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diff --git a/1091-0.txt b/1091-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e91b75 --- /dev/null +++ b/1091-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7788 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1091 *** + +ON HEROES, HERO-WORSHIP, AND THE HEROIC IN HISTORY + +By Thomas Carlyle + + +Transcriber's Note: + +The text is taken from the printed "Sterling Edition" of Carlyle's +Complete Works, in 20 volumes, with the following modifications made +in the etext version: Italicized text is delimited by underscores, +_thusly_. The footnote (there is only one) has been embedded directly +into text, in brackets, [thusly]. Greek text has been transliterated +into Latin characters with the notation [Gr.] juxtaposed. Otherwise, the +punctuation and spelling of the print version have been retained. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + I. THE HERO AS DIVINITY. ODIN. PAGANISM: SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY. + II. THE HERO AS PROPHET. MAHOMET: ISLAM. + III. THE HERO AS POET. DANTE: SHAKSPEARE. + IV. THE HERO AS PRIEST. LUTHER; REFORMATION: KNOX; PURITANISM. + V. THE HERO AS MAN OF LETTERS. JOHNSON, ROUSSEAU, BURNS. + VI. THE HERO AS KING. CROMWELL, NAPOLEON: MODERN REVOLUTIONISM. + + + + + +LECTURES ON HEROES. + + + + +LECTURE I. THE HERO AS DIVINITY. ODIN. PAGANISM: SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY. + +[May 5, 1840.] + +We have undertaken to discourse here for a little on Great Men, their +manner of appearance in our world's business, how they have shaped +themselves in the world's history, what ideas men formed of them, +what work they did;--on Heroes, namely, and on their reception and +performance; what I call Hero-worship and the Heroic in human affairs. +Too evidently this is a large topic; deserving quite other treatment +than we can expect to give it at present. A large topic; indeed, an +illimitable one; wide as Universal History itself. For, as I take it, +Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in this +world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here. +They were the leaders of men, these great ones; the modellers, patterns, +and in a wide sense creators, of whatsoever the general mass of +men contrived to do or to attain; all things that we see standing +accomplished in the world are properly the outer material result, the +practical realization and embodiment, of Thoughts that dwelt in the +Great Men sent into the world: the soul of the whole world's history, it +may justly be considered, were the history of these. Too clearly it is a +topic we shall do no justice to in this place! + +One comfort is, that Great Men, taken up in any way, are profitable +company. We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man, without +gaining something by him. He is the living light-fountain, which it +is good and pleasant to be near. The light which enlightens, which has +enlightened the darkness of the world; and this not as a kindled lamp +only, but rather as a natural luminary shining by the gift of Heaven; a +flowing light-fountain, as I say, of native original insight, of manhood +and heroic nobleness;--in whose radiance all souls feel that it is well +with them. On any terms whatsoever, you will not grudge to wander in +such neighborhood for a while. These Six classes of Heroes, chosen out +of widely distant countries and epochs, and in mere external figure +differing altogether, ought, if we look faithfully at them, to +illustrate several things for us. Could we see them well, we should get +some glimpses into the very marrow of the world's history. How happy, +could I but, in any measure, in such times as these, make manifest to +you the meanings of Heroism; the divine relation (for I may well call it +such) which in all times unites a Great Man to other men; and thus, as +it were, not exhaust my subject, but so much as break ground on it! At +all events, I must make the attempt. + + +It is well said, in every sense, that a man's religion is the chief fact +with regard to him. A man's, or a nation of men's. By religion I do not +mean here the church-creed which he professes, the articles of faith +which he will sign and, in words or otherwise, assert; not this wholly, +in many cases not this at all. We see men of all kinds of professed +creeds attain to almost all degrees of worth or worthlessness under each +or any of them. This is not what I call religion, this profession and +assertion; which is often only a profession and assertion from the +outworks of the man, from the mere argumentative region of him, if even +so deep as that. But the thing a man does practically believe (and this +is often enough _without_ asserting it even to himself, much less to +others); the thing a man does practically lay to heart, and know for +certain, concerning his vital relations to this mysterious Universe, and +his duty and destiny