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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7952-8.txt b/7952-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f2d11d --- /dev/null +++ b/7952-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8661 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pleasures of Life, by Sir John Lubbock + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Pleasures of Life + +Author: Sir John Lubbock + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7952] +[This file was first posted on June 4, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE PLEASURES OF LIFE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Robert Connal, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE PLEASURES OF LIFE + +SIR JOHN LUBBOCK + + + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +PART I + + +CHAPTER I +THE DUTY OF HAPPINESS + +CHAPTER II +THE HAPPINESS OF DUTY + +CHAPTER III +A SONG OF BOOKS + +CHAPTER IV +THE CHOICE OF BOOKS + +CHAPTER V +THE BLESSING OF FRIENDS + +CHAPTER VI +THE VALUE OF TIME + +CHAPTER VII +THE PLEASURES OF TRAVEL + +CHAPTER VIII +THE PLEASURES OF HOME + +CHAPTER IX +SCIENCE + +CHAPTER X +EDUCATION + + +PART II + + +CHAPTER I +AMBITION + +CHAPTER II +WEALTH + +CHAPTER III +HEALTH + +CHAPTER IV +LOVE + +CHAPTER V +ART + +CHAPTER VI +POETRY + +CHAPTER VII +MUSIC + +CHAPTER VIII +THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE + +CHAPTER IX +THE TROUBLES OF LIFE + +CHAPTER X +LABOR AND REST + +CHAPTER XI +RELIGION + +CHAPTER XII +THE HOPE OF PROGRESS + +CHAPTER XIII +THE DESTINY OF MAN + + + + + + +PREFACE + + +Those who have the pleasure of attending the opening meetings of schools +and colleges, and of giving away prizes and certificates, are generally +expected at the same time to offer such words of counsel and encouragement +as the experience of the world might enable them to give to those who are +entering life. + +Having been myself when young rather prone to suffer from low spirits, I +have at several of these gatherings taken the opportunity of dwelling on +the privileges and blessings we enjoy, and I reprint here the substance of +some of these addresses (omitting what was special to the circumstances of +each case, and freely making any alterations and additions which have +since occurred to me), hoping that the thoughts and quotations in which I +have myself found most comfort may perhaps be of use to others also. + +It is hardly necessary to say that I have not by any means referred to all +the sources of happiness open to us, some indeed of the greatest pleasures +and blessings being altogether omitted. + +In reading over the proofs I feel that some sentences may appear too +dogmatic, but I hope that allowance will be made for the circumstances +under which they were delivered. + +HIGH ELMS, + +DOWN, KENT, _January 1887_. + + + + + + +PREFACE + +TO THE TWENTIETH EDITION. + + +A lecture which I delivered three years ago at the Working Men's College, +and which forms the fourth chapter of this book, has given rise to a good +deal of discussion. The _Pall Mall Gazette_ took up the subject and issued +a circular to many of those best qualified to express an opinion. This +elicited many interesting replies, and some other lists of books were +drawn up. When my book was translated, a similar discussion took place in +Germany. The result has been very gratifying, and after carefully +considering the suggestions which have been made, I see no reason for any +material change in the first list. I had not presumed to form a list of my +own, nor did I profess to give my own favorites. My attempt was to give +those most generally recommended by previous writers on the subject. In +the various criticisms on my list, while large additions, amounting to +several hundred works in all, have been proposed, very few omissions have +been suggested. As regards those works with reference to which some doubts +have been expressed--namely, the few Oriental books, Wake's Apostolic +Fathers etc.--I may observe that I drew up the list, not as that of the +hundred best books, but, which is very different, of those which have been +most frequently recommended as best worth reading. + +For instance as regards the _Sheking_ and the _Analects_ of Confucius, I +must humbly confess that I do not greatly admire either; but I recommended +them because they are held in the most profound veneration by the Chinese +race, containing 400,000,000 of our fellow-men. I may add that both works +are quite short. + +The _Ramayana_ and _Maha Bharata_ (as epitomized by Wheeler) and St. +Hilaire's _Bouddha_ are not only very interesting in themselves, but very +important in reference to our great oriental Empire. + +The authentic writings of the Apostolic Fathers are very short, being +indeed comprised in one small volume, and as the only works (which have +come down to us) of those who lived with and knew the Apostles, they are +certainly well worth reading. + +I have been surprised at the great divergence of opinion which has been +expressed. Nine lists of some length have been published. These lists +contain some three hundred works not mentioned by me (without, however, +any corresponding omissions), and yet there is not one single book which +occurs in every list, or even in half of them, and only about half a dozen +which appear in more than one of the nine. + +If these authorities, or even a majority of them, had concurred in their +recommendations, I would have availed myself of them; but as they differ +so greatly I will allow my list to remain almost as I first proposed it. I +have, however, added Kalidasa's _Sakuntala_ or _The Lost Ring_, and +Schiller's _William Tell_, omitting, in consequence, Lucretius and Miss +Austen: Lucretius because though his work is most remarkable, it is +perhaps less generally suitable than most of the others in the list; and +Miss Austen because English novelists were somewhat over-represented. + +HIGH ELMS, + +DOWN, KENT, _August 1890_. + + + + + + +THE PLEASURES OF LIFE + +PART I + + + "All places that the eye of Heaven visits + Are to the wise man ports and happy havens." + + SHAKESPEARE. + + + "Some murmur, when their sky is clear + And wholly bright to view, + If one small speck of dark appear + In their great heaven of blue. + And some with thankful love are fill'd + If but one streak of light, + One ray of God's good mercy gild + The darkness of their night. + + "In palaces are hearts that ask, + In discontent and pride, + Why life is such a dreary task, + And all good things denied. + And hearts in poorest huts admire + How love has in their aid + (Love that not ever seems to tire) + Such rich provision made." + + TRENCH. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE DUTY OF HAPPINESS. + + + "If a man is unhappy, this must be his own fault; for + God made all men to be happy."--EPICTETUS. + + +Life is a great gift, and as we reach years of discretion, we most of us +naturally ask ourselves what should be the main object of our existence. +Even those who do not accept "the greatest good of the greatest number" as +an absolute rule, will yet admit that we should all endeavor to contribute +as far as we may to the happiness of our fellow-creatures. There are many, +however, who seem to doubt whether it is right that we should try to be +happy ourselves. Our own happiness ought not, of course, to be our main +object, nor indeed will it ever be secured if selfishly sought. We may +have many pleasures in life, but must not let them have rule over us, or +they will soon hand us over to sorrow; and "into what dangerous and +miserable servitude doth he fall who suffereth pleasures and sorrows (two +unfaithful and cruel commanders) to possess him successively?" [1] + +I cannot, however, but think that the world would be better and brighter +if our teachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as on the +Happiness of Duty, for we ought to be as cheerful as we can, if only +because to be happy ourselves, is a most effectual contribution to the +happiness of others. + +Every one must have felt that a cheerful friend is like a sunny day, which +sheds its brightness on all around; and most of us can, as we choose, make +of this world either a palace or a prison. + +There is no doubt some selfish satisfaction in yielding to melancholy, and +fancying that we are victims of fate; in brooding over grievances, +especially if more or less imaginary. To be bright and cheerful often +requires an effort; there is a certain art in keeping ourselves happy; and +in this respect, as in others, we require to watch over and manage +ourselves, almost as if we were somebody else. + +Sorrow and joy, indeed, are strangely interwoven. Too often + + "We look before and after, + And pine for what is not: + Our sincerest laughter + With some pain is fraught; + Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought." [2] + +As a nation we are prone to melancholy. It has been said of our countrymen +that they take even their pleasures sadly. But this, if it be true at all, +will, I hope, prove a transitory characteristic. "Merry England" was the +old saying, let us hope it may become true again. We must look to the East +for real melancholy. What can be sadder than the lines with which Omar +Khayyam opens his quatrains: [3] + + "We sojourn here for one short day or two, + And all the gain we get is grief and woe; + And then, leaving life's problems all unsolved + And harassed by regrets, we have to go;" + +or the Devas' song to Prince Siddârtha, in Edwin Arnold's beautiful +version: + + "We are the voices of the wandering wind, + Which moan for rest, and rest can never find. + Lo! as the wind is, so is mortal life-- + A moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife." + +If indeed this be true, if mortal life be so sad and full of suffering, no +wonder that Nirvâna--the cessation of sorrow--should be welcomed even at +the sacrifice of consciousness. + +But ought we not to place before ourselves a very different ideal--a +healthier, manlier, and nobler hope? + +Life is not to live merely, but to live well. There are some "who live +without any design at all, and only pass in the world like straws on a +river: they do not go; they are carried," [4]--but as Homer makes Ulysses +say, "How dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rest unburnished; not to +shine in use--as though to breathe were life!" + +Goethe tells us that at thirty he resolved "to work out life no longer by +halves, but in all its beauty and totality." + + "Im Ganzen, Guten, Schönen + Resolut zu leben." + +Life indeed must be measured by thought and action, not by time. It +certainly may be, and ought to be, bright, interesting, and happy; and, +according to the Italian proverb, "if all cannot live on the Piazza, every +one may feel the sun." + +If we do our best; if we do not magnify trifling troubles; if we look +resolutely, I do not say at the bright side of things, but at things as +they really are; if we avail ourselves of the manifold blessings which +surround us; we cannot but feel that life is indeed a glorious +inheritance. + + "More servants wait on man + Than he'll take notice of. In every path + He treads down that which doth befriend him + When sickness makes him pale and wan + Oh mighty Love! Man is one world, and hath + Another to attend him." [5] + +Few of us, however, realize the wonderful privilege of living, or the +blessings we inherit; the glories and beauties of the Universe, which is +our own if we choose to have it so; the extent to which we can make +ourselves what we wish to be; or the power we possess of securing peace, +of triumphing over pain and sorrow. + +Dante pointed to the neglect of opportunities as a serious fault: + + "Man can do violence + To himself and his own blessings, and for this + He, in the second round, must aye deplore, + With unavailing penitence, his crime. + Whoe'er deprives himself of life and light + In reckless lavishment his talent wastes, + And sorrows then when he should dwell in joy." + +Ruskin has expressed this with special allusion to the marvellous beauty +of this glorious world, too often taken as a matter of course, and +remembered, if at all, almost without gratitude. "Holy men," he complains, +"in the recommending of the love of God to us, refer but seldom to those +things in which it is most abundantly and immediately shown; though they +insist much on His giving of bread, and raiment, and health (which He +gives to all inferior creatures): they require us not to thank Him for +that glory of His works which He has permitted us alone to perceive: they +tell us often to meditate in the closet, but they send us not, like Isaac, +into the fields at even: they dwell on the duty of self denial, but they +exhibit not the duty of delight:" and yet, as he justly says elsewhere, +"each of us, as we travel the way of life, has the choice, according to +our working, of turning all the voices of Nature into one song of +rejoicing; or of withering and quenching her sympathy into a fearful +withdrawn silence of condemnation,--into a crying out of her stones and a +shaking of her dust against us." + +Must we not all admit, with Sir Henry Taylor, that "the retrospect of life +swarms with lost opportunities"? "Whoever enjoys not life," says Sir T. +Browne, "I count him but an apparition, though he wears about him the +visible affections of flesh." + +St. Bernard, indeed, goes so far as to maintain that "nothing can work me +damage except myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me, and +never am a real sufferer but by my own fault." + +Some Heathen moralists also have taught very much the same lesson. "The +gods," says Marcus Aurelius, "have put all the means in man's power to +enable him not to fall into real evils. Now that which does not make a man +worse, how can it make his life worse?" + +Epictetus takes the same line: "If a man is unhappy, remember that his +unhappiness is his own fault; for God has made all men to be happy." "I +am," he elsewhere says, "always content with that which happens; for I +think that what God chooses is better than what I choose." And again: +"Seek not that things should happen as you wish; but wish the things which +happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.... If +you wish for anything which belongs to another, you lose that which is +your own." + +Few, however, if any, can I think go as far as St. Bernard. We cannot but +suffer from pain, sickness, and anxiety; from the loss, the unkindness, +the faults, even the coldness of those we love. How many a day has been +damped and darkened by an angry word! + +Hegel is said to have calmly finished his _Phaenomenologie des Geistes_ at +Jena, on the 14th October 1806, not knowing anything whatever of the +battle that was raging round him. + +Matthew Arnold has suggested that we might take a lesson from the heavenly +bodies. + + "Unaffrighted by the silence round them, + Undistracted by the sights they see, + These demand not the things without them + Yield them love, amusement, sympathy. + + "Bounded by themselves, and unobservant + In what state God's other works may be, + In their own tasks all their powers pouring, + These attain the mighty life you see." + +It is true that + + "A man is his own star; + Our acts our angels are + For good or ill," + +and that "rather than follow a multitude to do evil," one should "stand +like Pompey's pillar, conspicuous by oneself, and single in +integrity." [6] But to many this isolation would be itself most painful, +for the heart is "no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that +joins to them." [7] + +If we separate ourselves so much from the interests of those around us +that we do not sympathize with them in their sufferings, we shut ourselves +out from sharing their happiness, and lose far more than we gain. If we +avoid sympathy and wrap ourselves round in a cold chain armor of +selfishness, we exclude ourselves from many of the greatest and purest +joys of life. To render ourselves insensible to pain we must forfeit also +the possibility of happiness. + +Moreover, much of what we call evil is really good in disguise, and we +should not "quarrel rashly with adversities not yet understood, nor +overlook the mercies often bound up in them." [8] Pleasure and pain are, +as Plutarch says, the nails which fasten body and soul together. Pain is a +warning of danger, a very necessity of existence. But for it, but for the +warnings which our feelings give us, the very blessings by which we are +surrounded would soon and inevitably prove fatal. Many of those who have +not studied the question are under the impression that the more +deeply-seated portions of the body must be most sensitive. The very +reverse is the case. The skin is a continuous and ever-watchful sentinel, +always on guard to give us notice of any approaching danger; while the +flesh and inner organs, where pain would be without purpose, are, so long +as they are in health, comparatively without sensation. + +"We talk," says Helps, "of the origin of evil;... but what is evil? We +mostly speak of sufferings and trials as good, perhaps, in their result; +but we hardly admit that they may be good in themselves. Yet they are +knowledge--how else to be acquired, unless by making men as gods, enabling +them to understand without experience. All that men go through may be +absolutely the best for them--no such thing as evil, at least in our +customary meaning of the word." + +Indeed, "the vale best discovereth the hill," [9] and "pour sentir les +grands biens, il faut qu'il connoisse les petits maux." [10] + +But even if we do not seem to get all that we should wish, many will feel, +as in Leigh Hunt's beautiful translation of Filicaja's sonnet, that-- + + "So Providence for us, high, infinite, + Makes our necessities its watchful task. + Hearkens to all our prayers, helps all our wants, + And e'en if it denies what seems our right, + Either denies because 'twould have us ask, + Or seems but to deny, and in denying grants." + +Those on the other hand who do not accept the idea of continual +interferences, will rejoice in the belief that on the whole the laws of +the Universe work out for the general happiness. + +And if it does come-- + + "Grief should be + Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate, + Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free: + Strong to consume small troubles; to commend + Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end." [11] + +If, however, we cannot hope that life will be all happiness, we may at +least secure a heavy balance on the right side; and even events which look +like misfortune, if boldly faced, may often be turned to good. Oftentimes, +says Seneca, "calamity turns to our advantage; and great ruins make way +for greater glories." Helmholtz dates his start in science to an attack of +illness. This led to his acquisition of a microscope, which he was enabled +to purchase, owing to his having spent his autumn vacation of 1841 in the +hospital, prostrated by typhoid fever; being a pupil, he was nursed +without expense, and on his recovery he found himself in possession of the +savings of his small resources. + +"Savonarola," says Castelar, "would, under different circumstances, +undoubtedly have been a good husband, a tender father; a man unknown to +history, utterly powerless to print upon the sands of time and upon the +human soul the deep trace which he has left; but misfortune came to visit +him, to crush his heart, and to impart that marked melancholy which +characterizes a soul in grief; and the grief that circled his brows with a +crown of thorns was also that which wreathed them with the splendor of +immortality. His hopes were centered in the woman he loved, his life was +set upon the possession of her, and when her family finally rejected him, +partly on account of his profession, and partly on account of his person, +believed that it was death that had come upon him, when in truth it was +immortality." + +It is however, impossible to deny the existence of evil, and the reason +for it has long exercised the human intellect. The Savage solves it by the +supposition of evil Spirits. The Greeks attributed the misfortunes of men +in great measure to the antipathies and jealousies of gods and goddesses. +Others have imagined two divine principles, opposite and antagonistic--the +one friendly, the other hostile, to men. + +Freedom of action, however, seems to involve the existence of evil. If any +power of selection be left us, much must depend on the choice we make. In +the very nature of things, two and two cannot make five. Epictetus +imagines Jupiter addressing man as follows: "If it had been possible to +make your body and your property free from liability to injury, I would +have done so. As this could not be, I have given you a small portion of +myself." + +This divine gift it is for us to use wisely. It is, in fact, our most +valuable treasure. "The soul is a much better thing than all the others +which you possess. Can you then show me in what way you have taken care of +it? For it is not likely that you, who are so wise a man, inconsiderately +and carelessly allow the most valuable thing that you possess to be +neglected and to perish." [12] + +Moreover, even if evil cannot be altogether avoided, it is no doubt true +that not only whether the life we lead be good and useful, or evil and +useless, but also whether it be happy or unhappy, is very much in our own +power, and depends greatly on ourselves. "Time alone relieves the foolish +from sorrow, but reason the wise." [13] and no one was ever yet made +utterly miserable excepting by himself. We are, if not the masters, at any +rate almost the creators of ourselves. + +With most of us it is not so much great sorrows, disease, or death, but +rather the little "daily dyings" which cloud over the sunshine of life. +Many of our troubles are insignificant in themselves, and might easily be +avoided! + +How happy home might generally be made but for foolish quarrels, or +misunderstandings, as they are well named! It is our own fault if we are +querulous or ill-humored; nor need we, though this is less easy, allow +ourselves to be made unhappy by the querulousness or ill-humors of others. + +Much of what we suffer we have brought on ourselves, if not by actual +fault, at least by ignorance or thoughtlessness. Too often we think only +of the happiness of the moment, and sacrifice that of the life. Troubles +comparatively seldom come to us, it is we who go to them. Many of us +fritter our life away. La Bruyère says that "most men spend much of their +lives in making the rest miserable;" or, as Goethe puts it: + + "Careworn man has, in all ages, + Sown vanity to reap despair." + +Not only do we suffer much in the anticipation of evil, as "Noah lived +many years under the affliction of a flood, and Jerusalem was taken unto +Jeremy before it was besieged," but we often distress ourselves greatly in +the apprehension of misfortunes which after all never happen at all. We +should do our best and wait calmly the result. We often hear of people +breaking down from overwork, but in nine cases out of ten they are really +suffering from worry or anxiety. + +"Nos maux moraux," says Rousseau, "sont tous dans l'opinion, hors un seul, +qui est le crime; et celui-la dépend de nous: nos maux physiques nous +détruisent, ou se détruisent. Le temps, ou la mort, sont nos remèdes." + + "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, + Which we ascribe to heaven." [14] + +This, however, applies to the grown up. With children of course it is +different. It is customary, but I think it is a mistake, to speak of happy +childhood. Children, however, are often over-anxious and acutely +sensitive. Man ought to be man and master of his fate; but children are at +the mercy of those around them. Mr. Rarey, the great horse-tamer, has told +us that he has known an angry word raise the pulse of a horse ten beats in +a minute. Think then how it must affect a child! + +It is small blame to the young if they are over-anxious; but it is a +danger to be striven against. "The terrors of the storm are chiefly felt +in the parlor or the cabin." [15] + +To save ourselves from imaginary, or at any rate problematical, evils, we +often incur real suffering. "The man," said Epicurus, "who is not content +with little is content with nothing." How often do we "labor for that +which satisfieth not." More than we use is more than we need, and only a +burden to the bearer. [16] We most of us give ourselves an immense amount +of useless trouble; encumber ourselves, as it were, on the journey of life +with a dead weight of unnecessary baggage; and as "a man maketh his train +longer, he makes his wings shorter." [17] In that delightful fairy tale, +_Alice through the Looking-Glass_, the "White Knight" is described as +having loaded himself on starting for a journey with a variety of odds and +ends, including a mousetrap, in case he was troubled by mice at night, and +a beehive in case he came across a swarm of bees. + +Hearne, in his _Journey to the Mouth of the Coppermine River_ tells us +that a few days after starting on his expedition he met a party of +Indians, who annexed a great deal of his property, and all Hearne says is, +"The weight of our baggage being so much lightened, our next day's journey +was much pleasanter." I ought, however, to add that the Indians broke up +the philosophical instruments, which, no doubt, were rather an +encumbrance. + +When troubles do come, Marcus Aurelius wisely tells us to "remember on +every occasion which leads thee to vexation to apply this principle, that +this is not a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune." Our +own anger indeed does us more harm than the thing which makes us angry; +and we suffer much more from the anger and vexation which we allow acts to +rouse in us, than we do from the acts themselves at which we are angry and +vexed. How much most people, for instance, allow themselves to be +distracted and disturbed by quarrels and family disputes. Yet in nine +cases out of ten one ought not to suffer from being found fault with. If +the condemnation is just, it should be welcome as a warning; if it is +undeserved, why should we allow it to distress us? + +Moreover, if misfortunes happen we do but make them worse by grieving over +them. + +"I must die," again says Epictetus. "But must I then die sorrowing? I must +be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Can I be +prevented from going with cheerfulness and contentment? But I will put you +in prison. Man, what are you saying? You may put my body in prison, but my +mind not even Zeus himself can overpower." + +If, indeed, we cannot be happy, the fault is generally in ourselves. +Socrates lived under the Thirty Tyrants. Epictetus was a poor slave, and +yet how much we owe him! + +"How is it possible," he says, "that a man who has nothing, who is naked, +houseless, without a hearth, squalid, without a slave, without a city, can +pass a life that flows easily? See, God has sent a man to show you that it +is possible. Look at me, who am without a city, without a house, without +possessions, without a slave; I sleep on the ground; I have no wife, no +children, no praetorium, but only the earth and heavens, and one poor +clock. And what do I want? Am I not without sorrow? Am I not without fear? +Am I not free? When did any of you see me failing in the object of my +desire? or ever falling into that which I would avoid? Did I ever blame +God or man? Did I ever accuse any man? Did any of you ever see me with a +sorrowful countenance? And how do I meet with those whom you are afraid of +and admire? Do not I treat them like slaves? Who, when he sees me, does +not think that he sees his king and master?" + +Think how much we have to be thankful for. Few of us appreciate the number +of our everyday blessings; we look on them as trifles, and yet "trifles +make perfection, and perfection is no trifle," as Michael Angelo said. We +forget them because they are always with us; and yet for each of us, as +Mr. Pater well observes, "these simple gifts, and others equally trivial, +bread and wine, fruit and milk, might regain that poetic and, as it were, +moral significance which surely belongs to all the means of our daily +life, could we but break through the veil of our familiarity with things +by no means vulgar in themselves." + +"Let not," says Isaak Walton, "the blessings we receive daily from God +make us not to value or not praise Him because they be common; let us not +forget to praise Him for the innocent mirth and pleasure we have met with +since we met together. What would a blind man give to see the pleasant +rivers and meadows and flowers and fountains; and this and many other like +blessings we enjoy daily." + +Contentment, we have been told by Epicurus, consists not in great wealth, +but in few wants. In this fortunate country, however, we may have many +wants, and yet, if they are only reasonable, we may gratify them all. + +Nature indeed provides without stint the main requisites of human +happiness. "To watch the corn grow, or the blossoms set; to draw hard +breath over plough-share or spade; to read, to think, to love, to pray," +these, says Ruskin, "are the things that make men happy." + +"I have fallen into the hands of thieves," says Jeremy Taylor; "what then? +They have left me the sun and moon, fire and water, a loving wife and many +friends to pity me, and some to relieve me, and I can still discourse; +and, unless I list, they have not taken away my merry countenance and my +cheerful spirit and a good conscience.... And he that hath so many causes +of joy, and so great, is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness who +loses all these pleasures, and chooses to sit down on his little handful +of thorns." + +"When a man has such things to think on, and sees the sun, the moon, and +stars, and enjoys earth and sea, he is not solitary or even helpless." +[18] + +"Paradise indeed might," as Luther said, "apply to the whole world." What +more is there we could ask for ourselves? "Every sort of beauty," says Mr. +Greg, [19] "has been lavished on our allotted home; beauties to enrapture +every sense, beauties to satisfy every taste; forms the noblest and the +loveliest, colors the most gorgeous and the most delicate, odors the +sweetest and subtlest, harmonies the most soothing and the most stirring: +the sunny glories of the day; the pale Elysian grace of moonlight; the +lake, the mountain, the primeval forest, and the boundless ocean; 'silent +pinnacles of aged snow' in one hemisphere, the marvels of tropical +luxuriance in another; the serenity of sunsets; the sublimity of storms; +everything is bestowed in boundless profusion on the scene of our +existence; we can conceive or desire nothing more exquisite or perfect +than what is round us every hour; and our perceptions are so framed as to +be consciously alive to all. The provision made for our sensuous enjoyment +is in overflowing abundance; so is that for the other elements of our +complex nature. Who that has revelled in the opening ecstasies of a young +Imagination, or the rich marvels of the world of Thought, does not confess +that the Intelligence has been dowered at least with as profuse a +beneficence as the Senses? Who that has truly tasted and fathomed human +Love in its dawning and crowning joys has not thanked God for a felicity +which indeed 'passeth understanding.' If we had set our fancy to picture a +Creator occupied solely in devising delight for children whom he loved, we +could not conceive one single element of bliss which is not here." + +[1] Seneca. + +[2] Shelley. + +[3] I quote from Whinfield's translation. + +[4] Seneca. + +[5] Herbert. + +[6] Sir T. Browne. + +[7] Bacon. + +[8] Sir T. Browne. + +[9] Bacon. + +[10] Rousseau. + +[11] Aubrey de Vere. + +[12] Epictetus. + +[13] _Ibid_. + +[14] Shakespeare. + +[15] Emerson. + +[16] Seneca. + +[17] Bacon. + +[18] Epictetus. + +[19] The Enigmas of Life. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE HAPPINESS OF DUTY. + + + "I am always content with that which happens; for I + think that what God chooses is better than what I choose." + + EPICTETUS. + + + "O God, All conquering! this lower earth + Would be for men the blest abode of mirth + If they were strong in Thee + As other things of this world well are seen; + Oh then, far other than they yet have been, + How happy would men be." + + KING ALFRED'S ed. of Boethius's + _Consolations of Philosophy_. + + +We ought not to picture Duty to ourselves, or to others, as a stern +taskmistress. She is rather a kind and sympathetic mother, ever ready to +shelter us from the cares and anxieties of this world, and to guide us in +the paths of peace. + +To shut oneself up from mankind is, in most cases, to lead a dull, as well +as a selfish life. Our duty is to make ourselves useful, and thus life may +be most interesting, and yet comparatively free from anxiety. + +But how can we fill our lives with _life_, energy, and interest, and yet +keep care outside? + +Many great men have made shipwreck in the attempt. "Anthony sought for +happiness in love; Brutus in glory; Caesar in dominion: the first found +disgrace, the second disgust, the last ingratitude, and each +destruction." [1] Riches, again, often bring danger, trouble, and +temptation; they require care to keep, though they may give much happiness +if wisely spent. + +How then is this great object to be secured? What, says Marcus Aurelius, +"What is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing and only +one--philosophy. But this consists in keeping the daemon [2] within a man +free from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures, doing +nothing without a purpose, yet not falsely and with hypocrisy, not feeling +the need of another man's doing or not doing anything; and besides, +accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming from +thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and, finally, waiting +for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a dissolution +of the elements of which every living being is compounded." I confess I do +not feel the force of these last few words, which indeed scarcely seem +requisite for his argument. The thought of death, however, certainly +influences the conduct of life less than might have been expected. + +Bacon truly points out that "there is no passion in the mind of man so +weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death.... Revenge triumphs over +death, love slights it, honor aspireth to it, grief flieth to it." + + "Think not I dread to see my spirit fly + Through the dark gates of fell mortality; + Death has no terrors when the life is true; + 'Tis living ill that makes us fear to die." [3] + +We need certainly have no such fear if we have done our best to make +others happy; to promote "peace on earth and goodwill amongst men." +Nothing, again, can do more to release us from the cares of this world, +which consume so much of our time, and embitter so much of our life. When +we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace; content, as +Epictetus says, "with that which happens, for what God chooses is better +than what I choose." + +At any rate, if we have not effected all we wished, we shall have +influenced ourselves. It may be true that one cannot do much. "You are not +Hercules, and you are not able to purge away the wickedness of others; nor +yet are you Theseus, able to drive away the evil things of Attica. But you +may clear away your own. From yourself, from your own thoughts, cast away, +instead of Procrustes and Sciron, [4] sadness, fear, desire, envy, +malevolence, avarice, effeminacy, intemperance. But it is not possible to +eject these things otherwise than by looking to God only, by fixing your +affections on Him only, by being consecrated by his commands." [5] + +People sometimes think how delightful it would be to be quite free. But a +fish, as Ruskin says, is freer than a man, and as for a fly, it is "a +black incarnation of freedom." A life of so-called pleasure and +self-indulgence is not a life of real happiness or true freedom. Far from +it, if we once begin to give way to ourselves, we fall under a most +intolerable tyranny. Other temptations are in some respects like that of +drink. At first, perhaps, it seems delightful, but there is bitterness at +the bottom of the cup. Men drink to satisfy the desire created by previous +indulgence. So it is in other things. Repetition soon becomes a craving, +not a pleasure. Resistance grows more and more painful; yielding, which at +first, perhaps, afforded some slight and temporary gratification, soon +ceases to give pleasure, and even if for a time it procures relief, ere +long becomes odious itself. + +To resist is difficult, to give way is painful; until at length the +wretched victim to himself, can only purchase, or thinks he can only +purchase, temporary relief from intolerable craving and depression, at the +expense of far greater suffering in the future. + +On the other hand, self-control, however difficult at first, becomes step +by step easier and more delightful. We possess mysteriously a sort of dual +nature, and there are few truer triumphs, or more delightful sensations, +than to obtain thorough command of oneself. + +How much pleasanter it is to ride a spirited horse, even perhaps though +requiring some strength and skill, than to creep along upon a jaded hack. +In the one case you feel under you the free, responsive spring of a living +and willing force; in the other you have to spur a dull and lifeless +slave. + +To rule oneself is in reality the greatest triumph. "He who is his own +monarch," says Sir T. Browne, "contentedly sways the sceptre of himself, +not envying the glory to crowned heads and Elohim of the earth;" for those +are really highest who are nearest to heaven, and those are lowest who are +farthest from it. + +True greatness has little, if anything, to do with rank or power. +"Eurystheus being what he was," says Epictetus, "was not really king of +Argos nor of Mycenae, for he could not even rule himself; while Hercules +purged lawlessness and introduced justice, though he was both naked and +alone." + +We are told that Cineas the philosopher once asked Pyrrhus what he would +do when he had conquered Italy. "I will conquer Sicily." "And after +Sicily?" "Then Africa." "And after you have conquered the world?" "I will +take my ease and be merry." "Then," asked Cineas, "why can you not take +your ease and be merry now?" + +Moreover, as Sir Arthur Helps has wisely pointed out, "the enlarged view +we have of the Universe must in some measure damp personal ambition. What +is it to be king, sheikh, tetrarch, or emperor over a 'bit of a bit' of +this little earth?" "All rising to great place," says Bacon, "is by a +winding stair;" and "princes are like heavenly bodies, which have much +veneration, but no rest." + +Plato in the _Republic_ mentions an old myth that after death every soul +has to choose a lot in life for the existence in the next world; and he +tells us that the wise Ulysses searched for a considerable time for the +lot of a private man. He had some difficulty in finding it, as it was +lying neglected in a corner, but when he had secured it he was delighted; +the recollection of all he had gone through on earth, having disenchanted +him of ambition. + +Moreover, there is a great deal of drudgery in the lives of courts. +Ceremonials may be important, but they take up much time and are terribly +tedious. + +A man then is his own best kingdom. "He that ruleth his speech," says +Solomon, "is better than he that taketh a city." But self-control, this +truest and greatest monarchy, rarely comes by inheritance. Every one of us +must conquer himself; and we may do so, if we take conscience for our +guide and general. + +No one really fails who does his best. Seneca observes that "no one saith +the three hundred Fabii were defeated, but that they were slain," and if +you have done your best, you will, in the words of an old Norse ballad, +have gained + + "Success in thyself, which is best of all." + +Being myself engaged in business, I was rather startled to find it laid +down by no less an authority than Aristotle (almost as if it were a +self-evident proposition) that commerce "is incompatible with that +dignified life which it is our wish that our citizens should lead, and +totally adverse to that generous elevation of mind with which it is our +ambition to inspire them." I know not how far that may really have been +the spirit and tendency of commerce among the ancient Greeks; but if so, I +do not wonder that it was not more successful. + +I may, indeed, quote Aristotle against himself, for he has elsewhere told +us that "business should be chosen for the sake of leisure; and things +necessary and useful for the sake of the beautiful in conduct." + +It is not true that the ordinary duties of life in a country like +ours--commerce, manufactures, agriculture,--the pursuits to which the vast +majority are and must be devoted--are incompatible with the dignity or +nobility of life. Whether a life is noble or ignoble depends, not on the +calling which is adopted, but on the spirit in which it is followed. The +humblest life may be noble, while that of the most powerful monarch or the +greatest genius may be contemptible. Commerce, indeed, is not only +compatible, but I would almost go further and say that it will be most +successful, if carried on in happy union with noble aims and generous +aspirations. What Ruskin says of art is, with due modification, true of +life generally. It does not matter whether a man "paint the petal of a +rose or the chasms of a precipice, so that love and admiration attend on +him as he labors, and wait for ever on his work. It does not matter +whether he toil for months on a few inches of his canvas, or cover a +palace front with color in a day; so only that it be with a solemn +purpose, that he have filled his heart with patience, or urged his hand to +haste." + +It is true that in a subsequent volume he refers to this passage, and +adds, "But though all is good for study, and all is beautiful, some is +better than the rest for the help and pleasure of others; and this it is +our duty always to choose if we have opportunity," adding, however, "being +quite happy with what is within our reach if we have not." + +We read of and admire the heroes of old, but every one of us has to fight +his own Marathon and Thermopylae; every one meets the Sphinx sitting by +the road he has to pass; to each of us, as to Hercules, is offered the +choice of Vice or Virtue; we may, like Paris, give the apple of life to +Venus, or Juno, or Minerva. + +There are many who seem to think that we have fallen on an age in the +world when life is especially difficult and anxious, when there is less +leisure than of yore, and the struggle for existence is keener than ever. + +On the other hand, we must remember how much we have gained in security? +It may be an age of hard work, but when this is not carried to an extreme, +it is by no means an evil. If we have less leisure, one reason is because +life is so full of interest. Cheerfulness is the daughter of employment, +and on the whole I believe there never was a time when modest merit and +patient industry were more sure of reward. + +We must not, indeed, be discouraged if success be slow in coming, nor +puffed up if it comes quickly. We often complain of the nature of things +when the fault is all in ourselves. Seneca, in one of his letters, +mentions that his wife's maid, Harpaste, had nearly lost her eyesight, but +"she knoweth not she is blind, she saith the house is dark. This that +seemeth ridiculous unto us in her, happeneth unto us all. No man +understandeth that he is covetous, or avaricious. He saith, I am not +ambitious, but no man can otherwise live in Rome; I am not sumptuous, but +the city requireth great expense." + +Newman, in perhaps the most beautiful of his hymns, "Lead, kindly light," +says: + + "Keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see + The distant scene; one step enough for me." + +But we must be sure that we are really following some trustworthy guide, +and not out of mere laziness allowing ourselves to drift. We have a guide +within us which will generally lead us straight enough. + +Religion, no doubt, is full of difficulties, but if we are often puzzled +what to think, we need seldom be in doubt what to do. + + "To say well is good, but to do well is better; + Do well is the spirit, and say well the letter; + If do well and say well were fitted in one frame, + All were won, all were done, and got were all the gain." + +Cleanthes, who appears to have well merited the statue erected to him at +Assos, says: + + "Lead me, O Zeus, and thou, O Destiny. + The way that I am bid by you to go: + To follow I am ready. If I choose not, + I make myself a wretch;--and still must follow." + +If we are ever in doubt what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves +what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done. + +Moreover, the result in the long run will depend not so much on some +single resolution, or on our action in a special case, but rather on the +preparation of daily life. Battles are often won before they are fought. +To control our passions we must govern our habits, and keep watch over +ourselves in the small details of everyday life. + +The importance of small things has been pointed out by philosophers over +and over again from AEsop downward. "Great without small makes a bad +wall," says a quaint Greek proverb, which seems to go back to cyclopean +times. In an old Hindoo story Ammi says to his son, "Bring me a fruit of +that tree and break it open. What is there?" The son said, "Some small +seeds." "Break one of them and what do you see?" "Nothing, my lord," "My +child," said Ammi, "where you see nothing there dwells a mighty tree." It +may almost be questioned whether anything can be truly called small. + + "There is no great and no small + To the soul that maketh all; + And where it cometh all things are, + And it cometh everywhere." [6] + +We should therefore watch ourselves in small things. If "you wish not to +be of an angry temper, do not feed the habit: throw nothing on it which +will increase it: at first keep quiet, and count the days on which you +have not been angry. I used to be in passion every day; now every second +day; then every third; then every fourth. But if you have intermitted +thirty days, make a sacrifice to God. For the habit at first begins to be +weakened, and then is completely destroyed. When you can say, 'I have not +been vexed to-day, nor the day before, nor yet on any succeeding day +during two or three months; but I took care when some exciting things +happened,' be assured that you are in a good way." [7] + +Emerson closes his _Conduct of Life_ with a striking allegory. The young +Mortal enters the Hall of the Firmament. The Gods are sitting there, and +he is alone with them. They pour on him gifts and blessings, and beckon +him to their thrones. But between him and them suddenly appear snow-storms +of illusions. He imagines himself in a vast crowd, whose behests he +fancies he must obey. The mad crowd drives hither and thither, and sways +this way and that. What is he that he should resist? He lets himself be +carried about. How can he think or act for himself? But the clouds lift, +and there are the Gods still sitting on their thrones; they alone with him +alone. + +"The great man," he elsewhere says, "is he who in the midst of the crowd +keeps with perfect sweetness the serenity of solitude." + +We may all, if we will, secure peace of mind for ourselves. + +"Men seek retreats," says Marcus Aurelius, "houses in the country, +seashores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very +much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men; for it +is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose, to retire into thyself. For +nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man +retire, than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such +thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect +tranquillity." + +Happy indeed is he who has such a sanctuary in his own soul. "He who is +virtuous is wise; and he who is wise is good; and he who is good is +happy." [8] + +But we cannot expect to be happy if we do not lead pure and useful lives. +To be good company for ourselves we must store our minds well; fill them +with pure and peaceful thoughts; with pleasant memories of the past, and +reasonable hopes for the future. We must, as far as may be, protect +ourselves from self-reproach, from care, and from anxiety. We shall make +our lives pure and peaceful, by resisting evil, by placing restraint upon +our appetites, and perhaps even more by strengthening and developing our +tendencies to good. We must be careful, then, on what we allow our minds +to dwell. The soul is dyed by its thoughts; we cannot keep our minds pure +if we allow them to be sullied by detailed accounts of crime and sin. +Peace of mind, as Ruskin beautifully observes, "must come in its own time, +as the waters settle themselves into clearness as well as quietness; you +can no more filter your mind into purity than you can compress it into +calmness; you must keep it pure if you would have it pure, and throw no +stones into it if you would have it quiet." + +The penalty of injustice, said Socrates, is not death or stripes, but the +fatal necessity of becoming more and more unjust. Few men have led a wiser +or more virtuous life than Socrates himself, of whom Xenophon gives us the +following description:--"To me, being such as I have described him, so +pious that he did nothing without the sanction of the gods; so just, that +he wronged no man even in the most trifling affair, but was of service in +the most important matters to those who enjoyed his society; so temperate +that he never preferred pleasure to virtue; so wise, that he never erred +in distinguishing better from worse; needing no counsel from others, but +being sufficient in himself to discriminate between them; so able to +explain and settle such questions by argument; and so capable of +discerning the character of others, of confuting those who were in error, +and of exhorting them to virtue and honor, he seemed to be such as the +best and happiest of men would be. But if any one disapproves of my +opinion let him compare the conduct of others with that of Socrates, and +determine accordingly." + +Marcus Aurelius again has drawn for us a most instructive lesson in his +character of Antoninus:--"Remember his constancy in every act which was +conformable to reason, his evenness in all things, his piety, the serenity +of his countenance, his sweetness, his disregard of empty fame, and his +efforts to understand things; how he would never let anything pass without +having first carefully examined it and clearly understood it; how he bore +with those who blamed him unjustly without blaming them in return; how he +did nothing in a hurry; how he listened not to calumnies, and how exact an +examiner of manners and actions he was; not given to reproach people, nor +timid, nor suspicious, nor a sophist; with how little he was satisfied, +such as lodging, bed, dress, food, servants; how laborious and patient; +how sparing he was in his diet; his firmness and uniformity in his +friendships; how he tolerated freedom of speech in those who opposed his +opinions; the pleasure that he had when any man showed him anything +better, and how pious he was without superstition. Imitate all this that +thou mayest have as good a conscience, when thy last hour comes, as he +had." + +Such peace of mind is indeed an inestimable boon, a rich reward of duty +fulfilled. Well then does Epictetus ask, "Is there no reward? Do you seek +a reward greater than that of doing what is good and just? At Olympia you +wish for nothing more, but it seems to you enough to be crowned at the +games. Does it then seem to you so small and worthless a thing to be good +and happy?" + +In Bernard of Morlaix's beautiful lines-- + + "Pax erit illa fidelibus, illa beata, + Irrevocabilis, Invariabilis, Intemerata. + Pax sine crimine, pax sine turbine, pax sine rixâ, + Meta Laboribus, inque tumultibus anchora fixa; + Pax erit omnibus unica. Sed quibus? Immaculatis + Pectore mitibus, ordine stantibus, ore sacratis." + +What greater reward can we have than this; than the "peace which passeth +all understanding," "which cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver +be weighed for the price thereof." [9] + +[1] Colton, _Lacon, or Many Things in Few Words_. + +[2] _i.e._ spirit. + +[3] Omar Khayyam. + +[4] Two robbers destroyed by Theseus. + +[5] Epictetus. + +[6] Emerson. + +[7] Epictetus. + +[8] King Alfred's _Boethius_. + +[9] Job. