of all it +bestows, worships riches. The Queen of Sheba +worshipped knowledge solely for its own sake; and +the truths which she sought from the lips of Solomon +she sought for truth’s sake. She gave, all she could +give, in return, the spicy products of her own land, +treasures of pure gold, and blessings warm from her +heart. The man who makes a voyage to the antipodes +only to behold the constellation of the Southern +Cross, the man who sails to the North to see how the +magnet trembles and varies, these love knowledge +for its own sake, and are impelled by the same enthusiasm +as the Queen of Sheba.” He went on to +analyse the character of Solomon, and did not treat +him, I thought, with much reverence either as sage +or prophet. He remarked that, “of the thousand +songs of Solomon one only survives, and that both +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> +in this song and in his proverbs his meaning has +often been mistaken; it is supposed to be spiritual, +and is interpreted symbolically, when in fact the +plain, obvious, material significance is the true one.”</p> + +<p>He continued to this effect,—but with a power +of language and illustration which I cannot render. +“We see in Solomon’s own description of his dominion, +his glory, his wealth, his fame, what his +boasted wisdom achieved; what it could, and what it +could not do for him. What was the end of all his +magnificence? of his worship of the beautiful? of +his intellectual triumphs? of his political subtlety? +of his ships, and his commerce, and his chariots, and +his horses, and his fame which reached to the ends +of the earth? All—as it is related—ended in feebleness, +in scepticism, in disbelief of happiness, in +sensualism, idolatry, and dotage! The whole ‘Book +of Ecclesiastes,’ fine as it is, presents a picture of +selfishness and epicurism. This was the King of +the Jews! the King of those that know! (<i>Il maestro +di color chi sanno.</i>) Solomon is a type of worldly +wisdom, of desire of knowledge for the sake of all +that knowledge can give. We imitate him when +we would base the happiness of a people on knowledge. +When we have commanded the sun to be +our painter, and the lightning to run on our errands, +what reward have we? Not the increase of happiness, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> +nor the increase of goodness; nor—what is +next to both—our faith in both.”</p> + +<p>“It would seem profane to contrast Solomon and +Christ had not our Saviour himself placed that +contrast distinctly before us. He consecrated the +comparison by applying it—‘Behold a greater than +Solomon is here.’ In quoting these words we do +not presume to bring into comparison the two +<i>natures</i>, but the two intellects—the two aspects +of truth. Solomon described the external world; +Christ taught the moral law. Solomon illustrated +the aspects of nature; Christ helped the aspirations +of the spirit. Solomon left as a legacy the saying +that ‘in much wisdom there is much grief;’ and +Christ preached to us the lowly wisdom which can +consecrate grief; making it lead to the elevation of +our whole being and to ultimate happiness. The +two majesties—the two kings—how different! Not +till we are old, and have suffered, and have laid +our experience to heart, do we feel the immeasurable +distance between the teaching of Christ and the +teaching of Solomon!”</p> + +<p>Then returning to the Queen of Sheba, he treated +the character as the type of the intellectual woman. +He contrasted her rather favourably with Solomon. +He described with picturesque felicity, her long and +toilsome journey to see, to admire, the man whose +wisdom had made him renowned;—the mixture of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> +enthusiasm and humility which prompted her desire +to learn, to prove the truth of what rumour had +conveyed to her, to commune with him of all that +was in her heart. And she returned to her own +country rich in wise sayings. But did the final +result of all this glory and knowledge reach her +there? and did it shake her faith in him she had +bowed to as the wisest of kings and men?</p> + +<p>He then contrasted the character of the Queen of +Sheba with that of Mary, the mother of our Lord, +that feminine type of holiness, of tenderness, of long-suffering; +of sinless purity in womanhood, wifehood, +and motherhood: and rising to more than usual +eloquence and power, he prophesied the regeneration +of all human communities through the social elevation, +the intellect, the purity, and the devotion of +Woman.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-026.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="188" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span></p> + +<h4>V.</h4> + +<h4><i>From a Sermon (apparently extempore) by a Dissenting +Minister.</i></h4> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> ascetics of the old times seem to have had a +belief that all sin was in the body; that the spirit +belonged to God, and the body to his adversary the +devil; and that to contemn, ill-treat, and degrade by +every means this frame of ours, so wonderfully, so +fearfully, so exquisitely made, was to please the +Being who made it; and who, for gracious ends, no +doubt, rendered it capable of such admirable development +of strength and beauty. Miserable mistake!</p> + +<p>To some, this body is as a prison from which we +are to rejoice to escape by any permitted means: to +others, it is as a palace to be luxuriously kept up and +decorated within and without. But what says Paul +(Cor. vi. 19.),—“Know ye not that your body is +the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which +ye have from God, and which is not your own?”</p> + +<p>Surely not less than a temple is that form which +the Divine Redeemer took upon him, and deigned, +for a season, to inhabit; which he consecrated by his +life, sanctified by his death, glorified by his transfiguration, +hallowed and beautified by his resurrection!</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span></p> + +<p>It is because they do not recognise <i>this</i> body as a +temple, built up by God’s intelligence, as a fitting +sanctuary for the immortal Spirit, and <i>this</i> life equally +with any other form of life as dedicate to Him, that +men fall into such opposite extremes of sin:—the +spiritual sin which contemns the body, and the sensual +sin which misuses it.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-073-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="226" width="400" /></div> + +<h4>VI.</h4> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> I was at Boston I made the acquaintance +of Father Taylor, the founder of the Sailors’ +Home in that city. He was considered as the apostle +of the seamen, and I was full of veneration for him as +the enthusiastic teacher and philanthropist. But it +is not of his virtues or his labours that I wish to +speak. He struck me in another way, <i>as a poet</i>; +he was a born poet. Until he was five-and-twenty +he had never learned to read, and his reading afterwards +was confined to such books as aided him in +his ministry. He remained an illiterate man to the +last, but his mind was teeming with spontaneous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> +imagery, allusion, metaphor. One might almost say +of him,</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i5">“He could not ope</span> +<span class="i0">His mouth, but out there flew a trope!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>These images and allusions had a freshness, an originality, +and sometimes an oddity that was quite startling, +and they were generally, but not always, borrowed +from his former profession—that of a sailor.</p> + +<p class="tb">One day we met him in the street. He told us +in a melancholy voice that he had been burying a +child, and alluded almost with emotion to the great +number of infants he had buried lately. Then after +a pause, striking his stick on the ground and looking +upwards, he added, “There must be something wrong +somewhere! there’s a storm brewing, when the doves +are all flying aloft!”</p> + +<p class="tb">One evening in conversation with me, he compared +the English and the Americans to Jacob’s vine, which, +planted on one side of the wall, grew over it and +hung its boughs and clusters on the other side,—“but +it is still the same vine, nourished from the same +root!”</p> + +<p class="tb">On one occasion when I attended his chapel, the +sermon was preceded by a long prayer in behalf of +an afflicted family, one of whose members had died<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> +or been lost in a whaling expedition to the South +Seas. In the midst of much that was exquisitely +pathetic and poetical, refined ears were startled by +such a sentence as this,—“Grant, O Lord! that this +rod of chastisement be sanctified, every twig of it, to +the edification of their souls!”</p> + +<p class="tb">Then immediately afterwards he prayed that the +Divine Comforter might be near the bereaved father +“when his aged heart went forth from his bosom to +flutter round the far southern grave of his boy!” +Praying for others of the same family who were on +the wide ocean, he exclaimed, stretching forth his +arms, “O save them! O guard them! thou angel +of the deep!”</p> + +<p class="tb">On another occasion, speaking of the insufficiency +of the moral principles without religious feelings, he +exclaimed, “Go heat your ovens with snowballs! +What! shall I send you to heaven with such an +icicle in your pocket? I might as well put a millstone +round your neck to teach you to swim!”</p> + +<p class="tb">He was preaching against violence and cruelty:—“Don’t +talk to me,” said he, “of the savages! a +ruffian in the midst of Christendom is the savage of +savages. He is as a man freezing in the sun’s heat, +groping in the sun’s light, a straggler in paradise, an +alien in heaven!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span></p> + +<p>In his chapel all the principal seats in front of the +pulpit and down the centre aisle were filled by the +sailors. We ladies, and gentlemen, and strangers, +whom curiosity had brought to hear him, were ranged +on each side; he would on no account allow us to +take the best places. On one occasion, as he was denouncing +hypocrisy, luxury, and vanity, and other +vices of more civilised life, he said emphatically, “I +don’t mean <i>you</i> before me here,” looking at the sailors; +“I believe you are wicked enough, but honest fellows +in some sort, for you profess less, not more, +than you practise; but I mean to touch <i>starboard</i> and +<i>larboard</i> there!” stretching out both hands with +the forefinger extended, and looking at us on either +side till we quailed.</p> + +<p class="tb">He compared the love of God in sending Christ +upon earth to that of the father of a seaman who +sends his eldest and most beloved son, the hope of +the family, to bring back the younger one, lost on his +voyage, and missing when his ship returned to port.</p> + +<p class="tb">Alluding to the carelessness of Christians, he used +the figure of a mariner, steering into port through a +narrow dangerous channel, “false lights here, rocks +there, shifting sand banks on one side, breakers on +the other; and who, instead of fixing his attention to +keep the head of his vessel right, and to obey the +instructions of the pilot as he sings out from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> +wheel, throws the pilot overboard, lashes down the +helm, and walks the deck whistling, with his hands +in the pockets of his jacket.” Here, suiting the action +to the word, he put on a true sailor-like look of defiant +jollity;—changed in a moment to an expression +of horror as he added, “See! See! she drifts +to destruction!”</p> + +<p class="tb">One Sunday he attempted to give to his sailor congregation +an idea of Redemption. He began with an +eloquent description of a terrific storm at sea, rising +to fury through all its gradations; then, amid the +waves, a vessel is seen labouring in distress and +driving on a lee shore. The masts bend and break, +and go overboard; the sails are rent, the helm unshipped, +they spring a leak! the vessel begins to fill, +the water gains on them; she sinks deeper, deeper, +<i>deeper! deeper!</i> He bent over the pulpit repeating +the last words again and again; his voice became low +and hollow. The faces of the sailors as they gazed +up at him with their mouths wide open, and their +eyes fixed, I shall never forget. Suddenly stopping, +and looking to the farthest end of the chapel as into +space, he exclaimed, with a piercing cry of exultation, +“A life boat! a life boat!” Then looking down +upon his congregation, most of whom had sprung to +their feet in an ecstasy of suspense, he said in a deep +impressive tone, and extending his arms, “<i>Christ is +that life boat!</i>”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-027.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="132" width="400" /></div> + +<h4>VII.</h4> + +<h5>RELIGION AND SCIENCE.</h5> + +<p>“It is true, that science has not made Nature as +expressive of God in the first instance, or to the beginner +in religion, as it was in earlier times. Science +reveals a rigid, immutable order; and this to common +minds looks much like self-subsistence, and does not +manifest intelligence, which is full of life, variety, +and progressive operation. Men, in the days of +their ignorance, saw an immediate Divinity accomplishing +an immediate purpose, or expressing an immediate +feeling, in every sudden, striking change of +nature—in a storm, the flight of a bird, &c.; and +Nature, thus interpreted, became the sign of a present, +deeply interested Deity. Science undoubtedly +brings vast aids, but it is to <i>prepared</i> minds, to those +who have begun in another school. The greatest aid +it yields consists in the revelation it makes of the +Infinite. It aids us not so much by showing us +marks of design in this or that particular thing as by +showing the <i>Infinite</i> in the <i>finite</i>. Science does this +office when it unfolds to us the unity of the universe, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> +which thus becomes the sign, the efflux of one unbounded +intelligence, when it reveals to us in every +work of Nature infinite connections, the influences of +all-pervading laws—when it shows us in each created +thing unfathomable, unsearchable depths, to which +our intelligence is altogether unequal. Thus Nature +explored by science is a witness of the Infinite. It +is also a witness to the same truth by its beauty; for +what is so undefined, so mysterious as beauty?”—<i>Dr. +Channing.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-194.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="458" width="400" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span></p> + +<h4>PART II.</h4> + +<h4><span class="oldtype">Literature and Art.</span></h4> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-196.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="416" width="500" /></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="185" width="300" /></div> + +<h4><span class="oldtype">Notes from Books.</span></h4> + +<h5>1.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“A</span> <span class="smcap">great</span> advantage is derived from the occasional +practice of reading together, for each person +selects different beauties and starts different objections: +while the same passage perhaps awakens in each +mind a different train of associated ideas, or raises +different images for the purposes of illustration.”—<i>Francis +Horner.</i></p> + +<h5>2.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“C</span><span class="smcap">’est</span> ainsi que je poursuis la communication de +quelque esprit fameux, non afin qu’il m’enseigne +mais afin que je le connaisse, et que le connaissant, +s’il le faut, je l’imite.”—<i>Montaigne.</i></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-060-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="151" width="250" /></div> + +<h4>DR. ARNOLD.</h4> + +<h5>3.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">sat</span> up till half-past two this morning reading +Dr. Arnold’s “Life and Letters,” and have my +soul full of him to-day.</p> + +<p>On the whole I cannot say that the perusal of this +admirable book has changed any notion in my mind, +or added greatly to my stock of ideas. There was +no height of inspiration, or eloquence, or power, to +which I looked <i>up</i>; no profound depth of thought +or feeling into which I looked <i>down</i>; no <i>new</i> lights; +no <i>new</i> guides; no absolutely <i>new</i> aspects of things +human or spiritual.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, I never read a book of the +kind with a more harmonious sense of pleasure and +<i>approbation</i>,—if the word be not from me presumptuous. +While I read page after page, the +mind which was unfolded before me seemed to me a +brother’s mind—the spirit, a kindred spirit. It was +the improved, the elevated, the enlarged, the enriched, +the every-way superior reflection of my own +intelligence, but it was certainly <i>that</i>. I felt it so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> +from beginning to end. Exactly the reverse was the +feeling with which I laid down the Life and Letters +of Southey. I was instructed, amused, interested; +I profited and admired; but with the <i>man</i> Southey +I had no sympathies: my mind stood off from his; +the poetical intellect attracted, the material of the +character repelled me. I liked the embroidery, but +the texture was disagreeable, repugnant. Now with +regard to Dr. Arnold, my entire sympathy with +the character, with the <i>material</i> of the character, did +not extend to all its manifestations. I liked the texture +better than the embroidery;—perhaps, because +of my feminine organisation.</p> + +<p>Nor did my admiration of the intellect extend to +the acceptance of <i>all</i> the opinions which emanated +from it; perhaps because from the manner these +were enunciated, or merely touched upon (in letters +chiefly), I did not comprehend clearly the reasoning +on which they may have been founded. Perhaps, if +I had done so, I must have respected them more, +perhaps have been convinced by them; so large, so +candid, so rich in knowledge, and apparently so +logical, was the mind which admitted them.</p> + +<p>And yet this excellent, admirable man, seems to +have <i>feared</i> God, in the common-place sense of the +word fear. He considered the Jews as out of the pale +of equality; he was against their political emancipation +from a hatred of Judaism. He subscribed to the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> +Athanasian Creed, which stuck even in George the +Third’s orthodox throat. He believed in what Coleridge +could not admit, in the existence of the spirit +of evil as a person. He had an idea that the Church +<i>of God</i> may be destroyed by an Antichrist; he speaks +of such a consummation as possible, as probable, +as impending; as if any institution really from God +could be destroyed by an adverse power!—and he +thought that a lawyer could not be a Christian.</p> + +<h5>4.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">ertain</span> passages filled me with astonishment as +coming from a churchman, particularly what he +says of the sacraments (vol. ii. pp. 75. 113.); and in +another place, where he speaks of “the <i>pestilent</i> distinction +between clergy and laity;” and where he says, +“I hold that one form of Church government is exactly +as much according to Christ’s will as another.” And +in another place he speaks of the Anglican Church +(with reference to Henry VIII. as its father, and +Elizabeth as its foster-mother), as “the child of regal +and aristocratical selfishness and unprincipled tyranny, +who has never dared to speak boldly to the great, +but has contented herself with lecturing the poor;” +but he forgot at the moment the trial of the bishops +in James’s time, and their noble stand against regal +authority.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span></p> + +<h5>5.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">ith</span> regard to conservatism (vol. ii. pp. 19. 62.), +he seems to mean—as I understand the whole +passage,—that it is a good <i>instinct</i> but a bad <i>principle</i>. +Yet as a principle is it, as he says, “always wrong?” +Though as the adversary of progress, it must be +always wrong, yet as the adversary of change it <i>may</i> +be sometimes right.</p> + +<h5>6.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> remarks that most of those who are above +sectarianism are in general indifferent to Christianity, +while almost all who profess to value Christianity +seem, when they are brought to the test, to +care only for their own sect. “Now,” he adds, “it +is manifest to me, that all our education must be +Christian, and not be sectarian.” Yet the whole aim +of education up to this time has been, in this country, +eminently sectarian, and every statesman who has attempted +to place it on a broader basis has been either +wrecked or stranded.</p> + +<p>“All sects,” he says in another place, “have had +among them marks of Christ’s Catholic Church in the +graces of his Spirit and the confession of his name,” +and he seems to wish that some one would compile a +book showing side by side what professors of all sects +have done for the good of Christ’s Church,—the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span> +martyrdoms, the missionary labours of Catholics, +Protestants, Arians, &c.; “a grand field,” he calls +it,—and so it were; but it lies fallow up to this +time.</p> + +<h5>7.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> philosophy of medicine, I imagine, is at zero; +our practice is empirical, and seems hardly more +than a course of guessing, more or less happy.” In +another place (vol. ii. p. 72.), he says, “yet I honour +medicine as the most beneficent of all professions.”</p> + +<h5>8.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> says (vol. ii. p. 42.), “Narrow-mindedness tends +to wickedness, because it does not extend its +watchfulness to every part of our moral nature.” +“Thus, a man may have one or more virtues, such +as are according to his favourite ideas, in great perfection; +and still be nothing, because these ideas are +his idols, and, worshipping them with all his heart, +there is a portion of his heart, more or less considerable, +left without its proper object, guide, and +nourishment; and so this portion is left to the +dominion of evil,” &c.</p> + +<p>(One might ask <i>how</i>, if a man worship these ideas +with <i>all</i> his heart, a portion could be left? but the +sense is so excellent, I cannot quarrel with a slight +inaccuracy in the expression. I never quite understood +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> +before why it is difficult to subscribe to the +truth of the phrase “He is a good but a narrow-minded +man,” but <i>felt</i> the incompatibility.)</p> + +<h5>9.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> says “the word <i>useful</i> implies the idea of good +robbed of its nobleness.” Is this true? the <i>useful</i> +is the <i>good</i> applied to practical purposes; it need not, +therefore, be less noble. The nobleness lies in the +spirit in which it is so applied.</p> + +<h5>10.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">B</span><span class="smcap">enthamism</span> (what <i>is</i> it?), Puritanism, Judaism, +how he hates them! I suppose, because he +<i>fears</i> God and <i>fears</i> for the Church of God. Hatred +of all kinds seems to originate in fear.</p> + +<h5>11.</h5> + +<p>What he says of conscience, very remarkable!</p> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“M</span><span class="smcap">en</span> get embarrassed by the common cases +of a misguided conscience: but a compass may be out +of order as well as a conscience; and you can trace +the deranging influence on the latter quite as surely +as on the former. The needle may point due south +if you hold a powerful magnet in that direction; still +the compass, generally speaking, is a true and sure +guide,” &c.; and then he adds, “he who believes his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span> +conscience to be God’s law, by obeying it obeys +God.”</p> + +<p>I think there would be much to say about all this +passage relating to conscience, nor am I sure that I +quite understand it. Derangement of the intellect +is madness; is not derangement of the conscience +also madness? might it not be induced, as we bring +on a morbid state of the other faculties, by over use +and abuse? by giving it more than its due share of +power in the commonwealth of the mind? It should +preside, not tyrannise; rule, not exercise a petty +cramping despotism. A healthy courageous conscience +gives to the powers, instincts, impulses, fair +play; and having once settled the order of government +with a strong hand, is not always meddling +though always watchful.</p> + +<p>Then again, how is conscience “God’s law?” +Conscience is not the law, but the interpreter of the +law; it does not teach the difference between right +and wrong, it only impels us to do what we believe +to be right, and smites us when we <i>think</i> we have +been wrong. How is it that many have done wrong, +and every day do wrong for conscience’ sake?—and +does that sanctify the wrong in the eyes of God, as +well as in those of John Huss?<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">1</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span></p> + +<h5>12.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“P</span><span class="smcap">rayer,”</span> he says, “and kindly intercourse with +the poor, are the two great safeguards of +spiritual life—its more than food and raiment.”</p> + +<p>True; but there is something higher than this fed +and clothed spiritual life; something more difficult, +yet less conscious.</p> + +<h5>13.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> allusion to Coleridge, he says very truly, that +the power of contemplation becomes diseased +and perverted when it is the main employment of +life. But to the same great intellect he does beautiful +justice in another passage. “Coleridge seemed +to me to love truth really, and, therefore, truth presented +herself to him, not negatively, as she does +to many minds, who can see that the objections +against her are unfounded, and therefore that she is +to be received; but she filled him, as it were, heart +and mind, imbuing him with her very self, so that +all his being comprehended her fully, and loved her +ardently; and that seems to me to be true wisdom.”</p> + +<h5>14.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">V</span><span class="smcap">ery</span> fine is a passage wherein he speaks against +meeting what is wrong and bad with negatives, +with merely proving the wrong to be wrong, and the +false to be false, without substituting for either the +positively good and true.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span></p> + +<h5>15.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> contrasts as the two forms of the present danger +to the Church and to society, the prevalent +epicurean atheism, and the lying and formal spirit of +priestcraft. He seems to have had an impression that +the Church of God may be “utterly destroyed”(?), +or, he asks, “must we look forward for centuries to +come to the mere alternations of infidelity and superstition, +scepticism, and Newmanism?” It is very +curious to see two such men as Arnold and Carlyle +both overwhelmed with a terror of the magnitude of +the mischiefs they see impending over us. They are +oppressed with the anticipation of evil as with a sense +of personal calamity. Something alike, perhaps, in +the temperaments of these two extraordinary men;—large +conscientiousness, large destructiveness, and +small hope: there was great mutual sympathy and +admiration.</p> + +<h5>16.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">V</span><span class="smcap">ery</span> admirable what he says in favour of comprehensive +reading, against exclusive reading in one +line of study. He says, “Preserve proportion in +your reading, keep your view of men and things extensive, +and depend upon it a mixed knowledge is +not a superficial one; as far as it goes the views that +it gives are true; but he who reads deeply in one +class of writers only, gets views which are almost +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> +sure to be perverted, and which are not only <i>narrow +but false</i>.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-029-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="136" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>17.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap">ll</span> his descriptions of natural scenery and beauty +show his intense sensibility to them, but nowhere +is there a trace of the love or the comprehension +of art, as the reflection from the mind of man +of the nature and the beauty he so loved. Thus, +after dwelling on a scene of exquisite natural +beauty, he says, “Much more beautiful, because +made truly after God’s own image, are the forms and +colours of kind, and wise, and holy thoughts, words, +and actions;” that is to say—although he knew not +or made not the application—<span class="smcap">Art</span>, in the high +sense of the word, for that is the embodying in beautiful +hues and forms, what is kind, wise, and holy; +in one word—<i>good</i>. In fact, he says himself, art, +physical science, and natural history, were not included +within the reach of his mind; the first for +want of taste, the second for want of time, and the +third for want of inclination.</p> + +<h5>18.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> says, “The whole subject of the brute creation +is to me one of such painful mystery, that I dare<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span> +not approach it.” This is very striking from such a +man. How deep, consciously or unconsciously, does +this feeling lie in many minds!</p> + +<p>Bayle had already termed the acts, motives, and +feelings of the lower order of animals, “un des +plus profonds abîmes sur quoi notre raison peut +s’exerciser.”</p> + +<p>There is nothing, as I have sometimes thought, in +which men so blindly sin as in their appreciation and +treatment of the whole lower order of creatures. It +is affirmed that love and mercy towards animals are +not inculcated by any direct precept of Christianity, +but surely they are included in its spirit; yet it has +been remarked that cruelty towards animals is far +more common in Western Christendom than in the +East. With the Mahometan and Brahminical races +humanity to animals, and the sacredness of life in all +its forms, is much more of a religious principle than +among ourselves.</p> + +<p>Bacon, in his “Advancement of Learning,” does +not think it beneath his philosophy to point out as a +part of human morals, and a condition of human improvement, +justice and mercy to the lower animals—“the +extension of a noble and excellent principle of +compassion to the creatures subject to man.” “The +Turks,” he says, “though a cruel and sanguinary +nation both in descent and discipline, give alms to +brutes, and suffer them not to be tortured.