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diff --git a/76803-h/76803-h.htm b/76803-h/76803-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4d434b --- /dev/null +++ b/76803-h/76803-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10056 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Regeneration: A reply to Max Nordau | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1, h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +ul.index { list-style-type: none; } +li.ifrst { + margin-top: 1em; + text-indent: -2em; + padding-left: 1em; +} +li.indx { + margin-top: .5em; + text-indent: -2em; + padding-left: 1em; +} +li.isub1 { + text-indent: -2em; + padding-left: 2em; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center; padding: 0.5em 0 0.5em 0;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + + +.center {text-align: center;} +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +/* Footnotes */ +.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; +} + +/* Poetry */ +/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */ +/* .poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} */ +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.tn {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; + margin:2em auto; + width: 40%; +} + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3.0em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2.0em;} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76803 ***</div> + + +<div class="center"> +<h1>REGENERATION</h1> +<br> +A REPLY TO<br> +MAX NORDAU<br> +<br> +WITH INTRODUCTION BY<br> +<br> +NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER<br> +Professor of Philosophy and Education<br> +in Columbia College in the City of New York<br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">New York</span><br> +G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS<br> +<span class="smcap">London</span>: ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO.<br> +1896 +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="center" style="page-break-before: always;"> +<span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1896<br> +<span style="font-size:smaller;">BY</span><br> +G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS<br> +<br> +<br> +The Knickerbocker Press, New Rochelle, N. Y.</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">[iii]</span> + + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</h2></div> + + +<p>Max Nordau is perhaps the most daring +toreador of recent years. He challenged +Modern Civilization to mortal combat in the presence +of assembled thousands. Had the customs of the +Roman arena prevailed, the thumbs of the interested +spectators would doubtless have been extended or +pressed down in about equal numbers, when the +huge beast lay momentarily stunned by his blow. +That Nordau had ingeniously tormented the monster +was apparent; had he earned the right to put an end +to its existence? The shrill cries of the excitable +and easily moved predominated for a moment, but +they were soon drowned by the insistent demands of +the sober-minded for a calm consideration of the fairness +of the blows that had been struck, as well as +of the permissibility of the weapons that had been +used. Yet the contest, whether fair or unfair, had +been exciting; and it was not without its uses.</p> + +<p>It stimulated thought among the habitually unthinking. +The habit of reflective analysis, like +letter-writing and other accomplishments that require +much leisure, is slipping away from us under the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[iv]</span>pressure of our complex modern life. The newspaper, +with its surges of insensate passion and unreasoned +opinion, thinks for large portions of the +community; and its thinking, like the amusements +of the nursery, expresses itself in ways that appeal +chiefly to the eye and to the ear. Information about +things is too often mistaken for knowledge of things. +Highly specialized activities on the one hand, and +the task of adjusting our part in the struggle for +existence to economic conditions wholly new in the +world’s history, on the other, mark off our civilization +from any that have preceded it. The activities of +modern men are so numerous, so varied, and so +interesting, that we often omit to ask on what +principles they are based and whither they are tending. +Apparent success has led us to forget sometimes +that all sound practice has a reason behind it, +and reasons are seldom asked for or given.</p> + +<p>To say the least, then, it is somewhat surprising +to be stopped on the street corner and assured, with +due emphasis and the appearance of authority, that +nineteenth-century men and women are absorbed in +interests that mark a diseased type of mind, and are +given over to a literature, an art, and a music that, +themselves produced by madmen, are rapidly reducing +us all to the mad-house level; in other words, +that we and our boasted civilization are degenerates.</p> + +<p>There is, as I have said, a certain use in this +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[v]</span>brutal proceeding, for it causes us to stop and think. +It shatters our conceit and shakes our confidence. +If we pause only for a moment, yet pause we must. +The mere daring of the attack forces this. So it +has come about that Nordau’s <i>Degeneration</i>, quite +apart from its intrinsic merits or demerits, has been +widely read and much talked of throughout the +civilized world. It has provoked some anger, not a +little amusement, and a fair measure of contempt. +Yet in a certain subtle way it has set us to examining +the reasons that lead most of us to deny the +essential viciousness and abnormality of some of the +most salient and striking characteristics of contemporary +culture.</p> + +<p>If Nordau’s indictment be classed as pessimism, +it at least has the merit of novelty of statement. +From Homer’s time to the present poets and philosophers +have not forgotten, even in moments of +highest exaltation, to remind man that his life has +a dark and hopeless side. Our own century has +listened to Leopardi, who envied only the dead, and +to Schopenhauer, who called man both the priest +and the victim of nature. And yet we have not +been altogether unhappy.</p> + +<p>But Nordau is no ordinary pessimist. He does +not lead us to despair through the by-paths of metaphysical +subtlety, nor does he take advantage of the +awful mystery of pain to perplex and distract us. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[vi]</span>Rather he drags us into the laboratory and, stretching +us on a table of definitions made for the purpose, +proceeds to measure our faces and our skulls, our +teeth, the lobes of our ears, and our palates; we pay +the penalty of our individuality in being found to be +“morbid deviations from an original type,” and are +therefore degenerate. Next comes an examination +of a selected group of man’s newer interests. The +music of Wagner, the dramas of Ibsen, the romances +of Zola, the art of the pre-Raphaelites, the mystics, +the symbolists, the Parnassians—who but a “decadent” +would treat all these alike?—are passed in +review and pronounced to be proofs of the decadence +of mankind even more conclusive than those based +upon physical measurements. All this is done in the +name of Science, which, reversing the procedure of +Saturn, thus hastens to devour the parent that begot +it, Modern Civilization.</p> + +<p>A long chapter might be written on the credulity +of men of science. The hypotheses that they have +chased out of the door complacently fly in at the window. +Many scientists, fresh from apparently important +discoveries in narrow fields, need to be reminded +of the lesson contained in the legend of St. Augustine, +who when walking on the shore one day, absorbed in +meditation, suddenly perceived a child that with a +shell was ladling the sea into a hole in the sand. +“What are you doing, my child?” asked St. Augustine. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[vii]</span>“I am emptying the ocean,” was the reply, +“into this hole.”—“That is impossible.” “Not +more impossible than for you to empty the universe +into your intellect,” said the child, and vanished. +Nordau is particularly prone to regard the small +achievements of a certain school of alienists as having +supplied him with a conclusive test of all excellence. +Indeed, no part of his diatribe is more open +to criticism than the use he makes of Science. If +modern science is demonstrating any one thing more +clearly than another, it is that the insights of the +seers of our race as to the highest human aspirations +and the deepest needs of the human spirit, meet not +with contradiction but with support as knowledge of +the cosmos becomes more extensive and more accurate. +Nordau has neglected to reckon with the profound +truth that finds expression in the celebrated +saying of Lotze:</p> + +<p>“The more I myself have laboured to prepare the +way for acceptance of the mechanical view of Nature +in the region of organic life—in which region this +view seemed to advance more timidly than the nature +of the thing required—the more do I now feel impelled +to bring into prominence the other aspect +which was equally near to my heart during all these +endeavours.... It is in such mediation [between +the two aspects] that the true source of the +life of science is to be found; not indeed in affirming +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[viii]</span>now a fragment of one view and now a fragment of +the other, but in showing how <i>absolutely universal is +the extent</i>, and at the same time how <i>completely subordinate +is the significance, of the mission which +mechanism has to fulfil in the structure of the +world</i>.”</p> + +<p>There is also hidden from Nordau’s view that +noble conception of the place and significance of +Science to which Tyndall gave expression in the +eloquent peroration of his Belfast address more than +twenty years ago:</p> + +<p>“Science itself not unfrequently derives motive-power +from an ultra-scientific source. Some of its +greatest discoveries have been made under the +stimulus of a non-scientific ideal.... The world +embraces not only a Newton, but a Shakspere—not +only a Boyle, but a Raphael—not only a Kant, but +a Beethoven—not only a Darwin, but a Carlyle. +Not in each of these, but in all, is human nature +whole. They are not opposed, but supplementary—not +mutually exclusive, but reconcilable. And if, unsatisfied +with them all, the human mind, with the +yearning of a pilgrim for his distant home, will still +turn to the Mystery from which it has emerged, +seeking so to fashion it as to give unity to thought +and faith, so long as this is done, not only without +intolerance or bigotry of any kind, but with the enlightened +recognition that ultimate fixity of conception +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span>is here unattainable, and that each succeeding +age must be held free to fashion the mystery in +accordance with its own needs—then, casting aside +all the restrictions of Materialism, I would affirm this +to be a field for the noblest exercise of what, in contrast +with the knowing faculties, may be called the +creative faculties of man.”</p> + +<p>Why, then, should not literature and art and music +enter and occupy the very field that the apostles of +Science assign to them, without being exposed to the +alienists’ sneers for their symbolism and their mysticism? +The truth is that Nordau is the slave of one +idea, and that the logical outcome of his definition +and conception of abnormality. Ribot described +such a case perfectly when he said that “nothing is +more common or better known than the momentary +appropriation of the personality by some intense and +fixed idea. As long as this idea occupies consciousness, +we may say without exaggeration that it constitutes +the individual.” Degeneration constitutes +Nordau. He is himself an abnormality and a pathological +type. Every large hospital for the insane +knows his representative—the one sane man in a +world of lunatics.</p> + +<p>To perceive the true direction and to estimate the +relative force of a large human movement requires a +long interval of time. Caught in an eddy of the +moment, we may seem to be drifting backward, when +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span>in reality to the spectator on the shore we are being +swept onward with great rapidity. The same world +of experience seemed to Parmenides to exclude by +its very nature all motion, and to Heraclitus to derive +its only reality from its perpetual change. It is +the standard and the point of view that control such +judgments, and we are entitled to ask of any standard +or point of view, <i>Quid juris?</i> Nordau, however, has +not asked himself that question. Seizing upon some +partially completed anthropological investigations, +with their half-speculative inferences, he has fashioned +for himself a yard-stick with which to measure +civilization. Aristotle long ago pointed out that the +true difference between the poet and the historian is to +be found in the fact that the former relates what may +happen, the latter what has happened. One might +similarly distinguish the man of science, who applies +what has been proved, from the charlatan, who seeks +to apply what has not been proved.</p> + +<p>As a result of dissenting from Nordau’s premises, +method, and conclusions, it is by no means necessary +to be forced to defend all the phases of modern civilization +that he attacks. Some of them, no doubt, +are unwholesome, but for reasons other than those +which this critic adduces. Many of them are mere +fleeting phenomena, confined within the narrowest +limits, and the world at large first heard of them from +Nordau’s pages. It is only a lack of humour that can +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span>elevate such traits and tendencies into the position of +powerful forces in human culture, such as Platonism, +Humanism, or Christianity. The old Sophist was +right when he commended humour as the test of +gravity.</p> + +<p>The author of <i>Regeneration</i> is successful in turning +the flank of Nordau’s attacking forces at more points +than one. He is able at times, without over-exertion, +to convict Nordau not only of lack of knowledge, +but of what is far worse—knowledge of things that +are not true. His view of life is more sane and +better-balanced than that of Nordau, despite an anti-Teutonic +tendency that perhaps partakes of the +nature of an argument <i>ad hominem</i>. The judgment +of the average man who knows the history of the +past two centuries will sustain him in holding that +“there are a host of indications in all civilized countries +pointing to an increase in intellectual power, +moral strength, and æsthetic refinement.” Those to +whom Lincoln applied the affectionate designation of +“the plain people” have advanced and are advancing +by tremendous strides in knowledge and refinement. +They, and not a group or two of men and women in +each of the capitals of Europe, are the real index to +the degeneracy, or the contrary, of modern life. If +democracy is to establish itself more widely and +more efficiently as a form of government, it must +rest upon the common sense of the plain people. So +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span>far from being influenced by the tendencies that Nordau +exploits with so much vigour, it is not improbable +that even the names of the representatives of most of +those tendencies are unknown to them. Progress in +education, in philanthropy, in commerce and industry, +and in the comforts of life, has developed a +seriousness and a sense of responsibility that have +brought into many an English and American face +the lines that distinguished the countenance of the +typical Senator of Rome. The higher altruism of +our time believes that life is not only worth living, +but worth working for. Long ago Mr. Herbert +Spencer remarked that the current conception of +progress is vague, and that it is in a great measure +erroneous. It takes in, he said, not so much the +reality of progress as its accompaniments—not so +much the substance as the shadow. Nordau, with all +of the superficiality, the absence of any sense of proportion, +and the lack of humour that so often mark +the extreme specialist, has hardly come in sight of +even the shadow.</p> + +<div style="margin:1em"> +<div style="text-align:right;">NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER.</div> +<div><span class="smcap">Columbia College</span>,<br> +<i>January, 1896.</i></div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</span> + + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2></div> + + +<table style="width:40%"> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER I</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Who is the Critic?</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER II</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Dusk or Dawn!</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER III</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Mysticism and the Unknowable</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER IV</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Bankruptcy of Science</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER V</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Symbolism and Logic</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER VI</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Light of Russia</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER VII</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Real Ibsen</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER VIII</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Richard Wagner</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER IX</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Religion of Self</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER X</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">An Ethical Inquisition</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER XI</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Vigorous Affirmations</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER XII</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Regeneration</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xv"></a><a id="Page_xvi"></a><a id="Page_1"></a>[p. 1]</span> + + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="REGENERATION">REGENERATION</h2></div> + + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I +<br> +<i>WHO IS THE CRITIC?</i></h2></div> + + +<p>Voltaire said that if all the celestial bodies +are inhabited, our earth must be the mad-house +of the universe. To us who know the era of +the great cynic only as recorded by the history of +Dryasdusts, and the flippant memoirs and autobiographies +of his contemporaries, his biting sarcasm +cannot be considered undeserved. But, with regard +to our own times, most of us would probably hesitate +to brand our present state of culture, our modern +civilization, as a fool’s paradise.</p> + +<p>It is a truism that an historical epoch can only be +correctly studied at a distance in time, as the outlines +of a mountain can only be studied at a distance in +space. The actor in a piece, though intimately +acquainted with his own part and the accessories with +which he comes in contact, cannot form a just idea of +the impression which the play, with its more or less +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span>successful rendering, its scenery, and other spectacular +effects, produces on the mind of the average spectator. +A super who is ignorant of stage management and of +the precise results the manager aims at might deem +many things going on behind the stage both foolish +and ridiculous. To him the frantic efforts of some +actor, or scene-shifter, to produce some ordinary +effect might well appear as lunacy.</p> + +<p>The judgment we form concerning the time we live +in runs a great risk of being biassed by the narrowness +of the vista we can command. The interdependence +of causes simultaneously at work, the +co-operation of impulses active at a great distance, +the peculiarities of circumstances surrounding each +leading phenomenon, the real intentions of leading +characters, secret motives in groups and parties—all +this represents so many sealed books to the contemporary +to be gradually opened only by future +historians.</p> + +<p>There are no doubt many facilities ready to hand +for the man who in modern times desires to study his +own epoch, which were not available in the past. +Distances are practically suppressed, the whole of +civilized humanity has been placed in intimate connection, +a highly developed Press records daily events +everywhere in a minute fashion, to the making of +books there is no end, and in every direction an +elaborate mechanism is established for the obtaining +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span>of rapid and precise information. In fact, the <i>Kammergelehrte</i>, +who, like Kant, would study the world-phenomenon +without leaving his native town, would +in our days stand a better chance of obtaining completer +and exacter information than any philosopher +before him.</p> + +<p>But, despite the quasi-ubiquitousness the modern +philosopher enjoys, he would indulge in self-deception +were he tempted to believe that he had secured all +the data requisite to judge the contemporaries of his +race as they act, live, feel, and think during the +closing years of this century.</p> + +<p>For, against the easy access to information, must +be placed the mass of intricate problems that arise +with every step of progress, the multitude of ideas +which strive for realization, the bewilderment which +ensues on crumbling systems and religions, new discoveries, +new theories, new and complicated associations +of ideas, new and hazy aspirations, sympathies, +and yearnings—for all of which words cannot be +coined fast enough. Every day we witness political, +social, economic, and psychological phenomena, the +explanation of which would demand not only an +enormous amount of knowledge, but reasoning powers +and a freedom from bias seldom blended in one +human mind. Facts, circumstances, theories, human +actions, and human ideas, change and intermingle so +constantly and so rapidly as to produce bewilderment +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>capable of misleading any philosopher who attempts +to gauge them with the instruments of the past and +in conformity with the doctrines of the school to +which he belongs.</p> + +<p>What renders it still more difficult to appraise any +epoch, and especially the present one, is the intimate +interdependence of all the phenomena to be observed. +The idiosyncrasies of a sovereign, or of a minister, +influence legislation, legislation influences public institutions, +public institutions influence the upper classes, +and the upper classes influence the masses. But legislation, +institutions, the upper classes, and the people +are influenced from a great number of other directions, +while they again influence the sovereign and +the minister. Thus it would be impossible to attribute +with accuracy a given number of effects to special +causes: for every cause is the effect of another +cause, and every effect produces other effects. For +instance, art and literature may strongly influence +men in power as well as the masses, while no one will +deny that men in power, as well as the political and +social condition of the masses, exercise a strong influence +on art and literature. And then, on top of it +all,—as if worse to confound the confusion of the man +with a system, trivial incidents intervene and bring +about a new series of causes and effects evidently destined +to operate as long as humanity lasts. So interdependent +are the actors in the human drama, so +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>complete is the intricate and sensitive mechanism of +causes and effects, and so overcharged with energy +are the social dynamos, that any fool, any child, any +trivial accident, may move one of the countless +points arranged by circumstances, and thus hurl +the engine of events in new and dangerous directions.</p> + +<p>These and many other difficulties encountered by +the student of his own time are largely responsible +for his opinions, often savouring as much of his idiosyncrasy, +his professional and national prejudices as +of an independent inquiry. In order to choose between +the maze of highways and by-ways, in order to +judge whether he moved forwards, backwards, or in a +circle, he gropes for some kind of a compass and naturally +clutches at that which his idiosyncrasy proffers. +When we therefore meet with an appraiser of his own +epoch, it behooves us to bear in mind the standpoint +from which he has contemplated the world-phenomenon, +and with what bias and prejudice his views have +been coloured. The old Greek story of the sandal-maker +who became prejudiced against a work of art +because the artist had made a mistake in the arrangement +of the sandal-strings, points its moral. The +prejudices arising from trade, personal interests, and +many other palpable sources are not difficult to trace +and to evade, but where is the man whose views have +not been influenced by his nationality, his religion, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>his favourite science or art, his love, his hatred, or his +ambition?</p> + +<p>It is to such influences, often considered by the +influenced as so many advantages and seldom sufficiently +noticed by his critics, that we often owe the +apparent profundity and exhaustiveness of an appreciation +which in reality is one-sided.</p> + +<p>Education, and, still more, an intense study of one +special branch of knowledge, rich in important and +striking results, naturally tend to strengthen the student’s +faith and his belief in the capabilities of his +favourite science. The brain-cells, influenced by the +will, and habitually becoming stimulated by presentations—emanating +from the subject on which the student +has concentrated his attention—adapt themselves +gradually to the perception of such presentations, +and by re-acting on other cells render the whole +organism disposed to seek such presentations. In +plain language, the specialist in one science has a +great aptitude for discovering such causes and such +effects as his favourite science has best elucidated, +while he is tempted to overlook other causes and +other effects which may be of equal or greater importance.</p> + +<p>The specialist attains to a mastery of his own subject, +and often acquires a strong bias regarding other +subjects, because he pursues his inquiries somewhat +after the same fashion as the dog follows the scent of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>the game. By training, the dog is familiar with the +smell of the animal pursued, and, bent on following +the trail, he pays no attention to any other scents or +smells that he encounters in his course. In the same +way the specialist rapidly perceives and minutely +studies any phenomena, however slight, with which +his favourite science has rendered him familiar, while +he is apt to disregard phenomena demanding fresh +studies and threatening to be inexplicable by investigation +confined to the lines which he prefers to +follow.</p> + +<p>Thus, if a law-student were to write a treatise on +our epoch, he would endeavour to show that the +jurisprudence, the law, and the courts—in fact, the +whole legal mechanism—is the most important feature +in our civilization, and that on which progress +or retrogression most depends. As remedies for our +evils, he would propose simpler or more complicated +forms of procedure, more or less enactments, according +to his own idiosyncrasies.</p> + +<p>A military man would consider a development on +military lines as true progress. He would yearn to +draft the whole nation into the army! He would +favour universal conscription, as Lord Wolseley does, +and might, like Count Moltke, look upon war as +a healthy bracing, an epuration, of a race, and as +an indispensable corrective to over-population. He +would cite the expansion of the chest in Germany +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>as a proof of the power of military training to further +physical development, and would look upon strict +military discipline as the means of establishing moral +order in a country.</p> + +<p>A theologian would point to the immense influence +exercised by Christianity upon humanity, and would +insist upon the religious aspect of every question, and, +like Mr. Drummond, would see in every new discovery +a confirmation of his peculiar dogmas. His +remedy would be more ritualism, or more liberal +doctrines, or more emotion in religion, according to +his High Church, Broad Church, or Low Church +creed.</p> + +<p>Philosophical religionists, like Mr. Benjamin Kidd +and others who pin their faith to the development +of the altruistic feeling in human beings, would +endeavour to reconcile all phenomena under their +observation with their theory of social evolution.</p> + +<p>If therefore we wish to form a correct judgment +of our own time and our own contemporaries, we +must not allow ourselves to be guided exclusively by +a scientist of one specialty. We ought to be all the +more on our guard, as the great erudition and the +profound study which each modern specialist has +brought to bear on his subject gives to his theories +a striking plausibility, a savour of exact science to +such an extent as to sway our opinions in favour of +the latest treatise we have read.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span></p> +<p>Politicians, sociologists, economists, biologists, theologians, +and the æsthetes have had their say and have +each in their turn exercised a periodical spell over +the public mind. It is now the turn of the alienists. +Dr. Max Nordau has by his book entitled <i>Degeneration</i> +produced no small sensation throughout +the world, and not least in this country. Though +his work may not have made the stir of a sensational +novel read by the millions, there can be little doubt +that it has imposed itself on every educated mind in +the country. It is no exaggeration to say that, like +a sharp trumpet-blast, it has awakened the educated +classes from the lethargy consequent upon the din +of clashing opinions and contradictory systems. This +volume has once more roused us to the fact that we, +as individuals, as a nation, as a race, are travelling +at comet-speed towards a goal of which we have no +inkling. It sternly suggests that we are on the +wrong road and that a fate of a most horrible description +is rapidly befalling us—an affliction in most +people’s view worse than annihilation. Madness is +shown to be insidiously invading our minds, and by +its contagious nature threatening to prove Voltaire’s +biting sarcasm a stern prophecy.</p> + +<p>It is no wonder that his work has become as it +were a nightmare to millions of minds. If its diagnosis +and its conclusions are as irrefutable as to most +people they appear to be, we indeed live in a fool’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>paradise: our leaders, our authorities, our men of +genius, are not the beacons we have held them to +be, but will-o’-the-wisps luring us into the bottomless +quagmires of lunacy; the progression we vaunted +is a slippery plane sliding us back to bestiality; +our means for raising the masses are so many slashes +at the bonds of moral order and decency, calculated +to unloose the brutish Loke of modern democracy; +unbridled animal appetites threaten to take the place +of law and religion; all social order is being undermined; +and the vilest instincts press for gratification +in lust, rapine, and murder. With all the solemnity, +moral persuasiveness, and scientific authority of a +medical practitioner, Max Nordau tells us that a +mortal disease is invading our race, and that with +the end of the century the “dusk” of humanity +begins.</p> + +<p>Before we accept the views of Max Nordau, before +we have recourse to the drastic remedies he seems to +recommend, it is right that we should subject his +theories to the closest investigation. If his work +were one of exact science, there would be no necessity +to refer to the personality of the author, to his +peculiar point of view, and to his predilections. But, +as his work partakes largely of the nature of special +pleading, as his methods of reasoning are those of +the enthusiastic specialist, and as his postulates are +strongly coloured by racial, national, and professional +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>bias, the more we know of him the more easily shall +we follow him in his progress on the highways of +logic and in his deviations from them. Human language +is not so perfect as to allow us to dispense +with the additional light on expressed ideas which +may be derived from one’s knowledge of the speaker +who gives utterance to them. To study the author +as well as his work is all the more permissible, as +this volume is not intended as a complete refutation +of Max Nordau’s conclusions, but rather aims at +separating the dross from the gold and at giving +him, as well as his work, their right place and their +true value as telling factors in the development of +our race. Indeed, this is exactly the method adopted +by Max Nordau in his study, not to say dissection, +of his contemporaries.</p> + +<p>It must be clearly understood however that there +is no intention of going to the length to which Max +Nordau has gone in speaking of men of the day—an +abuse of literature which recalls the literary +squabbles of past generations. The gross vituperation +and the coarse calumny he levels against those +he denounces will certainly not enhance his popularity +or inspire confidence in his methods in England. +In fact, his frequent indulgence in personalities would +have prejudiced his work enormously were it not for +the overwhelming testimony it offers of the fact that +its author’s mind is conspicuously devoid of the sense +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>of the ridiculous. Had it not been for this peculiar +mental defect, his treatment of his opponents could +not have failed to remind him of the disputing doctors +in Molière’s <i>Malade Imaginaire</i>.</p> + +<p>Here we have to do not with the man, but with +the author,—not with his relations to his private +surroundings, but with his relation to the presentations +he receives, the ideas he elaborates, and the +conclusions he proclaims.</p> + +<p>In <i>Degeneration</i> Max Nordau evidently strives +to take a cosmopolitan standpoint. Only in three +or four places does he speak of Germany as his own +country, while he displays a remarkable erudition in +foreign literature, but only a superficial knowledge of +foreign circumstances. Unconsciously however he +constantly betrays his German nationality. To say +that he is a typical German involves by no means +any slur upon his views, has nothing to do with the +fact that the Germans are at this moment—for reasons +entirely independent of German worth—rather +unpopular in this country. It is his book that +clearly announces him as a German, just as the +books of Drummond and Benjamin Kidd announce +them to be English. In other words, his methods, +his views, his predispositions, his standards, his +ideals, are thoroughly German.</p> + +<p>Few countries have so strong a power of inspiring +love for their institutions and their characteristics as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>Germany. Not only is the German spell over those +who are born and bred in the country, but foreigners +who reside there any length of time generally become +thoroughly Germanized. Even English people, +whose characteristic it is to create a little England +around them wherever they go, are remarkably susceptible +to German influence when living in the +country.</p> + +<p>Despite the propensity of many Germans, complained +of by Max Nordau in his book, to imitate +French art and literature, the German people have +strongly pronounced characteristics, opinions, feelings, +and views. We, here in England, have ample opportunity +of observing the tenacity of the German +bias. We sometimes meet with Germans who have +conquered their native propensities and thoroughly +assimilated themselves with the English nation. +But, on the other hand, many Germans, when +settled among us, continue to look on everything +through German spectacles, and utterly fail to grasp, +or even superficially to understand, the English +spirit. This refers, of course, only to those who are +actually born in Germany. The second generation +is invariably more English than the English. We +often meet with Teutons who have come young to +England, gained a position here, married English +wives, brought up a large family of English children, +and who yet remain as German as any <i>Spiesbürger</i> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>in Berlin. They do not appear so to the casual +observer. Their business relations, their acquaintances, +their wives, and their children, being all +English, expect them to be English. They therefore +assume an English outward garb, but as soon as +circumstances allow them to drop their English character +the German characteristics of these “tame +Englishmen” come out as strong as ever. These +facts are elicited in no critical spirit, but simply as +proofs of the tenacity of the German bias.</p> + +<p>The practical result of this bias is an open or +secret contempt for English views, a distrust in +English institutions, a want of sympathy with the +English race, and doubts about the future of the +British Empire.</p> + +<p>If we wish Max Nordau’s nationality to throw +light on the working of his mind, we must realize +what are the most essential traits of the average +German.</p> + +<p>Not yet completely freed from feudal institutions, +it is natural that the German people should associate +moral and political order, good administration, and +personal protection, with feudal institutions. Hence +an immense respect for those in authority and a +contempt for the masses, even on the part of the +masses. Democratic government and individual +liberty inspire the German with great distrust, because +he considers that the introduction into Germany +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>of such features would mean a social upheaval in +which the meagre advantages which now each individual +enjoys might be lost.</p> + +<p>As in Germany all initiative belongs to the authorities, +the people have become accustomed to bend to +superiors, and where an Englishman would attempt +to establish a Free Order, the Germans can conceive +nought but discipline. A great number of enlightened +Germans submit tacitly to all kinds of authorities +because they are morally convinced that this is best +for themselves and their country; but a large part +of the masses, having always found that the authorities +gain their ends by the use of police and military +force, submit only because they are obliged. Hence +a deep-rooted feeling of discontent in a nation constantly +compelled to do the bidding of others. This +discontent has engendered a hatred against the +upper classes similar to that which in France paved +the way for the first Revolution. The fear of the +outbreak of this hatred gives, in the eyes of the +German middle-class, an extra halo to authority.</p> + +<p>The love of following authorities, instead of standing +alone, is in Germany not confined to the domain +of politics. While Englishmen, down to the wage-earning +labourer, have, or believe they have, their +own opinions about politics, administration, religion, +social affairs, and even scientific problems, the Germans +have an accepted authority in each of these +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>branches. Were we to question, say, a hundred +Germans in a <i>Bierhalle</i>, or any other public place, +as to their opinions on the above-named subjects, +the replies would be simply an enumeration of their +authorities in each branch of knowledge. Though +this characteristic is a misfortune to Germany, to +the Germans it savours of a quaint reasonableness. +A German Socialist, asked why he blindly accepted +Liebknecht’s views, replied: “I should be both silly +and conceited if I, a scantily educated man, with no +leisure and means for study, could believe myself +capable of forming a better opinion than Herr Liebknecht, +who has brought a remarkable mind and +great knowledge to bear on political questions.”</p> + +<p>This reasoned self-depreciation, this blind faith in +authorities, accounts for much in Germany which +would be impossible in England. The way, for +example, in which the youths of the country are +forced into the ranks of the army against their will +and inclination would be out of the question with us. +Here, the great majority of young men would simply +refuse, and to coerce them by military executions +would involve a wholesale slaughter against which +the whole nation would revolt. There have been +young men in Germany who, on principle, have +resisted the compulsory service, but brutal punishment +has quickly dissuaded those of their comrades +who secretly admired them from following their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>example. Nothing could be more unjust to the +German people than to attribute to cowardice this +lamb-like submission. German youths are as brave +as those of any other nation, and what to us English +might appear a want of both moral and physical +courage is simply the powerful influence of the +German bias.</p> + +<p>Enough has been said to show that German education +and German surroundings tend to foster in the +human mind veneration for authority and aristocracy, +contempt for the plebeian, distrust of liberty, a +firm belief in the unquenchable power of man’s +lowest instincts, a nervous demand for authoritative +repression of human passions, contentment with a +prosaic existence, small resources, and poor prospects.</p> + +<p>It is natural that a nation whose mind is moulded +in such a form should despair of the practical realization +of its ideals; that the aspirations of the German +race for liberty, enjoyment, and romance should +seek an outlet in the realms of the imagination; +and that the Germans should be a sentimental race. +In this they differ diametrically from our nation. +The young German, when his humdrum work-day is +over, will plunge into books of poetry, romance, and +adventure. He will worship and eagerly follow his +pet heroes, but to emulate them in practical life, as +a rule, does not occur to him.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span></p> +<p>His romantic admiration of female beauty, and his +sentiment of love, have nothing to do with his marriage. +He postpones, as a rule, the taking to himself +a wife until he is fairly successful in life, when pure +romantic love has ceased to exercise any spell over +him, and he expects that his marriage should improve +his social position and procure him a circle of desirable +friends. His poetical notions of love do not +interfere with the choice of a wife. What he looks +for is a young woman with practical qualities, likely +to be a useful <i>Hausfrau</i>, and when he has found +her, he loses no time in suppressing all her poetical +notions and soon reduces her to a submissive +drudge.</p> + +<p>No suspicion of inconsistency enters the mind of +an average German when he reads or writes romances +of love and chivalry in which the hero shows the +most refined courtesy, commits deeds of self-abnegation +and daring in honour of his lady-love, and +exercises the utmost tact in shielding her from every +harsh and unpleasant impression, and at the same +time treats his wife as one devoid of all claims upon +his consideration. He will exact from her such +small menial services as the slave performs for his +master. He will expect her to work constantly for +him, the family, and the house. He will not allow +her enough time or money for her toilet, for pleasure, +for book, and social intercourse. He will not stir +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>to save her trouble or fatigue. He will come to the +table in dressing-gown and slippers, and coolly look +for special dishes for himself, while his wife and +children have to content themselves with cheap +garbage.</p> + +<p>Germans of the middle-class who come to England +frequently express their amazement at the way in +which English husbands constantly pay attention to +their wives. They call it undignified for the breadwinner +and master of the house, on return from a +day of professional work, to “dance attendance” on +his wife, whose duty it is to serve her husband.</p> + +<p>The German, prior to marriage, allows his poetical +notions to be disturbed as little by his sexual +emotions as by his marriage plans. In a methodical +and business-like way he gratifies the former +in police-supervised establishments, and what he +looks upon as “constitutional sprees” are never +allowed to interfere with the course of his affairs. +After a night of debauch he will turn up in his +studio, his office, or his home, smiling and happy +as if nothing had happened.</p> + +<p>We record these observations with no desire to +criticise or to underrate the German character. Nor +do we wish to insinuate that hypocrisy and profligacy +are non-existent in England. We simply wish to +show that the development of the German race has +induced them to conceive ideals entirely unrealizable, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>and to dream of aims so far off in time as to render +them unattainable.</p> + +<p>It will be evident to all who have read <i>Degeneration</i> +that Max Nordau is under the influence +of a strong German bias. As we proceed, we shall +have occasion to point out how in many instances +this bias has warped his perceptions, his reasoning, +and his conclusions.</p> + +<p>From characteristics revealed in his work, the +observant reader will, no doubt, conclude that Max +Nordau belongs to the Jewish race. The view he +takes of the disgraceful Jew-baiting tendencies now +prevailing in Germany is based on exactly the same +mistakes committed by the Jews themselves, as we +shall have an opportunity of verifying later on. He +is evidently a free-thinking Jew, a type which we +meet with everywhere, and against which as few +objections can be raised as against any other type +of man. The free-thinking Jew is generally clever, +well-instructed, moral, and cheerful. His good +qualities however do not prevent him from having +his peculiar characteristics, which naturally influence +his perceptions and his feelings. He has generally +a cut-and-dried life-philosophy based on science and +common-sense as well as on Jewish authorities. He +distrusts democracy, especially Christian democracy, +and feels never quite safe except under laws and +institutions which allow him to assume such ascendancy +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>as his mental qualifications can secure for him, +and those who think with him. He does not seek +for primary causes, and sets up no spiritual ideals. +Though he may not be religious, he has yet retained +something of the monotheist creed, the predilection +for worldly affairs, and the habit of looking forward +to a future life rather in his descendants than in +a heaven—a view which always characterized his +race. His philosophy is nothing if not practical. +His aims are immediate, and, as a rule, he eagerly +embraces all the teachings of the materialist scientists.</p> + +<p>Max Nordau is a modern scientist. He is not a +pioneer in science, but a most persevering and plodding +student of the works of others. He belongs +to that class of <i>savants</i> who spend almost all their +time and all their energy in reading up the authorities. +So vast an erudition as he has acquired cannot be +attained to without some sacrifice in other directions. +The constant absorption of other peoples’ opinions +and theories compels the judgment to lean more +and more on authorities, and this unfits it, to some +extent, for independent action. It is the indefatigable +readers who most blindly follow authorities, and it +suffices to glance at Max Nordau’s dedication to +Professor Lombroso to understand to what an extent +he is subject to the influence of “Masters.”</p> + +<p>The pride taken by a scientist in his science, and +the great practical results achieved by scientific investigations, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>naturally tend to foster an implicit confidence +in its tenets. This has been especially the +case during the last decades, so remarkable for +religious tolerance. As the faith in old dogmas has +receded, science has advanced, and in many cases +taken its place. That such has been the case has +naturally flattered the votaries of science, and tempted +them to become prophets as well as investigators. +They have come to look upon systems as dogmas, +speculations as absolute truths, and in this fashion +scientific superstition tends to take the place of religious +superstition.</p> + +<p>The scientifically superstitious man is an example +of the dangers of a little knowledge. Not that our +men of science, including the superstitious scientists, +are defective in such knowledge as is attainable at our +present stage, but the sum total of all human knowledge +is still, and is probably destined ever to be, only +partial and extremely superficial. Compared with +the knowledge in the past, modern science represents +an immense progress, but as to throwing light on +the great secret of the Universe, far from having +done anything of the sort, it has, on the contrary, +revealed more and more inexplicable wonders, and +placed us face to face with more insoluble problems. +Though trite, the aphorism that the more we learn +the more we realize our ignorance is truer to-day +than ever. It is natural and excusable that devotees +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>of a science which to them has revealed wonderful +results should raise abnormal expectations with regard +to its future possibilities, and also that vanity, a +weakness often co-existent with vast knowledge, should +prompt a scientist to extol and glorify science far +beyond the bounds of reason; for any worship offered +to science rebounds necessarily on its high priests. +This impossibility to realize the limits in which +science moves, and the yearning for admiration, lie +at the base of scientific superstition.</p> + +<p>The scientifically superstitious man believes that +science has adequately replied to those great questions +which humanity has been asking itself for the last +five thousand years. How was creation originated? +For what purpose did it come into existence? What +is man? What does the scheme of humanity involve? +Have we existed before our birth? Shall +we live after death? What is the origin of evil? +What is eternity? What is boundlessness in space? +What is reason? What is instinct? and so on.</p> + +<p>If his excessive study has not seriously impaired +his independent reasoning powers, the superstitious +scientist may confess that these questions have not +been replied to by science, but there will still lurk +in his mind the belief that one day science will +answer them.</p> + +<p>He does not distinguish between nomenclature, +registration, and classification on the one hand, and +explanation on the other. When he has named any +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>newly-discovered substance, force, or phenomenon, +he imagines that he has explained them. He believes +that he has accounted for what is called matter +when he has evolved the atom, and that he has +unveiled the secret of life when he has discovered +the protoplasm or the cell.</p> + +<p>All scientists are not affected by scientific superstition. +They generally suffer from it in an inverse +ratio to the actual knowledge they have acquired. +The pioneer in science generally exhibits less of +this weakness than those who simply act as commentators +and elaborators of other men’s discoveries.</p> + +<p>The votaries of certain sciences are less apt to +indulge in scientific superstition than those of other +branches. Thus, astronomers rarely exhibit any +such symptoms, while biologists are more apt to +do so, and psychologists are more scientifically +superstitious than any other class of scientists. It +might be hazardous to attempt an explanation of +this fact, but may it not be found in the obviousness +of outward infinity, and the impalpability of inward +infinity?</p> + +<p>Later on we shall have ample occasion to show +to what an extent Max Nordau’s mind has been +clouded by scientific superstition.</p> + +<p>Finally, it must be pointed out that Max Nordau is +an enemy to France. It is only human in any German. +The stupendous armament of France is ostentatiously +promoted with the object of revenge upon Germany. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>France, in her sulks over the lost provinces, takes +every opportunity of showing animosity, and this +despite the conciliatory attitude of her Government.</p> + +<p>Though nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed +since the disastrous war between Germany and +France, the bad feeling between the two nations has +unfortunately been kept up. France cannot forget +the loss of her provinces, and, though the attitude of +the French Government is conciliatory, outbursts of +a feeling of hatred against Germany, accompanied +by provocative language on the part of irresponsible +men, constantly occur.</p> + +<p>The German people, with a vivid recollection of +the French invasion early in the century, and perhaps +taking the expressions of the war-party in France +too seriously, look upon the French nation as their +arch-enemies. By the celebration of anniversaries +painful to the French, and other means, the German +Government keeps the animosity between the two +nations alive, and impresses the people with the +opinion that the heavy taxes it has to pay for armaments +are made indispensable by the enmity of +France. It, is therefore, natural that hatred against +France should prevail in Germany.</p> + +<p>We understand that Max Nordau for a considerable +time was the Paris correspondent of German papers, +and we may take for granted that he would not have +been able to please his German readers had he not +been strongly biassed in favour of Germany against +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>France—a fact to which his work bears ample +witness.</p> + +<p>Such is, then, the man who, in his undaunted +faith in his science and in himself, in the name of +truth and the welfare of humanity, and undeterred +by the penalties of the Great Council and Hell Fire, +has said to his brethren,—to the one, “You are +Raca!” and to the other, “Thou fool!”</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II +<br> +<i>DUSK OR DAWN!</i></h2></div> + + +<p>Nordau’s theory is that the educated classes +of the world are degenerating; that the peculiarities +in passions, tastes, pastimes, and moods, bear +witness to such degeneration; that the cause must +be found in the physical condition of the brains of +such authors and artists as for the time being have +the ear and the eye of the public; that the remedy +against degeneration may be found in a moral quasi-compulsory +supervision on the part of the non-degenerate +over degenerate authors and artists. If we +are not entirely exact in this summary of his postulates +and conclusions, it is to a great extent Nordau’s +fault, because nowhere does he give any decided +statement of the scope of his book.</p> + +<p>In his first chapter he goes out of his way in +order to protest against the misconception which +represents him as having insinuated that the whole +of humanity exhibited signs of decay, and he declares +that his remarks apply exclusively to the educated +classes. Were this absolutely true, there would +have been but small occasion for his remarkable +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>work. But over and over again in the pages of +<i>Degeneration</i> he speaks of the masses as partly +affected by degeneration, and of the danger of the +contamination spreading from the educated classes +to the masses. He mentions the extreme Socialists +and the Anarchists as the victims of the mental +disease he investigates. And yet he flatters himself +that the proletariat is not as the upper classes are, +and bases his opinion on the fact that they appear +satisfied with the old forms of art and poetry, that +they prefer George Ohnet’s novels to the works +of the symbolists, and Mascagni’s music to that of +Wagner.</p> + +<p>These statements evidently emanate from one who +has mingled little with the people. The truth is that +the newest books, the newest music, the newest pictures, +only slowly reach the working classes, and +when such works are the outcome of temporary +fashion and mood, they might not reach them at all. +But this by no means proves that the working classes +do not experience the impulses which prompt the +predilections of the upper classes.</p> + +<p>If Nordau’s views of the proletariat in general +were confirmed by actualities prevailing among the +German proletariat, a heavy load would be lifted +from the shoulders of the German Government. But, +judging from the German Press—the official Press +as well as the Socialistic—or from the speeches of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>so high an authority as the Emperor himself, there +exists but little of the Philistine contentment with +the present order of things of which the author +speaks. On the contrary, the Emperor complains +that the discontented working classes are losing +their respect for things that used to be sacred to +them, such as patriotism, feudal loyalty, religion, etc.</p> + +<p>Does Nordau mean to tell us that the pornographic +novels of certain French authors, that the +works of Émile Zola and other realists, are not read +by the masses in France? Who then pays for the +enormous editions issued after millions have read +them in <i>feuilleton</i>? Or does he wish us to believe +that only the aristocracy and the upper classes in +France have been affected by the mysticism which +finds its outlet in the pilgrimage to Lourdes?</p> + +<p>As to the working classes in the English-speaking +countries, which, by the way, signify so little to +Nordau that he not even once mentions them in his +work, are they not children of their time, and do +they not reflect every tendency, every virtue, and +every vice in the upper classes? Not only would +Nordau find, were he to investigate the matter, that +those stigmata of degeneration which he refers to as +such—Individualism and Anarchism—are making big +strides among the English-speaking working classes, +but that the taste for criminal and realistic literature +is growing in popularity. He would even find Wagner’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>music intensely applauded by audiences recruited +from the working class.</p> + +<p>Far from developing ethically in different directions, +the upper and the lower classes in this country +move together, each simultaneously influencing the +other. While the lower classes follow the upper +classes in many things—for example, politics, dress, +etc.—the upper classes obtain their comic songs, their +humorous stories, and most of their fun from the +lower classes.</p> + +<p>The impartial observer cannot fail to notice the +kinship which exists between the proclivities of the +two extremes of English society—the wealthiest +nobility and the poorest labourers. Both these +classes are intensely fond of sports, both degrade +sport by betting, both are given to lavish expenditure, +both pride themselves on physical force and +pluck above everything. Both are prone to disregard +the sanctity of marriage. Both indulge freely +in the pleasures of eating and drinking. Individuals +of both classes get on together better than they do +with the middle classes. And both are only superficially +religious.