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A SONG OF BOOKS. + + + "Oh for a booke and a shadie nooke, + Eyther in doore or out; + With the grene leaves whispering overhead + Or the streete cryes all about. + Where I maie reade all at my ease, + Both of the newe and old; + For a jollie goode booke whereon to looke, + Is better to me than golde." + + OLD ENGLISH SONG. + + +Of all the privileges we enjoy in this nineteenth century there is none, +perhaps, for which we ought to be more thankful than for the easier access +to books. + +The debt we owe to books was well expressed by Richard de Bury, Bishop of +Durham, author of _Philobiblon_, written as long ago as 1344, published in +1473, and the earliest English treatise on the delights of +literature:--"These," he says, "are the masters who instruct us without +rods and ferules, without hard words and anger, without clothes or money. +If you approach them, they are not asleep; if investigating you +interrogate them, they conceal nothing; if you mistake them, they never +grumble; if you are ignorant, they cannot laugh at you. The library, +therefore, of wisdom is more precious than all riches, and nothing that +can be wished for is worthy to be compared with it. Whosoever therefore +acknowledges himself to be a zealous follower of truth, of happiness, of +wisdom, of science, or even of the faith, must of necessity make himself a +lover of books." But if the debt were great then, how much more now. + +This feeling that books are real friends is constantly present to all who +love reading. "I have friends," said Petrarch, "whose society is extremely +agreeable to me; they are of all ages, and of every country. They have +distinguished themselves both in the cabinet and in the field, and +obtained high honors for their knowledge of the sciences. It is easy to +gain access to them, for they are always at my service, and I admit them +to my company, and dismiss them from it, whenever I please. They are never +troublesome, but immediately answer every question I ask them. Some relate +to me the events of past ages, while others reveal to me the secrets of +Nature. Some teach me how to live, and others how to die. Some, by their +vivacity, drive away my cares and exhilarate my spirits; while others give +fortitude to my mind, and teach me the important lesson how to restrain my +desires, and to depend wholly on myself. They open to me, in short, the +various avenues of all the arts and sciences, and upon their information I +may safely rely in all emergencies. In return for all their services, they +only ask me to accommodate them with a convenient chamber in some corner +of my humble habitation, where they may repose in peace; for these friends +are more delighted by the tranquillity of retirement than with the tumults +of society." + +"He that loveth a book," says Isaac Barrow, "will never want a faithful +friend, a wholesome counsellor, a cheerful companion, an effectual +comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert +and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, so in all fortunes." + +Southey took a rather more melancholy view: + + "My days among the dead are pass'd, + Around me I behold, + Where'er these casual eyes are cast, + The mighty minds of old. + My never-failing friends are they, + With whom I converse day by day." + +Imagine, in the words of Aikin, "that we had it in our power to call up +the shades of the greatest and wisest men that ever existed, and oblige +them to converse with us on the most interesting topics--what an +inestimable privilege should we think it!--how superior to all common +enjoyments! But in a well-furnished library we, in fact, possess this +power. We can question Xenophon and Caesar on their campaigns, make +Demosthenes and Cicero plead before us, join in the audiences of Socrates +and Plato, and receive demonstrations from Euclid and Newton. In books we +have the choicest thoughts of the ablest men in their best dress." + +"Books," says Jeremy Collier, "are a guide in youth and an entertainment +for age. They support us under solitude, and keep us from being a burthen +to ourselves. They help us to forget the crossness of men and things; +compose our cares and our passions; and lay our disappointments asleep. +When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have +nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in their conversation." + +Sir John Herschel tells an amusing anecdote illustrating the pleasure +derived from a book, not assuredly of the first order. In a certain +village the blacksmith having got hold of Richardson's novel, _Pamela, or +Virtue Rewarded_, used to sit on his anvil in the long summer evenings and +read it aloud to a large and attentive audience. It is by no means a short +book, but they fairly listened to it all. At length, when the happy turn +of fortune arrived, which brings the hero and heroine together, and sets +them living long and happily together according to the most approved +rules, the congregation were so delighted as to raise a great shout, and +procuring the church keys, actually set the parish bells a-ringing. + +"The lover of reading," says Leigh Hunt, "will derive agreeable terror +from _Sir Bertram_ and the _Haunted Chamber_; will assent with delighted +reason to every sentence in _Mrs. Barbauld's Essay_; will feel himself +wandering into solitudes with _Gray_; shake honest hands with _Sir Roger +de Coverley_; be ready to embrace _Parson Adams_, and to chuck _Pounce_ +out of the window instead of the hat; will travel with _Marco Polo_ and +_Mungo Park_; stay at home with _Thomson_; retire with _Cowley_; be +industrious with _Hutton_; sympathizing with _Gay_ and _Mrs. Inchbald_; +laughing with (and at) _Buncle_; melancholy, and forlorn, and +self-restored with the shipwrecked mariner of _De Foe_." + +Carlyle has wisely said that a collection of books is a real university. + +The importance of books has been appreciated in many quarters where we +might least expect it. Among the hardy Norsemen runes were supposed to be +endowed with miraculous power. There is an Arabic proverb, that "a wise +man's day is worth a fool's life," and another--though it reflects perhaps +rather the spirit of the Califs than of the Sultans,--that "the ink of +science is more precious than the blood of the martyrs." + +Confucius is said to have described himself as a man who "in his eager +pursuit of knowledge forgot his food, who in the joy of its attainment +forgot his sorrows, and did not even perceive that old age was coming on." + +Yet, if this could be said by the Arabs and the Chinese, what language can +be strong enough to express the gratitude we ought to feel for the +advantages we enjoy! We do not appreciate, I think, our good fortune in +belonging to the nineteenth century. Sometimes, indeed, one may even be +inclined to wish that one had not lived quite so soon, and to long for a +glimpse of the books, even the school-books, of one hundred years hence. A +hundred years ago not only were books extremely expensive and cumbrous, +but many of the most delightful were still uncreated--such as the works of +Scott, Thackeray, Dickens, Bulwer Lytton, and Trollope, not to mention +living authors. How much more interesting science has become especially, +if I were to mention only one name, through the genius of Darwin! Renan +has characterized this as a most amusing century; I should rather have +described it as most interesting: presenting us as it does with an endless +vista of absorbing problems; with infinite opportunities; with more +interest and less danger than surrounded our less fortunate ancestors. + +Cicero described a room without books, as a body without a soul. But it is +by no means necessary to be a philosopher to love reading. + +Reading, indeed, is by no means necessarily study. Far from it. "I put," +says Mr. Frederic Harrison, in his excellent article on the "Choice of +Books," "I put the poetic and emotional side of literature as the most +needed for daily use." + +In the prologue to the _Legende of Goode Women_, Chaucer says: + + "And as for me, though that I konne but lyte, + On bokes for to rede I me delyte, + And to him give I feyth and ful credence, + And in myn herte have him in reverence, + So hertely, that ther is game noon, + That fro my bokes maketh me to goon, + But yt be seldome on the holy day, + Save, certynly, when that the monthe of May + Is comen, and that I here the foules synge, + And that the floures gynnen for to sprynge, + Farwel my boke and my devocion." + +But I doubt whether, if he had enjoyed our advantages, he could have been +so certain of tearing himself away, even in the month of May. + +Macaulay, who had all that wealth and fame, rank and talents could give, +yet, we are told, derived his greatest happiness from books. Sir G. +Trevelyan, in his charming biography, says that--"of the feelings which +Macaulay entertained toward the great minds of bygone ages it is not for +any one except himself to speak. He has told us how his debt to them was +incalculable; how they guided him to truth; how they filled his mind with +noble and graceful images; how they stood by him in all vicissitudes-- +comforters in sorrow, nurses in sickness, companions in solitude, the old +friends who are never seen with new faces; who are the same in wealth and +in poverty, in glory and in obscurity. Great as were the honors and +possessions which Macaulay acquired by his pen, all who knew him were well +aware that the titles and rewards which he gained by his own works were as +nothing in the balance compared with the pleasure he derived from the +works of others." + +There was no society in London so agreeable that Macaulay would have +preferred it at breakfast or at dinner "to the company of Sterne or +Fielding, Horace Walpole or Boswell." The love of reading which Gibbon +declared he would not exchange for all the treasures of India was, in +fact, with Macaulay "a main element of happiness in one of the happiest +lives that it has ever fallen to the lot of the biographer to record." + +"History," says Fuller, "maketh a young man to be old without either +wrinkles or gray hair, privileging him with the experience of age without +either the infirmities or the inconveniences thereof." + +So delightful indeed are books that we must be careful not to forget other +duties for them; in cultivating the mind we must not neglect the body. + +To the lover of literature or science, exercise often presents itself as +an irksome duty, and many a one has felt like "the fair pupil of Ascham +(Lady Jane Gray), who, while the horns were sounding and dogs in full cry, +sat in the lonely oriel, with eyes riveted to that immortal page which +tells how meekly and bravely (Socrates) the first martyr of intellectual +liberty took the cup from his weeping jailer." [1] + +Still, as the late Lord Derby justly observed, [2] those who do not find +time for exercise will have to find time for illness. + +Books, again, are now so cheap as to be within the reach of almost every +one. This was not always so. It is quite a recent blessing. Mr. Ireland, +to whose charming little _Book Lover's Enchiridion_, in common with every +lover of reading. I am greatly indebted, tells us that when a boy he was +so delighted with White's _Natural History of Selborne_, that in order to +possess a copy of his own he actually copied out the whole work. + +Mary Lamb gives a pathetic description of a studious boy lingering at a +bookstall: + + "I saw a boy with eager eye + Open a book upon a stall, + And read, as he'd devour it all; + Which, when the stall man did espy, + Soon to the boy I heard him call, + 'You, sir, you never buy a book, + Therefore in one you shall not look.' + The boy passed slowly on, and with a sigh + He wished he never had been taught to read, + Then of the old churl's books he should have had no need." + +Such snatches of literature have indeed, special and peculiar charm. This +is, I believe, partly due to the very fact of their being brief. Many +readers miss much of the pleasure of reading by forcing themselves to +dwell too long continuously on one subject. In a long railway journey, for +instance, many persons take only a single book. The consequence is that, +unless it is a story, after half an hour or an hour they are quite tired +of it. Whereas, if they had two, or still better three books, on different +subjects, and one of them of an amusing character, they would probably +find that, by changing as soon as they felt at all weary, they would come +back again and again to each with renewed zest, and hour after hour would +pass pleasantly away. Every one, of course, must judge for himself, but +such at least is my experience. + +I quite agree, therefore, with Lord Iddesleigh as to the charm of +desultory reading, but the wider the field the more important that we +should benefit by the very best books in each class. Not that we need +confine ourselves to them, but that we should commence with them, and they +will certainly lead us on to others. There are of course some books which +we must read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. But these are exceptions. +As regards by far the larger number, it is probably better to read them +quickly, dwelling only on the best and most important passages. In this +way, no doubt, we shall lose much, but we gain more by ranging over a +wider field. We may, in fact, I think, apply to reading Lord Brougham's +wise dictum as regards education, and say that it is well to read +everything of something, and something of everything. In this way only we +can ascertain the bent of our own tastes, for it is a general, though not +of course an invariable, rule, that we profit little by books which we do +not enjoy. + +Every one, however, may suit himself. The variety is endless. + +Not only does a library contain "infinite riches in a little room," [3] +but we may sit at home and yet be in all quarters of the earth. We may +travel round the world with Captain Cook or Darwin, with Kingsley or +Ruskin, who will show us much more perhaps than ever we should see for +ourselves. The world itself has no limits for us; Humboldt and Herschel +will carry us far away to the mysterious nebulae, beyond the sun and even +the stars: time has no more bounds than space; history stretches out +behind us, and geology will carry us back for millions of years before the +creation of man, even to the origin of the material Universe itself. Nor +are we limited to one plane of thought. Aristotle and Plato will transport +us into a sphere none the less delightful because we cannot appreciate it +without some training. + +Comfort and consolation, refreshment and happiness, may indeed be found in +his library by any one "who shall bring the golden key that unlocks its +silent door." [4] A library is true fairyland, a very palace of delight, a +haven of repose from the storms and troubles of the world. Rich and poor +can enjoy it equally, for here, at least, wealth gives no advantage. We +may make a library, if we do but rightly use it, a true paradise on earth, +a garden of Eden without its one drawback; for all is open to us, +including, and especially, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, for which +we are told that our first mother sacrificed all the Pleasures of +Paradise. Here we may read the most important histories, the most exciting +volumes of travels and adventures, the most interesting stories, the most +beautiful poems; we may meet the most eminent statesmen, poets, and +philosophers, benefit by the ideas of the greatest thinkers, and enjoy the +grandest creations of human genius. + +[1] Macaulay. + +[2] Address, Liverpool College, 1873. + +[3] Marlowe. + +[4] Matthews. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE CHOICE OF BOOKS. + + + "All round the room my silent servants wait + My friends in every season, bright and dim, + Angels and Seraphim + Come down and murmur to me, sweet and low, + And spirits of the skies all come and go + Early and Late." + + PROCTOR. + + +And yet too often they wait in vain. One reason for this is, I think, that +people are overwhelmed by the crowd of books offered to them. + +In old days books were rare and dear. Now on the contrary, it may be said +with greater truth than ever that + + "Words are things, and a small drop of ink, + Falling like dew upon a thought, produces + That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think." + +Our ancestors had a difficulty in procuring them. Our difficulty now is +what to select. We must be careful what we read, and not, like the sailors +of Ulysses, take bags of wind for sacks of treasure--not only lest we +should even now fall into the error of the Greeks, and suppose that +language and definitions can be instruments of investigation as well as of +thought, but lest, as too often happens, we should waste time over trash. +There are many books to which one may apply, in the sarcastic sense, the +ambiguous remark said to have been made to an unfortunate author, "I will +lose no time in reading your book." + +There are, indeed, books and books, and there are books which, as Lamb +said, are not books at all. It is wonderful how much innocent happiness we +thoughtlessly throw away. An Eastern proverb says that calamities sent by +heaven may be avoided, but from those we bring on ourselves there is no +escape. + +Many, I believe, are deterred from attempting what are called stiff books +for fear they should not understand them; but there are few who need +complain of the narrowness of their minds, if only they would do their +best with them. + +In reading, however, it is most important to select subjects in which one +is interested. I remember years ago consulting Mr. Darwin as to the +selection of a course of study. He asked me what interested me most, and +advised me to choose that subject. This, indeed, applies to the work of +life generally. + +I am sometimes disposed to think that the readers of the next generation +will be, not our lawyers and doctors, shopkeepers and manufacturers, but +the laborers and mechanics. Does not this seem natural? The former work +mainly with their head; when their daily duties are over the brain is +often exhausted, and of their leisure time much must be devoted to air and +exercise. The laborer and mechanic, on the contrary, besides working often +for much shorter hours, have in their work-time taken sufficient bodily +exercise, and could therefore give any leisure they might have to reading +and study. They have not done so as yet, it is true; but this has been for +obvious reasons. Now, however, in the first place, they receive an +excellent education in elementary schools, and in the second have more +easy access to the best books. + +Ruskin has observed that he does not wonder at what men suffer, but he +often wonders at what they lose. We suffer much, no doubt, from the faults +of others, but we lose much more by our own ignorance. + +"If," says Sir John Herschel, "I were to pray for a taste which should +stand me in stead under every variety of circumstances, and be a source of +happiness and cheerfulness to me through life, and a shield against its +ills, however things might go amiss and the world frown upon me, it would +be a taste for reading. I speak of it of course only as a worldly +advantage, and not in the slightest degree as superseding or derogating +from the higher office and surer and stronger panoply of religious +principles--but as a taste, and instrument, and a mode of pleasurable +gratification. Give a man this taste, and the means of gratifying it, and +you can hardly fail of making a happy man, unless, indeed, you put into +his hands a most perverse selection of books." + +It is one thing to own a library; it is quite another to use it wisely. I +have often been astonished how little care people devote to the selection +of what they read. Books, we know, are almost innumerable; our hours for +reading are, alas! very few. And yet many people read almost by hazard. +They will take any book they chance to find in a room at a friend's house; +they will buy a novel at a railway-stall if it has an attractive title; +indeed, I believe in some cases even the binding affects their choice. The +selection is, no doubt, far from easy. I have often wished some one would +recommend a list of a hundred good books. If we had such lists drawn up by +a few good guides they would be most useful. I have indeed sometimes heard +it said that in reading every one must choose for himself, but this +reminds me of the recommendation not to go into the water till you can +swim. + +In the absence of such lists I have picked out the books most frequently +mentioned with approval by those who have referred directly or indirectly +to the pleasure of reading, and have ventured to include some which, +though less frequently mentioned, are especial favorites of my own. Every +one who looks at the list will wish to suggest other books, as indeed I +should myself, but in that case the number would soon run up. [1] + +I have abstained, for obvious reasons, from mentioning works by living +authors, though from many of them--Tennyson, Ruskin, and others--I have +myself derived the keenest enjoyment; and I have omitted works on science, +with one or two exceptions, because the subject is so progressive. + +I feel that the attempt is over bold, and I must beg for indulgence, while +hoping for criticism; indeed one object which I have had in view is to +stimulate others more competent far than I am to give us the advantage of +their opinions. + +Moreover, I must repeat that I suggest these works rather as those which, +as far as I have seen, have been most frequently recommended, than as +suggestions of my own, though I have slipped in a few of my own special +favorites. + +In any such selection much weight should, I think, be attached to the +general verdict of mankind. There is a "struggle for existence" and a +"survival of the fittest" among books, as well as among animals and +plants. As Alonzo of Aragon said, "Age is a recommendation in four +things--old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, +and old books to read." Still, this can not be accepted without important +qualifications. The most recent books of history and science contain or +ought to contain, the most accurate information and the most trustworthy +conclusions. Moreover, while the books of other races and times have an +interest from their very distance, it must be admitted that many will +still more enjoy, and feel more at home with, those of our own century and +people. + +Yet the oldest books of the world are remarkable and interesting on +account of their very age; and the works which have influenced the +opinions, or charmed the leisure hours, of millions of men in distant +times and far-away regions are well worth reading on that very account, +even if to us they seem scarcely to deserve their reputation. It is true +that to many, such works are accessible only in translations; but +translations, though they can never perhaps do justice to the original, +may yet be admirable in themselves. The Bible itself, which must stand +first in the list, is a conclusive case. + +At the head of all non-Christian moralists, I must place the +_Enchiridion_ of Epictetus, certainly one of the noblest books in the +whole of literature; it has, moreover, been admirably translated. With +Epictetus, [2] I think must come Marcus Aurelius. The _Analects_ of +Confucius will, I believe, prove disappointing to most English readers, +but the effect it has produced on the most numerous race of men +constitutes in itself a peculiar interest. The _Ethics_ of Aristotle, +perhaps, appear to some disadvantage from the very fact that they have so +profoundly influenced our views of morality. The _Koran_, like the +_Analects_ of Confucius, will to most of us derive its principal interest +from the effect it has exercised, and still exercises, on so many millions +of our fellow-men. I doubt whether in any other respect it will seem to +repay perusal, and to most persons probably certain extracts, not too +numerous, would appear sufficient. + +The writings of the Apostolic Fathers have been collected in one volume by +Wake. It is but a small one, and though I must humbly confess that I was +disappointed, they are perhaps all the more curious from the contrast they +afford to those of the Apostles themselves. Of the later Fathers I have +included only the _Confessions_ of St. Augustine, which Dr. Pusey selected +for the commencement of the _Library of the Fathers_, and which, as he +observes, has "been translated again and again into almost every European +language, and in all loved;" though Luther was of opinion that St. +Augustine "wrote nothing to the purpose concerning faith." But then Luther +was no great admirer of the Father. St. Jerome, he says, "writes, alas! +very coldly;" Chrysostom "digresses from the chief points;" St. Jerome is +"very poor;" and in fact, he says, "the more I read the books of the +Fathers the more I find myself offended;" while Renan, in his interesting +autobiography, compared theology to a Gothic Cathedral, "elle a la +grandeur, les vides immenses, et le peu de solidité." + +Among other devotional works most frequently recommended are Thomas à +Kempis' _Imitation of Christ_, Pascal's _Pensées_, Spinoza's _Tractatus +Theologico-Politicus_, Butler's _Analogy of Religion_, Jeremy Taylor's +_Holy Living and Dying_, Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_, and last, not +least, Keble's beautiful _Christian Year_. + +Aristotle and Plato again stand at the head of another class. The +_Politics_ of Aristotle, and Plato's _Dialogues_, if not the whole, at any +rate the _Phaedo_, the _Apology_, and the _Republic_, will be of course +read by all who wish to know anything of the history of human thought, +though I am heretical enough to doubt whether the latter repays the minute +and laborious study often devoted to it. + +Aristotle being the father, if not the creator, of the modern scientific +method, it has followed naturally--indeed, almost inevitably--that his +principles have become part of our very intellectual being, so that they +seem now almost self-evident, while his actual observations, though very +remarkable--as, for instance, when he observes that bees on one journey +confine themselves to one kind of flower--still have been in many cases +superseded by others, carried on under more favorable conditions. We must +not be ungrateful to the great master, because his lessons have taught us +how to advance. + +Plato, on the other hand, I say so with all respect, seems to me in some +cases to play on words: his arguments are very able, very philosophical, +often very noble; but not always conclusive; in a language differently +constructed they might sometimes tell in exactly the opposite sense. If +this method has proved less fruitful, if in metaphysics we have made but +little advance, that very fact in one point of view leaves the +_Dialogues_ of Socrates as instructive now as ever they were; while the +problems with which they deal will always rouse our interest, as the calm +and lofty spirit which inspires them must command our admiration. Of the +_Apology_ and the _Phaedo_ especially it would be impossible to speak too +gratefully. + +I would also mention Demosthenes' _De Coronâ_, which Lord Brougham +pronounced the greatest oration of the greatest of orators; Lucretius, +Plutarch's Lives, Horace, and at least the _De Officiis_, _De Amicitiâ_, +and _De Senectute_ of Cicero. + +The great epics of the world have always constituted one of the most +popular branches of literature. Yet how few, comparatively, ever read +Homer or Virgil after leaving school. + +The _Nibelungenlied_, our great Anglo-Saxon epic, is perhaps too much +neglected, no doubt on account of its painful character. Brunhild and +Kriemhild, indeed, are far from perfect, but we meet with few such "live" +women in Greek or Roman literature. Nor must I omit to mention Sir T. +Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, though I confess I do so mainly in deference to +the judgment of others. + +Among the Greek tragedians I include Aeschylus, if not all his works, at +any rate _Prometheus_, perhaps the sublimest poem in Greek literature, and +the _Trilogy_ (Mr. Symonds in his _Greek Poets_ speaks of the "unrivalled +majesty" of the _Agamemnon_, and Mark Pattison considered it "the grandest +work of creative genius in the whole range of literature"); or, as Sir M. +E. Grant Duff recommends, the _Persae_; Sophocles (_Oedipus Tyrannus_), +Euripides (_Medea_), and Aristophanes (_The Knights_ and _Clouds_); +unfortunately, as Schlegel says, probably even the greatest scholar does +not understand half his jokes; and I think most modern readers will prefer +our modern poets. + +I should like, moreover, to say a word for Eastern poetry, such as +portions of the _Maha Bharata_ and _Ramayana_ (too long probably to be +read through, but of which Talboys Wheeler has given a most interesting +epitome in the first two volumes of his _History of India_); the +_Shah-nameh_, the work of the great Persian poet Firdusi; Kalidasa's +_Sakuntala_, and the Sheking, the classical collection of ancient Chinese +odes. Many I know, will think I ought to have included Omar Khayyam. + +In history we are beginning to feel that the vices and vicissitudes of +kings and queens, the dates of battles and wars, are far less important +than the development of human thought, the progress of art, of science, +and of law, and the subject is on that very account even more interesting +than ever. I will, however, only mention, and that rather from a literary +than a historical point of view, Herodotus, Xenophon (the _Anabasis_), +Thucydides, and Tacitus (_Germania_); and of modern historians, Gibbon's +_Decline and Fall_ ("the splendid bridge from the old world to the new"), +Hume's _History of England_, Carlyle's _French Revolution_, Grote's +_History of Greece_, and Green's _Short History of the English People_. + +Science is so rapidly progressive that, though to many minds it is the +most fruitful and interesting subject of all, I cannot here rest on that +agreement which, rather than my own opinion, I take as the basis of my +list. I will therefore only mention Bacon's _Novum Organum_, Mill's +_Logic_, and Darwin's _Origin of Species_; in Political Economy, which +some of our rulers do not now sufficiently value, Mill, and parts of +Smith's _Wealth of Nations_, for probably those who do not intend to make +a special study of political economy would scarcely read the whole. + +Among voyages and travels, perhaps those most frequently suggested are +Cook's _Voyages_, Humboldt's _Travels_, and Darwin's _Naturalist's +Journal_; though I confess I should like to have added many more. + +Mr. Bright not long ago specially recommended the less known American +poets, but he probably assumed that every one would have read Shakespeare, +Milton (_Paradise Lost_, _Lycidas_, _Comus_ and minor poems), Chaucer, +Dante, Spencer, Dryden, Scott, Wordsworth, Pope, Byron, and others, before +embarking on more doubtful adventures. + +Among other books most frequently recommended are Goldsmith's _Vicar of +Wakefield_, Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_, Defoe's _Robinson Crusoe_, _The +Arabian Nights_, _Don Quixote_, Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, White's +_Natural History of Selborne_, Burke's Select Works (Payne), the Essays of +Bacon, Addison, Hume, Montaigne, Macaulay, and Emerson, Carlyle's _Past +and Present_, Smiles' _Self-Help_, and Goethe's _Faust_ and +_Autobiography_. + +Nor can one go wrong in recommending Berkeley's _Human Knowledge_, +Descartes' _Discours sur la Méthode_, Locke's _Conduct of the +Understanding_, Lewes' _History of Philosophy_; while, in order to keep +within the number one hundred, I can only mention Moliere and Sheridan +among dramatists. Macaulay considered Marivaux's _La Vie de Marianne_ the +best novel in any language, but my number is so nearly complete that I +must content myself with English: and will suggest Thackeray (_Vanity +Fair_ and _Pendennis_), Dickens (_Pickwick_ and _David Copperfield_), G. +Eliot (_Adam Bede_ or _The Mill on the Floss_), Kingsley (_Westward Ho!_), +Lytton (_Last Days of Pompeii_), and last, not least, those of Scott, +which indeed constitute a library in themselves, but which I must ask, in +return for my trouble, to be allowed, as a special favor, to count as one. + +To any lover of books the very mention of these names brings back a crowd +of delicious memories, grateful recollections of peaceful home hours, +after the labors and anxieties of the day. How thankful we ought to be for +these inestimable blessings, for this numberless host of friends who never +weary, betray, or forsake us! + + +LIST OF 100 BOOKS. + +_Works by Living Authors are omitted_. + + The Bible + The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius + Epictetus + Aristotle's Ethics + Analects of Confucius + St. Hilaire's "Le Bouddha et sa religion" + Wake's Apostolic Fathers + Thos. à Kempis' Imitation of Christ + Confessions of St. Augustine (Dr. Pusey) + The Koran (portions of) + Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus + Comte's Catechism of Positive Philosophy + Pascal's Pensées + Butler's Analogy of Religion + Taylor's Holy Living and Dying + Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress + Keble's Christian Year + + * * * * * + + Plato's Dialogues; at any rate, the Apology, Crito, and Phaedo + Xenophon's Memorabilia + Aristotle's Politics + Demosthenes' De Corona. + Cicero's De Officiis, De Amicitia, and De Senectute + Plutarch's Lives + Berkeley's Human Knowledge + Descartes' Discours sur la Methode + Locke's On the Conduct of the Understanding + + * * * * * + + Homer + Hesiod + Virgil + Maha Bharata |Epitomized in Talboys Wheeler's + Ramayana |History of India, vols. i. and ii. + The Shahnameh + The Nibelungenlied + Malory's Morte d'Arthur + + * * * * * + + The Sheking + Kalidasa's Sakuntala or The Lost Ring + Aeschylus' Prometheus + Trilogy of Orestes + Sophocles' OEdipus + Euripides' Medea + Aristophanes' The Knights and Clouds + Horace + + * * * * * + + Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (perhaps in Morris' edition; or, if + expurgated, in C. Clarke's, or Mrs. Haweis') + Shakespeare + Milton's Paradise Lost, Lycidas, Comus, and the shorter poems + Dante's Divina Commedia + Spenser's Fairie Queen + Dryden's Poems + Scott's Poems + Wordsworth (Mr. Arnold's selection) + Pope's Essay on Criticism + Essay on Man + Rape of the Lock + Burns + Byron's Childe Harold + Gray + + * * * * * + + Herodotus + Xenophon's Anabasis and Memorabilia + Thucydides + Tacitus' Germania + Livy + Gibbon's Decline and Fall + Hume's History of England + Grote's History of Greece + Carlyle's French Revolution + Green's Short History of England + Lewes' History of Philosophy + + * * * * * + + Arabian Nights + Swift's Gulliver's Travels + Defoe's Robinson Crusoe + Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield + Cervantes' Don Quixote + Boswell's Life of Johnson + Molière + Schiller's William Tell + Sheridan's The Critic, School for Scandal, and The Rivals + Carlyle's Past and Present + + * * * * * + + Bacon's Novum Organum + Smith's Wealth of Nations (part of) + Mill's Political Economy + Cook's Voyages + Humboldt's Travels + White's Natural History of Selborne + Darwin's Origin of Species + Naturalist's Voyage + Mill's Logic + + * * * * * + + Bacon's Essays + Montaigne's Essays + Hume's Essays + Macaulay's Essays + Addison's Essays + Emerson's Essays + Burke's Select Works + Smiles' Self-Help + + * * * * * + + Voltaire's Zadig and Micromegas + Goethe's Faust, and Autobiography + Thackeray's Vanity Fair + Pendennis + Dickens' Pickwick + David Copperfield + Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii + George Eliot's Adam Bede + Kingsley's Westward Ho! + Scott's Novels + +[1] Several longer lists have been given; for instance, by Comte, +_Catechism, of Positive Philosophy_; Pycroft, _Course of English Reading_; +Baldwin, _The Book Lover_; Perkins, _The Best Reading_; and by Mr. +Ireland, _Books for General Readers_. + +[2] It is much to be desired that some one would publish a selection from +the works of Seneca. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE BLESSING OF FRIENDS. + + + "They seem to take away the sun from the world who withdraw friendship + from life; for we have received nothing better from the Immortal Gods, + nothing more delightful."--CICERO. + + +Most of those who have written in praise of books have thought they could +say nothing more conclusive than to compare them to friends. + +"All men," said Socrates, "have their different objects of +ambition--horses, dogs, money, honor, as the case may be; but for his own +part he would rather have a good friend than all these put together." And +again, men know "the number of their other possessions, although they +might be very numerous, but of their friends, though but few, they were +not only ignorant of the number, but even when they attempted to reckon it +to such as asked them, they set aside again some that they had previously +counted among their friends; so little did they allow their friends to +occupy their thoughts. Yet in comparison with what possession, of all +others, would not a good friend appear far more valuable?" + +"As to the value of other things," says Cicero, "most men differ; +concerning friendship all have the same opinion. What can be more foolish +than, when men are possessed of great influence by their wealth, power, +and resources, to procure other things which are bought by money--horses, +slaves, rich apparel, costly vases--and not to procure friends, the most +valuable and fairest furniture of life?" And yet, he continues, "every man +can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends." +In the choice, moreover, of a dog or of a horse, we exercise the greatest +care: we inquire into its pedigree, its training and character, and yet we +too often leave the selection of our friends, which is of infinitely +greater importance--by whom our whole life will be more or less influenced +either for good or evil--almost to chance. + +It is no doubt true, as the _Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_ says, that +all men are bores except when we want them. And Sir Thomas Browne quaintly +observes that "unthinking heads who have not learnt to be alone, are a +prison to themselves if they be not with others; whereas, on the contrary, +those whose thoughts are in a fair and hurry within, are sometimes fain to +retire into company to be out of the crowd of themselves." Still I do not +quite understand Emerson's idea that "men descend to meet." In another +place, indeed, he qualifies the statement, and says, "Almost all people +descend to meet." Even so I should venture to question it, especially +considering the context. "All association," he adds, "must be a +compromise, and, what is worse, the very flower and aroma of the flower of +each of the beautiful natures disappears as they approach each other." +What a sad thought! Is it really so; need it be so? And if it were, would +friends be any real advantage? I should have thought that the influence of +friends was exactly the reverse: that the flower of a beautiful nature +would expand, and the colors grow brighter, when stimulated by the warmth +and sunshine of friendship. + +It has been said that it is wise always to treat a friend, remembering +that he may become an enemy, and an enemy, remembering that he may become +a friend; and whatever may be thought of the first part of the adage, +there is certainly much wisdom in the latter. Many people seem to take +more pains and more pleasure in making enemies, than in making friends. +Plutarch, indeed, quotes with approbation the advice of Pythagoras "not to +shake hands with too many," but as long as friends are well chosen, it is +true rather that + + "He who has a thousand friends, + Has never a one to spare, + And he who has one enemy, + Will meet him everywhere," + +and unfortunately, while there are few great friends there is no little +enemy. + +I guard myself, however, by saying again--As long as they are well chosen. +One is thrown in life with a great many people who, though not actively +bad, though they may not wilfully lead us astray, yet take no pains with +themselves, neglect their own minds, and direct the conversation to petty +puerilities or mere gossip; who do not seem to realize that conversation +may by a little effort be made most instructive and delightful, without +being in any way pedantic; or, on the other hand, may be allowed to drift +into a mere morass of muddy thought and weedy words. There is hardly +anyone from whom we may not learn much, if only they will trouble +themselves to tell us. Nay, even if they teach us nothing, they may help +us by the stimulus of intelligent questions, or the warmth of sympathy. +But if they do neither, then indeed their companionship, if companionship +it can be called, is mere waste of time, and of such we may well say, "I +do desire that we be better strangers." + +Much certainly of the happiness and purity of our lives depends on our +making a wise choice of our companions and friends. If our friends are +badly chosen they will inevitably drag us down; if well they will raise us +up. Yet many people seem to trust in this matter to the chapter of +accident. It is well and right, indeed, to be courteous and considerate to +every one with whom we are brought into contact, but to choose them as +real friends is another matter. Some seem to make a man a friend, or try +to do so, because he lives near, because he is in the same business, +travels on the same line of railway, or for some other trivial reason. +There cannot be a greater mistake. These are only, in the words of +Plutarch, "the idols and images of friendship." + +To be friendly with every one is another matter; we must remember that +there is no little enemy, and those who have ever really loved any one +will have some tenderness for all. There is indeed some good in most men. +"I have heard much," says Mr. Nasmyth in his charming autobiography, +"about the ingratitude and selfishness of the world. It may have been my +good fortune, but I have never experienced either of these unfeeling +conditions." Such also has been my own experience. + + "Men talk of unkind hearts, kind deeds + With coldness still returning. + Alas! the gratitude of men + Has oftener left me mourning." + +I cannot, then, agree with Emerson that "we walk alone in the world. +Friends such as we desire are dreams and fables. But a sublime hope cheers +ever the faithful heart, that elsewhere in other regions of the universal +power souls are now acting, enduring, and daring, which can love us, and +which we can love." + +No doubt, much as worthy friends add to the happiness and value of life, +we must in the main depend on ourselves, and every one is his own best +friend or worst enemy. + +Sad, indeed, is Bacon's assertion that "there is little friendship in the +world, and least of all between equals, which was wont to be magnified. +That that is, is between superior and inferior, whose fortunes may +comprehend the one to the other." But this can hardly be taken as his +deliberate opinion, for he elsewhere says, "but we may go farther, and +affirm most truly, that it is a mere and miserable solitude to want true +friends, without which the world is but a wilderness." Not only, he adds, +does friendship introduce "daylight in the understanding out of darkness +and confusion of thoughts;" it "maketh a fair day in the affections from +storm and tempests:" in consultation with a friend a man "tosseth his +thoughts more easily; he marshalleth them more orderly; he seeth how they +look when they are turned into words; finally, he waxeth wiser than +himself, and that more by an hour's discourse than by a day's +meditation."... "But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far +it extendeth, for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of +pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal where there is no love." + +With this last assertion I cannot altogether concur. Surely even strangers +may be most interesting! and many will agree with Dr. Johnson when, +describing a pleasant evening, he summed it up--"Sir, we had a good talk." + +Epictetus gives excellent advice when he dissuades from conversation on +the very subjects most commonly chosen, and advises that it should be on +"none of the common subjects--not about gladiators, nor horse-races, nor +about athletes, nor about eating or drinking, which are the usual +subjects; and especially not about men, as blaming them;" but when he +adds, "or praising them," the injunction seems to me of doubtful value. +Surely Marcus Aurelius more wisely advises that "when thou wishest to +delight thyself, think of the virtues of those who live with thee; for +instance, the activity of one, and the modesty of another, and the +liberality of a third, and some other good quality of a fourth. For +nothing delights so much as the examples of the virtues, when they are +exhibited in the morals of those who live with us and present themselves +in abundance, as far as is possible. Wherefore we must keep them before +us." Yet how often we know merely the sight of those we call our friends, +or the sound of their voices, but nothing whatever of their mind or soul. + +We must, moreover, be as careful to keep friends as to make them. If every +one knew what one said of the other, Pascal assures us that "there would +not be four friends in the world." This I hope and think is too strong, +but at any rate try to be one of the four. And when you have made a +friend, keep him. Hast thou a friend, says an Eastern proverb, "visit him +often, for thorns and brushwood obstruct the road which no one treads." +The affections should not be mere "tents of a night." + +Still less does Friendship confer any privilege to make ourselves +disagreeable. Some people never seem to appreciate their friends till they +have lost them. Anaxagoras described the Mausoleum as the ghost of wealth +turned into stone. + +"But he who has once stood beside the grave to look back on the +companionship which has been for ever closed, feeling how impotent _then_ +are the wild love and the keen sorrow, to give one instant's pleasure to +the pulseless heart, or atone in the lowest measure to the departed spirit +for the hour of unkindness, will scarcely for the future incur that debt +to the heart which can only be discharged to the dust." [1] + +Death, indeed, cannot sever friendship. "Friends," says Cicero, "though +absent, are still present; though in poverty they are rich; though weak, +yet in the enjoyment of health; and, what is still more difficult to +assert, though dead they are alive." This seems a paradox, yet it there +not much truth in his explanation? "To me, indeed, Scipio still lives, and +will always live; for I love the virtue of that man, and that worth is not +yet extinguished.... Assuredly of all things that either fortune or time +has bestowed on me, I have none which I can compare with the friendship of +Scipio." + +If, then, we choose our friends for what they are, not for what they have, +and if we deserve so great a blessing, then they will be always with us, +preserved in absence, and even after death, in the "amber of memory." + +[1] Ruskin. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE VALUE OF TIME. + + + Each day is a little life. + + +All other good gifts depend on time for their value. What are friends, +books, or health, the interest of travel or the delights of home, if we +have not time for their enjoyment? Time is often said to be money, but it +is more-it is life; and yet many who would cling desperately to life, +think nothing of wasting time. + +Ask of the wise, says Schiller in Lord Sherbrooke's translation, + + "The moments we forego + Eternity itself cannot retrieve." + +And, in the words of Dante, + + "For who knows most, him loss of time most grieves." + +Not that a life of drudgery should be our ideal. Far from it. Time spent +in innocent and rational enjoyments, in healthy games, in social and +family intercourse, is well and wisely spent. Games not only keep the body +in health, but give a command over the muscles and limbs which cannot be +overvalued. Moreover, there are temptations which strong exercise best +enables us to resist. + +It is the idle who complain they cannot find time to do that which they +fancy they wish. In truth, people can generally make time for what they +choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is wanting: and +the advantage of leisure is mainly that we may have the power of choosing +our own work, not certainly that it confers any privilege of idleness. + +"Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. I'll tell you who time +ambles withal, who time trots withal, who time gallops withal, and who he +stands still withal." [1] + +For it is not so much the hours that tell, as the way we use them. + + "Circles are praised, not that excel + In largeness, but th'exactly framed; + So life we praise, that doth excel + Not in much time, but acting well." [2] + +"Idleness," says Jeremy Taylor, "is the greatest prodigality in the world; +it throws away that which is invaluable in respect of its present use, and +irreparable when it is past, being to be recovered by no power of art or +nature." + +Life must be measured rather by depth than by length, by thought and +action rather than by time. "A counted number of pulses only," says Pater, +"is given to us of a variegated, aromatic, life. How may we see in them +all that is to be seen by the finest senses? How can we pass most swiftly +from point to point, and be present always at the focus where the greatest +number of vital forces unite in their purest energy? To burn always with +this hard gem-like flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life. +Failure is to form habits, for habit is relation to a stereotyped +world:... while all melts under our feet, we may well catch at any +exquisite passion, or any contribution to knowledge, that seems, by a +lifted horizon, to set the spirit free for a moment." + +I would not quote Lord Chesterfield as generally a safe guide, but there +is certainly much shrewd wisdom in his advice to his son with reference to +time. "Every moment you now lose, is so much character and advantage lost; +as, on the other hand, every moment you now employ usefully, is so much +time wisely laid out, at prodigious interest." + +And again, "It is astonishing that any one can squander away in absolute +idleness one single moment of that small portion of time which is allotted +to us in the world ... Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and +enjoy every moment of it." + + "Are you in earnest? seize this very minute, + What you can do, or think you can, begin it." [3] + +There is a Turkish proverb that the Devil tempts the Idle man, but the +Idle man tempts the Devil. I remember, says Hilliard, "a satirical poem, +in which the Devil is represented as fishing for men, and adapting his +bait to the tastes and temperaments of his prey; but the idlers were the +easiest victims, for they swallowed even the naked hook." + +The mind of the idler indeed preys upon itself. "The human heart is like a +millstone in a mill; when you put wheat under it, it turns and grinds and +bruises the wheat to flour; if you put no wheat, it still grinds on--and +grinds itself away." [4] + +It is not work, but care, that kills, and it is in this sense, I suppose, +that we are told to "take no thought for the morrow." To "consider the +lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: +and yet even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. +Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and +to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye +of little faith?" It would indeed be a mistake to suppose that lilies are +idle or imprudent. On the contrary, plants are most industrious, and +lilies store up in their complex bulbs a great part of the nourishment of +one year to quicken the growth of the next. Care, on the other hand, they +certainly know not. [5] + +"Hours have wings, fly up to the author of time, and carry news of our +usage. All our prayers cannot entreat one of them either to return or +slacken his pace. The misspents of every minute are a new record against +us in heaven. Sure if we thought thus, we should dismiss them with better +reports, and not suffer them to fly away empty, or laden with dangerous +intelligence. How happy is it when they carry up not only the messages, +but the fruits of good, and stay with the Ancient of Days to speak for us +before His glorious throne!" [6] + +Time is often said to fly; but it is not so much the time that flies; as +we that waste it, and wasted time is worse than no time at all; "I wasted +time," Shakespeare makes Richard II. say, "and now doth time waste me." + +"He that is choice of his time," says Jeremy Taylor, "will also be choice +of his company, and choice of his actions; lest the first engage him in +vanity and loss, and the latter, by being criminal, be a throwing his time +and himself away, and a going back in the accounts of eternity." + +The life of man is seventy years, but how little of this is actually our +own. We must deduct the time required for sleep, for meals, for dressing +and undressing, for exercise, etc., and then how little remains really at +our own disposal! + +"I have lived," said Lamb, "nominally fifty years, but deduct from them +the hours I have lived for other people, and not for myself, and you will +find me still a young fellow." + +The hours we live for other people, however, are not those that should be +deducted, but rather those which benefit neither oneself nor any one else; +and these, alas! are often very numerous. + +"There are some hours which are taken from us, some which are stolen from +us, and some which slip from us." [7] But however we may lose them, we can +never get them back. It is wonderful, indeed, how much innocent happiness +we thoughtlessly throw away. An Eastern proverb says that calamities sent +by heaven may be avoided, but from those we bring on ourselves there is no +escape. + +Some years ago I paid a visit to the principal lake villages of +Switzerland in company with a distinguished archaeologist, M. Morlot. To +my surprise I found that his whole income was £100 a year, part of which, +moreover, he spent in making a small museum. I asked him whether he +contemplated accepting any post or office, but he said certainly not. He +valued his leisure and opportunities as priceless possessions far more +than silver or gold, and would not waste any of his time in making money. + +Time indeed, is a sacred gift, and each day is a little life. Just think +of our advantages here in London! We have access to the whole literature +of the world; we may see in our National Gallery the most beautiful +productions of former generations, and in the Royal Academy and other +galleries the works of the greatest living artists. Perhaps there is no +one who has ever found time to see the British Museum thoroughly. Yet +consider what it contains; or rather, what does it not contain? The most +gigantic of living and extinct animals; the marvellous monsters of +geological ages; the most beautiful birds, shells, and minerals; precious +stones and fragments from other worlds; the most interesting antiquities; +curious and fantastic specimens illustrating different races of men; +exquisite gems, coins, glass, and china; the Elgin marbles; the remains of +the Mausoleum; of the temple of Diana of Ephesus; ancient monuments of +Egypt and Assyria; the rude implements of our predecessors in England, who +were coeval with the hippopotamus and rhinoceros, the musk-ox, and the +mammoth; and beautiful specimens of Greek and Roman art. + +Suffering may be unavoidable, but no one has any excuse for being dull. +And yet some people _are_ dull. They talk of a better world to come, while +whatever dulness there may be here is all their own. Sir Arthur Helps has +well said: "What! dull, when you do not know what gives its loveliness of +form to the lily, its depth of color to the violet, its fragrance to the +rose; when you do not know in what consists the venom of the adder, any +more than you can imitate the glad movements of the dove. What! dull, when +earth, air, and water are all alike mysteries to you, and when as you +stretch out your hand you do not touch anything the properties of which +you have mastered; while all the time Nature is inviting you to talk +earnestly with her, to understand her, to subdue her, and to be blessed by +her! Go away, man; learn something, do something, understand something, +and let me hear no more of your dulness." + +[1] Shakespeare. + +[2] Waller. + +[3] _Faust_. + +[4] Luther. + +[5] The word used [Greek: merimnaesaete] is translated in Liddell and +Scott "to be anxious about, to be distressed in mind, to be cumbered with +many cares." + +[6] Milton. + +[7] Seneca. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE PLEASURES OF TRAVEL. + + + "I am a part of all that I have seen."--TENNYSON. + + +I am sometimes disposed to think that there are few things in which we of +this generation enjoy greater advantages over our ancestors than in the +increased facilities of travel; but I hesitate to say this, not because +our advantages are not great, but because I have already made the same +remark with reference to several other aspects of life. + +The very word "travel" is suggestive. It is a form of "travail"--excessive +labor; and, as Skeat observes, it forcibly recalls the toil of travel in +olden days. How different things are now! + +It is sometimes said that every one should travel on foot "like Thales, +Plato, and Pythagoras"; we are told that in these days of railroads people +rush through countries and see nothing. It may be so, but that is not the +fault of the railways. They confer upon us the inestimable advantage of +being able, so rapidly and with so little fatigue, to visit countries +which were much less accessible to our ancestors. What a blessing it is +that not our own islands only--our smiling fields and rich woods, the +mountains that are full of peace and the rivers of joy, the lakes and +heaths and hills, castles and cathedrals, and many a spot immortalized in +the history of our country:--not these only, but the sun and scenery of +the South, the Alps the palaces of Nature, the blue Mediterranean, and the +cities of Europe, with all their memories and treasures, are now brought +within a few hours of us. + +Surely no one who has the opportunity should omit to travel. The world +belongs to him who has seen it. "But he that would make his travels +delightful must first make himself delightful." [1] + +According to the old proverb, "the fool wanders, the wise man travels." +Bacon tells us that "the things to be seen and observed are the courts of +princes, especially when they give audience to ambassadors; the courts of +justice while they sit and hear causes; and so of consistories +ecclesiastic; the churches and monasteries, with the monuments which are +therein extant; the walls and fortifications of cities and towns; and so +the havens and harbors, antiquities and ruins, libraries, colleges, +disputations and lectures, when any are; shipping and navies; houses and +gardens of state and pleasure near great cities; armories, arsenals, +magazines, exchanges, burses, warehouses, exercises of horsemanship, +fencing, training of soldiers, and the like; comedies, such whereunto the +better sort of persons do resort; treasuries of jewels and robes; cabinets +and rarities; and, to conclude, whatsoever is memorable in the places +where they go." + +But this depends on the time at our disposal, and the object with which we +travel. If we can stay long in any one place Bacon's advice is no doubt +excellent; but for the moment I am thinking rather of an annual holiday, +taken for the sake of rest and health; for fresh air and exercise rather +than for study. Yet even so, if we have eyes to see we cannot fail to lay +in a stock of new ideas as well as a store of health. + +We may have read the most vivid and accurate description, we may have +pored over maps and plans and pictures, and yet the reality will burst on +us like a revelation. This is true not only of mountains and glaciers, of +palaces and cathedrals, but even of the simplest examples. + +For instance, like every one else, I had read descriptions and seen +photographs and pictures of the Pyramids. Their form is simplicity itself. +I do not know that I could put into words any characteristic of the +original for which I was not prepared. It was not that they were larger; +it was not that they differed in form, in color, or situation. And yet, +the moment I saw them, I felt that my previous impression had been but a +faint shadow of the reality. The actual sight seemed to give life to the +idea. + +Every one who has been in the East will agree that a week of oriental +travel brings out, with more than stereoscopic effect, the pictures of +patriarchal life as given us in the Old Testament. And what is true of the +Old Testament is true of history generally. To those who have been in +Athens or Rome, the history of Greece or Italy becomes far more +interesting; while, on the other hand, some knowledge of the history and +literature enormously enhances the interest of the scenes themselves. + +Good descriptions and pictures, however, help us to see much more than we +should perhaps perceive for ourselves. It may even be doubted whether some +persons do not derive a more correct impression from a good drawing or +description, which brings out the salient points, than they would from +actual, but unaided, inspection. The idea may gain in accuracy, in +character, and even in detail, more than it misses in vividness. But, +however this may be, for those who cannot travel, descriptions and +pictures have an immense interest; while to those who _have_ traveled, +they will afford an inexhaustible delight in reviving the memories of +beautiful scenes and interesting expeditions. + +It is really astonishing how little most of us see of the beautiful world +in which we live. Mr. Norman Lockyer tells me that while traveling on a +scientific mission in the Rocky Mountains, he was astonished to meet an +aged French Abbé, and could not help showing his surprise. The Abbé +observed this, and in the course of conversation explained his presence in +that distant region. + +"You were," he said, "I easily saw, surprised to find me here. The fact +is, that some months ago I was very ill. My physicians gave me up: one +morning I seemed to faint and thought that I was already in the arms of +the Bon Dieu. I fancied one of the angels came and asked me, 'Well, M. +l'Abbé how did you like the beautiful world you have just left?' And then +it occurred to me that I who had been all my life preaching about heaven, +had seen almost nothing of the world in which I was living. I determined +therefore, if it pleased Providence to spare me, to see something of this +world; and so here I am." + +Few of us are free, however much we might wish it, to follow the example +of the worthy Abbé. But although it may not be possible for us to reach +the Rocky Mountains, there are other countries nearer home which most of +us might find time to visit. + +Though it is true that no descriptions can come near the reality, they may +at least persuade us to give ourselves this great advantage. Let me then +try to illustrate this by pictures in words, as realized by one of our +most illustrious countrymen; I will select references to foreign countries +only, not that we have not equal beauties here, but because everywhere in +England one feels oneself at home. + +The following passage from _Tyndall's Hours of Exercise in the Alps_, is +almost as good as an hour in the Alps themselves: + +"I looked over this wondrous scene toward Mont Blanc, the Grand Combin, +the Dent Blanche, the Weisshorn, the Dom, and the thousand lesser peaks +which seem to join in the celebration of the risen day. I asked myself, as +on previous occasions, How was this colossal work performed? Who chiselled +these mighty and picturesque masses out of a mere protuberance of the +earth? And the answer was at hand. Ever young, ever mighty-with the vigor +of a thousand worlds still within him-the real sculptor was even then +climbing up the eastern sky. It was he who raised aloft the waters which +cut out these ravines; it was he who planted the glaciers on the mountain +slopes, thus giving gravity a plough to open out the valleys; and it is +he who, acting through the ages, will finally lay low these mighty +monuments, rolling them gradually seaward, sowing the seeds of continents +to be; so that the people of an older earth may see mould spread, and corn +wave over the hidden rocks which at this moment bear the weight of the +Jungfrau." And the Alps lie within twenty-four hours of London! + +Tyndall's writings also contain many vivid descriptions of glaciers; those +"silent and solemn causeways ... broad enough for the march of an army in +line of battle and quiet as a street of tombs in a buried city." [2] I do +not, however, borrow from him or from any one else any description of +glaciers, for they are so unlike anything else, that no one who has not +seen, can possibly visualize them. + +The history of European rivers yet remains to be written, and is most +interesting. They did not always run in their present courses. The Rhone, +for instance, appears to have been itself a great traveler. At least there +seems reasons to believe that the upper waters of the Valais fell at first +into the Danube, and so into the Black Sea; subsequently joined the Rhine +and the Thames, and so ran far north over the plains which once connected +the mountains of Scotland and of Norway--to the Arctic Ocean; and to have +only comparatively of late years adopted their present course into the +Mediterranean. + +But, however this may be, the Rhine of Germany and the Rhine of +Switzerland are very unlike. The catastrophe of Schaffhausen seems to +alter the whole character of the river, and no wonder. "Stand for half an +hour," says Ruskin, "beside the Fall of Schaffhausen, on the north side +where the rapids are long, and watch how the vault of water first bends, +unbroken, in pure polished velocity, over the arching rocks at the brow of +the cataract, covering them with a dome of crystal twenty feet thick, so +swift that its motion is unseen except when a foam globe from above darts +over it like a falling star;... and how ever and anon, startling you with +its white flash, a jet of spray leaps hissing out of the fall, like a +rocket, bursting in the wind and driven away in dust, filling the air with +light; and how, through the curdling wreaths of the restless crushing +abyss below, the blue of the water, paled by the foam in its body, shows +purer than the sky through white rain-cloud; ... their dripping masses +lifted at intervals, like sheaves of loaded corn, by some stronger gush +from the cataract, and bowed again upon the mossy rocks as its roar dies +away." + +But much as we may admire the majestic grandeur of a mighty river, either +in its eager rush or its calmer moments, there is something which +fascinates even more in the free life, the young energy, the sparkling +transparence, and merry music of smaller streams. + +"The upper Swiss valleys," as the same great Seer says, "are sweet with +perpetual streamlets, that seem always to have chosen the steepest places +to come down, for the sake of the leaps, scattering their handfuls of +crystal this way and that, as the winds take them, with all the grace, but +with none of the formalism, of fountains ... until at last ... they find +their way down to the turf, and lose themselves in that, silently; with +quiet depth of clear water furrowing among the grass blades, and looking +only like their shadow, but presently emerging again in little startled +gushes and laughing hurries, as if they had remembered suddenly that the +day was too short for them to get down the hill." + +How vividly does Symonds bring before us the sunny shores of the +Mediterranean, which he loves so well, and the contrast between the +scenery of the North and the South. + +"In northern landscapes the eye travels through vistas of leafy boughs to +still, secluded crofts and pastures, where slow-moving oxen graze. The +mystery of dreams and the repose of meditation haunt our massive bowers. +But in the South, the lattice-work of olive boughs and foliage scarcely +veils the laughing sea and bright blue sky, while the hues of the +landscape find their climax in the dazzling radiance of the sun upon the +waves, and the pure light of the horizon. There is no concealment and no +melancholy here. Nature seems to hold a never-ending festival and dance, +in which the waves and sunbeams and shadows join. Again, in northern +scenery, the rounded forms of full-foliaged trees suit the undulating +country, with its gentle hills and brooding clouds; but in the South the +spiky leaves and sharp branches of the olive carry out the defined +outlines which are everywhere observable through the broader beauties of +mountain and valley and sea-shore. Serenity and intelligence characterize +this southern landscape, in which a race of splendid men and women lived +beneath the pure light of Phoebus, their ancestral god. Pallas protected +them, and golden Aphrodite favored them with beauty. Olives are not, +however, by any means the only trees which play a part in idyllic scenery. +The tall stone pine is even more important.... Near Massa, by Sorrento, +there are two gigantic pines so placed that, lying on the grass beneath +them, one looks on Capri rising from the sea, Baiae, and all the bay of +Naples sweeping round to the base of Vesuvius. Tangled growths of olives, +and rose-trees fill the garden-ground along the shore, while far away in +the distance pale Inarime sleeps, with her exquisite Greek name, a virgin +island on the deep. + +"On the wilder hills you find patches of ilex and arbutus glowing with +crimson berries and white waxen bells, sweet myrtle rods and shafts of +bay, frail tamarisk and tall tree-heaths that wave their frosted boughs +above your head. Nearer the shore the lentisk grows, a savory shrub, with +cytisus and aromatic rosemary. Clematis and polished garlands of tough +sarsaparilla wed the shrubs with clinging, climbing arms; and here and +there in sheltered nooks the vine shoots forth luxuriant tendrils bowed +with grapes, stretching from branch to branch of mulberry or elm, flinging +festoons on which young loves might sit and swing, or weaving a +lattice-work of leaves across the open shed. Nor must the sounds of this +landscape be forgotten,--sounds of bleating flocks, and murmuring bees, +and nightingales, and doves that moan, and running streams, and shrill +cicadas, and hoarse frogs, and whispering pines. There is not a single +detail which a patient student may not verify from Theocritus. + +"Then too it is a landscape in which sea and country are never sundered. +The higher we climb upon the mountain-side the more marvellous is the +beauty of the sea, which seems to rise as we ascend, and stretch into the +sky. Sometimes a little flake of blue is framed by olive boughs, sometimes +a turning in the road reveals the whole broad azure calm below. Or, after +toiling up a steep ascent we fall upon the undergrowth of juniper, and lo! +a double sea, this way and that, divided by the sharp spine of the jutting +hill, jewelled with villages along its shore, and smiling with fair +islands and silver sails." + +To many of us the mere warmth of the South is a blessing and a delight. +The very thought of it is delicious. I have read over again and again +Wallace's graphic description of a tropical sunrise--of the "sun of the +early morning that turneth all into gold." [3] + +"Up to about a quarter past five o'clock," he says, "the darkness is +complete; but about that time a few cries of birds begin to break the +silence of night, perhaps indicating that signs of dawn are perceptible in +the eastern horizon. A little later the melancholy voices of the +goatsuckers are heard, varied croakings of frogs, the plaintive whistle of +mountain thrushes, and strange cries of birds or mammals peculiar to each +locality. About half-past five the first glimmer of light becomes +perceptible; it slowly becomes lighter, and then increases so rapidly that +at about a quarter to six it seems full daylight. For the next quarter of +an hour this changes very little in character; when, suddenly, the sun's +rim appears above the horizon, decking the dew-laden foliage with +glittering gems sending gleams of golden light far into the woods, and +waking up all nature to life and activity. Birds chirp and flutter about, +parrots scream, monkeys chatter, bees hum among the flowers, and gorgeous +butterflies flutter lazily along or sit with full expanded wings exposed +to the warm and invigorating rays. The first hour of morning in the +equatorial regions possesses a charm and a beauty that can never be +forgotten. All nature seems refreshed and strengthened by the coolness and +moisture of the past night, new leaves and buds unfold almost before the +eye, and fresh shoots may often be observed to have grown many inches +since the preceding day. The temperature is the most delicious +conceivable. The slight chill of early dawn, which was itself agreeable, +is succeeded by an invigorating warmth; and the intense sunshine lights up +the glorious vegetation of the tropics, and realizes all that the magic +art of the painter or the glowing words of the poet have pictured as their +ideals of terrestrial beauty." + +Or take Dean Stanley's description of the colossal statues of Amenophis +III., the Memnon of the Greeks, at Thebes--"The sun was setting, the +African range glowed red behind them; the green plain was dyed with a +deeper green beneath them, and the shades of evening veiled the vast rents +and fissures in their aged frames. As I looked back at them in the sunset, +and they rose up in front of the background of the mountain, they seemed, +indeed, as if they were part of it,--as if they belonged to some natural +creation." + +But I must not indulge myself in more quotations, though it is difficult +to stop. Such extracts recall the memory of many glorious days: for the +advantages of travel last through life; and often, as we sit at home, +"some bright and perfect view of Venice, of Genoa, or of Monte Rosa comes +back on you, as full of repose as a day wisely spent in travel." [4] + +So far is a thorough love and enjoyment of travel from interfering with +the love of home, that perhaps no one can thoroughly enjoy his home who +does not sometimes wander away. They are like exertion and rest, each the +complement of the other; so that, though it may seem paradoxical, one of +the greatest pleasures of travel is the return; and no one who has not +roamed abroad, can realize the devotion which the wanderer feels for +Domiduca--the sweet and gentle goddess who watches over our coming home. + +[1] Seneca. + +[2] Ruskin. + +[3] Morris. + +[4] Helps. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE PLEASURES OF HOME. + + + "There's no place like Home."--_Old English Song_. + + +It may well be doubted which is more delightful,--to start for a holiday +which has been fully earned, or to return home from one which has been +thoroughly enjoyed; to find oneself, with renewed vigor, with a fresh +store of memories and ideas, back once more by one's own fireside, with +one's family, friends, and books. + +"To sit at home," says Leigh Hunt, "with an old folio (?) book of romantic +yet credible voyages and travels to read, an old bearded traveller for its +hero, a fireside in an old country house to read it by, curtains drawn, +and just wind enough stirring out of doors to make an accompaniment to the +billows or forests we are reading of--this surely is one of the perfect +moments of existence." + +It is no doubt a great privilege to visit foreign countries; to travel say +in Mexico or Peru, or to cruise among the Pacific Islands; but in some +respects the narratives of early travellers, the histories of Prescott or +the voyages of Captain Cook, are even more interesting; describing to us, +as they do, a state of society which was then so unlike ours, but which +has now been much changed and Europeanized. + +Thus we may make our daily travels interesting, even though, like those of +the Vicar of Wakefield, all our adventures are by our own fireside, and +all our migrations from one room to another. + +Moreover, even if the beauties of home are humble, they are still +infinite, and a man "may lie in his bed, like Pompey and his sons, in all +quarters of the earth." [1] + +It is, then, wise to "cultivate a talent very fortunate for a man of my +disposition, that of travelling in my easy chair; of transporting myself, +without stirring from my parlor, to distant places and to absent friends; +of drawing scenes in my mind's eye; and of peopling them with the groups +of fancy, or the society of remembrance." [2] + +We may indeed secure for ourselves endless variety without leaving our own +firesides. + +In the first place, the succession of seasons multiplies every home. How +different is the view from our windows as we look on the tender green of +spring, the rich foliage of summer, the glorious tints of autumn, or the +delicate tracery of winter. + +Our climate is so happy, that even in the worst months of the year, "calm +mornings of sunshine visit us at times, appearing like glimpses of +departed spring amid the wilderness of wet and windy days that lead to +winter. It is pleasant, when these interludes of silver light occur, to +ride into the woods and see how wonderful are all the colors of decay. +Overhead, the elms and chestnuts hang their wealth of golden leaves, while +the beeches darken into russet tones, and the wild cherry glows like +blood-red wine. In the hedges crimson haws and scarlet hips are wreathed +with hoary clematis or necklaces of coral briony-berries; the brambles +burn with many-colored flames; the dog-wood is bronzed to purple; and here +and there the spindle-wood puts forth its fruit, like knots of rosy buds, +on delicate frail twigs. Underneath lie fallen leaves, and the brown brake +rises to our knees as we thread the forest paths." [3] + +Nay, every day gives us a succession of glorious pictures in never-ending +variety. It is remarkable how few people seem to derive any pleasure from +the beauty of the sky. Gray, after describing a sunrise--how it began with +a slight whitening, just tinged with gold and blue, lit up all at once by +a little line of insufferable brightness which rapidly grew to half an +orb, and so to a whole one too glorious to be distinctly seen--adds, "I +wonder whether any one ever saw it before. I hardly believe it." [4] + +No doubt from the dawn of poetry, the splendors of the morning and evening +skies have delighted all those who have eyes to see. But we are especially +indebted to Ruskin for enabling us more vividly to realize these glorious +sky pictures. As he says, in language almost as brilliant as the sky +itself, the whole heaven, "from the zenith to the horizon, becomes one +molten, mantling sea of color and fire; every block bar turns into massy +gold, every ripple and wave into unsullied, shadowless crimson, and +purple, and scarlet, and colors for which there are no words in language, +and no ideas in the mind--things which can only be conceived while they +are visible; the intense hollow blue of the upper sky melting through it +all, showing here deep and pure, and lightness; there, modulated by the +filmy, formless body of the transparent vapor, till it is lost +imperceptibly in its crimson and gold." + +It is in some cases indeed "not color but conflagration," and though the +tints are richer and more varied toward morning and at sunset, the +glorious kaleidoscope goes on all day long. Yet "it is a strange thing how +little in general people know about the sky. It is the part of creation in +which Nature has done more for the sake of pleasing man, more for the sole +and evident purpose of talking to him, and teaching him, than in any other +of her works, and it is just the part in which we least attend to her. +There are not many of her other works in which some more material or +essential purpose than the mere pleasing of man is not answered by every +part of their organization; but every essential purpose of the sky might, +so far as we know, be answer, if once in three days, or thereabouts, a +great, ugly, black rain-cloud were brought up over the blue, and +everything well watered, and so all left blue again till next time, with +perhaps a film of morning and evening mist for dew. And instead of this, +there is not a moment of any day of our lives when Nature is not producing +scene after scene, picture after picture, glory after glory, and working +still upon such exquisite and constant principles of the most perfect +beauty, that it is quite certain it is all done for us, and intended for +our perpetual pleasure." [5] + +Nor does the beauty end with the day. "It is nothing to sleep under the +canopy of heaven, where we have the globe of the earth for our place of +repose, and the glories of the heavens for our spectacle?" [6] For my part +I always regret the custom of shutting up our rooms in the evening, as +though there was nothing worth seeing outside. What, however, can be more +beautiful than to "look how the floor of heaven is thick inlaid with +patines of bright gold," or to watch the moon journeying in calm and +silver glory through the night. And even if we do not feel that "the man +who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at midnight, has been +present like an Archangel at the creation of light and of the world," [7] +still "the stars say something significant to all of us: and each man has +a whole hemisphere of them, if he will but look up, to counsel and +befriend him"; [8] for it is not so much, as Helps elsewhere observes, "in +guiding us over the seas of our little planet, but out of the dark waters +of our own perturbed minds, that we may make to ourselves the most of +their significance." Indeed, + + "How beautiful is night! + A dewy freshness fills the silent air; + No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain, + Breaks the serene of heaven: + In full-orbed glory yonder moon divine + Rolls through the dark blue depths; + Beneath her steady ray + The desert circle spreads, + Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky; + How beautiful is night!" [9] + +I have never wondered at those who worshipped the sun and moon. + +On the other hand, when all outside is dark and cold; when perhaps + + "Outside fall the snowflakes lightly; + Through the night loud raves the storm; + In my room the fire glows brightly, + And 'tis cosy, silent, warm. + + "Musing sit I on the settle + By the firelight's cheerful blaze, + Listening to the busy kettle + Humming long forgotten lays." [10] + +For after all the true pleasures of home are not without, but within; and +"the domestic man who loves no music so well as his own kitchen clock and +the airs which the logs sing to him as they burn on the hearth, has +solaces which others never dream of." [11] + +We love the ticking of the clock, and the flicker of the fire, like the +sound of the cawing of rooks, not so much for any beauty of their own as +for their associations. + +It is a great truth that when we retire into ourselves we can call up what +memories we please. + + "How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, + When fond recollection recalls them to view.-- + The orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wildwood + And every lov'd spot which my infancy knew." [12] + +It is not so much the + + "Fireside enjoyments, + And _all the comforts_ of the lowly roof," [13] + +but rather, according to the higher and better ideal of Keble, + + "Sweet is the smile of home; the mutual look, + When hearts are of each other sure; + Sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook, + The haunt of all affections pure." + +In ancient times, not only among savage races, but even among the Greeks +themselves, there seems to have been but little family life. What a +contrast was the home life of the Greeks, as it seems to have been, to +that, for instance, described by Cowley--a home happy "in books and +gardens," and above all, in a + + "Virtuous wife, where thou dost meet + Both pleasures more refined and sweet; + The fairest garden in her looks + And in her mind the wisest books." + +No one who has ever loved mother or wife, sister or daughter, can read +without astonishment and pity St. Chrysostom's description of woman as "a +necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic +peril, a deadly fascination, and a painted ill." + +In few respects has mankind made a greater advance than in the relations +of men and women. It is terrible to think how women suffer in savage life; +and even among the intellectual Greeks, with rare exceptions, they seem to +have been treated rather as housekeepers or playthings than as the Angels +who make a Heaven of home. + +The Hindoo proverb that you should "never strike a wife, even with a +flower," though a considerable advance, tells a melancholy tale of what +must previously have been. + +In _The Origin of Civilization_ I have given many cases showing how small +a part family affection plays in savage life. Here I will only mention one +case in illustration. The Algonquin (North America) language contained no +word for "to love," so that when the missionaries translated the Bible +into it they were obliged to invent one. What a life, and what a language, +without love. + +Yet in marriage even the rough passion of a savage may contrast favorably +with any cold calculation, which, like the enchanted hoard of the +Nibelungs, is almost sure to bring misfortune. In the Kalevala, the +Finnish epic, the divine smith, Ilmarinnen, forges a bride of gold and +silver for Wainamoinen, who was pleased at first to have so rich a wife, +but soon found her intolerably cold, for, in spite of fires and furs, +whenever he touched her she froze him. + +Moreover, apart from mere coldness, how much we suffer from foolish +quarrels about trifles; from mere misunderstandings; from hasty words +thoughtlessly repeated, sometimes without the context or tone which would +have deprived them of any sting. How much would that charity which +"beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all +things," effect to smooth away the sorrows of life and add to the +happiness of home. Home indeed may be a sure haven of repose from the +storms and perils of the world. But to secure this we must not be content +to pave it with good intentions, but must make it bright and cheerful. + +If our life be one of toil and of suffering, if the world outside be cold +and dreary, what a pleasure to return to the sunshine of happy faces and +the warmth of hearts we love. + +[1] Sir T. Browne. + +[2] Mackenzie, _The Lounger_. + +[3] J. A. Symonds. + +[4] Gray's Letters. + +[5] Ruskin. + +[6] Seneca. + +[7] Emerson. + +[8] Helps. + +[9] Southey. + +[10] Heine, trans. by E. A. Bowring. + +[11] Emerson. + +[12] Woodworth. + +[13] Cowper. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +SCIENCE. + + + "Happy is he that findeth wisdom, + And the man that getteth understanding: + For the merchandise of it is better than silver, + And the gain thereof than fine gold. + She is more precious than rubies: + And all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. + Length of days is in her right hand, + And in her left hand riches and honor. + Her ways are ways of pleasantness, + And all her paths are peace." + + PROVERBS OF SOLOMON. + + +Those who have not tried for themselves can hardly imagine how much +Science adds to the interest and variety of life. It is altogether a +mistake to regard it as dry, difficult, or prosaic--much of it is as easy +as it is interesting. A wise instinct of old united the prophet and the +"seer." "The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in +darkness." Technical works, descriptions of species, etc., bear the same +relation to science as dictionaries do to literature. + +Occasionally, indeed, Science may destroy some poetical myth of antiquity, +such as the ancient Hindoo explanation of rivers, that "Indra dug out +their beds with his thunderbolts, and sent them forth by long continuous +paths;" but the real causes of natural phenomena are far more striking, +and contain more true poetry, than those which have occurred to the +untrained imagination of mankind. + +In endless aspects science is as wonderful and interesting as a fairy +tale. + + "There are things whose strong reality + Outshines our fairyland; in shape and hues + More beautiful than our fantastic sky, + And the strange constellations which the Muse + O'er her wild universe is skillful to diffuse." [1] + +Mackay justly exclaims: + + "Blessings on Science! When the earth seemed old, + When Faith grew doting, and our reason cold, + 'Twas she discovered that the world was young, + And taught a language to its lisping tongue." + +Botany, for instance, is by many regarded as a dry science. Yet though +without it we may admire flowers and trees, it is only as strangers, only +as one may admire a great man or a beautiful woman in a crowd. The +botanist, on the contrary--nay, I will not say the botanist, but one with +even a slight knowledge of that delightful science--when he goes out into +the woods, or into one of those fairy forests which we call fields, finds +himself welcomed by a glad company of friends, every one with something +interesting to tell. Dr. Johnson said that, in his opinion, when you had +seen one green field you had seen all; and a greater even than +Johnson--Socrates--the very type of intellect without science, said he was +always anxious to learn, and from fields and trees he could learn nothing. + +It has, I know, been said that botanists + + "Love not the flower they pluck and know it not. + And all their botany is but Latin names." + +Contrast this, however, with the language of one who would hardly claim to +be a master in botany, though he is certainly a loving student. +"Consider," says Ruskin, "what we owe to the meadow grass, to the covering +of the dark ground by that glorious enamel, by the companies of those +soft, countless, and peaceful spears of the field! Follow but for a little +time the thought of all that we ought to recognize in those words. All +spring and summer is in them--the walks by silent scented paths, the rest +in noonday heat, the joy of the herds and flocks, the power of all +shepherd life and meditation; the life of the sunlight upon the world, +falling in emerald streaks and soft blue shadows, when else it would have +struck on the dark mould or scorching dust; pastures beside the pacing +brooks, soft banks and knolls of lowly hills, thymy slopes of down +overlooked by the blue line of lifted sea; crisp lawns all dim with early +dew, or smooth in evening warmth of barred sunshine, dinted by happy feet, +softening in their fall the sound of loving voices." + +My own tastes and studies have led me mainly in the direction of Natural +History and Archaeology; but if you love one science, you cannot but feel +intense interest in them all. How grand are the truths of Astronomy! +Prudhomme, in a sonnet beautifully translated by Arthur O'Shaugnessy, has +pictured an Observatory. He says-- + + "'Tis late; the astronomer in his lonely height, + Exploring, all the dark, descries afar + Orbs that like distant isles of splendor are." + +He notices a comet, and calculating its orbit, finds that it will return +in a thousand years-- + + "The star will come. It dare not by one hour + Cheat Science, or falsify her calculation; + Men will have passed, but, watchful in the tower, + Man shall remain in sleepless contemplation; + And should all men have perished in their turn, + Truth in their place would watch that star's return." + +Ernest Rhys well says of a student's chamber-- + + "Strange things pass nightly in this little room, + All dreary as it looks by light of day; + Enchantment reigns here when at evening play + Red fire-light glimpses through the pallid gloom." + +And the true student, in Ruskin's words, stands on an eminence from which +he looks back on the universe of God and forward over the generations of +men. + +Even if it be true that science was dry when it was buried in huge folios, +that is certainly no longer the case now; and Lord Chesterfield's wise +wish, that Minerva might have three graces as well as Venus, has been +amply fulfilled. + +The study of natural history indeed seems destined to replace the loss of +what is, not very happily I think, termed "sport;" engraven in us as it is +by the operation of thousands of years, during which man lived greatly on +the produce of the chase. Game is gradually becoming "small by degrees and +beautifully less." Our prehistoric ancestors hunted the mammoth, the +woolly-haired rhinoceros, and Irish elk; the ancient Britons had the wild +ox, the deer, and the wolf. We have still the pheasant, the partridge, the +fox, and the hare; but even these are becoming scarcer, and must be +preserved first, in order that they may be killed afterwards. Some of us +even now--and more, no doubt, will hereafter--satisfy instincts, +essentially of the same origin, by the study of birds, or insects, or even +infusoria--of creatures which more than make up by their variety what they +want in size. + +Emerson avers that when a naturalist has "got all snakes and lizards in +his phials, science has done for him also, and has put the man into a +bottle." I do not deny that there are such cases, but they are quite +exceptional. The true naturalist is no mere dry collector. + +I cannot resist, although it is rather long, quoting the following +description from Hudson and Gosse's beautiful work on the Rotifera:-- + +"On the Somersetshire side of the Avon, and not far from Clifton, is a +little combe, at the bottom of which lies an old fish-pond. Its slopes are +covered with plantations of beech and fir, so as to shelter the pond on +three sides, and yet leave it open to the soft south-western breezes, and +to the afternoon sun. At the head of the combe wells up a clear spring, +which sends a thread of water, trickling through a bed of osiers, into the +upper end of the pond. A stout stone wall has been drawn across the combe +from side to side, so as to dam up the stream; and there is a gap in one +corner through which the overflow finds its way in a miniature cascade, +down into the lower plantation. + +"If we approach the pond by the gamekeeper's path from the cottage above, +we shall pass through the plantation, and come unseen right on the corner +of the wall; so that one quiet step will enable us to see at a glance its +whole surface, without disturbing any living thing that may be there. + +"Far off at the upper end a water-hen is leading her little brood among +the willows; on the fallen trunk of an old beech, lying half way across +the pond, a vole is sitting erect, rubbing his right ear, and the splash +of a beech husk just at our feet tells of a squirrel who is dining +somewhere in the leafy crown above us. + +"But see, the water-rat has spied us out, and is making straight for his +hole in the bank, while the ripple above him is the only thing that tells +of his silent flight. The water-hen has long ago got under cover, and the +squirrel drops no more husks. It is a true Silent Pond, and without a sign +of life. + +"But if, retaining sense and sight, we could shrink into living atoms and +plunge under the water, of what a world of wonders should we then form +part! We should find this fairy kingdom peopled with the strangest +creatures--creatures that swim with their hair, that have ruby eyes +blazing deep in their necks, with telescopic limbs that now are withdrawn +wholly within their bodies and now stretched out to many times their own +length. Here are some riding at anchor, moored by delicate threads spun +out from their toes; and there are others flashing by in glass armor, +bristling with sharp spikes or ornamented with bosses and flowing curves; +while fastened to a great stem is an animal convolvulus that, by some +invisible power, draws a never-ceasing stream of victims into its gaping +cup, and tears them to death with hooked jaws deep down within its body. + +"Close by it, on the same stem, is something