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span></p> + +<p>It should seem as if the primitive Christians, by +laying so much stress upon a future life in contradistinction +to this life, and placing the lower +creatures out of the pale of hope, placed them at the +same time out of the pale of sympathy, and thus laid +the foundation for this utter disregard of animals in +the light of our fellow creatures. The definition of +virtue among the early Christians was the same as +Paley’s—that it was good performed for the sake of +ensuring everlasting happiness—which of course +excluded all the so-called brute creatures. Kind, +loving, submissive, conscientious, much enduring, we +know them to be; but because we deprive them of +all stake in the future, because they have no selfish +calculated aim, these are not virtues; yet if we say +“a <i>vicious</i> horse,” why not say a <i>virtuous</i> horse?</p> + +<p>The following passage, bearing curiously enough +on the most abstruse part of the question, I found in +Hallam’s Literature of the Middle Ages:—“Few,” +he says, “at present, who believe in the immateriality +of the human soul, would deny the same to +an elephant; but it must be owned that the discoveries +of zoology have pushed this to consequences +which some might not readily adopt. The spiritual +being of a sponge revolts a little our prejudices; yet +there is no resting-place, and we must admit this, or +be content to sink ourselves into a mass of medullary +fibre. Brutes have been as slowly emancipated in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span> +philosophy as some classes of mankind have been in +civil polity; their souls, we see, were almost universally +disputed to them at the end of the seventeenth +century, even by those who did not absolutely +bring them down to machinery. Even within the +recollection of many, it was common to deny them +any kind of reasoning faculty, and to solve their +most sagacious actions by the vague word instinct. +We have come of late years to think better of our +humble companions; and, as usual in similar cases, +the preponderant bias seems rather too much of a +levelling character.”</p> + +<p>When natural philosophers speak of “the higher +reason and more limited instincts of man,” as compared +with animals, do they mean savage man or +cultivated man? In the savage man the instincts +have a power, a range, a certitude, like those of +animals. As the mental faculties become expanded +and refined the instincts become subordinate. In +tame animals are the instincts as strong as in wild +animals? Can we not, by a process of training, substitute +an entirely different set of motives and +habits?</p> + +<p>Why, in managing animals, do men in general +make brutes of themselves to address what is most +<i>brute</i> in the lower creature, as if it had not been +demonstrated that in using our higher faculties, our +reason and benevolence, we develop sympathetically +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> +higher powers in <i>them</i>, and in subduing them through +what is best within us, raise them and bring them +nearer to ourselves?</p> + +<p>In general the more we can gather of facts, the +nearer we are to the elucidation of theoretic truth. +But with regard to animals, the multiplication of +facts only increases our difficulties and puts us to +confusion.</p> + +<p>“Can we otherwise explain animal instincts than +by supposing that the Deity himself is virtually the +active and present moving principle within them? +If we deny them <i>soul</i>, we must admit that they have +some spirit direct from God, what we call <i>unerring</i> +instinct, which holds the place of it.” This is the +opinion which Newton adopts. Then are we to +infer that the reason of man removes him further +from God than the animals, since we cannot offend +God in our instincts, only in our reason? and that +the superiority of the human animal lies in the power +of sinning? Terrible power! terrible privilege! out +of which we deduce the law of progress and the +necessity for a future life.</p> + +<p>The following passage bearing on the subject is +from Bentham:—</p> + +<p>“The day may come when the rest of the animal +creation may acquire those rights which never could +have been withholden from them but by the hand of +tyranny. It may come one day to be recognised +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span> +that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or +the termination of the <i>os sacrum</i>, are reasons insufficient +for abandoning a sensitive being to the caprice +of a tormentor. What else is it that should trace +the insuperable line? is it the faculty of reason, or, +perhaps, the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown +horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational as +well as a more conversable animal than an infant of +a day, a week, or even a month old. But suppose +the case were otherwise, what would it avail? The +question is not, ‘can they reason?’ nor ‘can they +speak?’ but ‘can they suffer?’”</p> + +<p>I do not remember ever to have heard the kind +and just treatment of animals enforced upon Christian +principles or made the subject of a sermon.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><img src="images/illus-077-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="213" width="450" /></div> + +<h5>19.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span><span class="smcap">nce</span>, when I was at Vienna, there was a dread +of hydrophobia, and orders were given to +massacre all the dogs which were found unclaimed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> +or uncollared in the city or suburbs. Men were employed +for this purpose, and they generally carried +a short heavy stick, which they flung at the poor +proscribed animal with such certain aim as either +to kill or maim it mortally at one blow. It +happened one day that, close to the edge of the river, +near the Ferdinand’s-Brücke, one of these men +flung his stick at a wretched dog, but with such bad +aim that it fell into the river. The poor animal, +following his instinct or his teaching, immediately +plunged in, redeemed the stick, and laid it down at +the feet of its owner, who, snatching it up, dashed +out the creature’s brains.</p> + +<p>I wonder what the Athenians would have done to +such a man? they who banished the judge of the +Areopagus because he flung away the bird which +had sought shelter in his bosom?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-040-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="149" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>20.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">return</span> to Dr. Arnold. He laments the neglect +of our cathedrals and the absurd confusion in +so many men’s minds “between what is really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span> +Popery, and what is but wisdom and beauty adopted +by the Roman Catholics and neglected by us.”</p> + +<h5>21.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> says, “Then, only, can opportunities of evil +be taken from us, when we lose also all opportunity +of doing or becoming good.” An obvious, +even common place thought, well and tersely expressed. +The inextricable co-relation and apparent +antagonism of good and evil were never more +strongly put.</p> + +<h5>22.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> defeat of Varus by the Germans, and the defeat +of the moors by Charles Martel, he ranked +as the two most important battles in the history of +the world. I see why. The first, because it decided +whether the north of Europe was to be completely +Latinised; the second, because it decided +whether all Europe was to be completely Mahomedanised.</p> + +<h5>23.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“H</span><span class="smcap">ow</span> can he who labours hard for his daily +bread—hardly and with doubtful success—be +made wise and good, and therefore how can +he be made happy? This question undoubtedly the +Church was meant to solve; for Christ’s kingdom +was to undo the evil of Adam’s sin; but the Church +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span> +has not solved it nor attempted to do so, and no one +else has gone about it rightly. How shall the poor +man find time to be educated?”</p> + +<p>This question, which “the Church has not yet +solved,” men have now set their wits to solve for +themselves.</p> + +<h5>24.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> in Italy he writes:—“It is almost awful +to look at the beauty which surrounds me and +then think of moral evil. It seems as if heaven and +hell, instead of being separated by a great gulf from +us and from each other, were close at hand and on +each other’s confines.”</p> + +<p>“Might but the sense of moral evil be as strong +in me as is my delight in external beauty!”</p> + +<p>A prayer I echo, Amen! if by the <i>sense</i> he mean +the abhorrence of it; otherwise, to be perpetually +haunted with the perception of moral evil were +dreadful; yet, on the other hand, I am half ashamed +sometimes of a conscious shrinking within myself +from the sense of moral evil, merely as I should +shrink from external filth and deformity, as hateful +to perception and recollection, rather than as hateful +to God and subversive of goodness.</p> + +<h5>25.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">ere</span> is a very striking passage. He says, “A +great school is very trying; it never can pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span>sent +images of rest and peace; and when the spring +and activity of youth are altogether unsanctified by +anything pure and elevated in its desires, it becomes +a spectacle that is dizzying and almost more morally +distressing than the shouts and gambols of a set of +lunatics. It is very startling to see so much of sin +combined with so little of sorrow. In a parish, +amongst the poor, whatever of sin exists there is sure +also to be enough of suffering: poverty, sickness, and +old age are mighty tamers and chastisers. But, with +boys of the richer classes, one sees nothing but +plenty, health, and youth; and these are really awful +to behold, when one must feel that they are unblessed. +On the other hand, few things are more +beautiful than when one does see all holy and noble +thoughts and principles, not the forced growth of +pain, or infirmity, or privation, but springing up as +by God’s immediate planting, in a sort of garden of +all that is fresh and beautiful; full of so much hope +for this world as well as for heaven.”</p> + +<p>To this testimony of a schoolmaster let us add the +testimony of a schoolboy. De Quincey thus describes +in himself the transition from boyhood to manhood: +“Then first and suddenly were brought powerfully +before me the change which was worked in the +aspects of society by the presence of woman; woman, +pure, thoughtful, noble, coming before me as Pandora +crowned with perfections. Right over against this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span> +ennobling spectacle, with equal suddenness, I placed +the odious spectacle of schoolboy society—no matter +in what region of the earth,—schoolboy society, so +frivolous in the matter of its disputes, often so +brutal in the manner; so childish and yet so remote +from simplicity; so foolishly careless, and yet so +revoltingly selfish; dedicated ostensibly to learning, +and yet beyond any section of human beings so conspicuously +ignorant.”</p> + +<p>There is a reverse to this picture, as I hope and +believe. If I have met with those who looked back +on their school-days with horror, as having first contaminated +them with “evil communication,” I have +met with others whose remembrances were all of +sunshine, of early friendships, of joyous sports.</p> + +<p>Nor do I think that a large school composed +wholly of girls is in any respect better. In the low +languid tone of mind, the petulant tempers, the +small spitefulnesses, the cowardly concealments, the +compressed or ill-directed energies, the precocious +vanities and affectations, many such congregations of +<i>Femmelettes</i> would form a worthy pendant to the picture +of boyish turbulence and vulgarity drawn by +De Quincey.</p> + +<p>I am convinced from my own recollections, and +from all I have learned from experienced teachers in +large schools, that one of the most fatal mistakes in +the training of children has been the too early separation +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span> +of the sexes. I say, <i>has been</i>, because I find +that everywhere this most dangerous prejudice has +been giving way before the light of truth and a more +general acquaintance with that primal law of nature, +which ought to teach us that the more we can assimilate +on a large scale the public to the domestic training, +the better for all. There exists still, the impression—in +the higher classes especially—that in +early education, the mixture of the two sexes would +tend to make the girls masculine and the boys effeminate, +but experience shows us that it is all the +other way. Boys learn a manly and protecting tenderness, +and the girls become at once more feminine +and more truthful. Where this association has +begun early enough, that is, before five years old, +and has been continued till about ten or twelve, it +has uniformly worked well; on this point the evidence +is unanimous and decisive. So long ago as +1812, Francis Horner, in describing a school he +visited at Enmore, near Bridgewater, speaks with +approbation of the boys and the girls standing up +together in the same class: it is the first mention, I +find, of this innovation on the old collegiate, or +charity-school plan,—itself a continuation of the +monkish discipline. He says, “I liked much the +placing the boys and girls together at an early age; +it gave the boys a new spur to emulation.” When +I have seen a class of girls stand up together, there +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span> +has been a sort of empty tittering, a vacancy in the +faces, an inertness, which made it, as I thought, very +up-hill work for the teacher; so when it was a class +of boys, there has been often a sluggishness—a tendency +to ruffian tricks—requiring perpetual effort on +the part of the master. In teaching a class of boys +and girls, accustomed to stand up together, there is +little or nothing of this. They are brighter, readier, +better behaved; there is a kind of mutual influence +working for good; and if there be emulation, it is +not mingled with envy or jealousy. Mischief, such +as might be apprehended, is in this case far less +likely to arise than where boys and girls, habitually +separated from infancy, are first thrown together, +just at the age when the feelings are first awakened +and the association has all the excitement of novelty. +A very intelligent schoolmaster assured me that he +had had more trouble with a class of fifty boys, than +with a school of three hundred boys and girls together +(in the midst of whom I found him); and that +there were no inconveniences resulting which a wise +and careful and efficient superintendence could not +control. “There is,” said he, “not only more emulation, +more quickness of brain, but altogether a +superior healthiness of tone, body and mind, where +the boys and girls are trained together till about ten +years old; and it extends into their after life:—I +should say because it is in accordance with the laws +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span> +of God in forming us with mutual sympathies, moral +and intellectual, and mutual dependence for help +from the very beginning of life.”</p> + +<p>What is curious enough, I find many people—fathers, +mothers, teachers,—who are agreed that in +the schools for the lower classes, the two sexes may +be safely and advantageously associated, yet have a +sort of horror of the idea of such an innovation in +schools for the higher classes. One would like to +know the reason for such a distinction, instead of +being encountered, as is usual, by a sneer or a vile +innuendo.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-064.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="258" width="400" /></div> + +<h4>NIEBUHR.</h4> + +<h5>LIFE AND LETTERS, 1852.</h5> + +<h5>26.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> a letter to a young student in philology there are +noble passages in which I truly sympathise. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span> +says, among other things: “I wish you had less +pleasure in satires, not excepting those of Horace. +Turn to the works which elevate the heart, in which +you contemplate great men and great events, and +live in a higher world. Turn away from those which +represent the mean and contemptible side of ordinary +circumstances and degenerate days: they are not +suitable for the young, who in ancient times would +not have been suffered to have them in their hands. +Homer, Æschylus, Sophocles, Pindar,—these are +the poets for youth.” And again: “Do not read +the ancient authors in order to make æsthetic reflections +on them, but in order to drink in their spirit +and to fill your soul with their thoughts; and in +order to gain that by reading which you would have +gained by reverently listening to the discourses of +great men.”</p> + +<p>We should turn to works of art with the same +feeling.</p> + +<p>On the whole, all my own educational experience +has shown me the dangerous—in some cases fatal—effects +on the childish intellect, where precocious +criticism was encouraged, and where caricatures and +ugly disproportioned figures, expressing vile or ridiculous +emotions, were placed before the eyes of +children, as a means of amusement.</p> + +<p>If I were a legislator I would forbid travesties and +ridiculous burlesques of Shakspeare’s finest and most +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span> +serious dramas to be acted in our theatres. That +this has been done and recently (as in the case of the +Merchant of Venice) seems to me a national disgrace.</p> + +<h5>27.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> is strange, confounding, to hear Niebuhr speak +thus of Goethe:—</p> + +<p>“I am inclined to think that Goethe is utterly +destitute of susceptibility to impressions from the fine +arts.”(!!) He afterwards does more justice to Goethe—certainly +one of the profoundest critics in art who +ever lived; although I am inclined to think that +his was an educated perception rather than a natural +sensibility. Niebuhr’s criticism on Goethe’s Italian +travels,—on Goethe’s want of sympathy with the +people,—his regarding the whole country and nation +simply as a sort of bazaar of art and antiquities, +an exhibition of beauty and a recreation for himself: +his habit of surveying all moral and intellectual greatness, +all that speaks to the heart, with a kind of +patronising superiority, as if created for his use,—and +finding amusement in the folly, degeneracy, and +corruption of the people;—all this appears to me +admirable, and so far I had strong sympathy with +Niebuhr; for I well remember that in reading +Goethe’s “Italianische Reise,” I had the same perception +of the artless and the superficial in point +of feeling, in the midst of so much that was fine and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span> +valuable in criticism. It is well to be artistic in art, +but not to walk about the world <i>en artiste</i>, studying +humanity, and the deepest human interests, as if they +were <i>art</i>.</p> + +<p>Niebuhr afterwards says, in speaking of Rome, +“I am sickened here of art, as I should be of sweetmeats +instead of bread.” So it <i>must</i> be where art is +separated wholly from morals.</p> + +<h5>28.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> speaks of the “wretched superstition,” and the +“utter incapacity for piety” in the people of +the Roman States.</p> + +<p>Superstition and the want of piety go together; +and the combination is not peculiar to the Italians, +nor to the Roman Catholic faith.</p> + +<h5>29.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> speaking of the education of his son, he deprecates +the learning by rote of hymns. “To a +happy child, hymns deploring the misery of human +life are without meaning.” (And worse.) “So likewise +to a good child are those expressing self-accusation +and contrition.” (He might have added, and +self-applause.)</p> + +<p>I am quite sure, from my own experience of +children who have been allowed to learn penitential<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span> +psalms and hymns, that they think of wickedness as +a sort of thing which gives them self-importance.</p> + +<h5>30.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“O</span><span class="smcap">nly</span> what the mind takes in willingly can it +assimilate with itself, and make its own, part +of its life.”</p> + +<p>A truism of the greatest value in education; but +who thinks of it when cramming children’s minds +with all sorts of distasteful heterogeneous things?</p> + +<h5>31.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> reflection has become too one-sided and +too domineering over a deeply feeling heart, +it is apt to lead us into errors in our treatment of +others.”</p> + +<p>And all that follows—very wise! for the want of +this reflection leaves us stranded and wrecked through +feeling and perception merely.</p> + +<h5>32.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">V</span><span class="smcap">ery</span> curious and interesting, as a trait of character +and feeling, is the passage in which he +represents himself, in the dangerous confinement of +his second wife, as praying to his first wife for +succour. “In my terrible anxiety,” he says, “I +prayed most earnestly, and entreated my Milly, too, +for help. I comforted Gretchen by telling her that +Milly would send help. When she was at the worst,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span> +she sighed out, ‘Ah, cannot your Amelia send me a +blessing?’”</p> + +<p>This is curious from a Protestant and a philosopher. +It shows that there may be something +nearly allied to our common nature in the Roman +Catholic invocation to the saints, and to the souls of +the dead.</p> + +<h5>33.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">N</span><span class="smcap">iebuhr</span>, speaking of a lady (Madame von der +Recke, I think,—the “Elise” of Goethe) who +had patronised him, says, “I will receive roses +and myrtles from female hands, but no laurels.”</p> + +<p>This makes one smile; for most of the laurels +which Niebuhr will receive in this country will be +through female hands—through the admirable translation +and arrangement of his life and letters by +Susanna Winkworth.</p> + +<h5>34.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> following I read with cordial agreement:—“While +I am ready to adopt any well-grounded +opinion” (regarding, I suppose, mere facts, +or speculations as to things), “my inmost soul revolts +against receiving the judgment of others respecting +persons; and whenever I have done so I +have bitterly repented of it.”</p> + +<h5>35.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> says, “I cannot worship the abstraction of +Virtue. She only charms me when she ad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span>dresses +herself to my heart, and speaks thus the love +from which she springs. I really love nothing but +what actually exists.”</p> + +<p>What <i>does</i> actually exist to us but that which we +believe in? and where we strongly love do we not +believe sometimes in the <i>unreal</i>? is it not <i>then</i> the +existing and the actual to us?</p> + +<h5>36.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“A</span> <span class="smcap">faculty</span> of a quite peculiar kind, and for which +we have no word, is the recognition of the +incomprehensible. It is something which distinguishes +the seer from the ordinary learned man.”</p> + +<p>But in religion this is <i>faith</i>. Does Niebuhr admit +this kind of faith, “the recognition of the incomprehensible,” +in philosophy, and not in religion? for he +often complains of the want in himself of any faith +but an historic faith.</p> + +<h5>37.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> times of good fortune it is easy to appear +great—nay, even to act greatly; but in +misfortune very difficult. The greatest man will +commit blunders in misfortune, because the want of +proportion between his means and his ends progressively +increases, and his inward strength is +exhausted in fruitless efforts.”</p> + +<p>This is true; but under all extremes of good or +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span> +evil fortune we are apt to commit mistakes, because +the tide of the mind does not flow equally, but rushes +along impetuously in a flood, or brokenly and distractedly +in a rocky channel, where its strength is +exhausted in conflict and pain. The extreme pressure +of circumstances will produce extremes of feeling in +minds of a sensitive rather than a firm cast.</p> + +<h5>38.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">his</span> next passage is curious as a scholar’s opinion +of “free trade” in the year 1810; though I believe +the phrase “free trade” was not even invented at +that time—certainly not in use in the statesman’s +vocabulary.</p> + +<p>“I presume you will admit that commerce is a +good thing, and the first requisite in the life of any +nation. It appears to me, that this much has now +been palpably demonstrated, namely, that an advanced +and complicated social condition like this in which we +live can only be maintained by establishing mutual +relationships between the most remote nations; and +that the limitation of commerce would, like the +sapping of a main pillar, inevitably occasion the fall +of the whole edifice; and also that commerce is so +essentially beneficial and in accordance with man’s +nature, that the well-being of each nation is an +advantage to all the nations that stand in connection +with it.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span></p> + +<p>It is strange how long we have been (forty years, +and more) in recognising these simple principles; +and in Germany, where they were first enunciated, +they are not recognised yet.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-023-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="124" width="350" /></div> + +<h4>CHARACTER OF DEMADES.</h4> + +<h5>(FROM NIEBUHR’s LECTURES.)</h5> + +<h5>39.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“B</span><span class="smcap">y</span> his wit and his talent, and more especially by +his gift as an improvisatore, he rose so high that +he exercised a great influence upon the people, and +sometimes was more popular even than Demosthenes. +With a shamelessness amounting to honesty, +he bluntly told the people everything he felt and what +all the populace felt with him. When hearing such +a man the populace felt at their ease: he gave +them the feeling that they might be wicked without +being disgraced, and this excites with such people a +feeling of gratitude. There is a remarkable passage +in Plato, where he shows that those who deliver +hollow speeches, without being in earnest, have no +power or influence; whereas others, who are devoid +of mental culture, but say in a straightforward +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span> +manner what they think and feel, exercise great +power. It was this which in the eighteenth century +gave the materialist philosophy in France such enormous +influence with the higher classes; for they were +told there was no need to be ashamed of the vulgarest +sensuality; formerly people had been ashamed, +but now a man learned that he might be a brutal +sensualist, provided he did not offend against elegant +manners and social conventionalism. People rejoiced +at hearing a man openly and honestly say what they +themselves felt. Demades was a remarkable character. +He was not a bad man; and I like him much +better than Eschines.”</p> + +<p>What an excuse, what a sanction is here for the +demagogues who direct the worst passions of men +to the worst and the most selfish purposes, and the +most debasing consequences! Demades “not a bad +man?” then what <i>is</i> a bad man?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-023-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="138" width="300" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-048.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="274" width="400" /></div> + +<h4>LORD BACON.</h4> + +<h5>(1849.)</h5> + +<h5>40.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> was not the pure knowledge of nature and +universality, but it was the proud knowledge +of good and evil, with an intent in man to give the +law unto himself, which was the form of the first +temptation.”</p> + +<p>But, in this sense, the first temptation is only the +type of the perpetual and ever-present temptation—the +temptation into which we are to fall through +necessity, that we may rise through love.</p> + +<h5>41.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">ere</span> is an excellent passage—a severe commentary +on the unsound, un-christian, unphilosophical +distinction between morals and politics in government:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span>—</p> + +<p>“Although men bred in learning are perhaps to +seek in points of convenience and reasons of state +and accommodations for the present, yet, on the +other hand, to recompense this they are perfect in +those same plain grounds of religion, justice, honour, +and moral virtue which, if they be well and watchfully +pursued, there will be seldom use of those other +expedients, no more than of physic in a sound, well-directed +body.”</p> + +<h5>42.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“N</span><span class="smcap">ow</span> (in the time of Lord Bacon, that is,) now +sciences are delivered to be believed and accepted, +and not to be farther discovered; and therefore, +sciences stand at a clog, and have done for many +ages.”</p> + +<p>In the present time, this is true only, or especially, +of theology as an art, and divinity as a science; +so made by the schoolmen of former ages, and not +yet emancipated.</p> + +<h5>43.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“G</span><span class="smcap">enerally</span> he perceived in men of devout simplicity +this opinion, that the secrets of nature +were the secrets of God, part of that glory into which +man is not to press too boldly.”</p> + +<p>God has placed no limits to the exercise of the +intellect he has given us on this side of the grave. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span> +But not the less will he keep his own secrets from +us. Has he not proved it? who has opened that +door to the knowledge of a future being which it +has pleased him to keep shut fast, though watched +by hope and by faith?</p> + +<h5>44.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> Christian philosophy of these latter times +appears to be foreshadowed in the following +sentence, where he speaks of such as have ventured +to deduce and confirm the truth of the Christian +religion from the principles and authorities of philosophers: +“Thus with great pomp and solemnity +celebrating the intermarriage of faith and sense as a +lawful conjunction, and soothing the minds of men +with a pleasing variety of matter, though, at the same +time, rashly and unequally intermixing things divine +and things human.”</p> + +<p>This last common-place distinction seems to me, +however, unworthy of Bacon. It should be banished—utterly +set aside. Things which are divine should +be human, and things which are human, divine; not +as a mixture, “a medley,” in the sense of Bacon’s +words, but an interfusion; for nothing that we +esteem divine can be anything to us but as we make +it <i>ours</i>, <i>i. e.