</p> + +<p>Perhaps this remarkable community of tastes and +views may account for what has always been an +inexplicable enigma to foreigners,—the conservative +working man.</p> + +<p>Nordau classes, among the indications of decay, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>yearning for freedom from outward control and for +complete personal independence. It is true he takes +for granted that such yearnings for individual liberty +aim at the realization of bestial propensities now, +according to him, kept in check only by law, police, +and public opinion. We shall, later on, find that he +has completely misunderstood the attempts to shake +off all shackles which he has noticed. Here it suffices +to point out that the longing for individual freedom, +which manifests itself in a thousand ways unobserved +by Nordau, and in the upper classes takes the shape +of a revolt against conventionality, is conspicuous +among the working classes of Great Britain. This +year’s elections have proved beyond doubt that the +tendency towards State Socialism which characterized +the Liberal policy is fast becoming distasteful to the +rank and file of voters. The tyranny, which, in the +name of Socialism, was exercised by the Trades +Unions, will soon be a thing of the past. When at +its height of development the Trades Unions hardly +comprised one-fifth of the working classes, and now +already the movement is in full retrogression. The +Free Labour Association, though only lately called +into existence, meets with increasing support, and may +no doubt be looked upon as an expression of our +working classes’ new-born love of freedom.</p> + +<p>This change of mind, or, as Nordau would call it, +this degeneration, also accounts for the present halt +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>in the advance of the Socialistic propaganda and the +rapid spread of moderate but decisive Anarchist +opinions which in no small degree contributed to +the recent Conservative victory at the polls.</p> + +<p>What is here stated regarding the British working +classes is true regarding the working classes of all the +English-speaking countries. Everywhere we find a +strong yearning for freedom from control. The remarkable +point about the expressions of this yearning +is that, though the votaries of the revolt against +State tyranny have so far not been able to formulate +any complete or practical scheme for the life of a +State, or community, governed by the best instincts +of the human being instead of by law, their views are +rapidly gaining ground. This is especially the case +in the United States, where Mr. Tucker, the editor of +a little journal called <i>Liberty</i>, is steadily extending +his influence.</p> + +<p>The author of <i>Degeneration</i> distorts reality when +he supposes that the upper classes of a country can +be corrupt and degenerate, while the masses conform +to that German Philistine ideal—a very poor one +indeed—which Nordau would fain hold up to them. +This is proved by the fact that it is in their relations +with the masses that the corruption of the upper +classes becomes conspicuous, and that only through +response from the masses can many forms of such +corruptions become possible.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span></p> +<p>It would take us too far to record all the proofs +that actualities furnish of this fact. We shall simply +point out one of the many conditions in the masses +which promote corruption in the educated classes, +namely, poverty. The appalling, demoralizing, brutalising +poverty in the large modern cities—this +poisonous fungus grown out of modern government +and political corruptions, not only kills the sense of +self-respect and decency in its victims, but renders +prostitution, through sheer hunger and suffering, the +trade of millions. It is poverty among the masses +which undermines the artistic feeling of the nation, +stands in the way of applied art, and compels the +caterer of popular amusements to appeal to low +passions and brutal instincts. Our epoch is not the +first example in history where masses of destitute +people exercise all their ingenuity in corrupting the +wealthy citizens in the hope of snatching some crumbs +of their wealth.</p> + +<p>Dire poverty it is, with its hovels, its rags, and its +diseases, which gives riches their immense value in +the eyes of the people. It creates a thirst for gold. +No man thinks himself safe from falling into the +abyss of modern poverty until he has amassed a +large fortune and placed himself in the position +of amassing more. The love of wealth corrupts +Literature, Art, the Press. It is at the base of +all financial, political, administrative scandals. It is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>responsible for mercenary marriages, which fill the +law courts, pollute society, and contaminate the +home.</p> + +<p>The poverty of the masses paralyses the efforts of +honest industries, honest trades, and honest professions. +The men who succeed are not those who +benefit their fellow-men, but those who ruthlessly +trample them under foot in their heedless race for +gold. It is a well-known fact that the upper classes +are not prolific, and would die out were they not +recruited from the ranks; if therefore the state of the +masses is such as to allow its worst element to rise +to influential positions in society, demoralization of +the masses must inevitably produce demoralization of +the classes.</p> + +<p>We will leave it to the thinking public to consider +to what extent other conditions of the masses, besides +poverty, react in all countries on the upper classes—what +the effects are, first on the masses, and then on +the classes, of corrupt and retrograde churches, compulsory +service in the army, police tyranny, bad and +unjust laws, tutelage under pragmatical Philistines, +caste institutions, official newspapers, State-regulated +arts and entertainments, administrative favouritism, +etc.</p> + +<p>But Nordau takes no heed of such all-powerful +causes of corruption. He sees degeneration only in +the upper classes, and, placing the cart before the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>horse, he regards what he considers the degenerated +author and artist as the cause of a state of affairs of +which they are the very last products.</p> + +<p>There are many passages in his book that strongly +suggest that he is not completely sincere in his one-sided +view. The savage blows he sometimes deals at +the Anarchists bear witness that this form of—as he +would call it—degeneration among the masses caused +him a considerable amount of uneasiness. Judging +by the similarity of his language and that of the +Emperor of Germany, he might well be commissioned +to brand both Socialists and Anarchists as wild beasts. +Be this as it may, his few allusions to the corruption +of the masses serve to enhance the untrustworthiness +of the signs of degeneration which he points out in +the upper classes.</p> + +<p>Among these figure prominently—who would +believe it?—modern female toilets. And why? Not +because they are indecent, as they have often been +in other periods, but because they are eccentric. Is +there then a normal dress for ladies? Or what code +is there in existence to which Nordau can appeal? +Is it a sign of degeneration to hold that one of the +chief objects of toilets is to be beautiful and to +enhance the beauty of the wearer? And ought a +lady who dresses according to this principle to be put +down as a dweller on the border-land of madness? If +women love to dress well, and men love to behold +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>them well-dressed, would it not be madness to adopt +ugly and monotonous toilets?</p> + +<p>It is, of course, not difficult to see that the author’s +standard of female toilet is the plain and ugly dress +of the German housewife, and that he has never realized +the delight which an Englishman takes in seeing +his wife richly dressed, and in a way that suits her +face and form. If Nordau’s standard of female dress +is the severe draperies of the antique, he does not say +so. But, if it be, we must remind him that the beauty +of the classic draperies was borrowed from the beauty +of the forms they revealed or partly displayed.</p> + +<p>With the best will, we could not in northern Europe +emulate the Greeks in dress. There are two objections: +the climate, which demands warm covering; +the sense of may-be false modesty, inherited from the +early Christian ages, which prevents the display of +human forms. The time will no doubt come when +humanity is sufficiently pure-minded—sufficiently degenerated, +as Nordau would probably say—to dress +in clinging draperies, to expose the form more freely +indoors and in warm weather; and who would say +that morality would not be the gainer? A movement +in this direction is already apparent. The skirt-dance +represents one stage. The appearance of an actress +without shoes or stockings might well herald a return +to sandals, and the abandonment of the barbarous +fashion of cramping children’s feet in pointed shoes.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span></p> +<p>But to call the women of European society degenerate +because, under the present circumstances, they +do not go about in light tunics, displaying their feet, +their arms, and one leg, is hardly fair.</p> + +<p>Our great alienist is very severe on the men of society +as well, more especially for the manner in which +they trim their beards. We cannot help sympathizing +with men who wear a double-pointed beard when +they are told that they are on the high road to lunacy +because they ape Lucius Verrius, a gentleman whose +portrait they have probably never seen. Such stigmata +of folly could have been pointed out only by a +man whose mind is completely devoid of a sense of +the ridiculous.</p> + +<p>To anybody who has not a special point to prove +at all cost, it will be patent that throughout the whole +course of history educated men never dressed more +soberly than now. In this matter English fashion +governs the world, and the ruling ideas in Englishmen’s +dress are durability, comfort, and adaptability +to the occasions on which it is worn. Continental +men may not adhere so strictly to these ideas, but +there is good reason to believe that in a short time +they will do so.</p> + +<p>Modern room and house decorations are, according +to Nordau, so many indications of degeneration +and decay. That there are many rooms and houses +eccentrically furnished and decorated throughout the +civilized world no one would deny. But compared +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>with the number of houses and rooms chastely furnished +and decorated in a manner which is incomparably +more pleasant and attractive than the average +rooms, especially in Germany and England thirty +years ago, these abodes of eccentrics sink into insignificance. +As to the decoration of public halls +and places of amusement, we surely notice an improvement +which could not point to degeneration. +Hardly in any European town would such wall decorations +be now permitted as disfigured the walls +of public places of amusement and dancing-halls in +Germany some thirty years ago—the Apollo Saal of +Hamburg, to wit, the walls of which represented hell +in the worst taste possible.</p> + +<p>Here, again, Nordau gives us no standard to go by. +He does not tell us what the house or the room of +a rational being should be like, or to what extent a +wealthy man may indulge in a freak, or amuse his +friends by grotesque furniture and bizarre decorations, +without being degenerated.</p> + +<p>The enjoyments of society especially present symptoms +which cause our psychologist to tremble for the +sanity of the upper classes. Under this head, we expected +him to say something of the increasing taste +for healthy games and sport, for travel, and the amateur +practice of the arts for amusement’s sake. Had +he been willing to look at the question from both +sides, he might have said something about the increasing +love of science, especially social science; of good +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>books as well as bad ones; of the high prices fetched +by the paintings of the old masters, even those not +belonging to the pre-Raphaelite period, consequently +real works of art according to Nordau. He might +have acknowledged the improved tone in social +gatherings and the marked diminution in convivial +drunkenness.</p> + +<p>While sitting in judgment upon the upper classes +of Europe, why should he not have noticed the more +serious side of their lives as well as their enjoyments, +as manifested in subscriptions to hospitals or orphanages, +and institutes of every description; sick-nursing +establishments, where ladies of high rank and wealth +give their personal services, sacrifices of time and +comfort in the endeavour to brighten the lives of +the poor, to save fallen women, to assist released +prisoners, to protect children and even animals from +cruelty? We say, purposely, nothing of all the +charitable work done in connection with churches, +because Nordau and his admirers might not recognise +any results of religious feeling as a proof of sanity.</p> + +<p>But all these emphatic and unmistakable indications +of the state of society—at least as valuable as +the manifestations of vice, hysteria, and eccentricity—are +ignored. On the other hand, he makes much +of the attempts which here and there have been +made, especially in Paris, with representations appealing +to many senses at once; for instance, pictures +exhibited with music, musical recitals in darkened +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>rooms, etc. Such cases are not only extremely +rare, but simply are another combination of many +arts hardly more complicated than that represented +by operas, in which dance[,] music, poetry, and painting +are mingled in order to please.</p> + +<p>In what recorded period, and in what nation, have +there not been attempts to create new sources of +enjoyment? Why should not attempts be made +at advance in amusements as well as in any other +feature of our civilization? That many of these experiments +appear silly, and end in utter failure, ought +to surprise nobody, and scientists the least. Any one +who has tried to invent something new, to ascertain by +experiments some scientific fact, or to solve a physical +or mechanical problem, ought to know that a very +large number of experiments are bound to fail before +success is achieved. It is strange to find in our days +a scientist condemning, as the beginning of folly, +that dissatisfaction with existing things which is the +primary motor of all progress and all knowledge. By +doing so he ranges himself on the side of those Philistines +who burnt the apostles of progress as heretics +and imprisoned the pioneers of science as madmen.</p> + +<p>The unrest which our psychologist notices in the +educated classes exists as well among all the lower +classes of Europe, though among them it reveals itself +in other manifestations. It springs however from the +same source—a strong instinctive feeling, largely corroborated +by judgment, that human life in all spheres +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>is, in the present epoch, utterly out of harmony with +nature, with our irresistible instincts, and all those +noble aspirations, on the realization of which our self-respect, +our ease of mind, and our happiness alone can +be based. It is not alone the present feeling of incongruity +which disturbs humanity, but the fast-ripening +conviction that we are moving in a wrong direction +inspires despair, pessimism in some, and a desire for +hazardous new departures in others.</p> + +<p>This sense of unrest, this craving for change, far +from being symptoms of degeneration, are the first +faint indications of renewing vitality. If decay there +be, it is simply the fermentation which precedes germination.</p> + +<p>Two opposing principles, two different systems, two +classes of antagonistic institutions, cannot exist in the +same place and at the same time. When therefore +old things have been tried <i>ad nauseam</i> and constantly +found wanting, any unprejudiced man, nay, even an +animal, must experience a desire to destroy them. +This feeling naturally becomes strongest in the man +with an imaginative and aspiring mind: for besides +the general disgust of old things, he sees in them the +chief obstacles to better and higher things. The axe +must precede the plough, because the forest cannot +co-exist with the wheat-field. The growing enmity +against old dogmas, old authorities, old forms among +the educated and artistic classes, the kindling rage of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>the masses against existing institutions, signal the +clearing of the rank jungle and the pestilential swamps +prior to cultivation. The leading features of modern +culture have up till now been submission to authorities, +violation of nature, sacrifice of individual liberty, and +progression on Collectivist lines. What wonder then +that those who keenly feel the present degradation of +man, achieved under old conditions, should turn, +against these and clamour for liberty, nature, and +self?</p> + +<p>Nordau, with his German-Philistine ideas, with his +head crammed full of authoritative teaching, and +biassed by the clap-trap of the commonest Collectivism, +has utterly misunderstood the phenomena +which he has only partially observed. He does not +allow for the mistakes, the exaggerations, and the +eccentricities committed by men who try to give expression +to their feelings, their yearnings, their aspirations, +unhampered by traditional bonds. He is bewildered +because a movement springing entirely from +feeling and instinct does not follow a fixed programme, +or some dry philosophical system. He +under-estimates the value of an ethical revolution, +because so far it has not reached its constructive +stage; and because the new apostles of liberty, intoxicated +by their self-liberation, run amuck indiscriminately +against all old things, be they good or +bad; because the movement is in the hands of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>extremists, enthusiasts, and sentimentalists, and still +awaits the guiding hand of the unbiassed logician, +the cool-headed sociologist and economist, capable +of harmonizing it with practical life and moral order.</p> + +<p>Nordau, by his book, has forfeited his claim to be +one of these.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III +<br> +<i>MYSTICISM AND THE UNKNOWABLE</i></h2></div> + + +<p>Of the good things contained in Nordau’s book +which should secure for it a place in the +study of every educated man, his fourth chapter +entitled “Etiology” figures conspicuously. He deals +here with the causes—not the primary economic and +sociological causes, but the immediate causes—of the +increasing bodily debilities and mental derangements +characteristic of our epoch. Such facts, or generally +assumed facts, as that the average term of human life +is extending; that the average stature of man has +increased since the middle ages, rendering the armour +of mighty men of those days too small for middle-sized +men of our generation; that the average chest-measure +in the German army is expanding; that personal +beauty of children, women, and men is in the ascendant; +that many men attain to a great age without +the slightest sign of diminished mental power;—all +these facts might appear so many contradictions to +Nordau’s assertions in the chapter alluded to.</p> + +<p>But, though the consideration of them might induce +him to modify some of the minor points, they are not +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>completely inconsistent with his general reasoning. +He warns us that the excessive consumption of spirits +and tobacco, the use of opiates and poisons in general, +produce debility and premature death. Bad food, +bad air, bad dwellings, and a great number of other +disadvantages which town dwellers, especially the +poor, must endure, are no doubt at least as harmful +to body and mind as he proves. He rightly attributes +a great number of nerve diseases to the prostration +and fatigue consequent upon over-exertion and over-excitement, +which seems inevitable in an epoch of +railways, telegraphs, and machinery.</p> + +<p>The whole of his chapter “Etiology,” however, +dealing as it does with the degeneration of the +masses, seems to contradict what he says in his first +chapter about the upper classes only being affected +by <i>fin de siècle</i> degeneration, while the masses experience +only a more or less slight touch of it. It +also seems to disprove his theory that degenerate +authors and artists are the chief cause of degeneration +among the upper classes, a view which leads him to +overlook the most palpable and most powerful causes +for the production of those psychological phenomena +throughout civilized humanity which he notices only +among the upper classes.</p> + +<p>In discussing degeneration it is of the utmost importance +to know how the affliction progresses—whether +certain authors and artists were degenerated, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>and then affected the upper classes—or whether +the upper classes were degenerated and thus produced +the degenerated authors and artists. Nordau seems +to vacillate between the two opinions, or he considers +the pernicious influence to have been reciprocal. It +is however clear that he regards these authors and +artists, as well as those members of the upper classes +who sympathize with them, as dwellers on the border-land +between sanity and madness. The stigmata, or +the signs of distorted minds, he divides—as they +necessarily must be divided—into bodily stigmata and +mental stigmata. The bodily stigmata are of course +malformations of the head, and he lays particular +stress on the conformation of the ear, its more or less +projecting position, the shape of the lobe, or its clinging +to the head. It would have been charity and +justice on his part to have explained that, while these +stigmata are frequently found on lunatics and idiots, +there are probably millions of people who bear them +without being demented, or even eccentric.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it cannot be denied that there +are thousands of lunatics who possess well-shaped +heads and ears.</p> + +<p>He relies however but little on the bodily stigmata, +and finds them only on a few of his subjects. +He deals, of course, chiefly with the mental stigmata, +and among these he gives mysticism a prominent +place. He quotes from Legrain to the effect that +“mystical thoughts are to be laid to the account of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>insanity and degeneration,” but Legrain adds at once +that they are observable in two states—in epilepsy +and in hysterical delirium. According to his authority +we consequently know that those who suffer from +epilepsy and delirium are apt to be mystical. But +Legrain would probably be the first to object to the +conclusion that all those who are mystically inclined +suffer from epilepsy and delirium.</p> + +<p>In his definition of mysticism Nordau says that +“the word describes a state of mind in which the +subject imagines that he sees or divines unknown and +inexplicable relations amongst phenomena, discerns +in things hints at mysteries, and regards them as +symbols.” But he adds, “by which dark powers seek +to unveil, or, at least, to indicate all sorts of marvels +which he endeavours to guess, though generally in +vain.”</p> + +<p>We have divided his definition into two parts, +because placed in one sentence it seems an incorrect +and unfair definition, the former part of which might +be used as a proof of degeneration in a perfectly +sound mind, while the latter part is the essential of +the whole definition.</p> + +<p>As we have already pointed out, science and all +researches have utterly failed to furnish replies to all +questions regarding the origin, aim, plan, and final +destiny of the universe and of humanity. Under +such circumstances, the world around us, that which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>has preceded it, that which will follow it, as well as +ourselves, necessarily remain mysteries. Can then +any one who perceives or divines unknown, and to +us now inexplicable, relations between phenomena +and who discerns mysteries be regarded as a degenerate? +All the scientific facts of which we are now +in possession were mysteries before they were discovered, +and the scientists who, guided by slight +hints and sometimes by guesses, have unravelled the +marvels of nature, could not surely be put down as +lunatics. It is therefore evident that the phrase +“dark power” is a most essential part in Nordau’s +definition, and that a man can behold mysteries, +dwell on them, study them, sometimes unravel them, +and remain a perfectly sane man, and that he only +who is mystical and deals with mysteries in an +irrational way is a degenerate.</p> + +<p>Nordau says as much in his illustration of the +peasant who is a mystic in his religion and in his +belief in the weather-witch, but a matter-of-fact man +in his farming and in his business. But he is not so +lenient to the exponents of the mystic school in art +and literature. With regard to these, he is rather +prone to determine the state of their mind according +to that part of a quotation from Morel which he has +italicised in his book, “<i>a morbid deviation from an +original type</i>.” The word morbid alone would have +sufficed, but he seems to attach more importance to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>the other part of the sentence and to regard all who +deviate from an original type as degenerate. He +does not allow for extenuating circumstances in the +authors and artists as he does in the case of the +peasant. If he did, he could not class any of these, +or their admirers, among the degenerates, unless he +could also prove that they were irrational in their +daily life and their business relations.</p> + +<p>He acknowledges that the emotional nature of +man has played a more important part in the world +than his intellect, and yet he seems to have before +his eyes an original type consisting exclusively of +intellect and devoid of emotions. If man’s destiny, +his moral condition, his education, his happiness, and +his usefulness in the world, were to be determined +chiefly by his intellectual power, the progress of the +race would have been infinitely more slow than it +has been, and the bulk of individuals now alive +would be far less removed from the animal than they +are.</p> + +<p>It might be contended that, if not all, at least a +large number of religions have brought with them +many evils, but, taking a broad view of the work +accomplished by them in comparison, not with what +they would have done had they been more perfect, +but with that state which would have prevailed had +they never existed, no unprejudiced historian will +deny that civilization and the progress of our race +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>have been considerably accelerated through the influence +of religions.</p> + +<p>No religion is based on logic, and hardly ever were +religious precepts and dogmas accepted exclusively +on intellectual grounds. Faith and reasoning, considerably +modified by emotion, have always formed +the basis of religious beliefs.</p> + +<p>Not only in connection with religious matters, but +in every event and every development in human +affairs, emotion has played an active and prominent +part. Such feelings as love, friendship, ambition, +lust, gratitude, hatred, revengefulness, patriotism, +loyalty, chivalry, etc., are the great motive powers +in the human drama, and when the intellect steps +in it is as their counsellor and their servant.</p> + +<p>It is therefore legitimate and reasonable for those +who wish to sway human beings, who wish to educate +them, elevate them, to address themselves to +their emotional nature. In the position in which +man is placed—living on a cosmic grain of sand, +moving in space by an inexplicable power at an +inconceivable speed, without knowing who he is and +why he is—the mystical must perforce have a great +attraction for him. To be easily impressed by the +mystical is therefore one of his natural conditions, +be it good, bad, or indifferent. When the emotional +nature of human beings is appealed to it is as rational +for artists and poets to address themselves to the love +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>of the mystical as to the love of the beautiful, and +therefore there should be a legitimate place for mysticism +in art and poetry.</p> + +<p>It is almost inconceivable that an educated, well-balanced +mind should never dwell on those immensities +still unexplored, and the innumerable enigmas +still unsolved or insoluble, and content itself with +lingering over those comparatively insignificant truths +which science so far has revealed. To what an extent +a man remains satisfied with quasi-explanations +of scientific research depends on the strength of his +imagination. It is pardonable if alienists should look +upon imagination as a doubtful blessing; but though +it may appear a dangerous gift in their patients, +there can be little doubt that it is an indispensable +attribute to a well-equipped mind. It is the mental +faculty which most distinguishes man from the animals—the +one on which he could with the greatest +appearance of legitimacy base his claim to divine +origin. Dogs may dream and horses may see ghosts, +but their hallucinations are vastly different from the +imagination of man, which allows him to receive and +retain almost any number of presentations, to elaborate +them into new combinations, thus reconstructing +pictures of the past and daring conceptions of +the future, capable of easy realization. A powerful +imagination is essential not only to the poet and +the artist, but to the engineer, the mechanician, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>statesman,—in fact, to all who set themselves a practical +task or a distinct ideal.</p> + +<p>It is the imaginative strength of the scientist which +renders him a pioneer and a discoverer, and without +it he is to his science what the performer of music +who cannot compose is to music. From everyday +experience we are justified in believing that +the cramming of the memory, much reading for +examinations or other purposes, and a developed +habit of relying on authorities tend to weaken the +imagination in a man. This seems to be confirmed +by the theory of psychologists: that desuetude of a +faculty tends to its decay; and might well be the +explanation of the often-confirmed fact that great +discoverers and inventors have seldom emerged +from the ranks of the omnivorous readers of the +universities.</p> + +<p>In the same manner we may explain what we have +before called the scientific superstition discernible in +so many scientists. The more they are satisfied with +their systems, the more they take nomenclature and +classification for adequate explanation, the less they +are attracted by the spheres into which science has +not penetrated or cannot penetrate. There is this +similarity between the scientifically superstitious and +the theologically superstitious—that they both believe +that they have explained all, and they thereby +place themselves beyond the possibility of being +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span>right; for the mass of unexpected facts revealed by +science, eclipsing as they do the wildest flight of the +imagination, renders it possible for any man to be +right in his speculations on the secrets of the universe +save those men who say that they know all.</p> + +<p>It is therefore not surprising that a scientist by +erudition, and especially an alienist, who, by dint +of studying the mechanism which connects what +some call the soul, and others designate as the +trinity of the consciousness, the judgment, and the +will, with the body, has persuaded himself that there +is nothing beyond nerves, cells and the gray matter, +should look with contempt on imagination, and yet +more so on the love of the mystical, and that his +ideal man, his “original type,” should possess so +little imagination as to remain unaffected by the +mystical.</p> + +<p>Lack of information and of observation has caused +the multitude to regard a great number of men—distinguished +in the eyes of the world exclusively by +their intellectual powers—as non-mystics to such a +degree as to class them as atheists. The majority +of such men, though distinctly at variance with the +dogmas and views of established sects, have been +and are, in their inner consciousness, both mystics +and religionists. When in public they have seemingly +attacked religion and mysticism, they have in +reality only attacked churches and superstition. In +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>the judgment of a great many intelligent men the +controversy between Professor Huxley and Dr. Martineau +goes far to confirm this view. When humanity, +including scientists, learns to distinguish between +religion and churches, it will be understood that +almost all men in the past and present who have +deservedly been called great, have been religionists, +and therefore mystics.</p> + +<p>Let us instance Faraday. He belonged all his life +to a sect which must be classed among the mystics, +and he died a believer in its creed. Are we then to +class this keen observer, accurate investigator, and +brilliant logician, this daring pioneer of science, this +ingenious unraveller of nature’s secrets, among the +degenerates? If we do, where should we class average +scientists, including Nordau? Or should we +place ourselves in the position of the common-sense +German Philistine, and declare that mysticism is not +mysticism when it takes the shape of the belief of a +sect tolerated by the police?</p> + +<p>But is not Faraday’s mysticism perfectly compatible +with a sound mind? He was one of those scientists +with unclouded reasoning powers, whose knowledge—gained +by investigation, not from authorities—had +taught him how little he knew of the great mysteries +of creation. He recognised that our emotional cravings +cannot be satisfied by science in its present stage, +but only by emotional realization. Hence his religious +attitude towards the great mysterious power of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>which he knew nothing, but whose work became more +and more manifest as his investigation proceeded. +What wiser course could a man adopt, who was so +capable of distinguishing essence from form, than to +give that form to his religion which had gratified his +emotional nature as a child?</p> + +<p>If sound minds may be mystically inclined, if our +emotional nature can be reached by mysticism in +poetry and art, and if our emotions are acknowledged +to be receptive to elevating and pleasing impressions, +the pre-Raphaelites could not all have been as degenerate +as Nordau would have us believe. They were, +no doubt, emotionalists, mystics, and even symbolists, +and they frankly claimed the right to be regarded as +such. They considered themselves as having a mission, +and the fact that a man throws himself heart +and soul into his mission is no sign of degeneration.</p> + +<p>Now, there are walks in life, callings, missions, +which involve no risk to those who undertake them; +there are others that involve great risks.</p> + +<p>Some callings expose a man to bodily harm, others +to mental harm. Nothing could be more uncharitable +and cruel than to revile a man, to attack his reputation, +to wound his feelings, and to lower his self-esteem, +because he returns maimed and invalided after having +fought the good fight.</p> + +<p>A shopkeeper, a shoemaker, an author of sensational +books, runs but little risk of damaging either +his body or his mind. The sailor, the miner, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>leader of a revolution, exposes himself to great bodily +danger. The man who acquires a vast erudition may +dull his imagination and his judgment; the man who +strains his brain to the utmost, who, perhaps, overstrains +it, in the solution of difficult problems, the +man whose mission lies in the domain of the emotions, +exposes his mind to injury. If there be truth +in this, mysticism in poetry and art may cause degeneration +in the poet’s or the artist’s mind, especially if +it be a weak one; but to conclude from this that mysticism +in art springs from diseased minds is to confound +cause with effect.</p> + +<p>If we accept Nordau’s Philistine definition of art +and his views as to its mission, mysticism would have +no place in art or in poetry. He would certainly exclude +it, but in doing so he would contradict himself +glaringly. We have already complained that he does +not explain his standards, and that he does not give +his ideals. But from his work before us, it is evident +that the standard by which he would measure poetry +is the work of Goethe and Shakespeare, especially +the former. Goethe owes his fame largely to his +<i>Faust</i>—a mystical work if ever there was one. The +prologue is religious mysticism, the first part is diabolism, +the second part is arch-mysticism, which so +far has resisted all attempts at interpretation. In the +same manner <i>Hamlet</i>, <i>Macbeth</i>, and other plays of +Shakespeare derive their great charm and their +artistic value largely from mysticism.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span></p> +<p>All this however does not prove that either +irrational or dishonest mysticism is acceptable, and +much that Nordau says regarding pre-Raphaelitism +should be taken to heart by the camp-followers of the +movement. In this term we include, of course, those +painters who, unable to draw and paint, try to force +their pictures upon the market by sheer bounce; and +empty-headed critics who insolently assume a mental, +or, as they would call it, a spiritual, superiority by +writing obscure, unintelligible rigmaroles in praise of +pictures which attract attention by means of nought +but their eccentricity. This class of people cannot be +considered as representing the pre-Raphaelite movement, +nor can they be called degenerate in the sense +Nordau means, for there is a method in their degeneracy +which yields pounds, shillings, and pence. We +also include in this category a class of people whose +conceit may border on degeneracy, and who believe +that any one who cannot draw and paint is qualified +for a pre-Raphaelite painter, and who sincerely assume +and enjoy the position as misunderstood +geniuses.</p> + +<p>As to the crowds in the exhibitions that gather +before an incomprehensible eccentricity made conspicuous +by the log-rolling process, they surely do +not all deserve the epithet of degenerates. Many are +drawn there by sheer curiosity; others damn with +faint praise, in order to escape the wrath of the +fanatic. There are also, of course, many who, for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>the purpose of giving themselves airs, admire traits +of beauty which they really fail to see. The behaviour +of these hypocritical æsthetes is, of course, deplorable, +but they yield to a weakness not confined to the end +of our century. Andersen’s story of the king’s clothes, +inspired by a very old German tale, is one of many +evidences of the antiquity of such folly.</p> + +<p>The sincere pre-Raphaelites deserve the sympathy +of every thinking man, though they may be guilty of +many imperfections. According to Nordau, the mission +of the painter is to serve as a vehicle of beautiful +impressions to the public. A man who fulfilled this +mission might indeed be called an artist, and his painting +might be the limits of painting as such. But +this does not prevent a picture from containing a +story, a moral, or the expression of an emotion, if the +painter be a good story-teller, a true poet, and a sound +teacher. If a work of art can thus fulfil two high +purposes instead of one, everybody is a gainer by it, +and the fact that it is the embodiment of two arts instead +of one cannot reasonably be made an objection. +The artist who succeeds in thus blending two arts +should surely not be called a degenerate.</p> + +<p>Ruskin did not, as Nordau confesses, advocate any +neglect in the art of painting as such, but he warned +artists not to waste their time on unworthy subjects. +He is a philanthropist as well as a writer on art, and +feels aggrieved when the artist neglects so good an +opportunity of teaching as a well-executed painting +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>offers, and yet more when he sees art abased in +order to gratify sensuality or morbid cravings for +the horrible.</p> + +<p>That Ruskin did not so absolutely disregard beautiful +pictures which have no story to tell and no +teaching to impart becomes incontestable when we +remember his panegyrics of Turner.</p> + +<p>Victor Hugo in his <i>Notre Dame de Paris</i> makes +Claude Frollo say, when he has a book in his hand +and the old cathedral before him, that the one will +kill the other, meaning, of course, that books were +predestined to supersede symbolism in buildings and +other arts. Nordau takes for granted that this has +already been done. He sees no good in works of art +giving expression to ideas and emotions which could +so much better be described and more clearly defined +in books. But is there not a great inconsistency in +first admitting that art keeps within its rational limit +when it presents the beauties of nature to the public +in such a manner as to make them more evident, +which is equal to teaching that nature is beautiful, +and then to say that art oversteps its limits when it +teaches, or attempts to teach, anything else?</p> + +<p>If we survey all the means available to humanity +for the conveyance of thoughts and emotions, they +present a scale which begins by speech and ends +with music. Though it must be acknowledged that +speech only with difficulty lends itself to the expression +of one or a considerable number of interdependent +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>and intertangent complex ideas perfectly +clear in a sound mind, it is however the best means +we possess for lucid expression. Written prose has +the same merit as speech, and may be used to express +the driest mathematical facts, as well as the most +poetical imaginings. Verse, we think it will be generally +allowed, is better calculated to convey poetical +ideas and expressions, as it admits of greater liberty, +more stirring language, bolder metaphors, and because +rhythm and rhyme, in virtue of their musical qualities, +appeal to the imagination and stir the emotions.</p> + +<p>When to poetry melody is added, it becomes song, +a mode of expression which appeals fully as much to +our emotional nature as to our intellect. When instrumental +music is added to song, to evoke emotion +becomes the cardinal object, and intellect receives +hardly any impression. Music without words is the +mode of conveying emotions—and possibly ideas, too +subtle, so to say, too spiritual to be analysed by the +intellect—in so distinct a way that the emotions of the +composer, and may be of the performer, are faithfully +reproduced in the hearers. A mutual understanding +is thus established between them as clearly as any +understanding arrived at through exhaustive verbal +explanation.</p> + +<p>Scientists have endeavoured to explain on materialist +lines the charm exercised by music over us, but +their explanations obviously never touch more than +the mechanical motion of the sound-waves and the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>receptive mechanism of the ear and the brain. Their +dogmatizing is moreover so dry, halting, and one-sided +as to convince musical people that their attempt at +explanation is hopeless. Music belongs to the sphere +of emotions, which lie beyond the ken of science, and +will be as long as scientific progression is hampered +by the materialist bias.</p> + +<p>And yet the most unimaginative scientist will not +deny that all the methods of conveying ideas and +emotions enumerated in the above scale, including +instrumental music, are legitimate arts. Why then +should there not be the same latitude allowed to the +arts appealing to us through the sight as to those +appealing to us through the hearing? If the architect, +sculptor, or painter, or two of them, or even +three of them, combined in collaboration, wishing to +convey an impression, or to evoke an emotion, why +should they not be allowed to do so by any of the +means which fall within their sphere? If they should +wish to evoke emotions similar to those evoked by +music, and they can do so by choosing a certain +subject, by introducing certain symbols, or even by +recalling sentiments of the past—the time of our +first love, our youth, or even our childhood,—why +should they not be free to do so?</p> + +<p>The pre-Raphaelites claim the freedom to thus +expand the scope of pictorial art, to sanctify it, and +to make it appeal to the inmost recesses of our +emotional nature; and as the movement was started +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>at a time when art was in decadence and tended +to become subservient, abroad to pruriency, and at +home, to abominable Philistinism, the pre-Raphaelites +deserve a better treatment than they have received +at the hands of Nordau.</p> + +<p>That they should commit mistakes was inevitable. +It is probable that they had not realized completely +to themselves the exact results to be aimed at. Like +the composer of music, they wished to convey to +others such of their own emotions as they deemed +legitimate, beautiful, and ennobling, and had to grope +in the dark, or to trust to momentary inspiration, for +the means. Being, and wishing to be emotional, they +may have neglected their intellectual powers, forgetting +that even when emotion reigns supreme it can +express itself truly only by the aid of intelligence. +Vivid emotions and powerful imaginations are not in +themselves stigmata of degeneration, but rather the +signs of a rich mind, so long as they remain under +the control of the intellect. It is only when they +run riot, unheeding the criticism of intellect, that the +balance of the mind is imperilled.</p> + +<p>In their desire to emphasize the spiritual meaning +and the emotional nature of their works, the pre-Raphaelites +may have committed the mistake of +neglecting execution, truthfulness to nature, and the +laws of optics. Finding pictures appreciated by the +public in virtue of the subject and the conception, +despite faulty treatment, many of them no doubt +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>have been induced to realize their ideas and emotions +on canvas before they had sufficiently trained their +eye and their hand.</p> + +<p>Every educated Englishman will understand that +Nordau somewhat distorts facts and conveys wrong +impressions in the account he gives of the movement. +Though the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was +dissolved, the movement has not been so devoid +of results as he insinuates. Though the first exhibition +of the Brotherhood was also the last one, +pictures by the same artist have been constantly +exhibited, and some of them have fetched fabulous +prices. He says that Millais, amongst others, has +retained that characteristic of the pre-Raphaelite +Brotherhood consisting of minuteness in details, +draperies, and backgrounds. Any one who has seen +Millais’ striking portraits, his “Cherry Ripe,” “Bubbles,” +“Caller Herrings,” and other pictures could +not possibly make such an assertion. We must, of +course, allow for the circumstance that Nordau’s +knowledge of the pictures he criticises is second-hand.</p> + +<p>It is evident that he has not seen Millais’ latest +pictures. Had he done so, he would not have jeopardized +his whole system of reasoning by holding +Millais up as an example of degeneration. Here, +as in many other cases, Nordau, while exhibiting +an enormous erudition, reveals a remarkable want of +logic. To call Millais degenerate is a desperate way +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>out of a dilemma in which he has landed himself +by asserting, on the one hand, that those who paint +pictures such as Millais painted years ago are people +with degenerate brains, and, on the other, that +people who produce pictures such as Millais paints +now are people of sound mind. If degeneration is +the first step towards a high, normal, and sound development, +Nordau has been guilty of much ado +about nothing.</p> + +<p>Had he ever beheld Holman Hunt’s “Shadow of +the Cross” even in an engraving, he could not in +his description of it have committed the mistakes +he has unless his mind is impervious to pictorial +impressions. He says that “the shadow of his +(Christ’s) body falling on the ground shows the +form of a cross.” This is not true. The shadow +of Christ’s body falls on the wall, where a tool shelf +and suspended tools simulate a cross. Nordau’s +erroneous description will certainly prejudice those +who have not seen the picture against Holman Hunt.</p> + +<p>It is natural that the materialist, the pseudo-scientifically +superstitious, and the Philistine tendencies +of our age, so eminently embodied in the mind of +Nordau, and against which the pre-Raphaelite school +is a protest, should militate against a fair appreciation +of the tentative departure of these innovators.</p> + +<p>The essence of their mysticism and their symbolism +is their belief in what, for lack of a better term, +has been called their spiritual life—the belief that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>the mind is not a condition of matter, but that our +thinking <i>Ego</i> might have existed before it was incarnated, +and that it will live after our body has decayed. +Could our earthly existence be proved finite with +certainty, could any future existence be proved a +vain dream, incompatible with reason, then indeed +would pre-Raphaelitism be the beginning of folly, as, +in fact, would most of the things which now tend +to lighten and beautify our lives. We shall not here +endeavour to determine the five-thousand-year-old +discussion regarding eternal life. We shall simply +point out that the proofs on which the so-called +materialists base their conclusions are not so absolutely +convincing as to stigmatize their opponents +as lunatics.</p> + +<p>Any one who has glanced at the development of +science from old times up to the present is well aware +of that weakness in the mind of scientists—especially +the non-pioneer scientists—which induces them to +believe that the conclusions they have arrived at, +generally in opposition to predecessors, are the whole +truth and nothing but the truth. For thousands of +years it has been the same. For each step that +science has climbed upwards, its votaries, with a few +brilliant exceptions, have believed themselves to be +at the top, and have with scorn rejected, as sheer +folly, any suggestion that the step on which they +stand is rotten and that there are sounder steps higher +up. The scientists of other days in their turn looked +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>upon Columbus, Galileo, and Tycho Brahe as fools. +A hundred years ago the scientists would have laughed +to scorn any one who had told them that their senses +deceived them with regard to light, darkness, colours, +silence and sound, and that all these presentations +received by our senses were simply movement or +manifestations of energy. The theory which regarded +atoms as minute subdivisions of matter is quite a +modern dogma, and yet it is already tottering to its +fall. More rational scientists already speak of atoms +as centres of force, an expression which twenty years +ago was regarded as rank heresy. If the theory +that atoms are centres of force is accepted, with all +its consequences, science is on the threshold of a +new departure which may cause the materialists to +look small indeed; for if what to our senses appears +as matter is a condition of force, instead of force +being a condition of matter, a vista entirely opposite +to that of the materialists is open to science—a vista +disclosing possibilities before which we might well +stand in awe.</p> + +<p>Though it is incontestable that invention and discovery +have been enormously accelerated by often +apparently wild suggestions by the imagination, by +emotion, and by instinct, it is especially such suggestions +which are visited by the most furious +onslaughts on the part of the superstitious scientists. +When these reject as utter folly imaginings prompted +by faith or any other emotions, it is because such +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>suggestions are not only entirely out of harmony with +the scientific ideas of the moment, but because they +appear so extraordinary, so utterly destructive to the +views familiar to them. They would be less positive +in face of suggestions and speculations justified by +emotion, if they did not constantly forget that every +scientific discovery reveals facts which are not only +diametrically opposed to opinions previously held, but +also so marvellous as to baffle human understanding. +Bearing recent scientific discovery in mind, no one +will deny the folly of the man who a hundred years +ago would have prophetically declared: “What we +now have proved true and reasonable will in a hundred +years be proved error and folly, and what to us now +appears as sheer madness and rank impossibility will +then be scientific truth.”</p> + +<p>Any contemporary scientist, unaffected by scientific +superstition, would unhesitatingly acknowledge the +probability of present scientific dogmas being declared +errors, and that what would now appear as the hallucinations +of an overheated imagination may become +scientific truth a century hence.</p> + +<p>Though the narrow-minded scientist who takes up +his stand on the so far explored speck of the universe +has no right to blame the artist or poet who, guided +by emotion and faith, plunges his imagination into +the surrounding abyss of the mystical, which no well-balanced +mind can ignore, it would be both unjust +and absurd to blame the prosaic and plodding scientist +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>who concentrates his whole mind on scientific details, +and, to use a happy metaphor of Nordau himself, +is building a bridge, arch by arch, out into the unknown. +It is good that the Alpine climber should +concentrate his attention on the steps he hews in the +ice and the safe resting-point he can find for his feet, +and not allow his mind to wander in the dark precipice +below him or among the lofty peaks he hopes to reach. +Man being two personalities, one emotional, the other +intellectual, stands in need of the services of both the +logical scientist and the emotional artist and poet.</p> + +<p>Once it has been recognised that the emotions may +be conveyed by pictorial art, we cannot quarrel with +the <i>raison d’être</i> of the pre-Raphaelites, though we +might disagree with them as to the means they are +using. They can however justly demand that those +who criticise their means of expression should show +the possibility of better ones. Holman Hunt has +aimed at evoking by his pictures a feeling of respect +and admiration for religion, and in many cases has +succeeded; and the means he has employed are a +reverential treatment, a style of old associated with +religious representations and suggestions of the supernatural. +Burne Jones, whose object seems to be to +emphasize the higher significance of our spiritual +being over our bodily, does so by giving us pictures +of maidens whose beauty is of a kind devoid of all +those attractions which coquetry, roguishness, animal +spirits, and exuberance of health may confer. Their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>vacant and inward look suggests a contemplative +mood and a yearning to see the invisible. As if to +still further quicken the sluggish imagination of the +masses, he cloaks his figures in draperies and surrounds +them by objects which of old have been used +in representing holy people. He comes as near as +possible to the representation of wingless angels, +without presenting anything that could not be seen +in reality.</p> + +<p>Such pictures may not appeal to everybody, but +we have overwhelming evidence that they do appeal +to a great number; and if the belief in a superiority +over animals, in a spiritual personality, in a responsibility +for our development, and in a future life contributes +to our happiness and exercises an ennobling +influence on our race, the pictures of Burne Jones +cannot be the work of a degenerate aiming at the +degeneration of others.</p> + +<p>What by many is considered Rossetti’s masterpiece, +“Dante’s Dream,” would by a painter, in his capacity +of craftsman, be found to contain many defects, and +only one great merit—exquisite colouring. The conception +is eccentric, the surroundings are symbolic +and mystical, and the anatomy is incorrect. There +are faults of perspective, some of them glaring. For +instance, the left shoulder of the angel of love who +stands on the left hand of Beatrice, facing her and +bending over her, is partly hidden by Beatrice’s +right shoulder, which could not be possible in reality +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>unless the two figures had only two dimensions—height +and breadth, with no thickness. And yet +this picture has been bought by the Corporation of +Liverpool for a large sum, and is considered as a +thing of joy and beauty by a mass of people among +whom Nordau could detect but a few with malformations +of the heads and the ears, and who in the whole +of their life have given abundant proof of practical +rationalism far greater even than that of the superstitious +peasant he instances as having a sound mind.</p> + +<p>The charm of the picture does not lie in the +execution, but in the conception. It is probable +that it evokes exactly the same emotion felt by +Rossetti while painting it. The subject being a +dream, the many symbols tend to throw the spectator +into the mood in which the picture should be contemplated. +There is an atmosphere of Sabbath—presentiment +of bliss—which is produced by the +introduction of such presentations which in our +youth or childhood have been associated with that +day. The artist has succeeded in intensifying the +belief in the sacredness of love and the consolations +which, amid the troubles of life, may be drawn from +the faith in a spiritual existence.</p> + +<p>The conceiving and representing of pictures like +this, the outcome of intense emotion, might well endanger +the balance of the painter’s mind, but the +soothing influence they exercise on the spectator +would surely assuage rather than excite any restless +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>mind which, deprived of a profound philosophy and +a far-reaching scientific knowledge, must needs cling +to faith.</p> + +<p>The painter who produces on the canvas a beautiful +scene from nature, beautiful flowers, or other +beautiful objects, pleases and elevates the beholders +of the picture. Nordau admits as much. But he +does not analyse the methods by which this result +is accomplished. He would probably not deny that +one of the feelings which such a picture calls forth is +a sympathy with nature and the Creator, and that +this sympathy favours the conception of the distinct +idea that the great power of the universe suggested +by natural beauties—as the painter is suggested by +the picture—loves the beautiful, and consequently +the good.