that looks like a filmy +heart's-ease. A curious wheelwork runs round its four outspread petals; +and a chain of minute things, living and dead, is winding in and out of +their curves into a gulf at the back of the flower. What happens to them +there we cannot see; for round the stem is raised a tube of golden-brown +balls, all regularly piled on each other. Some creature dashes by, and +like a flash the flower vanishes within its tube. + +"We sink still lower, and now see on the bottom slow gliding lumps of +jelly that thrust a shapeless arm out where they will, and grasping their +prey with these chance limbs, wrap themselves round their food to get a +meal; for they creep without feet, seize without hands, eat without +mouths, and digest without stomachs." + +Too many, however, still feel only in Nature that which we share "with the +weed and the worm;" they love birds as boys do--that is, they love +throwing stones at them; or wonder if they are good to eat, as the +Esquimaux asked about the watch; or treat them as certain devout Afreedee +villagers are said to have treated a descendant of the Prophet--killed him +in order to worship at his tomb: but gradually we may hope that the love +of Science--the notes "we sound upon the strings of nature" [2]--will +become to more and more, as already it is to many, a "faithful and sacred +element of human feeling." + +Science summons us + + "To that cathedral, boundless as our wonder, + Whose quenchless lamps the sun and moon supply; + Its choir the winds and waves, its organ thunder, + Its dome the sky." [3] + +Where the untrained eye will see nothing but mire and dirt, Science will +often reveal exquisite possibilities. The mud we tread under our feet in +the street is a grimy mixture of clay and sand, soot and water. Separate +the sand, however, as Ruskin observes--let the atoms arrange themselves in +peace according to their nature--and you have the opal. Separate the clay, +and it becomes a white earth, fit for the finest porcelain; or if it still +further purifies itself, you have a sapphire. Take the soot, and if +properly treated it will give you a diamond. While, lastly, the water, +purified and distilled, will become a dew-drop, or crystallize into a +lovely star. Or, again, you may see as you will in any shallow pool either +the mud lying at the bottom, or the image of the heavens above. + +Nay, even if we imagine beauties and charms which do not really exist; +still if we err at all it is better to do so on the side of charity; like +Nasmyth, who tells us in his delightful autobiography, that he used to +think one of his friends had a charming and kindly twinkle, and was one +day surprised to discover that he had a glass eye. + +But I should err indeed were I to dwell exclusively on science as lending +interest and charm to our leisure hours. Far from this, it would be +impossible to overrate the importance of scientific training on the wise +conduct of life. + +"Science," said the Royal Commission of 1861, "quickens and cultivates +directly the faculty of observation, which in very many persons lies +almost dormant through life, the power of accurate and rapid +generalization, and the mental habit of method and arrangement; it +accustoms young persons to trace the sequence of cause and effect; it +familiarizes them with a kind of reasoning which interests them, and which +they can promptly comprehend; and it is perhaps the best corrective for +that indolence which is the vice of half-awakened minds, and which shrinks +from any exertion that is not, like an effort of memory, merely +mechanical." + +Again, when we contemplate the grandeur of science, if we transport +ourselves in imagination back into primeval times, or away into the +immensity of space, our little troubles and sorrows seem to shrink into +insignificance. "Ah, beautiful creations!" says Helps, speaking of the +stars, "it is not in guiding us over the seas of our little planet, but +out of the dark waters of our own perturbed minds, that we may make to +ourselves the most of your significance." They teach, he tells us +elsewhere, "something significant to all of us; and each man has a whole +hemisphere of them, if he will but look up, to counsel and befriend him." + +There is a passage in an address given many years ago by Professor Huxley +to the South London Working Men's College which struck me very much at the +time, and which puts this in language more forcible than any which I could +use. + +"Suppose," he said, "it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune +of every one of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or +losing a game of chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to +be a primary duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces? +Do you not think that we should look with a disapprobation amounting to +scorn upon the father who allowed his son, or the State which allowed its +members, to grow up without knowing a pawn from a knight? Yet it is a very +plain and elementary truth that the life, the fortune, and the happiness +of every one of us, and more or less of those who are connected with us, +do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely +more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game which has been +played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two +players in a game of his or her own. The chessboard is the world, the +pieces are the phenomena of the Universe, the rules of the game are what +we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from +us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we +know to our cost that he never overlooks a mistake or makes the smallest +allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well the highest stakes are +paid, with that sort of overflowing generosity which with the strong shows +delight in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated--without haste, +but without remorse." + +I have elsewhere endeavored to show the purifying and ennobling influence +of science upon religion; how it has assisted, if indeed it may not claim +the main share, in sweeping away the dark superstitions, the degrading +belief in sorcery and witchcraft, and the cruel, however well-intentioned, +intolerance which embittered the Christian world almost from the very days +of the Apostles themselves. In this she has surely performed no mean +service to religion itself. As Canon Fremantle has well and justly said, +men of science, and not the clergy only, are ministers of religion. + +Again, the national necessity for scientific education is imperative. We +are apt to forget how much we owe to science, because so many of its +wonderful gifts have become familiar parts of our everyday life, that +their very value makes us forget their origin. At the recent celebration +of the sexcentenary of Peterhouse College, near the close of a long +dinner, Sir Frederick Bramwell was called on, some time after midnight, to +return thanks for Applied Science. He excused himself from making a long +speech on the ground that, though the subject was almost inexhaustible, +the only illustration which struck him as appropriate under the +circumstances was "the application of the domestic lucifer to the bedroom +candle." One cannot but feel how unfortunate was the saying of the poet +that + + "The light-outspeeding telegraph + Bears nothing on its beam." + +The report of the Royal Commission on Technical Instruction, which has +recently been issued, teems with illustrations of the advantages afforded +by technical instruction. At the same time, technical training ought not +to begin too soon, for, as Bain truly observes, "in a right view of +scientific education the first principles and leading examples, with +select details, of all the great sciences, are the proper basis of the +complete and exhaustive study of any single science." Indeed, in the words +of Sir John Herschel, "it can hardly be pressed forcibly enough on the +attention of the student of Nature, that there is scarcely any natural +phenomenon which can be fully and completely explained in all its +circumstances, without a union of several, perhaps of all, the sciences." +The most important secrets of Nature are often hidden away in unexpected +places. Many valuable substances have been discovered in the refuse of +manufactories; and it was a happy thought of Glauber to examine what +everybody else threw away. There is perhaps no nation the future happiness +and prosperity of which depend more on science than our own. Our +population is over 35,000,000, and is rapidly increasing. Even at present +it is far larger than our acreage can support. Few people whose business +does not lie in the study of statistics realize that we have to pay +foreign countries no less than £140,000,000 a year for food. This, of +course, we purchase mainly by manufactured articles. We hear now a great +deal about depression of trade, and foreign, especially American, +competition, which, let me observe, will be much keener a few years hence, +when the United States have paid off their debt, and consequently reduced +taxation. + +But let us look forward a hundred years--no long time in the history of a +nation. Our coal supplies will then be greatly diminished. The population +of Great Britain doubles at the present rate of increase in about fifty +years, so that we should, if the present rate continues, require to import +over £400,000,000 a year in food. How, then, is this to be paid for? We +have before us, as usual, three courses. The natural rate of increase may +be stopped, which means suffering and outrage; or the population may +increase, only to vegetate in misery and destitution; or, lastly, by the +development of scientific training and appliances, they may probably be +maintained in happiness and comfort. We have, in fact, to make our choice +between science and suffering. It is only by wisely utilizing the gifts of +science that we have any hope of maintaining our population in plenty and +comfort. Science, however, will do this for us if we will only let her. +She may be no Fairy Godmother indeed, but she will richly endow those who +love her. + +That discoveries, innumerable, marvellous, and fruitful, await the +successful explorers of Nature no one can doubt. What would one not give +for a Science primer of the next century? for, to paraphrase a well-known +saying, even the boy at the plough will then know more of science than the +wisest of our philosophers do now. Boyle entitled one of his essays "Of +Man's great Ignorance of the Uses of Natural Things; or that there is no +one thing in Nature whereof the uses to human life are yet thoroughly +understood"--a saying which is still as true now as when it was written. +And, lest I should be supposed to be taking too sanguine a view, let me +give the authority of Sir John Herschel, who says: "Since it cannot but be +that innumerable and most important uses remain to be discovered among the +materials and objects already known to us, as well as among those which +the progress of science must hereafter disclose, we may hence conceive a +well-grounded expectation, not only of constant increase in the physical +resources of mankind, and the consequent improvement of their condition, +but of continual accession to our power of penetrating into the arcana of +Nature and becoming acquainted with her highest laws." + +Nor is it merely in a material point of view that science would thus +benefit the nation. She will raise and strengthen the national, as surely +as the individual, character. The great gift which Minerva offered to +Paris is now freely tendered to all, for we may apply to the nation, as +well as to the individual, Tennyson's noble lines:-- + + "Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control: + These three alone lead life to sovereign power, + Yet not for power (power of herself + Would come uncalled for), but to live by law; + Acting the law we live by without fear." + +"In the vain and foolish exultation of the heart," said John Quincy Adams, +at the close of his final lecture on resigning his chair at Boston, "which +the brighter prospects of life will sometimes excite, the pensive portress +of Science shall call you to the sober pleasures of her holy cell. In the +mortification of disappointment, her soothing voice shall whisper serenity +and peace. In social converse with the mighty dead of ancient days, you +will never smart under the galling sense of dependence upon the mighty +living of the present age. And in your struggles with the world, should a +crisis ever occur, when even friendship may deem it prudent to desert you, +when priest and Levite shall come and look on you and pass by on the other +side, seek refuge, my unfailing friends, and be assured you shall find it, +in the friendship of Laelius and Scipio, in the patriotism of Cicero, +Demosthenes, and Burke, as well as in the precepts and example of Him +whose law is love, and who taught us to remember injuries only to forgive +them." + +Let me in conclusion quote the glowing description of our debt to science +given by Archdeacon Farrar in his address at Liverpool College--testimony, +moreover, all the more valuable, considering the source from which it +comes. + +"In this great commercial city," he said, "where you are surrounded by the +triumphs of science and of mechanism--you, whose river is ploughed by the +great steamships whose white wake has been called the fittest avenue to +the palace front of a mercantile people--you know well that in the +achievements of science there is not only beauty and wonder, but also +beneficence and power. It is not only that she has revealed to us infinite +space crowded with unnumbered worlds; infinite time peopled by unnumbered +existences; infinite organisms hitherto invisible but full of delicate and +iridescent loveliness; but also that she has been, as a great Archangel of +Mercy, devoting herself to the service of man. She has labored, her +votaries have labored, not to increase the power of despots or to add to +the magnificence of courts, but to extend human happiness, to economize +human effort, to extinguish human pain. Where of old, men toiled, half +blinded and half naked, in the mouth of the glowing furnace to mix the +white-hot iron, she now substitutes the mechanical action of the viewless +air. She has enlisted the sunbeam in her service to limn for us, with +absolute fidelity, the faces of the friends we love. She has shown the +poor miner how he may work in safety, even amid the explosive fire-damp of +the mine. She hits, by her anaesthetics, enabled the sufferer to be hushed +and unconscious while the delicate hand of some skilled operator cuts a +fragment from the nervous circle of the unquivering eye. She points not to +pyramids built during weary centuries by the sweat of miserable nations, +but to the lighthouse and the steamship, to the railroad and the +telegraph. She has restored eyes to the blind and hearing to the deaf. She +has lengthened life, she has minimized danger, she has controlled madness, +she has trampled on disease. And on all these grounds, I think that none +of our sons should grow up wholly ignorant of studies which at once train +the reason and fire the imagination, which fashion as well as forge, which +can feed as well as fill the mind." + +[1] Byron. + +[2] Emerson. + +[3] H. Smith. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +EDUCATION. + + + "No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the + vantage ground of truth."--BACON. + + + "Divine Philosophy! + Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose, + But musical as is Apollo's lute, + And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets + Where no crude surfeit reigns."--MILTON. + + +It may seem rather surprising to include education among the pleasures of +life; for in too many cases it is made odious to the young, and is +supposed to cease with school; while, on the contrary, if it is to be +really successful it must be suitable, and therefore interesting, to +children, and must last through life. The very process of acquiring +knowledge is a privilege and a blessing. It used to be said that there was +no royal road to learning; it would be more true to say that the avenues +leading to it are all royal. + +"It is not," says Jeremy Taylor, "the eye that sees the beauties of +heaven, nor the ear that hears the sweetness of music, or the glad tidings +of a prosperous accident; but the soul that perceives all the relishes of +sensual and intellectual perceptions: and the more noble and excellent the +soul is, the greater and more savory are its perceptions. And if a child +behold the rich ermine, or the diamonds of a starry night, or the order of +the world, or hears the discourses of an apostle; because he makes no +reflex act on himself and sees not what he sees, he can have but the +pleasure of a fool or the deliciousness of a mule." + +Herein lies the importance of education. I say education rather than +instruction, because it is far more important to cultivate the mind than +to store the memory. Studies are a means and not an end. "To spend too +much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is +affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a +scholar: they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience.... Crafty +men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them." [1] + +Moreover, though, as Mill says, "in the comparatively early state of human +development in which we now live, a person cannot indeed feel that +entireness of sympathy with all others which would make any real +discordance in the general direction of their conduct in life impossible," +yet education might surely do more to root in us the feeling of unity with +our fellow-creatures. At any rate, if we do not study in this spirit, all +our learning will but leave us as weak and sad as Faust. + + "I've now, alas! Philosophy, + Medicine and Jurisprudence too, + And to my cost Theology, + With ardent labor studied through, + And here I stand, with all my lore + Poor fool, no wiser than before." [2] + +Our studies should be neither "a couch on which to rest; nor a cloister in +which to promenade alone; nor a tower from which to look down on others; +nor a fortress whence we may resist them; nor a workshop for gain and +merchandise; but a rich armory and treasury for the glory of the creator +and the ennoblement of life." [3] + +For in the noble words of Epictetus, "you will do the greatest service to +the state if you shall raise, not the roofs of the houses, but the souls +of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small +houses rather than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses." + +It is then of great importance to consider whether our present system of +education is the one best calculated to fulfil these great objects. Does +it really give that love of learning which is better than learning itself? +Does all the study of the classics to which our sons devote so many years +give any just appreciation of them; or do they not on leaving college too +often feel with Byron-- + + "Then farewell, Horace; whom I hated so!" + +Too much concentration on any one subject is a great mistake, especially +in early life. Nature herself indicates the true system, if we would but +listen to her. Our instincts are good guides, though not infallible, and +children will profit little by lessons which do not interest them. In +cheerfulness, says Pliny, is the success of our studies--"studia +hilaritate proveniunt"--and we may with advantage take a lesson from +Theognis, who, in his Ode on the Marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, makes +the Muses sing: + + "What is good and fair, + Shall ever be our care; + Thus the burden of it rang, + That shall never be our care, + Which is neither good nor fair. + Such were the words your lips immortal sang." + +There are some who seem to think that our educational system is as good as +possible, and that the only remaining points of importance are the number +of schools and scholars, the question of fees, the relation of voluntary +and board schools, etc. "No doubt," says Mr. Symonds, in his _Sketches in +Italy and Greece_, "there are many who think that when we not only +advocate education but discuss the best system we are simply beating the +air; that our population is as happy and cultivated as can be, and that no +substantial advance is really possible. Mr. Galton, however, has expressed +the opinion, and most of those who have written on the social condition of +Athens seem to agree with him, that the population of Athens, taken as a +whole, was as superior to us as we are to Australian savages." + +That there is, indeed, some truth in this, probably no student of Greek +history will deny. Why, then, should this be so? I cannot but think that +our system of education is partly responsible. + +Manual and science teaching need not in any way interfere with instruction +in other subjects. Though so much has been said about the importance of +science and the value of technical instruction, or of hand-training, as I +should prefer to call it, it is unfortunately true that in our system of +education, from the highest schools downward, both of them are sadly +neglected, and the study of language reigns supreme. + +This is no new complaint. Ascham, in _The Schoolmaster_, long ago lamented +it; Milton, in his letter to Mr. Samuel Hartlib, complained "that our +children are forced to stick unreasonably in these grammatick flats and +shallows;" and observes that, "though a linguist should pride himself to +have all the tongues Babel cleft the world into, yet, if he have not +studied the solid things in them as well as the words and lexicons, he +were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man as any yeoman or +tradesman competently wise in his mother dialect only;" and Locke said +that "schools fit us for the university rather than for the world." +Commission after commission, committee after committee, have reiterated +the same complaint. How then do we stand now? + +I see it indeed constantly stated that, even if the improvement is not so +rapid as could be desired, still we are making considerable progress. But +is this so? I fear not. I fear that our present system does not really +train the mind, or cultivate the power of observation, or even give the +amount of information which we may reasonably expect from the time devoted +to it. + +Sir M. E. Grant-Duff has expressed the opinion that a boy or girl of +fourteen might reasonably be expected to "read aloud clearly and +agreeably, to write a large distinct round hand, and to know the ordinary +rules of arithmetic, especially compound addition--a by no means universal +accomplishment; to speak and write French with ease and correctness, and +have some slight acquaintance with French literature; to translate _ad +aperturam libri_ from an ordinary French or German book; to have a +thoroughly good elementary knowledge of geography, under which are +comprehended some notions of astronomy--enough to excite his curiosity; a +knowledge of the very broadest facts of geology and history--enough to +make him understand, in a clear but perfectly general way, how the larger +features of the world he lives in, physical and political, came to be like +what they are; to have been trained from earliest infancy to use his +powers of observation on plants, or animals, or rocks, or other natural +objects; and to have gathered a general acquaintance with what is most +supremely good in that portion of the more important English classics +which is suitable to his time of life; to have some rudimentary +acquaintance with drawing and music." + +To effect this, no doubt, "industry must be our oracle, and reason our +Apollo," as Sir T. Browne says; but surely it is no unreasonable estimate; +yet how far do we fall short of it? General culture is often deprecated +because it is said that smatterings are useless. But there is all the +difference in the world between having a smattering of, or being well +grounded in, a subject. It is the latter which we advocate--to try to +know, as Lord Brougham well said, "everything of something, and something +of everything." + +"It can hardly," says Sir John Herschel, "be pressed forcibly enough on +the attention of the student of nature, that there is scarcely any natural +phenomenon which can be fully and completely explained, in all its +circumstances, without a union of several, perhaps of all, the sciences." + +The present system in most of our public schools and colleges sacrifices +everything else to classics and arithmetic. They are most important +subjects, but ought not to exclude science and modern languages. Moreover, +after all, our sons leave college unable to speak either Latin or Greek, +and too often absolutely without any interest in classical history or +literature. But the boy who has been educated without any training in +science has grave reason to complain of "knowledge to one entrance quite +shut out." + +By concentrating the attention, indeed, so much on one or two subjects, we +defeat our own object, and produce a feeling of distaste where we wish to +create an interest. + +Our great mistake in education is, as it seems to me, the worship of +book-learning--the confusion of instruction and education. We strain the +memory instead of cultivating the mind. The children in our elementary +schools are wearied by the mechanical act of writing, and the interminable +intricacies of spelling; they are oppressed by columns of dates, by lists +of kings and places, which convey no definite idea to their minds, and +have no near relation to their daily wants and occupations; while in our +public schools the same unfortunate results are produced by the weary +monotony of Latin and Greek grammar. We ought to follow exactly the +opposite course with children--to give them a wholesome variety of mental +food, and endeavor to cultivate their tastes, rather than to fill their +minds with dry facts. The important thing is not so much that every child +should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn. +What does it matter if the pupil know a little more or a little less? A +boy who leaves school knowing much, but hating his lessons, will soon have +forgotten almost all he ever learned; while another who had acquired a +thirst for knowledge, even if he had learned little, would soon teach +himself more than the first ever knew. Children are by nature eager for +information. They are always putting questions. This ought to be +encouraged. In fact, we may to a great extent trust to their instincts, +and in that case they will do much to educate themselves. Too often, +however, the acquirement of knowledge is placed before them in a form so +irksome and fatiguing that all desire for information is choked, or even +crushed out; so that our schools, in fact, become places for the +discouragement of learning, and thus produce the very opposite effect from +that at which we aim. In short, children should be trained to observe and +to think, for in that way there would be opened out to them a source of +the purest enjoyment for leisure hours, and the wisest judgment in the +work of life. + +Another point in which I venture to think that our system of education +might be amended, is that it tends at present to give the impression that +everything is known. + +Dr. Busby is said to have kept his hat on in the presence of King Charles, +that the boys might see what a great man he was. I doubt, however, whether +the boys were deceived by the hat; and am very skeptical about Dr. Busby's +theory of education. + +Master John of Basingstoke, who was Archdeacon of Leicester in 1252, +learned Greek during a visit to Athens, from Constantina, daughter of the +Archbishop of Athens, and used to say afterwards that though he had +studied well and diligently at the University of Paris, yet he learned +more from an Athenian maiden of twenty. We cannot all study so pleasantly +as this, but the main fault I find with Dr. Busby's system is that it +keeps out of sight the great fact of human ignorance. + +Boys are given the impression that the masters know everything. If, on the +contrary, the great lesson impressed on them was that what we know is as +nothing to what we do not know, that the "great ocean of truth lies all +undiscovered before us," surely this would prove a great stimulus, and +many would be nobly anxious to enlarge the boundaries of human knowledge, +and extend the intellectual kingdom of man. Philosophy, says Aristotle, +begins in wonder, for Iris is the child of Thaumas. + +Education ought not to cease when we leave school; but if well begun +there, will continue through life. + +Moreover, whatever our occupation or profession in life may be, it is most +desirable to create for ourselves some other special interest. In the +choice of a subject every one should consult his own instincts and +interests, I will not attempt to suggest whether it is better to pursue +art or science; whether we should study the motes in the sunbeam, or the +heavenly bodies themselves. Whatever may be the subject of our choice, we +shall find enough, and more than enough, to repay the devotion of a +lifetime. Life no doubt is paved with enjoyments, but we must all expect +times of anxiety, of suffering, and of sorrow; and when these come it is +an inestimable comfort to have some deep interest which will, at any rate +to some extent, enable us to escape from ourselves. + +"A cultivated mind," says Mill--"I do not mean that of a philosopher, but +any mind to which the fountains of knowledge have been opened, and which +has been taught in any tolerable degree to exercise its faculties--will +find sources of inexhaustible interest in all that surrounds it; in the +objects of nature, the achievements of art, the imaginations of poetry, +the incidents of history, the ways of mankind, past and present, and their +prospects in the future. It is possible, indeed, to become indifferent to +all this, and that too without having exhausted a thousandth part of it; +but only when one has had from the beginning no moral or human interest in +these things, and has sought in them only the gratification of curiosity." + +I have been subjected to some good-natured banter for having said that I +looked forward to a time when our artisans and mechanics would be great +readers. But it is surely not unreasonable to regard our social condition +as susceptible of great improvement. The spread of schools, the cheapness +of books, the establishment of free libraries will, it may be hoped, +exercise a civilizing and ennobling influence. They will even, I believe, +do much to diminish poverty and suffering, so much of which is due to +ignorance and to the want of interest and brightness in uneducated life. +So far as our elementary schools are concerned, there is no doubt much +difficulty in apportioning the National Grant without unduly stimulating +mere mechanical instruction. But this is not the place to discuss the +subject of religious or moral training, or the system of apportioning the +grant. + +If we succeed in giving the love of learning, the learning itself is sure +to follow. + +We should therefore endeavor to educate our children so that every country +walk may be a pleasure; that the discoveries of science may be a living +interest; that our national history and poetry may be sources of +legitimate pride and rational enjoyment. In short, our schools, if they +are to be worthy of the name--if they are to fulfil their high +function--must be something more than mere places of dry study; they must +train the children educated in them so that they may be able to appreciate +and enjoy those intellectual gifts which might be, and ought to be, a +source of interest and of happiness, alike to the high and to the low, to +the rich and to the poor. + +A wise system of education will at least teach us how little man yet +knows, how much he has still to learn; it will enable us to realize that +those who complain of the tiresome monotony of life have only themselves +to blame; and that knowledge is pleasure as well as power. It will lead us +all to try with Milton "to behold the bright countenance of truth in the +quiet and still air of study," and to feel with Bacon that "no pleasure is +comparable is the standing upon the vantage ground of truth." + +We should then indeed realize in part, for as yet we cannot do so fully, +the "sacred trusts of health, strength, and time," and how thankful we +ought to be for the inestimable gift of life. + +[1] Bacon. + +[2] Goethe. + +[3] Bacon. + + +END OF PART I. + + + + + + +THE PLEASURES OF LIFE. + +PART II. + + + + + + +PREFACE + + + "And what is writ is writ-- + Would it were worthier." + + BYRON. + + +Herewith I launch the conclusion of my subject. Perhaps I am unwise in +publishing a second part. The first was so kindly received that I am +running a risk in attempting to add to it. + +In the preface, however, to the first part I have expressed the hope that +the thoughts and quotations in which I have found most comfort and +delight, might be of use to others also. + +In this my most sanguine hopes have been more than realized. Not only has +the book passed through thirteen editions in less than two years, but the +many letters which I have received have been most gratifying. + +Two criticisms have been repeated by several of those who have done me the +honor of noticing my previous volume. It has been said in the first place +that my life has been exceptionally bright and full, and that I cannot +therefore judge for others. Nor do I attempt to do so. I do not forget, I +hope I am not ungrateful for, all that has been bestowed on me. But if I +have been greatly favored, ought I not to be on that very account +especially qualified to write on such a theme? Moreover, I have had,--who +has not,--my own sorrows. + +Again, some have complained that there is too much quotation--too little +of my own. This I take to be in reality a great compliment. I have not +striven to be original. + +If, as I have been assured by many, my book have proved a comfort, and +have been able to cheer in the hour of darkness, that is indeed an ample +reward, and is the utmost I have ever hoped. + +HIGH ELMS, DOWN, + +KENT, _April 1889_. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +AMBITION. + + + "Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise + (That last infirmity of noble minds) + To scorn delights and live laborious days." + + MILTON. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +AMBITION. + + +If fame be the last infirmity of noble minds, ambition is often the first; +though, when properly directed, it may be no feeble aid to virtue. + +Had not my youthful mind, says Cicero, "from many precepts, from many +writings, drunk in this truth, that glory and virtue ought to be the +darling, nay, the only wish in life; that, to attain these, the torments +of the flesh, with the perils of death and exile, are to be despised; +never had I exposed my person in so many encounters, and to these daily +conflicts with the worst of men, for your deliverance. But, on this head, +books are full; the voice of the wise is full; the examples of antiquity +are full: and all these the night of barbarism had still enveloped, had it +not been enlightened by the sun of science." + +The poet tells us that + + "The many fail: the one succeeds." [1] + +But this is scarcely true. All succeed who deserve, though not perhaps as +they hoped. An honorable defeat is better than a mean victory, and no one +is really the worse for being beaten, unless he loses heart. Though we may +not be able to attain, that is no reason why we should not aspire. + +I know, says Morris, + + "How far high failure overleaps the bound + Of low successes." + +And Bacon assures us that "if a man look sharp and attentively he shall +see fortune; for though she is blind, she is not invisible." + +To give ourselves a reasonable prospect of success we must realize what we +hope to achieve; and then make the most of our opportunities. Of these the +use of time is one of the most important. What have we to do with time, +asks Oliver Wendell Holmes, but to fill it up with labor. + +"At the battle of Montebello," said Napoleon, "I ordered Kellermann to +attack with 800 horse, and with these he separated the 6000 Hungarian +grenadiers before the very eyes of the Austrian cavalry. This cavalry was +half a league off, and required a quarter of an hour to arrive on the +field of action; and I have observed that it is always these quarters of +an hour that decide the fate of a battle," including, we may add, the +battle of life. + +Nor must we spare ourselves in other ways, for + + "He who thinks in strife + To earn a deathless fame, must do, nor ever care for life." [2] + +In the excitement of the struggle, moreover, he will suffer comparatively +little from wounds and blows which would otherwise cause intense +suffering. + +It is well to weigh scrupulously the object in view, to run as little risk +as may be, to count the cost with care. + +But when the mind is once made up, there must be no looking back, you must +spare yourself no labor, nor shrink from danger. + + "He either fears his fate too much + Or his deserts are small, + That dares not put it to the touch + To gain or lose it all." [3] + +Glory, says Renan, "is after all the thing which has the best chance of +not being altogether vanity." But what is glory? + +Marcus Aurelius observes that "a spider is proud when it has caught a fly, +a man when he has caught a hare, another when he has taken a little fish +in a net, another when he has taken wild boars, another when he has taken +bears, and another when he has taken Sarmatians;" [4] but this, if from +one point of view it shows the vanity of fame, also encourages us with the +evidence that every one may succeed if his objects are but reasonable. + +Alexander may be taken as almost a type of Ambition in its usual form, +though carried to an extreme. + +His desire was to conquer, not to inherit or to rule. When news was +brought that his father Philip had taken some town, or won some battle, +instead of appearing delighted with it, he used to say to his companions, +"My father will go on conquering, till there be nothing extraordinary left +for you and me to do." [5] He is said even to have been mortified at the +number of the stars, considering that he had not been able to conquer one +world. Such ambition is justly foredoomed to disappointment. + +The remarks of Philosophers on the vanity of ambition refer generally to +that unworthy form of which Alexander may be taken as the type--the idea +of self-exaltation, not only without any reference to the happiness, but +even regardless of the sufferings, of others. + +"A continual and restless search after fortune," says Bacon, "takes up too +much of their time who have nobler things to observe." Indeed he elsewhere +extends this, and adds, "No man's private fortune can be an end any way +worthy of his existence." + +Goethe well observes that man "exists for culture; not for what he can +accomplish, but for what can be accomplished in him." [6] + +As regards fame we must not confuse name and essence. To be remembered is +not necessarily to be famous. There is infamy as well as fame; and +unhappily almost as many are remembered for the one as for the other, and +not a few for the mixture of both. + +Who would not rather be forgotten, than recollected as Ahab or Jezebel, +Nero or Commodus, Messalina or Heliogabalus, King John or Richard III.? + +"To be nameless in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous history. The +Canaanitish woman lives more happily without a name than Herodias with +one; and who would not rather have been the good thief than Pilate?" [7] + +Kings and Generals are often remembered as much for their deaths as for +their lives, for their misfortunes as for their successes. The Hero of +Thermopylae was Leonidas, not Xerxes. Alexander's Empire fell to pieces at +his death. Napoleon was a great genius, though no Hero. But what came of +all his victories? They passed away like the smoke of his guns, and he +left France weaker, poorer, and smaller than he found her. The most +lasting result of his genius is no military glory, but the Code Napoléon. + +A surer and more glorious title to fame is that of those who are +remembered for some act of justice or self-devotion: the self-sacrifice of +Leonidas, the good faith of Regulus, are the glories of history. + +In some cases where men have been called after places, the men are +remembered, while the places are forgotten. When we speak of Palestrina or +Perugino, of Nelson or Wellington, of Newton or Darwin, who remembers the +towns? We think only of the men. + +Goethe has been called the soul of his century. + +It is true that we have but meagre biographies of Shakespeare or of Plato; +yet how much we know about them. + +Statesmen and Generals enjoy great celebrity during their lives. The +newspapers chronicle every word and movement. But the fame of the +Philosopher and Poet is more enduring. + +Wordsworth deprecates monuments to Poets, with some exceptions, on this +very account. The case of Statesmen, he says, is different. It is right to +commemorate them because they might otherwise be forgotten; but Poets live +in their books forever. + +The real conquerors of the world indeed are not the generals but the +thinkers; not Genghis Khan and Akbar, Rameses, or Alexander, but Confucius +and Buddha, Aristotle, Plato, and Christ. The rulers and kings who reigned +over our ancestors have for the most part long since sunk into +oblivion--they are forgotten for want of some sacred bard to give them +life--or are remembered, like Suddhodana and Pilate, from their +association with higher spirits. + +Such men's lives cannot be compressed into any biography. They lived not +merely in their own generation, but for all time. When we speak of the +Elizabethan period we think of Shakespeare and Bacon, Raleigh and Spenser. +The ministers and secretaries of state, with one or two exceptions, we +scarcely remember, and Bacon himself is recollected less as the Judge than +as the Philosopher. + +Moreover, to what do Generals and Statesmen owe their fame? They were +celebrated for their deeds, but to the Poet and the Historian they owe +their fame, and to the Poet and Historian we owe their glorious memories +and the example of their virtues. + + "Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona + Multi; sed omnes illacrimabiles + Urgentur ignotique longâ + Nocte, carent quia vate sacro." + +There were many brave men before Agamemnon, but their memory has perished +because they were celebrated by no divine Bard. Montrose happily combined +the two, when in "My dear and only love" he promises, + + "I'll make thee glorious by my pen, + And famous by my sword." + +It is remarkable, and encouraging, how many of the greatest men have risen +from the lowest rank, and triumphed over obstacles which might well have +seemed insurmountable; nay, even obscurity itself may be a source of +honor. The very doubts as to Homer's birthplace have contributed to this +glory, seven cities as we all know laying claim to the great poet-- + + "Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodos, Argos, Athenae." + +To take men of Science only. Ray was the son of a blacksmith, Watt of a +shipwright, Franklin of a tallow-chandler, Dalton of a handloom weaver, +Fraünhofer of a glazier, Laplace of a farmer, Linnaeus of a poor curate, +Faraday of a blacksmith, Lamarck of a banker's clerk; Davy was an +apothecary's assistant, Galileo, Kepler, Sprengel, Cuvier, and Sir W. +Herschel were all children of very poor parents. + +It is, on the other hand, sad to think how many of our greatest +benefactors are unknown even by name. Who discovered the art of procuring +fire? Prometheus is merely the personification of forethought. Who +invented letters? Cadmus is a mere name. + +These inventions, indeed, are lost in the mists of antiquity, but even as +regards recent progress the steps are often so gradual, and so numerous, +that few inventions can be attributed entirely, or even mainly, to any one +person. + +Columbus is said, and truly said, to have discovered America, though the +Northmen were there before him. + +We Englishmen have every reason to be proud of our fellow-countrymen. To +take Philosophers and men of Science only, Bacon and Hobbes' Locke and +Berkeley, Hume and Hamilton, will always be associated with the progress +of human thought; Newton with gravitation, Adam Smith with Political +Economy, Young with the undulatory theory of light, Herschel with the +discovery of Uranus and the study of the star depths, Lord Worcester, +Trevethick, and Watt with the steam-engine, Wheatstone with the electric +telegraph, Jenner with the banishment of smallpox, Simpson with the +practical application of anaesthetics, and Darwin with the creation of +modern Natural History. + +These men, and such as these, have made our history and moulded our +opinions; and though during life they may have occupied, comparatively, an +insignificant space in the eyes of their countrymen, they became at length +an irresistible power, and have now justly grown to a glorious memory. + +[1] Tennyson. + +[2] Beowulf. + +[3] Montrose. + +[4] He is referring here to one of his expeditions. + +[5] Plutarch. + +[6] Emerson. + +[7] Sir J. Browne. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +WEALTH. + + + "The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of + them all."--PROVERBS OF SOLOMON. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +WEALTH. + + +Ambition often takes the form of a love of money. There are many who have +never attempted Art or Music, Poetry or Science; but most people do +something for a livelihood, and consequently an increase of income is not +only acceptable in itself, but gives a pleasant feeling of success. + +Doubt is often expressed whether wealth is any advantage. I do not myself +believe that those who are born, as the saying is, with a silver spoon in +their mouth, are necessarily any the happier for it. No doubt wealth +entails almost more labor than poverty, and certainly more anxiety. Still +it must, I think, be confessed that the possession of an income, whatever +it may be, which increases somewhat as the years roll on, does add to the +comfort of life. + +Unquestionably the possession of wealth is by no means unattended by +drawbacks. Money and the love of money often go together. The poor man, as +Emerson says, is the man who wishes to be rich; and the more a man has, +the more he often longs to be richer. Just as drinking often does but +increase thirst; so in many cases the craving for riches does grow with +wealth. + +This is, of course, especially the case when money is sought for its own +sake. Moreover, it is often easier to make money than to keep or to enjoy +it. Keeping it is dull and anxious drudgery. The dread of loss may hang +like a dark cloud over life. Apicius, when he squandered most of his +patrimony, but had still 250,000 crowns left, committed suicide, as Seneca +tells us, for fear he should die of hunger. + +Wealth is certainly no sinecure. Moreover, the value of money depends +partly on knowing what to do with it, partly on the manner in which it is +acquired. + +"Acquire money, thy friends say, that we also may have some. If I can +acquire money and also keep myself modest, and faithful, and magnanimous, +point out the way, and I will acquire it. But if you ask me to love the +things which are good and my own, in order that you may gain things that +are not good, see how unfair and unwise you are. For which would you +rather have? Money, or a faithful and modest friend.... + +"What hinders a man, who has clearly comprehended these things, from +living with a light heart, and bearing easily the reins, quietly expecting +everything which can happen, and enduring that which has already happened? +Would you have me to bear poverty? Come, and you will know what poverty is +when it has found one who can act well the part of a poor man." [1] + +We must bear in mind Solon's answer to Croesus, "Sir, if any other come +that hath better iron than you, he will be master of all this gold." + +Midas is another case in point. He prayed that everything he touched might +be turned into gold, and this prayer was granted. His wine turned to gold, +his bread turned to gold, his clothes, his very bed. + + "Attonitus novitate mali, divesque miserque, + Effugere optat opes, et quae modo voverat, odit." + +He is by no means the only man who has suffered from too much gold. + +The real truth I take to be that wealth is not necessarily an advantage, +but that whether it is so or not depends on the use we make of it. The +same, however, might be said of most other opportunities and privileges; +Knowledge and Strength, Beauty and Skill, may all be abused; if we neglect +or misuse them we are worse off than if we had never had them. Wealth is +only a disadvantage in the hands of those who do not know how to use it. +It gives the command of so many other things--leisure, the power of +helping friends, books, works of art, opportunities and means of travel. + +It would, however, be easy to exaggerate the advantages of money. It is +well worth having, and worth working for, but it does not requite too +great a sacrifice; not indeed so great as is often offered up to it. A +wise proverb tells us that gold may be bought too dear. If wealth is to be +valued because it gives leisure, clearly it would be a mistake to +sacrifice leisure in the struggle for wealth. Money has no doubt also a +tendency to make men poor in spirit. But, on the other hand, what gift is +there which is without danger? + +Euripides said that money finds friends for men, and has great (he said +the greatest) power among Mankind, cynically adding, "A mighty person +indeed is a rich man, especially if his heir be unknown." + +Bossuet tells us that "he had no attachment to riches, still if he had +only what was barely necessary, he felt himself narrowed, and would lose +more than half his talents." + +Shelley was certainly not an avaricious man, and yet "I desire money," he +said, "because I think I know the use of it. It commands labor, it gives +leisure; and to give leisure to those who will employ it in the forwarding +of truth is the noblest present an individual can make to the whole." + +Many will have felt with Pepys when he quaintly and piously says, "Abroad +with my wife, the first time that ever I rode in my own coach; which do +make my heart rejoice and praise God, and pray him to bless it to me, and +continue it." + +This, indeed, was a somewhat selfish satisfaction. Yet the merchant need +not quit nor be ashamed of his profession, bearing in mind only the +inscription on the Church of St. Giacomo de Rialto at Venice: "Around this +temple let the merchant's law be just, his weight true, and his covenants +faithful." [2] + +If life has been sacrificed to the rolling up of money for its own sake, +the very means by which it was acquired will prevent its being enjoyed; +the chill of poverty will have entered into the very bones. The term Miser +was happily chosen for such persons; they are essentially miserable. + +"A collector peeps into all the picture shops of Europe for a landscape of +Poussin, a crayon sketch of Salvator; but the Transfiguration, the Last +Judgment, the Communion of St. Jerome, and what are as transcendent as +these, are on the walls of the Vatican, the Uffizi, or the Louvre, where +every footman may see them: to say nothing of Nature's pictures in every +street, of sunsets and sunrises every day, and the sculpture of the human +body never absent. A collector recently bought at public auction in +London, for one hundred and fifty-seven guineas, an autograph of +Shakespeare: but for nothing a schoolboy can read Hamlet, and can detect +secrets of highest concernment yet unpublished therein." [3] And yet +"What hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyes." [4] + +We are really richer than we think. We often hear of Earth hunger. People +envy a great Landlord, and fancy how delightful it must be to possess a +large estate. But, as Emerson says, "if you own land, the land owns you." +Moreover, have we not all, in a better sense--have we not all thousands of +acres of our own? The commons, and roads, and footpaths, and the seashore, +our grand and varied coast--these are all ours. The sea-coast has, +moreover, two great advantages. In the first place, it is for the most +part but little interfered with by man, and in the second it exhibits most +instructively the forces of Nature. We are all great landed proprietors, +if we only knew it. What we lack is not land, but the power to enjoy it. +Moreover, this great inheritance has the additional advantage that it +entails no labor, requires no management. The landlord has the trouble, +but the landscape belongs to every one who has eyes to see it. Thus +Kingsley called the heaths round Eversley his "winter garden;" not because +they were his in the eye of the law, but in that higher sense in which ten +thousand persons may own the same thing. + +[1] Epictetus. + +[2] Ruskin. + +[3] Emerson. + +[4] Solomon. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +HEALTH. + + + "Health is best for mortal man; next beauty; thirdly, well gotten + wealth; fourthly, the pleasures of youth among friends." + + SIMONIDES. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +HEALTH. + + +But if there has been some difference of opinion as to the advantage of +wealth, with reference to health all are agreed. + +"Health," said Simonides long ago, "is best for mortal man; next beauty; +thirdly, well gotten wealth; fourthly, the pleasure of youth among +friends." "Life," says Longfellow, "without health is a burden, with +health is a joy and gladness." Empedocles delivered the people of Selinus +from a pestilence by draining a marsh, and was hailed as a Demigod. We are +told that a coin was struck in his honor, representing the Philosopher in +the act of staying the hand of Phoebus. + +We scarcely realize, I think, how much we owe to Doctors. Our system of +Medicine seems so natural and obvious that it hardly occurs to us as +somewhat new and exceptional. When we are ill we send for a Physician; he +prescribes some medicine; we take it, and pay his fee. But among the lower +races of men pain and illness are often attributed to the presence of evil +spirits. The Medicine Man is a Priest, or rather a Sorcerer, more than a +true Doctor, and his effort is to exorcise the evil spirit. + +In other countries where some advance has been made, a charm is written on +a board, washed off, and drunk. In some cases the medicine is taken, not +by the patient, but by the Doctor. Such a system, however, is generally +transient; it is naturally discouraged by the Profession, and is indeed +incompatible with a large practice. Even as regards the payment we find +very different systems. The Chinese pay their medical man as long as they +are well, and stop his salary as soon as they are ill. In ancient Egypt we +are told that the patient feed the Doctor for the first few days, after +which the Doctor paid the patient until he made him well. This is a +fascinating system, but might afford too much temptation to heroic +remedies. + +On the whole our plan seems the best, though it does not offer adequate +encouragement to discovery and research. We do not appreciate how much we +owe to the discoveries of such men as Hunter and Jenner, Simpson and +Lister. And yet in the matter of health we can generally do more for +ourselves than the greatest Doctors can for us. + +But if all are agreed as to the blessing of health, there are many who +will not take the little trouble, or submit to the slight sacrifices, +necessary to maintain it. Many, indeed, deliberately ruin their own +health, and incur the certainty of an early grave, or an old age of +suffering. + +No doubt some inherit a constitution which renders health almost +unattainable. Pope spoke of that long disease, his life. Many indeed may +say, "I suffer, therefore I am." But happily these cases are exceptional. +Most of us might be well, if we would. It is very much our own fault that +we are ill. We do those things which we ought not to do, and we leave +undone those things which we ought to have done, and then we wonder there +is no health in us. + +We all know that we can make ourselves ill, but few perhaps realize how +much we can do to keep ourselves well. Much of our suffering is +self-inflicted. It has been observed that among the ancient Egyptians the +chief aim of life seemed to be to be well buried. Many, however, live even +now as if this were the principal object of their existence. + +Like Naaman, we expect our health to be the subject of some miraculous +interference, and neglect the homely precautions by which it might be +secured. + +I am inclined to doubt whether the study of health is sufficiently +impressed on the minds of those entering life. Not that it is desirable to +potter over minor ailments, to con over books on illnesses, or experiment +on ourselves with medicine. Far from it. The less we fancy ourselves ill, +or bother about little bodily discomforts, the more likely perhaps we are +to preserve our health. + +It is, however, a different matter to study the general conditions of +health. A well-known proverb tells us that every one is a fool or a +physician at forty. Unfortunately, however, many persons are invalids at +forty as well as physicians. + +Ill-health, however, is no excuse for moroseness. If we have one disease +we may at least congratulate ourselves that we are escaping all the rest. +Sydney Smith, ever ready to look on the bright side of things, once, when +borne down by suffering, wrote to a friend that he had gout, asthma, and +seven other maladies, but was "otherwise very well;" and many of the +greatest invalids have borne their sufferings with cheerfulness and good +spirits. + +It is said that the celebrated physiognomist, Campanella, could so +abstract his attention from any sufferings of his body, that he was even +able to endure the rack without much pain; and whoever has the power of +concentrating his attention and controlling his will, can emancipate +himself from most of the minor miseries of life. He may have much cause +for anxiety, his body may be the seat of severe suffering, and yet his +mind will remain serene and unaffected; he may triumph over care and pain. + +But many have undergone much unnecessary suffering, and valuable lives +have often been lost, through ignorance or carelessness. We cannot but +fancy that the lives of many great men might have been much prolonged by +the exercise of a little ordinary care. + +If we take musicians only, what a grievous loss to the world it is that +Pergolesi should have died at twenty-six, Schubert at thirty-one, Mozart +at thirty-five, Purcell at thirty-seven, and Mendelssohn at thirty-eight. + +In the old Greek myth the life of Meleager was indissolubly connected by +fate with the existence of a particular log of wood. As long as this was +kept safe by Althaea, his mother, Meleager bore a charmed life. It seems +wonderful that we do not watch with equal care over our body, on the state +of which happiness so much depends. + +The requisites of health are plain enough; regular habits, daily exercise, +cleanliness, and moderation in all things--in eating as well as in +drinking--would keep most people well. + +I need not here dwell on the evils of drinking, but we perhaps scarcely +realize how much of the suffering and ill-humor of life is due to +over-eating. Dyspepsia, for instance, from which so many suffer, is in +nine cases out of ten their own fault, and arises from the combination of +too much food with too little exercise. To lengthen your life, says an old +proverb, shorten your meals. Plain living and high thinking will secure +health for most of us, though it matters, perhaps, comparatively little +what a healthy man eats, so long as he does not eat too much. + +Mr. Gladstone has told us that the splendid health he enjoys is greatly +due to his having early learnt one simple physiological maxim, and laid it +down as a rule for himself always to make twenty-five bites at every bit +of meat. + + "Go to your banquet then, but use delight, + So as to rise still with an appetite." [1] + +No doubt, however, though the rule not to eat or drink too much is simple +enough in theory, it is not quite so easy in application. There have been +many Esaus who sold their birthright of health for a mess of pottage. + +Moreover, it may seem paradoxical, but it is certainly true, that in the +long run the moderate man will derive more enjoyment even from eating and +drinking, than the glutton or the drunkard will ever obtain. They know not +what it is to enjoy "the exquisite taste of common dry bread." [2] + +And yet even if we were to consider merely the pleasure to be derived from +eating and drinking, the same rule would hold good. A lunch of bread and +cheese after a good walk is more enjoyable than a Lord Mayor's feast. +Without wishing, like Apicius, for the neck of a stork, so that he might +enjoy his dinner longer, we must not be ungrateful for the enjoyment we +derive from eating and drinking, even though they be amongst the least +aesthetic of our pleasures. They are homely, no doubt, but they come +morning, noon, and night, and are not the less real because they have +reference to the body rather than the soul. + +We speak truly of a healthy appetite, for it is a good test of our bodily +condition; and indeed in some cases of our mental state also. That + + "There cometh no good thing + Apart from toil to mortals," + +is especially true with reference to appetite; to sit down to a dinner, +however simple, after a walk with a friend among the mountains or along +the shore, is no insignificant pleasure. + +Cheerfulness and good humor, moreover, during meals are not only pleasant +in themselves, but conduce greatly to health. + +It has been said that hunger is the best sauce, but most would prefer some +good stories at a feast even to a good appetite; and who would not like to +have it said of him, as of Biron by Rosaline-- + + "A merrier man + Within the limit of becoming mirth + I never spent an hour's talk withal." + +In the three great "Banquets" of Plato, Xenophon, and Plutarch, the food +is not even mentioned. + +In the words of the old Lambeth adage-- + + "What is a merry man? + Let him do what he can + To entertain his guests + With wine and pleasant jests, + Yet if his wife do frown + All merryment goes down." + +What salt is to food, wit and humor are to conversation and literature. +"You do not," an amusing writer in the _Cornhill_ has said, "expect humor +in Thomas à Kempis or Hebrew Prophets;" but we have Solomon's authority +that there is a time to laugh, as well as to weep. + +"To read a good comedy is to keep the best company in the world, when the +best things are said, and the most amusing things happen." [3] + +It is not without reason that every one resents the imputation of being +unable to see a joke. + +Laughter appears to be the special prerogative of man. The higher animals +present us with proof of evident, if not highly developed reasoning power, +but it is more than doubtful whether they are capable of appreciating a +joke. + +Wit, moreover, has solved many difficulties and decided many +controversies. + + "Ridicule shall frequently prevail, + And cut the knot when graver reasons fail." [4] + +A careless song, says Walpole, with a little nonsense in it now and then, +does not misbecome a monarch, but it is difficult now to realize that +James I. should have regarded skill in punning in his selections of +bishops and privy councillors. + +The most wasted of all days, says Chamfort, is that on which one has not +laughed. + +It is, moreover, no small merit of laughter that it is quite spontaneous. +"You cannot force people to laugh; you cannot give a reason why they +should laugh; they must laugh of themselves or not at all.... If we think +we must not laugh, this makes our temptation to laugh the greater." [5] +Humor is, moreover, contagious. A witty man may say, as Falstaff does of +himself, "I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in +other men." + +But one may paraphrase the well-known remark about port wine and say that +some jokes may be better than others, but anything which makes one laugh +is good. "After all," says Dryden, "it is a good thing to laugh at any +rate; and if a straw can tickle a man, it is an instrument of happiness," +and I may add, of health. + +I have been told that in omitting any mention of smoking I was overlooking +one of the real pleasures of life. Not being a smoker myself I cannot +perhaps judge; much must depend on the individual temperament; to some +nervous natures it certainly appears to be a great comfort; but I have my +doubts whether smoking, as a general rule, does add to the pleasures of +life. It must, moreover, detract somewhat from the sensitiveness of taste +and of smell. + +Those who live in cities may almost lay it down as a rule that no time +spent out of doors is ever wasted. Fresh air is a cordial of incredible +virtue; old families are in all senses county families, not town families; +and those who prefer Homer and Plato and Shakespeare to hares and +partridges and foxes must beware that they are not tempted to neglect this +great requisite of our nature. + +Most Englishmen, however, love open air, and it is probably true that most +of us enjoy a game at cricket or golf more than looking at any of the old +masters. The love of sport is engraven in the English character. As was +said of William Rufus, "he loves the tall deer as he had been their +father." + +An Oriental traveler is said to have watched a game of cricket and been +much astonished at hearing that many of those playing were rich men. He +asked why they did not pay some poor people to do it for them. + +Wordsworth made it a rule to go out every day, and he used to say that as +he never consulted the weather, he never had to consult the physicians. + +It always seems to be raining harder than it really is when you look at +the weather through the window. Even in winter, though the landscape often +seems cheerless and bare enough when you look at it from the fireside, +still it is far better to go out, even if you have to brave the storm: +when you are once out of doors the touch of earth and the breath of the +fresh air gives you fresh life and energy. Men, like trees, live in great +part on air. + +After a gallop over the downs, a row on the river, a sea voyage, a walk by +the seashore or in the woods + + "The blue above, the music in the air, + The flowers upon the ground," [6] + +one feels as if one could say with Henry IV., "Je me porte comme le Ponte +Neuf." + +The Roman proverb that a child should be taught nothing which he cannot +learn standing up, went no doubt into an extreme, but surely we fall into +another when we act as if games were the only thing which boys could learn +upon their feet. + +The love of games among boys is certainly a healthy instinct, and though +carried too far in some of our great schools, there can be no question +that cricket and football, boating and hockey, bathing and birdnesting, +are not only the greatest pleasures, but the best medicines for boys. + +We cannot always secure sleep. When important decisions have to be taken, +the natural anxiety to come to a right decision will often keep us awake. +Nothing, however, is more conducive to healthy sleep than plenty of open +air. Then indeed we can enjoy the fresh life of the early morning: "the +breezy call of incense-bearing morn." [7] + + "At morn the Blackcock trims his jetty wing, + 'Tis morning tempts the linnet's blithest lay, + All nature's children feel the matin spring + Of life reviving with reviving day." + +Epictetus described himself as "a spirit bearing about a corpse." That +seems to me an ungrateful description. Surely we ought to cherish the +body, even if it be but a frail and humble companion. Do we not own to the +eye our enjoyment of the beauties of this world and the glories of the +Heavens; to the ear the voices of friends and all the delights of music; +are not the hands most faithful and invaluable instruments, ever ready in +case of need, ever willing to do our bidding; and even the feet bear us +without a murmur along the roughest and stoniest paths of life. + +With reasonable care, then, most of us may hope to enjoy good health. And +yet what a marvellous and complex organization we have! + +We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made. It is + + "Strange that a harp of a thousand strings, + Should keep in tune so long." + +When we consider the marvellous complexity of our bodily organization, it +seems a miracle that we should live at all; much more that the innumerable +organs and processes should continue day after day and year after year +with so much regularity and so little friction that we are sometimes +scarcely conscious of having a body at all. + +And yet in that body we have more than 200 bones, of complex and varied +forms, any irregularity in, or injury to, which would of course grievously +interfere with our movements. + +We have over 500 muscles; each nourished by almost innumerable blood +vessels, and regulated by nerves. One of our muscles, the heart, beats +over 30,000,000 times in a year, and if it once stops, all is over. + +In the skin are wonderfully varied and complex organs--for instance, over +2,000,000 perspiration glands, which regulate the temperature and +communicate with the surface by ducts, which have a total length of some +ten miles. + +Think of the miles of arteries and veins, of capillaries and nerves; of +the blood, with the millions of millions of blood corpuscles, each a +microcosm in itself. + +Think of the organs of sense,--the eye with its cornea and lens, vitreous +humor, aqueous humor, and choroid, culminating in the retina, no thicker +than a sheet of paper, and yet consisting of nine distinct layers, the +innermost composed of rods and cones, supposed to be the immediate +recipients of the undulations of light, and so numerous that in each eye +the cones are estimated at over 3,000,000, the rods at over 30,000,000. + +Above all, and most wonderful of all, the brain itself. Meinert has +calculated that the gray matter of the convolutions alone contains no less +than 600,000,000 cells; each cell consists of several thousand visible +atoms, and each atom again of many millions of molecules. + +And yet with reasonable care we can most of us keep this wonderful +organization in health; so that it will work without causing us pain, or +even discomfort, for many years; and we may hope that even when old age +comes + + "Time may lay his hand + Upon your heart gently, not smiting it + But as a harper lays his open palm + Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations." + +[1] Herrick. + +[2] Hamerton. + +[3] Hazlitt. + +[4] Francis. + +[5] Hazlitt. + +[6] Trench. + +[7] Gray. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LOVE. + + + "Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, + And men below and saints above; + For love is heaven and heaven is love." + + SCOTT. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LOVE. + + +Love is the light and sunshine of life. We are so constituted that we +cannot fully enjoy ourselves, or anything else, unless some one we love +enjoys it with us. Even if we are alone, we store up our enjoyment in hope +of sharing it hereafter with those we love. + +Love lasts through life, and adapts itself to every age and circumstance; +in childhood for father and mother, in manhood for wife, in age for +children, and throughout for brothers and sisters, relations and friends. +The strength of friendship is indeed proverbial, and in some cases, as in +that of David and Jonathan, is described as surpassing the love of women. +But I need not now refer to it, having spoken already of what we owe to +friends. + +The goodness of Providence to man has been often compared to that of +fathers and mothers for their children. + + "Just as a mother, with sweet, pious face, + Yearns toward her little children from her seat, + Gives one a kiss, another an embrace, + Takes this upon her knees, that on her feet; + And while from actions, looks, complaints, pretences, + She learns their feelings and their various will, + To this a look, to that a word, dispenses, + And, whether stern or smiling, loves them still;-- + So Providence for us, high, infinite, + Makes our necessities its watchful task, + Hearkens to all our prayers, helps all our wants, + And e'en if it denies what seems our right, + Either denies because 'twould have us ask, + Or seems but to deny, or in denying grants." [1] + +Sir Walter Scott well says-- + + "And if there be on Earth a tear + From passion's dross [2] refined and clear, + 'Tis that which pious fathers shed + Upon a duteous daughter's head." + + + +Epaminondas is said to have given as his main reason for rejoicing at the +victory of Leuctra, that it would give so much pleasure to his father and +mother. + +Nor must the love of animals be altogether omitted. It is impossible not +to sympathize with the Savage when he believes in their immortality, and +thinks that after death + + "Admitted to that equal sky + His faithful dog shall bear him company." [3] + +In the _Mahabharata_, the great Indian Epic, when the family of Pandavas, +the heroes, at length reach the gates of heaven, they are welcomed +themselves, but are told that their dog cannot come in. Having pleaded in +vain, they turn to depart, as they say they can never leave their faithful +companion. Then at the last moment the Angel at the door relents, and +their Dog is allowed to enter with them. + +We may hope the time will come when we shall learn + + "Never to blend our pleasures or our pride, + With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels." [4] + +But at the present moment I am speaking rather of the love which leads to +marriage. Such love is the music of life, nay, "there is music in the +beauty, and the silver note of love, far sweeter than the sound of any +instrument." [5] + +The Symposium of Plato contains an interesting and amusing disquisition on +Love. + +"Love," Phaedrus is made to say, "will make men dare to die for their +beloved--love alone: and women as well as men. Of this, Alcestis, the +daughter of Pelias, is a monument to all Hellas; for she was willing to +lay down her life on behalf of her husband, when no one else would, +although he had a father and mother; but the tenderness of her love so far +exceeded theirs, that she made them seem to be strangers in blood to their +own son, and in name only related to him; and so noble did this action of +hers appear to the gods, as well as to men, that among the many who have +done virtuously she is one of the very few to whom they have granted the +privilege of returning to earth, in admiration of her virtue; such +exceeding honor is paid by them to the devotion and virtue of love." + +Agathon is even more eloquent-- + +Love "fills men with affection, and takes away their disaffection, making +them meet together at such banquets as these. In sacrifices, feasts, +dances, he is our lord--supplying kindness and banishing unkindness, +giving friendship and forgiving anmity, the joy of the good, the wonder of +the wise, the amazement of the gods, desired by those who have no part in +him, and precious to those who have the better part in him; parent of +delicacy, luxury, desire, fondness, softness, grace, regardful of the +good, regardless of the evil. In every word, work, wish, fear--pilot, +comrade, helper, savior; glory of gods and men, leader best and brightest: +in whose footsteps let every man follow, sweetly singing in his honor that +sweet strain with which love charms the souls of gods and men." + +No doubt, even so there are two Loves, "one, the daughter of Uranus, who +has no mother, and is the elder and wiser goddess; and the other, the +daughter of Zeus and Dione, who is popular and common,"--but let us not +examine too closely. Charity tells us even of Guinevere, "that while she +lived, she was a good lover and therefore she had a good end." [6] + +The origin of love has exercised philosophers almost as much as the origin +of evil. The Symposium continues with a speech which Plato attributes in +joke to Aristophanes, and of which Jowett observes that nothing in +Aristophanes is more truly Aristophanic. + +The original human nature, he says, was not like the present. The Primeval +Man was round, [7] his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four +hands and four feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite ways, set +on a round neck and precisely alike. He could walk upright as men now do, +backward or forward as he pleased, and he could also roll over and over at +a great rate, whirling round on his four hands and four feet, eight in +all, like tumblers going over and over with their legs in the air; this +was when he wanted to run fast. Terrible was their might and strength, and +the thoughts of their hearts great, and they made an attack upon the gods; +of them is told the tale of Otys and Ephialtes, who, as Homer says, dared +to scale heaven, and would have laid hands upon the gods. Doubt reigned in +the celestial councils. Should they kill them and annihilate the race with +thunderbolts, as they had done the giants, then there would be an end of +the sacrifices and worship which men offered to them; but, on the other +hand, the gods could not suffer their insolence to be unrestrained. At +last, after a good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered a way. He said; +"Methinks I have a plan which will humble their pride and mend their +manners; they shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in two, which +will have a double advantage, for it will halve their strength and we +shall have twice as many sacrifices. They shall walk upright on two legs, +and if they continue insolent and will not be quiet, I will split them +again and they shall hop on a single leg." He spoke and cut men in two, +"as you might split an egg with a hair."... After the division the two +parts of man, each desiring his other half, came together.... So ancient +is the desire of one another which is implanted in us, reuniting our +original nature, making one of two, and healing the state of man. Each of +us when separated is but the indenture of a man, having one side only, +like a flat-fish and he is always looking for his other half. + +And when one of them finds his other half, the pair are lost in amazement +of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the +other's sight, as I may say, even for a minute: they will pass their whole +lives together; yet they could not explain what they desire of one +another. For the intense yearning which each of them has toward the other +does not appear to be the desire of lover's intercourse, but of something +else, which the soul of either evidently desires and cannot tell, and of +which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment. + +However this may be, there is such instinctive insight in the human heart +that we often form our opinion almost instantaneously, and such +impressions seldom change, I might even say, they are seldom wrong. Love +at first sight sounds like an imprudence, and yet is almost a revelation. +It seems as if we were but renewing the relations of a previous existence. + + "But to see her were to love her, + Love but her, and love for ever." [8] + +Yet though experience seldom falsifies such a feeling, happily the reverse +does not hold good. The deepest affection is often of slow growth. Many a +warm love has been won by faithful devotion. + +Montaigne indeed declares that "Few have married for love without +repenting it." Dr. Johnson also maintained that marriages would generally +be happier if they were arranged by the Lord Chancellor; but I do not +think either Montaigne or Johnson were good judges. As Lancelot said to +the unfortunate Maid of Astolat, "I love not to be constrained to love, +for love must arise of the heart and not by constraint." [9] + +Love defies distance and the elements; Sestos and Abydos are divided by +the sea, "but Love joined them by an arrow from his bow." [10] + +Love can be happy anywhere. Byron wished + + "O that the desert were my dwelling-place, + With one fair Spirit for my minister, + That I might all forget the human race, + And, hating no one, love but only her." + +And many will doubtless have felt + + "O Love! what hours were thine and mine + In lands of Palm and Southern Pine, + In lands of Palm, of Orange blossom, + Of Olive, Aloe, and Maize and Vine." + +What is true of space holds good equally of +time. + + "In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed. + In war, he mounts the warrior's steed; + In halls, in gay attire is seen; + In hamlets, dances on the green. + Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, + And men below, and saints above; + For love is heaven, and heaven is love." [11] + +Even when, as among some Eastern races, Religion and Philosophy have +combined to depress Love, truth reasserts itself in popular sayings, as +for instance in the Turkish proverb, "All women are perfection, especially +she who loves you." + +A French lady having once quoted to Abd-el-Kader the Polish proverb, "A +woman draws more with a hair of her head than a pair of oxen well +harnessed;" he answered with a smile, "The hair is unnecessary, woman is +powerful as fate." + +But we like to think of Love rather as the Angel of Happiness than as a +ruling force: of the joy of home when "hearts are of each other sure." + + "It is the secret sympathy, + The silver link, the silken tie, + Which heart to heart, and mind to mind + In body and in soul can bind." [12] + +What Bacon says of a friend is even truer of a wife; there is "no man that +imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more; and no man that +imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less." + +Let some one we love come near us and + + "At once it seems that something new or strange + Has passed upon the flowers, the trees, the ground; + Some slight but unintelligible change + On everything around." [13] + +We might, I think, apply to love what Homer says of Fate: + + "Her feet are tender, for she sets her steps + Not on the ground, but on the heads of men." + +Love and Reason divide the life of man. We must give to each its due. If +it is impossible to attain to virtue by the aid of Reason without Love, +neither can we do so by means of Love alone without Reason. + +Love, said Melanippides, "sowing in the heart of man the sweet harvest of +desire, mixes the sweetest and most beautiful things together." + +No one indeed could complain now, with Phaedrus in Plato's Symposium, that +Love has had no worshippers among the Poets. On the contrary, Love has +brought them many of their sweetest inspirations; none perhaps nobler or +more beautiful than Milton's description of Paradise: + + "With thee conversing, I forget all time, + All seasons, and their change, all please alike. + Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet + With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun + When first on this delightful land he spreads + His orient beams on herb, tree, fruit, and flower + Glistering with dew, fragrant the fertile earth + After soft showers; and sweet the coming on + Of grateful evening mild; then silent night + With this her solemn bird and this fair moon, + And these the gems of heaven, her starry train: + But neither breath of morn when she ascends + With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun + On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower + Glistering with dew, nor fragrance after showers, + Nor grateful evening mild, nor silent night + With this her solemn bird, nor walk by moon + Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet." + +Moreover, no one need despair of an ideal marriage. We unfortunately +differ so much in our tastes; love does so much to create love, that even +the humblest may hope for the happiest marriage if only he deserves it; +and Shakespeare speaks, as he does so often, for thousands when he says + + "She is mine own, + And I as rich in having such a jewel + As twenty seas, if all their sands were pearls, + The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold." + +True love indeed will not be unreasonable or exacting. + + "Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind + That from the nursery + Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind + To war and arms I fly. + True! a new mistress now I chase, + The first foe in the field, + And with a stronger faith embrace + A sword, a horse, a shield. + Yet this inconstancy is such + As you too shall adore, + I could not love thee, dear, so much, + Loved I not honor more." [14] + +And yet + + "Alas! how light a cause may move + Dissension between hearts that love! + Hearts that the world in vain had tried, + And sorrow but more closely tied, + That stood the storm, when waves were rough, + Yet in a sunny hour fall off, + Like ships that have gone down at sea, + When heaven was all tranquillity." [15] + +For love is brittle. Do not risk even any little jar; it may be + + "The little rift within the lute, + That by and by will make the music mute, + And ever widening slowly silence all." [16] + +Love is delicate; "Love is hurt with jar and fret," and you might as well +expect a violin to remain in tune if roughly used, as Love to survive if +chilled or driven into itself. But what a pleasure to keep it alive by + + "Little, nameless, unremembered acts + Of kindness and of love." [17] + +"She whom you loved and chose," says Bondi, + + "Is now your bride, + The gift of heaven, and to your trust consigned; + Honor her still, though not with passion blind; + And in her virtue, though you watch, confide. + Be to her youth a comfort, guardian, guide, + In whose experience she may safety find; + And whether sweet or bitter be assigned, + The joy with her, as well as pain divide. + Yield not too much if reason disapprove; + Nor too much force; the partner of your life + Should neither victim be, nor tyrant prove. + Thus shall that rein, which often mars the bliss + Of wedlock, scarce be felt; and thus your wife + Ne'er in the husband shall the lover miss." [18] + +Every one is ennobled by true love-- + + "Tis better to have loved and lost + Than never to have loved at all." [19] + +Perhaps no one ever praised a woman more gracefully in a sentence than +Steele when he said of Lady Elizabeth Hastings that "to know her was a +liberal education;" but every woman may feel as she improves herself that +she is not only laying in a store of happiness for herself, but also +raising and blessing him whom she would most wish to see happy and good. + +Love, true love, grows and deepens with time. Husband and wife, who are +married indeed, live + + "By each other, till to love and live + Be one." [20] + +For does it end with life. A mother's love knows no bounds. + + "They err who tell us Love can die, + With life all other passions fly, + All others are but vanity. + In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell, + Nor Avarice in the vaults of Hell; + Earthly these passions of the Earth; + They perish where they have their birth, + But Love is indestructible; + Its holy flame forever burneth, + From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth; + Too oft on Earth a troubled guest, + At times deceived, at times opprest, + It here is tried and purified, + Then hath in Heaven its perfect rest: + It soweth here with toil and care, + But the harvest time of Love is there. + + "The mother when she meets on high + The Babe she lost in infancy, + Hath she not then, for pains and fears, + The day of woe, the watchful night, + For all her sorrow, all her tears, + An over-payment of delight?" [21] + +As life wears on the love of husband or wife, of friends and of children, +becomes the great solace and delight of age. The one recalls the past, the +other gives interest to the future; and in our children, it has been truly +said, we live our lives again. + +[1] _Filicaja_. Translated by Leigh Hunt. + +[2] Not from passion itself. + +[3] Pope. + +[4] Wordsworth. + +[5] Browne. + +[6] Malory, _Morte d' Arthur_. + +[7] I avail myself of Dr. Jowett's translation. + +[8] Burns. + +[9] Malory, _Morte d' Arthur_. + +[10] Symonds. + +[11] Scott. + +[12] Scott. + +[13] Trench. + +[14] Lovelace. + +[15] Moore. + +[16] Tennyson. + +[17] Wordsworth. + +[18] Bondi. Tr. by Glassfors. + +[19] Tennyson. + +[20] Swinburne. + +[21] Southey. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ART. + + + "High art consists neither in altering, nor in improving nature; but + in seeking throughout nature for 'whatsoever things are lovely, + whatsoever things are pure;' in loving these, in displaying to the + utmost of the painter's power such loveliness as is in them, and + directing the thoughts of others to them by winning art, or gentle + emphasis. Art (caeteris paribus) is great in exact proportion to the + love of beauty shown by the painter, provided that love of beauty + forfeit no atom of truth."--RUSKIN. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ART. + + +The most ancient works of Art which we possess are representations of +animals, rude indeed, but often strikingly characteristic, engraved on, or +carved in, stag's-horn or bone; and found in English, French, and German +caves, with stone and other rude implements, and the remains of mammalia, +belonging apparently to the close of the glacial epoch: not only of the +deer, bear, and other animals now inhabiting temperate Europe, but of +some, such as the reindeer, the musk sheep, and the mammoth, which have +either retreated north or become altogether extinct. We may, I think, +venture to hope that other designs may hereafter be found, which will give +us additional information as to the manners and customs of our ancestors +in those remote ages. + +Next to these in point of antiquity come the sculptures and paintings on +Assyrian and Egyptian tombs, temples, and palaces. + +These ancient scenes, considered as works of art, have no doubt many +faults, and yet how graphically they tell their story! As a matter of fact +a king is not, as a rule, bigger than his soldiers, but in these +battle-scenes he is always so represented. We must, however, remember that +in ancient warfare the greater part of the fighting was, as a matter of +fact, done by the chiefs. In this respect the Homeric poems resemble the +Assyrian and Egyptian representations. At any rate, we see at a glance +which is the king, which are officers, which side is victorious, the +struggles and sufferings of the wounded, the flight of the enemy, the city +of refuge--so that he who runs may read; while in modern battle-pictures +the story is much less clear, and, indeed, the untrained eye sees for some +time little but scarlet and smoke. + +These works assuredly possess a grandeur and dignity of their own, even +though they have not the beauty of later art. + +In Greece Art reached a perfection which has never been excelled, and it +was more appreciated than perhaps it has ever been since. + +At the time when Demetrius attacked the city of Rhodes, Protogenes was +painting a picture of Ialysus. "This," says Pliny, "hindered King +Demetrius from taking Rhodes, out of fear lest he should burn the picture; +and not being able to fire the town on any other side, he was pleased +rather to spare the painting than to take the victory, which was already +in his hands. Protogenes, at that time, had his painting-room in a garden +out of the town, and very near the camp of the enemies, where he was daily +finishing those pieces which he had already begun, the noise of soldiers +not being capable of interrupting his studies. But Demetrius causing him +to be brought into his presence, and asking him what made him so bold as +to work in the midst of enemies, he answered the king, 'That he understood +the war which he made was against the Rhodians, and not against the +Arts.'" + +With the decay of Greece, Art sank too, until it was revived in the +thirteenth century by Cimabue, since whose time its progress has been +triumphal. + +Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human +happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the +mind. As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life. + +"In true Art," says Ruskin, "the hand, the head, and the heart of man go +together. But Art is no recreation: it cannot be learned at spare moments, +nor pursued when we have nothing better to do." + +It is not only in the East that great works, really due to study and +labor, have been attributed to magic. + +Study and labor cannot make every man an artist, but no one can succeed in +art without them. In Art two and two do not make four, and no number of +little things will make a great one. + +It has been said, and on high authority, that the end of art is to please. +But this is a very imperfect definition. It might as well be said that a +library is only intended for pleasure and ornament. + +Art has the advantage of nature, in so far as it introduces a human +element, which is in some respects superior even to nature. "If," says +Plato, "you take a man as he is made by nature and compare him with +another who is the effect of art, the work of nature will always appear +the less beautitiful, because art is more accurate than nature." + +Bacon also, in _The Advancement of Learning_, speaks of "the world being +inferior to the soul, by reason whereof there is agreeable to the spirit +of man a more ample greatness, a more exact goodness, and a more absolute +variety than can be found in the nature of things." + +The poets tell us that Prometheus, having made a beautiful statue of +Minerva, the goddess was so delighted that she offered to bring down +anything from Heaven which could add to its perfection. Prometheus on this +prudently asked her to take him there, so that he might choose for +himself. This Minerva did, and Prometheus, finding that in heaven all +things were animated by fire, brought back a spark, with which he gave +life to his work. + +In fact, Imitation is the means and not the end of Art. The story of +Zeuxis and Parrhasius is a pretty tale; but to deceive birds, or even man +himself, is but a trifling matter compared with the higher functions of +Art. To imitate the _Iliad_, says Dr. Young, is not imitating Homer, but +as Sir J. Reynolds adds, the more the artist studies nature "the nearer he +approaches to the true and perfect idea of art." + +"Following these rules and using these precautions, when you have clearly +and distinctly learned in what good coloring consists, you cannot do +better than have recourse to Nature herself, who is always at hand, and in +comparison of whose true splendor the best colored pictures are but faint +and feeble." [1] + +Art, indeed, must create as well as copy. As Victor Cousin well says, "The +ideal without the real lacks life; but the real without the ideal lacks +pure beauty. Both need to unite; to join hands and enter into alliance. In +this way the best work may be achieved. Thus beauty is an absolute idea, +and not a mere copy of imperfect Nature." + +The grouping of the picture is of course of the utmost importance. Sir +Joshua Reynolds gives two remarkable cases to show how much any given +figure in a picture is affected by its surroundings. Tintoret in one of +his pictures has taken the Samson of Michael Angelo, put an eagle under +him, placed thunder and lightning in his right hand instead of the jawbone +of an ass, and thus turned him into a Jupiter. The second instance is even +more striking. Titian has copied the figure in the vault of the Sistine +Chapel which represents the Deity dividing light from darkness, and has +introduced it into his picture of the battle of Cadore, to represent a +general falling from his horse. + +We must remember that so far as the eye is concerned, the object of the +artist is to train, not to deceive, and that his higher function has +reference rather to the mind than to the eye. + +No doubt + + "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, + To throw a perfume on the violet, + To smooth the ice, or add another hue + Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light + To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, + Is wasteful and ridiculous excess." [2] + +But all is not gold that glitters, flowers are not all arrayed like the +lily, and there is room for selection as well as representation. + +"The true, the good, and the beautiful," says Cousin, "are but forms of +the infinite: what then do we really love in truth, beauty, and virtue? We +love the infinite himself. The love of the infinite substance is hidden +under the love of its forms. It is so truly the infinite which charms in +the true, the good, and the beautiful, that its manifestations alone do +not suffice. The artist is dissatisfied at the sight even of his greatest +works; he aspires still higher." + +It is indeed sometimes objected that Landscape painting is not true to +nature; but we must ask, What is truth? Is the object to produce the same +impression on the mind as that created by the scene itself? If so, let any +one try to draw from memory a group of mountains, and he will probably +find that in the impression produced on his mind the mountains are loftier +and steeper, the valleys deeper and narrower, than in the actual reality. +A drawing, then, which was literally exact would not be true, in the sense +of conveying the same impression as Nature herself. + +In fact, Art, says Goethe, is called Art simply because it is not Nature. + +It is not sufficient for the artist to choose beautiful scenery, and +delineate it with accuracy. He must not be a mere copyist. Something +higher and more subtle is required. He must create, or at any rate +interpret, as well as copy. + +Turner was never satisfied merely to reach to even the most glorious +scenery. He moved, and even suppressed, mountains. + +A certain nobleman, we are told, was very anxious to see the model from +whom Guido painted his lovely female faces. Guido placed his +color-grinder, a big coarse man, in an attitude, and then drew a beautiful +Magdalen. "My dear Count," he said, "the beautiful and pure idea must be +in the mind, and then it is no matter what the model is." + +Guido Reni, who painted St. Michael for the Church of the Capuchins at +Rome, wished that he "had the wings of an angel, to have ascended unto +Paradise, and there to have beheld the forms of those beautiful spirits, +from which I might have copied my Archangel. But not being able to mount +so high, it was in vain for me to seek for his resemblance here below; so +that I was forced to look into mine own mind, and into that idea of beauty +which I have formed in my own imagination." [3] + +Science attempts, as far as the limited powers of Man permit, to reproduce +the actual facts in a manner which, however bald, is true in itself, +irrespective of time and scene. To do this she must submit to many +limitations; not altogether unvexatious, and not without serious +drawbacks. Art, on the contrary, endeavors to convey the impression of the +original under some especial aspect. + +In some respects, Art gives a clearer and more vivid idea of an unknown +country than any description can convey. In literature rock may be rock, +but in painting it must be granite or slate, and not merely rock in +general. + +It is remarkable that while artists have