</i> humanise it; and our humanity were a +poor thing but for “the divinity that stirs within +us.” We do injury to our own nature—we miscon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span>ceive +our relations to the Creator, to his universe, +and to each other, so long as we separate and studiously +keep wide apart the <i>divine</i> and the <i>human</i>.</p> + +<h5>45.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“L</span><span class="smcap">et</span> no man, upon a weak conceit of sobriety or +an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain +that a man can search too far or be too well studied +either in the book of God’s word or the book of God’s +works.” Well advised! But then he goes on to +warn men that they do not “unwisely mingle or +confound their learnings together:” mischievous this +contradistinction between God’s word and God’s +works; since both, if emanating from him, must be +equally true. And if there be one truth, then, to +borrow his own words in another place, “the voice +of nature will consent, whether the voice of man do +so or not.”</p> + +<h5>46.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap">propos</span> to education—here is a good illustration: +“Were it not better for a man in a fair room to +set up one great light or branching candlestick of +lights, than to go about with a rushlight into every +dark corner?”</p> + +<p>And here is another: “It is one thing to set +forth what ground lieth unmanured, and another to +correct ill husbandry in that which <i>is</i> manured.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span></p> + +<h5>47.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> is without all controversy that learning doth +make the minds of men gentle and generous, +amiable, and pliant to government, whereas ignorance +maketh them churlish, thwarting, and mutinous.”</p> + +<h5>48.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“A</span><span class="smcap">n</span> impatience of doubt and an unadvised haste to +assertion without due and mature suspension +of the judgment, is an error in the conduct of the +understanding.”</p> + +<p>“In contemplation, if a man begin with certainties +he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to +begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.” Well +said and profoundly true.</p> + +<p>This is a celebrated and often-cited passage; an +admitted principle in theory. I wish it were oftener +applied in practice,—more especially in education. +For it seems to me that in teaching children we +ought not to be perpetually dogmatising. We ought +not to be ever placing before them only the known +and the definite; but to allow the unknown, the +uncertain, the indefinite, to be suggested to their +minds: it would do more for the growth of a truly +religious feeling than all the catechisms of scientific +facts and creeds of theological definitions that +ever were taught in cut and dried question and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span> +answer. Why should not the young candid mind +be allowed to reflect on the unknown, as such? +on the doubtful, as such—open to inquiry and +liable to discussion? Why will teachers suppose that +in confessing their own ignorance or admitting uncertainties +they must diminish the respect of their +pupils, or their faith in truth? I should say from my +own experience that the effect is just the reverse. +I remember, when a child, hearing a very celebrated +man profess his ignorance on some particular +subject, and I felt awe-struck—it gave me a perception +of the infinite,—as when looking up at the +starry sky. What we unadvisedly cram into a child’s +mind in the same form it has taken in our own, does +not always healthily or immediately assimilate; it +dissolves away in doubts, or it hardens into prejudice, +instead of mingling with the life as truth ought to +do. It is the early and habitual surrendering of the +mind to authority, which makes it afterwards so +ready for deception of all kinds.</p> + +<h5>49.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> speaks of “legends and narrations of miracles +wrought by martyrs, hermits, monks, which, +though they have had passage for a time by the ignorance +of the people, the superstitious simplicity +of some, and the politic toleration of others, holding +them but as divine poesies; yet after a time they +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span> +grew up to be esteemed but as old wives’ fables, to +the great scandal and detriment of religion.”</p> + +<p>Very ambiguous, surely. Does he mean that it +was to the great scandal and detriment of religion +that they existed at all? or that they came to be +regarded as old wives’ fables?</p> + +<h5>50.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> says, farther on, “though truth and error are +carefully to be separated, yet rarities and reports +that seem incredible are not to be suppressed +or denied to the memory of men.”</p> + +<p>“For it is not yet known in what cases and how +far effects attributed to superstition do participate +of natural causes.”</p> + +<h5>51.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">o</span> be speculative with another man to the end +to know how to work him or wind him, proceedeth +from a heart that is double and cloven, and +not entire and ingenuous; which, as in friendship, it +is a want of <i>integrity</i>, so towards princes or superiors +it is a want of <i>duty</i>.” (No occasion, surely, for the +distinction here drawn; inasmuch as the want of +integrity involves the want of <i>every</i> duty.)</p> + +<p>Then he speaks of “the stooping to points of necessity +and convenience and outward basenesses,” as to +be accounted “submission to the occasion, not to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span> +person.” Vile distinction! an excuse to himself for +his dedication to the King, and his flattery of Carr +and Villiers.</p> + +<h5>52.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span><span class="smcap">ur</span> English Universities are only now beginning +to show some sign (reluctant sign) of submitting +to that re-examination which the great philosopher +recommended two hundred and fifty years ago, when +he says: “Inasmuch as most of the usages and +orders of the universities were derived from more +obscure times, it is the more requisite they be reexamined”—and +more to the same purpose.</p> + +<h5>53.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“I</span><span class="smcap">f</span> that great Workmaster (God) had been of a +human disposition, he would have cast the +stars into some pleasant and beautiful works and +orders like the frets in the roofs of houses; whereas, +one can scarce find a posture in square or triangle +or straight line amongst such an infinite number, so +differing an harmony there is between the spirit of +man and the spirit of nature.”</p> + +<p>Perhaps if our human vision could be removed to +a sufficient distance to contemplate the whole of +what we now see in part, what appears disorder +might appear beautiful order. The stars which now +appear as if flung about at random, would perhaps be +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span> +resolved into some exquisitely beautiful and regular +edifice. The fly on the cornice, “whose feeble ray +scarce spreads an inch around,” might as well discuss +the proportions of the Parthenon as we the +true figure and frame of God’s universe.</p> + +<p>I remember seeing, through Lord Rosse’s telescope, +one of those nebulæ which have hitherto appeared +like small masses of vapour floating about in space. +I saw it composed of thousands upon thousands of +brilliant stars, and the effect to the eye—to mine at +least—was as if I had had my hand full of diamonds, +and suddenly unclosing it, and flinging them forth, +they were dispersed as from a centre, in a kind of +partly irregular, partly fan-like form; and I had a +strange feeling of suspense and amazement while +I looked, because they did not change their relative +position, did not fall—though in act to fall—but +seemed fixed in the very attitude of being flung forth +into space;—it was most wondrous and beautiful +to see!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-055.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="210" width="300" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span></p> + +<h5>54.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> is pleasant to me to think that Bacon’s +stupendous intellect believed in the moral progress +of human societies, because it is my own belief, +and one that I would not for worlds resign. I indeed +believe that each human being must here (or hereafter?) +work out his own peculiar moral life: but +also that the whole race has a progressive moral life: +just as in our solar system every individual planet +moves in its own orbit, while the whole system +moves on together; we know not whither, we know +not round what centre—“<i>ma pur si muove!</i>”</p> + +<h5>55.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">Y</span><span class="smcap">et</span> he says in another place, with equal wit and +sublimity, “Every obtaining of a desire hath a +<i>show</i> of advancement, as motion in a circle hath a +<i>show</i> of progression.” Perhaps our movement may +be <i>spiral</i>? and every revolution may bring us nearer +and nearer to some divine centre in which we may +be absorbed at last?</p> + +<h5>56.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> refers in this following passage to that theory +of the angelic existences which we see expressed +in ancient symbolic Art, first by variation of +colour only, and later, by variety of expression and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span> +form. He says,—“We find, as far as credit is to +be given to the celestial hierarchy of that supposed +Dionysius, the senator of Athens, that the first place +or degree is given to the Angels of Love, which are +called Seraphim; the second to the Angels of Light, +which are termed Cherubim; and the third, and so +following, to Thrones, Principalities, and the rest +(which are all angels of power and ministry); so as +the angels of knowledge and illumination are placed +before the angels of office and domination.”</p> + +<p>—But the Angels of <span class="smcap">Love</span> are first and over all. +In other words, we have here in due order of precedence, +1. <span class="smcap">Love</span>, 2. <span class="smcap">Knowledge</span>, 3. <span class="smcap">Power</span>,—the +angelic Trinity, which, in unity, is our idea of <span class="smcap">God</span>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-078.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="215" width="250" /></div> + +<h4>CHATEAUBRIAND.</h4> + +<h5>(“MEMOIRES D’OUTRE TOMBE.” 1851.)</h5> + +<h5>57.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">hateaubriand</span> tells us that when his mother and +sisters urged him to marry, he resisted +strongly—he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span> +thought it too early; he says, with a peculiar +naïveté, “Je ne me sentais aucune qualité de mari: +toutes mes illusions étaient vivantes, rien n’était +épuisé en moi, l’énergie même de mon existence +avait doublé par mes courses,” &c.</p> + +<p>So then the “<i>existence épuisé</i>” is to be kept for +the wife! “<i>la vie usée</i>”—“<i>la jeunesse abusée</i>,” is +good enough to make a husband! Chateaubriand, +who in many passages of his book piques himself on +his morality, seems quite unconscious that he has +here given utterance to a sentiment the most profoundly +immoral, the most fatal to both sexes, that +even his immoral age had ever the effrontery to set +forth.</p> + +<h5>58.</h5> + +<p>“Il paraît qu’on n’apprend pas à mourir en tuant +les autres.”</p> + +<p>Nor do we learn to suffer by inflicting pain: +nothing so patient as pity.</p> + +<h5>59.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“L</span><span class="smcap">e</span> cynisme des mœurs ramène dans la société, en +annihilant le sens moral, une sorte de barbares; +ces barbares de la civilisation, propres à détruire +comme les Goths, n’ont pas la puissance de fonder +comme eux; ceux-ci étaient les énormes enfants +d’une nature vierge; ceux-là sont les avortons monstrueux +d’une nature dépravée.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span></p> + +<p>We too often make the vulgar mistake that +undisciplined or overgrown passions are a sign of +strength; they are the signs of immaturity, of +“enormous childhood.”—And the distinction (above) +is well drawn and true. The real savage is that +monstrous, malignant, abject thing, generated out of +the rottenness and ferment of civilisation. And yet +extremes meet: I remember seeing on the shores of +Lake Huron some Indians of a distant tribe of Chippawas, +who in appearance were just like those +fearful abortions of humanity which crawl out of +the darkness, filth, and ignorance of our great towns, +just so miserable, so stupid, so cruel,—only, perhaps, +less <i>wicked</i>.</p> + +<h5>60.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">hateaubriand</span> was always comparing himself +with Lord Byron—he hints more than once, +that Lord Byron owed some of his inspiration to the +perusal of his works—more especially to Renée. In +this he was altogether mistaken.</p> + +<h5>61.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“U</span><span class="smcap">ne</span> intelligence supérieure n’enfante pas le mal +sans douleur, parceque ce n’est pas son fruit +naturel, et qu’elle ne devait pas le porter.”</p> + +<h5>62.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="smcap">adame de Coeslin</span> (whom he describes as an +impersonation of aristocratic <i>morgue</i> and all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span> +the pretension and prejudices of the <i>ancien régime</i>), +“lisant dans un journal la mort de plusieurs rois, elle +ôta ses lunettes et dit en se mouchant, ‘Il y a donc +une <i>épizootie sur ces bêtes à couronne</i>!”</p> + +<p>I once counted among my friends an elderly lady +of high rank, who had spent the whole of a long life +in intimacy with royal and princely personages. In +three different courts she had filled offices of trust +and offices of dignity. In referring to her experience +she never either moralised or generalised; but her +scorn of “ces bêtes à couronne,” was habitually +expressed with just such a cool epigrammatic bluntness +as that of Madame de Coeslin.</p> + +<h5>63.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“L</span><span class="smcap">’aristocratie</span> a trois âges successifs; l’âge des +supériorités, l’âge des priviléges, l’âge des +vanités; sortie du premier, elle dégénère dans le +second et s’éteint dans le dernier.”</p> + +<p>In Germany they are still in the first epoch. In +England we seem to have arrived at the second. In +France they are verging on the third.</p> + +<h5>64.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">hateaubriand</span> says of himself:—</p> + +<p>“Dans le premier moment d’une offense je la +sens à peine; mais elle se grave dans ma mémoire; +son souvenir au lieu de décroître, s’augmente avec le<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span> +temps. Il dort dans mon cœur des mois, des années +entières, puis il se réveille à la moindre circonstance +avec une force nouvelle, et ma blessure devient plus +vive que le prémier jour: mais si je ne pardonne +point à mes ennemis je ne leur fais aucun mal; je +suis <i>rancunier</i> et ne suis point <i>vindicatif</i>.”</p> + +<p>A very nice and true distinction in point of feeling +and character, yet hardly to be expressed in +English. We always attach the idea of malignity +to the word <i>rancour</i>, whereas the French words +<i>rancune</i>, <i>rancunier</i>, express the relentless without +the vengeful or malignant spirit.</p> + +<p>Such characters make me turn pale, as I have done +at sight of a tomb in which an offending wretch had +been buried alive. There is in them always something +acute and deep and indomitable in the internal +and exciting emotion; slow, scrupulous, and timid +in the external demonstration. Cordelia is such a +character.</p> + +<h5>65.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">hateaubriand</span> says of his friend Pelletrie,—“Il +n’avait pas précisément des vices, mais il +était rongé d’une vermine de petits défauts dont on +ne pouvait l’épurer.” I know such a man; and if he +had committed a murder every morning, and a highway +robbery every night,—if he had killed his +father and eaten him with any possible sauce, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span> +could not be more intolerable, more detestable than +he is!</p> + +<h5>66.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“U</span><span class="smcap">n</span> homme nous protège par ce qu’il vaut; une +femme par ce que vous valez: voilà pourquoi +de ces deux empires l’un est si odieux, l’autre si +doux.”</p> + +<h5>67.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> says of Madame Roland, “Elle avait du caractère +plutôt que du génie; le premier peut +donner le second, le second ne peut donner le premier.” +What does the man mean? this is a mistake +surely. What the French call <i>caractère</i> never +could give genius, nor genius, <i>caractère</i>. <i>Au reste</i>, +I am not sure that Madame Roland—admirable creature!—had +genius; but for talent, and <i>caractère</i>—first +rate.</p> + +<h5>68.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“S</span><span class="smcap">oyons</span> doux si nous voulons être regrettés. La +hauteur du génie et les qualités supérieures ne +sont pleurées que des anges.”</p> + +<p>“Veillons bien sur notre caractère. Songeons +que nous pouvons avec un attachement profond n’en +pas moins empoisonner des jours que nous rachéterions +au prix de tout notre sang. Quand nos amis +sont descendus dans la tombe, quels moyens avons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span> +nous de réparer nos torts? nos inutiles regrets, nos +vains repentirs, sont ils un remède aux peines que +nous leurs avons faites? Ils auraient mieux aimé de +nous un sourire pendant leur vie que toutes nos +larmes après leur mort.”</p> + +<h5>69.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“L</span><span class="smcap">’amour</span> est si bien la félicité qu’il est poursuivi +de la chimère d’être toujours; il ne veut prononcer +que des serments irrévocables; au défaut de +ses joies, il cherche à éterniser ses douleurs; ange +tombé, il parle encore le langage qu’il parlait au +séjour incorruptible; son espérance est de ne cesser +jamais. Dans sa double nature et dans sa double +illusion, ici-bas il prétend se perpétuer par d’immortelles +pensées et par des générations intarissables.”</p> + +<h5>70.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="smcap">adame d’Houdetot</span>, after the death of Saint +Lambert, always before she went to bed used +to rap three times with her slipper on the floor, saying,—“Bon +soir, mon ami; bon soir, bon soir!”</p> + +<p>So then, she thought of her lover as gone <i>down</i>—not +<i>up</i>?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-031-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="133" width="300" /></div> + +<h4>BISHOP CUMBERLAND.</h4> + +<h5>BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH IN 1691.</h5> + +<h5>71.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">B</span><span class="smcap">ishop Cumberland</span> founds the law of God, +as revealed in the Scriptures, upon the general +law of nature. He does not attempt to found the +laws of nature upon the Bible. “We believe,” he +says, “in the truth of Scripture, because it promotes +and illustrates the fundamental laws of nature in the +government of the world.”</p> + +<p>Then does the Bishop mean here that the Bible is +not the <span class="smcap">WORD</span> nor the <span class="smcap">WILL</span> of God, but the exposition +of the <span class="smcap">WORD</span> and the record of the <span class="smcap">WILL</span>, so far +as either could be rendered communicable to human +comprehension through the medium of human language +and intelligence?</p> + +<p>There is a striking passage in Bunsen’s Hippolytus, +which may be considered with reference to this +opinion of the Bishop.</p> + +<p>He (Bunsen) says, that “what relates the history<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span> +of ‘the word of God’ in his humanity, and in this +world, and what records its teachings, and warnings, +and promises (that is, the Bible?) was mistaken +for ‘the word of God’ itself, in its proper sense.”</p> + +<p>Does he mean that we deem erroneously the collection +of writings we call the Bible to be “the word +of God;” whereas, in fact, it is “the history, the +record of the word of God?” that is, of all that God +has spoken to man—in various revelations—through +human life—by human deeds?—because this is +surely a most important and momentous distinction.</p> + +<h5>72.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap">ccording</span> to Bishop Cumberland, <i>benevolence</i>, in +its large sense,—that is, a regard for all <span class="smcap">GOOD</span>, +universal and particular,—is the primary law of +nature; and <i>justice</i> is one form, and a secondary +form, of this law: a moral virtue, not a law of nature,—if +I understand his meaning rightly.</p> + +<p>Then which would he place <i>highest</i>, the law of +nature or the moral law?</p> + +<p>If you place them in contradistinction, then are +we to conclude that the law of nature <i>precedes</i> the +moral law, but that the moral law <i>supersedes</i> the law +of nature? Yet no law of nature (as I understand +the word) <i>can</i> be superseded, though the moral law +may be based upon it, and in that sense may be +<i>above</i> it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span></p> + +<h5>73.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> this following passage the Bishop seems to have +anticipated what in more modern times has +been called the “<i>greatest happiness principle</i>.” He +says:—</p> + +<p>“The good of all rational beings is a complex +whole, being nothing but the aggregate of good enjoyed +by each.” “We can only act in our proper +spheres, labouring to do good, but this labour will +be fruitless, or rather mischievous, if we do not keep +in mind the higher gradations which terminate in +universal benevolence. Thus, no man must seek his +own pleasure or advantage otherwise than as his +family permits; or provide for his family to the +detriment of his country; or promote the good of his +country at the expense of mankind; or serve mankind, +if it were possible, without regard to the +majesty of God.”</p> + +<h5>74.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="smcap">aley</span> deems the recognition of a future state so +essential that he even makes the definition of +virtue to consist in this, that it is good performed for +the sake of everlasting happiness. That is to say, he +makes it a sort of bargain between God and man, a +contract, or a covenant, instead of that obedience to +a primal law, from which if we stray in will, we do +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span> +so at the necessary expense of our happiness. Bishop +Cumberland has no reference to this doctrine of +Paley’s;—seems, indeed, to set it aside altogether, +as contrary to the essence of virtue.</p> + +<p class="tb">On the whole, this good Bishop appears to have +treated ethics not as an ecclesiastic, but as Bacon +treated natural philosophy;—the pervading spirit +is the perpetual appeal to experience, and not to +authority.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-002.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="163" width="300" /></div> + +<h4>COMTE’S PHILOSOPHY.</h4> + +<h5>1852.</h5> + +<h5>75.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">omte</span> makes out three elements of progress, +“les philosophes, les prolétaires, et les femmes;”—types +of intellect, material activity, and sentiment.</p> + +<p>From Woman, he says, is to proceed the preponderance +of the social duties and affections over egotism +and ambition. (La prépondérance de la sociabilité +sur la personalité.) He adds:—“Ce sexe est certainement +supérieure au notre quant à l’attribut le<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span> +plus fondamentale de l’espèce humaine, la tendence +de faire prévaloir la <i>sociabilité</i> sur la<i> personalité</i>.”</p> + +<h5>76.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“S</span><span class="smcap">’il</span> ne fallait <i>qu’aimer</i> comme dans l’Utopie +Chrétienne, sur une vie future affranchie de +toute égoïste necessité matérielle, la femme régnerait; +mais il faut surtout <i>agir</i> et <i>penser</i> pour combattre +contre les rigueurs de notre vraie destinée: dès-lors +l’homme doit commander malgré sa moindre moralité.”</p> + +<p>“Malgré?” Sometimes man commands <i>because</i> of +the “moindre moralité:”—it spares much time in +scruples.</p> + +<h5>77.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“L</span><span class="smcap">’influence</span> feminine devient l’auxiliaire indispensable +de tout pouvoir spirituel, comme le +moyen âge l’a tant montré.”</p> + +<p class="tb">“Au moyen âge la Catholicisme occidentale +ébaucha la systématisation de la puissance morale en +superposant à l’ordre pratique une libre autorité +spirituelle, habituellement secondée par les femmes.”</p> + +<h5>78.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“L</span><span class="smcap">a</span> Force, proprement dite, c’est ce qui régit les +actes, sans régler les volontés.”</p> + +<p>Herein lies a distinction between Force and +Power; for Power, properly so called, does both.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span></p> + +<h5>79.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> insists throughout on the predominance of <i>sociabilité</i> +over <i>personalité</i>—and what is that but +the Christian law philosophised? and again, “Il n’y +a de directement morale dans notre nature que +l’amour.” Where did he get this, if not in the +Epistle of St. John?</p> + +<p>“Celui qui se croirait indépendant des autres dans +ses affections, ses pensées, ou ses actes, ne pourrait +même formuler un tel blasphème sans une contradiction +immédiate—puisque son langage même ne lui +appartient pas.”</p> + +<h5>80.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> says that if the women regret the age of +chivalry, it is not for the external homage then +paid to them, but because “l’élément le plus moral +de l’humanité” (woman, to wit), “doit préférer à tout +autre le seul régime qui érigea directement en principe +la préponderance de la morale sur la politique. +Si elles regrettent leur douce influence antérieure, +c’est surtout comme s’effaçant aujourd’hui sous un +grossier égoïsme.</p> + +<p>“Leurs vœux spontanés seconderont toujours les +efforts directes des philosophes et des prolétaires +pour transformer enfin les débats politiques en +transactions sociales en faisant prévaloir les <i>dévoirs</i> +sur les <i>droits</i>.”</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span></p> + +<p>This is admirable; for we are all inclined to think +more about our <i>rights</i> (and our wrongs too) than +about our <i>duties</i>.</p> + +<h5>81.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“S</span><span class="smcap">i</span> donc aimer nous satisfait mieux que d’être +aimé, cela constate la supériorité naturelle des +affections désintéressées.”</p> + +<p>Meaning—what is true—that the love we bear to +another, much more fills the whole soul and is more +a possession of an actuating principle, than the love +of another for us:—but both are necessary to the +complement of our moral life. The first is as the +air we breathe; the last is as our daily bread.</p> + +<h5>82.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> says that the only true and firm friendship is +that between man and woman, because it is the +only affection “exempte de toute concurrence actuelle +ou possible.”</p> + +<p>In this I am inclined to agree with him, and to +regret that our conventional morality or immorality, +and the too early severance of the two sexes in education, +place men and women in such a relation to +each other, socially, as to render such friendships +difficult and rare.</p> + +<h5>83.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“E</span><span class="smcap">n</span> vérité l’amour ne saurait être profond, s’il +n’est pas pur.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span></p> + +<p>Christianity, he says, “a favorisé l’essor de la +véritable passion, tandisque le polythéisme consacrait +surtout les appétits.”</p> + +<p>He is speaking here as teacher, philosopher, and +legislator, not as poet or sentimentalist. Perhaps it +will come to be recognised sooner or later, that what +people are pleased to call the <i>romance</i> of life is +founded on the deepest and most immutable laws of +our being, and that any system of ecclesiastical +polity, or civil legislation, or moral philosophy, which +takes no account of the primal instincts and affections, +which are the springs of life and on which +God made the continuation of his world to depend, +<i>must</i> of necessity fail.</p> + +<p>I have just read a volume of Psychological Essays +by one of the most celebrated of living surgeons, and +closed the book with a feeling of amazement: a long +life spent in physiological experiences, dissecting dead +bodies, and mending broken bones, has then led him, +at last, to some of the most obvious, most commonly +known facts in mental philosophy? So some of our +profound politicians, after a long life spent in governing +and reforming men, may arrive, <i>at last</i>, at some +of the commonest facts in social morals.</p> + +<h5>84.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">e</span> contends for the indissolubility of marriage, and +against divorce; and he thinks that education<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span> +should be in the hands of women to the age of ten or +twelve, “Afin que le cœur y prévale toujours sur +l’esprit:” all very excellent principles, but supposing +a <i>hypothetical</i> social and moral state, from which we +are as yet far removed. What he says, however, of +the indissolubility of the marriage bond is so beautiful +and eloquent, and so in accordance with my own +moral theories, that I cannot help extracting it from +a mass of heavy and sometimes unintelligible matter. +He begins by laying it down as a principle that the +“amélioration morale de l’homme constitue la principale +mission de la femme,” and that “une telle destination +indique aussitôt que le lien conjugal doit +être unique et indissoluble, afin que les relations +domestiques puissent acquérir la plénitude et la +fixité qu’exige leur efficacité morale.” This, however, +supposes the holiest and completest of all bonds +to be sealed on terms of equality, not that the latter +end of a man’s life, <i>la vie usée et la jeunesse épuisée</i>, +are to be tacked on to the beginning of a woman’s +fresh and innocent existence; for then influences are +reversed, and instead of the amelioration of the masculine, +we have the demoralisation of the feminine, +nature. He supposes the possibility of circumstances +which demand a personal separation, but even +then <i>sans permettre un nouveau mariage</i>. In such +a case his religion imposes on the innocent victim<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span> +(whether man or woman) “une chasteté compatible +d’ailleurs avec la plus profonde tendresse. Si cette +condition lui semble rigoureuse, il doit l’accepter, +d’abord, en vue de l’ordre général; puis, comme une +juste conséquence de son erreur primitive.”