</p> + +<p>The signification of the pre-Raphaelites in the +progress of art is that they strive to teach, in the +production of groups and figures, similar emotions +and thoughts to those produced by the representation +of natural beauties. They have therefore contributed +considerably to the elevation of art so far as aims and +subjects go. If they believe that a purpose can be +attained only by the imitation of the unskilled pre-Raphaelite +painters, by violating nature, by eliminating +perspective, and by apotheosizing ugliness, they +do not further that regeneration which we believe +they are striving for. But there is every reason to +hope that modern art will come out ennobled from +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>the crisis into which it has been plunged, and that +rising painters will see their way to paint reverently +and realize their noblest aims and highest ideals, +represented in naturally beautiful forms, painted with +the greatest skill of a painter proud of his craft.</p> + +<p>Whether this hope be realized or not, it seems to +us that a regeneration of art would be impossible +without the attempts at new departure which Nordau +has mistaken for degeneration.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV +<br> +<i>THE BANKRUPTCY OF SCIENCE</i></h2></div> + + +<p>In his chapter entitled “Symbolism” Nordau seeks +confirmation for his theory of degeneration in +the tendency, more or less perceptible all the world +over, on the part of contemporary artists and poets, +to have recourse to symbols in giving expression to +ideas and emotions impossible to convey in ordinary +language. Every one who has had to do with intricate +syntheses of ideas, even of the driest and +the most clearly definable kind, is well aware that +language often appears inadequate to convey such +syntheses from one mind to another. How much +more difficult then must it be to convey in exact +language a presentation conjured up from the imagination, +an artistic conception, a poetical mood, a strong +emotion, or a chord of emotions, to use an expression +that may in itself serve as an illustration. The use +of symbols, as we have just used the word chord, has +not only enormously widened the capability of language, +but has rendered it far more lucid, laconic, +and agreeable.</p> + +<p>A modern orator, or writer, could not possibly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>dispense with symbols, for without them his speeches +or his books would be intensely wordy, tiresome, and +difficult to comprehend. Language is constantly +being enriched by new symbols, either invented and +introduced by authors, or taken from such literary +works as have become classic. Often an author +creates a character or an idea which typifies characters +and situations frequently met with, and for +which symbols have long been needed. Thus, for +instance, Andersen’s <i>Ugly Duckling</i> became a symbol +largely used as soon as his fable was published, +and when Ibsen’s <i>Doll’s House</i> was played for the +first time in London, one newspaper, which, by the +way, took Nordau’s view of Ibsen and declared his +characters impossible, in another article, if we remember +aright, on the subject of marriage, used with great +effect Ibsen’s Nora as a symbol.</p> + +<p>But such symbols are as old as language, and the +new tendency of <i>littérateurs</i> who call themselves, or +who are called, symbolists, is not to invent and to +use symbols that stand for well-known and perfectly +undisputed characters and situations, but such as represent +new ideas, difficult to define, or undefinable, +because incomplete, and concerning emotions. The +same authors are also prone to use symbols for things, +beings, and powers, the existence of which has not +been ascertained by the senses, but simply guessed +at, or evolved from consciousness.</p> + +<p>Many such symbols were not symbols when first +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>introduced into the language, but nouns that stood +for things, or beings, supposed to be perfectly real. +Thus, for instance, the word “devil,” which in olden +times stood for a satanic majesty, adorned with horns +and tail, has now become a convenient symbol, a +thing only too real, but covering such immense +ground, and presenting such innumerable aspects, +that a symbol expressing the whole conception is +extremely convenient. Nothing is commoner than to +hear a clergyman use the words “the devil” in his +sermon, though it be part of his creed and of his +teachings that God is so omnipresent throughout the +universe that there is not a square inch for a personal +devil to place his foot on.</p> + +<p>It is this kind of symbolism which Nordau is bent +on crucifying as degeneration. As we have already +said, there is a general tendency among artists to +indulge in it, in order to produce moods and suggest +emotions. Thus, for example, in the picture spoken +of in our last chapter, “Dante’s Dream,” an atmosphere +of love is represented by red birds, and sleep +is represented by poppies strewn on the floor. In +Rossetti’s picture Nordau would have taken objection +to such symbols, though he seems reconciled to the +symbols used by Raphael and his school, and would +probably not object to those of German allegorical +painters and sculptors.</p> + +<p>It is significant that the symbolism which he most +vehemently holds up as a stigma of degeneration, is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>that of the modern French poets who have made +religious symbolism their speciality. It is not difficult +to see why these have been chosen as the +scapegoats for the symbolism of every art and +every country. It is true they boldly call themselves +symbolists. But this would not be enough to elicit +from Nordau a chapter of forty-five pages. Besides +calling themselves symbolists, they have the audacity +to be French. Their symbolism is religious, and, +what is worse, is Roman Catholic, and, what is worst +of all, it is antagonistic to science.</p> + +<p>Though the now prevailing love for symbols does +not always manifest itself in a religious way, it is +natural for it to find its widest application in speeches +and writings on religion. Religion avowedly deals +with things not of this earth, is based not on knowledge +and investigation, but on faith, and appeals not +to our intellect, but to our emotional nature.</p> + +<p>The French symbolists have created greater sympathy +with their religious views than might have +been expected in our rational times because, unlike +the Catholic clergy of the past, they treat as symbols +what before were considered as representations of +actual facts. They are not orthodox; and if the +Church of Rome is anxious, as it seems to be, to turn +this neo-Catholicism into a means of resuming its +influence, it can only do so by enormously modernizing +its fundamental ideas. It will be interesting to +see whether the Church of Rome will accept the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>symbolists as co-operators, or finally spurn them as +heretics.</p> + +<p>What especially rouses the animosity of Nordau +against the symbolists is the fact that the new movement +is based on the supposition that science is bankrupt, +or, in other words, that it has failed in all its +promises to humanity; that it has usurped the throne +of religion under false pretences; and that its incapacity +to supplant religion has been demonstrated by +the latest scientific discoveries. According to the +idea underlying the French symbolist movement, +science has during the present century aimed at the +destruction of religion, and has caused religion to be +neglected, discredited, and scorned.</p> + +<p>Such a movement founded on such premises and +aiming at such aims must be of the greatest interest +to any man who watches attentively the development +of our race. To study its true cause, its real +nature, and its real aims should be the desire of +every earnest investigator; and if Nordau falls back +on obloquy, indelicate insinuations, and blunt accusations, +after the fashion of the militant <i>literati</i> of the +past, the reason of his animosity is easily explained.</p> + +<p>Nordau, like many scientists before him and with +him, has taken sides in the absurd fight—the <i>querelle +allemande</i>—between science and religion, which has +done so much to discredit both. To the unprejudiced +observer, any scientist who joins in the fray is induced +to do so by his inability to distinguish between religion +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>and church, and consequently to realize that the +whole progress of science during the present century +has had the result, amongst many others, of justifying +such an attitude of mind towards God, the original +cause, universal energy, or whatever scientists choose +to call it, which religion implies.</p> + +<p>Whoever distinguishes between church and religion +will at once understand that an ascendency of religious +views throughout the world may be perfectly +compatible with the decay of sectarian dogmas, and +that therefore many phenomena which appear to +indicate the decay of religious views—such as church-going, +for example—may in reality mean a deeper +religious life. If we take a comprehensive view of +that progress in religious views which has been accelerated +by science, we shall find that church-going, the +rosary, and the images of the saints indicate the preliminary +stages of a religious evolution which in its +later development requires truer expressions.</p> + +<p>So long as we have such a number of sects and +churches, many of which differ essentially, and all of +which differ to some extent, it cannot affect any one’s +feelings to be told that church is not religion. It +is this truth that science has accentuated, and the +inevitable consequence has been that the churches, +though they at first might have vehemently opposed +certain scientific facts, and yet more certain rash +speculations founded on them, have afterwards quietly +striven to modify their views and their dogmas +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>so that they should not clash with absolute scientific +truths. That many such attempts at reconciliation +between science and churches have been feeble and +absurd does not disprove, but confirms, the existence +of the above tendency. Though perhaps it would +be difficult to give a true definition of religion as +distinguished from church, the conception which +every thinking man forms of it is probably clear +enough to allow him to realize that some churches +are farther from the ideal than others.</p> + +<p>If it be true that the progress of science has +been instrumental in impelling the development of +churches in the direction of a future religion of ideal +beauty and ideal truth, and that such a religion must +necessarily be in complete harmony with scientific +facts, then the animosity of science and religion is +to a sound mind incomprehensible.</p> + +<p>Yet Nordau unhesitatingly takes for granted that +religion and science are naturally antagonistic. He +takes very seriously the assumption of the French +neo-Catholics that henceforth science will have to +make room for religion. Had he any sense of +humour, he would not have thus betrayed how <i>jalousie +de métier</i> animates him to no small extent. He +mixes up science and the scientists in a most amusing +manner when he compares the neglected scientist +with the idolized saint, and asks, “What saintly +legend is as beautiful as the life of an enquirer who +spends his existence bending over the microscope?” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>Does our alienist aspire to go down to posterity +with a halo around his head? He regrets the good +old time when the daily Press of that date said, +“We live in a scientific age,” when “the news of +the day reported the travels and the marriages of +scientists, the <i>feuilleton</i> novels contained witty allusions +to Darwin, etc.”</p> + +<p>Nordau completely denies that there is any foundation +for the assertion of the French symbolists that +science has become bankrupt—that it has not fulfilled +its promises to humanity. In order to refute +it, he gives us the long list of scientific achievements +to which scientists who militate against religion have +accustomed us, beginning with spectrum analysis and +finishing up with instantaneous photography. He +demands for science the respect and trust of humanity, +not only on the ground of what science has +accomplished, but also on the ground of what it +will accomplish.</p> + +<p>His faith in his mission deserves sincere admiration, +and proves him to be one of those earnest +enthusiasts who alone can advance humanity. But +he does not see that his prophecies regarding future +achievements are not science, but faith and religion—based, +it is true, on reasonable grounds, but still +faith and religion.</p> + +<p>Nor does he see that his proud asseveration of +the achievements of science, and his prophecy with +regard to its future, do not constitute a refutation to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>the cry of the symbolists that science is bankrupt. +The promises which the symbolists refer to as being +dishonoured by science, are not of the kind that +could possibly be redeemed by the achievements +referred to in Nordau’s splendid list. They allude +to promises not really made by science, but by rash +and prejudiced scientists. These have over and over +again proclaimed that religion had been supplanted +by science, and that science could, or else soon would, +explain all those mysteries which religion claimed to +explain or to symbolize, such as first causes, final +aims, existence or non-existence before birth and +after death, the origin of evil, the essence of morality, +and so on. Science, according to them, was not only +to bring about perfect serenity in man’s mind regarding +himself and the universe, but to satisfy the +mysterious longings and the uncontrollable emotions, +either hereditary, or part of man’s nature, which +hitherto religion alone had satisfied. Science was +also to supply rational motives for purity, morality, +self-sacrifice, and all the virtues and exertions which +are indispensable to the elevation of our race. +Finally, science was to transform us into an ideal +race, living in an ideal manner, thus substituting a +terrestrial heaven for humanity, for the spiritual heaven +which religion promised for the individual.</p> + +<p>Nordau cannot blame the scientists who made these +promises; for the whole of his book shows that he +is in entire sympathy with them.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span></p> +<p>There was a time when the educated world believed +in the arrogant promises of the scientists; +when it confidently expected that mysteries, so far +unexplained, would be cleared up within a reasonable +time, and that systems and speculation, which were to +take the place of religion, would gradually be so amended +as to become capable of fulfilling so great an object.</p> + +<p>But the rapid scientific discoveries which followed +one upon each other, far from tending to fulfil the +promises of the scientists, had the effect of persuading +the world that science was not going to keep any +of these promises. For each mystery it unravelled +revealed a series of new mysteries behind it, and +the explanatory task of science grew with its own +progress. In fact, while the explanations increased +by simple arithmetical progression, the mysteries rose +up in geometrical progression.</p> + +<p>At the same time better schools, public lectures, and +innumerable periodicals initiated the masses into the +secrets of the scientific freemasonry, and people began +to perceive that what they, in their awe of science, +believed to be perfect knowledge of the very essence +of the world-phenomenon was only a series of acute +observations, an intelligent classification, backed by +arbitrary speculations and the superstitious faith in +the omnipotence of science, culminating simply in a +barren religion of humanity.</p> + +<p>As to eternity and infinity of space, all that +science could do was to tell the masses not to trouble +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>their heads about them; as to causality, they were +asked to regard it simply as “a form of thought which +had nothing to do with the phenomena.” As to +morality, the religion of humanity seemed extremely +untrustworthy: for the removal of all personal responsibility, +and the certainty of complete annihilation +after death, seemed to give the strong-minded and +clever people the strongest possible inducement to +make their fellow-beings tools for their own happiness. +The promised earthly paradise was not only thousands +of years ahead in time, but was to be constituted +on principles which even a superficial knowledge of +economy and sociology was bound to expose as an +Inferno.</p> + +<p>It was natural then that a great number of people, +unable to climb to the height of abstract and unsatisfactory +reasoning of the kind that the scientists had +attained to, and whose emotional nature utterly rebelled +against a progression which was intended constantly +to violate their best instincts, should spurn +science, which offered them no other compensation +than freedom from personal responsibility.</p> + +<p>It was not only the hollow arrogance of the scientists +and the failure of science to fulfil the promises +of its superstitious votaries which had created disgust +with scientific atheism: the practical results of the +anti-religious tendencies became alarmingly apparent; +experience began to prove that the discarding of all +personal responsibility did not produce the <i>ultra</i> man—<i>der +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>Uebermensch</i>—of which the scientists claimed +to be the prototypes.</p> + +<p>Many of them had been in the habit of speaking +scornfully of those selfish natures who live irreproachable +lives, and who devote themselves to the promotion +of the good of their fellow-men under the +impression that in a future state they would reap +their reward. The atheist-scientist represented himself +as a man of different metal: he was fully as +moral as the religionist; he spent his life in serving +humanity, well knowing that his self-control and self-sacrifice +would bring him no reward; he did his duty, +not induced by any mean, religious consideration, but +because he was a perfect man.</p> + +<p>The lesser mortals, those from whose ranks the +symbolists are recruited, began to entertain doubts of +the infallibility of these first-fruits of the religion of +humanity. The very arrogance of these perfect men +told against them. If they disbelieved in the rewards +of a future life, they were not averse to the rewards +in this, and eagerly accepted the money and +the distinction their works brought them. There was +especially this about them: they unhesitatingly attacked +that which the masses could alone rely on for +moral guidance, equanimity, consolation, and encouragement—religion—while +the religion of humanity +was thousands of years in the future, and thus left the +people a prey to mental bewilderment, doubt, and +unrestrained passions. The scientist stood accused +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>of acting like a man depriving a cripple of his only +crutch, against the promise of supplying his remote +descendants with better ones.</p> + +<p>But atheism had a far worse effect on ordinary +mortals, who had not to sustain a reputation as +apostles of the new scientific creed. Convinced that +no personal responsibility attached to them, and +caring little for what would happen to the next +generation, or still less to generations thousands of +years hence, they tried to persuade themselves that +conscience was an inherited weakness, developed by +evolution, or a product of wrong religious teaching. +Wishing to rise above such a weakness, they did +their best to silence conscience, and to live for +self-gratification. In this manner selfishness, if not +Egomania, was strongly developed.</p> + +<p>Capitalists and politicians strove to acquire wealth +and power, regardless of other people’s rights, of +their own conscience, and of their sense of honour, +so long as their dishonour was known only to themselves. +Society became frivolous, and exhibited the +same stigmata of degeneration noticed before in decaying +commonwealths. Art became lascivious and +corrupting; literature became realistic and offensive. +In fact, a host of clever men who ought to have been +benefactors of their race cared not to what extent +they ruined and demoralized their fellow-beings so +long as they safeguarded their own health, their own +future, and their social position.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span></p> +<p>The working classes being told by men, far superior +to them in intellect and education, that their only +chance was in their lives here on earth, and that +death was annihilation, began to sympathize with +violent Nihilists and Anarchists, and were less averse +to risk their lives, if it were only to avenge themselves +on those who deprived them of their terrestrial +happiness.</p> + +<p>But it was not only in the effect on their fellow-beings +that the neo-Catholics, the symbolists, and +their sympathizers all over the world beheld the +results of scientific atheism. Many of these themselves +became “frightful examples” of these results. +Nordau commits a great mistake in studying the +French symbolists as authors and poets. It is as +children of their times that they should be studied. +He looks upon them as causes of the symbolist movement, +whereas we should have regarded them as the +indicators of a remarkable stage in the development +of our race.</p> + +<p>It was inevitable that the theories of the scientists +should have been accepted more widely in France +than in any other civilized country. In the English-speaking +countries the Churches and sects had not +assumed the same uncompromising attitude with regard +to the mediæval doctrines as the Church of +Rome. They had gradually receded from one contested +point after another and many of their old +forms and texts were given a more liberal interpretation. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>Urged on by the example of the Broad +Church, the Congregationalists, and especially by the +Unitarians, the clergy and the ministers ceased their +opposition to any established scientific facts, though +they rejected scientific speculations. The influence +of the scientists in the English-speaking countries +tended therefore to modernize religion, instead of +bringing it into contempt.</p> + +<p>In Germany, where the people are slow to oppose +any authority, and where they are extremely shy of +their real religious opinions, scientific atheism simply +encouraged the free-thinkers existing there of old and +induced a mass of young men to masquerade as free-thinkers +who in reality held no opinions at all, and +who were destined to become devout in their old age.</p> + +<p>In Italy and Spain the teachings of the scientists +only somewhat strengthened the hands of the Liberals, +but produced no effect on the Ultramontanes. +In Russia, where the nobility and the middle classes +had for a long time been free-thinkers, or perhaps +non-thinkers, in regard to religious questions, the +religion of humanity affected only that portion of +the people which was already under the influence of +Nihilism, and tended to render them more reckless.</p> + +<p>In France however, and perhaps in such countries +as are directly influenced by French views—for instance, +Belgium and Switzerland,—circumstances were +different. The atheism which broke out with the +first French Revolution had begun to subside, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>nobility and the upper classes were the allies of Rome +partly by conviction and partly from policy. In the +country districts the <i>curés</i> had resumed their influence +over the peasantry, but the labouring class in the towns +was divided into two camps, the free-thinkers and the +Ultramontanes; and the difference between them +was emphasized by the circumstance that the Ultramontanes +were generally conservative in siding with +the powers that be, while the free-thinkers were more +or less extreme Republicans, Socialists, or Communists.</p> + +<p>Such was the situation in France when the influence +of the scientists on religious opinion began to make +itself felt there. The materialist views were eagerly +taken up by the Bohemians of Paris and by the extreme +wing of the Republican Press. The upper +classes read, or skimmed, the English scientists, and +up to the beginning of the Franco-German war the +German philosophers were much in vogue amongst +the upper classes and in literary circles. In this +fashion the Church of Rome had to face an attack +differing widely from the French Revolution. Then +the corruption, and the siding of the Church with +those who were regarded as the enemies of the +country, exposed it to open violence prompted by +strongly roused passions. During the latter days of +the Second Empire it was assailed in its dogmas with +arms borrowed from scientific research and speculation. +The latter attack was by far the more dangerous. +The discontent with the Imperial Government did +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>much to draw the urban working classes into the +ranks of the free-thinkers, where the theories of the +scientists confirmed them in their new atheism. +Parisian society had become atheistic, and the whole +male population of the middle class prided themselves +on their freedom from all religious prejudices. What +remained of religion in France was represented by +the old nobility, who had a political interest in being +religious; by the peasants, who were supposed to be +too stupid to grasp the new scientific truths; by old +men, who had not the courage to face the grave +without the consolation of religion; and by the +women, to whom, it was confessed even by the most +debauched <i>roués</i>, religion gave an extra charm.</p> + +<p>When the Third Republic was launched it had a +strong atheistic character, and the working classes in +all the cities, the sincere free-thinkers, patriots, and +philanthropists, hoped that under a Republican form +of government the religion of humanity of the scientists +would at last have a fair trial. But they were +destined to bitter disappointment. The new Republic +turned out to be <i>bourgeois</i> in the worst sense of the +word. Politics passed into a profession. Politicians +and administrators became corrupt. Scandals multiplied. +Even the Press was unable to show clean +hands. Wealth became all-powerful, and the plutocrats +acquired an enormous influence which they did +not hesitate to use to their own advantage. Speculators +and adventurers pulled the strings of the home, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>and especially of the colonial, policy, and in order to +further private interests the indebtedness of the State +was carried to such a point as to threaten the most +gigantic financial catastrophe the world has ever +witnessed. In the meantime the working classes and +even the agriculturists naturally suffered from the +result of a system of government which disregarded +their interests. The proletariat of the cities grew, +labour troubles became frequent, wages fell, and +poverty rapidly increased.</p> + +<p>While this growing penury invaded the homes of +the working and lower middle class of a nation which +has only partially realized the happiness and healthy +influence flowing from decent and moral homes, +scientific atheism took possession of the minds of +the people, especially of the men. It urged them to +make the most of their lives, and enticed them into a +whirlpool of dissipation.</p> + +<p>Scientific atheism was bound to produce a vast increase +in immorality in a country like France, where +the Church of Rome, in order to enhance its influence +over the people, favours unhappy relations between +the sexes. The clergy do all they can to estrange +the sexes prior to marriage, and thus prevent pure +love and love-marriages, while they encourage <i>mariages +de convenance</i>. They are animated no doubt by +the best intentions, but, living themselves in enforced +celibacy, have no idea to what an extent they thus +undermine the morality of the people.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span></p> +<p>As love counts for little in the tying of the matrimonial +knot, and the <i>dot</i> counts for much, French +unendowed girls stand a poor chance of ever getting +married. This exclusion of an enormous number of +the best women from the marriage market explains, +to a large extent, the many irregular households to +be met with in France. The fact that lovable and +high-souled women accept the position of mistresses +has largely tended to multiply mock marriages. The +refusal on the part of the Church of Rome to permit +divorce, and the lovelessness of the regular alliances, +tend in the same direction. The sum total of all this +is that a majority of Frenchwomen have to choose +between an unhappy married life without love, and +an immoral one with it. Those who are forced into +the former in a great many cases seek consolation +in an illicit <i>liaison</i>; those who drift into the latter +become debauched. While thus the young, respectable, +and pure-minded girls are relegated to schools +and nunneries and excluded from all association with +young men, among these licentious pleasure often +takes the place of romantic love. Hence physically +and morally unhealthy lives, absence of happiness, +craving for excitement, morbid passions, pessimism, +contempt for life, depraved tastes, hysteria.</p> + +<p>Scientific atheism had however only aggravated a +state of things created by sacerdotal influence on social +habits. But it was only natural that a nation, so +biassed in social questions as France, should ascribe +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>the decay of morality and of so many other virtues +to the weakening of that influence which for centuries +had proclaimed itself, and had been considered by the +masses as the only check upon wickedness among +great and small alike.</p> + +<p>Hosts of young men who entered life with noble +aspirations to fight for high ideals, soon perceived, +when left to shift for themselves, that the society +around them irresistibly opposed the realization of +their hopes. They found it difficult, almost impossible, +to reconcile success with self-esteem, love +with morality, and their poetical aspirations with their +manner of living. Many, in despair of happiness +and success, or in order to forget their crumbled +illusions, threw themselves into a feverish quest for +excitement, in which health of body and mind were +jeopardized.</p> + +<p>Awakening to the full consciousness of the depth +of their fall, they could not fail to see that the social +system under which they lived was largely responsible +for their miseries. In looking back over their wasted +lives they saw nought but shattered hopes. What +they had forfeited were a happy and vigorous youth, +transports of romance, the love of a pure-minded +woman, a strong and active manhood, a chivalrous +fight for the good, the pure, the true, and the beautiful, +the respect of their fellow-men, an ideal home.</p> + +<p>The social conditions which they held responsible +for their miserable career, and even for the regret +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>they experienced, could not be laid at the door of +an Emperor or a dynasty: for their country was +governed by universal suffrage. Finding government, +legislation, institutions, and social conditions +vitiated, they had to blame Society. They found +that Society was atheistic, and was deprived of the +only check and guide that came within their ken—religion. +They were filled with an intense longing +to destroy the atheism which science had created, and +to return to a belief which would re-endow Society +with moral order, health, romance, love, purity, and +beautiful emotions.</p> + +<p>Science was the enemy, as under the Empire the +priest was the enemy. To discredit it was the first +essential step. When therefore the actual power of +science, its actual possibilities, became popularized, +and each successive scientific discovery rendered the +prophecies of the superstitious scientists more and +more preposterous, the French symbolists took up +the cry that science was bankrupt.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V +<br> +<i>SYMBOLISM AND LOGIC</i></h2></div> + + +<p>The French symbolists, and all poets and artists +who move in the world of emotions, are invited +by Nordau to “take their place at the table +of science, where there is room for all.” Were they +to accept the invitation, how would the emotional +nature of our race find expression? Would it be +possible, or wise, to ignore emotions in face of the +fact that our lives are essentially emotional? Or does +Nordau push his scientific superstition to such a point +as to believe that human emotions can ever be investigated +by means of the lancet, the microscope, and +the thermometer? In spite of his sneer at Rossetti’s +remark regarding his indifference as to whether the +sun turned round the earth or the earth turned round +the sun, he cannot fail to acknowledge that what +humanity yearns for is beautiful and pleasing emotions, +not scientific facts. The glorious sunshine, +the balmy breeze, the radiant flowers, the inscrutable +attractions of woman, her love, her esteem, her faith, +the affection of children, the confidence of our fellow-beings, +our trust in the good, our struggle against +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>evil—such are the elements of life and happiness. +Science acquires all its importance from being the +means by which beautiful and pleasing emotions are +safeguarded, and unpleasant emotions are avoided. +When science mistakes its mission, when it attempts +to distort and vilify their expressions, it has become +unreal and fatal.</p> + +<p>Nordau wishes us to regard science—progressing +as it has done by replacing old errors of our senses +by new errors of our senses—as embodying all facts +worth noticing, and to disregard emotions which are +eternally unchangeable.</p> + +<p>To turn our back upon emotions and to take our +place at the table of science means to ignore all that +is beautiful, lovable, ennobling, and hopeful, to shut +our eyes to the charms of form, colour, motion, and +our ears to music, and to concentrate our attention +upon the repast spread on the table of science: the +pleasure of discovering bacteria in human tissue, the +curiosity of counting the throbs of a frog’s heart +after being torn from the living body, the sensation +of ascertaining the effect of the gastric juices on the +foot of a living rabbit inserted into a living dog’s +stomach.</p> + +<p>We take no side in the question of vivisection, or +any other scientific methods, but without in the least +minimizing the great services rendered, and to be +rendered, by science to humanity, we must express +our astonishment that any sound mind, knowing what +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>scientific methods are, and must be, can seriously +suggest that scientific investigation should supersede +art and poetry. If we believed in degeneration, such +opinions would be the first examples of it we should +quote.</p> + +<p>Poets and philosophers who deal with emotions, +so to say with immaterial phenomena, impalpable to +every one of our senses, but demonstrated as eternally +real by their effects, must needs make use of symbols, +or, to be more exact, of more symbols, vaguer symbols, +and bolder symbols than those which naturally +enter into language. To deny them this right is +equal to denying the mathematician the use of the +letter <i>X</i>, which stands for unknown quantities, and +which is handled by him as dexterously as if it were +the most familiar object in the world. If human +beings were not allowed to speak about what their +imagination conjures up, what their feelings prompt, +and what irresistible instincts point to, they would be +brought alarmingly near to the level of the beast.</p> + +<p>The French symbolists being poets, might not +have formulated into distinct thoughts what we have +said above, but they have certainly felt it all, and +much more. They have felt themselves surrounded +by undefined and undefinable <i>X’s</i> of far greater +moment to their lives, to their happiness, and to +their best instincts, than all the known and half-known +quantities of science. In attempting to give +expression to their feelings and to their thoughts +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span>regarding the all-important unknown, and to evoke +among their fellow-beings an interest in them, they +have found themselves justified in using any means, +including symbolism, for their purpose.</p> + +<p>Nordau has entertained no such considerations in +dealing with the French symbolists. In obedience +to his professional prejudices, he looks for no other +causes, no other influences, than those that can be +found in the mechanism of their brains. This is all +the more amazing as he over and over again recognises +that external circumstances, conditions of life +and habits, exercise a strong influence on the brain, +or, in other words, that the mechanism which connects +the <i>Ego</i> with matter may be influenced by the +<i>Ego</i>. The result of his criticism presents therefore a +want of fairness which to the English mind is especially +objectionable.</p> + +<p>The manner in which he pries into the private life +and antecedents of Paul Verlaine, and the indelicate +manner in which he refers to the personal appearance +of the poet, impress us English people as so many +unfair means of giving plausibility to his conclusions. +When a hunchback is good-humoured enough to +make fun of his own deformity, those of gentle feelings +sympathize all the more with his misfortune, and +become all the more anxious not to refer to it. When +a poet, in his love of truth and in his anxiety to rouse +a certain emotion, makes confessions, when he instances +his own sad experiences and failings, when he, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span>so to say, throws himself into the flames on the altar +of truth, we in England count it indelicate and unfair +to base criticism on facts thus revealed. Had Nordau +read Verlaine’s poetry with an unbiassed mind, +he could not have failed to be struck by the extent to +which the poet typifies the movement going on around +him: his failings, his errors, and, maybe, his bad +habits—all this is the fate of millions who have been +induced by the materialist tendencies of recent times +to disregard personal responsibility, and who, after +rejecting such guides as the nobler instincts of humanity +had proffered, attempt to follow the dictates +of the lower instincts and animal impulses. His +terrible remorse and despair, while he is still unmoved +by religion, bear witness to aspirations which +the materialist would fain deny. His instinctive +groping for the consolations of religion shows to +what an extent he attributes his failings to an +irreligious life, and that he experiences within him +yearnings for a happiness which the gratification of +the senses, prompted by atheism, has never afforded +him.</p> + +<p>Nordau would object to this expression—the gratification +of his senses prompted by atheism—and would +tell us that atheism ought to have implanted into +Verlaine the religion of humanity, and that he should +have sacrificed all his inclinations for the future happiness +of his race. But, surely, it would require a +good dose of hypocrisy for a man, sincerely convinced +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>that death puts him personally beyond any consequences +of his life, to persuade himself that he is +practising a life-long abnegation for the good of +posterity. Is it not much more likely that in so +frank a nature as Verlaine’s the disbelief in personal +responsibility would turn him into a devil-may-care +vagabond until he learned in the school of experience +the dangerous mistakes of materialism? Does Nordau +not recognise the logic and the frankness in a +young man who, in the exuberance of his animal life, +when convinced of personal irresponsibility, lives up +to the motto of a “short life and a merry one”?</p> + +<p>The need of love and affection—a need generally +so strongly felt by all poets—Nordau is pleased to call +eroticism, and when the poet finds that he has profaned +love, implanted in his soul by God, Nordau +fancies he has discovered in Verlaine that blending +of religious fervour and morbid eroticism which, when +irrational, is a sign of lunacy.</p> + +<p>When Paul Verlaine invokes the Virgin Mary, a +form of religious expression which millions of sane +people indulge in daily, Nordau at once imagines he +has discovered another trace of insanity. In order +to show that we are not unfair to our alienist, we will +quote one of the poems of Verlaine he refers to, and +the conclusions he draws from it,—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0">Et comme j’étais faible, et bien méchant encore,</div> +<div class="verse indent0">Aux mains lâches, les yeux éblouis des chemins,</div> +<div class="verse indent0">Elle baissa mes yeux, et me joignis les mains,</div> +<div class="verse indent0">Et m’enseigna les mots par lesquels on adore.</div></div> +</div></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span></p> +<p>“The accents here quoted,” says Nordau, “are well +known to the clinics of psychiatry. We may compare +them to the picture which Legrain gives of some of +his patients. ‘His speech continually reverts to God +and the Virgin Mary, his cousin.’ [The case in question +is that of a degenerate subject who was a +tramway conductor.] ‘Mystical ideas complete the +picture. He talks of God, of heaven, crosses himself, +kneels down, and says that he is following the commandments +of Christ.’ [The subject under observation +is a day-labourer.] ‘The devil will tempt me, +but I see God who guards me. I have asked of God +that all people might be beautiful,’ etc.”</p> + +<p>So far Nordau.</p> + +<p>Because a mad tramway conductor thinks he is +cousin of the Virgin Mary, Verlaine, who symbolizes +in the Virgin Mary the power that draws him towards +the good, is on the road to madness! From this it +follows that, if a mad tramway conductor were to +believe himself the cousin of Professor Lombroso, +Nordau’s quasi-worship of that authority would indicate +degeneracy in Nordau’s mind.</p> + +<p>One of Nordau’s characteristics is a weak or dull +logical faculty, often to be observed in those who +over-study for examination and in specialists fanatically +inclined. Without this peculiarity he could not +possibly have omitted to ask himself the question, +“How about all other worshippers of Christ?” when +he concludes that Verlaine’s mind is degenerate +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>because he speaks devotedly of the Virgin Mary, +while a lunatic labourer says that he follows the commandments +of Christ. Nordau does not see that in +this manner he completely gives himself away, and +lets us perceive that it is not the symbolist whom he +considered degenerate, but the whole Christian populations +of the world that have existed during two +thousand years, and that still exist. Only his lack +of a sense of the ridiculous, already pointed out, has +prevented him from remembering that the man in +his cups considers himself the only sober man of the +company.</p> + +<p>The verses which Verlaine has written in praise of +a vagabond life Nordau holds up as a sure sign of +lurking lunacy. Are then all poets who write in +praise of a vagabond life degenerates? Is not the +true secret of Nordau’s conclusion to be found in the +fact that he entirely misses the satire against our +modern system which underlies Verlaine’s and other +writers’ poems on this same subject? He does the +same with regard to Verlaine’s poem addressed to +the demented king, Louis II. of Bavaria. When we +behold the follies of reigning sovereigns, who are +supposed to be in the full enjoyment of their faculties, +making such poor use of their opportunities, degrading +and ruining their people, rousing a hatred against +themselves and their dynasty, or striving at low <i>bourgeois</i> +aims, or even, to use Nordau’s own expression, +selling their royalty for a big cheque; when we read +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span>of the monarchs of the past, of their crimes and their +meanesses, how can we wonder that the unfortunate +King Louis should inspire sympathy in a poet, and +that he should satirize the so-called reasonable monarchs +by eulogizing the demented one?</p> + +<p>Nordau makes much of that form of mental weakness +which manifests itself in echolalia, or the mania +of repeating for no reason the same words and the +same sentences. But to deny the poet, who aims at +conveying an emotion and for that purpose wishes to +create a certain mood in his listeners, the use of +choruses, refrains, and cadenced repetitions, he runs +counter to the oldest literary tradition in the world. +He would surely not object to repetitions in verses +intended to be sung; and if we are right in placing +poetry half way between speech and music in the list +of the vehicles of thought, as we have done in a previous +chapter, euphonies, musicalities of words, and +repetitions are both permissible and rational.</p> + +<p>Many poetical emotions may be quickened by +reminiscences from childhood; and a style of writing, +or the use of words or sounds, reminding us of +early days, might be the most effective methods of +expression. Thus, for instance, a drowsy repetition +of pleasant-sounding words may be very telling in +a lullaby, even if they convey no scientific meaning, +or do not contribute to the sense of the poem, and +so long as they do not distort it. The examples of +repetitions from degeneracy in Verlaine are chosen +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>so unhappily as to place Nordau in the wrong and +Verlaine in the right in the judgment of unbiassed +persons; the one is a serenade, and the other is +entitled “Chevaux du Bois,” in which the sensation +of a child on a merry-go-round is suggested. Another +is supposed to be sung by, or suggests, Pierrot Gamin, +that is a young idiot. When Verlaine wishes to +qualify a noun in a manner which is difficult to +express in ordinary adjectives, he, like millions of +his fellows, has recourse to the method of giving +a new, or symbolic, signification to an old adjective, +and this, according to Nordau, is a sign of mental +degeneration. To prove his case he quotes such +terms as “a narrow and vast affection,” “a slow +landscape,” “a slack liqueur,” “a gilded perfume,” +“a terse contour,” etc. He does not seem to know +that the paucity of language renders such expressions +not only legitimate but extremely useful in +many professions and trades, let alone poetry. Has +he never heard of a warm colour, a lively tint, a cold +tone, etc.? Are the French wine-growers mad when +they say that wine is heavy, light, full, dead, alive, +slack, round, green, angular, smooth, velvety, etc.?</p> + +<p>We are glad to see that he recognises Verlaine’s +ability as a poet and does not find fault with some of +his poems. Thus he says of “Chanson d’Automne” +that “there are few poems in French literature that +can rival” it. While rejoicing at the fairness that +Nordau here displays, we must however point out +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>the eccentricity of his logic. He desires to warn us +against degeneration, and therefore points to a poet +whose degeneracy has not prevented him from writing +a masterpiece of literature. It should also be +noticed that the “Chanson d’Automne,” which meets +with such ample praise from Nordau, is on the same +theme which underlies other pieces of poetry quoted +in his work as examples of legitimate and sane poetry. +When he does intimate that a poet might burst into +song over flowers, trees, books, and twittering birds, +but not over the sympathy he feels in his consciousness +with the powers that have called them forth, +simply because science has not so far been able to +analyse and classify those powers, he only shows that +he is illogical enough to proffer his limited view of +what is poetical as an infallible standard of the poetry +of the world.</p> + +<p>Nordau blames Verlaine and other symbolists for +dealing with moods instead of with definite ideas. +But is there a single poet in the past or the present +who did not largely deal in moods, and who did not +labour to give the world an impression of his own +feelings? Nordau’s ideal author—Goethe—has gone +further. He wrote a whole novel, <i>Werther’s Leiden</i>, +which is little else than a lengthy description of his +hero’s moods.</p> + +<p>Another symbolist, Stephane Mallarmé, who in +France as well as in England enjoys a reputation +as a poet, or rather as an authority on poetry, is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>attacked by Nordau in a manner which suggests +other motives than fair criticism. He gibes at the +symbolists and at all who consider Mallarmé a poet, +because he has produced only a few original works +and translations. As our alienist cannot very well +put this down as a sign of degeneration, having +treated those who write much as graphomaniacs, he +gives us no other reasons for placing Mallarmé among +the examples of degeneration than that he has “long, +pointed, faun-like ears,” a fact which he seems not +to have noticed personally but which he has obtained, +like most of his facts, from a book.</p> + +<p>He distinctly insinuates that the admiration for +Mallarmé’s poetical gift indicates degeneration, especially +as Mallarmé has written so little. We meet +here again with a striking example of his curious +logic. He imagines that he strengthens his case by +quoting from Lessing, who in <i>Amelia Galotti</i> makes +Conti say that Raphael would have been the greatest +genius in painting, even if he had unfortunately been +born without hands. From this, English readers who +happen to know nothing of Lessing or Conti would +conclude that either Lessing was a lunatic or that his +character, Conti, was mad. But neither is the case, +and the quotation consequently tells against Nordau. +Whoever would deny that a man cannot be a poet +and an authority on poetry without publishing verse +must attach an extremely narrow meaning to the +word poet. If Lessing, or Conti, means by the word +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span>painter, not the craftsman, but the man with the +painter’s soul, the symbolist may surely be allowed to +call Mallarmé a poet. Has Nordau never met with +mute poets, blind painters, and deaf musicians? One +of the greatest musicians of the world composed marvellous +music while stone-deaf. Now if we suppose +that Beethoven had lost his hearing before he had +mastered the technicalities of music, would he therefore +not have remained a musician?</p> + +<p>Nordau is very severe on several other symbolists +and certainly does his best to represent them in an +unfavourable light. In order to show that Charles +Morice, the author of <i>La Littérature de tout à l’heure</i> +is literally insane and a graphomaniac, he quotes +Morice’s rhapsodical conception of God, which he +pretends to take as an exact definition in order to +reduce it to twaddle. To any unprejudiced reader +it is evident that Morice intended to convey by this +wild attempt at description how impossible it is to +define God. Nordau’s prejudice against the French +nation becomes palpable when speaking of the fact +that the French language lends itself badly to blank +verse and that a freer treatment of it in French poetry +is a comparatively modern departure which by other +countries was taken long ago. He says: “But to any +one but a Frenchman, they merely make themselves +ridiculous when they trumpet their painful hobbling +after the nations who are far in front of them, as an +unheard-of discovery of new paths and opening up of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span>new roads and as an advance inspired by the ideal into +the dawn of the future.” This gratuitous insult of a +whole nation gives us a vivid insight into the working +of his mind. He would not have penned a sentence +of such bad taste, and so marked by the echolalia he +condemns in others, had he not been prompted by +feelings stronger than his judgment.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI +<br> +<i>THE LIGHT OF RUSSIA</i></h2></div> + + +<p>With regard to the Russian novelist, Count +Leo Tolstoi, Nordau pursues the same mode +of criticism as he employed against other writers. +He also aims at the same object, firstly, to show that +authors suffer from mental aberration; and, secondly, +that the public who read their books do not do so +on account of their literary merit, but because the +readers are mentally afflicted in the same way as the +authors.</p> + +<p>To prove this against Tolstoi and his admirers +is no light enterprise, and Nordau does not acquit +himself of his self-imposed task without a great deal +of shuffling.</p> + +<p>He allows nothing for Tolstoi’s surroundings, the +social condition of the country in which he lives, and +the life he has led, but lifts him out of all that tends +to interpret this ultra-Russian writer, and regards him +as one who has evolved some extraordinary notions +in a studio far from his native land.</p> + +<p>He who says Russia says a great deal: for the +expression denotes a vast empire, consisting of many +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span>nationalities and races, held together by a strong +pressure, which seems, like the gravitation of huge +heavenly bodies, to be determined by the size of the +body from which it emanates. The inclusion of so +many elements does not prevent Russia from remaining +a great and powerful State, provided its Government +soon becomes to some extent rational. The +predominant nationality is made up of genuine Russians, +whose characteristics are such as to render +them capable of being, according to their rulers in +the immediate future, an imminent danger to Europe, +or a model nation to be followed by the rest of the +world.</p> + +<p>The Russian is good-tempered, patient, loyal, +generous, kind-hearted, and superstitiously religious. +He is extremely emotional and dangerous when +aroused. His easy-going manners, his immense self-esteem, +and his intense vitality render him an easy +victim to the numerous temptations which aliens are +not slow to hold out to him. He is straightforward +and strongly averse to hypocrisy, and when he is +convinced that duty demands from him that he should +assist in filling a trench with his dead body for the +artillery to pass over, or to throw a bomb at the Czar, +he will do it without a murmur.</p> + +<p>His passiveness, his loyalty, and long-suffering have +been cruelly taken advantage of by a long succession +of Governments, chiefly consisting of aliens. In +Russia the most powerful bureaucracy in the world, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>composed chiefly of a German element, has taken +possession of the power, and holds to it in a quasi-unconscious +fashion, like a bull-dog unable to relax +his hold.</p> + +<p>The Government, with such legislation as exists, +has gone on for centuries with scarcely any regard for +the well-being of the people, and the inevitable results +are slowly but surely manifesting themselves, and +point to some terrible catastrophe.</p> + +<p>The emancipation of the serfs, from which sanguine +people, unacquainted with Russian circumstances, +hoped so much, shook the old institutions to their +very foundations, but brought only momentary relief +to the suffering people. The <i>mir</i>-eaters, or village +usurers, have swallowed up the land of the peasants, +their cattle, and their implements, and compelled +large hordes of people to move about the country +in search of work. Employment is scarce and labour +ill paid. The tax-collectors are as implacable and +the Government officials as corrupt as ever. The +tendency—to be observed all over the civilized world—of +dividing humanity into two classes, the wealthy +and the poor, has nowhere developed to the same +extent as in Russia. The rich, comparatively few +in number, are becoming extremely rich, but the +great mass of the people miserably poor.</p> + +<p>Extreme poverty, intensified by the pressure of the +tax-gatherer and the inhuman methods of the money-lender, +has a gnawing effect on a people living in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>an intensely rigorous climate, in miserable villages +sparsely scattered over vast monotonous plains.</p> + +<p>The Russians being a sentimental people, it is +natural that their forlorn condition should cause +them to brood over their sad lives during the long +and lonely winter nights, or that they should be +driven to drown their consciousness in <i>vodka</i>.</p> + +<p>Such is the stage on which alone a character +like Leo Tolstoi can become intelligible.</p> + +<p>But it is not only the powerful influences from +external circumstances which give that direction to +Tolstoi’s mind which Nordau insists in interpreting +as a sign of degeneracy. The mode of life and the +sphere of action he has adopted, in pursuance of the +large and noble traits of his character, must have +been powerfully conducive to his peculiar mood and +ideas. Nobody who has read his works, even if only +those works Nordau holds to be of the smallest +literary merit and fullest of signs of degeneracy, +would ever conceive the idea that Tolstoi’s mind was +weak or distorted. But if this novelist had been +driven to lunacy, it would have been extremely +irrational to account for his mental aberration without +considering the outward circumstances that would +have produced it.</p> + +<p>Tolstoi’s sympathies were roused, as those of +every noble-minded man would have been roused, +by the miserable existence of a people who possess +all the elements of a great nation. In Russia no +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>such ways are open to the reformer as in free +States. There is no Parliament, no organized political +parties, no free Press. A political career is +out of the question, except in the form of a consistent +toadying of those in power, and of a blind +obedience to those who crush the people. Any +opposition to Government, or even proffered suggestions, +would lead to exile in Siberia, and abruptly +cut short any man’s activity. Tolstoi had therefore +only two courses open to him: either to expatriate +himself and to thunder forth in a foreign Press against +the abuses of the Russian Government, unheard and +unheeded by his own censor-ridden compatriots or +to adopt the line of action he did.</p> + +<p>In the cities, where the alien element prevails, +and where the scum of the Russian nation congregates, +he would be out of contact with his people. +His emotional nature would have revolted against +the police tyranny and spying rampant in the cities, +and he would soon have been landed in the clutches +of the authorities. He therefore elected to live +among the peasants as one of them, convinced both +by his feelings and his reason that he would thus +directly benefit his surroundings by his example +and form that leaven by which the whole mass +might in time be leavened; while his writings +simultaneously appealed to those of his countrymen +who read books, and those who, outside Russia, +sympathize with the Russian people.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span></p> +<p>We do not pretend to know Tolstoi’s secret +thoughts and his ultimate hopes, but we believe it +possible that he may, without being an irrational +enthusiast, or even a dreamer, have reckoned on +his writings and opinions reaching the highest personages +in the Russian empire through being read +by all the upper classes of the world. He may have +hoped that, after establishing his reputation throughout +the literary world, and after having become the +pride of his own nation, he would one day dare +to speak such words to the rulers of all the Russians +as might save him and his nation.