long recognized the necessity of +studying anatomy, and there has been from the commencement a professor of +anatomy in the Royal Academy, it is only of late years that any knowledge +of botany or geology has been considered desirable, and even now their +importance is by no means generally recognized. + +Much has been written as to the relative merits of painting, sculpture, +and architecture. This, if it be not a somewhat unprofitable inquiry, +would at any rate be out of place here. + +Architecture not only gives intense pleasure, but even the impression of +something ethereal and superhuman. + +Madame de Staël described it as "frozen music;" and a cathedral is a +glorious specimen of "thought in stone," whose very windows are +transparent walls of gorgeous hues. + +Caracci said that poets paint in their words and artists speak in their +works. The latter have indeed one great advantage, for a glance at a +statue or a painting will convey a more vivid idea than a long and minute +description. + +Another advantage possessed by Art is that it is understood by all +civilized nations, whilst each has a separate language. + +Even from a material point of view Art is most important. In a recent +address Sir F. Leighton has observed that the study of Art "is every day +becoming more important in relation to certain sides of the waning +material prosperity of the country. For the industrial competition between +this and other countries--a competition, keen and eager, which means to +certain industries almost a race for life--runs, in many cases, no longer +exclusively or mainly on the lines of excellence of material and solidity +of workmanship, but greatly nowadays on the lines of artistic charm and +beauty of design." + +The highest service, however, that Art can accomplish for man is to become +"at once the voice of his nobler aspirations, and the steady +disciplinarian of his emotions; and it is with this mission, rather than +with any aesthetic perfection, that we are at present concerned." [4] + +Science and Art are sisters, or rather perhaps they are like brother and +sister. The mission of Art is in some respects like that of woman. It is +not Hers so much to do the hard toil and moil of the world, as to surround +it with a halo of beauty, to convert work into pleasure. + +In science we naturally expect progress, but in Art the case is not so +clear; and yet Sir Joshua Reynolds did not hesitate to express his +conviction that in the future "so much will painting improve, that the +best we can now achieve will appear like the work of children," and we may +hope that our power of enjoying it may increase in an equal ratio. +Wordsworth says that poets have to create the taste for their own works, +and the same is, in some degree at any rate, true of artists. + +In one respect especially modern painters appear to have made a marked +advance, and one great blessing which in fact we owe to them is a more +vivid enjoyment of scenery. + +I have of course no pretensions to speak with authority, but even in the +case of the greatest masters before Turner, the landscapes seem to me +singularly inferior to the figures. Sir Joshua Reynolds tells us that +Gainsborough framed a kind of model of a landscape on his table, composed +of broken stones, dried herbs, and pieces of looking-glass, which he +magnified and improved into rocks, trees, and water; and Sir Joshua +solemnly discusses the wisdom of such a proceeding. "How far it may be +useful in giving hints," he says, "the professors of landscape can best +determine," but he does not recommend it, and is disposed to think, on the +whole, the practice may be more likely to do harm than good! + +In the picture of Ceyx and Alcyone, by Wilson, of whom Cunningham said +that, with Gainsborough, he laid the foundation of our School of +Landscape, the castle is said to have been painted from a pot of porter, +and the rock from a Stilton cheese. There is indeed another version of the +story, that the picture was sold for a pot of porter and a cheese, which, +however, does not give a higher idea of the appreciation of the art of +landscape at that date. + +Until very recently the general feeling with reference to mountain scenery +has been that expressed by Tacitus. "Who would leave Asia or Africa or +Italy to go to Germany, a shapeless and unformed country, a harsh sky, and +melancholy aspect, unless indeed it was his native land?" + +It is amusing to read the opinion of Dr. Beattie, in a special treatise on +_Truth, Poetry and Music_, written at the close of the last century, that +"The Highlands of Scotland are in general a melancholy country. Long +tracts of mountainous country, covered with dark heath, and often obscured +by misty weather; narrow valleys thinly inhabited, and bounded by +precipices resounding with the fall of torrents; a soil so rugged, and a +climate so dreary, as in many parts to admit neither the amenities of +pasturage, nor the labors of agriculture; the mournful dashing of waves +along the firths and lakes: the portentous noises which every change of +the wind is apt to raise in a lonely region, full of echoes, and rocks, +and caverns; the grotesque and ghastly appearance of such a landscape by +the light of the moon: objects like these diffuse a gloom over the fancy," +etc. [5] + +Even Goldsmith regarded the scenery of the Highlands as dismal and +hideous. Johnson, we know, laid it down as an axiom that "the noblest +prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to +England"--a saying which throws much doubt on his distinction that the +Giant's Causeway was "worth seeing but not worth going to see." [6] + +Madame de Staël declared, that though she would go 500 leagues to meet a +clever man, she would not care to open her window to see the Bay of +Naples. + +Nor was the ancient absence of appreciation confined to scenery. Even +Burke, speaking of Stonehenge, says, "Stonehenge, neither for disposition +nor ornament, has anything admirable." + +Ugly scenery, however, may in some cases have an injurious effect on the +human system. It has been ingeniously suggested that what really drove Don +Quixote out of his mind was not the study of his books of chivalry, so +much as the monotonous scenery of La Mancha. + +The love of landscape is not indeed due to Art alone. It has been the +happy combination of art and science which has trained us to perceive the +beauty which surrounds us. + +Art helps us to see, and "hundreds of people can talk for one who can +think; but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is +poetry, prophecy, and religion all in one.... Remembering always that +there are two characters in which all greatness of Art consists--first, +the earnest and intense seizing of natural facts; then the ordering those +facts by strength of human intellect, so as to make them, for all who look +upon them, to the utmost serviceable, memorable, and beautiful. And thus +great Art is nothing else than the type of strong and noble life; for as +the ignoble person, in his dealings with all that occurs in the world +about him, first sees nothing clearly, looks nothing fairly in the face, +and then allows himself to be swept away by the trampling torrent and +unescapable force of the things that he would not foresee and could not +understand: so the noble person, looking the facts of the world full in +the face, and fathoming them with deep faculty, then deals with them in +unalarmed intelligence and unhurried strength, and becomes, with his human +intellect and will, no unconscious nor insignificant agent in consummating +their good and restraining their evil." [7] + +May we not also hope that in this respect also still further progress may +be made, that beauties may be revealed, and pleasures may be in store for +those who come after us, which we cannot appreciate, or at least can but +faintly feel. + +Even now there is scarcely a cottage without something more or less +successfully claiming to rank as Art,--a picture, a photograph, or a +statuette; and we may fairly hope that much as Art even now contributes to +the happiness of life, it will do so even more effectively in the future. + +[1] Reynolds. + +[2] Shakespeare. + +[3] Dryden. + +[4] Haweis. + +[5] Beattie, 1776. + +[6] Boswell. + +[7] Ruskin. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +POETRY. + + + "And here the singer for his Art + Not all in vain may plead; + The song that nerves a nation's heart + Is in itself a deed." + TENNYSON. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +POETRY. + + +After the disastrous defeat of the Athenians before Syracuse, Plutarch +tells us that the Sicilians spared those who could repeat any of the +poetry of Euripides. + +"Some there were," he says, "who owed their preservation to Euripides. Of +all the Grecians, his was the muse with whom the Sicilians were most in +love. From the strangers who landed in their island they gleaned every +small specimen or portion of his works, and communicated it with pleasure +to each other. It is said that upon this occasion a number of Athenians on +their return home went to Euripides, and thanked him in the most grateful +manner for their obligations to his pen; some having been enfranchised for +teaching their masters what they remembered of his poems, and others +having procured refreshments, when they were wandering about after the +battle, by singing a few of his verses." + +Nowadays we are none of us likely to owe our lives to Poetry in this +sense, yet in another we many of us owe to it a similar debt. How often, +when worn with overwork, sorrow, or anxiety, have we taken down Homer or +Horace, Shakespeare or Milton, and felt the clouds gradually roll away, +the jar of nerves subside, the consciousness of power replace physical +exhaustion, and the darkness of despondency brighten once more into the +light of life. + +"And yet Plato," says Jowett, "expels the poets from his Republic because +they are allied to sense; because they stimulate the emotions; because +they are thrice removed from the ideal truth." + +In that respect, as in some others, few would accept Plato's Republic as +being an ideal Commonwealth, and most would agree with Sir Philip Sidney +that "if you cannot bear the planet-like music of poetry ... I must send +you in the behalf of all poets, that while you live, you live in love, and +never get favor for lacking skill of a sonnet; and when you die, your +memory die from the earth, for want of an epitaph." + +Poetry has often been compared with painting and sculpture. Simonides long +ago said that Poetry is a speaking picture, and painting is mute Poetry. + +"Poetry," says Cousin, "is the first of the Arts because it best +represents the infinite." + +And again, "Though the arts are in some respects isolated, yet there is +one which seems to profit by the resources of all, and that is Poetry. +With words, Poetry can paint and sculpture; she can build edifices like an +architect; she unites, to some extent, melody and music. She is, so to +say, the center in which all arts unite." + +A true poem is a gallery of pictures. + +It must, I think, be admitted that painting and sculpture can give us a +clearer and more vivid idea of an object we have never seen than any +description can convey. But when we have once seen it, then on the +contrary there are many points which the poet brings before us, and which +perhaps neither in the representation, nor even in nature, should we +perceive for ourselves. Objects can be most vividly brought before us by +the artist, actions by the poet; space is the domain of Art, time of +Poetry. [1] + +Take, for instance, as a typical instance, female beauty. How labored and +how cold any description appears. The greatest poets recognize this; as, +for instance, when Scott wishes us to realize the Lady of the Lake he does +not attempt any description, but just mentions her attitude and then +adds-- + + "And ne'er did Grecian chisel trace + A Nymph, a Naiad, or a Grace, + Of finer form or lovelier face!" + +A great poet indeed must be inspired; he must possess an exquisite sense +of beauty, and feelings deeper than those of most men, and yet well under +his control. "The Milton of poetry is the man, in his own magnificent +phrase, of devout prayer to that eternal spirit that can enrich with all +utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim with the hallowed fire +of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases." [2] And if +from one point of view Poetry brings home to us the immeasurable +inequalities of different minds, on the other hand it teaches us that +genius is no affair of rank or wealth. + + "I think of Chatterton, the marvellous boy, + The sleepless soul, that perish'd in his pride; + Of Burns, that walk'd in glory and in joy + Behind his plough upon the mountain-side." [3] + +A man may be a poet and yet write no verse, but not if he writes bad or +poor ones. + + "Mediocribus esse poetis + Non homines, non Di, non concessere columnae." [4] + +Second-rate poets, like second-rate writers generally, fade gradually into +dreamland; but the great poets remain always. + +Poetry will not live unless it be alive, "that which comes from the head +goes to the heart;" [5] and Milton truly said that "he who would not be +frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought +himself to be a true poem." + +For "he who, having no touch of the Muses' madness in his soul, comes to +the door and thinks he will get into the temple by the help of Art--he, I +say, and his Poetry are not admitted." [6] + +But the work of the true poet is immortal. + +"For have not the verses of Homer continued 2500 years or more without the +loss of a syllable or a letter, during which time infinite palaces, +temples, castles, cities, have been decayed and demolished? It is not +possible to have the true pictures or statues of Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar, +no, nor of the kings or great personages of much later years; for the +originals cannot last, and the copies cannot but lose of the life and +truth. But the images of men's wits and knowledge remain in books, +exempted from the wrong of time and capable of perpetual renovation. +Neither are they fitly to be called images, because they generate still +and cast their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing +infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages: so that if the invention +of the ship was thought so noble, which carrieth riches and commodities +from place to place, and consociateth the most remote regions in +participation of their fruits, how much more are letters to be magnified, +which, as ships, pass through the vast seas of time and make ages so +distant to participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and inventions, the +one of the other?" [7] + +The poet requires many qualifications. "Who has traced," says Cousin, "the +plan of this poem? Reason. Who has given it life and charm? Love. And who +has guided reason and love? The Will." + + "All men have some imagination, but + The Lover and the Poet + Are of imagination all compact. + + * * * * * + + "The Poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, + Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, + And as imagination bodies forth + The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen + Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing + A local habitation and a name." [8] + +Poetry is the fruit of genius; but it cannot be produced without labor. +Moore, one of the airiest of poets, tells us that he was a slow and +painstaking workman. + +The works of our greatest Poets are all episodes in that one great poem +which the genius of man has created since the commencement of human +history. + +A distinguished mathematician is said once to have inquired what was +proved by Milton in his _Paradise Lost_; and there are no doubt still some +who ask themselves, even if they shrink from putting the question to +others, whether Poetry is of any use, just as if to give pleasure were not +useful in itself. No true Utilitarian, however, would feel this doubt, +since the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the rule of his +philosophy. + +"We must not estimate the works of genius merely with reference to the +pleasure they afford, even when pleasure was their principal object. We +must also regard the intelligence which they presuppose and exercise." [9] + +Thoroughly to enjoy Poetry we must not so limit ourselves, but must rise +to a higher ideal. + +"Yes; constantly in reading poetry, a sense for the best, the really +excellent, and of the strength and joy to be drawn from it, should be +present in our minds, and should govern our estimate of what we +read." [10] + +Cicero, in his oration for Archias, well asked, "Has not this man then a +right to my love, to my admiration, to all the means which I can employ in +his defence? For we are instructed by all the greatest and most learned of +mankind, that education, precepts, and practice, can in every other branch +of learning produce excellence. But a poet is formed by the hand of +nature; he is aroused by mental vigor, and inspired by what we may call +the spirit of divinity itself. Therefore our Ennius has a right to give to +poets the epithet of Holy, [11] because they are, as it were, lent to +mankind by the indulgent bounty of the gods." + +"Poetry," says Shelley, "awakens and enlarges the mind itself by rendering +it the receptacle of a thousand unapprehended combinations of thought. +Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes +familiar objects be as if they were not familiar; it reproduces all that +it represents, and the impersonations clothed in its Elysian light stand +thenceforward in the minds of those who have once contemplated them, as +memorials of that gentle and exalted content which extends itself over all +thoughts and actions with which it co-exists." + +And again, "All high Poetry is infinite; it is as the first acorn, which +contained all oaks potentially. Veil after veil may be undrawn, and the +inmost naked beauty of the meaning never exposed. A great poem is a +fountain forever overflowing with the waters of wisdom and delight." + +Or, as he has expressed himself in his Ode to a Skylark: + + "Higher still and higher + From the earth thou springest + Like a cloud of fire; + The blue deep thou wingest, + And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. + + "Like a poet hidden + In the light of thought, + Singing hymns unbidden, + Till the world is wrought + To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not. + + "Like a glow-worm golden + In a dell of dew, + Scattering unbeholden + Its aërial hue + Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view." + +We speak now of the poet as the Maker or Creator--[Greek: poiaetaes]; the +origin of the word "bard" seems doubtful. + +The Hebrews well called their poets "Seers," for they not only perceive +more than others, but also help other men to see much which would +otherwise be lost to us. The old Greek word was [Greek: aoidos]--the Bard +or Singer. + +Poetry lifts the veil from the beauty of the world which would otherwise +be hidden, and throws over the most familiar objects the glow and halo of +imagination. The man who has a love for Poetry can scarcely fail to derive +intense pleasure from Nature, which to those who love it is all "beauty to +the eye and music to the ear." + +"Yet Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets +have done; neither with so pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-smelling +flowers, nor whatsoever else may make the too-much-loved earth more +lovely." [12] + +In the smokiest city the poet will transport us, as if by enchantment, to +the fresh air and bright sun, to the murmur of woods and leaves and water, +to the ripple of waves upon sand, and enable us, as in some delightful +dream, to cast off the cares and troubles of life. + +The poet, indeed, must have more true knowledge, not only of human nature, +but of all Nature, than other men are gifted with. + +Crabbe Robinson tells us that when a stranger once asked permission to see +Wordsworth's study, the maid said, "This is master's Library, but he +studies in the fields." No wonder then that Nature has been said to return +the poet's love. + + "Call it not vain;-they do not err + Who say that, when the poet dies, + Mute Nature mourns her worshipper, + And celebrates his obsequies." [13] + +Swinburne says of Blake, and I feel entirely with him, though in my case +the application would have been different, that "The sweetness of sky and +leaf, of grass and water--the bright light life of bird, child, and +beast--is, so to speak, kept fresh by some graver sense of faithful and +mysterious love, explained and vivified by a conscience and purpose in the +artist's hand and mind. Such a fiery outbreak of spring, such an +insurrection of fierce floral life and radiant riot of childish power and +pleasure, no poet or painter ever gave before; such lustre of green leaves +and flushed limbs, kindled cloud and fervent fleece, was never wrought +into speech or shape." + +To appreciate Poetry we must not merely glance at it, or rush through it, +or read it in order to talk or write about it. One must compose oneself +into the right frame of mind. Of course for one's own sake one will read +Poetry in times of agitation, sorrow, or anxiety, but that is another +matter. + +The inestimable treasures of Poetry again are open to all of us. The best +books are indeed the cheapest. For the price of a little beer, a little +tobacco, we can buy Shakespeare or Milton--or indeed almost as many books +as a man can read with profit in a year. + +Nor, in considering the advantage of Poetry to man, must we limit +ourselves to its past or present influence. The future of Poetry, says Mr. +Matthew Arnold, and no one was more qualified to speak, "The future of +Poetry is immense, because in Poetry, where it is worthy of its high +destinies, our race, as time goes on, will find an ever surer and surer +stay. But for Poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of +illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the +idea _is_ the fact. The strongest part of our religion to-day is its +unconscious Poetry. We should conceive of Poetry worthily, and more highly +than it has been the custom to conceive of it. We should conceive of it as +capable of higher uses, and called to higher destinies than those which in +general men have assigned to it hitherto." + +Poetry has been well called the record "of the best and happiest moments +of the happiest and best minds;" it is the light of life, the very "image +of life expressed in its eternal truth;" it immortalizes all that is best +and most beautiful in the world; "it purges from our inward sight the film +of familiarity which obscures from us the wonder of our being;" "it is the +center and circumference of knowledge;" and poets are "mirrors of the +gigantic shadows which futurity caste upon the present." + +Poetry, in effect, lengthens life; it creates for us time, if time be +realized as the succession of ideas and not of minutes; it is the "breath +and finer spirit of all knowledge;" it is bound neither by time nor space, +but lives in the spirit of man. What greater praise can be given than the +saying that life should be Poetry put into action. + +[1] See Lessing's _Laocoön_. + +[2] Arnold. + +[3] Coleridge. + +[4] Horace. + +[5] Wordsworth. + +[6] Plato. + +[7] Bacon. + +[8] Shakespeare. + +[9] St. Hailare. + +[10] Arnold. + +[11] Plato styles poets the sons and interpreters of the gods. + +[12] Sydney, _Defence of Poetry_. + +[13] Scott. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +MUSIC. + + + "Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the + mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life + to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is + good, just, and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but + nevertheless dazzling, passionate, and eternal form."--PLATO. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +MUSIC. + + +Music is in one sense far more ancient than man, and the voice was from +the very commencement of human existence a source of melody: but so far as +musical instruments are concerned, it is probable that percussion came +first, then wind instruments, and lastly, those with strings: first the +Drum, then the Flute, and thirdly, the Lyre. The early history of Music +is, however, unfortunately wrapped in much obscurity. The use of letters +long preceded the invention of notes, and tradition in such a matter can +tell us but little. + +The contest between Marsyas and Apollo is supposed by some to typify the +struggle between the Flute and the Lyre; Marsyas representing the archaic +Flute, Apollo the champion of the Lyre. The latter of course was +victorious: it sets the voice free, and the sound + + "Of music that is born of human breath + Comes straighter to the soul than any strain + The hand alone can make." [1] + +Various myths have grown up to explain the origin of Music. One Greek +tradition was to the effect Grasshoppers were human beings themselves in a +world before the Muses; that when the Muses came, being ravished with +delight, they sang and sang and forgot to eat, until "they died of hunger +for the love of song. And they carry to heaven the report of those who +honor them on earth." [2] + +The old writers and commentators tell us that Pythagoras, "as he was one +day meditating on the want of some rule to guide the ear, analogous to +what had been used to help the other senses, chanced to pass by a +blacksmith's shop, and observing that the hammers, which were four in +number, sounded very harmoniously, he had them weighed, and found them to +be in the proportion of six, eight, nine, and twelve. Upon this he +suspended four strings of equal length and thickness, etc., fastened +weights in the above-mentioned proportions to each of them respectively, +and found that they gave the same sounds that the hammers had done; viz. +the fourth, fifth, and octave to the gravest tone." [3] However this may +be, it would appear that the lyre had at first four strings only: +Terpander is said to have given it three more, and an eighth was +subsequently added. + +We have unfortunately no specimens of Greek or Roman, or even of Early +Christian music. The Chinese indicated the notes by words or their +initials. The lowest was termed "Koung," or the Emperor, as being the +Foundation on which all were supported; the second was Tschang, the Prime +Minister; the third, the Subject; the fourth, Public Business; the fifth, +the Mirror of Heaven. [4] The Greeks also had a name for each note. The +so-called Gregorian notes were not invented until six hundred years after +Gregory's death. The Monastery of St. Gall possesses a copy of Gregory's +Antiphonary, made about the year 780 by a chorister who was sent from Rome +to Charlemagne to reform the Northern music, and in this the notes are +indicated by "pneumss," from which our notes were gradually developed, and +first arranged along one line, to which others were gradually added. But I +must not enlarge on this interesting subject. + +In the matter of music Englishmen have certainly deserved well of the +world. Even as long ago as 1185 Giraldus Cambrensis, Bishop of St. +David's, says, "The Britons do not sing their tunes in unison like the +inhabitants of other countries, but in different parts. So that when a +company of singers meet to sing, as is usual in this country, as many +different parts are heard as there are singers." [5] + +The most ancient known piece of music for several voices is an English +four men's song, "Summer is a coming in," which is considered to be at +least as early as 1240, and is now in the British Museum. + +The Venetian Ambassador in the time of Henry VIII. said of our English +Church music: "The mass was sung by His Majesty's choristers, whose voices +are more heavenly than human; they did not chant like men, but like +angels." + +Speaking of Purcell's anthem, "Be merciful to me, O God," Burney says it +is "throughout admirable. Indeed, to my conception there is no better +music existing of the kind than the opening of this anthem, in which the +verse 'I will praise God' and the last movement in C natural are, in +melody, harmony, and modulation, truly divine music." + +Dr. Burney says that Purcell was "as much the pride of an Englishman in +music as Shakespeare in productions of the stage, Milton in epic poetry, +Locke in metaphysics, or Sir Isaac Newton in philosophy and mathematics;" +and yet Purcell's music is unfortunately but little known to us now, as +Macfarren says, "to our great loss." + +The authors of some of the loveliest music, and even in some cases that of +comparatively recent times, are unknown to us. This is the case for +instance with the exquisite song "Drink to me only with thine eyes," the +words of which were taken by Jonson from Philostratus, and which has been +considered as the most beautiful of all "people's songs." + +The music of "God save the Queen" has been adopted in more than half a +dozen other countries, and yet the authorship is a matter of doubt, being +attributed by some to Dr. John Bull, by others to Carey. It was apparently +first sung in a tavern in Cornhill. + +Both the music and words of "O Death, rock me to sleep" are said to be by +Anne Boleyn: "Stay, Corydon" and "Sweet Honey-sucking Bees" by Wildye, +"the first of madrigal writers." "Rule Britannia" was composed by Arne, +and originally formed part of his Masque of _Alfred_, first performed in +1740 at Cliefden, near Maidenhead. To Arne we are also indebted for the +music of "Where the Bee sucks there lurk I." "The Vicar of Bray" is set to +a tune originally known as "A Country Garden." "Come unto these yellow +sands" we owe to Purcell; "Sigh no more, Ladies" to Stevens; "Home, Sweet +Home" to Bishop. + +There is a curious melancholy in national music which is generally in the +minor key; indeed this holds good with the music of savage races +generally. They appear, moreover, to have no love Songs. + +Herodotus tells us that during the whole time he was in Egypt he only +heard one song, and that was a sad one. My own experience there was the +same. Some tendency to melancholy seems indeed inherent in music, and +Jessica is not alone in the feeling + + "I am never merry when I hear sweet music." + +The epitaphs on Musicians have been in some cases very well expressed. +Such, for instance, is the following: + + "Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove + The pangs of guilty power and hapless love, + Rest here, distressed by poverty no more; + Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before; + Sleep, undisturbed, within this peaceful shrine, + Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!" + +Still more so that on Purcell, whose premature death was so irreparable a +loss to English music-- + + "Here lies Henry Purcell, who left this life, and is gone to that + blessed place, where only his harmony can be exceeded." + +The histories of Music contain many curious anecdotes as to the +circumstances under which different works have been composed. + +Rossini tells us that he wrote the overture to the "Gazza Ladra" on the +very day of the first performance, in the upper loft of the La Scala, +where he had been confined by the manager under the guard of four +scene-shifters, who threw the text out of the window to copyists bit by +bit as it was composed. Tartini is said to have composed "Il trillo del +Diavolo," considered to be his best work, in a dream. Rossini, speaking of +the chorus in G minor in his "Dal tuo stellato soglio," tells us: "While I +was writing the chorus in G minor I suddenly dipped my pen into a medicine +bottle instead of the ink. I made a blot, and when I dried this with the +sand it took the form of a natural, which instantly gave me the idea of +the effect the change from G minor to G major would make, and to this blot +is all the effect, if any, due." But these of course are exceptional +cases. + +There are other forms of Music, which though not strictly entitled to the +name, are yet capable of giving intense pleasure. To the sportsman what +Music can excel that of the hounds themselves. The cawing of rooks has +been often quoted as a sound which has no actual beauty of its own, and +yet which is delightful from its associations. + +There is, however, a true Music of Nature,--the song of birds, the whisper +of leaves, the ripple of waters upon a sandy shore, the wail of wind or +sea. + +There was also an ancient impression that the Heavenly bodies give out +music as well as light: the Music of the Spheres is proverbial. + + "There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest + But in his motion like an angel sings, + Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims; + Such harmony is in immortal souls + But while this muddy vesture of decay + Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." [6] + +Music indeed often seems as if it scarcely belonged to this material +universe, but was + + "A tone + Of some world far from ours, + Where music, and moonlight, and feeling are one." [7] + +There is Music in speech as well as in song. Not merely in the voice of +those we love, and the charm of association, but in actual melody; as +Milton says, + + "The Angel ended, and in Adam's ear + So charming left his voice, that he awhile + Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear." + +It is remarkable that more pains are not taken with the voice in +conversation as well as in singing, for + + "What plea so tainted and corrupt + But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, + Obscures the show of evil." + +It may be true as a general rule that + + "The man that hath no Music in himself + Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds + Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;" [8] + +but there are some notable exceptions. Dr. Johnson had no love of music. +On one occasion, hearing that a certain piece of music was very difficult, +he expressed his regret that it was not impossible. + +Poets, as might have been expected, have sung most sweetly in praise of +song. They have, moreover, done so from the most opposite points of view. + +Milton invokes it as a luxury-- + + "And ever against eating cares + Lap me in soft Lydian airs; + Married to immortal verse + Such as the meeting soul may pierce, + In notes with many a winding bout + Of linked sweetness long drawn out; + With wanton heed, and giddy cunning, + The melting voice through mazes running; + Untwisting all the chains that tie + The hidden soul of harmony." + +Sometimes as a temptation; so Spenser says of Phaedria, + + "And she, more sweet than any bird on bough + Would oftentimes amongst them bear a part, + And strive to passe (as she could well enough) + Their native musicke by her skilful art." + +Or as an element of pure happiness-- + + "There is in Souls a sympathy with sounds; + And as the mind is pitched, the ear is pleased + With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave; + Some chord in unison with what we hear + Is touched within us, and the heart replies. + How soft the music of those village bells, + Falling at intervals upon the ear + In cadence sweet, now dying all away, + Now pealing loud again and louder still + Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on." [9] + +As touching the human heart-- + + "The soul of music slumbers in the shell, + Till waked and kindled by the master's spell, + And feeling hearts--touch them but lightly--pour + A thousand melodies unheard before." [10] + +As an education-- + + "I have sent books and music there, and all + Those instruments with which high spirits call + The future from its cradle, and the past + Out of its grave, and make the present last + In thoughts and joys which sleep, but cannot die, + Folded within their own eternity." [11] + +As an aid to religion-- + + "As from the power of sacred lays + The spheres began to move, + And sung the great Creator's praise + To all the blessed above, + So when the last and dreadful hour + This crumbling pageant shall devour, + The trumpet shall be heard on high. + The dead shall live, the living die, + And music shall untune the sky." [12] + +Or again-- + + "Hark how it falls! and now It steals along, + Like distant bells upon the lake at eve. + When all is still; and now it grows more strong + As when the choral train their dirges weave + Mellow and many voiced; where every close + O'er the old minster roof, in echoing waves reflows. + Oh! I am rapt aloft. My spirit soars + Beyond the skies, and leaves the stars behind; + Lo! angels lead me to the happy shores, + And floating paeans fill the buoyant wind. + Farewell! base earth, farewell! my soul is freed." + +The power of Music to sway the feelings of Man has never been more +cleverly portrayed than by Dryden in "The Feast of Alexander," though the +circumstances of the case precluded any reference to the influence of +Music in its noblest aspects. + +Poets have always attributed to Music--and who would wish to deny it?--a +power even over the inanimate forces of Nature. Shakespeare accounts for +shooting stars by the attraction of Music: + + "The rude sea grew civil at her song, + And certain stars shot madly from their spheres + To hear the Sea-maid's music." + +Prose writers have also been inspired by Music to their highest eloquence. +"Music," says Plato, "is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, +wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety +and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that +is good, just, and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but +nevertheless dazzling, passionate, and eternal form." "Music," said +Luther, "is a fair and glorious gift from God. I would not for the world +renounce my humble share in music." "Music," said Halevy, "is an art that +God has given us, in which the voices of all nations may unite their +prayers in one harmonious rhythm." Or Carlyle, "Music is a kind of +inarticulate, unfathomable speech, which leads us to the edge of the +infinite, and lets us for moments gaze into it." + +Let me also quote Helmholtz, one of the profoundest exponents of modern +science. "Just as in the rolling ocean, this movement, rhythmically +repeated, and yet ever-varying, rivets our attention and hurries us along. +But whereas in the sea blind physical forces alone are at work, and hence +the final impression on the spectator's mind is nothing but solitude--in a +musical work of art the movement follows the outflow of the artist's own +emotions. Now gently gliding, now gracefully leaping, now violently +stirred, penetrated, or laboriously contending with the natural expression +of passion, the stream of sound, in primitive vivacity, bears over into +the hearer's soul unimagined moods which the artist has overheard from his +own, and finally raises him up to that repose of everlasting beauty of +which God has allowed but few of his elect favorites to be the heralds." + +"There are but seven notes in the scale; make them fourteen," says Newman, +"yet what a slender outfit for so vast an enterprise! What science brings +so much out of so little? Out of what poor elements does some great master +in it create his new world! Shall we say that all this exuberant +inventiveness is a mere ingenuity or trick of art, like some game of +fashion of the day, without reality, without meaning?... Is it possible +that that inexhaustible evolution and disposition of notes, so rich yet so +simple, so intricate yet so regulated, so various yet so majestic, should +be a mere sound, which is gone and perishes? Can it be that those +mysterious stirrings of the heart, and keen emotions, and strange +yearnings after we know not what, and awful impressions from we know not +whence, should be wrought in us by what is unsubstantial, and comes and +goes, and begins and ends in itself? it is not so; it cannot be. No; they +have escaped from some higher sphere; they are the outpourings of eternal +harmony in the medium of created sound; they are echoes from our Home; +they are the voices of Angels, or the Magnificat of Saints, or the living +laws of Divine Governance, or the Divine Attributes; something are they +besides themselves, which we cannot compass, which we cannot utter, though +mortal man, and he perhaps not otherwise distinguished above his fellows, +has the gift of eliciting them." + +Poetry and Music unite in song. From the earliest ages song has been the +sweet companion of labor. The rude chant of the boatman floats upon the +water, the shepherd sings upon the hill, the milkmaid in the dairy, the +ploughman at the plough. Every trade, every occupation, every act and +scene of life, has long had its own especial music. The bride went to her +marriage, the laborer to his work, the old man to his last long rest, each +with appropriate and immemorial music. + +Music has been truly described as the mother of sympathy, the handmaid of +Religion, and will never exercise its full effect, as the Emperor Charles +VI. said to Farinelli, unless it aims not merely to charm the ear, but to +touch the heart. + +There are many who consider that our life at present is peculiarly prosaic +and mercenary. I greatly doubt whether that be the case, but if so our +need for Music is all the more imperative. + +Much as Music has already done for man, we may hope even more from it in +the future. + +It is, moreover, a joy for all. To appreciate Science or Art requires some +training, and no doubt the cultivated ear will more and more appreciate +the beauties of Music; but though there are exceptional individuals, and +even races, almost devoid of any love of Music, still they are happily but +rare. + +Good Music, moreover, does not necessarily involve any considerable +outlay; it is even now no mere luxury of the rich, and we may hope that as +time goes on, it will become more and more the comfort and solace of the +poor. + +[1] Morris. + +[2] Plato. + +[3] Crowest. + +[4] _Rowbotham, History of Music_. + +[5] Wakefield. + +[6] Shakespeare. + +[7] Swinburne. + +[8] Shakespeare. + +[9] Cowper. + +[10] Rogers. + +[11] Shelley. + +[12] Dryden. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE. + + + "Speak to the earth and it shall teach thee." + + JOB. + + + "And this our life, exempt from public haunt, + Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, + Sermons in stones, and good in everything." + + SHAKESPEARE. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE. + + +We are told in the first chapter of Genesis that at the close of the sixth +day "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." +Not merely good, but very good. Yet how few of us appreciate the beautiful +world in which we live! + +In preceding chapters I have incidentally, though only incidentally, +referred to the Beauties of Nature; but any attempt, however imperfect, to +sketch the blessings of life must contain some special reference to this +lovely world itself, which the Greeks happily called [Greek: chosmos] +--beauty. + +Hamerton, in his charming work on _Landscape_, says, "There are, I +believe, four new experiences for which no description ever adequately +prepares us, the first sight of the sea, the first journey in the desert, +the sight of flowing molten lava, and a walk on a great glacier. We feel +in each case that the strange thing is pure nature, as much nature as a +familiar English moor, yet so extraordinary that we might be in another +planet." But it would, I think, be easier to enumerate the Wonders of +Nature for which description can prepare us, than those which are +altogether beyond the power of language. + +Many of us, however, walk through the world like ghosts, as if we were in +it, but not of it. We have "eyes and see not, ears and hear not." To look +is much less easy than to overlook, and to be able to see what we do see, +is a great gift. Ruskin maintains that "The greatest thing a human soul +ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a +plain way." I do not suppose that his eyes are better than ours, but how +much more he sees with them! + +We must look before we can expect to see. "To the attentive eye," says +Emerson, "each moment of the year has its own beauty; and in the same +field it beholds every hour a picture that was never seen before, and +shall never be seen again. The heavens change every moment and reflect +their glory or gloom on the plains beneath." + +The love of Nature is a great gift, and if it is frozen or crushed out, +the character can hardly fail to suffer from the loss. I will not, indeed, +say that a person who does not love Nature is necessarily bad; or that one +who does, is necessarily good; but it is to most minds a great help. Many, +as Miss Cobbe says, enter the Temple through the gate called Beautiful. + +There are doubtless some to whom none of the beautiful wonders of Nature; +neither the glories of the rising or setting sun; the magnificent +spectacle of the boundless ocean, sometimes so grand in its peaceful +tranquillity, at others so majestic in its mighty power; the forests +agitated by the storm, or alive with the song of birds; nor the glaciers +and mountains--there are doubtless some whom none of these magnificent +spectacles can move, whom "all the glories of heaven and earth may pass in +daily succession without touching their hearts or elevating their +minds." [1] + +Such men are indeed pitiable. But, happily, they are exceptions. If we can +none of us as yet fully appreciate the beauties of Nature, we are +beginning to do so more and more. + +For most of us the early summer has a special charm. The very life is +luxury. The air is full of scent, and sound, and sunshine, of the song of +birds and the murmur of insects; the meadows gleam with golden buttercups, +it almost seems as if one could see the grass grow and the buds open; the +bees hum for very joy, and the air is full of a thousand scents, above all +perhaps that of new-mown hay. + +The exquisite beauty and delight of a fine summer day in the country has +never perhaps been more truly, and therefore more beautifully, described +than by Jefferies in his "Pageant of Summer." "I linger,'" he says, "in +the midst of the long grass, the luxury of the leaves, and the song in the +very air. I seem as if I could feel all the glowing life the sunshine +gives and the south wind calls to being. The endless grass, the endless +leaves, the immense strength of the oak expanding, the unalloyed joy of +finch and blackbird; from all of them I receive a little.... In the +blackbird's melody one note is mine; in the dance of the leaf shadows the +formed maze is for me, though the motion is theirs; the flowers with a +thousand faces have collected the kisses of the morning. Feeling with +them, I receive some, at least, of their fulness of life. Never could I +have enough; never stay long enough.... The hours when the mind is +absorbed by beauty are the only hours when we really live, so that the +longer we can stay among these things so much the more is snatched from +inevitable Time.... These are the only hours that are not wasted-these +hours that absorb the soul and fill it with beauty. This is real life, and +all else is illusion, or mere endurance. To be beautiful and to be calm, +without mental fear, is the ideal of Nature. If I cannot achieve it, at +least I can think it." + +This chapter is already so long that I cannot touch on the contrast and +variety of the seasons, each with its own special charm and interest, as + + "The daughters of the year + Dance into light and die into the shade." [2] + +Our countrymen derive great pleasure from the animal kingdom, in hunting, +shooting, and fishing, thus obtaining fresh air and exercise, and being +led into much varied and beautiful scenery. Still it will probably ere +long be recognized that even from a purely selfish point of view, killing +animals is not the way to get the greatest enjoyment from them. How much +more interesting would every walk in the country be, if Man would but +treat other animals with kindness, so that they might approach us without +fear, and we might have the constant pleasure of watching their winning +ways. Their origin and history, structure and habits, senses and +intelligence, offer an endless field of interest and wonder. + +The richness of life is wonderful. Any one who will sit down quietly on +the grass and watch a little will be indeed surprised at the number and +variety of living beings, every one with a special history of its own, +every one offering endless problems of great interest. + +"If indeed thy heart were right, then would every creature be to thee a +mirror of lifer and a book of holy doctrine." [3] + +The study of Natural History has the special advantage of carrying us into +the country and the open air. + +Not but what towns are beautiful too. They teem with human interest and +historical associations. + +Wordsworth was an intense lover of nature; yet does he not tell us, in +lines which every Londoner will appreciate, that he knew nothing in nature +more fair, no calm more deep, than the city of London at early dawn? + + "Earth has not anything to show more fair; + Dull would he be of soul who could pass by + A sight so touching in its majesty: + This City now doth, like a garment, wear + The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, + Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie + Open unto the fields, and to the sky; + All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. + Never did sun more beautifully steep + In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill; + Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep! + The river glideth at its own sweet will: + Dear God! the very houses seem asleep; + And all that mighty heart is lying still!" + +Milton also described London as + + "Too blest abode, no loveliness we see + In all the earth, but it abounds in thee." + +But after being some time in a great city, one feels a longing for the +country. + + "The meanest floweret of the vale, + The simplest note that swells the gale, + The common sun, the air, the skies, + To him are opening paradise." [4] + +Here Gray justly places flowers in the first place, for when in any great +town we think of the country, flowers seem first to suggest themselves. + +"Flowers," says Ruskin, "seem intended for the solace of ordinary +humanity. Children love them; quiet, tender, contented, ordinary people +love them as they grow; luxurious and disorderly people rejoice in them +gathered. They are the cottager's treasure; and in the crowded town mark, +as with a little broken fragment of rainbow the windows of the workers in +whose heart rest the covenant of peace." But in the crowded street, or +even in the formal garden, flowers always seem, to me at least, as if they +were pining for the freedom of the woods and fields, where they can live +and grow as they please. + +There are flowers for almost all seasons and all places. Flowers for +spring, summer, and autumn, while even in the very depth of winter here +and there one makes its appearance. There are flowers of the fields and +woods and hedgerows, of the seashore and the lake's margin, of the +mountain-side up to the very edge of the eternal snow. + +And what an infinite variety they present. + + "Daffodils, + That come before the swallow dares, and take + The winds of March with beauty; violets, dim, + But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, + Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses, + That die unmarried, ere they can behold + Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady + Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and + The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds, + The flower-de-luce being one." [5] + +Nor are they mere delights to the eye; they are full of mystery and +suggestions. They almost seem like enchanted princesses waiting for some +princely deliverer. Wordsworth tells us that + + "To me the meanest flower that blows can give + Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." + +Every color again, every variety of form, has some purpose and +explanation. + +And yet, lovely as Flowers are, Leaves add even more to the Beauty of +Nature. Trees in our northern latitudes seldom own large flowers; and +though of course there are notable exceptions, such as the Horse-chestnut, +still even in these cases the flowers live only a few days, while the +leaves last for months. Every tree indeed is a picture in itself: The +gnarled and rugged Oak, the symbol and source of our navy, sacred to the +memory of the Druids, the type of strength, the sovereign of British +trees; the Chestnut, with its beautiful, tapering, and rich green, glossy +leaves, its delicious fruit, and to the durability of which we owe the +grand and historic roof of Westminster Abbey. + +The Birch is the queen of trees, with her feathery foliage, scarcely +visible in spring but turning to leaves of gold in autumn; the pendulous +twigs tinged with purple, and silver stems so brilliantly marked with +black and white. + +The Elm forms grand masses of foliage which turn a beautiful golden yellow +in autumn; and the Black Poplar with its perpendicular leaves, rustling +and trembling with every breath of wind, towers over most other forest +trees. + +The Beech enlivens the country by its tender green in spring, rich green +in summer, and glorious gold and orange in autumn, set off by the graceful +gray stems; and has moreover, such a wealth of leaves that in autumn there +are enough not only to clothe the tree itself but to cover the grass +underneath. + +If the Beech owes much to its delicate gray stem, even more beautiful is +the reddish crimson of the Scotch Pines, in such charming contrast with +the rich green of the foliage, by which it is shown off rather than +hidden; and, with the green spires of the Firs, they keep the woods warm +in winter. + +Nor must I overlook the smaller trees: the Yew with its thick green +foliage; the wild Guelder rose, which lights up the woods in autumn with +translucent glossy berries and many-tinted leaves; or the Bryonies, the +Briar, the Traveler's Joy, and many another plant, even humbler perhaps, +and yet each with some exquisite beauty and grace of its own, so that we +must all have sometimes felt our hearts overflowing with gladness and +gratitude, as if the woods were full of music--as if + + "The woods were filled so full with song + There seemed no room for sense of wrong." [6] + +On the whole no doubt, woodlands are less beautiful in the winter: yet +even then the delicate tracery of the branches, which cannot be so well +seen when they are clothed with leaves, has a special beauty of its own; +while every now and then hoar frost or snow settles like silver on every +branch and twig, lighting up the forest as if by enchantment in +preparation for some fairy festival. + +I feel with Jefferies that "by day or by night, summer or winter, beneath +trees the heart feels nearer to that depth of life which the far sky +means. The rest of spirit found only in beauty, ideal and pure, comes +there because the distance seems within touch of thought." + +The general effect of forests in tropical regions must be very different +from that of those in our latitudes. Kingsley describes it as one of +helplessness, confusion, awe, all but terror. The trunks are very lofty +and straight, and rising to a great height without a branch, so that the +wood seems at first comparatively open. In Brazilian forests, for +instance, the trees struggle upward, and the foliage forms an unbroken +canopy, perhaps a hundred feet overhead. Here, indeed, high up in the air +is the real life of the forest. Everything seems to climb, to the light. +The quadrupeds climb, birds climb, reptiles climb, and the variety of +climbing plants is far greater than anything to which we are accustomed. + +Many savage nations worship trees, and I really think my first feeling +would be one of delight and interest rather than of surprise, if some day +when I am alone in a wood one of the trees were to speak to me. Even by +day there is something mysterious in a forest, and this is much more the +case at night. + +With wood, water seems to be naturally associated. Without water no +landscape is complete, while overhead the clouds add beauty to the heavens +themselves. The spring and the rivulet, the brook, the river, and the +lake, seem to give life to Nature, and were indeed regarded by our +ancestors as living entities themselves. Water is beautiful in the morning +mist, in the broad lake, in the glancing stream or the river pool, in the +wide ocean, beautiful in all its varied moods. Water nourishes vegetation; +it clothes the lowlands with green and the mountains with snow. It +sculptures the rocks and excavates the valleys, in most cases acting +mainly through the soft rain, though our harder rocks are still grooved by +the ice-chisel of bygone ages. + +The refreshing pour of water upon the earth is scarcely greater than that +which it exercises on the mind of man. After a long spell of work how +delightful it is to sit by a lake or river, or on the seashore, and enjoy + + "A little murmur in mine ear, + A little ripple at my feet." [7] + +Every Englishman loves the sight of the Sea We feel that it is to us a +second home. It seems to vivify the very atmosphere, so that Sea air is +proverbial as a tonic, and makes the blood dance in our veins. The Ocean +gives an impression of freedom and grandeur more intense perhaps than the +aspect of the heavens themselves. A poor woman from Manchester, on being +taken to the seaside, is said to have expressed her delight on seeing for +the first time something of which there was enough for everybody. The sea +coast is always interesting. When we think of the cliff sections with +their histories of bygone ages; the shore itself teeming with seaweeds and +animals, waiting for the return of the tide, or thrown up from deeper +water by the waves; the weird cries of seabirds; the delightful feeling +that with every breath we are laying in a store of fresh life, and health, +and energy, it is impossible to over-estimate all we owe to the sea. + +It is, moreover, always changing. We went for our holiday this year to +Lyme Regis. Let me attempt to describe the changes in the view from our +windows during a single day. Our sitting-room opened on to a little lawn, +beyond which the ground drops suddenly to the sea, while over about two +miles of water were the hills of the Dorsetshire coast--Golden Cap, with +its bright crest of yellow sand, and the dark blue Lias Cliff of Black +Ven. When I came early down in the morning the sun was rising opposite, +shining into the room over a calm sea, along an avenue of light; by +degrees, as it rose, the whole sea was gilt with light, and the hills +bathed in a violet mist. By breakfast-time all color had faded from the +sea--it was like silver passing on each side into gray; the sky was blue, +flecked with fleecy clouds; while, on the gentler slopes of the coast +opposite, fields and woods, and quarries and lines of stratification begin +to show themselves, though the cliffs are still in shadow, and the more +distant headlands still a mere succession of ghosts, each one fainter than +the one before it. As the morning advances the sea becomes blue, the dark +woods, green meadows, and golden cornfields of the opposite coast more +distinct, and the details of the cliffs come gradually into view, and +fishing-boats with dark sails begin to appear. + +Gradually the sun rises higher, a yellow line of shore appears under the +opposite cliffs, and the sea changes its color, mapping itself out as it +were, the shallower parts turquoise blue, almost green; the deeper ones +deep violet. + +This does not last long--a thunderstorm comes up. The wind mutters +overhead, the rain patters on the leaves, the coast opposite seems to +shrink into itself, as if it would fly from the storm. The sea grows dark +and rough, and white horses appear here and there. + +But the storm is soon over. The clouds break, the rain stops, the sun +shines once more, the hills opposite come out again. They are divided now +not only into fields and woods, but into sunshine and shadow. The sky +clears, and as the sun begins to descend westwards the sea becomes one +beautiful clear uniform azure, changing again soon to pale blue in front +and dark violet beyond: and once more as clouds begin to gather again, +into an archipelago of bright blue sea and deep islands of ultramarine. As +the sun travels westward, the opposite hills change again. They scarcely +seem like the same country. What was in sun is now in shade, and what was +in shade now lies bright in the sunshine. The sea once more becomes a +uniform solid blue, only flecked in places by scuds of wind, and becoming +paler towards evening as the sun sinks, the cliffs which catch his setting +rays losing their deep color and in some places looking almost as white as +chalk, while at sunset they light up again for a moment with a golden +glow, the sea at the same time sinking to a cold gray. But soon the hills +grow cold too, Golden Cap holding out bravely to the last, and the shades +of evening settle over cliff and wood, cornfield and meadow. + +These are but a part, and a very small part, of the changes of a single +day. And scarce any two days are alike. At times a sea-fog covers +everything. Again the sea which sleeps to-day so peacefully sometimes +rages, and the very existence of the bay itself bears witness to its +force. + +The night, again, varies like the day. Sometimes shrouded by a canopy of +darkness, sometimes lit up by millions of brilliant worlds, sometimes +bathed in the light of a moon, which never retains the same form for two +nights together. + +If Lakes are less grand than the sea, they are in some respects even more +lovely. The seashore is comparatively bare. The banks of Lakes are often +richly clothed with vegetation which comes close down to the water's edge, +sometimes hanging even into the water itself. They are often studded with +well-wooded islands. They are sometimes fringed with green meadows, +sometimes bounded by rocky promontories rising directly from comparatively +deep water, while the calm bright surface is often fretted by a delicate +pattern of interlacing ripples, or reflects a second, softened, and +inverted landscape. + +To water again we owe the marvellous spectacle of the rainbow--"God's bow +in the clouds." It is indeed truly a heavenly messenger, and so unlike +anything else that it scarcely seems to belong to this world. + +Many things are colored, but the rainbow seems to be color itself. + + "First the flaming red + Sprang vivid forth; the tawny orange next, + And next delicious yellow; by whose side + Fell the kind beams of all-refreshing green. + Then the pure blue that swells autumnal skies, + Ethereal play'd; and then, of sadder hue + Emerged the deeper indigo (as when + The heavy-skirted evening droops with frost), + While the last gleamings of refracted light + Died in the fainting violet away." [8] + +We do not, I think, sufficiently realize how wonderful is the blessing of +color. It would have been possible, it would even seem more probable, that +though light might have enabled us to perceive objects, this could only +have been by shade and form. How we perceive color it is very difficult to +comprehend, and yet when we speak of beauty, among the ideas which come to +us most naturally are those of birds and butterflies, flowers and shells, +precious stones, skies, and rainbows. + +Our minds might have been constituted exactly as they are, we might have +been capable of comprehending the highest and sublimest truths, and yet, +but for a small organ in the head, the world of sound would have been shut +out from us; we should have lost the sounds of nature, the charms of +music, the conversation of friends, and have been condemned to perpetual +silence: and yet a slight alteration in the retina, which is not thicker +than a sheet of paper, not larger than a finger nail,--and the glorious +spectacle of this beautiful world, the exquisite variety of form, the +glory and play of color, the variety of scenery, of woods and fields, and +lakes and hills, seas and mountains, the glory of the sky alike by day and +night, would all have been lost to us. + +Mountains, again, "seem to have been built for the human race, as at once +their schools and cathedrals; full of treasures of illuminated manuscript +for the scholar, kindly in simple lessons for the worker, quiet in pale +cloisters for the thinker, glorious in holiness for the worshipper. And of +these great cathedrals of the earth, with their gates of rock, pavements +of cloud, choirs of stream and stone, altars of snow, and vaults of purple +traversed by the continual stars." [9] + +All these beauties are comprised in Tennyson's exquisite description of +Oenone's vale--the city, flowers, trees, river, and mountains. + + "There is a vale in Ida, lovelier + Than all the valleys of Ionian hills. + The swimming vapor slopes athwart the glen, + Puts forth an arm, and creeps from pine to pine, + And loiters, slowly drawn. On either hand + The lawns and meadow-ledges midway down + Hang rich in flowers, and far below them roars + The long brook falling thro' the clov'n ravine + In cataract after cataract to the sea. + Behind the valley topmost Gargarus + Stands up and takes the morning; but in front + The gorges, opening wide apart, reveal + Troas and Ilion's column'd citadel, + The crown of Troas." + +And when we raise our eyes from earth, who has not sometimes felt "the +witchery of the soft blue sky;" who has not watched a cloud floating +upward as if on its way to heaven, or when + + "Sunbeam proof, I hang like a roof + The mountain its columns be." [10] + +And yet "if, in our moments of utter idleness and insipidity, we turn to +the sky as a last resource, which of its phenomena do we speak of? One +says, it has been wet; and another, it has been windy; and another, it has +been warm. Who, among the whole chattering crowd, can tell me of the forms +and the precipices of the chain of tall white mountains that girded the +horizon at noon yesterday? Who saw the narrow sunbeam that came out of the +south, and smote upon their summits until they melted and mouldered away +in a dust of blue rain? Who saw the dance of the dead clouds when the +sunlight left them last night, and the west wind blew them before it like +withered leaves? All has passed, unregretted as unseen; or if the apathy +be ever shaken off, even for an instant, it is only by what is gross, or +what is extraordinary; and yet it is not in the broad and fierce +manifestations of the elemental energies, not in the clash of the hail, +nor the drift of the whirlwind, that the highest characters of the sublime +are developed." [11] + +But exquisitely lovely as is the blue arch of the midday sky, with its +inexhaustible variety of clouds, "there is yet a light which the eye +invariably seeks with a deeper feeling of the beautiful, the light of the +declining or breaking day, and the flakes of scarlet cloud burning like +watch-fires in the green sky of the horizon." [12] The evening colors +indeed soon fade away, but as night comes on, + + "How glorious the firmament + With living sapphires! Hesperus that led + The starry host, rode brightest; till the moon + Rising in clouded majesty, at length, + Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light, + And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw." [13] + +We generally speak of a beautiful night when it is calm and clear, and the +stars shine brightly overhead; but how grand also are the wild ways of +Nature, how magnificent when the lightning flashes, "between gloom and +glory;" when + + "From peak to peak, the rattling crags among + Leaps the live thunder." [14] + +In the words of Ossian-- + + "Ghosts ride in the tempest to-night; + Sweet is their voice between the gusts of wind, + Their songs are of other worlds." + +Nor are the wonders and beauties of the heavens limited by the clouds and +the blue sky, lovely as they are. In the heavenly bodies we have before us +"the perpetual presence of the sublime." They are so immense and so far +away, and yet on soft summer nights "they seem leaning down to whisper in +the ear of our souls." [15] + +"A man can hardly lift up his eyes toward the heavens," says Seneca, +"without wonder and veneration, to see so many millions of radiant lights, +and to observe their courses and revolutions, even without any respect to +the common good of the Universe." + +Who does not sympathize with the feelings of Dante as he rose from his +visit to the lower regions, until, he says, + + "On our view the beautiful lights of heaven + Dawned through a circular opening in the cave, + Thence issuing, we again beheld the stars." + +As we watch the stars at night they seem so still and motionless that we +can hardly realize that all the time they are rushing on with a velocity +far far exceeding any that man has ever accomplished. + +Like the sands of the sea, the stars of heaven have ever been used as an +appropriate symbol of number, and we know that there are some 75,000,000, +many, no doubt, with planets of their own. But this is by no means all. +The floor of heaven is not only "thick inlaid with patines of bright +gold," but is studded also with extinct stars, once probably as brilliant +as our own sun, but now dead and cold, as Helmholtz tells us our sun +itself will be some seventeen millions of years hence. Then, again, there +are the comets, which, though but few are visible to us at once, are even +more numerous than the stars; there are the nebulae, and the countless +minor bodies circulating in space, and occasionally visible as meteors. + +Nor is it only the number of the heavenly bodies which is so overwhelming; +their magnitude and distances are almost more impressive. The ocean is so +deep and broad as to be almost infinite, and indeed in so far as our +imagination is the limit, so it may be. Yet what is the ocean compared to +the sky? Our globe is little compared to the giant orbs of Jupiter and +Saturn, which again sink into insignificance by the side of the sun. The +sun itself is almost as nothing compared with the dimensions of the solar +system. Sirius is calculated to be a thousand times as great as the Sun, +and a million times as far away. The solar system itself travels in one +region of space, sailing between worlds and worlds, and is surrounded by +many other systems as great and complex as itself; and we know that even +then we have not reached the limits of the Universe itself. + +There are stars so distant that their light, though traveling 180,000 +miles in a second, yet takes years to reach us; and beyond all these are +other systems of stars which are so far away that they cannot be perceived +singly, but even in our most powerful telescopes appear only as minute +clouds or nebulae. It is, indeed, but a feeble expression of the truth to +say that the infinities revealed to us by Science,--the infinitely great +in the one direction, and the infinitely small in the other,--go far +beyond anything which had occurred to the unaided imagination of Man, and +are not only a never-failing source of pleasure and interest, but seem to +lift us out of the petty troubles and sorrows of life. + +[1] Beattie. + +[2] Tennyson. + +[3] Thomas à Kempis. + +[4] Gray. + +[5] Shakespeare. + +[6] Tennyson. + +[7] Trench. + +[8] Thomson. + +[9] Ruskin. + +[10] Shelley. + +[11] Ruskin. + +[12] _Ibid_. + +[13] Wordsworth. + +[14] Swinburne. + +[15] Symonds. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE TROUBLES OF LIFE. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE TROUBLES OF LIFE. + + +We have in life many troubles, and troubles are of many kinds. Some +sorrows, alas, are real enough, especially those we bring on ourselves, +but others, and by no means the least numerous, are mere ghosts of +troubles: if we face them boldly, we find that they have no substance or +reality, but are mere creations of our own morbid imagination, and that it +is as true now as in the time of David that "Man disquieteth himself in a +vain shadow." + +Some, indeed, of our troubles are evils, but not real; while others are +real, but not evils. + +"And yet, into how unfathomable a gulf the mind rushes when the troubles +of this world agitate it. If it then forget its own light, which is +eternal joy, and rush into the outer darkness, which are the cares of this +world, as the mind now does, it knows nothing else but lamentations." [1] + +"Athens," said Epictetus, "is a good place,--but happiness is much better; +to be free from passions, free from disturbance." + +We should endeavor to maintain ourselves in + + "That blessed mood + In which the burden of the mystery, + In which the heavy and the weary weight, + Of all this unintelligible world + Is lightened." [2] + +So shall we fear "neither the exile of Aristides, nor the prison of +Anaxagoras, nor the poverty of Socrates, nor the condemnation of Phocion, +but think virtue worthy our love even under such trials." [3] We should +then be, to a great extent, independent of external circumstances, for + + "Stone walls do not a prison make, + Nor iron bars a cage, + Minds innocent and quiet take + That for a hermitage. + + "If I have freedom in my love, + And in my soul am free; + Angels alone that soar above + Enjoy such liberty." [4] + +Happiness indeed depends much more on what is within than without us. When +Hamlet says the world is "a goodly prison; in which there are many +confines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one of the worst," and +Rosencrantz differs from him, he rejoins wisely, "Why then, 'tis none to +you: for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to +me it is a prison." "All is opinion," said Marcus Aurelius. "That which +does not make a man worse, how can it make his life worse? But death +certainly, and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure, all these +things happen equally to good men and bad, being things which make us +neither better nor worse." + +"The greatest evils," says Jeremy Taylor, "are from within us; and from +ourselves also we must look for our greatest good." + +"The mind," says Milton, + + "is its own place, and in itself + Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." + +Milton indeed in his blindness saw more beautiful visions, and Beethoven +in his deafness heard more heavenly music, than most of us can ever hope +to enjoy. + +We are all apt, when we know not what may happen, to fear the worst. When +we know the full extent of any danger, it is half over. Hence, we dread +ghosts more than robbers, not only without reason, but against reason; for +even if ghosts existed, how could they hurt us? and in ghost stories, few, +even those who say that they have seen a ghost, ever profess or pretend to +have felt one. + +Milton, in his description of death, dwells on this characteristic of +obscurity: + + "The other shape, + If shape it might be call'd that shape had none + Distinguishable, in member, joint, or limb; + Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd, + For each seem'd either; black he stood as night; + Fierce as ten furies; terrible as hell; + And shook a deadly dart. What seem'd his head + The likeness of a kingly crown had on." + +The effect of darkness and night in enhancing terrors is dwelt on in one +of the sublimest passages in Job-- + + "In thoughts from the visions of the night, + When deep sleep falleth on men, + Fear came upon me, and trembling, + Which made all my bones to shake. + Then a spirit passed before my face; + The hair of my flesh stood up. + It stood still, an image was before mine eyes. + There was silence; and I heard a voice saying + Shall mortal man be more just than God?" + +Thus was the terror turned into a lesson of comfort and of mercy. + +We often magnify troubles and difficulties, and look at them till they +seem much greater than they really are. + +"Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers have +deceived men than forced them: nay, it were better to meet some dangers +half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch +upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long, it is odds he will +fall asleep." [5] + +Foresight is very wise, but foresorrow is very foolish; and castles are at +any rate better than dungeons, in the air. + +Some of our troubles, no doubt, are real enough, but yet are not evils. + +It happens, unfortunately too often, that by some false step, intentional +or unintentional, we have missed the right road, and gone wrong. Can we +then retrace our steps? can we recover what is lost? This may be done. It +is too gloomy a view to affirm that + + "A word too much, or a kiss too long, + And the world is never the same again." + +There are two noble sayings of Socrates, that to do evil is more to be +avoided than to suffer it; and that when a man has done evil, it is better +for him to be punished than to be unpunished. + +We generally speak of selfishness as a fault, and as if it interfered with +the general happiness. But this is not altogether correct. + +The pity is that so many people are foolishly selfish: that they pursue a +course of action which neither makes themselves nor any one else happy. + +"Every man," says Goethe, "ought to begin with himself, and make his own +happiness first, from which the happiness of the whole world would at last +unquestionably follow." It is easy to say that this is too broadly stated, +and of course exceptions might be pointed out: but if every one would +avoid excess, and take care of his own health; would keep himself strong +and cheerful; would make his home happy, and give no cause for the petty +vexations which embitter domestic life; would attend to his own affairs +and keep himself sober and solvent; would, in the words of the Chinese +proverb, "sweep away the snow from before his own door, and never mind the +frost upon his neighbor's tiles;" though it might not be the noblest +course of conduct; still, how well it would be for their family, +relations, and friends. But, unfortunately, + + "Look round the habitable world, how few + Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue." [6] + +It would be a great thing if people could be brought to realize that they +can never add to the sum of their happiness by doing wrong. In the case of +children, indeed, we recognize this; we perceive that a spoilt child is +not a happy one; that it would have been far better for him to have been +punished at first and thus saved from greater suffering in after life. + +It is a beautiful idea that every man has with him a Guardian Angel; and +it is true too: for Conscience is ever on the watch, ever ready to warn us +of danger. + +We often feel disposed to complain, and yet it is most ungrateful: + + "For who would lose, + Though full of pain, this intellectual being, + Those thoughts that wander through Eternity; + To perish rather, swallowed up, and lost + In the wide womb of uncreated thought." [7] + +But perhaps it will be said that we are sent here in preparation for +another and a better world. Well, then, why should we complain of what is +but a preparation for future happiness? + +We ought to + + "Count each affliction, whether light or grave, + God's messenger sent down to thee; do thou + With courtesy receive him; rise and bow; + And, ere his shadow pass thy threshold, crave + Permission first his heavenly feet to lave; + Then lay before him all thou hast; allow + No cloud of passion to usurp thy brow, + Or mar thy hospitality; no wave + Of mortal tumult to obliterate + The soul's marmoreal calmness: Grief shall be + Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate; + Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free; + Strong to consume small troubles; to commend + Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end." [8] + +Some persons are like the waters of Siloam, and require to be troubled +before they can exercise their virtue. + +"We shall get more contentedness," says Plutarch, "from the presence of +all these blessings if we fancy them as absent, and remember from time to +time how people when ill yearn for health, and people in war for peace, +and strangers and unknown in a great city for reputation and friends, and +how painful it is to be deprived of all these when one has once had them. +For then each of these blessings will not appear to us only great and +valuable when it is lost, and of no value when we have it.... And yet it +makes much for contentedness of mind to look for the most part at home and +to our own condition; or if not, to look at the case of people worse off +than ourselves, and not, as people do, to compare ourselves with those who +are better off.... But you will find others, Chians, or Galatians, or +Bithynians, not content with the share of glory or power they have among +their fellow-citizens, but weeping because they do not wear senators' +shoes; or, if they have them, that they cannot be praetors of Rome; or if +they get that office, that they are not consuls; or if they are consuls, +that they are only proclaimed second and not first.... Whenever, then, you +admire any one carried by in his litter as a greater man than yourself, +lower your eyes and look at those that bear the litter." And again, "I am +very taken with Diogenes' remark to a stranger at Lacedaemon, who was +dressing with much display for a feast, 'Does not a good man consider +every day a feast?' ... Seeing then that life is the most complete +initiation into all these things, it ought to be full of ease of mind and +joy; and if properly understood, would enable us to acquiesce in the +present without repining, to remember the past with thankfulness, and to +meet the future hopefully and cheerfully without fear of suspicion." + +[1] King Alfred's translations of the _Consolations of Boethius_. + +[2] Wordsworth. + +[3] Plutarch. + +[4] Lovelace. + +[5] Bacon. + +[6] Dryden. + +[7] Milton. + +[8] Aubrey de Vere. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LABOR AND REST. + + + "Through labor to rest, through combat to victory." + + THOMAS À KEMPIS. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LABOR AND REST. + + +Among the troubles of life I do not, of course, reckon the necessity of +labor. + +Work indeed, and hard work, if only it is in moderation, is in itself a +rich source of happiness. We all know how quickly time passes when we are +well employed, while the moments hang heavily on the hands of the idle. +Occupation drives away care and all the small troubles of life. The busy +man has no time to brood or to fret. + + "From toil he wins his spirits light, + From busy day the peaceful night; + Rich, from the very want of wealth, + In Heaven's best treasures, peace and health." [1] + +This applies especially to the labor of the field and the workshop. Humble +it may be, but if it does not dazzle with the promise of fame, it gives +the satisfaction of duty fulfilled, and the inestimable blessing of +health. As Emerson reminds those entering life, "The angels that live with +them, and are weaving laurels of life for their youthful brows, are toil +and truth and mutual faith." + +Labor was truly said by the ancients to be the price which the gods set +upon everything worth having. We all admit, though we often forget, the +marvellous power of perseverance, and yet all Nature, down to Bruce's +spider, is continually impressing this lesson on us. + +Hard writing, it has been said, makes easy reading; Plato is said to have +rewritten the first page of the _Republic_ thirteen times; and Carlo +Maratti, we are told, sketched the head of Antinoüs three hundred times +before he wrought it to his satisfaction. + +It is better to wear out than to rust out, and there is "a dust which +settles on the heart, as well as that which rests upon the ledge." [2] + +But though labor is good for man, it may be, and unfortunately often is, +carried to excess. Many are wearily asking themselves + + "Ah why + Should life all labor be?" [3] + +There is a time for all things, says Solomon, a time to work and a time to +play: we shall work all the better for reasonable change, and one reward +of work is to secure leisure. + +It is a good saying that where there's a will there's a way; but while it +is all very well to wish, wishes must not take the place of work. + +In whatever sphere his duty lies every man must rely mainly on himself. +Others can help us, but we must make ourselves. No one else can see for +us. To profit by our advantages we must learn to use for ourselves + + "The dark lantern of the spirit + Which none can see by, but he who bears it." + +It is hardly an exaggeration to say that honest work is never thrown away. +If we do not find the imaginary treasure, at any rate we enrich the +vineyard. + +"Work," says Nature to man, "in every hour, paid or unpaid; see only that +thou work, and thou canst not escape the reward: whether thy work be fine +or coarse, planting corn or writing epics, so only it be honest work, done +to thine own approbation, it shall earn a reward to the senses as well as +to the thought: no matter how often defeated, you are born to victory. The +reward of a thing well done is to have done it." [4] + +Nor can any work, however persevering, or any success, however great, +exhaust the prizes of life. + +The most studious, the most successful, must recognize that there yet +remain + + "So much to do that is not e'en begun, + So much to hope for that we cannot see, + So much to win, so many things to be." [5] + +At the present time, though there may be some special drawbacks, still we +come to our work with many advantages which were not enjoyed in olden +times. We live in much greater security ourselves, and are less liable to +have the fruits of our labor torn violently from us. + +In olden times the difficulties of study were far greater than they are +now. Books were expensive and cumbersome, in many cases moreover chained +to the desks on which they were kept. The greatest scholars have often +been very poor. Erasmus used to read by moonlight because he could not +afford a candle, and "begged a penny, not for the love of charity, but for +the love of learning." [6] + +Want of time is no excuse for idleness. "Our life," says Jeremy Taylor, +"is too short to serve the ambition of a haughty prince or a usurping +rebel; too little time to purchase great wealth, to satisfy the pride of a +vainglorious fool, to trample upon all the enemies of our just or unjust +interest: but for the obtaining virtue, for the purchase of sobriety and +modesty, for the actions of religion, God gives us time sufficient, if we +make the outgoings of the morning and evening, that is our infancy and old +age, to be taken into the computations of a man." + +Work is so much a necessity of existence, that it is less a question +whether, than how, we shall work. An old proverb tells us that the Devil +finds work for those who do not make it for themselves. + +If we Englishmen have succeeded as a race, it has been due in no small +measure to the fact that we have worked hard. Not only so, but we have +induced the forces of Nature to work for us. "Steam," says Emerson, "is +almost an Englishman." + +The power of work has especially characterized our greatest men. Cecil +said of Sir W. Raleigh that he "could toil terribly." + +We are most of us proud of belonging to the greatest Empire the world has +ever seen. It may be said of us with especial truth in Wordsworth's words +that + + "The world is too much with us; late and soon + Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." + +Yes, but what world? The world will be with us sure enough, and whether we +please or not. But what sort of world it will be for us will depend +greatly on ourselves. + +We are told to pray not to be taken out of the world, but to be kept from +the evil. + +There are various ways of working. Quickness may be good, but haste is +bad. + + "Wie das Gestirn + Ohne Hast + Ohne Rast + Drehe sich Jeder + Um die eigne Last." [7] + +"Like a star, without haste, without rest, let every one fulfil his own +hest." + +Newton is reported to have described as his mode of working that "I keep +the subject constantly before me, and wait till the first dawnings open +slowly by little and little into a full and clear light." + +"The secret of genius," says Emerson, "is to suffer no fiction to exist +for us; to realize all that we know; in the high refinement of modern +life, in Arts, in Sciences, in books, in men, to exact good faith, +reality, and a purpose; and first, last, midst, and without end, to honor +every truth by use." + +Lastly, work secures the rich reward of rest, we must rest to be able to +work well, and work to be able to enjoy rest. + +"We must no doubt beware that our rest become not the rest of stones, +which so long as they are torrent-tossed and thunder-stricken maintain +their majesty; but when the stream is silent, and the storm past, suffer +the grass to cover them, and the lichen to feed on them, and are ploughed +down into the dust.... The rest which is glorious is of the chamois +couched breathless in its granite bed, not of the stalled ox over his +fodder." [8] + +When we have done our best we may wait the result without anxiety. + +"What hinders a man, who has clearly comprehended these things, from +living with a light heart and bearing easily the reins; quietly expecting +everything which can happen, and enduring that which has already happened? +Would you have me to bear poverty? Come and you will know what poverty is +when it has found one who can act well the part of a poor man. Would you +have me to possess power? Let me have the power, and also the trouble of +it. Well, banishment? Wherever I shall go, there it will be well with +me." [9] + +The Buddhists believe in many forms of future punishment; but the highest +reward of virtue is Nirvana--the final and eternal rest. + +Very touching is the appeal of Ashmanezer to be left in peace, which was +engraved on his Sarcophagus at Sidon,--now in Paris. + +"In the month of Bul, the fourteenth year of my reign, I, King Ashmanezer, +King of the Sidonians, son of King Tabuith, King of the Sidonians, spake, +saying: 'I have been stolen away before my time--a son of the flood of +days. The whilom great is dumb; the son of gods is dead. And I rest in +this grave, even in this tomb, in the place which I have built. My +adjuration to all the Ruling Powers and all men: Let no one open this +resting-place, nor search for treasure, for there is no treasure with us; +and let him not bear away the couch of my rest, and not trouble us in this +resting-place by disturbing the couch of my slumbers.... For all men who +should open the tomb of my rest, or any man who should carry away the +couch of my rest, or any one who trouble me on this couch: unto them there +shall be no rest with the departed: they shall not be buried in a grave, +and there shall be to them neither son nor seed.... There shall be to them +neither root below nor fruit above, nor honor among the living under the +sun.'" [10] + +The idle man does not know what it is to rest. Hard work, moreover, tends +not only to give us rest for the body, but, what is even more important, +peace to the mind. If we have done our best to do, and to be, we can rest +in peace. + +"En la sua voluntade é nostra pace." [11] In His will is our peace; and in +such peace the mind will find its truest delight, for + + "When care sleeps, the soul wakes." + +In youth, as is right enough, the idea of exertion, and of struggles, is +inspiriting and delightful; but as years advance the hope and prospect of +peace and of rest gain ground gradually, and + + "When the last dawns are fallen on gray, + And all life's toils and ease complete, + They know who work, not they who play, + If rest is sweet." [12] + +[1] Gray. + +[2] Jefferies. + +[3] Tennyson. + +[4] Emerson. + +[5] Morris. + +[6] Coleridge. + +[7] Goethe. + +[8] Ruskin. + +[9] Epictetus. + +[10] From Sir M. S. Grant Duff's _A Winter in Syria_. + +[11] Dante. + +[12] Symonds. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +RELIGION. + + + "For what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love + mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."--MICAH. + + + "Pure religion and undefiled is this, to visit the fatherless and + widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the + world."--JAMES I. + + + "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." + + 2 CORINTHIANS. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +RELIGION. + + +It would be quite out of place here to enter into any discussion of +theological problems or to advocate any particular doctrines. Nevertheless +I could not omit what is to most so great a comfort and support in sorrow +and suffering, and a source of the purest happiness. + +We commonly, however, bring together under this term two things which are +yet very different: the religion of the heart, and that of the head. The +first deals with conduct, and the duties of Man; the second with the +nature of the supernatural and the future of the soul, being in fact a +branch of knowledge. + +Religion should be a strength, guide, and comfort, not a source of +intellectual anxiety or angry argument. To persecute for religion's sake +implies belief in a jealous, cruel, and unjust Deity. If we have done our +best to arrive at the truth, to torment oneself about the result is to +doubt the goodness of God, and, in the words of Bacon, "to bring down the +Holy Ghost, instead of the likeness of a dove, in the shape of a raven." +"The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," and the first duty of +religion is to form the highest possible conception of God. + +Many a man, however, and still more many a woman, render themselves +miserable on entering life by theological doubts and difficulties. These +have reference, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, not to what we +should do, but to what we should think. As regards action, conscience is +generally a ready guide; to follow it is the real difficulty. Theology, on +the other hand, is a most abstruse science; but as long as we honestly +wish to arrive at truth we need not fear that we shall be punished for +unintentional error. "For what," says Micah, "doth the Lord require of +thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." +There is very little theology in the Sermon on the Mount, or indeed in any +part of the Gospels; and the differences which keep us apart have their +origin rather in the study than the Church. Religion was intended to bring +peace on earth and goodwill toward men, and whatever tends to hatred and +persecution, however correct in the letter, must be utterly wrong in the +spirit. + +How much misery would have been saved to Europe if Christians had been +satisfied with the Sermon on the Mount! + +Bokhara is said to have contained more than three hundred colleges, all +occupied with theology, but ignorant of everything else, and it was +probably one of the most bigoted and uncharitable cities in the world. +"Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." + +We must not forget that + + "He prayeth best who loveth best + All things both great and small." + +Theologians too often appear to agree that + + "The awful shadow of some unseen power + Floats, though unseen, among us"; [1] + +and in the days of the Inquisition many must have sighed for the cheerful +child-like religion of the Greeks, if they could but have had the Nymphs +and Nereids, the Fays and Faeries, with Destiny and Fate, but without +Jupiter and Mars. + +Sects are the work of Sectarians. No truly great religious teacher, as +Carlyle said, ever intended to found a new Sect. + +Diversity of worship, says a Persian proverb, "has divided the human race +into seventy-two nations." From among all their dogmas I have selected +one--"Divine Love." And again, "He needs no other rosary whose thread of +life is strung with the beads of love and thought." + +There is more true Christianity in some pagan Philosophers than in certain +Christian theologians. Take, for instance, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, +Epictetus, and Plutarch. + +"Now I, Callicles," says Socrates, "am persuaded of the truth of these +things, and I consider how I shall present my soul whole and undefiled +before the judge in that day. Renouncing the honors at which the world +aims, I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can, and, +when the time comes, to die. And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all +other men to do the same. And in return for your exhortation of me, I +exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of +life, and greater than every other earthly conflict." + +"As to piety toward the Gods," says Epictetus, "you must know that this is +the chief thing, to have right opinions about them, to think that they +exist, and that they administer the All well and justly; and you must fix +yourself in this principle (duty), to obey them, and to yield to them in +everything which happens, and voluntarily to follow it as being +accomplished by the wisest intelligence." + +"Do not act," says Marcus Aurelius, "as if thou wert going to live ten +thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in +thy power, be good.... + +"Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, +regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from among men, +if there be gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not +involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no +concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid +of gods, or devoid of Providence. But in truth they do exist, and they do +care for human things, and they have put all the means in man's power to +enable him not to fall into real evils. And as for the rest, if there was +anything evil, they would have provided for this also, that it should be +altogether in a man's power not to fall into it." + +And Plutarch: "The Godhead is not blessed by reason of his silver and +gold, nor yet Almighty through his thunder and lightnings, but on account +of knowledge and intelligence." + +It is no doubt very difficult to arrive at the exact teaching of Eastern +Moralists, but the same spirit runs through Oriental Literature. For +instance, in the _Toy Cart_, when the wicked Prince wishes Vita to murder +the Heroine, and says that no one would see him, Vita declares "All nature +would behold the crime--the Genii of the Grove, the Sun, the Moon, the +Winds, the Vault of Heaven, the firm-set Earth, the mighty Yama who judges +the dead, and the conscious Soul." + +Take even the most extreme type of difference. Is the man, says Plutarch, +"a criminal who holds there are no gods; and is not he that holds them to +be such as the superstitious believe them, is he not possessed with +notions infinitely more atrocious? I for my part would much rather have +men say of me that there never was a Plutarch at all, nor is now, than to +say that Plutarch is a man inconstant, fickle, easily moved to anger, +revengeful for trifling provocations, vexed at small things." + +There is no doubt a tone of doubting sadness in Roman moralists, as in +Hadrian's dying lines to his soul-- + + "Animula, vagula, blandula + Hospes, comesque corporis + Qua nunc abibis in loca: + Pallidula, rigida, nudula, + Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos." + +The same spirit indeed is expressed in the epitaph on the tomb of the Duke +of Buckingham in Westminster Abbey-- + + "Dubius non improbus vixi + Incertus morior, non perturbatus; + Humanum est nescire et errare, + Deo confido + Omnipotenti benevolentissimo: + Ens entium miserere mei." + +Many things have been mistaken for religion, selfishness especially, but +also fear, hope, love of music, of art, of pomp; scruples often take the +place of love, and the glory of heaven is sometimes made to depend upon +precious stones and jewelry. Many, as has been well said, run after +Christ, not for the miracles, but for the loaves. + +In many cases religious differences are mainly verbal. There is an Eastern +tale of four men, an Arab, a Persian, a Turk, and a Greek, who agreed to +club together for an evening meal, but when they had done so they +quarrelled as to what it should be. The Turk proposed Azum, the Arab Aneb, +the Persian Anghur, while the Greek insisted on Stapylion. While they were +disputing + + "Before their eyes did pass, + Laden with grapes, a gardener's ass. + Sprang to his feet each man, and showed, + With eager hand, that purple load. + 'See Azum,' said the Turk; and 'see + Anghur,' the Persian; 'what should be + Better.' 