</p> + +<p>There would be much to say upon all this, if it +were worth while to discuss a theory which it is not +possible to reduce to general practice. We cannot +imagine the possibility of a second marriage where +the first, though perhaps unhappy or early ruptured, +has been, not a personal relation only, but an interfusion +of our moral being,—of the deepest impulses of +life—with those of another; <i>these</i> we cannot have a +second time to surrender to a second object;—but +this might be left to Nature and her holy instincts to +settle. However, he goes on in a strain of eloquence +and dignity, quite unusual with him, to this effect:—“Ce +n’est que par l’assurance d’une inaltérable perpetuité +que les liens intimes peuvent acquérir la +consistance et la plénitude indispensable à leur efficacité +morale. La plus méprisable des sectes éphémères +que suscita l’anarchie moderne (the Mormons, for instance?) +me parait être celle qui voulut ériger l’inconstance +en condition de bonheur.”.... “Entre deux +êtres aussi complexes et aussi divers que l’homme et +la femme, ce n’est pas trop de toute la vie pour se +bien connaître et s’aimer dignement. Loin de taxer +d’illusion la haute idée que deux vrais époux se<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span> +forment souvent l’un de l’autre, je l’ai presque +toujours attribuée à l’appréciation plus profonde que +procure seule une pleine intimité, que d’ailleurs développe +des qualités inconnues aux indifférents. On +doit même regarder comme très-honorable pour +notre espèce, cette grande estime que ses membres +s’inspirent mutuellement quand ils s’étudient beaucoup. +<i>Car la haine et l’indifférence mériteraient +seules le reproche d’aveuglement qu’une appréciation +superficielle applique à l’amour.</i> Il faut donc juger +pleinement conforme à la nature humaine l’institution +qui prolonge au-delà du tombeau l’indentification de +deux dignes époux.”</p> + +<p>He lays down as one of the primal instincts of +human kind “<i>l’homme doit nourrir la femme</i>.” This +may have been, as he says, a universal <i>instinct</i>; +perhaps it ought to be one of our social ordinations; +perhaps it may be so at some future time; +but we know that it is not a present fact; that the +woman must in many cases maintain herself or +perish, and she asks nothing more than to be allowed +to do so.</p> + +<p>However, I agree with Comte that the position +of a woman, enriched and independent by her own +labour, is anomalous and seldom happy. It is a +remark I have heard somewhere, and it appears to +me true, that there exists no being so hard, so +keen, so calculating, so unscrupulous, so merciless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span> +in money matters as the wife of a Parisian shopkeeper, +where she holds the purse and manages the +concern, as is generally the case.</p> + +<h5>85.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">ere</span> is a passage wherein he attacks that egotism +which with many good people enters so largely +into the notion of another world:—which Paley inculcated, +and which Coleridge ridiculed, when he +spoke of “<i>this</i> worldliness,” and the “<i>other</i> worldliness.”</p> + +<p>“La sagesse sacerdotale, digne organe de l’instinct +public, y avait intimement rattaché les principales +obligations sociales à titre de condition indispensable +du salut personnel: mais la récompense infinie promise +ainsi à tous les sacrifices ne pouvait jamais +permettre une affection pleinement désinteressée.”</p> + +<p>This perpetual iteration of a system of future +reward and punishment, as a principle of our religion +and a motive of action, has in some sort demoralised +Christianity; especially in minds where love is not a +chief element, and which do not love Christ for his +love’s sake, but for his power’s sake, and because +judgment and punishment are supposed to be in his +hand.</p> + +<h5>86.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="smcap">utting</span> the test of revelation out of the question, +and dealing with the philosopher philosophically,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span> +the best refutation of Comte’s system is contained in +the following criticism: it seems to me final.</p> + +<p>“In limiting religion to the relations in which we +stand to each other, and towards <i>Humanity</i>, Comte +omits one very important consideration. Even upon +his own showing, this <i>Humanity</i> can only be the +<i>supreme being</i> of <i>our</i> planet, it cannot be the <i>Supreme +Being</i> of the Universe. Now, although in this our +terrestrial sojourn, all we can distinctly know must +be limited to the sphere of our planet; yet, standing +on this ball and looking forth into infinitude, we +know that it is but an atom of the infinitude, and +that the humanity we worship <i>here</i>, cannot extend +its dominion <i>there</i>. If our relations to humanity +may be systematised into a cultus, and made a religion +as they have formerly been made a morality, +and if the whole of our practical priesthood be +limited to this religion, there will, nevertheless +remain for us, outlying this terrestrial sphere,—the +sphere of the infinite, in which our thoughts must +wander, and our emotions will follow our thoughts; +so that besides the religion of humanity there must +ever be a religion of the Universe. Or, to bring +this conception within ordinary language, there must +ever remain the old distinctions between <i>religion</i> and +<i>morality</i>, our relations to God, and our relations +towards man. The only difference being, that in +the <i>old</i> theology moral precepts were inculcated with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span> +a view to a celestial habitat; in the <i>new</i>, the moral +precepts are inculcated with a view to the general +progress of the race.”—<i>Westminster Review.</i></p> + +<p class="tb">In fact the doctrine of the non-plurality of worlds +as recently set forth by an eminent professor and +D. D. would exactly harmonise with Comte’s “Culte +du Positif,” as not merely limiting our sympathies +to this one form of intellectual being, but our religious +notions to this one habitable orb.</p> + +<p>But to those who take other views, the argument +above contains the <i>philosophical</i> objection to Comte’s +<i>system</i>, as such; and I repeat, that it seems to me unanswerable; +but there are excellent things in his +theory, notwithstanding;—things that make us pause +and think. In some parts it is like Christianity with +Christ, as a <i>personalité</i>, omitted. For Christ the +humanised divine, he substitutes an abstract deified +humanity. 1854.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-038-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="186" width="300" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-028-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="208" width="400" /></div> + +<h4>GOETHE.</h4> + +<h5>(DICHTUNG UND WAHRHEIT.)</h5> + +<h5>87.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“A</span><span class="smcap">s</span> a man embraces the determination to become +a soldier and go to the wars, bravely resolved +to bear dangers, and difficulties, and wounds, and +death itself, but at the same time never anticipating +the particular form in which those evils may surprise +us in an extremely unpleasant manner;—just so we +rush into authorship!”</p> + +<h5>88.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">G</span><span class="smcap">oethe</span> says of Lavater, “that the conception of +humanity which had been formed in himself, +and in his own humanity, was so akin to the living +image of Christ, that it was impossible for him to +conceive how a man could live and breathe without +being a Christian. He had, so to speak, a physical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span> +affinity with Christianity; it was to him a necessity, +not only morally, but from organisation.”</p> + +<p>Lavater’s individual feeling was, perhaps, but an +anticipation of that which may become general, universal. +As we rise in the scale of being, as we +become more gentle, spiritualised, refined, and intelligent, +will not our “physical affinity” with the +religion of Christ become more and more apparent, +till it is less a doctrine than a principle of life? So +its Divine Author knew, who prepared it for us, and +is preparing and moulding us through progressive +improvement to comprehend and receive it.</p> + +<h5>89.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">G</span><span class="smcap">oethe</span> speaks of “polishing up life with the +varnish of fiction;” the artistic turn of the man’s +mind showed itself in this love of creating an effect +in his own eyes and in the eyes of others. But what +can fiction—what can poetry do for life, but present +some one or two out of the multitudinous aspects of +that grand, beautiful, terrible, and infinite mystery? +or by <i>life</i>, does he mean here the mere external forms +of society?—for it is not clear.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-007.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="265" width="400" /></div> + +<h4>HAZLITT’S “LIBER AMORIS.”</h4> + +<h5>1827.</h5> + +<h5>90.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">s</span> love, like faith, ennobled through its own depth +and fervour and sincerity? or is it ennobled +through the nobility, and degraded through the +degradation of its object? Is it with love as with +worship? Is it a <i>religion</i>, and holy when the object +is pure and good? Is it a <i>superstition</i>, and unholy +when the object is impure and unworthy?</p> + +<p class="tb">Of all the histories I have read of the aberrations +of human passion, nothing ever so struck me with a +sort of amazed and painful pity as Hazlitt’s “Liber +Amoris.” The man was in love with a servant girl, +who in the eyes of others possessed no particular +charms of mind or person, yet did the mighty love of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span> +this strong, masculine, and gifted being, lift her into +a sort of goddess-ship; and make his idolatry in its +intense earnestness and reality assume something of +the sublimity of an act of faith, and in its expression +take a flight equal to anything that poetry or fiction +have left us. It was all so terribly real, he sued with +such a vehemence, he suffered with such resistance, +that the powerful intellect reeled, tempest-tost, and +might have foundered but for the gift of expression. +He might have said like Tasso—like Goethe rather—“Gab +mir ein Gott zu sagen was ich leide!” +And this faculty of utterance, eloquent utterance, +was perhaps the only thing which saved life, or reason, +or both. In such moods of passion, the poor uneducated +man, dumb in the midst of the strife and the +storm, unable to comprehend his intolerable pain or +make it comprehended, throws himself in a blind +fury on the cause of his torture, or hangs himself in +his neckcloth.</p> + +<h5>91.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">azlitt</span> takes up his pen, dips it in fire and thus +he writes:—</p> + +<p>“Perfect love has this advantage in it, that it leaves +the possessor of it nothing farther to desire. There +is one object (at least), in which the soul finds absolute +content;—for which it seeks to live or dares to +die. The heart has, as it were, filled up the moulds +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span> +of the imagination; the truth of passion keeps pace +with, and outvies, the extravagance of mere language. +There are no words so fine, no flattery so soft, that +there is not a sentiment beyond them that it is impossible +to express, at the bottom of the heart where +true love is. What idle sounds the common phrases +<i>adorable creature</i>, <i>divinity</i>, <i>angel</i>, are! What a proud +reflection it is to have a feeling answering to all +these, rooted in the breast, unalterable, unutterable, +to which all other feelings are light and vain! Perfect +love reposes on the object of its choice, like the +halcyon on the wave, and the air of heaven is around +it!”</p> + +<h5>92.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“S</span><span class="smcap">he</span> stood (while I pleaded my cause before her +with all the earnestness and fondness in the +world) with the tears trickling from her eye-lashes, +her head drooping, her attitude fixed, with the finest +expression that ever was seen of mixed regret, pity, +and stubborn resolution, but without speaking a word—without +altering a feature. <i>It was like a petrifaction +of a human face in the softest moment of passion.</i>”</p> + +<h5>93.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“S</span><span class="smcap">hall</span> I not love her,” he exclaims, “for herself +alone, in spite of fickleness and folly? to love +her for her regard for me, is not to love her but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span> +myself. She has robbed me of herself, shall she also +rob me of my love of her? did I not live on her +smile? is it less sweet because it is withdrawn from +me? Did I not adore her every grace? and does she +bend less enchantingly because she has turned from +me to another? Is my love then in the power of +fortune or of her caprice? No, I will have it lasting +as it is pure; and I will make a goddess of her, and +build a temple to her in my heart, and worship her +on indestructible altars, and raise statues to her, and +my homage shall be unblemished as her unrivalled +symmetry of form. And when that fails, the memory +of it shall survive, and my bosom shall be proof to +scorn as hers has been to pity; and I will pursue her +with an unrelenting love, and sue to be her slave and +tend her steps without notice, and without reward; +and serve her living, and mourn for her when dead; +and thus my love will have shown itself superior to +her hate, and I shall triumph and then die. This is +my idea of the only true and heroic love, and such is +mine for her.”</p> + +<p class="tb">Hazlitt, when he wrote all this, seemed to himself +full of high and calm resolve. The hand did not +fail, the pen did not stagger over the paper in a +formless scrawl, yet the brain was reeling like a +tower in an earthquake. “Passion,” as it has been +well said, “when in a state of solemn and omni<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span>potent +vehemence, always appears to be calmness to +him whom it domineers;” not unfrequently to others +also, as the tide at its highest flood looks tranquil, +and “neither way inclines.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-046.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="181" width="300" /></div> + +<h4>THE NIGHTINGALE.</h4> + +<h5>94.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">R</span><span class="smcap">eading</span> the Life and Letters of Francis Horner, +in the midst of a correspondence about Statistics +and Bullion, and Political Economy, and the Balance +of Parties, I came upon the following exquisite passage +in a letter to his friend Mrs. Spencer:—</p> + +<p>“I was amused by your interrogatory to me about +the Nightingale’s note. You meant to put me in a +dilemma with my politics on one side and my gallantry +on the other. Of course you consider it as a +plaintive note, and you were in hopes that no idolater +of Charles Fox would venture to agree with that +opinion. In this difficulty I must make the best +escape I can by saying, that it seems to me neither +cheerful nor melancholy,—but always according to +the circumstances in which you hear it, the scenery,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span> +your own temper of mind, and so on. I settled it so +with myself early in this month, when I heard them +every night and all day long at Wells. In daylight, +when all the other birds are in active concert, the +Nightingale only strikes you as the most active, emulous, +and successful of the whole band. At night, +especially if it is a calm one, with light enough to +give you a wide indistinct view, the solitary music of +this bird takes quite another character, from all the +associations of the scene, from the languor one feels +at the close of the day, and from the stillness of spirits +and elevation of mind which comes upon one when +walking out at that time. But it is not always so—different +circumstances will vary in every possible +way the effect. Will the Nightingale’s note sound +alike to the man who is going on an adventure to +meet his mistress (supposing he heeds it at all), and +when he loiters along upon his return? The last +time I heard the Nightingale it was an experiment +of another sort. It was after a thunderstorm +in a mild night, while there was silent +lightning opening every few minutes, first on one +side of the heavens then on the other. The careless +little fellow was piping away in the midst of +all this terror. To <i>me</i>, there was no melancholy in +his note, but a sort of sublimity; yet it was the same +song which I had heard in the morning, and which +then seemed nothing but bustle.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span></p> + +<p>And in the same spirit Portia moralises:—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The nightingale, if she should sing by day,</span> +<span class="i0">When every goose is cackling, would be thought</span> +<span class="i0">No better a musician than the wren.</span> +<span class="i0">How many things by season, seasoned are</span> +<span class="i0">To their right praise and true perfection!</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>Nor will Coleridge allow the song of the nightingale +to be always plaintive,—“most musical, most +<i>melancholy</i>;” he defies the epithet though it be +Milton’s.</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">’Tis the <i>merry</i> nightingale,</span> +<span class="i0">That crowds and hurries and precipitates</span> +<span class="i0">With thick fast warble his delicious notes,</span> +<span class="i0">As he were fearful that an April night</span> +<span class="i0">Would be too short for him to utter forth</span> +<span class="i0">His love-chaunt, and disburthen his full soul</span> +<span class="i0">Of all its music.</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>As a poetical commentary on these beautiful +passages, every reader of Joanna Baillie will remember +the night scene in De Montfort, where the cry of +the Owl suggests such different feelings and associations +to the two men who listen to it, under such +different circumstances. To De Montfort it is the +screech-owl, foreboding death and horror,—and he +stands and shudders at the “instinctive wailing.” +To Rezenvelt it is the sound which recalls his boyish +days, when he merrily mimicked the night-bird till it +returned him cry for cry,—and he pauses to listen +with a fanciful delight.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-012-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="228" width="300" /></div> + +<h4>THACKERAY’S LECTURES ON THE ENGLISH HUMORISTS</h4> + +<h5>(1833.)</h5> + +<h5>95.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="smcap">lecture</span> should not read like an essay; and, +therefore, it surprises me that these lectures so +carefully prepared, so skilfully adapted to meet the +requirements of oral delivery, should be such agreeable +reading. As <i>lectures</i>, they wanted only a little +more point, and emphasis and animation on the part +of the speaker: as <i>essays</i>, they atone in eloquence +and earnestness for what they want in finish and +purity of style.</p> + +<p>Genius and sunshine have this in common that +they are the two most precious gifts of heaven to +earth, and are dispensed equally to the just and the +unjust. What struck me most in these lectures, when +I heard them, (and it strikes me now in turning over +the written pages,) is this: we deal here with writers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span> +and artists, yet the purpose, from beginning to end, +is not artistic nor critical, but moral. Thackeray +tells us himself that he has not assembled his hearers +to bring them better acquainted with the writings of +these writers, or to illustrate the wit of these wits, +or to enhance the humour of these humourists;—no; +but to deal justice on the men as <i>men</i>—to tell +us how <i>they</i> lived, and loved, suffered and made +suffer, who still have power to pain or to please; +to settle <i>their</i> claims to our praise or blame, our +love or hate, whose right to fame was settled long +ago, and remains undisputed. This is his purpose. +Thus then he has laid down and acted on the principle +that “morals have something to do with art;” +that there is a moral account to be settled with +men of genius; that the power and the right remains +with us to do justice on those who being +dead yet rule our spirits from their urns; to try +them by a standard which perhaps neither themselves, +nor those around them, would have admitted. +Did Swift when he bullied men, lampooned women, +trampled over decency and humanity, flung round +him filth and fire, did he anticipate the time when +before a company of intellectual men, and thinking, +feeling women, in both hemispheres, he should be +called up to judgment, hands bound, tongue-tied? +Where be now his gibes? and where his terrors? +Thackeray turns him forth, a spectacle, a lesson, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span> +warning; probes the lacerated self-love, holds up to +scorn, or pity more intolerable, the miserable egotism, +the half-distempered brain. O Stella! O +Vanessa! are you not avenged?</p> + +<p>Then Sterne—how he takes to pieces his feigned +originality, his feigned benevolence, his feigned misanthropy—all +feigned!—the licentious parson, the +trader in sentiment, the fashionable lion of his day, +the man without a heart for those who loved him, +without a conscience for those who trusted him! yet +the same man who gave us the pathos of “Le Fevre,” +and the humours of “Uncle Toby!” Sad is it? ungrateful +is it? ungracious is it?—well, it cannot be +helped; you cannot stifle the conscience of humanity. +You might as well exclaim against any natural result +of any natural law. Fancy a hundred years +hence some brave, honest, human-hearted Thackeray +standing up to discourse before our great-great-grandchildren +in the same spirit, with the same +stern truth, on the wits, and the poets and the +artists of the present time! Hard is your fate, +O ye men and women of genius! very hard and +pitiful, if ye must be subjected to the scalpel of +such a dissector! You, gifted sinner, whoever you +may be, walking among us now in all the impunity +of conventional forbearance, dealing in oracles and +sentimentalisms, performing great things, teaching +good things, you are set up as one of the lights of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span> +world:—Lo! another time comes; the torch is taken +out of your hand, and held up to your face. What! +is it a mask, and not a face? “Off, off ye lendings!” +O God! how much wiser, as well as better, not to +study how to <i>seem</i>, but how to <i>be</i>! How much +wiser and better, not to have to shudder before +the truth as it oozes out from a thousand unguessed, +unguarded apertures, staining your lawn or your +ermine; not to have to tremble at the thought of +that future Thackeray, who “shall pluck out the +heart of your mystery,” and shall anatomise you, and +deliver lectures upon you, to illustrate the standard +of morals and manners in Queen Victoria’s reign!</p> + +<p>In these lectures, some fine and feeling and discriminative +passages on character, make amends for +certain offences and inconsistencies in the novels; I +mean especially in regard to the female portraits. No +woman resents his Rebecca—inimitable Becky!—no +woman but feels and acknowledges with a shiver +the completeness of that wonderful and finished artistic +creation; but every woman resents the selfish +inane Amelia, and would be inclined to quote and +to apply the author’s own words when speaking of +‘Tom Jones:’—“I can’t say that I think Amelia a +virtuous character. I can’t say but I think Mr. +Thackeray’s evident liking and admiration for his +Amelia shows that the great humourist’s moral sense +was blunted by his life, and that here in art and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span> +ethics there is a great error. If it be right to have +a heroine whom we are to admire, let us take care at +least that she is admirable.”</p> + +<p>Laura, in ‘Pendennis,’ is a yet more fatal mistake. +She is drawn with every generous feeling, every good +gift. We do not complain that she loves that poor +creature Pendennis, for she loved him in her childhood. +She grew up with that love in her heart; it +came between her and the perception of his faults; it +is a necessity indivisible from her nature. Hallowed, +through its constancy, therein alone would lie its best +excuse, its beauty and its truth. But Laura, faithless +to that first affection; Laura, waked up to the +appreciation of a far more manly and noble nature, +in love with Warrington, and then going back to +Pendennis, and marrying <i>him</i>! Such infirmity might +be true of some women, but not of such a woman +as Laura; we resent the inconsistency, the indelicacy +of the portrait.</p> + +<p>And then Lady Castlewood,—so evidently a +favourite of the author, what shall we say of her? +The virtuous woman, <i>par excellence</i>, who “never +sins and never forgives,” who never resents, nor +relents, nor repents; the mother, who is the rival of +her daughter; the mother, who for years is the <i>confidante</i> +of a man’s delirious passion for her own child, +and then consoles him by marrying him herself! O +Mr. Thackeray! this will never do! such women <i>may</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span> +exist, but to hold them up as examples of excellence, +and fit objects of our best sympathies, is a fault, and +proves a low standard in ethics and in art. “When an +author presents to us a heroine whom we are called +upon to admire, let him at least take care that she is +admirable.” If in these, and in some other instances, +Thackeray has given us cause of offence, in the +lectures we may thank him for some amends: he has +shown us what he conceives true womanhood and +true manliness ought to be; so with this expression +of gratitude, and a far deeper debt of gratitude left +unexpressed, I close his book, and say, good night!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-275.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="513" width="500" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-276.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="442" width="500" /></div> + +<h4><span class="oldtype">Notes on Art.</span></h4> + +<h5>96.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="smcap">ometimes</span>, in thoughtful moments, I am struck +by those beautiful analogies between things +apparently dissimilar—those awful approximations +between things apparently far asunder—which many +people would call fanciful and imaginary, but they +seem to bring all God’s creation, spiritual and material, +into one comprehensive whole; they give me, +thus associated, a glimpse, a perception of that over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span>whelming +unity which we call the universe, the +multitudinous <span class="smcap">ONE</span>.</p> + +<p>Thus the principle of the highest ideal in art, +as conceived by the Greeks, and unsurpassed in its +purity and beauty, lay in considering well the characteristics +which distinguish the <i>human</i> form from +the brute form; and then, in rendering the human +form, the first aim was to soften down, or, if possible, +throw out wholly, those characteristics which +belong to the brute nature, or are common to the +brute and the man; and the next, to bring into prominence +and even enlarge the proportions of those +manifestations of forms which distinguish humanity; +till, at last, the <i>human</i> merged into the <i>divine</i>, and +the God in look, in limb, in feature, stood revealed.</p> + +<p>Let us now suppose this broad principle which the +Greeks applied to form, ethically carried out, and +made the basis of all education—the training of men +as a race. Suppose we started with the general +axiom that all propensities which we have in common +with the lower animals are to be kept subordinate, +and so far as is consistent with the truth of nature +refined away; and that all the qualities which elevate, +all the aspirations which ally us with the spiritual, are +to be cultivated and rendered more and more prominent, +till at last the human being, in faculties as well +as form, approaches the God-like—I only say—suppose?—<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span>—</p> + +<p>Again: it has been said of natural philosophy (Zoology) +that in order to make any real progress in the +science, as such, we must more and more disregard +<i>differences</i>, and more and more attend to the obscured +but essential conditions which are revealed in <i>resemblances</i>, +in the constant and similar relations of primitive +structure. Now if the same principle were +carried out in theology, in morals, in art, as well as +in science, should we not come nearer to the essential +truth in <i>all</i>?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-079.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="134" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>97.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">here</span> is an instinctive sense of propriety and +reality in every mind; and it is not true, as +some great authority has said, that in art we are +satisfied with contemplating the work without thinking +of the artist. On the contrary, the artist himself +is one great object in the work. It is as embodying +the energies and excellences of the human mind, as +exhibiting the efforts of genius, as symbolising high +feeling, that we most value the creations of art; +without design the representations of art are merely +fantastical, and without the thought of a design act<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span>ing +upon fixed principles in accordance with a high +standard of goodness and truth, half the charm of +design is lost.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-049.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="126" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>98.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“A</span><span class="smcap">rt</span>, used collectively for painting, sculpture, +architecture, and music, is the mediatress +between, and reconciler of, nature and man. It is, +therefore, the power of humanising nature, of infusing +the thoughts and passions of man into everything +which is the object of his contemplation. Colour, +form, motion, sound, are the elements which it +combines, and it stamps them into unity in the +mould of a <i>moral</i> idea.”</p> + +<p>This is Coleridge’s definition:—Art then is nature, +<i>humanised</i>; and in proportion as humanity is elevated +by the interfusion into our life of noble aims and pure +affections will art be spiritualised and moralised.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>99.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">f</span> faith has elevated art, superstition has everywhere +debased it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>100.