</p> + +<p>Whatever may have been his expectations, there +can be little doubt that he has met with dire disappointment, +not so much in his personal career as +in his hopes for his fellow-countrymen.</p> + +<p>To the framers of paper constitutions and to +theoretical revolutionists, it may seem easy to introduce +a new form of Government and to regenerate +a nation, but, to one who, like Tolstoi, is in close +contact with the masses to be regenerated, who has +daily experienced all the frailty of the material he +has to work with, who alone tries to swim against +overwhelming currents,—to him, the uplifting of a +nation or a race is a herculean task impossible to +approach with the clap-trap of the modern agitator.</p> + +<p>Tolstoi, finding that it is the <i>morale</i> of the people +he has to work upon, that it is in the religious +tendencies of his fellow-men that their strength lies, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span>concludes, with the full consent of his emotional +being, that religious conceptions, different from the +Russian orthodox Church and from the western university +theology, must be the foundation on which he +has to build. What therefore is more rational than +that he should plunge into religious speculation, and +thus expose himself to the mistake of adopting religious +views which are prompted as much by the +needs of the situation, the circumstances, his own +and his people’s characteristics, as by logical deductions. +Greater men than he—Moses, Mahomet, and +others—had done so before him.</p> + +<p>Besides, as the postulates he starts from do not +spring from exact knowledge, but from faith and +emotion—as all religious postulates necessarily must +do,—and as these, his postulates, are diametrically +opposed to those which Nordau would pre-suppose, +Tolstoi’s conclusions must be the opposite of his; +but to differ from Nordau is to be degenerate.</p> + +<p>It is no wonder then that Tolstoi’s books should +be more than novels. He had a higher purpose +in view than gathering in royalties and entertaining +his readers. His books are jam with a considerable +amount of powder in them. If, despite this, they +have been widely read throughout the world, ordinary +minds would conclude that in creating them +their author has accomplished tasks which alone a +mind of a high order could hope to perform. Our +alienist, determined to come to no such conclusion, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>supposes that all those who read Tolstoi’s works are +degenerates, and that the large sale of his books is +consequently a confirmation of Tolstoi’s degeneracy.</p> + +<p>Would Nordau apply the same kind of reasoning +with regard to the sale of his own works? He +would probably; but instead of starting with the +supposition that contemporary readers of books are +incipient lunatics, he would very likely take for +granted that the readers who approve of his works +are highly intelligent, and that the great sale they +have attained proves the soundness of his own mind.</p> + +<p>In support of his view, Nordau, who fairly acknowledges +the great qualities of Tolstoi as a writer of +fiction, has the audacity to assert that it is not this +great quality of his works that has secured him his +world-wide fame, but that it is due to his mysticism, +which a degenerate race prefers to a literary and moral +value. The only semblance of proof he gives for +this view is that Tolstoi’s best works have not contributed +to his reputation so much as the <i>Kreutzer +Sonata</i>, “an inferior creation, which in the public +opinion of the western nations placed him in the +first rank of living authors.” But who has decided +that the <i>Kreutzer Sonata</i> is inferior to Tolstoi’s +other works? Only Nordau, whose opinion runs +counter to the “western nations.” If therefore there +is any value in Nordau’s argument it rests entirely on +the astounding fact that the “western nations” are +all degenerate and Nordau alone is sane.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span></p> +<p>Nordau, like most German bookworms, evidently +believes that references to an authority, however +obscure, are enough to prove any assertion. He has +manifestly worked with any number of “conversations-lexicons” +and encyclopedias about him, in quest +of some printed confirmation of the extraordinary +opinion that the <i>Kreutzer Sonata</i> is a poor book, and +that the preceding works of Tolstoi alone contain +those grand qualities which Nordau recognises. He +finds that Franz Bornmüller, an author of a biographical +dictionary, said in 1882 of Tolstoi: “He +possesses no ordinary talent for fiction, but one +devoid of due artistic finish, and which is influenced +by a certain one-sidedness in his views of life and +history.”</p> + +<p>It should be noticed that Nordau gives this quotation +in order to show that Tolstoi had not attained +any European fame in 1882, that is, before the +<i>Kreutzer Sonata</i> was written; but with that amazing +want of logic characterizing his whole work, he +does not see that this Franz Bornmüller thinks very +little of the early works of Tolstoi. He consequently +differs from Nordau, and shows every sign of sharing +the opinion of the “western nations.”</p> + +<p>Nordau makes a sharp distinction between Tolstoi’s +novels as such and the philosophy they enforce. +He is thereby enabled to give some plausibility to +the sophistical assertion that it is not Tolstoi’s novels, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span>but his philosophy, which brought him popularity. +This philosophy, which is supposed to prove that +Tolstoi’s mind is not sound, Nordau sums up in the +following way: “The individual is nothing, the +species is everything, the individual lives in order to +do his fellow-creatures good; thought and inquiry +are great evils; science is perdition; faith is salvation.” +Among these items there is only one which +differs from the views of the bulk of humanity—from +that ordinary common-sense which Nordau so often +takes as a standard of sanity, even in the superstitious +peasant. We refer to the item in which he says that +thought and inquiry are great evils. Nowhere in +Tolstoi’s writings can such a nonsensical phrase be +found. It is one of those little touches that Nordau +so dexterously applies, or which his prejudice causes +him to apply, in order to strengthen his case in his +readers’, or perhaps in his own, eyes. He appears to +ignore such works as <i>My Confession</i>, <i>My Faith</i>, +<i>A Short Exposition of the Gospel</i>, and <i>About my +Life</i>, all works built up by elaborate thoughts. +The whole life of Tolstoi has been one of “thought +and inquiry,” and all his literary work is an invitation +to think and to inquire. Tolstoi objects only to +such thought and inquiry as vainly attempt to carry +the methods of inductive science into spheres where +the observation of our senses is of no avail, and where +their failure tempts us to believe in the non-existence +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span>of that all-important portion of the universe into +which faith alone can penetrate.</p> + +<p>That Tolstoi should distrust science, after the presumptuous +attitude which scientists have taken up, +will surprise nobody who has read what we have +said about this bankruptcy of science. Many scientists, +including Nordau, have in their gratuitous attacks +on religion so recklessly mixed up scientific +fact with scientific speculation, that they must blame +themselves if people use the term “science” when it +would be more correct to employ that of “unscientific +speculations.”</p> + +<p>That a thinker, who is at the same time the instructor +of the ignorant masses, should look upon faith +as a means of salvation, is not new, and cannot be +considered as a sign of mental aberration; for millions +of sane common-sense men have for thousands of +years held this opinion. Even if we apply the word +salvation exclusively to society in general, to the race, +or to one nation, leaving out any references to individual +salvation in another world, faith of some kind +is the only source from which it could spring. Scientists +of Nordau’s type seem unable to understand that +science means the knowledge of absolute facts which, +while quite capable of undermining and destroying +the foundations on which a more or less primitive +religion rests, cannot possibly come into collision with +faith in the widest sense of the term. When a scientist +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span>and a religionist differ about things which have +not come under scientific inquiry—such as the final +aim of the scheme of humanity, for example—the +dispute is not between science and faith, but between +two different faiths. Science therefore cannot regulate +our conduct, determine our views, or save a +nation. This alone can be done by faith, be it based +on science, on tradition, or emotion. A great scientific +knowledge might be degraded into an excuse for, and +a means of, an irresponsible, selfish, and wicked life; +or it might ennoble the mind, intensify the sense of +responsibility, and serve as the means of rendering +great services to humanity. All depends on the faith +of the scientist.</p> + +<p>The end of what we may call the era of scientific +atheism, now at hand, presents most deplorable results, +as we have already pointed out, of removing +the only foundations of a moral balance available to +those who have not had any opportunity of drawing +from scientific studies that strength of character, and +those noble aspirations to be met with in scientists +who have a genuine faith—a faith in their science and +in humanity, if in nothing else. Tolstoi, who, like +every thinking man of our time, had seen the disastrous +effects which scientific atheism had produced, cannot +possibly be regarded as of weak intellect because +he rejected scientific superstition and proclaimed faith +as the true basis of conduct and character.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span></p> +<p>Nordau finds traces of degeneracy in Tolstoi’s +question, “Wherefore am I alive?” and in the +manner in which Tolstoi finds a reply to that question. +It seems however that Nordau too has asked, +himself that question, for in his book <i>Degeneration</i> +(page 149) he replies to it in a close, well-reasoned, +passage, which deserves to be read to its full extent. +We shall quote only a part of it in order to compare +the reply he himself obtains with the reply obtained, +by Tolstoi. After having shown that the aim of a +man’s life is necessarily involved in the greater question—the +aim of the universe—and that such an aim cannot +exist objectively in time or space, he says: “But +if it is not objective, if it does not exist in time and +space, it must, in order to be conceivable, exist somewhere, +virtually, as idea, as a plan and design. But +that which contains a design, a thought, a plan, we +name consciousness; and consciousness that can conceive +a plan of the universe, and for its realization +designedly uses the forces of nature, is synonymous, +with God. If a man however believes in a God, he +loses at once the right to raise the question, ‘Wherefore +am I alive?’ since it is in that case an insolent +presumption, an effort of small, weak man to look +over God’s shoulder, to spy out God’s plan, to aspire +to the height of omniscience. But neither is it in +such a case necessary, since a God without the highest +wisdom cannot be conceived; and if He has +devised a plan for the world, this is certain to be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span>perfect, all its parts are in harmony, and the aim +to which every co-operator, from the smallest to the +greatest, will devote himself is the best conceivable. +Thus man can live in complete rest and confidence +in the impulses and forces implanted in him by God, +because he, in every case, fulfils a high and worthy +destiny by co-operating in a, to him, unknown Divine +plan of the world.”</p> + +<p>We here notice his words: “that which contains +a design, a thought, a plan, we name consciousness.” +Now, nobody knows better than the scientists that +so far all scientific discovery has revealed plan, +method, and purpose, in the smallest thing and the +smallest phenomena in the universe. Is it then +necessary to be degenerate to believe in a self-conscious +Providence? John Stuart Mill observes +that the fact that we find in nature, especially in +human and animal bodies, physical and mechanical +problems solved in the same way as engineers +had solved them long before they knew of such +solutions in nature, points not only to the existence +of an intelligent Creator, but to a similarity of +His intelligence to that of human beings.</p> + +<p>According to the passage from Nordau, then, +the planning in nature proves a conscious force, a +conscious force is synonymous with God, and the +man who believes in God can live in complete rest in +his faith. Tolstoi obtained a reply to his question in +a manner which he describes in the following words:</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span></p> +<p>“It was quite the same to me whether Jesus was +God or not God; whether the Holy Ghost proceeded +from the one or the other. It was likely neither +necessary nor important for me to know how, when, +and by whom the Gospels, or any one of the parables +were composed, and whether they could be ascribed +to Christ or not. What to me was important was +that the light which for eighteen hundred years was +the light of the world is that light still; but what +name was to be given to the source of this light, or +what were its component parts, and by whom it was +lighted, was quite indifferent to me.”</p> + +<p>The difference in the two replies is one of words +only. If therefore Nordau acknowledged that a +sensible man could ask such a question, and if the +reply of Nordau we have just quoted is recognised by +him as his own opinion, he and Tolstoi would stand +very much in the same category. But Nordau does +not think that a perfectly sane mind would ask such a +question; and if it was asked, he has another reply. +This reply is however far from being so clear as the +other. “If,” he says, “on the other hand, there is +no belief in a God, it is also impossible to form a +conception of the aim, for then the aim existing in +consciousness only as an idea, in the absence of a +universal consciousness, has no locus for existence; +there is no place for it in nature.” From this it +ought to follow that, if a man does not believe in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>God, there is no God, and consequently there can be +no aim. He then proceeds to argue that, if there be +no aim, it is useless to ask the question, “Wherefore +am I alive?” but that we can ask the question, +“Why do we live?” His reply to this is characteristic: +“We live in obedience to the mechanical law +of causality, which requires no plan and no universal +consciousness.”</p> + +<p>It is curious to behold how Nordau cannot perceive +that his question, “Why do we live?” implies the +question, “Whence the mechanical law of causality?” +and that his reply is simply, “We live because we +live.” Once he has accepted this self-delusion as a +solid foundation, his reasoning again becomes rational, +and does not bear on the point before us. +The most astounding part of it is that Nordau considers +Tolstoi, and all others whose instinct, whose +emotion, and whose immutable reasoning point to a +cause behind Nordau’s home-made mechanical law of +causality, as thereby showing signs of mental degeneration.</p> + +<p>Nordau, in order to prove the confusion existing in +Tolstoi’s ideas, seems to take for granted that the +tendency towards Pantheism, perceptible in the +Russian’s reasoning, is utterly at variance with +Christianity. We would simply point out that +Tolstoi has his own Christianity, framed on his own +interpretation of the Gospels, and not any previously +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span>existing Christianity, and is therefore at liberty to +proclaim a creed which has a Pantheistic tendency +without exposing himself to the reproach of being +inconsequent. But we consider it more important to +notice the fact that the Gospels, far from laying down +any dogmas, are the record of the life of a man—divine +or not divine—whose mission it was to protest +against dogmas. He called God “Father,” in order +to speak of universal consciousness only in its relations +to man, leaving it to the doctrinaires and the +philosophers to agree as best they could on the question +of Pantheism or no Pantheism. Besides, the +Gospels certainly emphasize the omnipresence of the +Creator; and if this Pantheistic tendency had not +existed among the disciples, it is not likely that St. +Paul would have said, “In Him we live, we move, +and have our being.”</p> + +<p>The shallow, superficial manner in which Nordau +treats Tolstoi’s ethics is certainly unworthy of him, +and amounts simply to a quibble. These ethics, correctly +summed up, “Resist not evil, judge not, kill +not,” which correspond precisely with the teachings +of Christ, Nordau does not regard as ethics, but +proceeds solemnly to test them as expediencies in +peculiar cases, and comes to the conclusion that +they are ridiculous.</p> + +<p>Must we then conclude that Nordau has no such +ethics, but that he believes it right to return evil for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span>evil,—<i>vendetta</i> fashion,—that he objects to suffer +wrong for a good cause, and that he revels in indiscriminate +murder? Tolstoi’s ethics, as ethics should +do, hold up the ideal for which we should strive, and +as a practical test of them we must consider not the +murder and plunder of one good man by a bad one, +but the state which would ensue if all men conformed +to them. The practical moral we ought to draw from +them is not that laws and law courts should be abolished, +but that laws should be framed and law courts +should be managed in such a way as to favour a general +acceptance of such ethics. Here again Nordau +indulges in illogical reasoning, and in contradictions +of himself. He takes for granted that humanity is so +utterly depraved that if “the fear of the gallows did not +prevent it, throat-cutting and stealing would be the +most generally adopted trade.” This means that Nordau +in one place in his book declares human beings are +too good, too noble, too honest to need any belief in +a hell, but in another place declares that they are far +too depraved to do without the fear of the gallows. +He forgets that good ethics have sprung from the +good instincts of our race, and that crime has largely +been fostered by bad laws, bad law courts, and bad +institutions.</p> + +<p>In one of his stories, entitled <i>From the Diary of +Nechljudow</i>, Tolstoi’s hero, Prince Nechljudow, is a +most eccentric character, created probably for the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span>purpose of showing the absurdity of indiscriminate +charity and other impulsive actions of the erratics of +our day. Nordau gives an account of one of the +instances in which the Prince’s selfish way of practising +charity is forcibly brought out. He evidently +does this in order that the Prince’s action should be +accepted as an illustration of what Tolstoi means by +charity. This is both absurd and unjust. It amounts +to an identification of the author with the character +he represents—a way of insinuating degeneracy +in authors who simply hold it up in their characters +as a warning. To thus mix up authors with their +characters is a mistake frequently committed by unintelligent +readers, but it is surprising to find that with +Nordau it is an habitual method.</p> + +<p>With regard to the character Pozdnyscheff, Nordau +does the same thing. He takes for granted that the +opinions expressed by this character are those of the +author. The passages he extracts from <i>Short Expositions</i>, +in which Tolstoi’s own opinions are expressed, +in no wise justify such a supposition.</p> + +<p>Nordau’s explanation of the enormous success +Tolstoi’s books have achieved is that it is due to general +degeneration among the upper classes throughout +the world. If he could personally meet the +hundreds of thousands of English people who have +read Tolstoi’s works, he would be able to form an +idea of the immensity of his mistake. He would find +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span>that the majority of these people belong to a middle +class, consisting of persons who are not overworked +and who indulge in none of the vices of the continental +aristocracies. Their muscles and their nerves have +been strengthened and fortified by a healthy education, +and by a love of bodily exercise, sport and even +danger, and by a moral life. They live in a country +where the authorities have found that to proscribe +any licentious book is to promote its sale, and where +consequently there is hardly any check upon morbid +literature. Yet there is not a country where less of +it is circulated than in England. It is true that these +readers of Tolstoi have not attained to that height of +intellectual development which would permit them to +accept Nordau’s “mechanical causality” as a satisfying +explanation of the universe; but, on the other +hand, it would be difficult to find a people so religiously +inclined, and yet so free from superstition +and fanaticism.</p> + +<p>Some of them may like Rossetti’s pictures, and +many of them Burne Jones’s, but as a rule they have +an equal admiration for Raphael, Tintoretto, Correggio, +and others. They cannot be classed among the +mystics on that account. As few of them write +books, they cannot be called graphomaniacs. Nor +do they show any signs of being egomaniacs. Nor +have they any physical stigmata of degenerates. +The heads of this class are generally beautifully +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span>shaped, and the ears of the women are by all +foreigners who visit this country proclaimed to be +the finest and daintiest ears in the world. Personal +beauty among this class is decidedly on the increase; +for each generation seems to be better-looking, and +the youngest is generally the most beautiful. The +latter fact, we may mention, is no doubt due to the +increasing tendency of the upper and middle classes +in England to beautify their homes and to surround +themselves with exquisite objects, as well as to a +more intellectual education, pastimes, pleasures, and +arts.</p> + +<p>Why then must these readers of Tolstoi’s works +be classed as degenerate?</p> + +<p>It is not denied that in England there are people +who exhibit signs of mental degeneration, but they +are to be found more in literary and political circles +than in the close ranks of the upper and middle +classes. We would not undertake to class them +under the headings established by the alienist, and it +would be difficult even for Nordau to do so. Perhaps +they are not sufficiently advanced in degeneracy to +be so classed. Such signs as they exhibit are some +of them as old as the hills, and others are clearly +the manifestations of that intellectual and moral daze +which generally follows on the destruction of the +religious foundations of belief involved in the acceptance +of belief in scientific atheism. But the most +prevalent form of degeneracy is that which is palpably +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span>the result of financial depression, felt not only in +financial but artistic and literary circles. For reasons +which we leave to the economists to explain, England’s +commerce and agriculture seem to have come +to a dead-lock. The result seems to be diminished +incomes all round. Many artists, <i>littérateurs</i>, and +politicians are at their wits’ end how to make an +income, and there can be little doubt that this has +fostered a certain amount of demoralization. Extraordinary +attempts are made to produce sensational +pictures, to write eccentric poetry, to send forth books +that will shock, and to treat of risky subjects on the +stage. Politicians are obliged to make politics a +profession, and, as popularity is indispensable to it as +a profitable profession, they worship majorities. Any +one who is acquainted with London cannot doubt for +a moment that these forms of demoralization spring +entirely from a necessity of making a living. Artists, +authors, and politicians of this class are no more +inclined to lunacy than the vast class of people who +do distasteful work, as well as those who have to +appear before the public in dangerous but not much +esteemed performances. If the financial depression +is destined to disappear, there can be little doubt that +the majority of these signs of demoralization will +also disappear.</p> + +<p>There are in this country, as everywhere else, real +degenerates, people who have weakened their brains +and moral faculties by drink, debauch, overwork, or +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span>persons who have inherited mental debility. There +are also among us, we regret to say, an alarming +number of destitute people who have been driven +into mental derangement by those terrible pangs that +misery inflicts. But all these degenerates care as +little for Tolstoi’s novels as they do for Rossetti’s or +Burne Jones’s pictures.</p> + +<p>Though English circumstances are vastly different +from continental, there can be no doubt that the +causes which have rendered Tolstoi’s novels popular +are the same here as in other countries. The scientific +atheists have introduced into literature a materialist, +selfish, sceptical, pessimistic, and cynical tone +which was tolerated by the public for a long time. +On the continent they had Zola and his wretched +imitators, whose books found their way among us, +while England has produced a crop of neurotic storytellers, +playwrights, and versifiers, made up for the +most part of masculine women and effeminate men, +who have exploited to the utmost the atheistic vein.</p> + +<p>The noble spirit which atheism was to bring to +the front somehow did not take to literature, and the +reading classes of the world began to miss those pure +joys which reading used to afford them. The books +of the day offended their religious feelings, their sense +of decency, their loftiest conceptions of the world, +and their self-esteem, without amusing them. The +whole literature of fiction had become stilted, and the +morbid and pessimistic authors departed so widely +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span>from nature and evinced so many signs of utter insincerity +that the reading world longed to be face to +face with a man who spoke his innermost thoughts. +The world was therefore ready for a new departure +in literature.</p> + +<p>What wonder then that Tolstoi’s works were well +received. They bore witness to consummate ability, +a close study of human nature. They presented a +true picture of social Russia. They afforded an insight +into the Russian mind. His readers experienced +the intellectual treat offered by few books,—that of +feeling the presence of a master-mind, and of following +the thoughts of a thoroughly sincere writer, free +from the cheap ready-made materialist philosophy—a +man who devotes both his life and his work, with +almost superhuman energy, to the regeneration of +his race.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII +<br> +<i>THE REAL IBSEN</i></h2></div> + + +<p>In reading Nordau’s chapter on Ibsen, one cannot +help wondering why our alienist has given his +book the form he has. The feeling which the preceding +contents of his work have more or less inspired—that +there is a discrepancy between the apparent +plan of the work and its execution—almost ripens +into conviction on the perusal of his chapter on Ibsen.</p> + +<p>He says in his dedication to Professor Lombroso: +“Now I have undertaken the work of investigating +the tendencies of the fashion in art and literature, of +proving that they have their source in the degeneracy +of their authors, and that the enthusiasm of their +admirers is for manifestations of more or less pronounced +moral insanity, imbecility, and dementia.” +He also says that he “ventures to fill a void in your +[Lombroso’s] powerful system.” From what he says +higher up on the same page about the power of books +and works of art to influence the masses, and his +many hints in other parts of the book, as, for example, +in its concluding pages, we must understand that his +great object is to do what he can to arrest the downward +movement of human intelligence.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span></p> +<p>He thus assumes that there is a degenerating process +going on throughout civilization, but attentive +readers of his book feel the whole time that this +assumption, far from being proved to be correct, +rests on data supplied by Nordau, which strongly +warn his readers to accept them only with a grain +of salt.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, there are a host of indications +in all civilized countries pointing to an increase in +intellectual power, moral strength, and æsthetic refinement. +Some of these indications would probably +not be undervalued by Nordau himself: the rapid +progress of science, the increasing education among +the masses, the large number of newspapers and +periodicals dealing intelligently with various branches +of knowledge, professions, and trades, the wider application +of scientific methods to industry, wonderful +inventions, not the outcome of discovery, but of intelligent +induction, the decay of superstition, love of +investigation, etc. Nordau, having allowed that the +test of a sound mind is its ability to attend rationally +to one’s business, ought to recognize that the growth +of intellectual power is manifest in improved business +methods, skill, manufacturing, complicated and daring +financial schemes, ingenious co-operative systems, +well-managed and disciplined trades’-unions, nay, even +cleverly laid plots to defraud.</p> + +<p>An increasing moral strength is proved by the +growth of the altruistic feeling, the devotion with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span>which the cause of humanity, morality, and progress is +served by people who, thanks to scientific scepticism, +expect no reward in another world; the greater +sincerity observable in all religious bodies, the magnitude +of charitable institutions, the magnificent heroism +displayed by captains and crews on sinking ships, by +our life-boat men in attempting to save the shipwrecked, +by our colliers’ efforts to rescue the victims +of explosions, etc. The great victories of the Germans +over the French and the complete success of +the commanders’ daring tactics have been largely, +and probably correctly, ascribed to the moral qualities +of the German army, while the utter defeat of +the French cannot be ascribed to the want of moral +qualities, but to bad leadership. A quarter of a +century has elapsed since the Franco-German war, +but there is no reason to believe that the moral +qualities of the German army have degenerated. +That no degeneracy has taken place in the English, +French, and Italian armies has been proved by the +Chitral expedition, by the French war with Madagascar, +and by the Italian operations in Africa.</p> + +<p>If, despite these manifest signs of growing intellectual +power and moral strength, Nordau’s deep insight +into psychological matters has revealed to him +a mental degeneracy in the civilized world, his way +of investigating such decay, his mode of dealing +with it, and especially the causes he attributes to it, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span>are too vacillating, too contradictory, and too biassed +to inspire confidence. While sometimes, as in his +chapter entitled “Etiology,” he refers to such causes +as the increase in the consumption of spirits and +tobacco, the factory system, overwork, overcrowding—all +causes palpable to all who have given any +attention to social questions,—in the rest of his book +he seems to regard certain popular writers and +artists as the great cause of general degeneration +who should be specially noticed. This contradiction +cannot be explained away on the plea that his book +is only part of a wider investigation which has already +been made, or might be made, regarding the causes +of degeneration, and that, so long as his work is intended +to treat of the influence of literature and art, +his ignoring of other causes is legitimate. If an effect +is first attributed to one cause and then to another, +we may be sure that there is something wrong with +the reasoning. We cannot prove first that the +tendency to hysteria, so common in people engaged +in a certain class of business, is due to overwork, +and afterwards prove that the same tendency in the +same people is due to Rossetti’s pictures or to Swinburne’s +poems.</p> + +<p>Nordau never furnishes an explanation of the enormous +importance he attaches to the influence of writers +and artists, and the small importance he attaches +to the more palpable causes of degeneration, of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>existence of some of which he is aware. Nor does +he tell us how he reconciles the two facts, alternately +insisted upon by him, that degeneration in artists is +the cause of degeneration in their surroundings; and +again, that the degeneration of their surroundings is +the cause of degeneration in artists and authors.</p> + +<p>If such artists and authors as Nordau believes to +be degenerate are the effect of degeneration all round, +they are surely the smallest and least deplorable results, +and it was certainly not worth while to write so +bulky a volume about them. Nordau mentions about +a score; and what is a score compared to the mass of +humanity, or to the five hundred million people included +in western civilization? A degeneration that +would not have other results than that of producing +twenty degenerate men, who, though they are in +many respects a source of enjoyment to many, may +have a grain of insanity in their brains, would not be +worth noticing. If, on the other hand, these supposed +degenerates are not what, to the ordinary mind, +they decidedly appear to be—the children of their +time—but the actual causes of such serious psychological +effects which statistics seem to reveal, we are +face to face with a phenomenon which surely demanded +a different method of investigation.</p> + +<p>The real connection between the causes and the +effects should have been ascertained. For instance, +the most alarming feature of degeneration in England—that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span>weak-mindedness which leads to drunkenness—should +have been connected with the mystical +painters and poets, and should have been proved not +to have been the result of those causes which seem +palpable to every man. Then the influence of individuals +on the masses in general should have been +ascertained. History offers a wide field for such an +investigation. If it had been found that authors and +artists exercise less influence than other individuals, +such as sovereigns, statesmen, prophets, reformers, +revolutionary leaders, discoverers, explorers, and +others, the influence of these should have at first +been studied, and what could not be attributed to +them might have been laid at the door of artists +and authors.</p> + +<p>In examining history, old and new, we are struck +with the extremely slight effects which have been +produced by <i>littérateurs</i> and artists, and the enormous, +all-powerful influence exercised by other individuals. +Books have influenced books, poets have influenced +poets, painters have influenced painters, but the +political, social, intellectual, moral, and æsthetical +development of a nation has over and over again +been completely determined by men who have been +neither artists nor authors.</p> + +<p>In modern times the same fact is palpable. Has +ever the world been influenced more than by such +men as Cavour, Prince Bismarck, Mr. Gladstone, Napoleon III.? +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span>and how might not the fate of humanity +be determined in the near future by such men as, for +example, the Emperor of Germany and the Czar of +Russia? On the mental qualities of the Emperor of +Germany depends largely whether Germany is to be +crushed under the army system; whether it is to be +ruined by financial blunderings; whether there shall +be peaceful development of its resources, or war to +the knife between its classes; whether healthy reforms +shall gradually clear away its social anomalies, +or whether a revolution of unprecedented atrocity +shall uproot its very foundations; whether its inhabitants +shall develop those characteristics to which +peace and happiness are conducive, or those which +would inevitably be fostered if Germany were made +the battle-field of modern armies.</p> + +<p>On the mental qualities of the Czar depend directly +the destiny of a hundred million people, and indirectly +the peace of the world. Russia is only too willing +to progress under an imperial leader. On the occasion +of his accession to the throne and his marriage, +millions of people anxiously scanned his portrait and +tried to read in his features the fate of Europe. The +presence of lines supposed to indicate weak character +produced prophecies of clerical domination, opposition +to progress, and death to Russia; while a kindly +expression of the eyes inspired many with hopes of a +new era for Tolstoi’s unfortunate countrymen.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span></p> +<p>It is not only personages of high rank and sovereign +power whose mental state is of utmost importance +to humanity. The political situation in most +countries is capable of producing at any moment a +man who, without being either an author or an artist, +might be able to change the destiny of nations. It +is not the opportunity that is wanting, it is the men. +France is panting for a man. The working classes +in America and in England stand in need of a good +leader. In Germany Liebknecht threatens to divide +the power with the Emperor. A political Tolstoi +might, at the head of the Russian people, sweep the +recreant bureaucrats from his Fatherland.</p> + +<p>It is then sovereigns, politicians, and popular leaders +whose mental state is of the utmost importance, +and whose influence may overwhelmingly determine +the mental and moral development of humanity. An +answer to the question whether they are degenerates, +or whether they are of mentally or morally sound +mind, is momentous to the whole civilized world, +especially if it be admitted that the minds of the +race are so susceptible of being moulded by the +minds of influential men.</p> + +<p>But who are the men whom Nordau blames for +the degeneracy for which he finds the proof in statistics? +Poets and artists, whose very names are +known only to the educated classes, and who for the +most part supply what the market demands, or simply +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>reflect the society around them. The most surprising +of all is that he himself denies any power or +any talent in some of these men, calling them—to +omit his worse epithets—such names as drivelling +idiots, weak-minded graphomaniacs, etc.</p> + +<p>One condition seems however necessary before a +man can receive the compliment of being called +names by Nordau—he must have attracted public +attention. We have therefore said, and repeat it, +that his desperate attempt to make out Ibsen to be +a degenerate renders it impossible to form a clear +idea of his object, or of his reasons, for the methods +he has adopted.</p> + +<p>Henrik Ibsen aims not at being a prophet, a +teacher, or a regenerator of mankind either by literary +or scientific methods. No one can detect in +his works special ethics, or particular religious or +social views. It is characteristic of his pieces—and +according to many of his opponents a great fault in +them—that he points no moral, that the questions +involved remain at the end of the piece exactly where +they were at the beginning, that his heroes and heroines +are no heroes and no heroines, and cannot serve as +models of conduct. His opponents and admirers +alike complain that they cannot get at his meaning, +and that he will not explain himself. It is therefore +surprising that there should be so much talk about +the influence he exercises, and that Nordau himself +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span>should speak about “Ibsen’s dogmas,” “Ibsen’s code +of morals,” and about Ibsen himself as a “reformer.”</p> + +<p>Those who speak about Ibsen’s influence on the +ethics of our time cannot, as a rule, give any explanation +of their meaning which can justify the +importance they attach to it. They are apt to point +to his influence on the English drama and blame +him for certain of its objectionable features. But +to those who understand his pieces it is perfectly +clear that he has not been followed by English +dramatists in such things as have made him famous +and popular. They have contented themselves with +imitating certain situations and with referring to +some objectionable feature in modern society, which +Ibsen does reluctantly, compelled to do so by the +situation, and in order to emphasize types of character +which are only too common in every civilized +country, but are so closely draped in hypocrisy as to +require the great dramatist’s lens to show them up. +His imitators however exemplify entirely exceptional +cases and conjure up characters the prototypes of +which it would be extremely hard to find. He aims +at presenting stern reality; they aim at producing +risky situations. Indeed, his imitators cannot be +said to have been influenced by him more than has +his brilliant parodist, Mr. F. Anstey.</p> + +<p>In Germany, as in the Scandinavian countries, +complaints are sometimes raised against Ibsen’s influence +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span>on women, especially young women. Our +daughters are getting Ibsenized, is the cry raised +by a number of Philistine parents. It is perhaps +natural that Ibsen’s influence on women in those +countries, where the staging of Ibsen’s pieces recalls +more familiar presentations should be greater than +in England, where the Norwegian manner of life is +but little known. But too much weight might easily +be attached to the difference in acquaintance with +Norway. There is a far more powerful reason why +Ibsen’s so-called influence should appear to be more +marked on German and Norwegian women than on +English women.</p> + +<p>With the exception of the United States, there is +no country in the world where respectable women +are better treated than in England. An old adage +says, with a great deal of truth, that the wife of the +German is his slave, the wife of the Frenchman is +his mistress, and the wife of the Englishman is the +queen of his house. The German woman certainly +has of old held a position in her home which might +well lead her to envy the English woman, and as the +Scandinavian countries have been largely affected by +Germany in their social manners and habits, the +women of these countries have ample cause for dissatisfaction. +Since the time of Frederika Bremer, a +woman’s revolt has been brewing in the Scandinavian +countries, and the aspirations for more liberty, a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span>more natural life, and more happiness have been +constantly becoming stronger, and were highly developed +before Ibsen’s first piece appeared. Besides, +the spread of English fiction in Germany and in the +northern countries of Europe has shown the women of +those countries that a happier life is quite possible.</p> + +<p>The road to the realization of such aspirations was +however barred by custom and the selfish view of +the question taken by the men. They had no objection +to high-spirited, talented, well-dressed, and +lively women, whose attractions could evoke in them +romantic and ardent feelings; and a great many +knew well enough that leisure, exemption from hard +work, good food, plenty of exercise, suitable friends, +artistic surroundings, good books, a fair amount of +pleasure, and considerate treatment were required to +transform a young woman into that feminine ideal +which they worshipped in their imagination. But +they repudiated entirely the idea of having such +ideals in their wives. It would have clashed far too +much with the traditional type of a good wife, and +to marry one deviating from this type would have set +the whole circle of acquaintances talking. Besides, +a wife conforming to the ideal was considered an +expensive luxury, leading to waste of money which +could be much better employed.</p> + +<p>Mothers of girls, well acquainted with the marriage +market, consequently exerted all their energy to form +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span>their daughters for the positions they were expected +to occupy. House-cleaning, washing, cooking, darning, +etc.,—this was what they had to learn. A +demure demeanour was what they had to practise. +The society of men was what they had to avoid. +Romantic ideas had, above all, to be suppressed, and +only such love as would come after marriage, or +at least after betrothal, was considered legitimate +and decent.</p> + +<p>A great feature in their education was to closely +observe the evils and troubles which followed upon +poverty, and how much more comfortable life would +be with a prosperous though unattractive husband +than with a beloved man who might not succeed +in the world. The idea of refusing a proposal of +marriage from a well-to-do man, however old and +prosy, was regarded as preposterous, and any respectable +girl dreaming of such a thing would have +been considered as a romantic, ungrateful hussy.</p> + +<p>As the men seldom married young, the girls were +taught to ask no questions about their past, and +were trained to sacrifice all their ideals of purity, +their dreams of love, what a free woman would call +her self-respect, their future happiness, their healthful +youth, on the altar of Philistine respectability.</p> + +<p>There are other ways of degrading women besides +yoking them with an ox to a plough, and that +they were degraded and de-naturalized the thinking +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span>German and Scandinavian women had felt long before +Ibsen wrote plays. The struggle for better +treatment was however extremely weak and the +progress towards emancipation extremely slow. Just +as oppressive government, with its police persecution, +gags open discontent and drives the forces of revolt +under ground, so the tyranny over the German and +Scandinavian women—when tradition and prejudice +prevented open manifestations—developed in the +hearts of women, especially among the most gifted, +a dangerously strong spirit of revolt.</p> + +<p>Already at the time when Ibsen began to write +there were numerous but isolated outbreaks. The +old treatment, which generally resulted in turning +the married woman into a dull, despondent house-slave, +a soured invalid, a nagging scold, or a gossiping +zany, began to produce scoffing Aspasias, +neurotic adventuresses, and here and there avenging +furies.</p> + +<p>This tendency to revolt among the women was +stronger in Norway than in the other countries, +because it developed parallel with that ethical awakening—the +new <i>Aand</i><a id="FNanchor_1_1" href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>—which during the latter part +of this century has taken possession of so many +Norwegian minds; also because the strongly imaginative +and contemplative character of the Norwegian +people, and the intensely emotional nature of their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>women, led them to brood over their wrongs in a +thoroughly Norwegian fashion. Better education and +wide reading tended in the same direction.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_1" href="#FNanchor_1_1" class="label">[1]</a> <i>Aand</i>, the Norwegian for spirit, inspiration.</p></div> + +<p>Ibsen has therefore not Ibsenized the Scandinavian +ladies. He has simply seized upon a social +phenomenon and, understanding its gravity, has +held it up to his contemporaries for a study and a +warning.</p> + +<p>Nordau, having committed the egregious mistake +of believing that Ibsen has invented whereas he has +in reality only copied, and that a social phenomenon +which is natural to intellectual and moral progress is +a result of Ibsen’s writings, is, in his capacity of +the most German of Germans, naturally wroth with +Ibsen for representing as a social evil what a normal +sound-minded common-sense German—the very type +of the non-degenerate—would consider as a useful +and comfortable arrangement. There are several +excuses for Nordau’s belief that Ibsen misrepresents +reality. The improvement in woman’s status in +society has no doubt advanced more in Germany +than in the Scandinavian countries. It is possible +that the Dowager Empress’s influence as an Englishwoman +has not been so great as is generally supposed, +but there can be little doubt that English +novels, from Charlotte Bronté’s <i>Jane Eyre</i> upwards, +have considerably furthered justice towards German +women. The close business connections between +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span>Germany and England, the numerous Germans who +have had a long experience of English life, have no +doubt done much to spread English social views in +Germany.</p> + +<p>The German women may therefore now have less +cause for discontent and revolt than the Scandinavian +women, and it is excusable if the Germans consider +that they treat them fairly and well.</p> + +<p>To observing Englishmen who visit Germany it is +however clear that the whole Philistine idea of the +housewife is still prevailing in that country. A great +number of husbands consider it a distinct advantage +to be able to throw off all restraint in their own +homes and to compel their wives to accommodate +themselves as well as they can to their whims, their +habits, their indulgences. That exasperating type, +the house-tyrant, which is found in all countries, and +not seldom in England, is especially prevalent in +Germany.</p> + +<p>German men are well aware that their wives have +nothing in common with the fascinating ideal woman +of their imagination, and they are quite satisfied that +it should be so. Their work, their studies, their profession, +or their business demands all their attention, +and they could not dream of dismissing them from +their minds when they enter their homes. A woman +who would distract her husband’s attention from such +important subjects would be an impediment to his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span>success, while the typical housewife, by her cares and +ministrations, furthers it. Like most men, Germans +have chivalrous leanings, and enjoy a courteous intercourse +with ladies, but it is generally not their +wives who reap the advantages of this taste. It is +the other ladies, those they meet in society, and not +seldom do they muster all their powers of gallantry, +all their means of pleasing, and all their faculty to +amuse in the company of women of light character, +often in every respect inferior to their wives.</p> + +<p>It is those German women who feel that their +happiness and their lives have been sacrificed, not +for their husbands, but to a vicious conception of +married life, who sympathize with the women of +Ibsen, and have thus contributed largely to the fame +of that dramatist in Germany.</p> + +<p>Ibsen has not Ibsenized the German ladies, but +his pieces have revealed the existence of a grudge +long harboured by German women.</p> + +<p>It is only just to record that, though Englishwomen, +especially those who live and are treated up +to the English ideal, as we mentioned before, live +under much happier circumstances as children, girls, +<i>fiancées</i>, and wives, there are many of our countrywomen +whose marriages have been a cruel disillusion. +Many Englishmen marry too young, before +they know their own minds, and under the feverish +impulse of a first love. When such young husbands +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span>are thoughtless, selfish, or when they have made a +bad choice, a miserable married life is the result. In +a great number of young households happiness prevails, +thanks to the strong-mindedness and tact of +the young wife, who can take care of herself and of +her husband also. But thousands of marriages turn +out utter failures, not for want of love, but from the +husband’s utter ignorance of how to take care of his +wife’s health, beauty, and happiness.</p> + +<p>Though it is the fashion in this country not to +adapt but to translate literally Ibsen’s pieces, there +would be no difficulty to so adapt them as to render +them exact representations of the state of many an +English home. And this is sufficient to explain his +fame in England. Here, as on the continent, it is +the selfish, mean, bullying husbands who cannot find +any sense in Ibsen’s pieces, and who are extremely +shocked at what they consider Ibsen’s perversion in +attempting to enlist, by inexplicable devices, the +sympathies of the audience for the erring wife, when +these should be vouchsafed to the husband, who +appears to be such a respectable, common-sense +man.</p> + +<p>When Ibsen thus calls attention to the importance +and the gravity of the feeling of revolt which has +long rankled in the minds of thinking women all +over the world, and which manifested itself long +before Ibsen’s pieces were known outside Norway, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span>he cannot fairly be said to be responsible for the +growing discontent. In reality, he has rendered the +world a great service: for the new views and aspirations +of modern educated women can neither be +suppressed nor ignored without considerable danger +to society.</p> + +<p>In order to understand that the demand for the +purification of marriage is not a transitory whim, it +will suffice to consider who made the marriage laws, +and, what is more important, who inaugurated the +traditional views concerning them. Men alone did. +Not the young men, who would be largely swayed +by the yearning for true love and by chivalrous considerations, +but the law-makers of old; that is to say, +elderly men of influence and fortune. In the olden +times, when the foundations of social customs were +laid, the rights of women were considerably less +respected than in our days; and under such circumstances +the law-makers did not feel called upon to +consider woman to any large extent, but made laws +and introduced customs which suited themselves. +What they wanted was, firstly, to marry young and +beautiful wives, despite all objections that might be +raised against their age, their looks, or their characters, +and without much troublesome courtship; and, +secondly, to keep their young wives in subjection by +sheer force and legal compulsion.</p> + +<p>It is not reasonable to suppose that the fair sex +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span>should submit for ever to such treatment, and, as +the women in the English-speaking countries have +already gained large concessions, it is natural that +their sisters in the rest of the civilized world should +struggle for reform.</p> + +<p>It is therefore difficult to see why Nordau should +consider Ibsen’s influence so dangerous to society as +to deem it necessary to hold him up as a degenerate. +The enigma becomes more puzzling when we find +that Nordau frankly allows that Ibsen has great merits +and great talents. He says, for instance: “Henrik +Ibsen is a poet of great verve and power.” “He has +the gift of depicting in an exceptionally lifelike and +impressive manner that which has excited his feelings.” +“He has the capacity for imagining situations in +which the characters are forced to turn inside out +their inmost nature, in which abstract ideas transform +themselves into deeds, and moods of opinion and of +feeling, imperceptible to the senses but potent as +causes, are made patent to sight and hearing in attitudes +and gestures, in the play of feature, and in +words.” “He knows how to group events into living +frescoes possessing the charm of significant pictures... +not like Wagner, with strange costumes and +properties, architectural splendour, mechanical magic, +gods and fabulous beasts, but with penetrating vision +into the background of souls and the conditions +of humanity.... But he does not allow the +imagination of the spectator to run riot in mere spectacles; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span>he forces them into moods, he binds them by +his spell in circles of ideas, through the pictures which +he unrolls before them.” “The power with which +Ibsen, in a few rapid strokes, sketches a situation, an +emotion, a dim-lit depth of the soul, is very much +higher than his skill, so much extolled, of foreshortening +in time... Each of the terse words +which suffice him has something of the nature of a +peep-hole, through which limitless vistas are obtained. +The plays of all peoples of all ages have few situations +at once so perfectly simple and so irresistibly +affecting.”</p> + +<p>Further on he again says: “It must be acknowledged +that Ibsen has created some characters possessing +a truth to life and a completeness such as +are not to be met with in any poet since Shakespeare... +None the less no poet since the illustrious +Spanish master (Cervantes) has succeeded in creating +such an embodiment of plain, jolly, healthy common-sense, +of practical tact without anxiety as to things +eternal, and of honest fulfilment of all proximate, +obvious duties without a suspicion of higher moral +obligations, as this Gina.... Hjalmar also is a +perfect creation, in which Ibsen has not once succumbed +to the cogent temptation to exaggerate, but +has exercised most entrancingly that ‘self-restraint’ +in every word which, as Goethe says, ‘reveals the +master.’”</p> + +<p>We have quoted somewhat lengthily from this +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span>eulogy of Ibsen in order to render justice both to him +and to Nordau. There is no passage in Nordau’s +book which displays more insight into dramatic art +and a more intelligent appreciation of some of the +subtle but marvellous merits of Ibsen’s plays. We +should not have thought it possible that so keen an +appreciation could have been formed without seeing +Ibsen’s pieces acted in the original language. This +eulogy becomes all the more valuable when we +remember that it emanates from one of Ibsen’s +opponents—from a man who would fain restrain +Ibsen from writing at all, and who evidently has +not paid any attention to the slow but important +social struggle which Ibsen so frequently illustrates.</p> + +<p>Most people who have read these and other acknowledgments +on the part of Nordau of Ibsen’s +talent, will be struck with the reckless manner in +which Nordau defeats his own object. He wishes to +warn the world against “degenerates” of Ibsen’s type, +and at the same time praises him as few writers have +been praised, seemingly without considering that in +this manner he inspires thousands of young writers +with the ambition to be degenerates as Ibsen is.</p> + +<p>To the average reader Nordau suggests the idea +of the impossibility of reconciling so much power, +genius, talent, and craftsmanship with decayed mental +faculties. This all the more as Ibsen’s pieces are +financial successes, and he consequently shows a +solid capacity for the management of his own affairs, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span>which, as Nordau has already told us, and every +alienist would tell us, is the safest test of a sound +brain. The conclusion seems inevitable that Nordau +is either utterly wrong when he sees all these merits +in Ibsen’s work, or else when he considers him to be +degenerate.