'Nay Aneb, Aneb 'tis,' + The Arab cried. The Greek said, 'This + Is my Stapylion.' Then they bought + Their grapes in peace. + Hence be ye taught." [2] + +It is said that on one occasion, when Dean Stanley had been explaining his +views to Lord Beaconsfield, the latter replied, "Ah! Mr. Dean, that is all +very well, but you must remember,--No dogmas, no Deans." To lose such +Deans as Stanley would indeed be a great misfortune; but does it follow? +Religions, far from being really built on Dogmas, are too often weighed +down and crushed by them. No one can doubt that Stanley has done much to +strengthen the Church of England. + +We may not always agree with Spinoza, but is he not right when he says, +"The first precept of the divine law, therefore, indeed its sum and +substance, is to love God unconditionally as the supreme +good--unconditionally, I say, and not from any love or fear of aught +besides"? And again, that the very essence of religion is belief in "a +Supreme Being who delights in justice and mercy, whom all who would be +saved are bound to obey, and whose worship consists in the practice of +justice and charity toward our neighbors"? + +Doubt is of two natures, and we often confuse a wise suspension of +judgment with the weakness of hesitation. To profess an opinion for which +we have no sufficient reason is clearly illogical, but when it is +necessary to act we must do so on the best evidence available, however +slight that may be. Herein lies the importance of common sense, the +instincts of a General, the sagacity of a Statesman. Pyrrho, the +recognized representative of doubt, was often wise in suspending his +judgment, however foolish in hesitating to act, and in apologizing when, +after resisting all the arguments of philosophy, an angry dog drove him +from his position. + +Collect from the Bible all that Christ thought necessary for his +disciples, and how little Dogma there is. "Pure religion and undefiled is +this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep +himself unspotted from the world." "By this shall all men know that ye are +my disciples, if ye have love one to another." "Suffer little children to +come unto me." And one lesson which little children have to teach us is +that religion is an affair of the heart and not of the mind only. + +Why should we expect Religion to solve questions with reference to the +origin and destiny of the Universe? We do not expect the most elaborate +treatise to tell us the origin of electricity or of heat. Natural History +throws no light on the origin of life. Has Biology ever professed to +explain existence? + +"Simonides was asked at Syracuse by Hiero, who or what God was, when he +requested a day's time to think of his answer. On subsequent days he +always doubled the period required for deliberation; and when Hiero +inquired the reason, he replied that the longer he considered the subject, +the more obscure it appeared." + +The Vedas say, "In the midst of the sun is the light, in the midst of +light is truth, and in the midst of truth is the imperishable being." +Deity has been defined as a circle whose centre is everywhere, and whose +circumference is nowhere, but the "God is love" of St. John appeals more +forcibly to the human soul. + +The Church is not a place for study or speculation. Few but can sympathize +with Eugénie de Guréin in her tender affection for the little Chapel at +Cahuze where she tells us she left "tant de misères." + +Doubt does not exclude Faith. + + "Perplexed in faith, but pure in deeds + At last he beat his music out. + There lies more faith in honest doubt, + Believe me, than in half the creeds." [3] + +And if we must admit that many points are still, and probably long will be +involved in obscurity, we may be pardoned if we indulge ourselves in +various speculations both as to our beginning and our end. + + "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; + The soul that rises with us, our life's star + Hath had elsewhere its setting, + And cometh from afar; + Not in entire forgetfulness, + And not in utter nakedness, + But trailing clouds of glory do we come + From God who is our home." [4] + +Unfortunately many have attempted to compound for wickedness in life by +purity of belief, a vain and fruitless effort. To do right is the sure +ladder which leads up to Heaven, though the true faith will help us to +find and to climb it. + + "It is my duty to have loved the highest, + It surely was my profit had I known, + It would have been my pleasure had I seen." + +But though religious truth can justify no bitterness, it is well worth any +amount of thought and study. + +I hope I shall not be supposed to depreciate any honest effort to arrive +at truth, or to undervalue the devotion of those who have died for their +religion. But surely it is a mistake to regard martyrdom as a merit, when +from their own point of view it was in reality a privilege. + +Let every man be persuaded in his own mind + + "Truth is the highest thing that man may keep." [5] + +To arrive at truth we should spare ourselves no pain, but certainly +inflict none on others. + +We may be sure that quarrels will never advance religion, and that to +persecute is no way to convert. No doubt those who consider that all who +do not agree with them will suffer eternal torments, seem logically +justified in persecution even unto death. Such a course, if carried out +consistently, might stamp out a particular sect, and any sufferings which +could be inflicted here would on this hypothesis be as nothing in +comparison with the pains of Hell. Only it must be admitted that such a +view of religion is incompatible with any faith in the goodness of God, +and seems quite irreconcilable with the teaching of Christ. + +Moreover, the Inquisition has even from its own point of view proved +generally a failure. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. + +"In obedience to the order of the Council of Constance (1415) the remains +of Wickliffe were exhumed and burnt to ashes, and these cast into the +Swift, a neighboring brook running hard by, and thus this brook hath +conveyed his ashes into Avon; Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow +seas; they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wickliffe are the +emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over." [6] + +The Talmud says that when a man once asked Shamai to teach him the Law in +one lesson, Shamai drove him away in anger. He then went to Hillel with +the same request. Hillel said, "Do unto others as you would have others do +unto you. This is the whole Law; the rest, merely Commentaries upon it." + +The Religion of the lower races is almost as a rule one of terror and of +dread. Their deities are jealous and revengeful, cruel, merciless, and +selfish, hateful and yet childish. They require to be propitiated by +feasts and offerings, often even by human sacrifices. They are not only +exacting, but so capricious that, with the best intentions, it is often +impossible to be sure of pleasing them. From such evil beings Sorcerers +and Witches derived their hellish powers. No one was safe. No one knew +where danger lurked. Actions apparently the most trifling might be fraught +with serious risk: objects apparently the most innocent might be fatal. + +In many cases there are supposed to be deities of Crime, of Misfortunes, +of Disease. These wicked Spirits naturally encourage evil rather than +good. An energetic friend of mine was sent to a district in India where +smallpox was specially prevalent, and where one of the principal Temples +was dedicated to the Goddess of that disease. He had the people +vaccinated, in spite of some opposition, and the disease disappeared, much +to the astonishment of the natives. But the priests of the Deity of +Smallpox were not disconcerted; only they deposed the Image of their +discomfited Goddess, and petitioned my friend for some emblem of himself +which they might install in her stead. + +We who are fortunate enough to live in this comparatively enlightened +century hardly realize how our ancestors suffered from their belief in the +existence of mysterious and malevolent beings; how their life was +embittered and overshadowed by these awful apprehensions. + +As men, however, have risen in civilization, their religion has risen with +them; they have by degrees acquired higher and purer conceptions of divine +power. + +We are only just beginning to realize that a loving and merciful Father +would not resent honest error, not even perhaps the attribution to him of +such odious injustice. Yet what can be clearer than Christ's teaching on +this point. He impressed it over and over again on his disciples. "The +letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." + +"If," says Ruskin, "for every rebuke that we titter of men's vices, we put +forth a claim upon their hearts; if, for every assertion of God's demands +from them, we should substitute a display of His kindness to them; if side +by side, with every warning of death, we could exhibit proofs and promises +of immortality; if, in fine, instead of assuming the being of an awful +Deity, which men, though they cannot and dare not deny, are always +unwilling, sometimes unable, to conceive; we were to show them a near, +visible, inevitable, out all-beneficent Deity, whose presence makes the +earth itself a heaven, I think there would be fewer deaf children sitting +in the market-place." + +But it must not be supposed that those who doubt whether the ultimate +truth of the Universe can be expressed in human words, or whether, even if +it could, we should be able to comprehend it, undervalue the importance of +religious study. Quite the contrary. Their doubts arise not from pride, +but from humility: not because they do not appreciate divine truth, but on +the contrary they doubt whether we can appreciate it sufficiently, and are +sceptical whether the infinite can be reduced to the finite. + +We may be sure that whatever may be right about religion, to quarrel over +it must be wrong. "Let others wrangle," said St. Augustine, "I will +wonder." + +Those who suspend their judgment are not on that account sceptics, and it +is often those who think they know most, who are especially troubled by +doubts and anxiety. + +It was Wordsworth who wrote + + "Great God, I had rather be + A Pagan suckled in some creed outworn; + So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, + Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn." + +In religion, as with children at night, it is darkness and ignorance which +create dread; light and love cast out fear. + +In looking forward to the future we may fairly hope with Ruskin that "the +charities of more and more widely extended peace are preparing the way for +a Christian Church which shall depend neither on ignorance for its +continuance, nor on controversy for its progress, but shall reign at once +in light and love." + +[1] Shelley. + +[2] Arnold. _Pearls of the Faith_. + +[3] Tennyson. + +[4] Wordsworth. + +[5] Chaucer. + +[6] Fuller. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE HOPE OF PROGRESS. + + + "To what then may we not look forward, when a spirit of scientific + inquiry shall have spread through those vast regions in which the + progress of civilization, its sure precursor, is actually commenced + and in active progress? And what may we not expect from the exertions + of powerful minds called into action under circumstances totally + different from any which have yet existed in the world, and over an + extent of territory far surpassing that which has hitherto produced + the whole harvest of human intellect." + + HERSCHEL. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE HOPE OF PROGRESS. + + +There are two lines, if not more, in which we may look forward with hope +to progress in the future. In the first place, increased knowledge of +nature, of the properties of matter, and of the phenomena which surround +us, may afford to our children advantages far greater even than those +which we ourselves enjoy. Secondly, the extension and improvement of +education, the increasing influence of Science and Art, of Poetry and +Music, of Literature and Religion,--of all the powers which are tending to +good, will, we may reasonably hope, raise man and make him more master of +himself, more able to appreciate and enjoy his advantages, and to realize +the truth of the Italian proverb, that wherever light is, there is joy. + +One consideration which has greatly tended to retard progress has been the +floating idea that there was some sort of ingratitude, and even impiety, +in attempting to improve on what Divine Providence had arranged for us. +Thus Prometheus was said to have incurred the wrath of Jove for bestowing +on mortals the use of fire; and other improvements only escaped similar +punishment when the ingenuity of priests attributed them to the special +favor of some particular deity. This feeling has not even yet quite died +out. Even I can remember the time when many excellent persons had a +scruple or prejudice against the use of chloroform, because they fancied +that pain was ordained under certain circumstances. + +We are told that in early Saxon days Edwin, King of Northumbria, called +his nobles and his priests around him, to discuss whether a certain +missionary should be heard or not. The king was doubtful. At last there +rose an old chief, and said:--"You know, O King, how, on a winter evening, +when you are sitting at supper in your hall, with your company around you, +when the night is dark and dreary, when the rain and the snow rage +outside, when the hall inside is lighted and warm with a blazing fire, +sometimes it happens that a sparrow flies into the bright hall out of the +dark night, flies through the hall and then flies out at the other end +into the dark night again. We see him for a few moments, but we know not +whence he came nor whither he goes in the blackness of the storm outside. +So is the life of man. It appears for a short space in the warmth and +brightness of this life, but what came before this life, or what is to +follow this life, we know not. If, therefore, these new teachers can +enlighten us as to the darkness that went before, and the darkness that is +to come after, let us hear what they have to teach us." + +It is often said, however, that great and unexpected as recent discoveries +have been, there are certain ultimate problems which must ever remain +unsolved. For my part, I would prefer to abstain from laying down any such +limitations. When Park asked the Arabs what became of the sun at night, +and whether the sun was always the same, or new each day, they replied +that such a question was foolish, being entirely beyond the reach of human +investigation. + +M. Comte, in his _Cours de Philosophie Positive_, as recently as 1842, +laid it down as an axiom regarding the heavenly bodies, "We may hope to +determine their forms, distances, magnitude, and movements, but we shall +never by any means be able to study their chemical composition or +mineralogical structure." Yet within a few years this supposed +impossibility has been actually accomplished, showing how unsafe it is to +limit the possibilities of science. [1] + +It is, indeed, as true now as in the time of Newton, that the great ocean +of truth lies undiscovered before us. I often wish that some President of +the Royal Society, or of the British Association, would take for the theme +of his annual address "The things we do not know." Who can say on the +verge of what discoveries we are perhaps even now standing! It is +extraordinary how slight a margin may stand for years between Man and some +important improvement. Take the case of the electric light, for instance. +It had been known for years that if a carbon rod be placed in an exhausted +glass receiver, and a current of electricity be passed through it the +carbon glowed with an intense light, but on the other hand it became so +hot that the glass burst. The light, therefore, was useless, because the +lamp burst as soon as it was lighted. Edison hit on the idea that if you +made the carbon filament fine enough, you would get rid of the heat and +yet have abundance of light. Edison's right to his patent has been +contested on this very ground. It has been said that the mere introduction +of so small a difference as the replacement of a thin rod by a fine +filament was so slight an item that it could not be patented. The +improvements by Swan, Lane Fox, and others, though so important as a +whole, have been made step by step. + +Or take again the discovery of anaesthetics. At the beginning of the +century Sir Humphrey discovered laughing gas, as it was then called. He +found that it produced complete insensibility to pain and yet did not +injure health. A tooth was actually taken out under its influence, and of +course without suffering. These facts were known to our chemists, they +were explained to the students in our great hospitals, and yet for half a +century the obvious application occurred to no one. Operations continued +to be performed as before, patients suffered the same horrible tortures, +and yet the beneficent element was in our hands, its divine properties +were known, but it never occurred to any one to make use of it. + +I may give one more illustration. Printing is generally said to have been +discovered in the fifteenth century; and so it was for all practical +purposes. But in fact printing was known long before. The Romans used +stamps; on the monuments of Assyrian kings the name of the reigning +monarch may be found duly printed. What then is the difference? One +little, but all-important step. The real inventor of printing was the man +into whose mind flashed the fruitful idea of having separate stamps for +each letter, instead of for separate words. How slight seems the +difference, and yet for 3000 years the thought occurred to no one. Who can +tell what other discoveries, as simple and yet as far-reaching, lie at +this very moment under our very eyes! + +Archimedes said that if you would give him room to stand on, he would move +the earth. One truth leads to another; each discovery renders possible +another, and, what is more, a higher. + +We are but beginning to realize the marvelous range and complexity of +Nature. I have elsewhere called attention to this with special reference +to the problematical organs of sense possessed by many animals. [2] + +There is every reason to hope that future studies will throw much light on +these interesting structures. We may, no doubt, expect much from the +improvement in our microscopes, the use of new re-agents, and of +mechanical appliances; but the ultimate atoms of which matter is composed +are so infinitesimally minute, that it is difficult to foresee any manner +in which we may hope for a final solution of these problems. + +Loschmidt, who has since been confirmed by Stoney and Sir W. Thomson, +calculates that each of the ultimate atoms of matter is at most 1/50000000 +of an inch in diameter. Under these circumstances we cannot, it would +seem, hope at present for any great increase of our knowledge of atoms by +improvements in the microscope. With our present instruments we can +perceive lines ruled on glass which are 1/90000 of an inch apart; but +owing to the properties of light itself, it would appear that we cannot +hope to be able to perceive objects which are much less than 1/100000 of +an inch in diameter. Our microscopes may, no doubt, be improved, but the +limitation lies not in the imperfection of our optical appliances, but in +the nature of light itself. + +It has been calculated that a particle of albumen 1/80000 of an inch in +diameter contains no less than 125,000,000 of molecules. In a simpler +compound the number would be much greater; in water, for instance, no less +than 8,000,000,000. Even then, if we could construct microscopes far more +powerful than any which we now possess, they could not enable us to obtain +by direct vision any idea of the ultimate organization of matter. The +smallest sphere of organic matter which could be clearly defined with our +most powerful microscopes may be, in reality, very complex; may be built +up of many millions of molecules, and it follows that there may be an +almost infinite number of structural characters in organic tissues which +we can at present foresee no mode of examining. [3] + +Again, it has been shown that animals hear sounds which are beyond the +range of our hearing, and I have proved they can perceive the ultra-violet +rays, which are invisible to our eyes. [4] + +Now, as every ray of homogeneous light which we can perceive at all, +appears to us as a distinct color, it becomes probable that these +ultra-violet rays must make themselves apparent to animals as a distinct +and separate color (of which we can form no idea), but as different from +the rest as red is from yellow, or green from violet. The question also +arises whether white light to these creatures would differ from our white +light in containing this additional color. + +These considerations cannot but raise the reflection how different the +world may--I was going to say must--appear to other animals from what it +does to us. Sound is the sensation produced on us when the vibrations of +the air strike on the drum of our ear. When they are few, the sound is +deep; as they increase in number, it becomes shriller and shriller; but +when they reach 40,000 in a second, they cease to be audible. Light is the +effect produced on us when waves of light strike on the eye. When 400 +millions of millions of vibrations of ether strike the retina in a second, +they produce red, and as the number increases the color passes into +orange, then yellow, green, blue, and violet. But between 40,000 +vibrations in a second and 400 millions of millions we have no organ of +sense capable of receiving the impression. Yet between these limits any +number of sensations may exist. We have five senses, and sometimes fancy +that no others are possible. But it is obvious that we cannot measure the +infinite by our own narrow limitations. + +Moreover, looking at the question from the other side, we find in animals +complex organs of sense, richly supplied with nerves, but the function of +which we are as yet powerless to explain. There may be fifty other senses +as different from ours as sound is from sight; and even within the +boundaries of our own senses there may be endless sounds which we cannot +hear, and colors, as different as red from green, of which we have no +conception. These and a thousand other questions remain for solution. The +familiar world which surrounds us may be a totally different place to +other animals. To them it may be full of music which we cannot hear, of +color which we cannot see, of sensations which we cannot conceive. To +place stuffed birds and beasts in glass cases, to arrange insects in +cabinets, and dried plants in drawers, is merely the drudgery and +preliminary of study; to watch their habits, to understand their relations +to one another, to study their instincts and intelligence, to ascertain +their adaptations and their relations to the forces of Nature, to realize +what the world appears to them; these constitute, as it seems to me at +least, the true interest of natural history, and may even give us the clue +to senses and perceptions of which at present we have no conception. [5] + +From this point of view the possibilities of progress seem to me to be +almost unlimited. + +So far again as the actual condition of man is concerned, the fact that +there has been some advance cannot, I think, be questioned. + +In the Middle Ages, for instance, culture and refinement scarcely existed +beyond the limits of courts, and by no means always there. The life in +English, French, and German castles was rough and almost barbarous. Mr. +Galton has expressed the opinion, which I am not prepared to question, +that the population of Athens, taken as a whole, was as superior to us as +we are to Australian savages. But even if that be so, our civilization, +such as it is, is more diffused, so that unquestionably the general +European level is much higher. + +Much, no doubt, is owing to the greater facility of access to the +literature of our country, to that literature, in the words of Macaulay, +"the brightest, the purest, the most durable of all the glories of our +country; to that Literature, so rich in precious truth and precious +fiction; to that Literature which boasts of the prince of all poets, and +of the prince of all philosophers; to that Literature which has exercised +an influence wider than that of our commerce, and mightier than that of +our arms." + +Few of us make the most of our minds. The body ceases to grow in a few +years; but the mind, if we will let it, may grow as long as life lasts. + +The onward progress of the future will not, we may be sure, be confined to +mere material discoveries. We feel that we are on the road to higher +mental powers; that problems which now seem to us beyond the range of +human thought will receive their solution, and open the way to still +further advance. Progress, moreover, we may hope, will be not merely +material, not merely mental, but moral also. + +It is natural that we should feel a pride in the beauty of England, in the +size of our cities, the magnitude of our commerce, the wealth of our +country, the vastness of our Empire. But the true glory of a nation does +not consist in the extent of its dominion, in the fertility of the soil, +or the beauty of Nature, but rather in the moral and intellectual +pre-eminence of the people. + +And yet how few of us, rich or poor, have made ourselves all we might be. +If he does his best, as Shakespeare says, "What a piece of work is man! +How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! in form and movement, how +express and admirable!" Few indeed, as yet, can be said to reach this high +ideal. + +The Hindoos have a theory that after death animals live again in a +different form; those that have done well in a higher, those that have +done ill in a lower grade. To realize this is, they find, a powerful +incentive to a virtuous life. But whether it be true of a future life or +not, it is certainly true of our present existence. If we do our best for +a day, the next morning we shall rise to a higher life; while if we give +way to our passions and temptations, we take with equal certainty a step +downward toward a lower nature. + +It is an interesting illustration of the Unity of Man, and an +encouragement to those of us who have no claims to genius, that, though of +course there have been exceptions, still on the whole, periods of progress +have generally been those when a nation has worked and felt together; the +advance has been due not entirely to the efforts of a few great men, but +also of a thousand little men; not to a single genius, but to a national +effort. + +Think, indeed, what might be. + + "Ah! when shall all men's good + Be each man's rule, and universal Peace + Lie like a shaft of light across the land, + And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, + Thro' all the circle of the golden year." [6] + +Our life is surrounded with mystery, our very world is a speck in +boundless space; and not only the period of our own individual life, but +that of the whole human race is, as it were, but a moment in the eternity +of time. We cannot imagine any origin, nor foresee the conclusion. + +But though we may not as yet perceive any line of research which can give +us a clue to the solution, in another sense we may hold that every +addition to our knowledge is one small step toward the great revelation. + +Progress may be more slow, or more rapid. It may come to others and not to +us. It will not come to us if we do not strive to deserve it. But come it +surely will. + + "Yet one thing is there that ye shall not slay, + Even thought, that fire nor iron can affright." [7] + +The future of man is full of hope, and who can foresee the limits of his +destiny? + +[1] Lubbock. _Fifty Years of Science_. + +[2] _The Senses of Animals_. + +[3] Lubbock. _Fifty Years of Science_. + +[4] _Ants, Bees, and Wasps_. + +[5] Lubbock. _The Senses of Animals_. + +[6] Tennyson. + +[7] Swinburne. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE DESTINY OF MAN. + + + "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy + to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."--ROMANS + viii. 18. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE DESTINY OF MAN. + + +But though we have thus a sure and certain hope of progress for the race, +still, as far as man is individually concerned, with advancing years we +gradually care less and less, for many things which gave us the greatest +pleasure in youth. On the other hand, if our time has been well used, if +we have warmed both hands wisely "before the fire of life," we may gain +even more than we lose. If our strength becomes less, we feel also the +less necessity for exertion. Hope is gradually replaced by memory: and +whether this adds to our happiness or not depends on what our life has +been. + +There are of course some lives which diminish in value as old age +advances, in which one pleasure fades after another, and even those which +remain gradually lose their zest; but there are others which gain in +richness and peace all, and more, than that of which time robs them. + +The pleasures of youth may excel in keenness and in zest, but they have at +the best a tinge of anxiety and unrest; they cannot have the fulness and +depth which may accompany the consolations of age, and are amongst the +richest rewards of an unselfish life. + +For as with the close of the day, so with that of life; there may be +clouds, and yet if the horizon is clear, the evening may be beautiful. + +Old age has a rich store of memories. Life is full of + + "Joys too exquisite to last, + And yet more exquisite when past." [1] + +Swedenborg imagines that in heaven the angels are advancing continually to +the spring-time of their youth, so that those who have lived longest are +really the youngest; and have we not all had friends who seem to fulfil +this idea? who are in reality--that is in mind--as fresh as a child: of +whom it may be said with more truth than of Cleopatra that + + "Age cannot wither nor custom stale + Their infinite variety." + +"When I consider old age," says Cicero, "I find four causes why it is +thought miserable: one, that it calls us away from the transaction of +affairs; the second, that it renders the body more feeble; the third, that +it deprives us of almost all pleasures; the fourth, that it is not very +far from death. Of these causes let us see, if you please, how great and +how reasonable each of them is." + +To be released from the absorbing affairs of life, to feel that one has +earned a claim to leisure and repose, is surely in itself no evil. + +To the second complaint against old age, I have already referred in +speaking of Health. + +The third is that it has no passions. "O noble privilege of age! if indeed +it takes from us that which is in youth our greatest defect." But the +higher feelings of our nature are not necessarily weakened; or rather, +they may become all the brighter, being purified from the grosser elements +of our lower nature. + +Then, indeed, it might be said that "Man is the sun of the world; more +than the real sun. The fire of his wonderful heart is the only light and +heat worth gauge or measure." [2] + +"Single," says Manu, "is each man born into the world; single he dies; +single he receives the rewards of his good deeds; and single the +punishment of his sins. When he dies his body lies like a fallen tree upon +the earth, but his virtue accompanies his soul. Wherefore let Man harvest +and garner virtue, that so he may have an inseparable companion in that +gloom which all must pass through, and which it is so hard to traverse." + +Is it not extraordinary that many men will deliberately take a road which +they know is, to say the least, not that of happiness? That they prefer to +make others miserable, rather than themselves happy? + +Plato, in the Phaedrus, explains this by describing Man as a Composite +Being, having three natures, and compares him to a pair of winged horses +and a charioteer. "Of the two horses one is noble and of noble origin, the +other ignoble and of ignoble origin; and the driving, as might be +expected, is no easy matter." The noble steed endeavors to raise the +chariot, but the ignoble one struggles to drag it down. + +"Man," says Shelly, "is an instrument over which a series of external and +internal impressions are driven, like the alternations of an ever-changing +wind over an Aeolian lyre, which move it by their motion to ever-changing +melody." + +Cicero mentions the approach of death as the fourth drawback of old age. +To many minds the shadow of the end is ever present, like the coffin in +the Egyptian feast, and overclouds all the sunshine of life. But ought we +so to regard death? + +Shelly's beautiful lines, + + "Life, like a Dome of many-colored glass, + Stains the white radiance of Eternity, + Until death tramples it to fragments," + +contain, as it seems to me at least, a double error. Life need not stain +the white radiance of eternity; nor does death necessarily trample it to +fragments. + +Man has, says Coleridge, + + "Three treasures,--love and light + And calm thoughts, regular as infants' breath; + And three firm friends, more sure than day and night, + Himself, his Maker, and the Angel Death." + +Death is "the end of all, the remedy of many, the wish of divers men, +deserving better of no men than of those to whom she came before she was +called." [3] + +It is often assumed that the journey to + + "The undiscovered country from whose bourne + No traveler returns" + +must be one of pain and suffering. But this is not so. Death is often +peaceful and almost painless. + +Bede during his late illness was translating St. John's Gospel into +Anglo-Saxon, and the morning of his death his secretary, observing his +weakness, said, "There remains now only one chapter, and it seems +difficult to you to speak." "It is easy," said Bede; "take your pen and +write as fast as you can," At the close of the chapter the scribe said, +"It is finished," to which he replied, "Thou hast said the truth, +_consummatum est_." He then divided his little property among the +brethren, having done which he asked to be placed opposite to the place +where he usually prayed, said "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and +to the Holy Ghost," and as he pronounced the last words he expired. + +Goethe died without any apparent suffering, having just prepared himself +to write, and expressed his delight at the return of spring. + +We are told of Mozart's death that "the unfinished requiem lay upon the +bed, and his last efforts were to imitate some peculiar instrumental +effects, as he breathed out his life in the arms of his wife and their +friend Süssmaier." + +Plato died in the act of writing; Lucan while reciting part of his book on +the war of Pharsalus; Blake died singing; Wagner in sleep with his head on +his wife's shoulder. Many have passed away in their sleep. Various high +medical authorities have expressed their surprise that the dying seldom +feel either dismay or regret. And even those who perish by violence, as +for instance in battle, feel, it is probable, but little suffering. + +But what of the future? There may be said to be now two principal views. +There are some who believe indeed in the immortality of the soul, but not +of the individual soul: that our life is continued in that of our children +would seem indeed to be the natural deduction from the simile of St. Paul, +as that of the grain of wheat is carried on in the plant of the following +year. + +So long indeed as happiness exists it is selfish to dwell too much on our +own share in it. Admit that the soul is immortal, but that in the future +state of existence there is a break in the continuity of memory, that one +does not remember the present life, and from this point of view is not the +importance of identity involved in that of continuous memory? But however +this may be according to the general view, the soul, though detached from +the body, will retain its conscious identity, and will awake from death, +as it does from sleep; so that if we cannot affirm that + + "Millions of spiritual creatures walk the Earth, + Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep," [4] + +at any rate they exist somewhere else in space, and we are indeed looking +at them when we gaze at the stars, though to our eyes they are as yet +invisible. + +In neither case, however, can death be regarded as an evil. To wish that +youth and strength were unaffected by time might be a different matter. + +"But if we are not destined to be immortal, yet it is a desirable thing +for a man to expire at his fit time. For, as nature prescribes a boundary +to all other things, so does she also to life. Now old age is the +consummation of life, just as of a play: from the fatigue of which we +ought to escape, especially when satiety is super-added." [5] + +From this point of view, then, we need + + "Weep not for death, + 'Tis but a fever stilled, + A pain suppressed,--a fear at rest, + A solemn hope fulfilled. + The moonshine on the slumbering deep + Is scarcely calmer. Wherefore weep?" + + "Weep not for death! + The fount of tears is sealed, + Who knows how bright the inward light + To those closed eyes revealed? + Who knows what holy love may fill + The heart that seems so cold and still." + +Many a weary soul will have recurred with comfort to the thought that + + "A few more years shall roll, + A few more seasons come, + And we shall be with those that rest + Asleep within the tomb. + + "A few more struggles here, + A few more partings o'er, + A few more toils, a few more tears, + And we shall weep no more." + +By no one has this, however, been more grandly expressed than by Shelley. + + "Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep! + He hath awakened from the dream of life. + 'Tis we who, lost in stormy visions, keep + With phantoms an unprofitable strife, + He has outsoared the shadows of our night. + Envy and calumny, and hate and pain, + And that unrest which men miscall delight, + Can touch him not and torture not again. + From the contagion of the world's slow stain + He is secure, and now can never mourn + A heart grown cold, a head grown gray, in vain--" + +Most men, however, decline to believe that + + "We are such stuff + As dreams are made of, and our little life + Is rounded with a sleep." [6] + +According to the more general view death frees the soul from the +encumbrance of the spirit, and summons us to the seat of judgment. In +fact, + + "There is no Death! What seems so is transition; + This life of mortal breath + Is but a suburb of the life elysian, + Whose portal we call Death." [7] + +We have bodies, "we are spirits." "I am a soul," said Epictetus, "dragging +about a corpse." The body is the mere perishable form of the immortal +essence. Plato concluded that if the ways of God are to be justified, +there must be a future life. + +To the aged in either case death is a release. The Bible dwells most +forcibly on the blessing of peace. "My peace I give unto you: not as the +world giveth, give I unto you." Heaven is described as a place where the +wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. + +But I suppose every one must have asked himself in what can the pleasures +of heaven consist. + + "For all we know + Of what the blessed do above + Is that they sing, and that they love." [8] + +It would indeed accord with few men's ideal that there should be any +"struggle for existence" in heaven. We should then be little better off +than we are now. This world is very beautiful, if we could only enjoy it +in peace. And yet mere passive existence--mere vegetation--would in itself +offer few attractions. It would indeed be almost intolerable. + +Again, the anxiety of change seems inconsistent with perfect happiness; +and yet a wearisome, interminable monotony, the same thing over and over +again forever and ever without relief or variety, suggests dulness rather +than bliss. + +I feel that to me, said Greg, "God has promised not the heaven of the +ascetic temper, or the dogmatic theologian, or of the subtle mystic, or of +the stern martyr ready alike to inflict and bear; but a heaven of purified +and permanent affections--of a book of knowledge with eternal leaves, and +unbounded capacities to read it--of those we love ever round us, never +misconceiving us, or being harassed by us--of glorious work to do, and +adequate faculties to do it--a world of solved problems, as well as of +realized ideals." + + "For still the doubt came back,--Can God provide + For the large heart of man what shall not pall, + Nor through eternal ages' endless tide + On tired spirits fall? + + "These make him say,--If God has so arrayed + A fading world that quickly passes by, + Such rich provision of delight has made + For every human eye, + + "What shall the eyes that wait for him survey + When his own presence gloriously appears + In worlds that were not founded for a day, + But for eternal years?" [9] + +Here science seems to suggest a possible answer: the solution of problems +which have puzzled us here; the acquisition of new ideas; the unrolling +the history of the past; the world of animals and plants; the secrets of +space; the wonders of the stars and of the regions beyond the stars. To +become acquainted with all the beautiful and interesting spots of our own +world would indeed be something to look forward to, and our world is but +one of many millions. I sometimes wonder as I look away to the stars at +night whether it will ever be my privilege as a disembodied spirit to +visit and explore them. When we had made the great tour fresh interests +would have arisen, and we might well begin again. + +Here there is an infinity of interest without anxiety. So that at last the +only doubt may be + + "Lest an eternity should not suffice + To take the measure and the breadth and height + Of what there is reserved in Paradise + Its ever-new delight." [10] + +Cicero surely did not exaggerate when he said, "O glorious day! when I +shall depart to that divine company and assemblage of spirits, and quit +this troubled and polluted scene. For I shall go not only to those great +men of whom I have spoken before, but also to my son Cato, than whom never +was better man born, nor more distinguished for pious affection; whose +body was burned by me, whereas, on the contrary, it was fitting that mine +should be burned by him. But his soul not deserting me, but oft looking +back, no doubt departed to these regions whither it saw that I myself was +destined to come. Which, though a distress to me, I seemed patiently to +endure: not that I bore it with indifference, but I comforted myself with +the recollection that the separation and distance between us would not +continue long. For these reasons, O Scipio (since you said that you with +Laelius were accustomed to wonder at this), old age is tolerable to me, +and not only not irksome, but even delightful. And if I am wrong in this, +that I believe the souls of men to be immortal, I willingly delude myself: +nor do I desire that this mistake, in which I take pleasure, should be +wrested from me as long as I live; but if I, when dead, shall have no +consciousness, as some narrow-minded philosophers imagine, I do not fear +lest dead philosophers should ridicule this my delusion." + +Nor can I omit the striking passage in the _Apology_, when pleading before +the people of Athens, Socrates says, "Let us reflect in another way, and +we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good; for +one of two things--either death is a state of nothingness and utter +unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the +soul from this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no +consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even +by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain. For if a person +were to select the night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by +dreams, and were to compare with this the other days and nights of his +life, and then were to tell us how many days and nights he had passed in +the course of his life better and more pleasantly than this one, I think +that any man, I will not say a private man, but even the great king will +not find many such days or nights, when compared with the others. Now, if +death is like this, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a +single night. But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as +men say, all the dead are, what good, O my friends and judges, can be +greater than this? + +"If, indeed, when the pilgrim arrives in the world below, he is delivered +from the professors of justice in this world, and finds the true judges, +who are said to give judgment there,--Minos, and Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus, +and Triptolemus, and other sons of God who were righteous in their own +life,--that pilgrimage will be worth making. What would not a man give if +he might converse with Orpheus, and Musaeus, and Hesiod, and Homer? Nay, +if this be true, let me die again and again. I myself, too, shall have a +wonderful interest in there meeting and conversing with Palamedes, and +Ajax the son of Telamon, and other heroes of old, who have suffered death +through an unjust judgment; and there will be no small pleasure, as I +think, in comparing my own sufferings with theirs. Above all, I shall then +be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in this +world, so also in that; and I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends +to be wise, and is not. What would not a man give, O judges, to be able to +examine the leader of the great Trojan expedition; or Odysseus or +Sisyphus, or numberless others, men and women too! What infinite delight +would there be in conversing with them and asking them questions. In +another world they do not put a man to death for asking questions; +assuredly not. For besides being happier in that world than in this, they +will be immortal, if what is said be true. + +"Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know of a +certainty that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after +death. He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own +approaching end happened by mere chance. But I see clearly that to die and +be released was better for me; and therefore the oracle gave no sign. For +which reason, also, I am not angry with my condemners, or with my +accusers; they have done me no harm, although they did not mean to do me +any good; and for this I may gently blame them. The hour of departure has +arrived, and we go our ways--I to die and you to live. Which is better God +only knows." + +In the _Wisdom of Solomon_ we are promised that-- + +"The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no +torment touch them. + +"In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die; and their departure is +taken for misery. + +"And their going from us to be utter destruction; but they are in peace. + +"For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full +of immortality. + +"And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for +God proved them, and found them worthy for himself." + +And assuredly, if in the hour of death the conscience is at peace, the +mind need not be troubled. The future is full of doubt, indeed, but fuller +still of hope. + +If we are entering upon a rest after the struggles of life, + + "Where the wicked cease from troubling, + And the weary are at rest," + +that to many a weary soul will be a welcome bourne, and even then we may +say, + + "O Death! where is thy sting? + O Grave! where is thy victory?" + +On the other hand, if we are entering on a new sphere of existence, where +we may look forward to meet not only those of whom we have heard so often, +those whose works we have read and admired, and to whom we owe so much, +but those also whom we have loved and lost; when we shall leave behind us +the bonds of the flesh and the limitations of our earthly existence; when +we shall join the Angels, and Archangels, and all the company of +Heaven,--then, indeed, we may cherish a sure and certain hope that the +interests and pleasures of this world are as nothing compared to those of +the life that awaits us in our Eternal Home. + +[1] Montgomery. + +[2] Emerson. + +[3] Seneca. + +[4] Milton. + +[5] Cicero. + +[6] Shakespeare. + +[7] Longfellow. + +[8] Waller. + +[9] Trench. + +[10] Trench. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE PLEASURES OF LIFE *** + +This file should be named 7952-8.txt or 7952-8.zip + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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