</h5> + +<p>Goethe observes that there is no patriotic art and +no patriotic science—that both are universal.</p> + +<p>There is, however, <i>national</i> art, but not <i>national</i> +science: we say “national art,” “natural science.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-014.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="179" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>101.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“V</span><span class="smcap">erse</span> is in itself music, and the natural symbol +of that union of passion with thought and +pleasure, which constitutes the essence of all poetry +as contradistinguished from history civil or natural.”—<i>Coleridge.</i></p> + +<p>In the arts of design, colour is to form what verse +is to prose—a more harmonious and luminous vehicle +of the thought.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-024.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="87" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span></p> + +<h5>102.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="smcap">ubjects</span> and representations in art not elevated +nor interesting in themselves, become instructive +and interesting to higher minds from the <i>manner</i> +in which they have been treated; perhaps because +they have passed through the medium of a higher +mind in taking form.</p> + +<p>This is one reason, though we are not always conscious +of it, that the Dutch pictures of common and +vulgar life give us a pleasure apart from their wonderful +finish and truth of detail. In the mind of +the artist there must have been the power to throw +himself into a sphere <i>above</i> what he represents. +Adrian Brouwer, for instance, must have been +something far better than a sot; Ostade something +higher than a boor; though the habits of both led +them into companionship with sots and boors. In +the most farcical pictures of Jan Steen there is a +depth of feeling and observation which remind me +of the humour of Goldsmith; and Teniers, we +know, was in his habits a refined gentleman; the +brilliant elegance of his pencil contrasting with the +grotesque vulgarity of his subjects. To a thinking +mind, some of these Dutch pictures of character are +full of material for thought, pathetic even where +least sympathetic: no doubt, because of a latent +sympathy with the artist, apart from his subject.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-012-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="125" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>103.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="smcap">oleridge</span> says,—“Every human feeling is greater +and larger than the exciting cause.” (A philosophical +way of putting Rochefoucauld’s neatly +expressed apophthegm: “Nous ne sommes jamais ni +si heureux ni si malheureux que nous l’imaginons.”) +“A proof,” he proceeds, “that man is designed for a +higher state of existence; and this is deeply implied +in music, in which there is always something more +and beyond the immediate expression.”</p> + +<p>But not music only, every production of art +ought to excite emotions greater and thoughts larger +than itself. Thoughts and emotions which never +perhaps were in the mind of the artist, never were +anticipated, never were intended by him—may be +strongly suggested by his work. This is an important +part of the morals of art, which we must never +lose sight of. Art is not only for pleasure and profit, +but for good and for evil.</p> + +<p>Goethe (in the <i>Dichtung und Wahrheit</i>) describes +the reception of Marie Antoinette at Strasbourg, +where she passed the frontier to enter her new kingdom. +She was then a lovely girl of sixteen. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span> +relates that on visiting before her arrival the reception +room on the bridge over the Rhine, where her German +attendants were to deliver her into the hands of +the French authorities, he found the walls hung with +tapestries representing the ominous story of Jason +and Medea—of all the marriages on record the most +fearful, the most tragic in its consequences. “What!” +he exclaims, his poetical imagination struck with the +want of moral harmony, “was there among these +French architects and decorators no man who could +perceive that pictures represent things,—that they +have a meaning in themselves,—that they can impress +sense and feeling,—that they can awaken presentiments +of good or evil?” But, as he tells us, his +exclamations of horror were met by the mockery of +his French companions, who assured him that it was +not everybody’s concern to look for significance in +pictures.</p> + +<p>These self-same tapestries of the story of Jason +and Medea were after the Restoration presented by +Louis XVIII. to George IV., and at present they +line the walls of the Ball-room in Windsor Castle. +We might repeat, with some reason, the question of +Goethe; for if pictures have a significance, and speak +to the imagination, what has the tragedy of Jason +and Medea to do in a ball-room?</p> + +<p class="tb">Goethe, who thus laid down the principle that works<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span> +of art speak to the feelings and the conscience, and +can awaken associations tending to good and evil, by +some strange inconsistency places art and artists +out of the sphere of morals. He speaks somewhere +with contempt and ridicule of those who +take their conscience and their morality with them +to an opera or a picture gallery. Yet surely he +is wrong. Why should we not? Are our conscience +and our morals like articles of dress which +we can take off and put on again as we fancy +it convenient or expedient?—shut up in a drawer +and leave behind us when we visit a theatre or +a gallery of art? or are they not rather a part of +ourselves—our very life—to graduate the worth, to +fix the standard of all that mingles with our life? +The idea that what we call <i>taste</i> in art has something +quite distinctive from conscience, is one cause that +the popular notions concerning the productions of +art are abandoned to such confusion and uncertainty; +that simple people regard <i>taste</i> as something +forensic, something to be learned, as they would +learn a language, and mastered by a study of rules +and a dictionary of epithets; and they look up to +a professor of taste, just as they would look up to +a professor of Greek or of Hebrew. Either they +listen to judgments lightly and confidently promulgated +with a sort of puzzled faith and a surrender +of their own moral sense, which are pitiable; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span> +as if art also had its infallible church and its hierarchy +of dictators!—or they fly into the opposite +extreme, and seeing themselves deceived and misled, +fall away into strange heresies. All from ignorance +of a few laws simple in their form, yet infinite +in their application;—<i>natural</i> laws we must call +them, though here applied to art.</p> + +<p>In my younger days I have known men conspicuous +for their want of elevated principle, and for their +dissipated habits, held up as arbiters and judges of +art; but it was to them only another form of +epicurism and self-indulgence; and I have seen +them led into such absurd and fatal mistakes for +want of the power to distinguish and to generalise, +that I have despised their judgment, and have come +to the conclusion that a really high standard of taste +and a low standard of morals are incompatible with +each other.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-060-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="109" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>104.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> fact of the highest artistic genius having +manifested itself in a polytheistic age, and +among a people whose moral views were essentially +degraded, has, we think, fostered the erroneous notion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span> +that the sphere of art has no connection with that of +morality. The Greeks, with penetrative insight, +dilated the essential characteristics of man’s organism +as a vehicle of superior intelligence, while their +intense sympathy with physical beauty made them +alive to its most subtle manifestations; and reproducing +their impressions through the medium of art, +they have given birth to models of the human form, +which reveal its highest possibilities, and the excellence +of which depends upon their being individual +expressions of ideal truth. Thus, too, in their descriptions +of nature, instead of multiplying insignificant +details, they seized instinctively upon the +characteristic features of her varying aspects, and not +unfrequently embodied a finished picture in one +comprehensive and harmonious word. In association +with their marvellous genius, however, we find a +cruelty, a treachery, and a licence which would be +revolting if it were not for the historical interest +which attaches to every genuine record of a bygone +age. Their low moral standard cannot excite surprise +when we consider the debasing tendency of +their worship, the objects of their adoration being +nothing more than their own degraded passions invested +with some of the attributes of deity. Now, +among the modifications of thought introduced by +Christianity, there is perhaps none more pregnant +with important results than the harmony which it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span> +has established between religion and morality. The +great law of right and wrong has acquired a sacred +character, when viewed as an expression of the divine +will; it takes its rank among the eternal verities, and +to ignore it in our delineations of life, or to represent +sin otherwise than as treason against the supreme +ruler, is to retain in modern civilisation one of the +degrading elements of heathenism. Conscience is as +great a fact of our inner life as the sense of beauty, +and the harmonious action of both these instinctive +principles is essential to the highest enjoyment of +art, for any internal dissonance disturbs the repose +of the mind, and thereby shatters the image mirrored +in its depths.”—<i>A. S.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-056-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="150" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>105.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“M</span><span class="smcap">ais</span> vous autres artistes, vous ne considerez +pour la plupart dans les œuvres que la +beauté ou la singularité de l’exécution, sans vous +pénétrer de l’idée dont cet œuvre est la forme; +ainsi votre intelligence adore souvent l’expression +d’un sentiment que votre cœur repousserait s’il en +avait la conscience.”—<i>George Sand.</i></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="112" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>106.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">L</span><span class="smcap">avater</span> told Goethe that on a certain occasion +when he held the velvet bag in the church as +collector of the offerings, he tried to observe only the +hands; and he satisfied himself that in every individual, +the shape of the hand and of the fingers, the +action and sentiment in dropping the gift into the +bag, were distinctly different and individually characteristic.</p> + +<p>What then shall we say of Van Dyck, who painted +the hands of his men and women, not from individual +nature, but from a model hand—his own +very often?—and every one who considers for a moment +will see in Van Dyck’s portraits, that, however +well painted and elegant the hands, they in very few +instances harmonise with the <i>personalité</i>;—that the +position is often affected, and as if intended for display,—the +display of what is in itself a positive fault, +and from which some little knowledge of comparative +physiology would have saved him.</p> + +<p>There are hands of various character; the hand to +catch, and the hand to hold; the hand to clasp, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span> +the hand to grasp. The hand that has worked or +could work, and the hand that has never done anything +but hold itself out to be kissed, like that of +Joanna of Arragon in Raphael’s picture.</p> + +<p>Let any one look at the hands in Titian’s portrait +of old Paul IV.: though exquisitely modelled, they +have an expression which reminds us of claws; they +belong to the face of that grasping old man, and +could belong to no other.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-078.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="215" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>107.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="smcap">ozart</span> and Chopin, though their genius was differently +developed, were alike in some things: +in nothing more than this, that the artistic element in +both minds wholly dominated over the social and +practical, and that their art was the element in which +they moved and lived, through which they felt and +thought. I doubt whether either of them could have +said, “<i>D’abord je suis homme et puis je suis artiste</i>;” +whereas this could have been said with truth by +Mendelsohn and by Litzst. In Mendelsohn the +enormous creative power was modified by the intellect +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span> +and the conscience. Litzst has no creative +power.</p> + +<p>Liszt has thus drawn the character of Chopin:—“Rien +n’était plus pur et plus exalté en même temps +que ses pensées; rien n’était plus tenace, plus exclusif, +et plus minutieusement dévoué que ses affections. +Mais cet être ne comprenait que ce qui était identique +à lui-même:—le reste n’existait pour lui que +comme une sorte de rêve fâcheux, auquel il essayait +de se soustraire en vivant au milieu du monde. +Toujours perdu dans ses rêveries, la réalité lui deplaisait. +Enfant il ne pouvait toucher à un instrument +tranchant sans se blesser; homme il ne pouvait se +trouver en face d’un homme différent de lui, sans se +heurter contre cette contradiction vivante.”</p> + +<p>“Ce qui le préservait d’un antagonisme perpétuel +c’était l’habitude volontaire et bientôt invétérée de +ne point voir, de ne pas entendre ce qui lui deplaisait: +en général sans toucher à ses affections personelles, +les êtres qui ne pensaient pas comme lui +devenaient à ses yeux comme des espèces de fantômes; +et comme il était d’une politesse charmante, on pouvait +prendre pour une bienveillance courtoise ce qui +n’était chez lui qu’un froid dédain—une aversion +insurmontable.”</p> + +<h5>108.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> father of Mozart was a man of high and strict +religious principle. He had a conviction—in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span> +case more truly founded than is usual—that he was +the father of a great, a surpassing genius, and consequently +of a being unfortunate in this, that he +must be in advance of his age, exposed to error, to +envy, to injustice, to strife; and to do his duty to his +son demanded large faith and large firmness. But +because he <i>did</i> estimate this sacred trust as a duty to +be discharged, not only with respect to his gifted son, +but to the God who had so endowed him; so, in spite +of many mistakes, the earnest straightforward endeavour +to do right in the parent seems to have saved +Mozart’s moral life, and to have given that completeness +to the productions of his genius, which the harmony +of the moral and creative faculties alone can +bestow.</p> + +<p class="tb">“The modifying power of circumstances on Mozart’s +style, is an interesting consideration. Whatever +of striking, of new or beautiful he met with in +the works of others left its impression on him; and +he often reproduced these efforts, not servilely, but +mingling his own nature and feelings with them in +a manner not less surprising than delightful.”</p> + +<p>This is true equally of Shakespeare and of Raphael, +both of whom adapted or rather adopted much from +their precursors in the way of material to work +upon; and whose incomparable originality consisted +in the interfusion of their own great individual genius<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span> +with every subject they touched, so that it became +theirs, and could belong to no other.</p> + +<p class="tb">The Figaro was composed at Vienna. The Don +Juan and Clemenza di Tito at Prague;—which I +note because the localities are so characteristic of the +operas. Cimarosa’s Matrimonio Segreto was composed +at Prague; it was on the fortification of the Hradschin +one morning at sun-rise that he composed the +<i>Pria che spunti in ciel l’aurora</i>.</p> + +<p class="tb">When called upon to describe his method of composing, +what Mozart said of himself was very striking +from its <i>naïveté</i> and truth. “I do not,” he said, +“aim at originality. I do not know in what my originality +consists. Why my productions take from +my hand that particular form or style which makes +them <i>Mozartish</i>, and different from the works of +other composers is probably owing to the same cause +which makes my nose this or that particular shape; +makes it, in short, Mozart’s nose, and different from +other people’s.”</p> + +<p>Yet, as a composer, Mozart was as <i>objective</i>, as +dramatic, as Shakspeare and Raphael; Chopin, in +comparison, was wholly <i>subjective</i>,—the Byron of +Music.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-032-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="138" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>109.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">alking</span> once with Adelaide Kemble, after she had +been singing in the “Figaro,” she compared the +music to the bosom of a full blown rose in its voluptuous, +intoxicating richness. I said that some of +Mozart’s melodies seemed to me not so much composed, +but found—found on some sunshiny day in +Arcadia, among nymphs and flowers. “Yes,” she +replied, with ready and felicitous expression, “not +<i>inventions</i>, but <i>existences</i>.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-022-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="214" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>110.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span><span class="smcap">ld</span> George the Third, in his blindness and madness, +once insisted on making the selection of +pieces for the concert of ancient music (May, 1811),—it +was soon after the death of the Princess Amelia.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span> +“The programme included some of the finest passages +in Handel’s ‘Samson,’ descriptive of blindness; the +‘Lamentation of Jephthah,’ for his daughter; Purcel’s +‘Mad Tom,’ and closed with ‘God save the +King,’ to make sure the application of all that went +before.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-038-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="186" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>111.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">E</span><span class="smcap">very</span> one who remembers what Madlle. Rachel +was seven or eight years ago, and who sees +her now (1853), will allow that she has made no progress +in any of the essential excellences of her art:—a +certain proof that she is not a great artist in the +true sense of the word. She is a finished actress, +but she is nothing more, and nothing better; not +enough the artist ever to forget or conceal her art; +consequently there is a want somewhere, which a +mind highly toned and of quick perceptions feels from +beginning to end. The parts in which she once excelled—the +Phêdre and the Hermione, for instance—have +become formalised and hard, like studies cast +in bronze; and when she plays a new part it has no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span> +freshness. I always go to see her whenever I can. +I admire her as what she is—the Parisian actress, +practised in every trick of her <i>métier</i>. I admire what +she does, I think how well it is all <i>done</i>, and am +inclined to clap and applaud her drapery, perfect and +ostentatiously studied in every fold, just with the +same feeling that I applaud herself.</p> + +<p>As to the last scene of Adrienne Lecouvreur, +(which those who are <i>avides de sensation</i>, athirst for +painful emotion, go to see as they would drink a +dram, and critics laud as a miracle of art,) it is +altogether a mistake and a failure; it is beyond the +just limits of terror and pity—beyond the legitimate +sphere of <i>art</i>. It reminds us of the story of Gentil +Bellini and the Sultan. The Sultan much admired +Bellini’s picture of the decollation of John the Baptist, +but informed him that it was inaccurate—surgically—for +the tendons and muscles ought to shrink +where divided; and then calling for one of his slaves, +he drew his scimitar, and striking off the head of the +wretch, gave the horror-struck artist a lesson in +practical anatomy. So we might possibly learn from +Rachel’s imitative representation, (studied in an hospital +as they say,) how poison acts on the frame, and +how the limbs and features writhe into death; but if +she were a great moral artist she would feel that +what is allowed to be true in painting, is true in art +generally; that mere imitation, such as the vulgar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span> +delight in, and hold up their hands to see, is the +vulgarest and easiest aim of the imitative arts, and +that between the true interpretation of poetry in art +and such base mechanical means to the lowest ends, +there lies an immeasurable distance.</p> + +<p>I am disposed to think that Rachel has not genius, +but talent, and that her talent, from what I see year +after year, has a downward tendency,—there is not +sufficient moral seasoning to save it from corruption. +I remember that when I first saw her in Hermione +she reminded me of a serpent, and the same impression +continues. The long meagre form with its +graceful undulating movements, the long narrow face +and features, the contracted jaw, the high brow, the +brilliant supernatural eyes which seem to glance every +way at once; the sinister smile; the painted red lips, +which look as though they had lapped, or could lap, +blood; all these bring before me the idea of a Lamia, +the serpent nature in the woman’s form. In Lydia, +and in Athalie, she touches the extremes of vice and +wickedness with such a masterly lightness and precision, +that I am full of wondering admiration for +the actress. There is not a turn of her figure, not an +expression in her face, not a fold in her gorgeous +drapery, that is not a study; but withal such a +consciousness of her art, and such an ostentation of +the means she employs, that the power remains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span> +always <i>extraneous</i>, as it were, and exciting only to +the senses and the intellect.</p> + +<p>Latterly she has become a hard mannerist. Her +face, once so flexible, has lost the power of expressing +the nicer shades and softer gradations of feeling; so +much so, that they write dramas for her with supernaturally +wicked and depraved heroines to suit her +especial powers. I conceive that an artist could not +sink lower in degradation. Yet to satisfy the taste of +a Parisian audience and the ambition of a Parisian +actress this was not enough, and wickedness required +the piquancy of immediate approximation with +innocence. In the Valeria she played two characters, +and appeared on the stage alternately as a miracle of +vice and a miracle of virtue: an abandoned prostitute +and a chaste matron. There was something in this +contrasted impersonation, considered simply in relation +to the aims and objects of art, so revolting, that +I sat in silent and deep disgust, which was partly +deserved by the audience which could endure the +exhibition.</p> + +<p>It is the entire absence of the high poetic and +moral element which distinguishes Rachel as an +actress, and places her at such an immeasurable distance +from Mrs. Siddons, that it shocks me to hear +them named together.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span></p> + +<h5>112.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">t</span> is no reproach to a capital actress to play effectively +a very wicked character. Mrs. Siddons +played the abandoned Milwood as carefully, as completely +as she played Hermoine and Constance; but +if it had required a perpetual succession of Calistas +and Milwoods to call forth her highest powers, what +should we think of the woman and the artist?</p> + +<h5>113.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> dramas and characters are invented to suit +the particular talent of a particular actor or +actress, it argues rather a limited range of the artistic +power; though within that limit the power may be +great and the talent genuine.</p> + +<p class="tb">Thus for Liston and for Miss O’Neil, so distinguished +in their respective lines of Comedy and +Tragedy, characters were especially constructed and +plays written, which have not been acted since their +time.</p> + +<h5>114.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="smcap">celebrated</span> German actress (who has quitted +the stage for many years) speaking of Rachel, +said that the reason she must always stop short of +the highest place in art, is because she is nothing but +an actress—that only; and has no aims in life, has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span> +no duties, feelings, employments, sympathies, but +those which centre in herself in the interests of her +art;—which thus ceases to be <i>art</i> and becomes a +<i>métier</i>.</p> + +<p>This reminded me of what Pauline Viardot once +said to me:—“D’abord je suis <i>femme</i>, avec les dévoirs, +les affections, les sentiments d’une femme; et +puis je suis <i>artiste</i>.”</p> + +<h5>115.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> same German actress whose opinion I have +quoted, told me that the Leonora and the Iphigenia +of Goethe were the parts she preferred to play. +The Thekla and the Beatrice of Schiller next. (In +all these she excelled.) The parts easiest to her, +requiring no effort scarcely, were Jerta (in Houwald’s +Tragedy, “Die Schuld”), and Clärchen in Egmont; +of the character of Jerta, she said beautifully:—“Ich +habe es nicht gespielt, Ich habe es gesagt!” (I +did not <i>play</i> it, I <i>uttered</i> it.) This was extremely +characteristic of the woman.</p> + +<p>I once asked Mrs. Siddons, which of her great +characters she preferred to play? She replied, after +a moment’s consideration, and in her rich deliberate +emphatic tones:—“Lady Macbeth is the character +I have most <i>studied</i>.” She afterwards said that she +had played the character during thirty years, and +scarcely acted it once, without carefully reading over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span> +the part and generally the whole play in the morning; +and that she never read over the play without +finding something new in it; “something,” she said, +“which had not struck me so much as it <i>ought</i> to +have struck me.”</p> + +<p class="tb">Of Mrs. Pritchard, who preceded Mrs. Siddons in +the part of Lady Macbeth, it was well known that +she had never read the play. She merely studied +her own part as written out by the stage-copyist; of +the other parts she knew nothing but the <i>cues</i>.</p> + +<h5>116.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> I asked Mrs. Henry Siddons, which of her +characters she preferred playing? she said at +once “Imogen, in Cymbeline, was the character I +played with most ease to myself, and most success as +regarded the public; it cost no effort.”</p> + +<p>This was confirmed by others. A very good +judge said of her—“In some of her best parts, as +Juliet, Rosalind, and Lady Townley, she may have +been approached or equalled. In Viola and Imogen +she was never equalled. In the grace and simplicity +of the first, in the refinement and shy but impassioned +tenderness of the last, <i>I</i> at least have never +seen any one to be compared to her. She hardly +seemed to <i>act</i> these parts; they came naturally to +her.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span></p> + +<p>This reminds me of another anecdote of the same +accomplished actress and admirable woman. The +people of Edinburgh, among whom she lived, had so +identified her with all that was gentle, refined and +noble, that they did not like to see her play wicked +parts. It happened that Godwin went down to +Edinburgh with a tragedy in his pocket, which had +been accepted by the theatre there, and in which +Mrs. Henry Siddons was to play the principal part—that +of a very wicked woman (I forget the name +of the piece). He was warned that it risked the +success of his play, but her conception of the part +was so just and spirited, that he persisted. At the +rehearsal she stopped in the midst of one of her +speeches and said, with great <i>naïveté</i>, “I am afraid, +Mr. Godwin, the people will not endure to hear me +say this!” He replied coolly, “My dear, you cannot +be always young and pretty—you must come to this +at last,—go on.” He mistook her meaning and the +feeling of “the people.” The play failed; and the +audience took care to discriminate between their +disapprobation of the piece and their admiration for +the actress.</p> + +<h5>117.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="smcap">adame Schrœder Devrient</span> told me that she +sung with most pleasure to herself in the +“Fidelio;” and in this part I have never seen her +equalled.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span></p> + +<p>Fanny Kemble told me the part she had played +with most pleasure to herself, was Camiola, in Massinger’s +“Maid of Honour.” It was an exquisite +impersonation, but the play itself ineffective and +not successful, because of the weak and worthless +character of the hero.</p> + +<h5>118.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="smcap">rs. Charles Kean</span> told me that she had played +with great ease and pleasure to herself, the part +of Ginevra, in Leigh Hunt’s “Legend of Florence.” +She <i>made</i> the part (as it is technically termed), and +it was a very complete and beautiful impersonation.</p> + +<p class="tb">These answers appear to me psychologically, as +well as artistically, interesting, and worth preserving.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-013-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="185" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>119.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="smcap">rs. Siddons</span>, when looking over the statues in +Lord Lansdowne’s gallery, told him that one +mode of expressing intensity of feeling was suggested<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span> +to her by the position of some of the Egyptian statues +with the arms close down at the sides and the hands +clenched. This is curious, for the attitude in the +Egyptian gods is intended to express repose. As the +expression of intense passion self-controlled, it might +be appropriate to some characters and not to others. +Rachel, as I recollect, uses it in the Phêdre:—Madame +Rettich uses it in the Medea. It would not +be characteristic in Constance.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-060-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="151" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>120.