</p> + +<p>In examining the grounds on which Nordau strives +to establish his theory of degeneracy we shall no +doubt find that the latter alternative is the true one.</p> + +<p>Nordau first impeaches Ibsen’s reputation for realism, +but takes this term in its most literal sense. +The stage has its limitations, and the dramatist must +have a certain licence in the creating of his situations. +Ibsen is not called a realist because all that +he represents on the stage is in closer conformity +with reality than the representations of practically +any other dramatist ever were, but because his characters, +besides being individually true to nature, are +types—strongly coloured types, it may be, but not +too strongly coloured to be understood by an average +audience. In a piece not intended to be played +the characters may be more delicately moulded, but +when they are to be grasped in a few flashes before +the footlights they must, like the statue intended for +an elevated position, be hewn in bold proportions.</p> + +<p>In order to show how unreal Ibsen is, Nordau +asks whether it is probable that the joiner, Engstrand +(in <i>Ghosts</i>), wishing to open a tavern for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span>sailors, should call upon his own daughter to be the +odalisque of his “establishment.” By using the word +“odalisque,” and by placing the word “establishment” +between inverted commas, he gives a distorted +idea of the tavern Engstrand is going to open. It is +a question of a real tavern, not of an “establishment.” +Girls in similar taverns in Norway are of +course exposed to temptations and sometimes to +insults, but they are by no means necessarily unchaste. +In selecting the employment in the tavern, +Ibsen succeeds in giving an insight into the Philistine +character of Engstrand, who for the sake of +money would risk his daughter’s reputation, but who +could always fall back on the excuse that he did not +intend to ruin her.</p> + +<p>Nordau may be right when he says that no Paris +doctor would have told Oswald Alving in <i>Ghosts</i> +that he had softening of the brain. But Ibsen does +not say “softening of the brain”; he makes Alving +say “a kind of softening of the brain,” an expression +which might very well be Oswald’s interpretation of +what the doctor had told him in very guarded words. +Moreover it is not as an alienist that Ibsen has +gained his fame; it is as a dramatist.</p> + +<p>Nordau quotes as another example of unreality, +the sense in which the term “society” is used by +the characters in the <i>Pillars of Society</i>. This is an +error into which Nordau has evidently been led by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span>reading a bad German translation of the piece. +Ibsen’s characters do not mean “social edifice,” as +Nordau pedantically will have it, but the well-to-do +people in the community.</p> + +<p>Again, he thinks that excuse very unreal which +Berneck gives to his foreman, whom he has not taken +into his confidence. But this unreality is precisely +what Ibsen wishes the public to see, and he has +evidently not accentuated the unreality sufficiently, +as this has escaped even Nordau. Nordau does +not find the speech of Pastor Rörlund realistic +enough. The fact is that the speech is a delightful +parody, in no way exaggerated, of those addresses +which toadying sycophants all the world over are +in the habit of delivering to a magnate whom they +desire to propitiate. Any one who has heard such +a speech in Norway will be amusedly surprised by +its comic realism.</p> + +<p>It would be tiresome to go minutely into the +proofs of unreality Nordau finds in Ibsen’s pieces, +and the bare mention of the following examples will +suffice to show the futility of his attempt. He considers +it impossible for a man of forty-three to inspire +love, and this in Norway, where people develop and +ripen so slowly. He thinks it unreal for an excitable +girl to describe as a storm on the sea the passion +which induces her to encourage her rival’s suicide, +and then when the rival is out of the way patiently +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span>to devote a year and a half to gaining the love for +which her sin was committed. Our alienist, who +displays throughout his book an utter lack of the +sense of the ridiculous, finds the scene between +Ellida, Wangel, and the Stranger in <i>The Lady from +the Sea</i> ridiculous, a scene which thousands of audiences +have followed in breathless silence and with +deep emotion.</p> + +<p>The puzzle is why Nordau is so anxious to show +that Ibsen is not a realist, and how his not being a +realist can possibly be construed into an argument in +favour of his insanity. Are then all the people who, +as a matter of taste or as a matter of business, +supply the public with unrealistic dramas to be considered +more or less demented? If this is the case, +what becomes of the mental sanity of Nordau’s great +model, Goethe, the author of the intensely unreal +<i>Faust</i>?</p> + +<p>Referring to the theory of heredity, frequently +alluded to in Ibsen’s works, Nordau says he cannot +preserve his gravity when Ibsen displays his scientific +or medical knowledge. Here again we are tempted +to refer to the sandal-maker and the sandal-strings; +but there is actually no occasion to do so, because +Ibsen displaying his medical knowledge is a picture +conjured up by Nordau’s own imagination. We do +not know what Ibsen does in his private life, but in +his dramatic works he does not display his medical +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span>knowledge. What suits Nordau’s purpose to give as +Ibsen’s opinions are the opinions of his characters, +who, being true to nature, speak as their prototypes +in reality speak. It suits Ibsen’s dramatic purposes +to make use of certain views on heredity, and he is +all the more entitled to do so as such opinions are +very prevalent nowadays, and not without exercising +a considerable influence on people’s minds. Ibsen +may have exactly the same opinion as his characters +give expression to, or he may think the very opposite, +but those who thoroughly understand Ibsen’s +method will be convinced that he would not commit +the mistake, so common among dramatists, of allowing +his characters to reflect the author’s personality. +When Regina, in <i>Ghosts</i>, in reply to Mrs. Alving, +who is harping on heredity, says, “What must be, +must be... I take after my mother I dare +say,” she does not express Ibsen’s opinion about +heredity, but that fatalistic notion which is unfortunately +extremely common among women, especially +when in trouble or at fault, and a reference to her +mother is only a confirmation of her fatalistic belief, +at which she clutches that she may rid herself of +her responsibility.</p> + +<p>If we must look for a tendency in Ibsen’s works, +it might be found in his attempt to show up this +generally prevailing weakness in will and character +which Nordau himself finds everywhere and which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span>he calls degeneration. Regina, as well as Oswald, +are “frightful examples” of this weakness, and in +placing them on the stage Ibsen has the same object +as Nordau, namely, to exhibit a deplorable defect in +modern society. Ibsen may therefore be looked +upon as Nordau’s co-operator, and even precursor, +because Ibsen’s characters are types of that very +degeneration which Nordau desires to combat. In +fact, the importance that our alienist attaches to +Ibsen’s characters suggests the idea that if there were +no Ibsen there would be no Nordau. By the aid of +an extremely confused and distorted reasoning, he +condemns Ibsen for that very weakness which he, +like Nordau, has discovered in modern society and +incarnated in his characters as a warning to his +contemporaries.</p> + +<p>If we had not a strong objection to the <i>tu quoque</i> +argument, and were not resolved to avoid it, we +could here say a great deal about Nordau’s condemnation +of Ibsen’s supposed illogical references to +heredity, while Nordau himself yields to the temptation +of using the absurdest logic in order to discover +supposed proofs in favour of his own pet theories.</p> + +<p>Even supposing that Ibsen did believe in heredity, +is he not in harmony with his time? One does +not require to be an alienist or a biologist to understand +that the Darwinian theory of evolution is +the theory of heredity; and one does not require +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span>to be very old to have observed that the characteristics +of parents often repeat themselves in their +children. In his criticism of Ibsen, Nordau seems to +go too far when he casts discredit on the theory of +heredity, with regard to which he himself goes to an +extreme when he attributes to heredity the lurking +belief in a personal God in the inmost recesses of the +consciousness of certain scientists. The manner in +which he refers to little Hedwig’s blindness will certainly +induce his readers to infer that he himself does +not believe in cases of hereditary blindness—an affliction +which has however come within the knowledge +of many. Nordau, in his purposeless eagerness to +tear Ibsen down from his pedestal, seems to imagine +that he would further his object if he could show that +Ibsen is influenced by the religion of his childhood, +of his youth, and of his country. To be influenced by +such religion has been the case with many sane +people of strong mind, especially in countries where +the morality implanted in young children is based +entirely on religious instruction. Even when a man +ceases to believe literally all that has been taught +him, it is natural that his religious thoughts should +mould themselves on the early impressions, which +then become symbols instead of fact. This is especially +natural with people whose walk in life has +precluded them from giving that absorbing attention +to psychology and biology which to a sound mind +is indispensable before it can master, or believe, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span>the scientists’ theories of “mechanical causality,” and +the annihilation of the conscious <i>Ego</i>. Nordau, like +many other scientific enthusiasts, seems to labour +under the impression that all the loud-voiced people, +who affect complete irreligiosity, and who pose as +free-thinkers, are really convinced that the scientific +discovery of yesterday, which might be upset by the +discovery of to-morrow, sufficiently explains the world +and themselves. This is far from being the case. +How often when we scratch the atheist do we not +find the superstitiously devout. How many men +could be found in the world who are so capable of +satisfying all their curiosity regarding the unknown +by scientific theories that they might be quoted +in support of the artificiality of religious instincts? +They would certainly number very few. And yet +scientists of Nordau’s stamp are apt to regard such +men as the only really sane ones, and the rest of +humanity as to some extent degenerate.</p> + +<p>But how does Nordau know anything about Ibsen’s +religious opinions? He simply studies the characters +in Ibsen’s pieces and takes for granted that Ibsen +must necessarily hold the same opinions as his characters. +This absurd assumption, indispensable to his +purpose, leads him sometimes into ridiculous dilemmas +from which he escapes in a not less ridiculous manner. +When he finds that Ibsen has <i>dramatis personæ</i> of +diametrically opposed opinions and beliefs, he does +not know which of them represents Ibsen’s opinions +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span>and Ibsen’s beliefs. Determined not to notice the +simple fact that none of them represent Ibsen’s views, +he falls back on the expediency of declaring that, +because his characters differ, Ibsen does not know +his own mind, a fact which in our alienist’s view +points to degeneracy.</p> + +<p>He quotes copiously from Ibsen’s pieces in order +to show that those characters who have committed +evil deeds, without having resigned themselves to +being utterly bad, yearn for confession. From this +we must conclude that Nordau considers a longing +for confession in those who have sinned as an obsession +and as pertaining to stigmata of degeneration. +To make capital out of this, Nordau sticks +hard to his assumption that Ibsen’s object is to +preach some kind of creed by proclaiming his own +opinions through his characters. Few people in the +world really know what Ibsen’s final object and real +aims are; but his immediate object, it will be granted, +is to show his contemporaries what they really are, +and so sternly and so cogently does he pursue this +object that, while other dramatists show their spectators +the defects of others, Ibsen lays bare their own.</p> + +<p>In showing sinners’ yearnings for confession, Ibsen +could not therefore be wrong unless a longing for +confession in sinners is unreal or unusual. Far from +being unusual, we find it in almost every human +being, from the innocent child down to the brutal +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span>criminal. The police and law-court reports in England +frequently relate cases in which men and women +confess crimes which would never have been discovered, +simply to satisfy a conscience yearning for +confession. We have nothing to do here with the +question as to whether this first step towards a better +life is longed for in obedience to an instinct implanted +in the emotional nature of man by a Creator, +or whether it is the consequence of an inherited tendency +originated by religious teaching and moral +civil laws. We have only to deal with the fact that +the conscience of all evil-doers, and especially of +those who are willing to abandon evil and return to +good, prompts them to confess. Nordau has only to +consult a Catholic priest in order to learn how strong +and general this yearning is.</p> + +<p>It must also be remembered that confession, if not +to priests yet to God, is part of the Lutheran creed +prevailing in Norway, and that consequently confession +is regarded by the people as the test of true +repentance. Though auricular confession is not a +sacrament in the Lutheran Church, the Norwegian +ministers could tell Nordau how often sinners and +criminals ease their consciences by confessing to +them. It is hardly possible to write a serious dramatic +piece without representing a struggle between +good and evil. And how then could Ibsen write +dramas true to Norwegian life, without instancing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span>that yearning for confession which is the outward +sign of the inward struggle between good and evil?</p> + +<p>Nordau instances the French assassin Avinain, +who before being guillotined gave out as his life’s +motto “Never confess,” as an example of a strong +and healthy mind—or, at least, he regards this motto +as one which only a strong and healthy mind can +follow. On the other hand, he regards confessing +men as men “in whom the mechanism of inhibition +is always disordered, and who therefore cannot escape +from the impulse to confess when anything of +an absorbing or exciting character exists in their +consciousness.”</p> + +<p>In this comparison Nordau omits the chief factor—the +religious opinion, or the philosophy which +necessarily determines whether the confession is a +sign of strength or weakness. If the murderer Avinain +was a confirmed atheist, and if his emotional +nature was such as to glorify murder, then he had +no impulse to confess, and consequently required no +strength of mind to resist confession. If the man +who glories in what is good—or, to use an expression +of Nordau’s, who has social instincts, and consequently +believes that confession is his duty and an +heroic action—should shun the ordeal and prefer to +spend the rest of his life as a self-despising hypocrite, +this would be weak-mindedness. Of course Nordau +may always argue that to believe in the good and in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span>personal responsibility is in itself a sign of degeneration. +But this would be simply to place the +question on another plane, where we have already +discussed it.</p> + +<p>What is said here about confession applies equally +to what Nordau says about redemption. It is not, +as he states, an obsession of Ibsen’s, but a symbol +very natural to a people of strong religious feelings. +His characters could not possibly express their ideas +and their emotions in any other way than that in +which they have been in the habit of thinking all +their lives.</p> + +<p>Nordau cannot rid himself of the obsession that +the dramatist must necessarily take a side in the +squabble between religion and science, and between +the devotees of different social panaceas, and seems +exasperated because he cannot get at Ibsen’s +real opinion on such questions. When he persists +in his egregious error of taking the opinions of +Ibsen’s characters as those of Ibsen, his mind gets +into a maze, which leads him to the conclusion that +it is Ibsen’s mind, not his own, that has got into a +confused state. It is very common to find a man, +who, by dint of study or by natural talent, has become +an authority on one subject, so far losing his +power of self-criticism as to believe himself a universal +genius, capable of dogmatizing on every +subject under the sun. It is this conceit that induces +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span>successful men to imagine that their natural +specialty is not that one which has rendered them +famous, but some other specialty for which in reality +they have no aptitude whatever. A successful comedian +believes himself to be hardly dealt with because +he is not acknowledged as a tragedian. A musician +considers himself an authority on the drama. The +poet thinks he ought to have been a politician. Biologists +imagine they would shine as social reformers.</p> + +<p>It is because Ibsen has not yielded to this weakness, +because he has not the conceit to lay down +the law on questions outside his own province, but +simply aspires to be a dramatist, that Nordau complains +so bitterly of Ibsen’s omission to express a +distinct opinion on all sorts of subjects on which +Nordau burns to break a lance with him. He tilts +against the opinions expressed by Ibsen’s characters +with the wasted fury of Don Quixote attacking +windmills.</p> + +<p>We are at a loss to account for the contradictions +of which Nordau appears to be guilty. Much of +what he says in the latter part of his essay on Ibsen +is in direct contradiction to what he says in the +earlier part, where his praise of Ibsen’s talents and +abilities is conspicuous. We will give an example +of what we mean. He says at the beginning of his +chapter: “Each of the terse words which suffice him +[Ibsen] has something of the nature of a peep-hole, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span>through which limitless vistas are obtained.” +Towards the end of it he says: “Thus Ibsen’s +drama is like a kaleidoscope in a sixpenny bazaar. +When one looks through the peep-hole, one sees at +each shaking of the cardboard tube new and parti-coloured +combinations. Children are amused at this +toy, but adults know that it contains only splinters +of coloured glass, always the same, inserted haphazard +and united into mystical figures by three bits +of looking-glass, and they soon tire of the expressionless +arabesque.”</p> + +<p>Can this contradiction be the result of his great +trust in authorities, and has he made use of two +that clash, or does he write for writing’s sake, differently +each day according to the mood he happens +to be in?</p> + +<p>When Ibsen’s characters give expression to their +yearnings for greater personal liberty, for a revolt +against social traditions which threaten to wreck +their lives, and which they have beheld wrecking +the lives of hundreds around them, they are intended +by the dramatist to show what is going on +in modern society. Nordau of course concludes that +Ibsen is an egomaniac who resents any bonds on +his worst instincts. Supposing that Ibsen shares +personally that same longing for more individual +freedom which Nordau so warmly deprecates, it is +evident that they differ simply because Nordau +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span>starts from the supposition that men’s instincts are +necessarily bad, and Ibsen from the supposition that +they are good.</p> + +<p>The fundamental difference in opinion mainly +springs from the different circumstances amongst +which the two men have been born and brought +up. The German, who has all his life been impressed +with the necessity of officialism and police +government, who has lived under the impression that +his castle would be attacked by a lower caste when +free to follow its inclinations, would naturally attach +great importance to existing institutions. If he at +the same time be illogical enough to sap at the root +of that great order-producing institution—religion—and +beholds that this safeguard is becoming more +and more unreliable, he naturally looks for something +to take its place.</p> + +<p>The German social system, so unjust to the working +classes, has naturally embittered the people and +enlisted a number of working men into the revolutionary +parties, and this growing army of so-called +enemies to society naturally alarms the German middle-class +man and prejudices him against the proletariat. +Passions and destructive instincts, instilled by +long suffering, he is apt to regard as human nature +from which the worst must be expected. This explains +many of Nordau’s contradictions. He wishes +to abolish religion because its abolition would glorify +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span>science, but he wishes to retain the marriage laws because +he fears that without them an unspeakable state +of immorality would ensue. He denies a divine plan +in creation which might account for the moral instinct +in man, but he does not believe that morality +has sprung from the only remaining source, namely, +man’s experience of the advantages of morality. His +habit of bowing to authorities causes him to believe +that morality and a pure family life are the result of +the marriage laws, and not that the marriage laws are +the result of man’s love of morality and of a pure +family life.</p> + +<p>The Norwegian is born and brought up in a country +where liberty has been the basis and safeguard of +moral order; where few police are found in the cities, +and where, throughout vast tracts of country, man’s +good instincts are the only police; where the peasant +and working classes have no desire or intention to +attack the wealthy; where the people are religious +because they are honest and not honest because they +are religious; where self-esteem and justice would +take the place of religion were it to crumble. The +Norwegian has noticed that the poor are more generous +than the rich, that the people are more honest +than their officials, that the free man and woman are +more moral than the tied ones, and that liberty elevates +and oppressive laws degrade. If the Norwegian +seems to attach little importance to legal +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span>marriage, it is because, in cleansing it from mercenary +considerations and other low motives, he hopes +to base it on such foundations as moral instinct, love, +self-respect, honour, and possibly on religious belief, +and thereby make it a life-long reality. It is not to +gratify low instincts and licentious passions, as Nordau +would have it, that he wishes for reform. He +may be mistaken in his motives, but this is no excuse +for attributing vile motives to him.</p> + +<p>Nordau is not the only one who is puzzled by the +many peculiarities of Ibsen’s plays. Like him, many +English theatre-goers wonder why his best types and +his leading characters, as a rule, are so void of nobility, +fine feeling, and high principles; why he always +places his scenes in small towns, and not among the +romantically wild country and the picturesque peasants, +as Björnsen and Jonas Lie have often done; +why he represents the so-called respectable and +official classes in so unfavourable a light; why his +women seem to be morally and intellectually superior +to his men.</p> + +<p>In order to elucidate these questions and many +other peculiarities in Ibsen’s plays and characters, +as well as some of the reasons why a German critic +should disapprove of Ibsen, it should be remembered +that in Norway two cultures have met and +struggled—the German and Scandinavian—but have +not blended.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span></p> +<p>Of the Scandinavian nations, the Norwegians may +be considered as the extreme type. While they differ +from the Danes and Swedes considerably, they differ +still more from the Germans. Their characteristics +arise not only from race, but largely from +surroundings and modes of life. The genuine Norwegian +people have of old lived scattered over a +vast area of country, separated by high fjelds and +broad fjords, foaming torrents and dense woods, +only sparingly communicating with each other, and +still less with strangers, and hearing little of the +outside world, they have grown into a silent, thinking, +and deep-feeling nation. They have inherited +from the old Viking times an unquenchable love of +liberty, and all their institutions, their customs, their +principles, have developed in freedom, and such +virtues as they have and of which they are most +proud, are the outcome of personal independence. +Accustomed to personal danger on the snow-clad +mountain-paths, in the vast forests, and in small +open boats upon the stormy fjords, they have acquired +an extraordinary degree of self-reliance. Unused +to, and distrustful of, foreign ways, and seldom +successful in foreign countries, they harbour an intense +love of Norway and for anything Norwegian; +and while they may conceitedly think that everything +that is Norwegian is great and noble, they +certainly endeavour to put a stamp of nobility and +greatness on everything that is Norwegian. They +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span>are proud, generous, loyal, hospitable, and can +never be persuaded that lowly circumstances or +poverty could possibly be an excuse for an unroyal +conduct.</p> + +<p>Born and bred amid snow-capped mountains, deep +valleys, perpendicular rocks, a jagged, stormy coast—the +whole wearing an air of solemn and lonely +grandeur—the Norwegians are a meditative and +highly imaginative people. The stirring natural +phenomena peculiar to the country cannot fail to +stimulate their imagination. The snow-storms, the +ice-avalanches, the light summer nights, the brilliant +moonlight diffused over the abrupt mountains, the +dark forests and the glittering fjords, the raging +storms from the Atlantic, the flaming midnight winter +skies, the sunsets which so wondrously illumine +the whole coast-line—such scenes, such pictures, +sink into their minds and quicken their emotions.</p> + +<p>What wonder, then, if they are full of folk-lore +and the supernatural has for them an irresistible +charm? They are superstitious, and believe that +their actions and lives are influenced by gnomes, +fairies, and trolls. Old heathen ceremonies for the +propitiation of the spirits are still in vogue. They +are deeply moved by music and poetry, and have +a strong predilection for all that is heroic and great.</p> + +<p>It is not surprising that in German translations +of Norwegian writings—for which Nordau blames +Ibsen’s degeneracy—adjectives should have taken a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span>new meaning; for in Norway they have been influenced +by nature’s grandeur. When Norwegians +say “great,” they mean great as the fjeld, great as +the boundless ocean; when they say “silent,” they +mean silent as the wood in the short summer night. +Consequently, when a man, an action, a thing, is +described to them, they are apt to measure it by +the standard of nature’s extremes around them. +They are always disappointed when they behold +the wonders of civilization described to them as +great and wonderful. They would call the ruins of +the Coliseum mean, and think no more of the pyramids +than of ant-hills. Their ideas of a great man +could probably never be realized, and their wonder +is considerable at finding the mighty lords of England +so unlike demi-gods.</p> + +<p>It was the Hanseatic League that brought this +stern and haughty people into contact with German +culture. This remarkable federation of enterprising +German merchants discovered that profits could be +made out of the rough products of Norway, and +they founded a German colony in Bergen, which +rose to considerable importance. German traders +gradually settled in all the other important Norwegian +centres, and the whole commercial life of +Norway became more or less Germanized.</p> + +<p>At the time Germany was far ahead of Norway +in everything appertaining to industry, and was +already then bent on doing business with foreign +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span>countries by offering them a mass of German manufactured +goods of attractive appearance, but of little +value, and not indispensable to a people like the +Norwegians. Competition was already severe in +Germany, money had acquired an immense importance, +success in life was most easily attained by +intense application to business, saving, and grinding. +The German traders stood in the same relation to +the Norwegians as that in which English traders +stand to the native races whom they first approach +for business purposes. The traders and agents who +went as far as Norway—a long distance before the +days of steamers and railways—were daring and +reckless men, bent upon making money, just as the +pioneers of British commerce were and are in Africa. +What interested them was not the great and noble +aspect of the Norwegian character, but the desire on +the part of these people to buy gewgaws, and the +facility with which they parted with their money and +their goods.</p> + +<p>Though Norway is a poor country, it yielded to the +not over-ambitious Germans a satisfactory harvest, +and a great number of them settled permanently in +the Norwegian towns. They became sufficiently +numerous and influential to impress a German stamp +on Norwegian urban life, on the people who worked +and lived with them; and these became Germanized +to no small extent.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span></p> +<p>These middle-class Germans were no doubt excellent, +respectable people in their way, but they had +little in common with the Norwegian country folk. +They were better educated, they had more worldly +wisdom, their experience in their own cities had +trained them to subject their emotional nature to +their intellect. In order to push on to success in their +German communities, where antagonistic and powerful +magnates left but little scope for daring and +straightforwardness, they had learned to value diplomacy +and discretion.</p> + +<p>They had no sympathies with the natives, whom +they regarded as semi-barbarians, and all their intercourse +with them was diplomatic and insincere, and +their sole motive was profit. The honesty, the pride, +the generosity of the Norwegian peasantry were well +known to them, but they took advantage of these +characteristics, which they regarded as expensive +luxuries.</p> + +<p>The cities however became the seats of the educational +establishments, and the Norwegian youth +who were intended for the professions came to the +cities and mingled there with the German element. +On the other hand, the sons of the citizens went +into the country in professional capacities and created +there a middle class strongly impregnated with +German culture. In this manner a sharp line of +demarcation arose between the upper and middle +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span>classes on the one hand and the peasantry on the +other, the former being strongly influenced by German +culture, the latter clinging tenaciously to the +Norwegian.</p> + +<p>It is no slur on the German character and German +culture to say that it involved degeneration in no +small degree. It partook of the drawbacks of our +civilization, and what happened in Norway has +happened in every country where modern civilization +has come into contact with nations whose virtues +and noble qualities have rested as much on ignorance +and the absence of temptation as on inborn worth. +Thanks to the historical development we have indicated, +the Norwegian upper and middle classes, as +well as the whole of the urban populations, developed +characteristics which drew upon them the contempt +of the peasants. Their eagerness for profit, their love +of money, their indifference to the great, the noble, +and the beautiful, their cringing attitude towards +authorities and towards the wealthy, their sacrifice of +public interests to private welfare, their susceptibility +to the influence of foreign fashion, manners, and +vices,—all this tended to lower the upper and middle +classes in the eyes of the peasants.</p> + +<p>When the phenomenon witnessed in all civilized +countries—the impoverishment of the masses—made +its appearance, public-spirited men began to inquire +as to the causes. It was in the middle of this +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span>century, when a spirit of revolution and reform was +abroad, that the yearning for a better state of things +began to manifest itself. There were no aristocracy, +no established Church, and no privileged class to +blame for the unsatisfactory state of the country, and +consequently the investigators turned their attention +to the ethical condition of the people themselves. +Comparison between the olden and the modern times +was instituted. The discrepancy between the two +classes became striking, and the corrupting influences +were traced to the towns. A strong desire to revive +and strengthen the old culture took possession of +many men and women, who, though educated, had a +keen sympathy with the peasants. To found the +future development of Norway on the basis of the +old Norwegian culture became the object of a new +national party, including some of the best elements +of the Norwegian nation. These enthusiasts found +their expression in composers like Tjerulf, and in the +writings of men like Björnstjerne Björnsen, Jonas Lie, +and Ibsen.</p> + +<p>The greatest mistake of these writers—the one +that has entirely escaped Nordau—is their belief that +a nation can realize its best aspirations by methods +that have utterly failed in the celestial empire of +China. The hope of preserving the grand feature +of the old Norwegian culture by exclusiveness, by +isolating Norway, and by offering a stubborn resistance +to foreign influence, be it good or bad—in this +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span>they have set themselves an impossible task. A +thorough national life and development produced by +such artificial means would, even if attended by the +highest degree of success, partake of a theatrical +nature. The more it succeeded, the more it would +attract foreigners, and features which in olden times +sprang from the character of the people and from +natural circumstances, would fall into the line of carnivals +organized at the expense of the municipalities +and of railways to Alpine summits.</p> + +<p>These Norwegian enthusiasts have yet to learn +that though foreign tourists, foreign literature, and +foreign art place temptations in the way of their +single-minded nation, there are in every country +large numbers of people who fight for progress as +sedulously as themselves, and whose co-operation +would outweigh the dangers of European modernity. +In the old culture, in the past life of nations, especially +in nations like Norway, there are great virtues +and noble features which may well serve as a goal. +But to again render them a reality, to base them on +lasting foundations, a people must pass through the +fiery trials of modern temptations, and, instead of +yielding plastically to outward circumstances, must +shape their destiny through sheer strength of character. +What Norway has of good and noble she should +give to other nations, and freely accept their best +from them. This is an exchange which, like mercy, +blesses both giver and receiver.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span></p> +<p>Though the struggle against degeneration is, in +Norway, hampered by the national prejudices of the +leaders, it is still progressing. Ibsen’s mission in the +fight is to ruthlessly expose the stagnant pools of corruption. +He finds them in the cities and among the +middle class, where the old German Philistine features +have been most distinctly preserved. Many of his +characters bear German names, and those who take +the part of the traditional villain wear often the garb +of that respectable, common-sense, matter-of-fact, self-absorbed +German whom Nordau would exempt from +any stigma of degeneration.</p> + +<p>Thorvald Helmer, in <i>The Doll’s House</i>, has, or +would have, the sympathies of millions, not in Germany +alone, but in England and everywhere, of +people whose emotional nature, whose love for the +high and noble, has been compressed by that worldly +wisdom which in our large crowded cities becomes +prudence, and to obey which is often a duty—people +who are not aware that it is not only possible, but +even easy, to be both diplomatic and discreet in obedience +to noble emotions and exalted aspirations, +and that to root these out of our nature is degeneration.</p> + +<p>Helmer, in his sleek reasonableness, is an excellent +type of meanness, and his character is brought +out in a consummately artistic way. It exasperates +Nordau that this man, who comes so near his standard +of sound-mindedness, should inspire in audiences +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span>all the world over, especially in the female element, +a sense of aversion, apparently without any effort on +the part of the author. Helmer has a keen eye for +the main chance. His reputation and his position +have his first consideration. He trembles at the +idea of fighting the world without them. His love +of his wife is the quintessence of selfishness. He +loves her in the two only ways which Nordau thinks +reasonable in a human being, as a companion, as a +pleasant thing to toy with; and as the female of his +race, at such periods when he, as the normal man of +Nordau, is actuated by animal impulses—for example, +under the influence of champagne. Of the pure love +for a woman which in a man’s heart remains as a +spring of living water, giving him a pang of joy each +time his thoughts revert to her, and which casts a +rosy tint of poetry over life, nay even over death—of +such love Helmer is as incapable as Nordau’s +normal man.</p> + +<p>Nora yearns for the higher, nobler love, and her +lack of experience in character-study has left her in +doubt, though in hope, regarding her husband. The +moment comes when she gains certitude; and when +Helmer reveals himself in his Philistine hideousness, +her spirit revolts.</p> + +<p>Though of course exaggerated for the sake of +dramatic effect, she is a good type of an intelligent +and emotional Norwegian woman. Norwegian girls +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span>receive a great deal of instruction, and as they have +no professions to prepare for, their education is more +literary and artistic than that of the men. They read +voraciously the Norwegian modern writers, and sympathize +consequently more than the men with the +extreme nationalists. They are often strongly possessed +by the <i>Aand</i>—that indefinable yearning for +all that is great and noble—in Norwegian culture +already alluded to. They have a fair knowledge of +foreign literature, and read a great many English +novels. With their admiration for English pure +love, for English home life, grafted on the grand +aspirations which the new <i>Aand</i> fosters, they may +well appear uncanny and troll-like to the prosaic +German.</p> + +<p>We trust that the struggle between the Norwegian +and the German cultures, of which we have +endeavoured to give an idea, will make it easier for +students of Ibsen to understand his characters. It +is in <i>The Doll’s House</i> where the two inimical cultures +are most clearly personified, the old Norwegian +culture being represented by the uncompromising, +impulsive, and intense Nora, and the imported German +culture by the pedantic, commonplace, and +animal Helmer.</p> + +<p>If our interpretation is right, it is impossible that +Ibsen’s work could in any way indicate degeneration. +It ought, on the contrary, to be evident that his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span>pieces, rendering objective as they do the struggle +for a higher and better life, based not on pedantic +considerations of immediate and unworthy advantages, +but on the noble impulses of a strong and +healthy nation, are at once a summons to rise higher, +and signals pointing the way.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII +<br> +<i>RICHARD WAGNER</i></h2></div> + + +<p>We all have met with people who, without being +degenerates to any great extent repeat +stories of their own invention so persistently, that +they end by believing in them. In this kind of folly, +if folly it be, there is a great deal of method when indulged +in by people who are anxious, for some reason +or another, that their views should <i>nolens volens</i> be +accepted by others. When one comes to deal with +the intellectual development of a nation or a race, and +wishes to prove certain forms of progress or retrogression, +it is half the battle to bring your opponent +to believe in the existence of some special, well-defined +psychological phenomenon or social tendency, +and to give it a high-sounding name. What would +astrology have been without the horoscope, or alchemy +without the philosopher’s stone? What would +modern statecraft be without such terms as “foreign +competition” and “international jealousy”? What +would German socialism be without the term “revolutionary +socialism”? What would bi-metallism be +without the phrase, “the stability of the currency”? +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span>And what would Nordau’s theory of degeneration be +without the “mystic movement”?</p> + +<p>He takes for granted that there is such a thing as +mysticism, as well as that it constitutes a movement, +and then endeavours to explain everything as partaking +of or resulting from it. According to him, +Wagnerism is the reappearance in Germany of that +romanticism which originated there, and afterwards +travelled through France and England. It reappeared, +according to him, through Wagner’s degeneration, +and spread in virtue of the degeneration +of his contemporaries. He says that he finds in +Wagner a greater abundance of degeneration than +in all the other degenerates put together. “The +stigmata of his morbid condition,” he says, “are +united in him in the most complete and most +luxuriant development.”</p> + +<p>This is a bold assertion, and will appear bolder yet +to any one who has read his chapter in <i>The Richard +Wagner Cult</i>. Wagner’s dislike of the Jews, which +Nordau calls anti-semitism, and his views on social +questions, which our alienist calls Anarchism, are +pointed out as unfailing stigmata of degeneration. +One of the methods of our alienist is to notice and +make much of certain extreme opinions in people who +are actually made, or who have made themselves, +intensely objectionable, and then to point out that +similar opinions and ideas are present in the mind +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span>of some celebrity, and then to draw the conclusion +that this celebrity must be on the road to madness. +Either he does not see himself, or he trusts his readers +will not see, that by such methods every man in the +world might be proved to some extent deranged. He +forgets that exaggerated virtues become vices, and +that some of the most prominent men in the world +have had idiosyncrasies to which they have even +given considerable play without at all coming within +the range of degeneration.</p> + +<p>The anti-semitism in Germany, which Nordau +ascribes to degeneration—probably with the approval +of the majority of Jews—in that country, as well as +in Russia, France, and the United States, springs +from causes so patent, that no man who aspires to +be considered an acute observer of his time should +ignore them.</p> + +<p>Let us instance Russia first—a country where the +latest wave of anti-semitism first took a violent +form. Can any one who is acquainted with the +typical financial history of the Russian villages +wonder that the Jews in Russia should be looked +upon as a scourge? What has happened in thousands +of such villages is this. An energetic, clever +Jew settles amongst the Russian <i>moujiks</i>, who combine +thriftlessness and love of an easy life with +many of the good qualities and innocence of primitive +races. The Jew is bent on making money, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span>and caring little about the opinion the community +may form of him, and too brave to fear their enmity, +he has no hesitation in taking up any kind of business, +however unpopular it may render him. He +willingly becomes a publican, a pawnbroker, a land-grabber, +and, in combination with other Jews, a +speculator and cornerer. His attention to business, +his self-denial, his hardheartedness to his customers, +his knowledge of the tricks of trades and finance, +the ready support he gets from his co-religionists in +other districts in carrying out his purposes, however +derogatory they may be to the community—all +this soon renders him the master of the situation. +The stranger, who at first in such a friendly spirit +invited his customer to drink his <i>vodka</i> and borrow +his money, is soon transformed into a harsh tyrant +who, by hook or by crook, came into possession of +all the belongings of the villagers, and calmly makes +use of their destitution to extort from them their +future earnings. The Jews, as a rule, on the one +hand, and the Russians on the other, form diametrically +opposite views on this social phenomenon. +The Jews say, and Nordau evidently sides with them, +that this successful village tyrant has done nothing +to deserve blame. He has only been more frugal, +more thrifty, and more intelligent than the Russians, +who were bound by their inferior character to go to +the wall; and that if Russia hates the Jews, it is with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span>that hatred against successful men common in human +failures.</p> + +<p>The ruined Russian peasants simply know that +the Jew who came among them is rich and they +are poor, that what used to be their possessions +form his wealth, and that the means he has used +to obtain it would not have been used by them +under any circumstances. They think they have +been robbed, and that they and their descendants +would be robbed by the Jew and his descendants if +they cannot be freed from him. Hence anti-semitism +in Russia.</p> + +<p>Nordau has no right to call the anti-semitists +degenerate, even though they be wrong in their logic, +because he is wrong himself, and he cannot point to +ruined homes and wrecked lives as a substantial foundation +for his opinion.</p> + +<p>In Germany the Jews play the same part, though +under modified conditions. Though bad, German +laws and German officialism are better than those +of Russia, and the German people do not so easily +fall a prey to the strong-minded Jew. But, on the +other hand, the Jews make themselves obnoxious +in other ways, both in Germany and Austria. Here +they act everywhere as trade-spoilers. The Jew +undersells everybody. He stops short of nothing, +save breaking the law, to extend his business. He +is obsequious to those in power and in wealth, but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span>relentlessly hard to competitors and to creditors. +Many of them will take the greatest possible advantage +of other people’s, especially Christians’, misfortunes, +and will gain their end by deliberately +wounding other people’s feelings. It is the Jews +who generally pay the lowest wages, and who are +found in the ranks of the sweaters.</p> + +<p>We hasten to state that there are in Germany a +great many exceptions to the types here referred +to. But either they are not numerous enough, or +the Jew must possess some inability to show his +better qualities, for no one acquainted with the +circumstances in Germany would deny that the Jew-haters +there look upon their enemies in exactly the +light we have described.</p> + +<p>But this is not all. Accusations are levelled +against the Jews which are partly untrue, or else +vastly exaggerated, and those who make them +should be called upon to prove their statements. +Whether they may be able to do this or not, the +fact remains that the Jew-hating Germans believe +that the Jews have formed one vast conspiracy, the +object of which is to secure for the Jews large +advantages at the expense of the Christians. It is +alleged that the methods employed are as follows: +The Jews are supposed to meet in secret conclave, +in which those of them who desire to accomplish +any special aim state it to their brethren, who then +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span>combine in assisting them. Such aims may be the +possession of a house or a shop in the hands of a +Christian, the ruin of some obnoxious competitor, +the miscarriage of some public auction of goods +coveted by some Jew, and so on. With such ideas +prevailing, how is it possible to ascribe Jew hatred +to degeneracy? Such logic is all the more surprising +as it remains a palpable fact that the fortunes +of the Jewish houses are growing apace, that Jews +seem to succeed no matter what they undertake, +that they certainly are more charitable to their co-religionists +than to Christians, and for that matter +than Christians are to Christians, while at the same +time poverty and misery are on the increase among +the Christian masses.</p> + +<p>Nordau does a bad service to the Jews of Germany +when he attempts to lay the blame for anti-semitism +exclusively at the door of the Christians +and calls them degenerates, while he entirely exempts +the Jews. This partiality, coupled with his +contempt for the masses and his belief in government +by the more strong-minded men, points to a future +state in Germany in which the Jews should be the +ruling aristocracy. His unfairness thus, instead of +abating the persecution against the Jews, might +easily be construed into an excuse for a more bitter +anti-semitism.</p> + +<p>This error of his is due to his besetting habit of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span>taking his postulates from doubtful authorities and +of drawing illogical conclusions. It is a common +thing for men who have been successful in one +branch of knowledge, and who are regarded as +authorities in a specialty by others, to jump at rash +conclusions with regard to subjects on which authorities +differ or do not exist. This is exactly what +Nordau does when he comes to consider facts which +cannot be rightly understood without a clear insight +into sociology and other social sciences. He then +evinces impossible opinions, and gives us to understand +that he has a ready-made scheme for reconstructing +society on a new and perfect plan.</p> + +<p>It is not difficult to see what this plan is. It is +quasi-Collectivism and Communism. He wishes the +State to become the universal heir of all fortunes +and the universal benefactor. The absurdity and +impracticability of this scheme—which, by the way, +is always the very one that first enters the head of a +young student who tackles social science for the first +time—are obvious. As however he does not insist +upon his scheme in his volume <i>Degeneration</i>, it +would be out of place to explain its hollowness here. +We have referred to it simply to show that his superficiality +regarding the anti-semitic question is not +incidental. It will be evident to anybody who tackles +this question with an unprejudiced mind that the +Christians in Russia and Germany are utterly at +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span>fault when they believe that they can escape from +their troubles by persecuting Jews, and also that the +Jews are utterly at fault when they attribute anti-semitism +to the jealousy and wickedness of the +Christians. Both these parties, as well as Nordau +himself, allow their feelings instead of their intelligence +to determine these questions. But they are +not necessarily degenerate.</p> + +<p>The true explanation of the imbroglio is as follows: +The Jewish race, which might have acquired +a few unpleasant characteristics by no fault of their +own but through a cruel and unjust persecution for +centuries, is a highly-gifted one, distinguishing itself +by strong-mindedness, great will-power, remarkable +powers of endurance, morality, and singleness of +purpose. Deprived, in a great number of countries +of social rights and the privileges of citizenship, they +have for centuries found only one way open to them +by which they could attain to independence, security, +and consideration—the accumulation of wealth. In +modern times, when social institutions and laws tend +to render wealth almost omnipotent, its acquisition +has become to this people of greater importance +than ever. Success in a business, however small, +may mean millions in the future, while failure may +result in life-long misery. Consequently, the Jews +apply themselves to their trades or professions with an +energy and assiduity such as few races can command.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span></p> +<p>They therefore represent a power in the development +of humanity which is bound to produce far-reaching +effects. Whether these will constitute a +blessing or a curse to the nations among whom the +Jews live and work depends entirely on the institutions +and the laws of those countries. If these +are such as to render the oppression of the poor, +the workers, the borrowers, the tenants—in fact, all +the sections of society on which the Jews now +batten,—a condition for the thriving of the capitalists, +the employers, the lenders, the tenants, and the +fortunate classes in general—if the laws are of this +description, then the Jews will be conspicuous as +the oppressors of others. But if, on the contrary, +the laws and institutions of the countries are such +as to render the success of the upper classes and +leaders of trade, industry, and finance dependent on +the welfare of the workers, then the Jews will be the +most liberal lenders, the most generous employers, +and the most accommodating landlords. In fact, the +question resolves itself simply into one of demand +and supply; as long as there is a greater demand +for Jews’ services than the Jews are able to supply, +the latter will dominate; but when there are more +services offered on the part of the Jews than the +people can avail themselves of, these can dictate +terms to the Jews. And this relation of demand +and supply depends on laws and institutions.</p> + +<p>Even if Nordau’s prejudices prevented him from +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span>taking this view of the anti-semitic question—which +is not only the correct one but which greatly facilitates +the solution of the question, and thus would +prevent the disgraceful persecution which in many +countries threatens to become more serious—he +might have found, by simply looking at the actualities, +in the different countries that anti-semitism prevails +in an inverse ratio to good government. He +could not have asked for a better proof of the fact +that laws and institutions are at fault and not the +Jews or the Christians. To take only the two +extremes: in Russia, where the Government, from +the people’s point of view, is probably the worst +in Europe, anti-semitism is most vehement; in England, +where the Government is more influenced by +the consideration of the good of the people than +in any other country, there is scarcely any animosity +against the Jews, and this in spite of the efforts +of certain politicians to promote it.</p> + +<p>The reception of Dr. Stöcker, when he attempted +to address a public meeting in London in favour +of anti-semitism, would have convinced Nordau, had +he been present, what a poor chance anti-semitism +has in a country where the working classes are free +to follow those instincts which Nordau fears so much. +We may relate that hardly had the proceedings begun +when the hall was filled by labourers, who, contrary +to their habit on such occasions, had not changed +their dress, and who hooted Dr. Stöcker, stormed the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span>platform, overpowered the anti-semitists, and cleared +the hall.</p> + +<p>In face of the fact that anti-semitic questions turn +so entirely on prejudices and mistakes, one cannot +surely accuse Wagner of madness because he sided +with what may be called a national party, and +approved of a movement the object of which was +to stay the progressive influence of an alien race +over the destiny of the Fatherland.</p> + +<p>In several places in his work Nordau insists upon +considering the anarchist tendencies of our age as +among the stigmata of degeneration. If he were +right, we should be face to face with a calamity +likely to end in the brutalization or the annihilation +of our race. For Anarchism in some form of +other is certainly spreading rapidly. That there is +Anarchism and Anarchism seems of little importance +to our alienist in his eagerness to draw his preconceived +conclusions. He reasons as usual. Starting +from the hypothesis that some of the criminal +Anarchists were, to some extent, mentally deranged +and morally weak, he arrives at the conclusion that +Wagner was a degenerate, because he shared to +some extent with the Anarchists the hatred of our +present social system and of the injurious effects it +produces on the masses of the people.</p> + +<p>Though Nordau dwells far more lengthily on +poetry, and art, and cognate subjects than on the +graver question of Anarchism, there is no point on +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span>which it behoves us better to set him and his readers +right than that of the relation between Anarchism +and degeneration.</p> + +<p>The Anarchist is not a cause. He is an effect. +There is a feeling in the consciousness of almost +every human being, be he a believer in a divine +religion or in Nordau’s religion of humanity, that +our race is destined to a high degree of development, +and to a far larger sphere of happiness than +now falls to the lot of most of us. This yearning +for happiness, for elevation, is not only a feeling but +a conviction consequent upon our knowledge of the +past stages of the development of man.</p> + +<p>There was a time when fervent religious beliefs +induced patience and resignation under suffering, +and when our future destiny was left in the hands +of Providence. But the French encyclopædists, and +after them the modern scientists, have done their +best to undermine this belief and to show us that +the destiny of future generations will largely depend +upon us and themselves, that science is placing in +our hands an ever-growing control over the forces of +nature, and that if humanity suffers it is because the +present generation has not the moral courage to +throw off religious scruples and boldly shape their +own destiny.