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span><span class="smcap">n</span> a certain occasion when Fanny Kemble was +reading Cymbeline, a lady next to me remarked +that Imogen ought not to utter the words “Senseless +linen!—happier therein than I!” aloud, and to +Pisanio,—that it detracted from the strength of the +feeling, and that they should have been uttered aside, +and in a low, intense whisper. “Iachimo,” she +added, “might easily have won a woman who could +have laid her heart so bare to a mere attendant!”</p> + +<p>On my repeating this criticism to Fanny Kemble, +she replied just as I had anticipated: “Such criticism<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span> +is the mere expression of the natural emotions or +character of the critic. <i>She</i> would have spoken the +words in a whisper; <i>I</i> should have made the exclamation +aloud. If there had been a thousand people by, +I should not have cared for them—I should not have +been conscious of their presence. I should have +exclaimed before them all, ‘Senseless linen!—happier +therein than I!’”</p> + +<p>And thus the artist fell into the same mistake of +which she accused her critic—she made Imogen utter +the words aloud, because <i>she</i> would have done so herself. +This sort of subjective criticism in both was +quite feminine; but the question was not how either +A. B. or F. K. would have spoken the words, but +what would have been most natural in such a woman +as Imogen?</p> + +<p>And most undoubtedly the first criticism was as +exquisitely true and just as it was delicate. Such a +woman as Imogen would <i>not</i> have uttered those words +aloud. She would have uttered them in a whisper, +and turning her face from her attendant. With such +a woman, the more intense the passion, the more +conscious and the more veiled the expression.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-022-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="105" width="400" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span></p> + +<h5>121.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">read</span> in the life of Garrick that, “about 1741, a +taste for Shakespeare had lately been revived by +the encouragement of some distinguished persons of +taste of both sexes; but more especially by the +ladies who formed themselves into a society, called +the ‘Shakespeare Club.’” There exists a Shakespeare +Society at this present time, but I do not +know that any ladies are members of it, or allowed +to be so.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-007.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="265" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>122.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> “Maria Maddalena” of Friedrich Hebbel is a +domestic tragedy. It represents the position of a +young girl in the lower class of society—a character +of quiet goodness and feeling, in a position the most +usual, circumstances the most common-place. The +representation is from the life, and set forth with a +truth which in its naked simplicity, almost hardness, +becomes most tragic and terrible. Around this girl,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span> +portrayed with consummate delicacy, is a group of +men. First her father, an honest artisan, coarse, +harsh, despotic. Then a light-minded, good-natured, +dissipated brother, and two suitors. All these love +her according to their masculine individuality. To +the men of her own family she is as a part of the +furniture—something they are accustomed to see—necessary +to the daily well-being of the house, without +whom the fire would not be on the hearth, nor +the soup on the table; and they are proud of her +charms and good qualities as belonging to them. By +her lovers she is loved as an object they desire to +possess—and dispute with each other. But no one +of all these thinks of <i>her</i>—of what she thinks, feels, +desires, suffers, is, or may be. Nor does she seem to +think of it herself, until the storm falls upon her, +enwraps her, overwhelms her. Then she stands in +the midst of the beings around her, and who are one +and all in a kind of external relation to her, completely +alone. In her grief, in her misery, in her +amazement, her perplexity, her terror, there is no one +to take thought for her, no one to help, no one to +sympathise. Each is self-occupied, self-satisfied. +And so she sinks down and perishes, and they stand +wondering at what they had not the sense to see, +wringing their hands over the irremediable. It is +the Lucy Ashton of vulgar life.</p> + +<p>The manners and characters of this play are essen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span>tially +German; but the <i>stuff</i>—the material of the +piece—the relative position of the personages, might +be true of any place in this christian, civilised +Europe. The whole is wonderfully, painfully +natural, and strikes home to the heart, like Hood’s +“Bridge of Sighs.” It was a surprise to me that +such a piece should have been acted, and with applause, +at the Court Theatre at Vienna; but I believe +it has not been given since 1849.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-026.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="188" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>123.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">ere</span> is a very good analysis of the artistic nature: +“Il ressent une véritable émotion, mais il +s’arrange pour la montrer. Il fait un peu ce que +faisait cet acteur de l’antiquité qui, venant de perdre +son fils unique et jouant quelque temps après le rôle +d’Electre embrassant l’urne d’Oreste, prit entre ses +mains l’urne qui contenait les cendres de son enfant, +et joua sa propre douleur, dit Aulus Gellius, au lieu +de jouer celle de son rôle. Ce melange de l’émotion +naturelle et de l’émotion théatrale est plus fréquent +qu’on ne croit, surtout à certaines époques quand le +raffinement de l’Education fait que l’homme ne sent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span> +pas seulement ses émotions, mais qu’il sent aussi +l’effet qu’elles peuvent produire. Beaucoup de gens +alors, sont naturellement comédiens; c’est à dire qu’ils +donnent un rôle à leurs passions: ils sentent en dehors +au lieu de sentir en dedans; leurs émotions sont +<i>en relief</i> au lieu d’être <i>en profondeur</i>.”—<i>St. Marc +Girardin.</i></p> + +<p>I think Margaret Fuller must have had the above +passage in her mind when she worked out this happy +illustration into a more finished form. She says:—“The +difference between the artistic nature and the +unartistic nature in the hour of emotion, is this: in +the first the feeling is a cameo, in the last an intaglio. +Raised in relief and shaped <i>out</i> of the heart in the +first; cut <i>into</i> the heart, and hardly perceptible till +you take the impression, in the last.”</p> + +<p>And to complete this fanciful and beautiful analogy, +we might add, that because the artistic nature +is demonstrative, it is sometimes thought insincere; +and insincere it <i>is</i> where the form is hollow in +proportion as it is cast outward, as in the casts +and electrotype copies of the solid sculpture. And +because the unartistic nature is undemonstrative, +it is sometimes thought cold, unreal; for of this also +there are imitations; and in passing the touch over +certain intaglios, we feel by contact that they are +not so deep as we supposed.</p> + +<p>God defend us from both! from the hollowness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span> +that imitates solidity, and the shallowness that +imitates depth!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-055.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="210" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>124.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">G</span><span class="smcap">oethe</span> said of some woman, “She knew something +of devotion and love, but of the pure +admiration for a glorious piece of man’s handiwork—of +a mere sympathetic veneration for the creation of +the human intellect—she could form no idea.”</p> + +<p>This may have been true of the individual woman +referred to; but that female critics look for something +in a production of art beyond the mere handiwork, +and that “our sympathetic veneration for a creation +of human intellect,” is often dependent on our moral +associations, is not a reproach to us. Nor, if I may +presume to say so, does it lessen the value of our +criticism, where it can be referred to principles. +Women have a sort of unconscious logic in these +matters.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span></p> + +<h5>125.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> fiction,” says Sir James Mackintosh, +“represents a degree of ideal excellence +superior to any virtue which is observed in real life, +the effect is perfectly analogous to that of a model of +ideal beauty in the fine arts.”</p> + +<p>That is to say—As the Apollo exalts our idea of +possible beauty, in form, so the moral ideal of man +or woman exalts our idea of possible virtue, provided +it be <i>consistent</i> as a whole. If we gave the Apollo a +god-like head and face and left a part of his frame +below perfection, the elevating effect of the whole +would be immediately destroyed, though the figure +might be more according to the standard of actual +nature.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-008.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="99" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>126.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> Dante, as in Shakespeare, every man selects +by instinct that which assimilates with the +course of his own previous occupations and interests.” +(<i>Merivale.</i>) True, not of Dante and Shakespeare +only, but of all books worth reading; and not merely +of books and authors, but of all productions of mind +in whatever form which speak to mind; all works of +art, from which we <i>imbibe</i>, as it were, what is sympathetic +with our individuality. The more universal the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span> +sympathies of the writer or the artist, the more of +such individualities will be included in his domain of +power.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-059-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="89" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>127.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> distinction so cleverly and beautifully drawn +by the Germans (by Lessing first I believe) +between “Bildende” and “Redende Kunst” is not +to be rendered into English without a lengthy paraphrase. +It places in immediate contradistinction the +art which is evolved in <i>words</i>, and the art which is +evolved in <i>forms</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-028-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="208" width="400" /></div> + +<h5>128.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">V</span><span class="smcap">enus</span>, or rather the Greek Aphrodite, in the sublime +fragment of Eschylus (the Danaïdes) is a +grand, severe, and pure conception; the principle +eternal of beauty, of love, and of fecundity—or the +law of the continuation of being through beauty and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span> +through love. Such a conception is no more like the +Ovidean Roman Venus than the Venus of Milo is +like the Venus de Medicis.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-012-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="125" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>129.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> the Greek tragedy, love figures as one of the +laws of nature—not as a power, or a passion; +these are the aspects given to it by the Christian +imagination.</p> + +<p>Yet this higher idea of love <i>did</i> exist among the +ancients—only we must not seek it in their poetry, +but in their philosophy. Thus we find it in Plato, +set forth as a beautiful philosophical theory; not as +a passion, to influence life, nor as a poetic feeling, to +adorn and exalt it. Nor do we moderns owe this idea +of a mystic, elevated, and elevating love to the Greek +philosophy. I rather agree with those who trace it +to the mingling of Christianity with the manners of +the old Germans, and their (almost) superstitious +reverence for womanhood. In the Middle Ages, +where morals were most depraved, and women most +helpless and oppressed, there still survived the theory +formed out of the combination of the Christian spirit, +and the Germanic customs; and when in the 15th<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span> +century Plato became the fashion, then the theory +became a science, and what had been religion became +again philosophy. This sort of speculative love became +to real love what theology became to religion; +it was a thesis to be talked about and argued in universities, +sung in sonnets, set forth in art; and so +being kept as far as possible from all bearings on +our moral life, it ceased to find consideration either +as a primæval law of God, or as a moral motive +influencing the duties and habits of our existence; +and thus we find the social code in regard to it +diverging into all the vagaries of celibacy on one +hand, and all the vilenesses of profligacy on the +other.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-012-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="228" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>130.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">ilkie’s</span> “Life and Letters” have not helped me +much. His opinions and criticisms on his own +art are sensible, not suggestive. I find, however, one +or two passages strongly illustrative of the value of +<i>truth</i> as a principle in art, and the sort of <i>vitality</i> it +gives to scenery and objects.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span></p> + +<p>He writes, when travelling in Holland, to his +friend, Sir George Beaumont;—</p> + +<p>“One of the first circumstances that struck me +wherever I went was what you had prepared me for; +the resemblance that everything bore to the Dutch +and Flemish pictures. On leaving Ostend, not only +the people, houses, trees, but whole tracks of country +reminded me of Teniers, and on getting further +into the country this was only relieved by the pictures +of Rubens and Wouvermans, or some other masters +taking his place.</p> + +<p>“I thought I could trace the particular districts in +Holland where Ostade, Cuyp, and Rembrandt had +studied, and could almost fancy the spot where the +pictures of other masters had been painted. Indeed +nothing seemed new to me in the whole country; and +what one could not help wondering at, was, that +these old masters should have been able to draw the +materials of so beautiful a variety of art, from so +contracted and monotonous a theme.”</p> + +<p>Their variety arose out of their truthfulness. I +had the same feeling when travelling in Holland and +Belgium. It was to me a perpetual succession of +reminiscences, and so it has been with others. +Rubens and Rembrandt (as landscape painters)—Cuyp, +Hobbima, were continually in my mind; +occasionally the yet more poetical Ruysdaal; but +who ever thinks of Wouvermans, or Bergham, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span> +Karel du Jardin, as national or natural painters? +their scenery is all <i>got up</i> like the scenery in a ballet, +and I can conceive nothing more tiresome than a +room full of their pictures, elegant as they are.</p> + +<h5>131.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap">gain</span>, writing from Jerusalem, Wilkie says, +“Nothing here requires revolution in our +opinions of the finest works of art: with all their +discrepancies of detail, they are yet constantly recalled +by what is here before us. The background +of the Heliodorus of Raphael is a Syrian building; +the figures in the Lazarus of Sebastian del Piombo +are a Syrian people; and the indescribable tone of +Rembrandt is brought to mind at every turn, whether +in the street, the Synagogue, or the Sepulchre.” +And again: “The painter we are always referring +to, as one who has most truly given the eastern +people, is Rembrandt.”</p> + +<p>He partly contradicts this afterwards, but says, +that Venetian art reminds him of Syria. Now, the +Venetians were in constant communication with the +East; all their art has a tinge of orientalism. As to +Rembrandt, he must have been in familiar intercourse +with the Jew merchants and Jewish families +settled in the Dutch commercial towns; he painted +them frequently as portraits, and they perpetually +appear in his compositions.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span></p> + +<h5>132.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="smcap">n</span> the following passage Wilkie seems unconsciously +to have anticipated the invention (or +rather the <i>discovery</i>) of the Daguerreotype, and some +of its results. He says:—“If by an operation of +mechanism, animated nature could be copied with +the accuracy of a cast in plaster, a tracing on a wall, +or a reflection in a glass, without modification, and +without the proprieties and graces of art, all that +utility could desire would be perfectly attained, but +it would be at the expense of almost every quality +which renders art delightful.”</p> + +<p>One reason why the Daguerreotype portraits are +in general so unsatisfactory may perhaps be traced to +a natural law, though I have not heard it suggested. +It is this: every object that we behold we see not +with the eye only, but with the soul; and this is +especially true of the human countenance, which in +so far as it is the expression of mind we see through +the medium of our own individual mind. Thus a +portrait is satisfactory in so far as the painter has +sympathy with his subject, and delightful to us in +proportion as the resemblance reflected through <i>his</i> +sympathies is in accordance with <i>our own</i>. Now in the +Daguerreotype there is no such medium, and the face +comes before us without passing through the human +mind and brain to our apprehension. This may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span> +the reason why a Daguerreotype, however beautiful +and accurate, is seldom satisfactory or agreeable, and +that while we acknowledge its truth as to fact, it +always leaves something for the sympathies to desire.</p> + +<h5>133.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span>e says, “One thing alone seems common in all +the stages of early art; the desire of making +all other excellences tributary to the expression of +thought and sentiment.”</p> + +<p>The early painters had <i>no other</i> excellences except +those of thought and expression; therefore could +not sacrifice what they did not possess. They drew +incorrectly, coloured ineffectively, and were ignorant +of perspective.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-146.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="300" width="500" /></div> + +<h5>134.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">hen</span> at Dusseldorf, I found the President of the +Academy, Wilhelm Schadow, employed on a +church picture in three compartments; Paradise in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span> +the centre; on the right side, Purgatory; on the left +side, Hell. He explained to me that he had not +attempted to paint the interior of Paradise as the +sojourn of the blessed, because he could imagine no +kind of occupation or delight which, prolonged to +eternity, would not be wearisome. He had therefore +represented the exterior of Paradise, where +Christ, standing on the threshold with outstretched +arms, receives and welcomes those who enter. (This +was better and in finer taste than the more common +allegory of St. Peter and his keys.) On one side of +the door, the Virgin Mary and a group of guardian +angels encourage those who approach. Among these +we distinguish a martyr who has died for the truth, +and a warrior who has fought for it. A care-worn, +penitent mother is presented by her innocent daughter. +Those who were “in the world and the world +knew them not,” are here acknowledged—and eyes +dim with weeping, and heads bowed with shame, are +here uplifted, and bright with the rapturous gleam +which shone through the portals of Paradise.</p> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> idea of Purgatory, he told me, was suggested +by a vision or dream related by St. Catherine of +Genoa, in which she beheld a great number of men +and women shut up in a dark cavern; angels descending +from heaven, liberate them from time to +time, and they are borne away one after another +from darkness, pain, and penance, into life and light—again +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span> +to behold the face of their Maker—reconciled +and healed. In his picture, Schadow has represented +two angels bearing away a liberated soul. +Below in the fore-ground groups of sinners are waiting, +sadly, humbly, but not unhopefully, the term of +their bitter penance. Among these he had placed a +group of artists and poets who, led away by temptation, +had abused their glorious gifts to wicked or +worldly purposes;—Titian, Ariosto, and, rather to +my surprise, the beautiful, lamenting spirit of Byron. +Then, what was curious enough, as types of ambition, +Lady Macbeth and her husband, who, it seems, were +to be ultimately saved, I do not know why—unless +for the love of Shakespeare.</p> + +<p>Hell, like all the hells I ever saw, was a failure. +There was the usual amount of fire and flames, +dragons and serpents, ghastly, despairing spirits, but +nothing of original or powerful conception. When +I looked in Schadow’s face, so beautiful with benevolence, +I wondered <i>how</i> he could—but in truth he +could <i>not</i>—realise to himself the idea of a hell; all +the materials he had used were borrowed and common-place.</p> + +<p>But among his cartoons for pictures already +painted, there was one charming idea of quite a +different kind. It was for an altar, and he called it +“<span class="smcap">The Fountain of Life</span>.” Above, the sacrificed +Redeemer lies extended in his mother’s arms. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span> +pure abundant Waters of Salvation, gushing from +the rock beneath their feet, are received into a great +cistern. Saints, martyrs, teachers of the truth, are +standing round, drinking or filling their vases, which +they present to each other. From the cistern flows +a stream, at which a family of poor peasants are +drinking with humble, joyful looks; and as the +stream divides and flows away through flowery meadows, +little sportive children stoop to drink of it, +scooping up the water in their tiny hands, or sipping +it with their rosy smiling lips. A beautiful and +significant allegory beautifully expressed, and as +intelligible to the people as any in the “Pilgrim’s +Progress.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-045.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="136" width="250" /></div> + +<h5>135.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="smcap">aydon</span> discussed “High Art” as if it depended +solely on the knowledge and the appreciation +of <i>form</i>. In this lay his great mistake. Form is but +the vehicle of the highest art.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-059-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="89" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>136.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="smcap">outhey</span> says that the Franciscan Order “excluded +all art, all science;—no pictures might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span> +profane their churches.” This is a most extraordinary +instance of ignorance in a man of Southey’s universal +learning. Did he forget Friar Bacon? had +he not heard of that museum of divine pictures, the +Franciscan church and convent at Assisi? And +that some of the greatest mathematicians, architects, +mosaic workers, carvers, and painters, of the 13th +and 14th centuries were Franciscan friars?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<h5>137.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="smcap">ordsworth’s</span> remark on Sir Joshua Reynolds +as a painter, that “he lived too much for the +age and the people among whom he lived,” is hardly +just; as a portrait-painter he could not well do +otherwise; his profession was to represent the people +among whom he lived. An artist who takes the +higher, the creative and imaginative walks of art, and +who thinks he can, at the same time, live for and +with the age, and for the passing and clashing interests +of the world, and the frivolities of society, +does so at a great risk: there must be perilous discord +between the inner and the outer life—such +discord as wears and irritates the whole physical and +moral being. Where the original material of the +character is not strong, the artistic genius will be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span> +gradually enfeebled and conventionalised, through +flattery, through sympathy, through misuse. If the +material be strong, the result may perhaps be worse; +the genius may be demoralised and the mind lose its +balance. I have seen in my time instances of both.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-018.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="184" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>138.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“T</span><span class="smcap">he</span> man,” says Coleridge, “who reads a work +meant for immediate effect on one age, with +the notions and feelings of another, may be a refined +gentleman but a very sorry critic.”</p> + +<p>This is especially true with regard to art: but +Coleridge should have put in the word, <i>only</i>, (“only +the notions and feelings of another age,”) for a very +great pleasure lies in the power of throwing ourselves +into the sentiments and notions of one age, +while feeling <i>with</i> them, and reflecting <i>upon</i> them, +with the riper critical experience which belongs to +another age.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span></p> + +<h5>139.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <i>good</i> taste in art feels the presence or the +absence of merit; a <i>just</i> taste discriminates the +degree,—the <i>poco-più</i> and the <i>poco-meno</i>. A <i>good</i> +taste rejects faults; a <i>just</i> taste selects excellences. +A <i>good</i> taste is often unconscious; a <i>just</i> taste is +always conscious. A <i>good</i> taste may be lowered or +spoilt; a <i>just</i> taste can only go on refining more and +more.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-079.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="134" width="300" /></div> + +<h5>140.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="smcap">rtists</span> are interesting to me as men. Their work, +as the product of mind, should lead us to a +knowledge of their own being; else, as I have often +said and written, our admiration of art is a species of +atheism. To forget the soul in its highest manifestation +is like forgetting God in his creation.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-039-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="81" width="350" /></div> + +<h5>141.</h5> + +<p><span class="dropcap">“L</span><span class="smcap">es</span> images peints du corps humain, dans les figures +où domine par trop le savoir anatomique, en +révèlant trop clairement à l’homme les secrets de sa<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span> +structure, lui en découvrent aussi par trop ce qu’on +pourrait appeler le point de vue <i>matériel</i>, ou, si l’on +veut, <i>animal</i>.”</p> + +<p>This is the fault of Michal-Angelo; yet I have +sometimes thought that his very materialism, so +grand, and so peculiar in character, may have arisen +out of his profound religious feeling, his stern +morality, his lofty conceptions of our <i>mortal</i>, as well +as <i>immortal</i> destinies. He appears to have beheld +the human form only in a pure and sublime point of +view; not as the animal man, but as the habitation, +fearfully and wondrously constructed, for the spirit +of man,—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">“The outward shape,</span> +<span class="i0">And unpolluted temple of the mind.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>This is the reason that Michal-Angelo’s materialism +affects us so differently from that of Rubens. In +the first, the predominance of form attains almost a +moral sublimity. In the latter, the predominance of +flesh and blood is debased into physical grossness. +Michal-Angelo believed in the resurrection of <span class="smcap">THE +BODY</span>, emphatically; and in his Last Judgment the +dead rise like Titans, strong to contend and mighty +to suffer. It is the apotheosis of form. In Ruben’s +picture of the same subject (at Munich) the bodily +presence of resuscitated life is revolting, reminding +us of the text of St. Paul—“Flesh and blood shall +<i>not</i> inherit the kingdom of God.” Both pictures are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span> +<i>æsthetically</i> false, but <i>artistically</i> miracles, and should +thus be considered and appreciated.</p> + +<p>I have never looked on those awful figures in the +Medici Chapel without thinking what stupendous +intellects must inhabit such stupendous forms—terrible +in their quietude; but they are supernatural, +rather than divine.</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Heidnische Ruhe und Christliche Milde, sie bleiben Dir fremde;</span> +<span class="i0">Alt-testamentisch bist Du, Zürnender, wie ist Dein Gott!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>John Edward Taylor, in his profound and beautiful +essay “<span class="smcap">Michael-Angelo, a Poet</span>,” says +truly that “Dante worshipped the philosophy of +religion, and Michael-Angelo adored the philosophy +of art.” The religion of the one and the art of the +other were evolved in a strange combination of mysticism, +materialism, and moral grandeur. The two +men were congenial in character and in genius.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-iv.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="264" width="500" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-326.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="380" width="500" /></div> + +<h4>A FRAGMENT ON SCULPTURE.</h4> + +<h5>AND ON CERTAIN CHARACTERS IN HISTORY AND POETRY CONSIDERED +AS SUBJECTS OF MODERN ART.</h5> + +<h5>1848.</h5> + +<p>I Should begin by admitting the position laid down +by Frederick Schlegel, that art and nature are not +identical. “Men,” he says, “traduce nature, who +falsely give her the epithet of artistic;” for though +nature comprehends all art, art cannot comprehend +all nature. Nature, in her sources of pleasures and +contemplation is infinite; and art, as her reflection +in human works, finite. Nature is boundless in her +powers, exhaustless in her variety; the powers of +art and its capabilities of variety in production are +bounded on every side. Nature herself, the infinite,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span> +has circumscribed the bounds of finite art; the one +is the divinity; the other, the priestess. And if +poetic art in the <i>interpreting</i> of nature share in her +infinitude, yet in <i>representing</i> nature through material, +form, and colour, she is,—oh, how limited!</p> + +<p class="tb">If each of the forms of poetic art has its law of +limitation as determined as the musical scale, narrowest +of all are the limitations of sculpture, to +which, notwithstanding, we give the highest place; +and it is in regard to sculpture, we find most frequently +those mistakes which arise from a want of +knowledge of the true principles of art.</p> + +<p>Admitting, then, as necessary and immutable, the +limitations of the art of sculpture as to the management +of the material in giving form and expression; +its primal laws of repose and simplicity; its rejection +of the complex and conventional; its bounded capabilities +as to choice of subject; must we also admit, +with some of the most celebrated critics of art, that +there is but one style of sculpture, the Greek? And +that every deviation from pure Greek art must be +regarded as a depravation and perversion of the +powers and subjects of sculpture? I do not see that +this follows.</p> + +<p class="tb">It is absolute that Greek art reached long ago the +term of its development. In so far as regards the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span> +principles of beauty and execution, it can go no farther. +We may stand and look at the relics of the +Parthenon in awe and in despair; we can do neither +more, nor better. But we have not done with Greek +sculpture. What in it is purely <i>ideal</i>, is eternal; +what is conventional, is in accordance with the primal +conditions of all imitative art. Therefore though +it may have reached the point at which development +stops, and though its capability of adaptation +be limited by necessary laws; still its all-beautiful, +its immortal imagery is ever near us and around +us; still “doth the old feeling bring back the +old names,” and with the old names, the forms; still, +in those old familiar forms we continue to clothe all +that is loveliest in visible nature; still, in all our +associations with Greek art—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“’Tis Jupiter who brings whate’er is great,</span> +<span class="i0">And Venus who brings every thing that’s fair.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>That the supreme beauty of Greek art—that the +majestic significance of the classical myths—will ever +be to the educated mind and eye as things indifferent +and worn out, I cannot believe.</p> + +<p class="tb">But on the other hand it may well be doubted +whether the impersonation of the Greek allegories +in the purest forms of Greek art will ever give +intense pleasure to the people, or ever speak home<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span> +to the hearts of the men and women of these times. +And this not from the want of an innate taste and +capacity in the minds of the masses—not because +ignorance has “frozen the genial current in their +souls”—not merely through a vulgar preference for +mechanical imitation of common and familiar forms; +but from other causes not transient—not accidental. +A classical education is not now, as heretofore, the +<i>only</i> education given; and through an honest and +intense sympathy with the life of their own experience, +and through a dislike to vicious associations, +though clothed in classical language and classical +forms, <i>thence</i> is it that the people have turned with +a sense of relief from gods and goddesses, Ledas and +Antiopes, to shepherds and shepherdesses, groups of +Charity, and young ladies in the character of Innocence,—harmless, +picturesque inanities, bearing the +same relation to classical sculpture that Watts’s +hymns bear to Homer and Sophocles.</p> + +<p class="tb">Classical attainments of any kind are rare in our +English sculptors; therefore it is, that we find them +often quite familiar with the conventional treatment +and outward forms of the usual subjects of Greek +art, without much knowledge of the original poetical +conception, its derivation, or its significance; and +equally without any real appreciation of the idea of +which the form is but the vehicle. Hence they do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span> +not seem to be aware how far this original conception +is capable of being varied, modified, <i>animated</i> +as it were, with an infusion of fresh life, without +deviating from its essential truth, or transgressing +those narrow limits, within which all sculpture must +be bounded in respect to action and attitude. To +express <i>character</i> within these limits is the grand +difficulty. We must remember that too much value +given to the head as the seat of mind, too much +expression given to the features as the exponents +of character, must diminish the importance of those +parts of the form on which sculpture mainly depends +for its effect on the imagination. To convey the +idea of a complete individuality in a single figure, +and under these restrictions, is the problem to be +solved by the sculptor who aims at originality, yet +feels his aspirations restrained by a fine taste and circumscribed +by certain inevitable associations.</p> + +<p class="tb">It is therefore a question open to argument and +involving considerations of infinite delicacy and +moment, in morals and in art, whether the old +Greek legends, endued as they are with an imperishable +vitality derived from their abstract youth, may +not be susceptible of a treatment in modern art analogous +to that which they have received in modern +poetry, where the significant myth, or the ideal +character, without losing its classic grace, has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span> +animated with a purer sentiment, and developed into +a higher expressiveness. Wordsworth’s Dion and +Laodomia; Shelley’s version of the Hymn to Mercury; +Goethe’s Iphigenia; Lord Byron’s Prometheus; +Keats’s Hyperion; Barry Cornwall’s Proserpina; +are instances of what I mean in poetry. To +do the same thing in art, requires that our sculptors +should stand in the same relation to Phidias and +Praxiteles, that our greatest poets bear to Homer or +Euripides; that they should be themselves poets +and interpreters, not mere translators and imitators.</p> + +<p>Further, we all know, that there is often a necessity +for conveying abstract ideas in the forms of art. +We have then recourse to allegory; yet allegorical +statues are generally cold and conventional and +addressed to the intellect merely. Now there are +occasions, in which an abstract quality or thought is +far more impressively and intelligibly conveyed by +an <i>impersonation</i> than by a <i>personification</i>. I mean, +that Aristides might express the idea of justice; +Penelope, that of conjugal faith; Jonathan and +David (or Pylades and Orestes), friendship; Rizpah, +devotion to the memory of the dead; Iphigenia, +the voluntary sacrifice for a good cause; and so of +many others; and such figures would have this advantage, +that with the significance of a symbol they +would combine all the powers of a sympathetic +reality.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-073-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="226" width="400" /></div> + +<h4>HELEN.</h4> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="smcap">have</span> never seen any statue of Helen, ancient or +modern. Treated in the right spirit, I can hardly +conceive a diviner subject for a sculptor. It would +be a great mistake to represent the Greek Helen +merely as a beautiful and alluring woman. This, at +least, is not the Homeric conception of the character, +which has a wonderful and fascinating individuality, +requiring the utmost delicacy and poetic feeling to +comprehend, and rare artistic skill to realise. The +oft-told story of the Grecian painter, who, to create +a Helen, assembled some twenty of the fairest models +he could find, and took from each a limb or a feature, +in order to compose from their separate beauties an +ideal of perfection,—this story, if it were true, would +only prove that even Zeuxis could make a great mistake. +Such a combination of heterogeneous elements +would be psychologically and artistically false, and +would never give us a Helen.</p> + +<p>She has become the ideal type of a fatal, faithless, +dissolute woman; but according to the Greek myth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span> +she is <i>predestined</i>,—at once the instrument and the +victim of that fiat of the gods which had long before +decreed the destruction of Troy, and <i>her</i> to be the +cause. She must not only be supremely beautiful,—“a +daughter of the gods, divinely tall, and most +divinely fair!”—but as the offspring of Zeus (the +title by which she is so often designated in the Iliad), +as the sister of the great twin demi-gods Castor and +Pollux, she should have the heroic lineaments proper +to her Olympian descent, touched with a pensive +shade; for she laments the calamities which her fatal +charms have brought on all who have loved her, all +whom she has loved:—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Ah! had I died ere to these shores I fled,</span> +<span class="i0">False to my country and my nuptial bed!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>She shrinks from the reproachful glances of those +whom she has injured; and yet, as it is finely intimated, +wherever she appears her resistless loveliness +vanquishes every heart, and changes curses into +blessings. Priam treats her with paternal tenderness; +Hector with a sort of chivalrous respect.</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“If some proud brother eyed me with disdain,</span> +<span class="i0">Or scornful sister with her sweeping train,</span> +<span class="i0">Thy gentle accents softened all my pain;</span> +<span class="i0">Nor was it e’er my fate from thee to find</span> +<span class="i0">A deed ungentle or a word unkind.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>Helen, standing on the walls of Troy, and looking +sadly over the battle plain, where the heroes of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span> +forfeited country, her kindred and her friends, are +assembled to fight and bleed for her sake, brings +before us an image full of melancholy sweetness as +well as of consummate beauty. Another passage in +which she upbraids Venus as the cause of her fault—not +as a mortal might humbly expostulate with +an immortal, but almost on terms of equality, and +even with bitterness,—is yet more characteristic. +“For what,” she asks, tauntingly, “am I reserved? +To what new countries am I destined to carry war +and desolation? For what new lover must I break +a second vow? Let me go hence! and if Paris +lament my absence, let Venus console him, and for +his sake ascend the skies no more!” A regretful +pathos should mingle with her conscious beauty and +her half-celestial dignity; and, to render her truly, +her Greek elegance should be combined with a deeper +and more complex sentiment than Greek art has +usually sought to express.</p> + +<p>I am speaking here of Homer’s Helen—the +Helen of the Iliad, not the Helen of the tragedians—not +the Helen who for two thousand years has +merely served “to point a moral;” and an artist +who should think to realise the true Homeric conception, +should beware of counterfeits, for such are +abroad.<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">2</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span></p> +<p>There is a wild Greek myth that it was not the +real Helen, but the phantom of Helen, who fled with +Paris, and who caused the destruction of Troy; +while Helen herself was leading, like Penelope, a +pattern life at Memphis. I must confess I prefer +the proud humility, the pathetic elegance of Homer’s +Helen, to such jugglery.</p> + +<p>It may flatter the pride of virtue, or it may move +our religious sympathies, to look on the forlorn +abasement of the Magdalene as the emblem of penitence; +but there are associations connected with +Helen—“sad Helen,” as she calls herself, and as I +conceive the character,—which have a deep tragic +significance; and surely there are localities for which +the impersonation of classical art would be better +fitted than that of sacred art.</p> + +<p>I do not know of any existing statue of Helen. +Nicetas mentions among the relics of ancient art +destroyed when Constantinople was sacked by the +Latins in 1202, a bronze statue of Helen, with long +hair flowing to the waist; and there is mention of +an Etruscan figure of her, with wings (expressive of +her celestial origin, for the Etruscans gave all their +gods and demi-gods wings): in Müller I find these +two only. There are likewise busts; and the story +of Helen, and the various events of her life, occur +perpetually on the antique gems, bas-reliefs, and +painted vases. The most frequent subject is her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span> +abduction by Paris. A beautiful subject for a bas-relief, +and one I believe not yet treated, would be +Helen and Priam mourning over the lifeless form of +Hector; yet the difficulty of preserving the simple +sculptural treatment, and at the same time discriminating +between this and other similar funereal groups, +would render it perhaps a better subject for a picture, +as admitting then of such scenery and accessories as +would at once determine the signification.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-028-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="208" width="400" /></div> + +<h4> +PENELOPE. ALCESTIS. LAODAMIA. +</h4> + +<p>Statues of Penelope and Helen might stand in +beautiful and expressive contrast; but it is a contrast +which no profane or prosaic hand should attempt to +realise. Penelope is all woman in her tenderness +and her truth; Helen, half a goddess in the midst of +error and remorse.</p> + +<p>Nor is Penelope the only character which might +stand as a type of conjugal fidelity in contrasted +companionship with Helen: Alcestis, who died for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span> +her husband; or, better still, Laodamia, whose intense +love and longing recalled hers from the shades +below, are susceptible of the most beautiful statuesque +treatment; only we must bear in mind that +the leading <i>motif</i> in the Alcestis is <i>duty</i>, in the +Laodamia, <i>love</i>.</p> + +<p>I remember a bas-relief in the Vatican, which +represents Hermes restoring Protesilaus to his mourning +wife. The interview was granted for three hours +only; and when the hero was taken from her a second +time, she died on the threshhold of her palace. This +is a frequent and appropriate subject for sarcophagi +and funereal vases. But there exists, I believe, no +single statue commemorative of the wife’s passionate +devotion.</p> + +<p>The modern sculptor should penetrate his fancy +with the sentiment of Wordsworth’s Laodamia.</p> + +<p class="tb">While the pen is in my hand I may remark that +two of the stanzas in the Laodamia have been +altered, and, as it seems to me, not improved, since +the first edition. Originally the poem opened thus:</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“With sacrifice, before the rising morn</span> +<span class="i0">Perform’d, my slaughter’d lord have I required;</span> +<span class="i0">And in thick darkness, amid shades forlorn,</span> +<span class="i0">Him of the infernal Gods have I desired:</span> +<span class="i0">Celestial pity I again implore;</span> +<span class="i0">Restore him to my sight—great Jove, restore!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span></p> + +<p>Altered thus, and comparatively flat:—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“With sacrifice before the rising morn</span> +<span class="i0">Vows have I made, by fruitless hope inspired;</span> +<span class="i0">And from the infernal Gods, mid shades forlorn</span> +<span class="i0">Of night, my slaughtered lord have I required:</span> +<span class="i0">Celestial pity I again implore;</span> +<span class="i0">Restore him to my sight—great Jove, restore!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>In the early edition the last stanza but one stood +thus:—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Ah! judge her gently who so deeply loved!</span> +<span class="i0">Her who, in reason’s spite, yet without crime,</span> +<span class="i0">Was in a trance of passion thus removed;</span> +<span class="i0">Delivered from the galling yoke of time,</span> +<span class="i0">And these frail elements,—to gather flowers</span> +<span class="i0">Of blissful quiet ’mid unfading bowers!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>In the later editions thus altered, and, to my taste, +spoiled:—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“By no weak pity might the Gods be moved;</span> +<span class="i0">She who thus perish’d not without the crime</span> +<span class="i0">Of lovers that in Reason’s spite have loved,</span> +<span class="i0">Was doomed to wander in a grosser clime</span> +<span class="i0">Apart from happy ghosts, that gather flowers</span> +<span class="i0">Of blissful quiet ’mid unfading bowers.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>Altered, probably, because Virgil has introduced +the shade of Laodamia among the criminal and unhappy +lovers,—an instance of extraordinary bad taste +in the Roman poet; whatever may have been her +faults, she surely deserved to be placed in better +company than Phædra and Pasiphäe. Wordsworth’s<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span> +intuitive feeling and taste were true in the first +instance, and he might have trusted to them. In +my own copy of Wordsworth I have been careful +to mark the original reading in justice to the +<i>original</i> Laodamia.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-064.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="258" width="400" /></div> + +<h4> +HIPPOLYTUS. NEOPTOLEMUS. +</h4> + +<p>I have never met with a statue, ancient or modern, +of Hippolytus; the finest possible ideal of a Greek +youth, touched with some individual characteristics +which are peculiarly fitted for sculpture. He is a +hunter, not a warrior; a tamer of horses, not a combatant +with spear and shield. He should have the +slight, agile build of a young Apollo, but nothing of +the God’s effeminacy; on the contrary, there should +be an infusion of the severe beauty of his Amazonian +mother, with that sedateness and modesty which +should express the votary and companion of Diana;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span> +while, as the fated victim of Venus, whom he had +contemned, and of his stepmother Phædra, whom he +had repulsed, there should be a kind of melancholy +in his averted features. A hound and implements of +the chase would be the proper accessories, and the +figure should be undraped, or nearly so.</p> + +<p>A sculptor who should be tempted to undertake +this fine, and, as I think, untried subject—at least +as a single figure—must begin by putting Racine +out of his mind, whose “Seigneur Hippolyte” makes +sentimental love to the “Princesse Aricie,” and +must penetrate his fancy with the conception of +Euripides.</p> + +<p class="tb">I find in Schlegel’s “Essais littéraires,” a few lines +which will assist the fancy of the artist, in representing +the person and character of Hippolytus.</p> + +<p>“Quant à l’Hippolyte d’Euripide il a une teinte +si divine que pour le sentir dignement il faut, pour +ainsi dire, être initié dans les mystères de la beauté, +avoir respiré l’air de la Grèce. Rappelez vous ce que +l’antiquité nous a transmis de plus accompli parmi +les images d’une jeunesse héroïque, les Dioscures de +Monte-Cavallo, le Méléagre et l’Apollon du Vatican. +Le caractère d’Hippolyte occupe dans la +poësie à peu près la même place que ces statues +dans la sculpture.” “On peut remarquer dans plusieurs +beautés idéales de l’antique que les anciens +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span> +voulant créer une image perfectionnée de la nature +humaine ont fondu les nuances du caractère d’un +sexe avec celui de l’autre; que Junon, Pallas, Diane, +out une majesté, une sévérité mâle; qu’ Apollon, +Mercure, Bacchus, au contraire, ont quelque chose +de la grace et de la douceur des femmes. De même +nous voyons dans la beauté héroïque et vierge +d’Hippolyte l’image de sa mère l’Amazone et le +reflet de Diane dans un mortel.”</p> + +<p>(The last lines are especially remarkable, and are +an artistic commentary on what I have ventured to +touch upon ethically at page 85.)</p> + +<p class="tb">The story of Hippolytus is to be found in bas-reliefs +and gems; it occurs on a particularly fine +sarcophagus now preserved in the cathedral at +Agrigentum, of which there is a cast in the British +Museum.</p> + +<p class="tb">Under the heroic and classical form, Hippolytus +conveys the same idea of manly chastity and self-control +which in sacred art would be suggested by +the figure of Joseph, the son of Jacob.</p> + +<p class="tb">A noble companion to the Hippolytus would be +Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. He is the young +Greek warrior, strong and bold and brave; a fine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span> +ideal type of generosity and truth. The conception, +as I imagine it, should be taken from the Philoctetes +of Sophocles, where Neoptolemus, indignant at the +craft of Ulysses, discloses the trick of which he had +been made the unwilling instrument, and restores +the fatal, envenomed arrows to Philoctetes. The +celebrated lines in the Iliad spoken by Achilles—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Who dares think one thing and another tell</span> +<span class="i0">My soul detests him as the gates of hell!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>should give the leading characteristic <i>motif</i> in the +figure of his son. There should be something of +remorseful pity in the very youthful features; the +form ought to be heroically treated, that is, undraped, +and he should hold the arrows in his hand.</p> + +<p>Neoptolemus, as the savage avenger of his father’s +death, slaying the grey-haired Priam at the foot of +the altar, and carrying off Andromache, is, of course, +quite a different version of the character. He then +figures as Pyrrhus—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,</span> +<span class="i0">Black as his purpose, did the night resemble.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>The fine moral story of Neoptolemus and Philoctetes +is figured on the Etruscan vases. Of the +young, truth-telling, Greek hero I find no single +statue.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-007.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="265" width="400" /></div> + +<h4>IPHIGENIA.</h4> + +<p>I have often been surprised that we have no statue +of this eminently beautiful subject. We have the +story of Iphigenia constantly repeated in gems and +bas-reliefs; the most celebrated example extant being +the Medici Vase. But no single figure of Iphigenia, +as the Greek ideal of heroic maidenhood and self-devotion, +exists, I believe, in antique sculpture. +The small and rather feebly elegant statuette by +Christian Tieck is the only modern example I have +seen.</p> + +<p>Iphigenia may be represented under two very +different aspects, both beautiful.</p> + +<p>First, as the Iphigenia in Aulis; the victim sacrificed +to obtain a fair wind for the Grecian fleet +detained on its way to Troy. Extreme youth and +grace, with a tender resignation not devoid of +dignity, should be the leading characteristics; for +we must bear in mind that Iphigenia, while regretting +life and the “lamp-bearing day,” and “the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span> +beloved light,” and her Argive home and her +“Mycenian handmaids,” dies willingly, as the Greek +girl ought to die, for the good of her country. +She begins, indeed, with a prayer for pity, with lamentations +for her untimely end, but she resumes +her nobler self; and all her sentiments, when she is +brought forth, crowned for sacrifice, are worthy of the +daughter of Agamemnon. She even exults that she +is called upon to perish for the good of Greece, and +to avenge the cause of right on the Spartan Helen. +“I give,” she exclaims, “my life for Greece! sacrifice +me—and let Troy perish!” When her mother +weeps, she reproves those tears: “It is not well, +O my mother! that I should love life too much. +Think that thou hast brought me forth for the common +good of Greece, not for thyself only!” She +glories in her anticipated renown, not vainly, since, +while the world endures, and far as the influences +of literature and art extend, her story and her +name shall live. The scene in Euripides should be +taken as the basis of the character—the finest +scene in his finest drama. The tradition that Iphigenia +was not really sacrificed, but snatched away +from the altar by Diana, and a hind substituted in +her place, should be present to the fancy of the +artist, when he sets himself to represent the majestic +resignation of the consecrated virgin; as adding a +touch of the marvellous and ideal to the Greek elegance +and simplicity of the conception.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span></p> + +<p>The <i>picture</i> of Iphigenia as drawn by Tennyson +is wonderfully vivid; but it wants the Greek dignity +and statuesque feeling; it is emphatically a +picture, all over colour and light, and crowded with +accessories. He represents her as encountering +Helen in the land of Shadows, and, turning from her +“with sick and scornful looks averse,” for she remembers +the tragedy at Aulis.</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“My youth (she said) was blasted with a curse:</span> +<span class="i1">This woman was the cause!</span> +<span class="i0">I was cut off from hope in that sad place</span> +<span class="i1">Which yet to name my spirit loathes and fears.</span> +<span class="i0">My father held his hand upon his face;</span> +<span class="i1">I, blinded with my tears,</span> +<span class="i0">Essayed to speak; my voice came thick with sighs</span> +<span class="i1">As in a dream; dimly I could descry</span> +<span class="i0">The stern black-bearded kings with wolfish eyes</span> +<span class="i1">Waiting to see me die.</span> +<span class="i0">The tall masts quiver’d as they lay afloat,</span> +<span class="i1">The temples and the people and the shore;</span> +<span class="i0">One drew a sharp knife thro’ my tender throat</span> +<span class="i1">Slowly—and nothing more.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>The famous picture of the sacrifice of Iphigenia by +Timanthes, the theme of admiration and criticism for +the last two thousand years, which every writer on art +deems it proper to mention in praise or in blame, could +hardly have been more vivid or more terrible than this.</p> + +<p>The analogous idea, that of heroic resignation and +self-devotion in a great cause, would be conveyed in +sacred art by the figure of Jephtha’s daughter; she +too regrets the promises of life, but dies not the less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span> +willingly. “My father, if thou hast opened thy +mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that +which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch +as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine +enemies, even of the children of Ammon.” And for +a single statue, Jephtha’s daughter would be a fine +subject—one to task the powers of our best sculptors; +the <i>sentiment</i> would be the same as the Iphigenia, +but the <i>treatment</i> altogether different.</p> + +<p class="tb">For the Iphigenia in Tauris I think the modern +sculptor would do well to set aside the character as +represented by Euripides, and rather keep in view the +conception of Goethe.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> In his hand it has lost nothing +of its statuesque elegance and simplicity, and has +gained immeasurably in moral dignity and feminine +tenderness. The Iphigenia in Tauris is no longer +young, but she is still the consecrated virgin; no +more the victim, but herself the priestess of those +very rites by which she was once fated to perish. +While Euripides has depicted her as stern and astute, +Goethe has made her the impersonation of female +devotedness, and mild, but unflinching integrity. She +is like the young Neoptolemus when she disdains to +use the stratagem which Pylades had suggested, when</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span></p> +<p>she dares to speak the truth, and trust to it alone for +help and safety. The scene in which she is haunted +by the recollection of her doomed ancestry, and +mutters over the song of the Parcæ on that far-off +sullen shore, is sublime, but incapable of representation +in plastic art. It should, however, be well +studied, as helping the artist to the abstract conception +of the character as a whole.</p> + +<p>Carstens made a design, suggested by this tragedy, +of the Three Parcæ singing their fatal mysterious +song. A model of one of the figures (that of Atropos) +used to stand in Goethe’s library, and a cast from +this is before me while I write: every one who sees +it takes it for an antique.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src="images/illus-020.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="183" width="500" /></div> + +<h4>EVE.</h4> + +<p>I have but a few words to say of Eve. As she is +the only undraped figure which is allowable in sacred +art, the sculptors have multiplied representations of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span> +her, more or less finely imagined; but what I conceive +to be the true type has seldom, very seldom, +been attained. The remarks which follow are, however, +suggestive, not critical.</p> + +<p>It appears to me—and I speak it with reverence—that +the Miltonic type is not the highest conceivable, +nor the best fitted for sculptural treatment. +Milton has evidently lavished all his power on this +fairest of created beings; but he makes her too +nymph-like—too goddess-like. In one place he +compares her to a Wood-nymph, Oread, or Dryad +of the groves; in another to Diana’s self, “though +not, as she, with bow and quiver armed.” The scriptural +conception of our first parent is not like this; +it is ampler, grander, nobler far. I fancy her the +sublime ideal of maternity. It may be said that +this idea of her predestined motherhood should not +predominate in the conception of Eve before the +Fall: but I think it should.</p> + +<p>It is most beautifully imagined by Milton that +Eve, separated from her mate, her Adam, is weak, +and given over to the merely womanish nature, for +only when linked together and supplying the complement +to each other’s <i>moral</i> being, can man or +woman be strong; but we must also remember that +the “spirited sly snake,” in tempting Eve, even +when he finds her alone, uses no vulgar allurements. +“Ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span>” +Milton, indeed, seasons his harangue with flattery: +but for this he has no warrant in Scripture.</p> + +<p>As the Eve of Paradise should be majestically +sinless, so after the Fall she should not cower and +wail like a disappointed girl. Her infinite fault, +her infinite woe, her infinite penitence, should have +a touch of grandeur. She has paid the inevitable +price for that mighty knowledge of good and evil +she so coveted; that terrible predestined experience—she +has found it, or it has found her;—and +she wears her crown of grief as erst her crown of +innocence.</p> + +<p class="tb">I think the noble picture of Eve in Mrs. Browning’s +Drama of Exile, as that of the Mother of our +redemption not less than the Mother of suffering +humanity, might be read and considered with advantage +by a modern sculptor.