</p> + +<p>These doctrines, in unison with the general progressive +spirit of the age, led to revolutions and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span>political reforms. In the absence of a providence +the nations shifted their faith to constitutional +governments. But the new faith did not last long. +The more democratic the governments were the +more they applied the principles of Collectivism—they +yielded to those instincts which Nordau calls +the social instincts. Under the pretext of exercising +paternal kindness towards the people, the governments +demanded paternal rights. Communistic and +socialistic ideas spread among the masses, who, well +aware that a providence without power would be no +providence at all, wanted to render the State omnipotent. +When however socialistic features were +introduced into the constitutions, matters did not +mend, but the freedom of the individual was more +and more infringed.</p> + +<p>When detailed schemes of further socialistic development +were made public, a great many freedom-loving +men and women beheld with terror that the +chief cause of the favour with which the progressing +socialism was regarded was to be found in the +plan of complete subjection of the individual under +government.</p> + +<p>This discovery naturally caused a reaction in +favour of liberty. Those who became Anarchists +felt keenly the claws of the State upon them, and +they foresaw that more socialism would aggravate +their grievances. They took for granted that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span>humanity had now tried all forms of government +and that they had all failed, and that the salvation +of the race could only be found in absolute personal +freedom.</p> + +<p>The first extreme Russian Nihilists paved the +way for the Anarchist movement in Europe. They, +like their first followers in France, had only one +idea, that of destroying at all costs the present +order of things, and thus clearing the ground for +a new system to grow up free from the tyranny of +governments, aristocracies, militarism, landlordism, +and capitalism.</p> + +<p>They saw that an immense mass of poor, hard-working, +honest people with but a small chance of +happiness for themselves, but imbued with a strong +desire to see the whole of humanity happy, were +oppressed by a small number of selfish people who +arrogated to themselves the lion’s share of the good +things of life. They found that this band of selfish +people attained to their immense power by a social +system of slow and gradual growth. Tracing all the +troubles to the few egotists whom they regarded as +criminals, they imagined that by destroying them +and the system, the unselfish and humanitarian +aspirations of the masses would blossom forth free +and unvitiated.</p> + +<p>The Anarchists were thus the backbone of the +religion of humanity, only their faith was stronger +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span>than that of Nordau, for they were willing to sacrifice +all, including life, for the good of the race.</p> + +<p>If these people were, and are, degenerate, then +every mistake in reasoning is a sign of degeneration, +and faith in humanity and its destiny is the beginning +of madness.</p> + +<p>When Nordau designates Wagner as an Anarchist, +he evidently ignores the fact that there are two +kinds of Anarchists, the violent ones just described, +and the moderate or constitutional ones. The +latter call themselves simply Anarchists. Their +numbers are growing rapidly in France, as well as +in England, and in both these countries Nordau +would be surprised at their moderation and common +sense. The movement they represent is a reaction +against the socialistic tendencies, and their programme +is not violence and destruction, but the +gradual abolition of all harmful and useless legislation. +It is true that so far they have no precise +policy. But such special measures as are advocated—partly +in France, partly in England, and partly in +the United States—seem to be founded on clear +and thorough reasoning, and when their leading +principle is compared with the shallow chatter of +Socialists and Communists of every school it appears +as wisdom itself.</p> + +<p>What all these people believe, what they long for, +and what they hope for, is exactly what Wagner +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span>believed, longed for, and hoped for. He saw in +Philistinism, in official tyranny, in police government, +and in legal trammels standing in the way of trades, +industries, and arts, so many impediments to the +realization of the best instincts and the highest +aspirations of humanity. Whatever opinions he held, +they can only be judged by the few exasperated +exclamations he gave vent to with regard to the +corruption of modern society. It is not likely that +he, with such immense works on hand, should have +given sufficient attention to social questions to allow +him to express himself in learned terms. But what +he said and wrote on the subject shows clearly that +the foundation of his social views was trust in +humanity, in the sanctity of nature, and in the ennobling +power of liberty. Can any one with a true +love of art imagine an artist without such a creed?</p> + +<p>What was more natural than that, fêted and praised +as he was, he should have a good opinion of his +own talent and consider himself a great man? If +for this he deserved to be suspected of megalomania, +what are we to say about other celebrities, mediocrities, +and nonentities, who imagine themselves +demi-gods because they happen to be the sons of +their fathers, to be born in purple, or to have a +title attached to their name?</p> + +<p>Nordau is extremely hard on those who have sung +the praises of Wagner, and insinuates that they have +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span>been actuated by base motives when they have not +been absolutely degenerated. According to him, +admiration for Wagner’s works is a sure sign of mental +unsoundness. And yet this same Nordau finds +reasons for praising Wagner’s genius which a host +of his panegyrists have overlooked. He says: +“Wagner, as a dramatist is really an historical painter +of the highest rank.... This [a fresco painter] +he is in a degree never yet attained by any other +dramatic author in the whole world of literature. +Every action embodies itself for him in a series of +most imposing pictures, which, when they are composed +as Wagner has seen them with his inner eye, +must overwhelm and enrapture the beholder. The +reception of the guests in the hall of Wartburg; the +arrival and departure of Lohengrin in the boat +drawn by the swan; the gambols of the Rhine +maidens in the river; the defiling of the gods over +the rainbow-bridge towards the castle of Asgard; +the bursting of the moonlight into Hunding’s hut; +the ride of the Walküre over the battle-field; Brunhilde +in the circle of fire; the final scene in ‘Götterdämmerung,’ +where Brunhilde flings herself on to +her horse and leaps into the midst of the funeral +pyre, while Hagan throws himself into the surging +Rhine, and the heavens are aflame with the glow +from the burning palace of the gods; the love-feast +of the knights in the castle of the Grail; the obsequies +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span>of Titurel and the healing of Amfortas—these +are pictures to which nothing in art hitherto +approaches.”</p> + +<p>It is strange that Nordau in his love for authorities +should quote Nietzsche—a German author +whom, in another part of his book, he makes out to +be a hopeless degenerate and charlatan—in support +of his views of Wagner! But Nietzsche has written +a book called <i>Der Fall Wagner</i>, and that suffices. +This Nietzsche calls Wagner a comedian, but Nordau +insists upon his being a painter, and that “if he +had been a healthy genius, endowed with intellectual +equilibrium, that is what he would undoubtedly have +become. His inner vision would have forced the +brush into his hand, and would have constrained him +to use it on canvas by means of colour.”</p> + +<p>When Nordau says a painter, he evidently restricts +the meaning of the word to its narrowest sense, +and makes it difficult to at all class a man who, like +Wagner, evolved and produced pictures of such +grandeur and such beauty as those our alienist so +well describes. The fact that the artist uses actual +perspective, real draperies, living people, actual fire, +that he selects his own light, and personally arranges +this mass of objects so as to exactly reproduce the +daring conception of his mind—all this should surely +not be cited as so many proofs of the unhealthiness +of his genius. Would he have been a greater, a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span>sounder genius, had his ability been restricted to +sketching and colouring his conceptions on cardboard +or canvas? Should then a painter’s genius be confined +to the production of pictures suitable only +to decorate Philistine houses and official galleries? +Because Nordau’s pedantic tendencies have formed +such a Philistine idea about the art of painting, is it +right to deny true genius to a man who has produced +unapproachable pictures on a colossal scale, not by +the means of brushes and pigments, but by materials +infinitely more difficult to handle?</p> + +<p>But these masterpieces of painting do not alone +bear witness to Wagner’s powers. His paintings +are not fixed; they are movable. They represent +actually an enchanting succession of pictures. The +true genius <i>à la</i> Nordau gives us the pictures of +figures in motion that never move, and tires us +with a Quintus Curtius suspended in mid-air half +way down a chasm, until we wish him at the bottom +of it. Such a moving picture of Wagner’s is not +thrust upon us suddenly in the manner of gallery +pictures, but is presented to us as the fit illustration +of a beautiful poem, and often as the climax of a +series of other pictures which explain it, relieve it, +and work up our emotions for its reception.</p> + +<p>To this must be added that the same painter-genius, +the same dramatist, the same poet, has +created the wondrous and enchanting music which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span>accompanies the poem and the pictures. And because +he has done all this, because he has not +followed the routine of other German painters, because +he has dared to and succeeded in transporting +his audiences into the highest possible region of +imagination, and given them a glimpse of real creative +powers, he is to be classed as a degenerate; to rank +among those of whom humanity is ashamed, and +whose degraded state is to warn us of the coming +decay of our race.</p> + +<p>Can any one with a grain of humour read Nordau’s +attacks on Wagner without imagining an irascible +toy-terrier barking at the moon?</p> + +<p>Nordau probably feels that Wagner’s anti-semitism, +his Anarchism, and his ability to create transcendentally +beautiful pictures are stigmata which +hardly any of his readers would accept as such, and +consequently feels impelled to make much of what +it pleases him to call Wagner’s eroticism. Here, +as everywhere in his book, in order to impress his +readers he counts on the mystical effect which the +use of a high-sounding scientific word generally +produces upon unscientific readers. A favourite expression +of his, when speaking of some psychological +phenomenon, is that science knows all about it, and +he calls it megalomania, graphomania, echolalia, or +some such name. With people who have only a +superficial knowledge of science, and who stand in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span>awe of its achievements, such nouns stand for a +special definite thing, thoroughly investigated and +explained. They do not know that these scientific +names have been invented, not in order to designate +something real and palpable, but simply for +the purpose of bringing order into an arbitrary +classification, invented so that the exchange of ideas +may be facilitated on the subject thus treated. +Such scientific terms might even be classed among +mystical symbols, in so far as they often stand for +something of which hardly anything is known, but +at the same time serve the same useful end as +algebraical figures. Psychologists are prone to +speak of a man’s consciousness, though scarcely +two scientific men would agree as to what it is. +But this does not prevent them from dividing consciousness +up into divisions and sub-divisions, all +with their special names, in order to be able to +express their ideas in words. The unscientific +reader should bear in mind that consciousness has +never been under the microscope, or in the crucible, +and that the classification of the scientists +has no counterpart in consciousness itself, and that +this remains the impalpable and indivisible <i>Ego</i>, +with its infinite number of attributes inseparably +commingled. All the different states, conditions, +faculties, perfections, and defects of the <i>Ego</i> are of +course known only by the results they produce in +the physical world, and it is by these results that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span>they have been classified. It is evident that such +methods of classification should leave an immense +margin for those who wish, or feel impelled by their +own idiosyncrasies, to misuse scientific terms designating +psychological phenomena.</p> + +<p>Nordau indulges in this misuse of scientific terms +to the fullest extent, in a way not to be easily +discovered by the non-scientific reader. The word +“eroticism” used by him so frequently, with all the +pomposity of a scientific term, is coined from the +word “erotic,” a literary term which again is derived, +as we all know, from Eros, the Greek god of love. +It is an adjective which means pertaining to or expressive +of love-passion. Such an adjective necessarily +finds an enormously wide application, considering +that love in one sense is the leading principle in +organic creation, and, in a more psychological sense, +the motive power in the human drama. We may +say that we ourselves, the outcome of love, regulate +our whole life, and sometimes base our hopes of a +future state on love. Consequently there is hardly +anything in our lives that is not covered by the +adjective “erotic.”</p> + +<p>The alienists having adopted the word “eroticism” +in order to designate a state of mind which certain +actions reveal to them, and which state of mind, +when its existence is corroborated by other facts, +may be considered as a disease, it is evident that, +while they may apply the word “eroticism” to almost +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span>anything in the organic world and in human society, +it is better for their purpose to apply it only to a +certain form of a diseased mind. While a strictly +logical and careful alienist might deem it irrational +and confusing to use the term “eroticism,” or even +the adjective “erotic,” outside a clearly defined case +of mental disease, it cannot be considered absolutely +wrong to apply such terms whenever the love-passion +is in question, even a love-passion of a most legitimate +kind.</p> + +<p>We shall now show how Nordau manages to slip +over the border within which scientific terms should +be used, and applies them indiscriminately to everything; +and how he, in this manner, tries to establish +that Wagner suffers from erotic madness, because he +looks upon love as one of the chief motors in the +human drama and the tree of knowledge for good +or evil.</p> + +<p>Nordau, in a flippant criticism, which he endeavours +to render funny, of the behaviour of Wagner’s characters +on the stage, forgets his self-criticism to such an +extent as to liken them to mad tom-cats—a simile +which probably no sane man would accept as true. +Having once conceived the idea of mad tom-cats, it +at once becomes an obsession in his mind, and suggests +presentations of real cases of erotic fury. He consequently, +according to his habit, takes for granted +that the actors on the stage must necessarily represent +the exact state of mind of the author, and cries +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span>out that this state of the author’s mind (which he has +persuaded himself is that of a mad tom-cat) is well +known to science, and is called sadism. Then, with +a regret at having to touch upon subjects in order to +make his readers understand Wagner’s real mental +condition, he gives a disgusting example of a maniac +whose erotic madness has brought him below the +level of the brute.</p> + +<p>This is a fair sample of Nordau’s logic. For the +sake of clearness, we recapitulate the logical <i>tour de +force</i> he has been compelled to exercise in order to +arrive at such an absurdity: Wagner, like all poets +and dramatists before him, creates a love scene. +Love is an erotic emotion. Eroticism is a disease +of the mind. Tom-cats are erotically influenced. +The characters on the stage remind Nordau of tom-cats. +The obsession of a “tom-cat in convulsions +over a root of valerian” suggests a raving madman. +Consequently Wagner is mad.</p> + +<p>Such is the use a scientist is tempted to make +of his science when he throws self-criticism overboard.</p> + +<p>When Nordau says of Wagner that he has been +all his life an erotic, he is fair enough to add in +parentheses, “in a psychiatric sense.” But this is +not enough. The word “psychiatric” is a strictly +scientific word, not to be found in any ordinary +English dictionary; and the ordinary reader might +easily conclude that, instead of removing Wagner’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span>eroticism into the deep recesses of his soul, it might +have been used by the author, as so many scientific +words have been used, in order to aggravate his +charge.</p> + +<p>In order to justify his opinion with regard to +Wagner’s erotic madness, he says: “The most +ordinary incitements, even those farthest removed +from the province of sexual instincts, never fail to +awaken in his consciousness voluptuous images of an +erotic character.” Why “sexual instincts”? Why +not love-instincts, an expression which had so much +better fitted in with the scenes Wagner represents? +But, as it suits Nordau’s purpose to keep his reader’s +mind upon love in its lowest, most animal form, we +shall let it pass. We must however express our +astonishment at the example he gives in order to +show how incitements, “far removed from the province +of sexual instincts,” caused Wagner’s mind to +revert to voluptuous images. The “farthest removed +incitements” which Nordau quotes is the +description by Wagner of a ballet—a <i>pas de trois</i>—evidently +intended to represent the blending of the +beautiful with love, to give Wagner’s own words, +“love and life, the joy and wooing of art.” What +on earth, then, would more arouse such eroticism +that might be found in a man than a ballet +representing love and life? And this especially +when we consider the modern freedom with regard +to the costume of ballet girls. In order to show +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span>what Nordau considers to be the outcome of erotic +madness in Wagner’s choregraphic representation of +love, life, and art, we give <i>in extenso</i> the passage +from <i>Art-Work of the Future</i>, to which he refers:</p> + +<p>“In the contemplation of this ravishing dance of +the most genuine and noblest muses of the artistic +man, we now see the three arm in arm lovingly +entwined up to their necks, then this, then that one, +detaching herself from the entwinement, as if to display +to the others her beautiful form in complete +separation, touching the hands of the others only +with the extreme tips of her fingers; now the one, +entwined by a backward glance at the twin forms of +her closely entwined sisters, bending towards them; +then two, carried away by the allurements of the one, +greeting her in homage; finally all, in close embrace, +breast to breast, limb to limb, in an ardent kiss of +love, coalescing in one blissfully living shape. This +is the love and life, the joy and wooing of art,” etc.</p> + +<p>When Nordau wishes to traduce the love scenes in +Wagner’s operas into arguments of the musician’s +erotic madness, he forgets many things. He forgets +what he himself has given as a test of a sound mind, +namely, the ability to look after one’s own business. +Even if Wagner had produced scenes on his stage of +an utterly corrupt character in order to gain money +and popularity, he having succeeded completely in +such objects could not possibly be called mad by a +critic who has made material success in life a test for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span>sound-mindedness, and who declares the belief in personal +responsibility reaching beyond the grave to be +a sign of madness. But he also forgets, what is more +important, that there is no line of demarcation drawn +to indicate how far the representation of human +passions may be carried on the stage.</p> + +<p>Even Nordau does not seem to have discovered an +authority on this subject. He himself will not serve +as an authority, because he has shown himself too +apt to fall into the error of newspaper critics, that of +judging a work or a piece, not according to its merits, +but according to the author who has produced it. +He would praise in Goethe what he would condemn +in Wagner. If we were to indiscriminately ask people +how far we may go in representing human passion +on the stage, we should get a mass of replies all differing +according to the bias of the respondents. The +Ultramontane abbé, the zealous Methodist, would +differ enormously from the Bohemian artist; the +prudish old maid would differ from the poet. Nay, +even two artists, both painters of the nude, or two +ballet girls appearing in the same costume, might +hold almost opposite opinions on this subject. How +then shall we judge? By leaving out of court all the +extremists—those who object to theatres, ballets, and +nature in art—as well as those who would clamour +for indecent and obscene representations, we might +considerably narrow the ground for inquiry, and elicit +certain rules likely to meet the suffrage of the majority +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span>within these limits. It might be argued that +emotions, playing by far the most important <i>rôle</i> in +the human drama, and lying as they do at the root of +all our actions, educational agencies, and amusements, +ought to be appealed to by the arts. Also that art, +in affording us opportunities of giving expression to +our emotions, elevates and ennobles our lives: consequently, +that the passive, objective contemplation +of human emotions which the stage affords us helps +us to study our own emotions and to bring them +into harmony with our noblest aspirations, our future +happiness, our judgment, and our will. In order to +accomplish their mission, such representations should +be as true to life as possible, whether they be beautiful +or not. On this plea, it would be legitimate to represent +on the stage erotic emotions in the full strength +in which we meet with them in reality among sound-minded +people. A good deal of exaggeration may be +permitted to the actor as he is under the difficulty of +having to convey by actions, gestures, or facial expression +a distinct representation of emotions which may +rage in the consciousness of a human being without +betraying themselves in physical signs.</p> + +<p>From this it must be concluded that the purity of +the stage depends more on what is acted than how +it is acted. The author who does not wish to +desecrate the drama is therefore bound to represent +emotions which are the outcome of natural life, and +acted upon by incidents such as we see around us +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span>and to avoid the representation of, even if he cannot +avoid the reference to, emotions which spring from +a diseased mind or a morbid moral state.</p> + +<p>Love, being an emotion to which every sound-minded +being may be subject, there would be no +objection to represent it in the most intense manner +on the stage so long as we understand under the +name of love that strong degree of affection which +sometimes people of the opposite sex may conceive +for each other apart from sexual emotions. What +makes Nordau’s reasoning plausible is that he does +not admit that this kind of love exists. He distinguishes +only two degrees, or two categories, of love, +comradeship or friendship on the one hand, and the +animal instinct on the other. But no one who has +gone through life with open eyes can possibly deny +the reality of what we here, for want of a better expression, +would call pure love. Everywhere we meet +with manifestations of it. Even young children, who +might have no idea of sexual emotion, often love +each other with a genuine passion which sometimes +lasts through life. Adults may be so absorbed in love +for each other as to prefer death to separation, and +yet never experience any sexual emotion in each +other’s company. Men and women lovers who have +been separated have wasted away from sheer love of +each other, and yet been remarkably chaste in character. +In the English-speaking countries, where the +relations between the sexes are free and natural, we +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span>find any number of proofs of the reality of pure love. +Those cases alone which have ended tragically, and +therefore come before the public, more than suffice to +prove it. Even in countries like France, for example, +where the sexual instincts are apt to become morbid +from the one-sided education of the young, it is not +difficult to find examples of pure love. It is even +to be found where least expected, as, for instance, +between a licentious man and a fallen woman. It +is true that when pure love runs its usual course +it gets, so to say, inflamed by animal passion, but +this is generally the case only as a result of the +demonstrations by which pure love tries to manifest +itself. It may also be true that there exists a mysterious, +that is to say a so far unexplained, connection +between the purest love and sexual instinct +even in loving couples to whom sexuality may be an +abomination. But all this does not disprove that, +speaking from a practical and ethical point of view, +there is such an emotion as pure love, and that this +emotion is a powerful motor in the human drama.</p> + +<p>If it then be a fact that this yearning to love +and to be loved with a pure love exists, and ought +to exist, in rational human beings, and that in running +its natural course it will manifest itself in +demonstrations extremely likely to rouse animal +passions, the question arises how far a love scene +on the stage may display those demonstrations +which, while they are the only possible means of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span>expressing pure love, at the same time suggest +sexual emotions.</p> + +<p>Here then is the point where the difference +will arise, and where we may well be careful whose +decision we accept. Can we do better than Wagner +did—leave the audience to decide?</p> + +<p>Wagner’s German audiences, described by Nordau +as including wives and daughters, have, to his +great bewilderment, given the verdict in favour of +Wagner’s most passionate scenes. “How unperverted,” +Nordau cries out, “must wives and maidens +be, when they are in a state of mind to witness these +pieces without blushing crimson, and sinking to the +earth for shame!” No. They have not blushed in +following calmly and serenely the objective representations +of passions which by nature have been +implanted in every breast. The very vehemence, +the very naturalness of the scenes inspire that awe +and reverence which great natural forces always do, +and the young girl in the audience does not for a +moment revert to any impure representations or +animal promptings which might have come within +her experience, because she is æsthetically and not +sexually excited. But if Nordau could watch her +when she reads the above quoted passage in his +book, he would see her blush deeply, not at the +memory of Wagner’s scenes, but at the feeling of +having the first seed of degeneration sown in her +heart.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span></p> +<p>Among the phrases used by Nordau in order to +inculcate his readers with the idea that Wagner, +instead of being the very essence of an artist, one +of the greatest practically creative geniuses of the +world, is a mere erotic maniac, is this one—“all his +ideas revolve about woman.” While this phrase +may lead the unwary reader astray, it throws a vivid +light on the extent to which Nordau’s opinion with +regard to the relation of the sexes has been influenced +by his continental bias. This ought to be +made clear to his readers. Such expressions, if of +any use at all in Nordau’s reasoning, pre-suppose +that it is quite an unusual thing for the ideas of +poets, dramatists, and writers of fiction to revolve +about woman. For our alienist does not refer to +Wagner’s private life. He is speaking only of +Wagner the author. The actual fact, of course, is +that love and women have from times immemorial +been the subject of legends, fairy tales, troubadour +songs, poems, romances, novels, and dramas. Thus, +according to the gospel of our alienist, all the past and +present poetical authors of the world must have been, +and are, “subject to erotic madness,” like Wagner.</p> + +<p>There are, of course, men who, like Faust, devote +their lives to intellectual pursuits and expend all their +energy in forcing nature to yield up her secrets. +But such men are not only exceptions—they may +be looked upon as degenerates. This is what Faust +at last discovered. He recognised that life was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span>essentially emotional, and that by having crushed +out his emotional nature he had failed to live his +life. Whether Goethe intended to impart the lesson +his <i>Faust</i> teaches us may be doubtful, but we +can thus read it: we may suppress our emotional +nature for a long time, but it will one day claim its +rights, and, in its explosive escape from unnatural +bondage, avenge itself on the suppressor, and hurl +him to perdition. The emotions, Faust regrets, are +all those inspired by women.</p> + +<p>But the great majority of men do not suppress +the emotions inspired by women, but, on the contrary, +allow their whole lives to be influenced by +them. To find confirmation of this fact in countries +like France and Germany might not be so easy as +in the English-speaking countries. Wherever the +sexes are separated in youth, and where conventional +marriages are the rule, the erotic impulses +become over-stimulated and lead to the excitement +of animal passion. The love of the beautiful, +all the æsthetic aspirations, the yearning for the +society of women, the love of excitement, the +chivalrous leanings, and the craving for pure love—all +these are thrown as so much fuel into the +furnace of sexual love. It is then that the struggle +arises between the terrible demoniac love and pure +love—a struggle so frequently depicted in Wagner’s +operas and which determines the lives of so many +men on the continent.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span></p> +<p>Part of the struggle of the continental man is to +avoid the influence of women altogether, or else to +look upon them after the manner of the Mahommedans. +In countries therefore where pure love is left +but little or no scope, the influence of women is not +very marked, and certainly not acknowledged, because +for a man to acknowledge it would be to avow +himself an “erotic madman.”</p> + +<p>To understand the immense influence which a +woman exercises over man’s destiny and how closely +men’s minds “revolve about women,” we must study +the English-speaking countries where pure love has, +if not free scope, freer scope than anywhere else, and +where few healthy-minded men are ashamed to avow +the value they place upon woman, her love, and her +influence.</p> + +<p>Despite the fact that Englishmen do not display +towards women of all classes that engaging politeness +which favourably distinguishes Frenchmen, a +stranger who visits England cannot fail soon to perceive +in what high estimation woman is held. Her +name is seldom taken in vain. There is no trace of +that gross satire upon women which so often disfigures +continental prints; she may be represented +as sharp, worldly, extravagant, but rarely as immoral, +unfaithful, or ugly. Some of the lower-class papers +are strongly influenced by French views, but they +never indulge in adaptations without some modification, +and such papers as have been started in order +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span>to emulate the fast journals of Paris have always been +extremely short-lived.</p> + +<p>The same respect for women is manifest in fiction +as well as on the stage. Here again in consequence +of French influence we meet with women who have +sinned, and women with a past, but they never play +such degraded parts as they often do in French +novels and plays. Ladies are allowed an extensive +liberty, and they are rarely insulted; and obtain, even +under trying circumstances, a respectful treatment at +the hands of the lowest class of labourers. We have +unfortunately amongst us ruffians who beat their +wives, but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred +these are drunken and debauched human failures. +The average working man treats his wife and his +daughter with as much consideration as a nobleman +could his, and their home is kept morally pure and +as comfortable for the women as his resources allow. +He is not ashamed to carry parcels, burdens, the +children, or to perambulate the baby in public places +in order to spare his wife the trouble.</p> + +<p>The men most reluctantly suspect a woman of +immorality, and generally not until there seems a +strong case against her. Indecent words and allusions +are entirely excluded in the presence of ladies, +and if a woman in her innocence inadvertently makes +a risky remark, it passes unheeded and without producing +a smile.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span></p> +<p>The average Englishman’s life brings him into +constant contact with women, and he is perfectly +aware that he owes to them much that is bright and +happy in his existence. Already as a child he is the +trusted protector of his sisters, and often the cavalier +of their friends. Early in life he loves some young +woman, and his long courtship is to him a happy +time. When he works hard, when he risks his life +on the sea or in dangerous climes, it is generally with +a view to marrying the girl he loves. When he is +married, he wishes to succeed that he may gain his +wife’s approval, beautify her home, and make her life +happy; while at the same time he never remains insensible +to the admiration of other women. While +his wife is yet young, his daughters grow up and become +important features in his life and his happiness.</p> + +<p>It may therefore be said of the men of the +English-speaking countries that their “ideas revolve +about women,” and it will be difficult to persuade +us Englishmen that respect, admiration, and love for +women are the signs of a degenerate mind. Coleridge +well expresses the English feeling—a feeling +which, under circumstances similar to those prevailing +in England, would be universal:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0">“All thoughts, all passions, all delights,</div> +<div class="verse indent2">Whatever stirs this mortal frame,</div> +<div class="verse indent0">All are but ministers of Love,</div> +<div class="verse indent2">And feed his sacred flame.”</div></div> +</div></div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span></p> +<p>Wagner’s music, which may be said to have been +the delight of millions of people, is not approved of +by Nordau. He condemns it on the usual ground +that it is novel, and that it differs from the standards +accepted before Wagner. According to him, it is +the music of an unsound mind, because it contains +no distinct ideas in the shape of melodies. He +objects to the <i>Leit-motiv</i> and to the unending +melody, but it is difficult to harmonize what he says +against the one with what he says against the other. +Speaking of the <i>Leit-motiv</i>, he says: “To express +ideas is not the function of music. Language provides +for that as completely as could be desired. +When the word is accompanied by song or orchestra, +it is not to make it more definite, but to reinforce it +by the intervention of emotion. Music is a kind of +sounding-board in which the word has to awake something +like an echo from the infinite.” Later on he +says about melody: “It is a regular grouping of +notes in a highly expressive series of tones. Melody +in music corresponds to what in language is a logically +constructed sentence distinctly presenting an +idea, and having a clearly marked beginning and +ending.”</p> + +<p>Music being an art which exclusively appeals to +emotion, it is not surprising that any attempt to +measure its value by a reasoning process should +result in utter failure. But this is no excuse for an +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span>author to contradict himself so flatly as Nordau does +in the above passages. To say on one page that +“<i>to express ideas is not the function of music</i>,” and +on another page to say that melody is indispensable +to music, because it “corresponds to a logically +constructed sentence <i>distinctly presenting an idea</i>.” +Again he says: “Melody may be said to be an effort +to say something definite,” and how can this harmonize +with the other mission of music: “to awake +something like an echo from the infinite.” The latter +expression is not only a true definition of the +mission of music, but also an exact description of the +aim of Wagner’s music.</p> + +<p>Nordau feels that his scientific reasoning about +music will affect no one who has heard the music of +Wagner, and that those who admire it will be slow +to believe that an unsound mind could have accomplished +such complicated, intricate, and complete +work. To prepare his reader’s mind for his rash +conclusion, he once more goes to the lunatic asylum +for his arguments, in order to show that a man may +be a lunatic and yet be a good musician. But here +again he is strangely blind to the fact that such arguments +tell directly against his theory. He cites cases +of lunatics who “improvised on the piano,” who +“sang very beautiful airs and at the same time improvised +two different themes on the piano... who +composed very beautiful, new, and melodious tunes.”</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span></p> +<p>The remarkable thing about the music of his +maniacs is that it is tuny and melodious, and consequently +the only rational music, according to +Nordau, while Wagner’s music is condemned by him, +and Wagner himself is held up as a lunatic because +his music is not like that of acknowledged lunatics! +It stands to reason that a weak mind could follow +and repeat a style of music which it has heard for +years, but that it requires a strong and sound mind +to break a new road in the domain of music with the +full approval of millions of musical people.</p> + +<p>Nordau also feels the necessity of backing up his +opinion by authorities. He sees a conclusive proof +of Wagner’s inferiority in the criticism of professional +musicians and composers. He might as well form +his opinion of an actress on the criticism of her by +her most dangerous rival. It seems that Hiller and +Schumann would not acknowledge Wagner’s musical +endowment, but attributed his success to the <i>libretti</i> +written by himself. Regarding this Nordau exclaims: +“The same old story: musicians regard him as a +poet, and poets as a musician.” This means that our +alienist is, or pretends to be, so utterly innocent of +humour and satire as to accept this very common way +of minimizing the talent of a rival as a trustworthy +judgment. It is the commonest thing in the world +for a man to deny his rival’s talent in his own specialty, +and then, in order to strengthen the effect of +his opinion and to give it the colour of impartiality, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span>to acknowledge in him talents outside that specialty. +Practical men, when they hear one musician run down +another musician, generally conclude that the latter +has a dangerous talent. Voltaire, in speaking of a +writer none of whose works were in existence, said +that he must have been a man of genius judging from +the savage attacks made upon him by another writer.</p> + +<p>Hiller and Schumann are the only authorities whom +Nordau can point to in support of his views, and he +himself raises some doubts whether their dislike of +Wagner’s music was not due to the difficulty of +immediately appreciating a tendency so novel as +Wagner’s. Our alienist is only able to add that +Rubinstein can only make some important reservations, +and that it was some time before Hanslick +struck his colours. In view, then, of the enormous +literature that has grown up around Wagner and +Wagnerism, Nordau’s habit of referring to authorities +in this instance simply has the effect of showing that +he stands unsupported in his opinion by all musical +authorities. It is irresistibly comic to notice how +Nordau regrets that the brochure—<i>Der Fall Wagner</i>—in +which Nietzsche attacks Wagner, is quite +as “insanely delirious” as another brochure written +by the same writer twelve years before in deification +of Wagner. Had it not been for this awkward circumstance, +Nordau, it seems, would have been only +too glad to exalt Nietzsche—the man whom in another +part of his work he strenuously endeavours to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span>prove an imbecile—to the rank of an authority. His +amazing lack of logic prevents him from seeing that +a certificate of lunacy issued by a lunatic is really a +certificate of sanity, in virtue of the logical axiom +that two negatives are equal to one affirmative.</p> + +<p>Such faults and defects as may be found in Wagner’s +prose writings have little importance in relation—and +are almost irrelevant—to the question of his +supposed degeneracy. He had to deal with subjects +which, though intensely real to our emotional nature, +can only be treated inadequately in words. Whatever +we may think of Wagner’s style, there can be little +doubt that he has succeeded in making himself understood +by a great number of people whose emotional +nature sympathizes with that of Wagner, and whom +even Nordau would not undertake to prove to be +mentally deranged or morally degenerate. Wagner’s +writings have the defect, very general among German +writers, and conspicuous in Nordau, of being verbose. +They all make us crave for “Der langen Rede, +kurzen Sinn.”</p> + +<p>The fundamental idea in Wagner’s great work—<i>The +Art-Work of the Future</i>—is that the arts +should co-operate, and that each individual art should +attain to its perfection in conjunction with other arts. +Nordau in no way disproves the soundness of this +view by saying that “Goethe’s lyric poetry and the +<i>Divina Commedia</i>” need no landscape painting, +that “Michael Angelo’s ‘Moses’ would hardly produce +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span>a deeper impression surrounded by dancers and +singers,” and that “the ‘Pastoral Symphony’ does +not require a complement of words in order to +exercise its full charm.”</p> + +<p>With that logic peculiar to Nordau, he quotes a +passage from Schopenhauer in which this thinker +mildly deprecates such co-ordination of the arts as +was to be found in the operas of his time, and our +alienist wishes us to accept this as a proof of insanity +in Wagner’s admiration for the opera. He forgets +the important fact that Wagner’s greatness is proved +by the way in which he has succeeded in obliterating +at least the worst defects of the opera as it existed +before him, and that he has rendered it a complete +and harmonious expression of combined and elevated +arts. The quoted passage from Schopenhauer could +be no condemnation of Wagner’s operas as it was +written before they saw the light. In the operas, as +they used to be, there was much that tended to disturb +the imagination and even to arouse laughter. +The most exasperating incongruities were indulged +in. An exciting hunting chorus would be played and +sung while two rows of lady supers would walk in +from each side of the wings in Indian file, each bearing +as a hunting implement a yard-long piece of +wood surmounted by a piece of tin. The impossible +dresses, the demure demeanour, the solemn faces, +the absurd lances—carried like candles in a nuns’ +procession—all this clashed so terribly with the music +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span>and the theme as to suggest a burlesque. A band +of conspirators afraid of being detected, yet shouting +at the top of their voices some compromising chorus; +a man with a deadly wound rising to his feet and +singing a lively and complicated aria; a messenger +in the hottest haste delivering a message in a slow +and long-drawn recitative; an intensely modern consumptive +lady dying amid ancient surroundings, trilling +in her last gasps musical complexities, during +a quarter of an hour, with a marvellously strong and +healthy voice—such, and many other absurdities, +disfigured the opera before Wagner and Gounod, +and well deserved the condemnation of Schopenhauer.</p> + +<p>Wagner’s assertion that the natural evolution of +each art leads to the surrender of its independence +and to its fusion with other arts is looked upon by +Nordau as delirious. To prove this he falls back on +biology, and points out that nature develops from +the simple to the complex, that originally similar +parts develop into separate organs of different structure +and independent functions. Why on earth +should there necessarily be an analogy between the +growth of plants and animals, and between the +development of the arts? Any other writer who +had been unfortunate enough to indulge in such +profound mysticism would certainly have been condemned +by Nordau to the lunatic asylum. Even if +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span>we admit the analogy as permissible, he gains very +little by it: for when he speaks of nature as always +proceeding from the simple to the complex he +describes exactly the development of the arts into +the opera—music, poetry, and dancing representing +each the simple, and the opera representing the +complex. What would Nordau think of a mad +doctor who based his verdict of insanity on such +reasoning?</p> + +<p>The attentive student of Nordau’s impeachment +of Wagner cannot fail to see that, despite all his +efforts to brand him as a degenerate, he has only +succeeded in throwing the grand power of that +genius into bolder relief. Instead of inducing us to +look upon Wagner as a sign of degeneration, he +has impressed us with the fact that Wagner’s work +constitutes an awakening from the slumber in which +Philistinism and conventionalism have so long enwrapped +humanity, and opened a new vista for the +ennobling mission of the arts.</p> + +<p>While we must reject Nordau’s clinging to that +pedantry and conventionalism which limit the mission +of the arts to the production of isolated pictures +for public galleries and the salons of modern Mæcenases, +statues for public places, and compositions of +<i>Kammer-musik</i> for drawing-rooms, we at the same +time do not believe that the opera, even as regenerated +by the genius of a Wagner, is the highest +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span>expression of the arts. There will come a day when +the illusions of the stage will be realities, when we +shall dispense with the dusty sceneries, the garish +footlights, the painted faces, the prudish trappings, +which go to make up the mirage which heralds an +ideal future. The arts, instead of being relegated to +the nursery in order to make room for science, as +Nordau prophesies, will become its aim. When +science has given us health, strength, and beauty, an +extended power over nature’s forces, when it has +solved the terrible social problem on the basis of +liberty and progress, then will science be the handmaiden +of the arts. Then will the answer be granted +to the poet’s prayer:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"> +<div class="stanza"><div class="verse indent0">“Oh! for a muse of fire that shall ascend</div> +<div class="verse indent0">The highest heaven of invention;</div> +<div class="verse indent0">A kingdom for a stage; princes to act;</div> +<div class="verse indent0">And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!”</div></div> +</div></div> + +<p>The arts, after having demonstrated in the opera +their solidarity and their independence, will leave +that artificial shelter and take up their abode in our +homes and in our civic buildings, in our streets, +and in our public places, in our arenas and in our +temples.</p> + +<p>A new renaissance lies ahead of us, and we are +all struggling to reach it. The man who thinks +and writes, the artist who paints or composes, the +peasant at the plough, the miner in the bowels of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span>the earth, all are contributing to further the advent +of a new era when the life, the work, the pleasure, +and the worship of a regenerate race shall be exalted +by the arts, and present a realization of what Wagner +dreamed while he created.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX +<br> +<i>THE RELIGION OF SELF</i></h2></div> + + +<p>The term egomania is a welcome present from +the scientists, which enriches our language +with a verbal representation of a psychological condition +which is certainly characteristic of our time. +We trust that Nordau’s diagnosis of the disease +will be carefully studied by its victims, especially +by those who are in the stage where it appears +as egoism, self-sufficiency, indifference to others, to +society, to the State, and as that fashionable and +superior pessimism which despairs of self as an +excuse for despairing of others. For, though Nordau +goes very minutely into the psychological aspect +of egomania without indicating its origin or the +remedies against it, he evidently does not reject the +theory, which seems constantly to be confirmed by +actualities, that mental diseases may be fostered and +aggravated both by those who suffer from them, as +well as by surrounding circumstances.</p> + +<p>Putting his opinion as a psychologist together with +that of others, we seem authorized to hope that +when our egotistical pessimists have learned that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span>the aristocratic characteristic on which they pride +themselves is the beginning of a mental disease, +they will fly to such remedies as may be found in +the study of useful science and healthy work.</p> + +<p>Such authors as Théophile Gautier, Baudelaire, +Rollinat, and others attract especially Nordau’s +attention; but he deals with them in order to show +that they individually had degenerated into egomaniacs, +and he does not once try to realize the +relation between their so-called degeneracy and the +general tendencies of our time. Had he done so, +he might have felt inclined to be less hard on these +exponents of <i>fin de siècle</i> corruption. Speaking of +the hints which this school of poets and writers +sometimes throws out that they are not quite serious, +Nordau comes very near to discovering their significance +when he says about Baudelaire that perhaps +“he sought to make himself believe that, with +his Satanism, he was laughing at the Philistines.” +But Nordau does not follow up the cue he has +thus accidentally dropped upon, but adds a sentence +revealing the one-sidedness of his inquiry, when he +says: “but such a tardy palliation does not deceive +the psychologist, and it is of no importance for his +judgment.”</p> + +<p>That may be so. But it is of the utmost importance +to humanity. That the yielding to the +promptings of “unconsciousness,” to the dictates of +instincts bad or good, was on the part of the so-called +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span>Parnassians an experimental plunge in the +dark—a challenge to those who pretended to know +better to show them that they were wrong—cannot +be denied by any one who has read their writings +with some knowledge of the French character.</p> + +<p>These men took up literature at a time when the +world began to perceive that science could not satisfy +its emotional aspirations, that it could not explain +the mysteries of the Universe, or bring about that +balance between our emotional and intellectual natures +on which a healthy life depends. But this was +not the only disillusion which humanity experienced +at that time. All the hopes which the altruistic +feeling had prompted us to base on democratic +governments and scientific political economy had +vanished. When the Utopias of the economists +turned out to be a <i>fata morgana</i>, instead of the solid +ladder leading up to the material heaven promised +by the religion of humanity of the scientists, a +Babylonian confusion arose among the people who +had first been told to worship at the shrine of religion, +then at the shrine of science, and now stood +without any shrine whatsoever. In France, more +than in any other country, we meet with people +whose minds are too subtle and whose emotions +are too genuine to permit them to dwell contented +in that Philistinism which leans on the one side +towards the scientific creed or absence of creed, in +order to appear modern, and, on the other side, on +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span>religion, in order to be safe, but whose real shrine +is the money-safe. These French people, mostly +authors and artists, had studied both the religious +and the scientific theories, and had found the causes +of their miscarriage.</p> + +<p>The Church had said: “Nature is vile, man is +naturally bad, instincts are prompted by the devil, +and knowledge is one of the snares of hell.” But +the Roman Church had not only failed in its mission +to keep up the faith and render humanity virtuous +and happy, but was responsible for great social +troubles, superstitions, and obstacles to progress. +It had good intentions, but the way in which it +tried to carry them out rendered them valueless. +It required power first, much power, complete power +over everything, and the acquisition of power did +more harm than the Church could do good when +ever so powerful. The Protestant Churches in +France were gloomy, prudish, anti-artistic, and appealed +with difficulty to any French character. Their +dogmas seemed incompatible with scientific truth, +and their mission appeared to be rather to persuade +their members that they were perfect than to render +them perfect. Besides, a great many minds throughout +the world, accredited with scientific accomplishments, +had mercilessly opposed dogmatic religion.</p> + +<p>Science, in its turn, when asked, Where is truth? +Where is the ideal? could only point to a pile of +facts laboriously built up like a brick wall, and had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span>to confess that what it wished to give instead of +religion was mere speculations. The ultimate conclusion +it pointed to was selfishness, personal irresponsibility, +and a mere animal existence. It failed +entirely to satisfy the great moving power in the +scheme of humanity—emotions—and could not therefore +satisfy human yearnings and aspirations.</p> + +<p>The postulates of religion—the wickedness of +nature and of man—were rejected as groundless, and +the guidance of intellect and science was spurned +because they were powerless to influence the +emotions.</p> + +<p>Finding themselves in the plight of a ship driving +about in the ocean without compass or rudder, the +Parnassians, the Decadents, and many others thought +it was time to try a desperate course. Perhaps, +after all, they thought, nature is good, perhaps +human instincts may be trusted; let us be natural +and follow our instincts. There was much to encourage +the new departure. It had often been found +that the purest joys were the most lasting, that the +good was the most beautiful, that lives and actions +prompted by the altruistic feelings best satisfied +selfish yearnings, that vice was disappointing, unhealthy, +degrading, and joy-killing; that virtue improved +life, increased the capacity for enjoyment, +and beautified mind and body. These observations +encouraged the belief in the religion of self. The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span><i>Ego</i> was not bad; but it required freedom to develop +itself.</p> + +<p>Like all founders of systems and philosophies, the +Parnassians and Decadents sought for confirmation +of their theories in the possibility of a Utopia. In +imagining a state of things under which the self +should have unlimited latitude for self-realization, +where man could satisfy his highest aspirations and +enjoy the greatest possible happiness under the +guidance of his altruistic promptings, where his +instincts should be so sharpened and developed as +to unfailingly select the greatest and the most lasting, +and therefore the noblest, pleasures—in imagining +such a state of things these experimentalists +perceived that society, such as it was around them, +offered thousands of obstacles to every attempt at +practical realization of their theories. They thus +came to look upon themselves as at war with society, +its old standards, its prejudices, its religions, and its +morals.</p> + +<p>Their writings were at once weapons, challenges, +rallying-cries. They were intended to deride, to shock, +and to draw attention to the new philosophy. The +distinction between good and bad was obliterated. +The artist and the poet should henceforth express +their true feelings and nought else. Instinct should +take the place of principles. The devil might be +worshipped as well as God. Art should have no +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span>other object than art. Nature might be abhorred as +well as loved. And so on.</p> + +<p>From this moral chaos the self was to rise in all +its glory. For the present it was distorted by surrounding +circumstances. The ugliness and morbidness +of the subjects they wrote about and the distortion +of their own feelings were the proofs of the +decayed state upon which humanity had entered. +Characters such as Huysman’s Duc des Esseintes +were intended to illustrate what the present state of +society was, and what its present tenets would lead +to. He is intended to represent the final result of +our civilization, and to show that disgust of our race +may be so great as to inspire a man with the belief +that by fostering evil and creating criminals he does +a good action in so far as he accelerates the destruction +of society.</p> + +<p>The Parnassians and the Decadents have no proclaimed +creed or any programme, and their own +opinion of their philosophy is of the haziest kind. +We are therefore far from asserting that we have +here interpreted them as they would interpret themselves. +Whatever may be said of their style and +their writings, they have, at least, the merit of being +frank and unsophisticated, and we think it must be +recognised that, whether they know it or not, they +hold themselves up as the “frightful examples” of +the chaotic state into which creeds, principles, morals, +are falling at the end of this century. To us the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span>moral, both of their existence and of their writing, +is that the world, and especially France, stands in +sore need of better churches, of a better system of +philosophy, and better principles of government. +These authors have rendered a great service in +tearing away the hypocritical mask which society +is so anxious to maintain, and thus demonstrating +the great need of regenerating agencies.