</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i13">“Rise, woman, rise</span> +<span class="i0">To thy peculiar and best altitudes</span> +<span class="i0">Of doing good and of resisting ill!</span> +<span class="i0">Something thou hast to bear through womanhood;</span> +<span class="i0">Peculiar suffering answering to the sin,</span> +<span class="i0">Some pang paid down for each new human life;</span> +<span class="i0">Some weariness in guarding such a life,</span> +<span class="i0">Some coldness from the guarded; some mistrust</span> +<span class="i0">From those thou hast too well served; from those beloved</span> +<span class="i0">Too loyally, some treason. But go, thy love</span> +<span class="i0">Shall chant to itself its own beatitudes</span> +<span class="i0">After its own life-working!</span> +<span class="i0">I bless thee to the desert and the thorns,</span> +<span class="i0"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span></span> +<span class="i0">To the elemental change and turbulence,</span> +<span class="i0">And to the solemn dignities of grief;</span> +<span class="i0">To each one of these ends, and to this end</span> +<span class="i0">Of Death and the hereafter!</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Eve.</i> I accept,</span> +<span class="i0">For me and for my daughters, this high part</span> +<span class="i0">Which lowly shall be counted!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>The figure of Eve in Raphael’s design (the one +engraved by Marc Antonio) is exquisitely statuesque +as well as exquisitely beautiful. In the moment +that she presents the apple to Adam she looks—perhaps +she ought to look—like the <i>Venus Vincitrice</i> +of the antique time; but I am not sure; and, +at all events, the less of the classical sentiment the +better.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><img src="images/illus-023-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="124" width="350" /></div> + +<h4>ADAM.</h4> + +<p>I have seen no statue of Adam; but surely he is +a fine subject, either alone or as the companion of +Eve; and the Miltonic type is here all-sufficient, +combining the heroic ideal of Greek art with something +higher still—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure,”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>whence true authority in men—in fact, essential +manliness.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span></p> + +<p>Goethe had the idea that Adam ought to be represented +with a spade, as the progenitor of all who +till the ground, and partially draped with a deerskin, +that is, after the Fall; which would be well: +but he adds that Adam should have a child at his +feet in the act of strangling a serpent. This appears +to me objectionable and ambiguous; if admissible at +all, the accessory figure would be a fitter accompaniment +for Eve.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-027.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="132" width="400" /></div> + +<h4>ANGELS.</h4> + +<p>Angels, properly speaking, are neither winged +men nor winged children. Wings, in ancient art, +were the symbols of a divine nature; and the early +Greeks, who humanised their gods and goddesses, +and deified humanity through the perfection of the +forms, at first distinguished the divine and the +human by giving wings to all the celestial beings; +thus lifting them above the earth. Our religious +idea of angels is altogether different. Give to the +child-form wings, in other words, give to the child-nature, +innocent, and pure, the adjuncts of wisdom +and power, and thus you realise the idea of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span> +angel as Raphael conceived it. It is so difficult to +imagine in the adult form the union of perfect purity +and perfect wisdom, the absence of experience and +suffering, and the capacity of thinking and feeling, +a condition of being in which all conscious <i>motive</i> is +lost in the <i>impulse</i> to good, that it remains a problem +in art. The angels of Angelico da Fiesole, who +are not only winged, but convey the idea of movement +only by the wings, not by the limbs, are exquisite, +as fitted to minister to us in heaven, but +hardly as fitted to keep watch and ward for us on +earth—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Against foul fiends to aid us militant.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>The feminine element always predominates in the +conception of angels, though they are supposed to +be masculine: I doubt whether it ought to be so.</p> + +<p class="tb">While these sheets are going through the press, I +find the following beautiful passage relative to angels +in the last number of “Fraser’s Magazine”:—</p> + +<p>“It is safer, even, and perhaps more orthodox and +scriptural, to ‘impersonate’ time and space, strength +and love, and even the laws of nature, than to give +us any more angel worlds, which are but dead skeletons +of Dante’s creations without that awful and +living reality which they had in his mind; or to fill +children’s books, as the High Church party are doing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span> +now, with pictures and tales of certain winged hermaphrodites, +in whom one cannot think (even by the +extremest stretch of charity) that the writers or +draughtsmen really believe, while one sees them servilely +copying mediæval forms, and intermingling +them with the ornaments of an extinct architecture; +thus confessing <i>naïvely</i> to every one but themselves, +that they accept the whole notion as an integral portion +of a creed, to which, if they be members of the +Church of England, they cannot well belong, seeing +that it was, happily for us, expelled both by law and +by conscience at the Reformation.”</p> + +<p>This is eloquent and true; but not the less true +it is, that if we have to represent in art those “spiritual +beings who walk this earth unseen, both when +we sleep and when we wake”—beings, who (as the +author of the above passage seems to believe) may +be intimately connected with the phenomena of the +universe—we must have a type, a bodily type, +under which to represent them; and as we cannot do +this from knowledge, we must do it symbolically. +Angels, as we figure them, are <i>symbols</i> of moral and +spiritual existences elevated above ourselves—we do +not believe in the forms, we only accept their significance. +I should be glad to see a better impersonation +than the impossible creatures represented in art; +but till some artist-poet, or poet-artist, has invented +such an impersonation, we must employ that which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span> +is already familiarised to the eye and hallowed to +the fancy without imposing on the understanding.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-022-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="214" width="250" /></div> + +<h4> +MIRIAM. RUTH. +</h4> + +<p>Both the Old and the New Testament abound in +sculptural subjects; but fitly to deal with the Old +Testament required a Michal-Angelo. Beautiful as +are the gates of Ghiberti they are hardly what the +Germans would call “alt-testamentische,” they are so +essentially elegant and graceful, and the old Hebrew +legends and personages are so tremendous. Even +Miriam and Ruth dilate into a sort of grandeur. In +representation I always fancy them above life-size.</p> + +<p class="tb">I doubt whether the same artist who could conceive +the Prophets would be able to represent the Apostles, +or that the same hand which gave us Moses could +give us Christ. Michal-Angelo’s idea of Christ, +both in painting and sculpture is, to me, revolting.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-023-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="138" width="300" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span></p> + +<h4> +CHRIST. SOLOMON. DAVID. +</h4> + +<p>I do not like the idea of Moses and Christ placed +together. Much finer in artistic and moral contrast +would be the two teachers,—Christ as the divine and +spiritual law-giver, Solomon as the type of worldly +wisdom. They should stand side by side, or be seated +each on his throne, a crowned King, with book and +sceptre—but how different in character!</p> + +<p class="tb">We have multiplied statues of David. I have +never seen one which realised the finest conception of +his character, either as Hero, King, Prophet, or Poet. +In general he figures as the slayer of Goliath, and is +always too feeble and boyish. David, singing to his +lute before Saul; David as the musician and poet, +young, beautiful, half-draped, heaven-inspired, exorcising +by his art the dark spirit of evil which possessed +the jealous King:—this would be a theme for an +artist, and would as finely represent the power of +sacred song as a figure of St. Cecilia. But the sentiment +should not be that of a young Apollo, or an +Orpheus; therein would lie the chief difficulty.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-031-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="133" width="300" /></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-012-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="125" width="300" /></div> + +<h4> +HAGAR. REBEKAH. RACHEL. +</h4> + +<p>I remember to have seen fine statues of Hagar +holding her pitcher, of Rebekah contemplating her +bracelet, and of Rachel as the shepherdess. But I +would have a different version; Hagar as the poor +cast-away, driven forth with her boy into the wilderness; +Rebekah as the exulting bride; and Rachel +as the mild, pensive wife. They would represent, in +a very complete manner, contrasted phases of the +destiny of Woman, connected together by our religious +associations, and appealing to our deepest human +sympathies.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/illus-056-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="150" width="250" /></div> + +<h4>THE QUEEN OF SHEBA.</h4> + +<p>The Queen of Sheba would be a fine subject for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span> +single statue, as the religious type of the queenly, +intellectual woman, the treatment being kept as far +as possible from that of a Pallas or a Muse.</p> + +<p class="tb">The journey of the Queen of the South to visit +Solomon would be a capital subject for a processional +bas-relief, and as a <i>pendant</i> to the journey of “the +Wise Men of the East,” to visit a greater than Solomon. +The latter has been perpetually treated from +the fourth century. Of the journey of the Queen +of Sheba I have seen, as yet, no example.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-011.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="203" width="300" /></div> + +<h4>LADY GODIVA.</h4> + +<p>With regard to statuesque subjects from modern +history and poetry,—<i>Romantic Sculpture</i>, as it is +styled,—the taste both of the public and the artist +evidently sets in this direction. That the treatment +of such subjects should not be classical is admitted; +but in the development of this romantic tendency +there is cause to fear that we may be inundated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span> +with all kinds of picturesque vagaries and violations +of the just laws and limits of art.</p> + +<p class="tb">I remember, however, a circumstance which makes +me hopeful as to the progress of feeling; knowledge +may come hereafter. I remember about twenty +years ago proposing the figure and story of Lady +Godiva as beautiful subjects for sculpture and painting. +There were present on that occasion, among +others, two artists and a poet. The two artists +laughed outright, and the poet extemporised an +epigram upon Peeping Tom. If I were to propose +Lady Godiva as a subject now<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">4</a>, I believe it would +be received with a far different feeling even by those +very men. If I were Queen of England I would +have it painted in Fresco in my council chamber. +There should be seen the palfrey with its rich +housings, and near it, as preparing to mount, the +noble lady should stand, timid, but resolved: her +veil should lie on the ground; the drapery just falling +from her fair limbs and partly sustained by one hand, +while with the other she loosens her golden tresses. +A bevy of waiting-maids, with averted faces, disappear +hurriedly beneath the massive porch of the Saxon</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span></p> +<p>palace, which forms the background, with sky and +trees seen through openings in the heavy architecture. +This is the picturesque version of the story; but +there are many others. As a single statue, the +figure of Lady Godiva affords an opportunity for +the legitimate treatment of the undraped female form, +sanctified by the purest, the most elevated associations;—by +woman’s tearful pride and man’s respect +and gratitude.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-029-1.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="136" width="300" /></div> + +<h4>JOAN OF ARC.</h4> + +<p>Shakspeare, who is so horribly unjust to Joan +of Arc, has put a sublime speech into her mouth +where she answers Burgundy who had accused her +of sorcery,—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Because you want the grace that others have.</span> +<span class="i0">You judge it straight a thing impossible</span> +<span class="i0">To compass wonders but by help of devils!”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>The whole theory of popular superstition comprised +in three lines!</p> + +<p>But Joan herself—how at her name the whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span> +heart seems to rise up in resentment, not so much +against her cowardly executioners as against those +who have so wronged her memory! Never was a +character, historically pure, bright, definite, and perfect +in every feature and outline, so abominably +treated in poetry and fiction,—perhaps for this +reason, that she was in herself so exquisitely wrought, +so complete a specimen of the heroic, the poetic, the +romantic, that she could not be touched by art or +modified by fancy, without being in some degree +profaned. As to art, I never saw yet any representation +of “Jeanne la grande Pastoure,” (except, perhaps, +the lovely statue by the Princess of Wurtemburg,) +which I could endure to look at—and even +that gives us the contemplative simplicity, but not +the power, intellect, and energy, which must have +formed so large a part of the character. Then as to +the poets, what shall be said of them? First Shakspeare, +writing for the English stage, took up the +popular idea of the character as it prevailed in England +in his own time. Into the hypothesis that the +greater part of Henry VI. is not by Shakspeare, +there is no occasion to enter here; the original +conception of the character of Joan of Arc may not +be his, but he has left it untouched in its principal +features. The English hated the memory of the +French Heroine because she had caused the loss of +France and had humiliated us as a nation; and our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span> +chroniclers revenged themselves and healed their +wounded self-love by imputing her victories to +witchcraft. Shakspeare, giving her the attributes +which the historians of his time assigned to her, represents +her as a warlike, arrogant sorceress—a +“monstrous woman”—attended and assisted by +demons. I pass over the depraved and perverse +spirit in which Voltaire profaned this divine character. +A theme which a patriot poet would have +approached as he would have approached an altar, +he has made a vehicle for the most licentious parody +that ever disgraced a national literature. Schiller +comes next, and hardly seems to me more excusable. +Not only has he missed the character, he has deliberately +falsified both character and fact. His +“Johanna” might have been called by any other +name; and the scene of his tragedy might have been +placed anywhere in the wide world with just the +same probability and truth. Schiller and Goethe held a +principle that all considerations were to yield before +the proprieties of art. But Milton speaks somewhere +of those “faultless proprieties of nature” which +never can be violated with impunity: and Art can +never move freely but in the domain of nature and +of truth. All the fine writing in Schiller’s “Maid +of Orleans” can never reconcile me to its absolute +and revolting falsehood. The sublime, simple-hearted +girl who to the last moment regarded herself as set<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span> +apart by God to do His work, he makes the victim +of an insane passion for a young Englishman. In +the love-sick classical heroines of Corneille and Racine +there is nothing more Frenchified, more absurd, +more revolting. Then he makes her die victorious +on the field of battle defending the oriflamme;—far, +far more glorious as well as more pathetic her +real death—but it offended against Schiller’s æsthetic +conception of the dignity of tragedy.</p> + +<p>Lastly, we have Southey’s epic: what shall be +said of it?—even what he said of the Lusiad of +Camoens, “that it is read with little emotion, and +remembered with little pleasure.” No. I do not +wish to see Joan turned into a heroine of tragedy or +tale, because, as it seems to me, the whole life and +death of this martyred girl is too near us, and too +historically distinct, and, I will add, too sacred, to +be dressed out in romantic prose or verse. What +Walter Scott might have made of her I do not +know—something marvellously picturesque and life-like, +no doubt—and yet I am glad he did not try +his hand on her. But she remains a legitimate and +most admirable subject for representative art; and +as yet nothing has been done in sculpture to fix the +ideal and heroic in her character, nor in painting, +worthy of her exploits. There exists no contemporary +portrait of her except in the brief description of her +in the old French Chronicle of the Siege of Orleans,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">363</a></span> +where it is said that her figure was tall and slender, +her bust fine, her hair and eyes black; that she wore +her hair short, and could never be persuaded to put +on a head-piece, and farther (and in this respect both +Schiller and Southey have wronged her), that she +had never slain a man, using her consecrated sword +merely to defend herself. I should like to see a fine +equestrian statue of her by one of our best English +sculptors, set up in a conspicuous place among us, as +a national expiation.</p> + +<p>Southey mentions that in the beginning of the +last war, about 1795, when popular feeling, excited +almost to frenzy, raged against France, a pantomime, +or ballet, was performed at Covent Garden, from the +story of Joan of Arc, at the conclusion of which she +is carried away by demons, like a female Don Juan. +This denouement caused such a storm of indignation, +that the author—one James Cross—was obliged, +after the first two or three representations, to change +the demons into angels, and send her straight into +Heaven:—an anecdote pleasant to record as illustrating +the sure ultimate triumph of truth over falsehood; +of all the better sympathies over prejudice +and wrong;—in spite of history, and, what is more, +in spite of Shakspeare!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-041-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="66" width="200" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-038-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="186" width="300" /></div> + +<h4>CHARACTERS FROM SHAKSPEARE.</h4> + +<p>Joan of Arc is not, however, a Shakspearian +character; and, in fact, there are very few of his personages +susceptible of sculptural treatment. They +are too dramatic, too profound, too complex in their +essential nature where they are tragic; too many-sided +and picturesque where they are comic.</p> + +<p>For instance, the attempt to condense into marble +such light, evanescent, quaint creations as those in +“The Midsummer’s Night’s Dream” is better avoided; +we feel that a marble fairy must be a heavy absurdity. +Oberon and Titania might perhaps float along +in a bas-relief; but we cannot put away the thought +that they have reality without substantiality, and we +do not like to see them, or Ariel, or Caliban fixed +in the definite forms of sculpture.</p> + +<p>There are, however, a few of Shakspeare’s characters +which appear to me beautifully adapted for +statuesque treatment: Perdita holding her flowers; +Miranda lingering on the shore; might well replace<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">365</a></span> +the innumerable “Floras” and “Nymphs preparing +to bathe,” which people the <i>atéliers</i> of our sculptors. +Cordelia has something of marble quietude about +her; and Hermione is a statue ready made. And, +by the way, it is observable that Shakspeare represents +Hermione as a <i>coloured</i> statue. Paulina will +not allow it to be touched, because “the colour is +not yet dry.” Again,—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“Would you not deem those veins</span> +<span class="i0 padb05">Did verily bear blood?</span> +<span class="i0">“The very life seems warm upon her lips,</span> +<span class="i0">The fixture of her eye hath motion in’t,</span> +<span class="i0">And we are mocked by Art!</span> +<span class="i0 padb05">The ruddiness upon her lip is wet,</span> +<span class="i0">“You’ll mar it if you kiss it, stain your own</span> +<span class="i0">With oily painting.”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>I think it possible to model small ornamental +statuettes and groups from some few of the scenes in +Shakspeare’s plays; but this is quite different from +life-size figures of Hamlet, Othello, Shylock, Macbeth, +which must either have the look of real individual +portraiture, or become mere idealisations of +certain qualities; and Shakspeare’s creations are +neither the one nor the other.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-365.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="71" width="300" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">366</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-028-2.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="208" width="400" /></div> + +<h4>CHARACTERS FROM SPENSER.</h4> + +<p>Spenser is so essentially a picturesque poet, he +depends for his rich effects so much on the combination +of colour and imagery, and multiplied accessories, +that one feels—at least <i>I</i> feel, on laying down a +volume of the “Fairie Queene” dazzled as if I had +been walking in a gallery of pictures. His “Masque +of Cupid,” for instance, although a procession of +poetical creations, could not be transferred to a bas-relief +without completely losing its Spenserian character—its +wondrous glow of colour. Thus Cupid +“uprears himself exulting from the back of the +ravenous lion;” removes the bandage from his eyes, +that he may look round on his victims; “shakes +the darts which his right hand doth strain full +dreadfully,” and “claps on high his coloured wings +twain.” This certainly is not the Greek Cupid, nor +the Cupid of sculpture; it is the Spenserian Cupid. +So of his Una, so of his Britomart, and the Red Cross +Knight and Sir Guyon: one might make elegant +<i>statuesque</i> impersonations of the allegories they involve, +as of Truth, Chastity, Faith, Temperance; but +then they would lose immediately their Spenserian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span> +character and sentiment, and must become something +altogether different.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><img src="images/illus-014.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="179" width="300" /></div> + +<h4> +THE LADY. COMUS. +</h4> + +<p>It is not so with Milton. The “Lady” in +Comus, whether she stands listening to the echos of +her own sweet voice, or motionless as marble under +the spell of the “false enchanter,” <i>looking</i> that divine +reproof which in the poem she <i>speaks</i>,—</p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">“I hate when vice can bolt her arguments,</span> +<span class="i0">And virtue has no tongue to check her pride”—</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>is a subject perfectly fitted for sculpture, and never, +so far as I know, executed. It would be a far more +appropriate ornament for a lady’s <i>boudoir</i> than +French statues of <span class="smcap">Modesty</span>, which generally have +the effect of making one feel very much ashamed.<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">5</a></p> + +<p>Sabrina has been beautifully treated by Marshall.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to render Comus without making +him too like a Bacchus or an Apollo. He is neither.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span></p> +<p>He represents not the beneficent, but the intoxicating +and brutifying power of wine. His joviality should +not be that of a God, but with something mischievous, +bestial, Faun-like; and he should have, +with the Dionysian grace, a dash of the cunning and +malignity of his Mother Circe. These characteristics +should be in the mind of the artist. The panther’s +skin, the coronal of vine leaves, and, instead of the +Thyrsus, the magician’s wand, are the proper accessories. +It is also worth notice, that in the antique +representations Comus has wings as a demigod, and +in a picture described by Philostratus (a night scene) +he lies crouched in a drunken sleep. Little use, however, +is made of him in the antique myths, and the +Miltonic conception is that which should be embodied +by the modern sculptor.</p> + +<p class="tb">Il Penseroso and L’Allegro, if embodied in +sculpture as poetical abstractions (either masculine +or feminine) of Melancholy and Mirth, would cease +to be Miltonic, for the conceptions of the poet are +essentially picturesque, and expressed in both cases +by a luxuriant accumulation of images and accessories, +not to be brought within the limits of plastic +art without the most tasteless confusion and inconsistency.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><img src="images/illus-054.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="126" width="200" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span></p> + +<h4>SATAN.</h4> + +<p>The religious idea of a Satan—the impersonation +of that mixture of the bestial, the malignant, +the impious, and the hopeless, which constitute +<span class="smcap">the Fiend</span>, the enemy of all that is human +and divine—I conceive to be quite unfitted for +the purpose of sculpture. Danton’s attempt degenerates +into grim caricature. Milton’s Satan—“the +archangel ruined,”—is however a strictly +poetical creation, and capable of the most poetical +statuesque treatment. But we must remember that, +if it be a gross mistake, religious and artistic, to +conceive the Messiah under the form of a larger, +stronger humanity, with a <i>physique</i> like that of a +wrestler, (as M. Angelo has done in the Last Judgement) +it is equally a mistake to conceive the lost +angel, our spiritual adversary, under any such coarse +Herculean lineaments. There can be no image of +the Miltonic Satan without the elements of beauty, +“though changed by pale ire, envy, and despair!” +Colossal he may be, vast as Mount Athos; but it is +not necessary to express this that he should be hewn +out of Mount Athos, or look like the giant Polypheme! +His proportions, his figure, his features—like +his power—are angelic. As the Hero—for he +is so—of the “Paradise Lost,” the subject is open<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span> +to poetic treatment; but I am not aware that as yet +it has been poetically treated.</p> + +<p>Of the Italian poetry and history, and all the +wondrous and lovely shapes which come thronging +out of that Elysian land,—I can say nothing now,—or +only this,—that after all I am not <i>quite</i> sure that +I am right about Spenser. For, at first view, what +poet seems less amenable to statuesque treatment +than Dante? One would have imagined that only a +preternatural fusion of Michal-Angelo and Rembrandt +could fitly render the murky recesses and +ghastly and monstrous inhabitants of the Inferno, or +attempt to shadow forth the dazzling mysteries of +the Paradiso. Yet see what Flaxman has achieved! +His designs are legitimate bas-reliefs, not pictures in +outline. He has been true to his own art, and all +that could be done within the limitations of his art he +has accomplished. It is a translation of Dante’s +<i>ideas</i> into sculpture, with every thing <i>peculiarly</i> +Dantesque in the treatment, set aside.</p> + +<p>Now as to our more modern poets.—From amid +the long array of beautiful subjects which seem to +move in succession before the fancy, there are two +which stand out prominent in their beauty. First, +Lord Byron’s “Myrrha,” who with her Ionian elegance +is susceptible of the purest classical treatment. +She should hold a torch; but not with the air of a +Mænad, nor of a Thais about to fire Persepolis. +The sentiment should be deeper and quieter.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">371</a></span></p> + +<table summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">“Dost thou think</span> +<span class="i0">A Greek girl dare not do for love that which</span> +<span class="i0">An Indian widow does for custom?”</span> +</div></div></td></tr></table> + +<p>Ion in Talfourd’s Tragedy—the boy-hero, in all +the tenderness of extreme youth, already self-devoted +and touched with a melancholy grace and an elevation +beyond his years—is so essentially statuesque, +that I am surprised that no sculptor has attempted +it; perhaps because, in this instance, as in that of +Myrrha, the popular realisation of both characters as +subjects of formative art has been spoiled by theatrical +trappings and associations.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><img src="images/illus-371.png" alt="Decoration." title="" height="456" width="400" /></div> + +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">1</span></a> “<i>Sancta Simplicitas!</i>” was the exclamation of Huss to the +woman who, when he was burned at the stake, in her religious zeal +brought a faggot to light the pile.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">2</span></a> Canova’s bust of Helen is such a counterfeit; whereas the +Helen of Gibson is, for a mere head, singularly characteristic.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">3</span></a> There is a fine translation of the German Iphigenia by Miss +Swanwick. (Dramatic Works of Goethe. Bohn, 1850.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">4</span></a> 1848. At the moment I transcribe this (1854), a very charming +statue of the Lady Godiva (suggested, I believe, by Tennyson’s +poem) stands in the Exhibition of the Royal Academy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">5</span></a> For example, the statue of Modesty executed for Josephine’s +boudoir.</p></div> + +<hr /> + +<h5><span class="smcap">London :</span><br /> +A. and <span class="smcap">G. A. Spottiswoode,</span><br /> +New-street-Square.</h5> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Commonplace Book of Thoughts, +Memories, and Fancies., by Anna Jameson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COMMONPLACE BOOK *** + +***** This file should be named 39680-h.htm or 39680-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/6/8/39680/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> |