</p> + +<p>Of late, England has been considerably influenced +by France, and the æsthetic revolt just referred to +naturally affected the English, but merely as a faint +echo.</p> + +<p>When Nordau, who correctly points out the connection +between the Decadents in France and the +extreme æsthetes in England, insinuates that the +whole of English society is affected by it, he labours +under a wrong impression. We have had here—and +we speak purposely in the past tense—a knot +of people who have believed, as Nordau states, +that a work of art is its own aim, that it may be +immoral. But, as he himself has stated, the æsthetic +awakening in England has forced art almost in the +opposite direction. We have had poets who have +imitated Baudelaire and other writers of the same +class, but these imitators have, by imitating many +others, displayed a weakness which debars them +from any great influence. There was a time with +us when a thoroughly immoral decadence had a +spell of influence and created a sickly literature. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span>But the influence of this sham æstheticism is fast +vanishing, since its essence has been mercilessly +exposed.</p> + +<p>While the influence of the Parnassians and Decadents +in France was only small, in England the +circumstances which produced them have been in +existence among us and have produced effects to +some extent similar. The struggle between science +and religion, the distrust of both, the failure of +social panaceas, and the irresistible pushing of the +working class against old social barriers have produced +in a great number of educated men a peculiar +state of mind which we wish that Nordau had +noticed. Whether he would have placed those +thus affected among his degenerates as egomaniacs +it is impossible for us to decide, but there can be +little doubt that egoism is the chief characteristic +of a new religion or a new mental disease, which +has made large inroads among educated men. It +becomes manifest in their pessimism and in their +indifferentism. They believe that everything is bad, +that the classes are bad, that the masses are bad, +that the country is in a bad state, and that everything +will finish badly. At the same time they do +not care. They will do nothing to avert the coming +evils. They hope that none will think them foolish +enough to make themselves martyrs. They wish it +to be clearly understood that they care only for +themselves and that they take no heed of what +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span>happens to others. They loathe the working class, +and affect a desire to crush them out of existence +at one blow. They belong to the few Englishmen +who suspect women of vile things, except of course +their mothers, sisters, <i>fiancées</i>, and wives. They +think life hardly worth living, and certainly not +worth any special exertions, but their main preoccupation +is the state of their health. They study +nothing save their own inclinations and cravings +and certain excrescences of the most modern literature. +Their capacity for hatred is stupendous in +its scope but meek in its expression. They claim +to enjoy all the benefits of social life without considering +themselves obliged to perform any of its +duties. They manage to be spendthrifts without +being generous, and to be mean without being economical.</p> + +<p>But we are strongly averse to classing these social +phenomena among the hopeless egomaniacs. They +exaggerate their egotism to such an extent as to +suggest that they are rather following a foolish +fashion than undergoing moral decay, and that the +existence of pinchbeck patriots, political charlatans, +sham enthusiasts, and professional philanthropists +has frightened them from showing their best side +and using their best abilities, and causes them to +flout their pessimism and selfishness in every one’s +face lest they should be taken for one of these.</p> + +<p>In spite of their infatuated posing as degenerate +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span>egomaniacs, we believe that many of them may be +counted upon as part of those elements from which +the future regeneration may spring, when the cloud +of scepticism has cleared away, and a goal worthy +to strive for is discernible.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X +<br> +<i>AN ETHICAL INQUISITION</i></h2></div> + + +<p>A very large part of the sum-total of the work +accomplished by Nordau in <i>Degeneration</i> consists +in describing scientifically the psychological +phenomena which underlie the idiosyncrasies of certain +authors and artists: in giving scientific names +to their weaknesses, and in setting forth the relations +in which such weaknesses stand to madness. These +idiosyncrasies, these weaknesses, and their relations +to madness were well known to observant people +long before Nordau’s book was written, and to +these his work is simply the technical explanation of +familiar phenomena. In another chapter we shall +dwell at greater length on the difference of views +which Nordau tends to bring about. Here we wish +to point out that, in spite of the mass of scientific +phraseology employed by Nordau, and in spite of +the difference of views he endeavours to bring about, +in what seems to be his main object, he is entirely in +accord with millions of sound-minded people in this +country. We English deplore, as deeply as any one +can, the existence of artists and works of so-called +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span>art which appeal rather to the morbid than to the +healthy mind; of poetry, novels, and dramas calculated +to flatter the corrupt, instead of stimulating +in all a desire for elevation. We especially deplore +the diabolical work done by pornographic artists and +authors.</p> + +<p>Owing to this accord in aims with Nordau, his +work has been read, and is being read, by thousands +in this country, in the hope that his vaunted science +and his strong mind would show us the right remedies. +But in this respect we have been sorely disappointed; +for instead of meeting with that complete +grasp of the subject to which English scientists have +accustomed us, we meet in his proposal of remedies +with that dazed and superficial logic which throughout +his work clashes so strangely with his power of +perceiving and of marshalling his facts.</p> + +<p>The way he proposes to treat the “mystics, but +especially egomaniacs and filthy pseudo-realists,” +forcibly reminds us of the solemn resolution of the +rats to bell the cat. He says:</p> + +<p>“Society must unconditionally defend itself against +them. Whoever believes with me that society is the +natural organic form of humanity, in which alone it +can exist, prosper, and continue to develop itself to +higher destinies; whoever looks upon civilization as +a good, having value and deserving to be defended, +must mercilessly crush under his thumb the anti-social +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span>vermin. To him who, with Nietzsche, is enthusiastic +over the ‘freely-roving, lusting beast of +prey,’ we cry: ‘Get you gone from civilization! +Rove far from us! Be a lusting beast of prey in the +desert! Satisfy yourself! Level your roads, build +your huts, clothe and feed yourself as you can! Our +streets and our houses are not built for you; our +looms have no stuffs for you; our fields are not tilled +for you. All our labour is performed by men who +esteem each other, have consideration for each other, +mutually aid each other, and who have to curb their +selfishness for the general good. There is no place +among us for the lusting beast of prey; and if you +dare to return to us, we will pitilessly beat you to +death with clubs.’”</p> + +<p>All this sounds very well; but if Nordau believes +that in this passage he has given us the true method +of how to defend society against its literary and +artistic enemies, he labours under a delusion with +regard to his own achievements that savours somewhat +of megalomania. His big words, his righteous +indignation, and his manifold signs of exclamation +are not a magic wand, are not a Saint Patrick’s mitre, +with power to banish toads and serpents from the +country.</p> + +<p>When he says that society should be defended, we +can understand him. But when he says that society +must defend itself, he drops into the mist of commonplace +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span>and meaningless generalities. The word “society” +stands for one of those things which will serve +very well as the object of an activity, but not as a subject +because, while its smallest component part may be +affected, action is only possible through an organized +co-operation of all its parts. To a German who has +never witnessed the attempt of a free democratic +community to launch out into collective activity, this +difference in the active and passive positions of society +may never have occurred. To him the activity of +society seems an easy matter, because in his mind +society is represented by a concentrated, powerful, +and pragmatical administration. If Nordau had +said “government should defend,” instead of “society +should defend,” he would at least have been logical; +but this he could not do, because, though an enemy +to personal liberty, he has seen enough of German +forms of government to reject the postulate of the +Socialists regarding the infallibility of the central +power; while at the same time he has a healthy +contempt for the judgment of the continental police. +He therefore says that society must defend itself, +and thus gives us a gratuitous piece of advice which +is thousands of years old.</p> + +<p>He calls upon all those who share his views to tell +the enemies of their race to be gone from civilization. +But will they go? Why should they be more +obedient than the spirits from the vasty deep? The +administration of society would have to be completely +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span>centralized, and the central Government would +have to be absolutely despotic, in order to compel +such an exodus. Even with such a Government it +might be extremely difficult to accomplish. The +most despotic Government in the world—the Russian +Government—have encountered enormous difficulties +in trying to expel the Jews, and this despite the fact +that in this endeavour they had the sympathies of +the majority of the Russian people, and could easily +ascertain who were Jews and who were not.</p> + +<p>A Government, in England for example, that would +attempt to expel pernicious authors and artists would +have none of these facilities. They would first have +to pass an Act of Parliament—the Graphomaniac, +Egomaniac, Pornographomaniac Authors and Symbolist +Artists Expulsion Act—and at least twenty +Governments would be turned out before it could +get passed. But let us suppose that Parliament had +decided on such an expulsion of these offenders, then +the real difficulties would begin, namely, to decide +who should be expelled and who should not. As to +killing the returning ones with clubs, this mode of +execution being abolished among us, hanging would +have to be resorted to—an extremely difficult operation +in our days, when the abolition of capital punishment +is more and more being considered as one of +the first steps towards better ethics.</p> + +<p>Nordau admits that judges and the police cannot +help us. The reason which he gives with regard to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span>Germany—the public contempt in which the judges +and police there stand—does not apply in England, +where our judges are beyond reproach, and the police +is a highly respected body, in consequence of being +less pragmatical than any police force in the world. +Experience in England has given us far stronger +reasons for not using the law and the police force +against authors and artists. Each time it has been +done, the very works intended to be suppressed have +gained a popularity and a circulation a thousand-fold +greater than if they had been left alone.</p> + +<p>Instead of tribunals and police, Nordau suggests +a body similar to an association in Germany bearing +the name “Association of Men for the Suppression +of Immorality.” As he often deals with his authorities, +so he here deals with his model tribunal. He turns +round and shows that they are no good. “This +association, it seems, pursues disbelief more than +immorality,” he says. Alas! such is the way with +associations of frail men. They are apt to leave undone +those things which they ought to have done, +and to do those things which they ought not to have +done. Nordau here ranges himself with the crowd +of sentimental Socialists who are so angry with the +world because it cannot see how easily the regeneration +of humanity would become by means of an infallible +and almighty Government. He and they +cannot see that this infallible and almighty Government +is the very thing beyond our reach. If he had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span>inquired logically into the causes of the disappointing +results produced by the “Association of Men,” he +could not have failed to notice that the latter were +more logical than himself. This “Association of Men,” +wanting to suppress vice by forcible action, exactly +as Nordau would, were sensible enough to strike at +the causes and not at the effects. They had found +that atheism, and even free-thinking, generally coincided +with immorality; and that on the other hand +religious men were generally moral. Consequently, +atheism was found to produce immorality, and religion +morality. In upholding religion, therefore, +they were upholding morality in a most effective way, +because morality without religion, or at least without +expressed religion, is found only in men of great +intellectual powers and scientific attainments; and to +educate the mass of the people to that point is, and +will for a long time be, out of the question. Religion, +therefore, was the only choice of Nordau’s +“Association of Men”; and, if it was right to coerce +people into morality, it was surely right to coerce +them into religion. From this it should be clear that +the fault does not lie in the reasoning of this “Association +of Men,” but in the postulate which Nordau has +approved—namely, the coercion of anybody by an +“Association of Men.”</p> + +<p>He expects the new “Society for Ethical Culture” +in Berlin to do better, and wishes it to constitute +itself as the voluntary guardian of the people’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span>morality. What an extraordinary idea! One set +of men guarding the morality of another set of +men—a small minority, unauthorised, unrecognised, +and devoid of all physical power, to guard the +morality of the great majority! The London authorities +could tell Nordau a great deal about the +effects of such attempts, even when the guardians +of morality have the law and police at their back. +But he need not come to London to learn what +guarded morality is worth, and what the results of +such guardianship are. The history of every country +teems with illustrations of the fact that every +attempt to coerce the people, morally or physically, +into a moral life has invariably brought about more +hypocrisy, more secret corruption, and a tone of +greater immorality. If he distrusts universal experience, +then he ought to know, as a psychologist, +that, so long as the human mind and the human +emotions are what they are, repression, supervision, +and outside interference with personal liberty must +demoralize.</p> + +<p>The composition of his society would be no guarantee +whatever against deplorable effects. He proposes +that it should consist of instructors, professors, +authors, members of Parliament, judges, and high +functionaries. To begin with, authors could not be +included, because they could not judge and be judged +at the same time; and if the qualification of authors +were sufficient, what would prevent authors of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span>Zola type from predominating in the association? +Here, as with regard to original causes, Nordau +fancies that he has struck solid ground when he has +removed the difficulty a stage farther back. The +association is simply an instrument. All depends +upon who forges it. Of this he says not a word. +He evidently expects it to arise as a miracle, like the +infallible Government of the Socialists. Were the +German Emperor to select the members of the +association—which in Germany he would have to do +directly or indirectly—he would take upon himself an +enormous responsibility, for the fulfilment of which +he would have to acquire the necessary information +and the necessary means. He would simply be to +ethics what the Pope is to the Catholic religion.</p> + +<p>Nordau boldly asserts that such an association +would have “the power to exercise an irresistible +‘boycot.’” Why? He evidently thinks so because +his association would be an influential one. He +clearly does not know what ought to be an axiom to +any one who meddles with social questions—namely, +that the circulation of a condemned book increases in +an inverse ratio to the respect which the condemning +authorities enjoy. Thus, if his association were to +consist of nobodies and were to condemn a book, the +condemnation would only increase the circulation a +little; but if it were to consist of the leading men of +the German Empire, the condemned book would be +read all over the world. In the matter of public +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span>censors nothing is of any avail that is not absolutely +despotic. By allowing Government and police to +exercise all kinds of violence, isolated newspaper +paragraphs and leaders can be suppressed before they +are published, and the open circulation of condemned +books may be prevented. But once the public get +hold of the contents of an article and the name of +a book, a secret circulation at once sets in. Eyewitnesses +who were in France when the French +Government confiscated and prohibited Edmond +About’s <i>La Question Romaine</i> can relate the eagerness +with which this book was read, and tell of the +numbers of copies circulated secretly. We cite this +example from the continent, as it corroborates what +always happens in England.</p> + +<p>Nordau fondly imagines that the judgment of his +association would absolutely “annihilate” not only +the book, but the author. The contrary would happen. +As long as there is a grain of love of liberty in +humanity, the condemnation by an authority of a +man’s book will make him the object of public sympathy. +When Nordau says that “no respectable +bookseller would keep the condemned book, no +respectable paper would mention it,” his meaning +entirely depends on his standard of respectability—one +of those standards he absolutely refuses to give +us. Every one knows that there are respectable +booksellers and papers, and that there are non-respectable +booksellers and papers. But who could +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span>undertake to draw the line of demarcation between +the two categories? In a small German town where +there are only one or two booksellers this line is easily +drawn. But how about places like Berlin, Hamburg, +Paris, Vienna, and London? Besides, a bookseller +and a newspaper might be highly respectable, but +differ diametrically from an association which would +have Nordau’s approval. Surely he would not push +his mania so far as to deny a respectable character to +all the booksellers and newspapers who, for instance, +refuse to boycot Ibsen?</p> + +<p>Nordau also thinks that the specialists in insanity +should come out of their shells and publicly denounce +the degenerate authors and artists. In England, for +example, he thinks that Maudsley could exercise a +healthy influence. But he would be surprised at the +small number of people in England, outside the +profession, who read works on mental disease. <i>Degeneration</i> +has been widely read; but this is because +it levels startling accusations against well-known +authors and artists, and because it purports to give a +novel scientific interpretation of familiar phenomena, +with the purpose of turning our opinions with regard +to some branches of art and literature topsy-turvy. +It is not to science alone that it owes its wide +circulation, but to the clever—conscious or unconscious—sophistries +it contains. English psychologists +and specialists in insanity could not afford to launch +out after the manner of Nordau. They might secure +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span>a certain number of readers; but they would lose their +patients. A specialist who came before the public +with Nordau’s artless and ill-considered scheme for +the defence of society against its enemies, could not +hope to be taken seriously by an English public. +In England we have had a too large experience of +books with a tendency, of log-rolling, of veiled advertisement, +and of sly party thrusts, to be influenced +by such a suggestion of lunacy against political +opponents as is contained in the following sentence +from Nordau: “A Maudsley in England, a Charcot, +a Magnan in France, a Lombroso, a Tonnini in Italy, +have brought to vast circles of people an understanding +of the obscure phenomena in the life and the +mind, and disseminated knowledge which would +make it impossible in those countries for pronounced +lunatics with the mania for persecution to gain an +influence over hundreds of thousands of citizens.”</p> + +<p>It is impossible for us to imagine an English +specialist in insanity attributing the absence of anti-semitism +in England to his own writings, or those +of other psychologists, as Nordau does in this sentence. +If the German electors can believe such a +wild party distortion, they are not the men we take +them for. We have already explained the causes +of the existence of anti-semitism in Germany, and +of its absence in England. We do not expect +that Nordau will acknowledge our view to be right. +For had he not been so entirely the creature of prejudice +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span>on this, as on many other subjects outside his +specialty, he would, unassisted, have discovered so obvious +a truth.</p> + +<p>Englishmen are not less anxious than he to defend +society against its enemies; but only the most inexperienced +and illogical Englishman would recommend +such remedies as our alienist seems to consider +as the height of wisdom. Though we have been +slow about it, we seem at last to have grasped the +not very hidden truth that if society—that is to say, +the people—is moral enough to elect an association +capable of acting as an ethical censor over art and +literature, we believe the people also capable of +exercising that censorship directly, instead of indirectly +through an association. This censorship by +the people themselves has the immense advantage +of working unostentatiously and silently, and without +advertising the very work that should be suppressed.</p> + +<p>We think it futile to condemn, or even to suppress, +a work; and on grounds of expediency only, +regardless of principle, to club the sinning author. +The source from which the condemned work sprang +would yield more such works, and the circumstances +which had produced the objectionable author would +produce more objectionable authors. These, as well +as their works, are the symptoms of a social malady, +and we should treat them as such. We have ceased +to apply to society the old methods, long since +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span>abandoned by the medical profession, of curing an +evil by means of violent suppression of the symptoms—methods +adhered to by Nordau with regard to +society, but, let us hope, not with regard to his +patients.</p> + +<p>We leave the symptoms alone: for they allow us +to diagnose the evil, and we go for the causes. In +looking for them, we try to keep our minds free from +such prejudices as influence Nordau’s logic. We +should not cry out for new ethical standards, for new +and impossible moral authorities, while we ruthlessly +destroy a standard and an authority—religion—the +practical usefulness of which could not be replaced +for centuries by any new standard or authority, even +if invented now.</p> + +<p>Recognising the truth in Voltaire’s flippant saying, +that if God did not exist we should have to +invent Him, we do not, as the superstitious scientists +do, first abolish Him and then re-invent Him +in the clumsy form of a “mechanical causality.” +We let the holders of the ominous rings—of which +Nathan der Weiser told Saladin—do their utmost +to prove by virtue and happiness that they hold the +magic ring conferring these privileges. It matters +little to us whether the genuine ring be the Christian +one, the Jewish one, or the scientists’, so long +as the belief in the holders of each of the rings +stimulates them to prove its genuineness. We +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span>would not tell the great majority who pin their +faith to the Christian ring—even if we believe it +to be spurious—that we can prove it to be worthless, +and that the scientists’ ring alone will bring +salvation: for we know that this ring is beyond the +reach of most of them, and that, handled in the +wrong way, it will work curses instead of blessings. +We limit ourselves to telling them that the rings +held by the others must not be despised until the +Great Competition is adjudicated.</p> + +<p>In our quest for the causes of degeneration, we +do not begin by trying to discover traces of lunacy +in a small number of prominent citizens. We bear +in mind that these are either isolated cases, or types +of a generally prevailing tendency. In the first case, +we leave them alone; in the second, we search for +the cause of this tendency. If we find that the tendency, +let us say, toward hysteria, or egomania, in +the upper classes is being produced by a craving for +excitement, unhealthy pleasures, or artificial sensations, +and by a frivolous and empty life, we set +about to discover the causes of this craving and +this empty life.</p> + +<p>If we again discover that the cause is found in the +decay of the beliefs in personal responsibility, in the +importance of philanthropy, morality, and patriotism, +we try to discover why these beliefs have decayed. +If it be found that they have decayed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span>simultaneously with and in consequence of the +decay of the authority of the Church, we try +either to strengthen the influence of the Church +by purifying and reforming it, or we replace its +dogmas and its doctrines by a healthy and moral +philosophy.</p> + +<p>Should we find, on the other hand, that the +deplorable state among the poorer classes—their +suffering, their degradation, and their joyless lives, +co-existing with large fortunes, and irremediable +under present laws and institutions—leads to the +conclusion that the altruistic feelings of the wealthy +are useless, and thus prompt among the upper +classes selfishness and egomania, and the determination +to drown their higher emotions in a giddy +life, and in the poorer classes to foster destructive +tendencies and the desire for revenge, we turn our +attention to social remedies.</p> + +<p>No one can turn his attention to the social state +of the working class in England, and throughout the +world, without discovering a host of motors active +in the production of dire misery, and all the mental +and moral degradation that follows in its train—a +degradation which aggravates the misery, and reacts, +as we have shown, on the upper classes. Nothing +will more actively stay the progress of any mental +degeneration which might be going on than the +removal of the causes of the awful misery suffered +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span>by such an alarming proportion of civilized humanity. +Nordau’s warning against mental decay and +progression towards folly will, we hope, quicken, if +not the higher emotions, at least the sense of self-preservation +among the leading classes throughout +the world. But it must be regretted that he, not +only in his suggestion of remedies, but in many +other parts of his work, displays a lack of logic and +a want of clear perception as soon as he quits the +narrow precincts of his special science and the teachings +of his manifold authorities, and falls back on his +own reasoning powers. Had he prevented his prejudices +from colouring his views, and had he not sacrificed +logic for brilliancy, his work would have been +of no slight assistance to those who are helping on +humanity in its staggering onward movement.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI +<br> +<i>VIGOROUS AFFIRMATIONS</i></h2></div> + + +<p>It has come to our knowledge that a great number +of people in this country who have read through +the whole of Nordau’s bulky volume have carried +away an impression far from pleasant. Indeed, there +are few men or women in a country like England who +might not, on some plea or another, come under the +suspicion of mental degeneration, if all that Nordau +says were, regardless of his contradictions, accepted +as true. In this country education and morality are +based entirely on religious principles, and most of the +inhabitants are, either by faith or by dint of sincere +philosophical inquiry, to some extent religionists. +All these might think themselves included among +those whom Nordau stigmatises as degenerates. +There are also a great number who admire intensely +Burne Jones, Rossetti, and many other painters of +the same school, and all these have been told, with +somewhat brutal frankness, that they are on the road +to lunacy. The pieces of Ibsen have a great number +of admirers who have welcomed with pleasure the +additional intelligence and interest which he has +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span>infused into the drama, and who consequently have +been pointed out as degenerate imbeciles.</p> + +<p>In the light of these facts there remain few educated +persons among the upper classes of this country +about whose intellectual soundness Nordau’s work +might not raise doubts. This all the more so as his +few reservations with regard to people who have +demonstrated their sanity by practical ability to conduct +their own affairs, sink into insignificance among +his voluminous and wholesale accusations, especially +as such reservations are forgotten almost as soon as +they are made.</p> + +<p>This wholesale issue of certificates of madness +would not have mattered so much if his work did +not carry with it a certain power of conviction which +tells especially with the weak, uninstructed mind, +and with people who have not read his work with +special attention. In fact, we know cases of people +of sensitive mind who imagine that, thanks to Nordau’s +book, their friends will look upon them as on +the road to lunacy.</p> + +<p>There can be little doubt that the strong impression +the book has made, sometimes in one way and +sometimes in another, is largely due to the style +adopted by its author. The secret of this style is +revealed in the chapter “Prognosis,” where he +describes with somewhat elephantine humour the +effects in the twentieth century of the present progressing +degeneration. He says, among other things, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span>that companies of men will be formed who “by +vigorous affirmations are charged to tranquillize persons +afflicted with the mania of doubt, when taken by +a fit of nervousness.”</p> + +<p>Such a piece of prophecy could only enter the +head of a man who has had practical experience +of the great effect produced on nervous people by +vigorous affirmations, and, having had this experience, +Nordau fills his volume with such “vigorous +affirmations.” His method has succeeded all the +better as he evidently belongs to that class of powerful +and strong-willed men who, when once they have +formed an opinion, hold to it tenaciously, and count +as nothing any conviction against their will.</p> + +<p>Having followed Nordau through his vigorous +crusade against that score of people whom he regards +as dangerous enemies to humanity, and having +pointed out a host of his logical errors, erroneous +perceptions, unsound postulates, and exaggerated +representations, we propose before closing this volume +to examine some of the reasoning methods +which give him his apparent strength.</p> + +<p>It is to him of great moment that his readers +shall not believe in the existence of the thinking +and feeling <i>Ego</i> as a person, apart from the organic +mechanism which conveys impressions and presentations +to the <i>Ego</i>. He uses all the arguments which +that school of thinkers to which he belongs has +piled up in order to show that mind is a condition +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span>of matter. He says nothing about the arguments +on the other side, but treats them as the science +of the past. He takes for granted, without showing +a vestige of doubt, that human beings are nothing +but organic mechanisms. He does not even +refer to, or allow that there is, anything beyond +the present scientific discoveries, and scornfully +ignores the existence of what less prejudiced scientists +call the Unknowable. He thus treats a question +which still trembles in the balance as if it were +already decided in favour of his pet theories.</p> + +<p>The attitude which biologists and psychologists +take up as such, and with the special purpose of +proceeding in their investigations with perfectly +unbiassed minds, Nordau assumes as a philosopher, +and tries to persuade himself and others that +he has taken his stand on absolute facts. Science +proceeds on the supposition that only that is true +which has been proved so by demonstrations to our +senses, or through deductions from such demonstrations. +This, of course, is a postulate the illogicality +of which most scientific men are aware of, and +is adopted mostly for the purpose, as it were, of +clearing the ground. To assume, apart from their +investigating attitude, that there is nothing more to +know than what is already known, would be an +utterly absurd assumption, as it would, if acted upon, +preclude further investigation.</p> + +<p>Nordau does not, and would not, deny that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span>there is more to learn, but he persists in the view +that all future knowledge will be on the lines of our +present knowledge, and never contradictory to the +present prevailing scientific dogmas. He remains +under this impression, because he forgets that science +has progressed, progresses, and, as far as we see +now, always will progress through investigations by +our senses, and that this fact brings two important +truths conspicuously into relief. The first, that our +senses are liable to deceive us, and that consequently +the difference between primitive views—the result +of imperfect observation—and the scientific opinions +of the day is not one of kind, but simply one of +degree. In olden times the senses deceived us very +much, and nowadays they deceive us less. But to +what an extent they deceive us now the future alone +can reveal. The second, that science with the +present methods cannot investigate anything that +does not appeal to our senses.</p> + +<p>To deny the existence of anything that does not +appeal directly to our senses is absurd, because we +should have to deny all the forces of nature. The +existence of these can only be detected by their +effects. The more science teaches us about forces, +the more the view gains adherence that the forces +are not a state of matter, but a thing apart, if +matter is not a state of force. Even if this view +should prove to be correct, the error it would dispel, +that force is a state of matter, would be pardonable, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span>as force only has come within the perception of our +senses through its effect on matter.</p> + +<p>Psychology has to some extent succeeded in tracing +and in describing certain forces which are at +work in our nerves and our brains, such as, for +example, reveal themselves in the reception and +elaboration of presentations. But within every human +being there are well-known phenomena which +tell of forces—or of one general force—which so far +have escaped all investigation. These phenomena +are emotion, judgment, will.</p> + +<p>Attentive readers of Nordau’s books will have +noticed that, in his scientific dissertations on the +actions of the brain, these factors—emotion, judgment, +will—turn up suddenly without the slightest +explanation as to whence they come and what they +are, though they seem to completely determine the +action of the whole organism. It is with this enormous +gap in their chain of reasoning that some +scientists, with more learning than logic, jump to +the conclusion that the thinking and feeling <i>Ego</i> is +only a state of matter.</p> + +<p>Nordau, being anxious, as we have already mentioned, +to magnify the importance of his psychological +theories by undermining his readers’ belief +in the existence of anything unscientifically called +“soul” or “spirit,” renders his task easier by attacking +religion, of which the belief in the existence of +the spiritual <i>Ego</i> is a vital part. He knows that if +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span>he can compass the rejection of the idea of religion +he kills two birds with one stone. He gets rid of +the personal <i>Ego</i> as well as the belief in eternal life, +both of which, if admitted to be realities, would +strongly point to an intelligent Providence the existence +of which would be a colossal impediment to the +glorification of science and of scientists.</p> + +<p>The way in which he strives to undermine +religious belief is ingenious and often effective. He +trusts chiefly to the historical argument. He goes +back to primitive man in order to show that he, in +his ignorance of nature, attributed those natural +phenomena which strongly impressed him to some +man mightier than himself. Nordau tries to show +that out of this belief arose what he would call +superstition, the several forms of religion. He +here of course appeals to feeling more than to +reason. People do not like to feel that they have +remained in the depth of ignorance of the primitive +savage, and might feel disposed to join the glorious +company of the apostles of science. But if we use +our reasoning powers we cannot fail to perceive +that science has merely taught us the methods by +which, and the laws according to which, nature +works, and that as to the forces behind the laws +of nature the scientist is as ignorant as the primitive +savage.</p> + +<p>Nordau also pursues that diplomatic course—or +commits the error—as we have already pointed out, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span>of confounding religion with the Churches. It is +easy to inspire distrust in religion if it be permitted +to consider Pope Borgia, Ignatius Loyola, and Dr. +Stöcker as its inevitable results. By analyzing, +to some extent distorting the essence of ritual, Nordau +seeks to point out that Christian worship is +not only sheer imbecility, but also an insult to +the supposed God. He never notices such discrepancies +between the Churches and religion as are, +for example, revealed by the anti-semitist movement +in Germany, which naturally he keenly resents. +From the defects, the shortcomings, the superstitions, +the antiquated dogmas of the Churches, he +tries to draw the sweeping conclusion that a belief +in an intelligent Providence, in the existence of a +soul, and in a spiritual life independent of the body +is the outcome of degenerate mental powers.</p> + +<p>The views that by such means he endeavours to +impose upon his readers mean that man, being an +organic mechanism, ceases to exist when he dies. +If this be so, there is no personal responsibility, and +only that man would be wise, rational, undegenerate, +who so arranges his life that he may live long, +keep in good health, and enjoy all the pleasures +that he desires, be they noble or ignoble. To test, +then, whether a man who is, who believes he is, or +merely poses as, a disbeliever in future responsibility, +we ought to examine how he regulates his +life. Only in this manner can we discover to what +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span>an extent he is influenced—to use Nordau’s own +language—by the inherited tendencies to worship +lurking somewhere in the innermost recesses of his +consciousness, or, to use our own language, by the +instinctive feeling of personal responsibility which +has characterized humanity in every stage of barbarism +and civilization.</p> + +<p>The fact that a great many scientists, including +Nordau, do not live as if they were perfectly convinced +of the non-existence of personal responsibility +beyond the grave, requires quite a different +kind of explanation than that generally afforded, +before we abandon the belief that they are self-deceivers. +The moral scientists themselves have +found the necessity of some explanation, and this +is what they say, though perhaps in other words: +“We do not believe in any responsibility beyond +the grave, but we do what we think our duty to +humanity. We should be sorry and ashamed to be +actuated by a fear of punishment or the desire for +reward, and not to do what is right and good for +the sake of the right and the good.”</p> + +<p>This sounds very beautiful, but too boastful almost +to be accepted as the bare truth. Some of them +who are aware of this, or who are genuinely too +modest to thus stand forward as demi-gods, add: +“In living and acting as we do, and wanting others +to live and to act in the same way, we are not more +unselfish, nor morally better, than others. We are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span>only wiser; in fact, more intellectually selfish. And +all we desire of other people is that they should be +intellectually selfish. In exercising self-control and +devotion to others, we do not deprive ourselves of +pleasures and enjoyments, because most of these +come to us from our surroundings and from society +at large. For what we do for our wives and families, +we get love in return; for what we do for society +and the race, we get two rewards: firstly, esteem +and reputation, perhaps money; and, secondly, all +the social advantages which are valuable to us in +the same proportion as society is in a healthy +state.”</p> + +<p>This seems highly convincing, but it does not by +far cover the whole ground. Whoever has studied +our times well knows that a man can secure for +himself, and even for his family and friends, enormous +advantages by disregarding and violating the +interests and moral rights of others, and also that, +when wholesale rascality succeeds, when it is productive +of great wealth, great social and political +power, it also secures esteem and reputation. There +are, of course, men in positions, the stock-in-trade +of which consists in honesty and even philanthropy; +but there are others, and millions of them, who +could, under the present social systems of the world, +amass fortunes and rise to distinction by systematic +robbery. Thousands of cases could be stated in +proof of the fact that, in the absence of the belief +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span>in responsibility after death, selfishness will prompt +men to hurt their fellow-beings and society in order +to secure money, power, and reputation for themselves. +Take the case of a poor labourer who, in +the usual course, will work and suffer during his +whole life and die in poverty. To escape such a +destiny many roads are open to him if he have +courage, exceptional ability, and no belief in a hereafter. +He could commit a variety of crimes in +order to give him a start in life without the slightest +chance of being detected, and without experiencing +the smallest inconvenience during his lifetime. He +might even avoid violent and vulgar crimes, and +operate in a safer manner. He might blackmail a +rich man. He might in war betray his country. +He might sell himself to a corrupt political party. +He might join the army of some selfish sovereign +bent on conquest and plunder, and gain a high position. +Or he might pursue yet safer methods. He +might turn first a usurer, then a financier. He +might keep a degrading public-house, or a gigantic +immoral place of amusement. He might issue a +debasing newspaper, write corrupting books and +dramatic pieces. Provided he does not expose himself +to the hatred, contempt, and even the unfavourable +criticism of his fellow-beings, or injure his +health, there is positively nothing to prevent him +from adopting all these courses to the great detriment +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span>of humanity, so long as he is perfectly sure +that he shall not be called to account after death.</p> + +<p>What some of our scientists forget is that very +few people are in the same position as they themselves +are, where respectability and quasi-philanthropy +pay; but, on the contrary, that the great +majority live under the constant temptation to secure +wealth, health, esteem, and reputation by means +which are injurious to society. To such arguments +they can only reply that the man, however successful, +who attains his success by anti-social means runs a +risk of ruining the happiness of his life by loss of +self-respect.</p> + +<p>But, if the man has a conscience,—and he could +not lose his self-respect without one,—it could not +trouble him so long as he was convinced that he +had done the best for himself. By bringing the +conscience at all into the discussion, the scientists +fall back on an emotion which has been always +intimately associated with the sense of personal responsibility, +and which they themselves have been +compelled, in order to protect their theories, to deny +absolutely as an instinct or to represent as the result +of religious education.</p> + +<p>For this reason, Nordau would not call that +instinct in man which prompts him to live and act +morally—an instinct which is the original motor of +all moral progress—conscience. He would probably +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span>prefer to call it the social instinct. But names matter +little. The essential point is, that there exists +in man’s consciousness a strong instinct which cannot +be reasoned away. This instinct is intimately connected +with another, without which it would never +have produced the results we see around us—namely, +the instinct that the <i>Ego</i> is imperishable. No one +would deny the universal existence of this instinct, +but plenty of scientists, while acknowledging it as +an inherited tendency, would deny it any value as +an argument in favour of the immortality of the +<i>Ego</i>, on the ground that a hazy, unreasoned, and +utterly inexplicable yearning need not have a distinct +goal.</p> + +<p>The instinct of human beings is a subject which +has been very much neglected by science, and for +the good reason that, whatever instincts may be +natural to man, they have been carefully smothered +by teachings, examples, and experience, all appealing +to his reason from infancy upwards. He never +uses, never tries, and never suspects the existence +of his instincts, and when accidentally they lead him +right, he regards the fact as a delusion, and even +avoids mentioning it from a fear of being laughed +at. This has however not prevented men, and often +remarkable men, from being guided by their instincts; +only it is called feeling, taste, luck. There are examples +of men who owe the greater part of their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span>success to instinctive feeling, and who have committed +great mistakes by having trusted too much +to it. Besides it is generally believed that women’s +instincts are clear and trustworthy, and many men +consider themselves to have been largely benefited +by consulting them.</p> + +<p>But, in order to get at a true appreciation of the +value and power of instincts, we must go to the animals. +What else but instinct could we call the feeling +which allows the carrier-pigeon to find its way +from London to Paris in an atmosphere of darkness +and fog which would render it impossible for the +most experienced mariner to distinguish between +north and south. It is a well-known fact that dogs +and even cats that have been left behind by their +owners have followed them at great distances, though +the owner has gone by rail or water and the animal +has had to find its way across country. In face of +such facts and considerations, no man who has not +a strong bias would suggest that an instinct that is +general to humanity need not be heeded.</p> + +<p>The instinct of personal responsibility cannot be +re-christened social instinct and then minimised by +the assertion that the social instinct is the outcome +of reason, the sense of self-preservation, and intelligent +selfishness: for in that case the poor labourer +who wanted to become wealthy and famous, as instanced +above, could be as evil as he liked so long +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span>as he was successful, and could not be restrained +by the social instinct, but only by conscience, or +in other words, the feeling of unlimited personal +responsibility.</p> + +<p>Atheistic scientists who lead a moral and useful +life cannot hold themselves up as a pattern of +results produced by social instincts, because in the +great majority of men, placed differently, these instincts +would permit them to injure society to an +enormous extent. Nor does the assertion of these +scientists bear the stamp of sincerity when they say: +“Behold us, we have no belief in personal responsibility +beyond the grave. And yet we labour and +run risks for the good of humanity. We sacrifice +our time, our money, our health for others, and we +remain poor while we could be rich. Our life is the +outcome of intelligent selfishness.”</p> + +<p>They would have a better chance of convincing +us if they said: “Life after death is impossible. +We prove by our lives that we believe this. Our +moral lives and our humanitarianism are sheer hypocrisy +which we practise in order to get esteem +and fame. The books we write are not true, but +they bring us money, and we do not care how much +evil we inflict on humanity by ripping away the only +foundation on which its morality and happiness can +be built, while the substitute which we supply is +worthless. We might have averted an immense +amount of vice and degradation by leaving old religions +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span>alone until the Religion of Humanity was +perfect enough to replace them. But we attack +them now because in this way we make money and +fame.”</p> + +<p>It is not the well-meaning, plodding scientist, +striving to arrest disease, lessen pain, and dispel +superstition, that can bounce us into the belief in +personal irresponsibility. This could only be done +by real flesh-and-blood Ducs des Esseintes, men +like the hero in Huysman’s novel, <i>A Rebours</i>. +This author, whom Nordau classes among drivelling +imbeciles, has shown that he has a clearer idea than +our clever alienist what type of men the certitude of +personal irresponsibility could produce. We are fully +convinced that Nordau is no Duc des Esseintes at +heart, masquerading as a benefactor of humanity, +and, if he boasts a little of his good intentions and +not at all of his wickedness, it is because he believes +that what he does is right, and does it because he +is prompted by that strong sense of personal responsibility +which his scientific prejudices and his lack of +logical power cause him to deny.</p> + +<p>Having striven by “vigorous affirmations” to +implant the belief in his readers’ minds that they +have no <i>Ego</i> independent of their body, and that +they consequently are fatally doomed to become +what their defective brains and nerves are bound to +make them, he proceeds with another series of +“vigorous affirmations,” that degeneration is on the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span>increase, that it is characteristic of the end of the +century, that the men whom we take for geniuses +are mattoids, and finally, that the whole of our western +civilization is degenerate. We have, in preceding +chapters, tried to show how he has neglected to +pay any attention to the many signs all over the +civilized world indicating an increase in mental and +moral powers; how he endeavours to overwhelm +his readers by comparisons between the symptoms +in real degenerates, or lunatics, and similar symptoms—accompanied +however by perfect rationality and +great intelligence—in authors and artists, and concludes +that they are as mad as the madman. He +tries to force this conclusion on the unwary reader +by simply ignoring all other grounds for eccentricity +that would have been taken into account by an unbiassed +enquirer.</p> + +<p>Let us instance the way in which he judges Zola. +He never for an instant regards him as a free agent, +but speaks of him as a patient suffering from erotic +madness and other brain and nerve affections, which +compel the novelist to write, and to write exactly in +the vein he does.</p> + +<p>The very idea that human beings should be thus +subjected to all kinds of irresistible impulses produces +the same gruesome impression as the old +stories of demoniacal possession. Nordau might as +well have described Zola as a man hating above all +things the writing of novels, with a natural repugnance +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span>for anything savouring of the obscene, compelled +by a demon in possession of his body and his +soul to write the history of the Rougeon-Maquarts +and other distasteful works. On the careful reader +the impression would have been precisely the same. +But no number of “vigorous affirmations” would +have induced even the most weak-minded of readers +to have accepted the demon, while Zola’s eroticism +and his mischievous olfactory nerves may have imprinted +themselves upon the minds of some by dint +of scientific dissertation.</p> + +<p>While it would seem to most people rational to +study Zola’s character and the state of his mind, in +order to form a correct idea of the objects he has +in view, Nordau, by his method of supposing that +a writer is not a free agent, but is compelled to +exhibit for the readers of his works the innermost +recesses of his consciousness, proceeds in the +opposite manner: he evolves the characters of writers +from the characters of their books. From what he +says about Zola, one feels inclined to conclude that +this author devotes the large amounts he makes by +his writings to the gratification of bestial lusts, living +in a kind of harem of degraded women, rapidly +destroying by debauch every spark of intelligence +left in his tottering brain. We do not know M. +Zola personally, but from what we hear, he seems +to live a quiet and laborious life with his wife in a +peaceful country house, and far from spending his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span>earnings in riotous living, he banks them as a reserve +for old age, which he seems likely to attain. +When however a man’s private life and rational +attention to his own business seem to clash conspicuously +with Nordau’s diagnoses, his serenity +and self-confidence are not in the slightest degree +disturbed, because he has given his description to +the man’s tendency in a “psychiatric sense,” and has +referred to the man’s actual life. But the discrepancy +between the author’s actual life and the life he, +according to Nordau, ought to lead, is not an extenuating +circumstance in the eyes of so harsh a judge +as our alienist. On the contrary, it aggravates the +sentence, for if the accused author is not in reality +the monster he ought to be, it is simply because his +attenuated physique does not allow of it, and drives +him through all his debaucheries in his imagination.</p> + +<p>We do not admire such literature as Zola has +put forth, and do not believe that it has accomplished +one iota of the good at which its author, +according to his admirers, aims. But all rational +men should bear in mind that such books are sure +indications that there is something rotten in the +State. To ascertain to what an extent the circumstances +surrounding the author are capable of inducing +a sound-minded man like Zola to write such +books, before jumping to the conclusion that such +authors are lunatics, would be the method adopted +by sincere searchers after truth.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span></p> +<p>A rapid survey of the circumstances under which +Zola began to write will at once show that the +inborn eroticism and even coprolalia which Nordau +tries to foist upon Zola were not the only influences +to which he was subjected. In Paris, as in all great +capitals, there is a host of young ambitious <i>littérateurs</i> +who compete for the attention not only of the public +but of the publishers. It is far from certain that +the books which most please the public would be +most acceptable to the publishers, and the latter are, +therefore, to a great extent responsible for the state +of literature. Nordau says that M. Alphonse Lemerre +was able to make Parnassians, as the editor, Cotta, +in the first half of the century, made German classics; +and he is right. A Parisian publisher has the +power to make pornographic authors just as well as +Parnassians. He is a business man, and of course +wishes to obtain a large circulation for his books, and, +therefore, is on the look-out for authors who are sensational +one way or another. At the time Zola began +to write, the obscene novel was beginning to be +fashionable. Paul de Kock and his imitators had +become old-fashioned, and the corruption of the +Third Empire, as well as the spread of scientific +atheism, had created a demand for something racier +than the peccadilloes of light-hearted <i>viveurs</i>. Besides, +pessimism was in the ascendant, and erotic +literature had to be morbid instead of gallant and +gay.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span></p> +<p>Several authors of great ability, but strongly influenced +by the pessimism of the time, and with the +field of their ethical studies limited to the Parisian +boulevards and the Quartier Breda, had paved the +way for that false realistic literature of which Zola’s +writing may be called the climax. The publishers, +knowing their market, were eager to accept books of +an obscene character, provided they were serious and +written in a philosophical spirit. Zola may have seen +his way to eclipse anything written in that style, and +being himself a child of his time,—materialist, and +nervously inclined to exaggeration,—may have seized +upon the chance of making money and fame, though +he probably foresaw that his first novels would expose +him to the execration of the Philistines and the respectable +world. He might also have foreseen that one +day he would be able to establish a sufficient fame to +be received by English <i>littérateurs</i> as a genius of his +time. If, therefore, Zola’s object was to push himself +to the front in the manner we here suppose him to +have done, he has certainly succeeded—a fact which +could not establish his intellectual degradation. He +simply yielded to a tremendous temptation, and if he +did so under the impression that the scientists had +completely proved the non-existence of personal responsibility, +Nordau should be the last to blame him.</p> + +<p>But there is not the slightest necessity to assume—nor +do we assume—that Zola yielded to any temptation +at all. On the contrary, it is perfectly possible +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span>that, in writing the books he has, he sincerely believed +that he was serving some good purpose. Knowing +how many other Frenchmen feel in this respect, we +might well suppose that he reasoned somewhat in the +following manner: Religion is wrong, and a fraud +practised by the clever on the simple-minded. The +control which the Church has assumed over the relations +of the sexes is one of the means by which it +retains its power, and is fraught with immense unhappiness +to the people. The separation of the sexes, +and the devout decency which refrains from openly +speaking or writing about sexual subjects, distort the +people’s ideas, inflame their imagination, and tempt +them into unhealthy vice. Nature is not sinful. It +is either the only divinity we have, or it is created by +the Almighty, and in this case it is holy. To yield +rationally to its dictates is therefore no sin. Books +should therefore be written to prove this point, and +at the same time accustom the people to look upon +nature and its laws without shame, without hypocrisy, +and without running the risk of being overpowered +by wild passions. In this way humanity may be +elevated, because it will be frank and natural, and +religion, which science has proved to be inimical to +humanity, will lose its influence.</p> + +<p>We are not saying that Zola’s ideas ran in this +groove, only that it is possible that they did. If they +did, he would have been utterly wrong; but he would +not have been the first nor the last man whose views +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span>have been influenced by his interests. No man who +knows both France and England better than Nordau +seems to do could for one moment doubt that +had Zola been born and educated in England, where +the surroundings are so vastly different to those of +France, he would have written books of quite a different +character, and probably free from obscenity. If +this be true, it constitutes another reason why the +surrounding circumstances of an author should be +considered before it is asserted that inborn degeneration +is alone responsible for the blemishes of his +work.</p> + +<p>Nordau himself points out that the fashion which +brought Zola to the front is on the decline, and that +his influence is on the wane. If so, it only proves +how limited the influence of such supposed degenerates +really is, and that—at least with regard to Zola—Nordau’s +book is out too late, and those who have +been deeply impressed by his “vigorous affirmations” +about the mental decay of the race need not despond.</p> + +<p>Over and over again civilization and society have +been threatened by new and apparently dangerous +tendencies, but they have generally culminated in +absurd exaggerations, and have thus lost their potency. +Who knows whether Zola, through the wisdom +that the years bring, will not change his opinions, +and with them his vein of writing? We feel morally +certain that he is now engaged on some novel entirely +free from those erotic allusions which Nordau says +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span>he cannot avoid—a book as pure as the first part of +<i>La Joie de Vivre</i>; and if he does, what will become +of Nordau’s imperious dogmas?</p> + +<p>Another of those features of Nordau’s work which +strongly impresses his readers is seriousness. He +speaks throughout in that grave and solemn tone—the +So-spake-the-Lord style—which never yet failed +to impress superficial readers. He is anxious to convey +the impression that if he has to say unpleasant +things it is because his teachings are momentous to +humanity, and not because he wishes to be sensational. +He condescends to speak about poetry, +drama, and music, but he plainly shows it to be his +opinion that all these are vanities, and hardly worthy +to occupy a great man’s thoughts. He aims at +crushing with his contempt both artists and poets, +the whole herd who have neglected science, and who +try to divert the attention of humanity from this all-important +subject. He would scare us with the threat +that, when science has elevated humanity for a little +longer, such frivolities as poetry, music, and dancing +will be relegated to the nursery. Grown-up men and +women, who now indulge in such pastimes, are made +to feel that they belong to degenerates, and that they +only prove their folly if they look upon themselves +with any self-respect. He endeavours to deprive love +between persons of the two sexes of its poetical +reality, and to wrap it in a gloomy scientific misconception +by regarding it as a feeling of comradeship +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span>grown out of habit, or as the same sexual instinct as +in animals. The pure and real love which permeates +life, which gives to man his manhood, and to woman +her true womanhood, which has created the home +and therefore the State—this love he denies, and +expects serious-minded readers to look upon the +world-phenomenon and the drama of humanity deprived +of their chief elements—light, heat, and +motion. He speaks of the tendency in men and +women to take their own life when its burdens out-balance +its pleasures as calmly as if suicide were the +usual exit from our earthly existence.</p> + +<p>Nordau thus obtains part of his success by the +same methods as those so freely adopted by the +gloomy, anathematising preachers—rapidly becoming +types of the past—who, by threats of the devil and +hell-fire, aim at compelling their hearers to turn their +attention from this world in order to brood exclusively +on dismal dogmas. He would fain banish +from our minds all that appeals to what is truest +within us—our imagination and our emotions,—as +the kill-joy fanatics in the pulpit have banished from +our villages the maypole, the dance on the green, and +the forfeit game.</p> + +<p>He is much mistaken if he believes that by such +means he can in our days produce a lasting impression +on the common-sense and intensely human +English mind. Here and there he may drive some +clouded soul into neo-Catholicism, and augment the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span>ranks of the Symbolists and the Decadents, but he +will only make the morbid more morbid, or morbid +in a different mood. The hard-working and enlightened +Englishman does not apply himself savagely +to his business for business’ sake. Nor does +he encourage scientific progress for the sake of +science.</p> + +<p>When he considers himself, and is considered by +others, an eminently practical man, it is because he +knows what he aims at, and uses, studies, and encourages +the most effective and promptest means to +attain his ends. But the secret and the essence of +this English practicality lies in the fact that his aims, +so clear and so precise, are determined by his imagination, +his emotions, and his instincts. Unlike the +German who despairs of realizing his ideal, the Englishman +has it in his imagination as clearly before +him as the architect has the plans, elevations, and +sections of the palace he is going to build. He does +not begin to build until he is convinced that every +detail is correct. Nothing discourages him more +than the spoiling and blurring of his ideals; he stops +his work, as does the builder when his drawings are +lost, or found impracticable.</p> + +<p>It is vain for Nordau to try to persuade the average +Englishman, be he educated or not, that the enjoyments +which enchant him in his youth shall not cast +their roseate hue over the rest of his days. Poetry, +music, the drama, are part and parcel of the pleasures +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span>the English people look forward to when business +has supplied them with the means of enjoying +them in the expensive form in which, with us, unfortunately, +they are alone obtainable in perfection.</p> + +<p>It is not only such enjoyments as educated people +of all ages appreciate which for an Englishman retain +a life-long charm. Even his boyish tastes give zest +to his life, so long as he retains his faculties. At ten +years of age he reads, raves, and dreams about horses +and dogs; at seventy he rides to hounds, and at a +still more advanced age he partakes in all the excitements +of the racecourse. As a boy he reads about +travels and adventures; at middle age, or even later, +we find him travelling all over the world in quest of +big and small game. Cricket, football, boating, and +athletics in general represent the life of English boys, +and far into old age they can seldom refrain from +glancing at the sporting columns of their paper, +which to a foreigner appear as interesting as the dullest +of dull market reports; while athletic sports are +witnessed by ever-growing crowds of people of all +ages, who watch the proceedings with a zest as +intense as that of the Spaniard watching a bullfight.</p> + +<p>And to people who thus enjoy their lives, Nordau +would say: “You are degenerates, because you enjoy +childish things. Put them behind you, and rise +to my level. Take a seat at the table of science, +where we will show you by dissection, and by vivisection, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[285]</span>the minutest details of the entrails of those +creatures which, in the fulness of their life, in the +beauty of their form, afford you a childish delight.”</p> + +<p>If such be the road to regeneration, only the weak-minded +among the English people will enter upon it. +Thousands might momentarily experience a depression—a +gloom similar to that produced by the fulminating +and damnation-dealing preacher one meets +with in country districts. The dismal appearance +of the orator, his description of hell, of an accursed +world, of the narrow way to salvation, as well as the +scared faces in the dark and dank little church, may +evoke a gruesome mood while the sermon lasts. But +on coming out into the summer air, into the midst of +the revivifying sunshine, of the rustling trees, radiant +flowers, singing birds, dancing butterflies, and softly +humming bees, the healthy-minded of the congregation +experience a sense of relief and joy; for the +uncharitable condemnation of the ascetic preacher +is powerfully contradicted by the direct and unmistakable +language in which nature appeals to man’s +emotions.</p> + +<p>The depressing effect of Nordau’s book is enhanced +by his ostentatious display of knowledge, and by the +absolute faith he himself has in it. He follows the +methods of wily political speakers. These have a +way of piling proofs upon proofs in order to demonstrate +the truth of such points as are almost self-evident; +and when they have thus established among +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[286]</span>their audience a confidence in their logic, they slur +over the weak points, take for granted that everything +is proved, and draw a plausible conclusion +devoid of any direct connection with the arguments. +A postmaster-general, for example, does not wish to +be bothered with the reduction of postage, and, in +order to resist such a proposal, he will deliver a +lengthy harangue to show that the work of the post-office +is useful to the public, that it cannot be well +administered without sufficient revenue, the necessity +of keeping a complete staff, the impossibility of reducing +wages and salaries, and many other points +which are perfectly clear without demonstration. He +will then suddenly conclude that the post-office works +at present with very small means, and that, if those +means are further reduced, disorganization and disorder +may ensue. To be able to draw this conclusion, +he has to take for granted that the reduced postage +would mean reduced income to the post-office, while +in reality it may mean the very contrary.</p> + +<p>In the same way Nordau gives us pages upon +pages in order to show us such facts as psychological +science has established, and then boldly elicits supposed +facts which science never has and may never +be able to prove. We have already given plenty of +instances of this, and they need not be referred to +again. His careful minuteness in psychological matters +often induces the unwary reader to accept his +unproved statements purporting to represent facts +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[287]</span>drawn from other branches of knowledge. Thus, for +example, he speaks of matters pertaining to sociology, +economy, administration, and politics, as if he were a +universally acknowledged authority on these subjects. +It will suffice, however, to read his plan for arresting +the spread of degeneration to understand at once on +what feeble foundations his apparent omniscience +rests. His idea of an ideal social order is an impossible +amalgamation of socialistic as well as communistic +fallacies. While he retains the absurd postulate +of the Socialists, that a perfect Government could be +established, distributing all the wealth of the nation +among individuals, he indulges heedlessly in the +communistic delusion that those who accumulate +under the present system would continue to accumulate +wealth at the same rate when the Government +confiscates all fortunes left by deceased individuals. +He does not see that people under such a system +would take very good care to dispose of their +property before they die, a course which even the +German police could not prevent.</p> + +<p>He does not insist on these errors, but they come +out distinctly as indispensable links in the association +of ideas, underlying his views regarding the +anti-semitist movement, the dangers of individual +liberty, the bestial propensities of the masses, and +the necessity of a Government composed of strong-minded +scientific men. It is only too easy to see +that in all his suggestions of working out the terrestrial +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[288]</span>paradise of humanity,—which one day, according +to him, will be the outcome of science,—he is +guided entirely by prejudice and feeling. In summing +up what he has said on this subject, his ideal +social order presents itself to our minds as unfree, +completely subjected but well-cared-for masses benevolently +governed by senates of strong-minded, scientifically +educated men—the Jews.</p> + +<p>The gloom and unrest called forth by Nordau’s +work in nervous minds no doubt gain in strength +from the apparently powerful personality behind it. +But it suffices, as we have shown, to divest this imposing +giant of his assumed power in order to escape +from his influence. Nordau, had he not done so +before, reveals himself unmistakably in the very last +sentence of his book as one largely beset by human +frailties when, in self-glorification, he quotes the +words of him whose work he so strenuously attempts +to undermine and oppose. In order to assure his +readers that his object, as a scientist, is to benefit +humanity, to lead it farther on the road on which +religion, so much contemned by him, has already +taken it some distance, he quotes Christ’s words: +“Think not that I have come to destroy the law or +the prophets; I have not come to destroy, but to +fulfil.”</p> + +<p>We here refrain from the temptation to write half +a dozen pages in order to show, in Nordau’s own +manner, how, by quoting from the Scriptures, by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[289]</span>appealing to faith and emotion, by comparing himself +to Christ, he is symbolic with Paul Verlaine, he is +mystical with the neo-Catholics, he is emotional with +Rossetti, he is an egomaniac with the Diabolists, and +a megalomaniac with Wagner. But we refrain, and +only say that he is human.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[290]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII +<br> +<i>REGENERATION</i></h2></div> + + +<p>If the manifold discussions which have raged +around the question of human progress have +failed to establish a consensus of opinion, it is +largely due to the absence of any exact definition +of the term progress. There can be no doubt +about our advance in science. The trite references +to the use we make of steam, of which the ancient +sages knew so little as to call it smoke, establishes +this beyond the possibility of denial. But, on the +other hand, our advance in literature and art has +been crab-like; for it has been accomplished with +our face turned towards antiquity. To set up +ideals out of the actualities of the past involves the +recognition that we, as a race, stand lower than +we have done before, or at least at one time we +have slided backwards and not yet retrieved the +lost ground.</p> + +<p>The progress of humanity, with all its deviations +and backslidings, may appear as one decided march +onwards, if we look upon our ideals, plucked from +the past, as so many pegs thrown out into the distant +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[291]</span>future demarcating the ground to be occupied by +the road of civilization. The Greeks showed us, as +in a flash, and within a limited space, ideals of poetry +and art, and since the time of the Renaissance we +have been striving to attain them. Christ has been +the moral ideal held up to us for well-nigh nineteen +hundred years; but this we are so far from having +realized, as to be filled with doubt whether, in our +awkward groping, with our faces turned towards +Calvary, we move in the right direction.</p> + +<p>There are many circumstances which render it difficult +to decide whether we have progressed or not. +How are we to determine which represents the greater +advance, the high degree of æsthetic civilization in +a small group of the human family, and all the rest +plunged in barbarian darkness; or a lower degree of +æsthetic civilization uniformly spread among all the +peoples of the world? We have, thus, to consider +not only the degrees of progress, but the nature—whether +æsthetic or moral—and its extension, before +we can decide whether we have progressed or not. +But this is not all. We must agree, or at least have +clearly determined in our minds, towards what goal +the progression is supposed to move. If it be to bring +the whole of humanity up to an ideal beauty, perfect +health, and a maximum of strength and agility, our +civilization in our present stage certainly tends in the +other direction. If, on the other hand, the goal be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[292]</span>the conquest of Nature’s forces, we are certainly +moving rapidly towards it.</p> + +<p>In face, then, of the complexity of the question, +whether humanity is progressing or not, the best +method of replying to it rationally is to take one +feature of human development only, but one in which +the others are included, or on which they depend. +To select for such a test-feature the psychological +conditions of civilized humanity, at a certain period +as manifested in literature and art, might at the first +glance appear as the most rational course, because +with strong and sound minds, with well-balanced +psychological faculties, a nation is most likely to +shape its destiny in such a fashion as to secure +excellency in all the domains of its existence.</p> + +<p>But there are strong objections to this method of +gauging human progress. The fashionable writers +and artists may not represent the mass of their contemporaries, +but may be the exponents of a temporary +mood in a small uninfluential clique. Features of +literature and art may, as we have already pointed +out, convey the impression of retrogression simply +because they reflect the unrest and confusion which +prevail in the majority of minds at periods when new +ideas and new views, healthy in themselves, trample +out the old ones. Art and literature do not always +reflect the ethics of a nation at a given period. The +nation may be intellectually strong and morally sound, +but political events, economic troubles, may momentarily +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[293]</span>goad it into abnormal moods and drive it, by +sheer necessity, into a course which, under normal +circumstances, it would shun. A despot with æsthetic +leanings, and his nobility, might be instrumental in +causing art and literature to blossom forth most +vigorously, while the people at large might be sunk +in the deepest depths of demoralization and misery +in order to furnish the means for the maintenance of +a brilliant court. History and actualities afford ample +confirmation of the fact that art and literature may +flourish while the people degenerate. When the +culture of Greece was at its zenith, a large proportion +of the people—the slaves—had fallen so low as actually +to afford object lessons to the young citizens, +in order to deter them from the horrors of vice and +degradation. During the Renaissance in Italy the +courts were corrupt, and the Church had sunk to its +deepest stage of demoralization. While the “Roi +Soleil” was developing literature and art in the +hothouse of his royal patronage, the immorality of +the nobles and the degradation of the people were +unprecedented.</p> + +<p>Nor are there wanting examples of how a nation +may be in a vigorous state of progression without +developing any remarkable features in art and literature. +Switzerland was for a long time the leading +nation in Europe in the matter of government, legislation, +administration, civic virtues, and education, but +has never distinguished itself æsthetically. During +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[294]</span>the period in which America was most progressive, +its people were too busy with practical affairs to give +much attention to the arts. If, therefore, we were to +judge the progress of a nation by its arts and literature, +we might feel disposed to conclude that these +two blossoms of civilization sprout forth in the same +ratio as the people degenerate. But this would be +absurd, for it would be to give the palm of civilization +to the Esquimaux, or to the pigmies in the dark +forests of Africa. The idea, therefore, of judging +whether a nation, or a race, is rising or degenerating +by the state of its arts, must be rejected as utterly +misleading.</p> + +<p>The political and social institutions of a nation are +surely the features that best lend themselves to the +test of the stage it has attained in progressive development, +or degeneration. If laws and institutions +are such as to give every inhabitant the best chances +of attaining to a high degree of civilization, of morality, +and of happiness, and such laws and institutions +emanate from the people themselves, and are not +imposed by another nation and not by the freak of a +despot, that nation is in a progressive state. It is +difficult to imagine a country with good laws and +good institutions without corresponding healthy conditions +in all the other features of its existence. +History offers no example of a community, or of a +people, that has given itself laws and institutions +equally beneficial to all the individuals, and yet exhibiting +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[295]</span>signs of decay in any domain of its culture. +It is true that in a free, healthy, progressive State, +especially a thoroughly democratic one, literature and +art may not attain that hectic florescence so often +co-existent with bad laws and bad institutions. But +it has never been found that art and literature in +such healthy nations are in a degenerating state.</p> + +<p>It is true that different minds hold different opinions +as to the attributes of good laws and institutions. A +man who believes that human beings are essentially +wicked and brutal would call a government good only +when it possessed power enough to keep the people +in subjection; while he who has discovered that the +good qualities in human beings spring from a natural +instinct, and the bad ones from unfavourable conditions +and corrupt surroundings, would only call +that form of government good which afforded to +each individual the greatest possible liberty consistent +with the same degree of liberty in others. But there +can be no hesitation as to what constitutes good +government and good institutions, if we appeal to +the only authority capable of judging with full knowledge +of the case, namely, the individuals themselves.</p> + +<p>We often meet with people who look with distrust +upon institutions and systems of government based +on liberty, but this does not affect our assertion that +the great mass of individuals would personally, and +for themselves, claim as much liberty as they could +obtain. Those who advocate authoritative administration +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[296]</span>and the subjection of the people to a class, or +an elected body, behold in such constitutions the +means not of reducing their own liberty, but of extending +it beyond legitimate boundaries, and at the +expense of the liberty of others.</p> + +<p>It is hardly possible to imagine a nation that has +given itself, and is living under, a system of personal +liberty, and is at the same time degenerate. A +degenerate man fears liberty, he prefers to lean on +others; he feels not ashamed to live on charity, and +would abuse his liberty in order to satisfy his base +instincts. A sound-minded and morally healthy man +needs no compulsion to respect the right and liberties +of others. He trusts and respects others, because +he trusts and respects himself. He would assist no +man in his attempts and intrigues to injure others. +He would, therefore, uphold his own, as well as the +liberty of others.</p> + +<p>Such bad results as Nordau fears from institutions +based on liberty can only arise out of oppression. +We have shown how the anti-semitic movement, +which he erroneously regards as an outcome of too +much liberty, is the result of oppression exercised by +the Jewish capitalists and employers in virtue of bad +legislation, and no one will deny that the anarchistic +tendencies spring from the same cause. From these +reasons we may fairly conclude that, if we wish to +form an opinion of the intellectual soundness and +moral strength of a nation, we cannot do better than +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[297]</span>examine to what an extent it has attained to good +institutions based on personal liberty.</p> + +<p>If civilized mankind is actually degenerating, we +must find a tendency among the people in the +countries under examination to give themselves, or +to accept under compulsion, laws and institutions +which rob them of their personal liberty.</p> + +<p>In gauging the present epoch by this standard, +we might first be inclined to side with Nordau. +Those great nations which may fairly be looked +upon as the leaders of civilization present spectacles +of political corruption and retrogression, which +might well suggest the idea that, instead of developing +into a race intellectually and morally strong +enough to live free, they show a marked willingness +to place themselves under control of some kind—to +abandon their divine attributes and to assume +those of domesticated animals. But a correct opinion +about so important a question cannot be formed +on a superficial glance. In no branch of knowledge +are appearances so deceptive as in sociology. +Apparently the same effects are often produced by +two opposite causes, and under slightly different +circumstances the same cause may produce two +opposite effects. Thus, a man may vote for a +measure because he is corrupt and selfish, and with +the object of benefiting himself at the expense of +his fellow-men; while another man may vote for +the same measure because he does not happen to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[298]</span>be in possession of certain special knowledge which +would enable him to understand the nugatory character +of his action.</p> + +<p>There are nations in Europe at this moment +presenting such a mass of anomalies as to render +it extremely difficult to decide whether they are +bent on improving their laws and institutions, or +on making them worse. Much, for example, that +has happened in Germany has been pronounced as +a decided forward movement. The German army +has displayed physical and mental qualities which +bear witness to healthy development rather than +degeneration. The unification of the German States +into one Empire had for some time before the last +war been the goal towards which the nation aspired. +When it was reached, patriotic Germans expected +it to be made the starting-point of a new departure +for further progress. But the very accomplishment +of national unification involved features which clearly +pointed to retrogression. The mediæval principle +of conquest was revised. The future peace and +good-will among the nations was destroyed by the +annexation of the two provinces conquered from +France. Standing armies for Germany became more +than ever necessary, and the nation was called upon +to make enormous sacrifices in order to ward off +the consequences of retrogression in foreign politics. +The heaviest burdens were laid upon the working +class, and their struggle for existence became desperate. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[299]</span>They have shown many signs of discontent, +and these have led to the consolidation of repressive +measures. Thus Germany now presents the +spectacle of a curious amalgam of mediæval and +modern features.</p> + +<p>At the head of this great empire we find a young +Emperor who, though not a despot in the widest +sense of the word, possesses, as an indispensable +feature of the system, sufficient power to plunge +not only the whole of Germany, but all Europe, +into unspeakable misery. The individuals of the +nation sink into insignificance before him. They +plainly feel that their destiny is in his hands as +much as that of their ancestors was in the hands +of their mediæval emperors. And yet the people +are highly civilized, well educated, and show, in +their different walks of life, intelligence, strength +of character, moral worth.</p> + +<p>Here, then, is a people which, judged collectively +by our standard, would stand at a low point of +development, because their laws and institutions +are not based on personal liberty. If we consider +the direction in which they are moving, the verdict +becomes as unfavourable. The country is torn by +two divergent tendencies, neither of them aiming +onwards. The one represented by the Emperor, +the official bodies, the plutocrats, and men who +think as Nordau, who wish to keep a keener watch +on the destitute classes; the other represented by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[300]</span>the Socialists, who clamour for the destruction of +the present system, not for the purpose of securing +personal liberty, but of wresting what little is +left of it from the people, and of establishing complete +State tyranny.</p> + +<p>If the standard we are applying be trustworthy, +neither of the two currents of development noticeable +in Germany run in the direction of a high +degree of civilization. At the present moment it +seems difficult to discover whence, within Germany, +could come the impulse for such general mental and +moral progress as would be manifested by good and +free institutions. If the present conditions could prevail +indefinitely, and gradually improve so as to safeguard, +or at least not impede, the development of +the individuals, Germany might look forward to the +future with equanimity.</p> + +<p>But, unfortunately, actualities in that country confirm +only too well the trustworthiness of our standard. +The result of the present system cannot fail to exercise +degenerating effects on the people, but whether +these effects will influence the present generation +only, or by heredity be perpetuated in the nervous +systems and the brains of the race, is a question for +psychologists to settle. The stupendous standing +army, the heavy taxation, and a host of bad laws +have undermined, and are still undermining, the +welfare of the people. The immediate results are, +among the working classes: extreme penury, hopeless +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[301]</span>lives, low morals, intense hatred of the wealthy +class, a growing sympathy with the destructive programme +of the advanced Anarchists, decay of religious +belief without any growth of the religion of humanity +of science. Among the commercial class, the results +are: intense competition, small profits, nervous application +to business, a thirst for gold and recklessness +with regard to the means of satisfying it. Among +the bureaucratic classes the dread of reduced and +retarded advancement has caused discipline and absolute +submission to take the place of religion and +philosophy. The landed aristocracy, seeing their +incomes threatened by the deplorable state of agriculture, +plot and plan how to recoup themselves at +the expense of the people, and have even shown an +inclination to resist the Emperor himself when their +interests require it. This state of affairs is more +than sufficient to account for such signs of degeneration +as Nordau has noticed in his own country. +What wonder that artists and writers, menaced by +misery and actuated by the general thirst for gold, +should consult their market rather than their inspiration, +and that they should copy successful authors +and artists in France and elsewhere, rather than +take the trouble and the risk to do original work. +A comparison between German literature of to-day +and that of decaying Rome could not fail to impart +important lessons.</p> + +<p>Everything in Germany points to a coming catastrophe. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[302]</span>Even if we consider only one of the directions +from which the first alarm may come—that is, +the Finance Department—it seems impossible that +the system can last much longer. The heavy taxation +unfortunately undermines its own basis, namely, +the ability of the people to pay, and the much-strained +credit of the State is likely to collapse at +the very moment it will be most needed. It is, +therefore, not premature to consider what will happen +in that country at about the end of this century, +when the financial resources, the patience of the +people, and the confidence of the army may be +exhausted.</p> + +<p>Two alternatives are possible. The crisis which +seems bound to come may be a violent one, arising +from below; or it may be a peaceful one, taking its +origin from above. In the one case, there will be a +momentary social chaos; for all the military and +bureaucratic institutions, all systems, theories, prejudices, +will be cast into the furnace. At what time +and under what conditions Germany will emerge +from the crisis will depend on the number, and the +strength of mind, of those Germans who understand +that good institutions based on liberty are the cardinal +attributes of a sound-minded and morally +strong nation.</p> + +<p>The other case—the crisis coming from above—does +not seem possible just now, because the Emperor +himself would have to take the initiative. It +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[303]</span>is not likely that he would give up his power, his +military tastes and pastimes, in order to render Germany +a free and happy nation, living in peace with +other free nations. For a sovereign to conceive +such an idea would be almost supernatural, and to +carry it out successfully would require the highest +degree of human intelligence, because it could not +be done except in harmony and in co-operation with +the other European States.</p> + +<p>From whatever direction the crisis comes, there is +much in the Germans to warrant a final successful +issue. We cannot believe, with Nordau, that such +signs as we see of degeneration spring from moral +and intellectual weakness. In the external circumstances, +we find sufficient cause for far more demoralization +than actually exists; and the Germans, +taken as individuals, show themselves to possess +plenty of those mental and moral qualities which are +the only possible foundations of a healthy State. +They bear witness to the fact that, despite unfavourable +outward circumstances, the race is not +decaying; and that the present corruption and demoralization +may be decay only of one stage of +human development, from which in obedience to +some strong impulse a new regenerating era may +arise.</p> + +<p>In order to elucidate the apparent state of degeneration +which characterises civilization at the close +of this most remarkable century, as well as its causes, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[304]</span>we have instanced Germany—the country where +Nordau has studied and written, and where he seems +to have received his most vivid impressions. The +circumstances and tendencies of other countries, especially +in those governed more or less on despotic +principles, are akin to those in Germany. Everywhere +increasing penury, discontent among the destitute +classes, a rapidly growing power among the +plutocrats, national indebtedness, financial corruption, +the decay of all religious belief, and general +demoralization. But the similarity does not end here. +In every country there are numbers of people striving +and hoping to bring about a better state of +things, even at the cost and sacrifice of some of the +leading features of our civilization. There is a mass +of evidence, including those peculiar features of modern +society on which Nordau has dwelt so largely, +showing that a deep unrest has taken hold of humanity. +The feeling is not only that we are in a wrong +position, but that we are moving in a wrong direction. +The general fear is not that degeneration has +set in, but that, moving on the road that we do, we +cannot escape it.</p> + +<p>The most striking characteristic of our time is that +in no nation do we find, on either side of the Atlantic, +any distinct indication of the road which can lead us +past the Slough of Despond. The moral state of the +civilized world is like a nation preparing for revolt +against a tyrant: gloomy, discontented, and excited +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[305]</span>men are encouraging one another with secret signs +and passwords, mustering and drilling in secret places, +to be ready for action, but without any trustworthy +leaders, without any plans for the future, without +even any tactics for the first struggle. In some +countries the cry is for leaders; but the old faith +that the situations will bring out the men seems to +have been utterly falsified: for everywhere mediocrity, +prejudice, and corruption hold the helm. The cry +in England and other countries is not for leaders, but +for more light. We want a higher philosophy, nobler +arts, a loftier literature, sounder principles of legislation, +a purer religion.</p> + +<p>No nation holds a higher responsibility than the +English. Its vast possessions all over the globe, +its financial and commercial supremacy, its ethical +influence over all the English-speaking countries, +mark it out as the standard-bearer of civilization. +Nothing great can happen among us without re-echoing +in the remotest corners of the earth, and +any step onward taken by us will send a thrill +throughout humanity. Degenerate Englishmen may +still wish to meekly follow other nations, but our mission +is to be the practical, energetic, daring pioneers +heading the march of progress. By using its great +power and influence, the British nation can render +invaluable service to humanity in the present crisis. +On England must therefore rest our hopes for the +practical solution of the grave questions on which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[306]</span>progress and retrogression depend. From England +alone can proceed that electrifying impulse of which +the bewildered nations stand in need, that they +may marshal the forces and focus the goal of progress.</p> + +<p>In our political circles, in the ranks of literature, +and throughout all the strata of society there are +already unmistakable signs that the period of +scepticism, selfishness, and rant will end with the +century; that scientific superstition and sickly Collectivist +chimeras are doomed; and that the nation +is sternly entering upon the mission of leading +humanity towards good laws and institutions based +on liberty, and thus inaugurating a universal movement +which by its glorious results shall demonstrate +that the alarming symptoms of degeneration, revealed +by the psychologists, are the first symptoms of +regeneration.</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="chapter"><p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[Index:<br>307-11]</span></p> + + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX">INDEX.</h2></div> + + +<ul class="index"> +<li class="ifrst">About’s (Edmond), <i>La Question Romaine</i>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Anarchism, rapid spread of, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> causes of, <a href="#Page_195">195-7</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Andersen, Hans, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Andersen’s <i>Ugly Duckling</i>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Angelo, Michael, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Anstey, F., <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Anti-semitism in Germany and elsewhere, <a href="#Page_185">185</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Armies, English, French, and German, no degeneracy is proved by recent events, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Art, <a href="#Page_56">56</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> does not necessarily reflect the ethics of a nation, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Artists and symbolism, <a href="#Page_73">73</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Arts, the, and science, future harmony of, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Association of Men for the Suppression of Immorality, <a href="#Page_246">246</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Atheism, effect of, upon morals, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> upon religion, <a href="#Page_86">86</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Auricular confession, <a href="#Page_162">162-4</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Austria, causes of anti-semitism in, <a href="#Page_187">187</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Avinain, French assassin, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Baudelaire, Charles, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Beethoven, Ludwig, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bismarck, Prince, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Björnsen, Björnstjerne, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Borgia, Pope (Alexander VI), <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bornmüller, Franz, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> his estimate of Tolstoi, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Brahe, Tycho, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bremer, Frederika, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bronté’s <i>Jane Eyre</i>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Cavour, di, Count Camillo Benso, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cervantes, Miguel, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Chitral, British expedition to, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Church and religion, the, distinction between, <a href="#Page_77">77</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Columbus, Christopher, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Communism, absurdity and impracticability of, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Confession of wrong-doing, the yearning for, <a href="#Page_162">162-5</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Consciousness of man, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Correggio, Allegri, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cotta, Johann Friedrich, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Dante’s <i>Divina Commedia</i>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Darwinian theory of evolution, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Degeneration, the causes of, <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Dishonesty as a means of acquiring wealth, <a href="#Page_267">267-9</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Drummond, Henry, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Drunkenness in England, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Egoism, <a href="#Page_260">260</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Egomania, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li> + +<li class="indx">England, degeneracy in, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> estimation of women in, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217-9</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> æsthetic revolt in, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> high moral responsibility of, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li> + +<li class="indx">English army, no degeneracy in, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ethical Culture, Berlin Society for, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Eroticism, <a href="#Page_205">205</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Faraday, Michael, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> + +<li class="indx">France, marriage in, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> æsthetic revolt in, <a href="#Page_234">234</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Free Labour Association, the, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> + +<li class="indx">French army, no degeneracy in, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> + +<li class="indx">French hatred of Germany, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="indx">French symbolists, the, <a href="#Page_76">76</a> <i>ff.</i>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Galileo, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gautier, Théophile, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Germans, submission of, to discipline, <a href="#Page_15">15</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> their treatment of women, <a href="#Page_18">18-19</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> ideas concerning marriage, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> hatred of France, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Germany, marriage in, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> army system in, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> position of women in, <a href="#Page_142">142</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> influence of, upon Norway, <a href="#Page_173">173</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> causes of anti-semitism in, <a href="#Page_187">187</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> the development of the empire, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> burdens upon the working people in, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> despotic rule of the Emperor, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> bad effect of present system of government, <a href="#Page_300">300-2</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> the coming catastrophe, <a href="#Page_301">301-3</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gladstone, William Ewart, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Goethe’s <i>Werther’s Leiden</i>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> <i>Faust</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gounod, Charles François, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Hanseatic League, the, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Heller, Ferdinand, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Heredity, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hugo’s <i>Notre Dame de Paris</i>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Human instincts, <a href="#Page_270">270-2</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Humanity, the religion of, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hunt, Holman, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Huxley, Professor Thomas Henry, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Huysman, Joris Karl, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Huysman’s <i>A Rebours</i>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Ibsen, Henrik, <a href="#Page_132">132</a> <i>ff.</i>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a> <i>ff.</i>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> influence of, upon women, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ibsen’s <i>Ghosts</i>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> <i>Pillars of Society</i>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> <i>The Lady from the Sea</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> <i>The Doll’s House</i>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179-81</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Immorality, Association of Men for the Suppression of, <a href="#Page_146">146</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Immoral literature, impossibility of prohibiting the circulation of, <a href="#Page_249">249-51</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Instinct in human beings, <a href="#Page_270">270-2</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Italian army, no degeneracy in, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Jew, the free-thinking, characteristics of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jews, the, Wagner’s dislike of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> hatred of, in Russia, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> in Germany and Austria, <a href="#Page_187">187</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> inherent good qualities of, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jones, Burne, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Kant, Immanuel, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Kidd, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Kock, de, Charles Paul, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Legrain, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lemerre, Alphonse, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lessing’s <i>Amelia Galotti</i>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i>Liberty</i> (periodical), <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Liebknecht, Herr, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lie, Jonas, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Literature does not necessarily reflect the ethics of a nation, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lombroso, Dr. Cesare, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> Nordau’s dedication to, in <i>Degeneration</i>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Love, the purity of, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Loyola, Ignatius, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lutheran Church and confession, the, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Marriage laws, how inaugurated, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Marriage relations in Germany, <a href="#Page_18">18-19</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> in France, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mallarmé, Stephane, <a href="#Page_104">104</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Martineau, Dr. James, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Maudsley, Dr. Henry, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Millais, John E., <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Molière’s <i>Malade Imaginaire</i>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Moltke, Count Helmuth Karl Bernard, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Morel, Dr. B. A., <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Morice, Charles, author of <i>La Littérature de tout à l’heure</i>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Music, the influence of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Mysticism, <a href="#Page_44">44</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> definition of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Napoleon III, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Neo-Catholicism and the Church of Rome, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nietzsche, Friedrich, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nietzsche’s <i>Der Fall Wagner</i>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nihilists, Russian, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nordau, Max, influence of his book <i>Degeneration</i>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> importance of closely investigating his theories before accepting them, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> intemperance of his methods, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> a typical German, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> his German bias, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> an enemy to France, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> his attitude toward art, <a href="#Page_56">56</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> his animosity against the symbolists, <a href="#Page_77">77</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> views upon the poetry of Paul Verlaine, <a href="#Page_99">99</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> denunciation of Tolstoi, <a href="#Page_108">108</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> estimate of Ibsen, <a href="#Page_132">132-82</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> attack upon Wagner, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> judgment of Zola, <a href="#Page_274">274</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Norway, position of women in, <a href="#Page_145">145</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Norwegians, national characteristics of, <a href="#Page_171">171</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Ohnet’s (George) novels, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Poets and symbolism, <a href="#Page_73">73</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Pre-Raphaelitism, <a href="#Page_55">55</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Raphael, Sanzio, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Religion, influence of, upon civilization and progress, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> and the Church, distinction between, <a href="#Page_77">77</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> relation of, to science, <a href="#Page_232">232</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Rollinat, Maurice, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Roman Church and neo-Catholicism, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rossetti’s masterpiece, “Dante’s Dream,” <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rubinstein, Anton, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ruskin, John, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Russia, causes of anti-semitism in, <a href="#Page_185">185-7</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Russian, characteristics, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> government, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> serfs, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> nihilists, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Scandinavia, position of women in, <a href="#Page_145">145</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Science, the unsolved problems of, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> the bankruptcy of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> and the arts, future harmony of, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a> [sic];</li> +<li class="isub1"> relation of, to religion, <a href="#Page_232">232</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Scientific atheism, <a href="#Page_90">90</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Scientists, dogmatic attitude of, <a href="#Page_65">65</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> influence of, upon religion, <a href="#Page_86">86</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Schopenhauer, Arthur, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Schumann, Robert, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Self, the religion of, <a href="#Page_230">230-40</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Serfs, emancipation of, in Russia, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Shakespeare, William, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Society for Ethical Culture (Berlin), <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sound mind, the test of, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Stage, the, purity of, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Stöcker, Dr., anti-semitic agitator, reception of, in London, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Swinburne, Algernon C., <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Symbolists, the French, <a href="#Page_76">76</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Tintoretto, Giacomo, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tjerulf, Norwegian composer, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tolstoi, Count Leo, <a href="#Page_108">108</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Tolstoi’s <i>Kreutzer Sonata</i>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> <i>My Confession</i>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> <i>My Faith</i>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> <i>A Short Exposition of the Gospel</i>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> <i>About my Life</i>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> <i>From the Diary of Nechljudow</i>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Trades unions, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">United States, the, treatment of women in, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Verlaine, Paul, <a href="#Page_97">97</a> <i>ff.</i>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> his poem addressed to Louis II of Bavaria, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"> his “Chevaux du Bois” and “Chanson d’Automne,” <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Victoria, Dowager Empress of Germany, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Voltaire, Arouet, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Wagner, Richard, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a> <i>ff.</i>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, + <a href="#Page_198">198</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Wagner’s <i>Art Work of the Future</i>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wealth, dishonesty in the acquisition of, <a href="#Page_267">267-9</a></li> + +<li class="indx">William II, Emperor of Germany, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wolseley, Lord, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Women, position of, in the United States, England, and other countries contrasted, <a href="#Page_142">142</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Zola, Émile, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a> <i>ff.</i></li> + +<li class="indx">Zola’s <i>La Joie de Vivre</i>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li> +</ul> + +<div class="tn"> +<p>Transcriber's notes:</p> +<ul> +<li>This book was published anonymously and is now attributed to Alfred Egmont Hake.</li> +<li>One "[sic]" has been placed in the index, and a presumed missing comma in the original is indicated with "[,]".</li> +<li>The book contains a single footnote, which is placed below the relevant paragraph.</li> +</ul> +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76803 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git 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