there, that is in all cases the primary thing for +him, and creatively determines all the rest. That is his _religion_; or, +it may be, his mere scepticism and _no-religion_: the manner it is in +which he feels himself to be spiritually related to the Unseen World or +No-World; and I say, if you tell me what that is, you tell me to a very +great extent what the man is, what the kind of things he will do is. Of +a man or of a nation we inquire, therefore, first of all, What +religion they had? Was it Heathenism,--plurality of gods, mere sensuous +representation of this Mystery of Life, and for chief recognized element +therein Physical Force? Was it Christianism; faith in an Invisible, +not as real only, but as the only reality; Time, through every meanest +moment of it, resting on Eternity; Pagan empire of Force displaced by a +nobler supremacy, that of Holiness? Was it Scepticism, uncertainty and +inquiry whether there was an Unseen World, any Mystery of Life except +a mad one;--doubt as to all this, or perhaps unbelief and flat denial? +Answering of this question is giving us the soul of the history of the +man or nation. The thoughts they had were the parents of the actions +they did; their feelings were parents of their thoughts: it was +the unseen and spiritual in them that determined the outward and +actual;--their religion, as I say, was the great fact about them. In +these Discourses, limited as we are, it will be good to direct our +survey chiefly to that religious phasis of the matter. That once known +well, all is known. We have chosen as the first Hero in our series Odin +the central figure of Scandinavian Paganism; an emblem to us of a most +extensive province of things. Let us look for a little at the Hero as +Divinity, the oldest primary form of Heroism. + +Surely it seems a very strange-looking thing this Paganism; almost +inconceivable to us in these days. A bewildering, inextricable jungle of +delusions, confusions, falsehoods, and absurdities, covering the whole +field of Life! A thing that fills us with astonishment, almost, if it +were possible, with incredulity,--for truly it is not easy to understand +that sane men could ever calmly, with their eyes open, believe and live +by such a set of doctrines. That men should have worshipped their poor +fellow-man as a God, and not him only, but stocks and stones, and all +manner of animate and inanimate objects; and fashioned for themselves +such a distracted chaos of hallucinations by way of Theory of the +Universe: all this looks like an incredible fable. Nevertheless it is +a clear fact that they did it. Such hideous inextricable jungle of +misworships, misbeliefs, men, made as we are, did actually hold by, +and live at home in. This is strange. Yes, we may pause in sorrow and +silence over the depths of darkness that are in man; if we rejoice in +the heights of purer vision he has attained to. Such things were and are +in man; in all men; in us too. + +Some speculators have a short way of accounting for the Pagan religion: +mere quackery, priestcraft, and dupery, say they; no sane man ever did +believe it,--merely contrived to persuade other men, not worthy of +the name of sane, to believe it! It will be often our duty to protest +against this sort of hypothesis about men's doings and history; and +I here, on the very threshold, protest against it in reference to +Paganism, and to all other _isms_ by which man has ever for a length of +time striven to walk in this world. They have all had a truth in them, +or men would not have taken them up. Quackery and dupery do abound; in +religions, above all in the more advanced decaying stages of religions, +they have fearfully abounded: but quackery was never the originating +influence in such things; it was not the health and life of such things, +but their disease, the sure precursor of their being about to die! Let +us never forget this. It seems to me a most mournful hypothesis, that +of quackery giving birth to any faith even in savage men. Quackery gives +birth to nothing; gives death to all things. We shall not see into the +true heart of anything, if we look merely at the quackeries of it; if we +do not reject the quackeries altogether; as mere diseases, corruptions, +with which our and all men's sole duty is to have done with them, to +sweep them out of our thoughts as out of our practice. Man everywhere +is the born enemy of lies. I find Grand Lamaism itself to have a kind +of truth in it. Read the candid, clear-sighted, rather sceptical Mr. +Turner's _Account of his Embassy_ to that country, and see. They have +their belief, these poor Thibet people, that Providence sends down +always an Incarnation of Himself into every generation. At bottom some +belief in a kind of Pope! At bottom still better, belief that there is +a _Greatest_ Man; that _he_ is discoverable; that, once discovered, we +ought to treat him with an obedience which knows no bounds! This is the +truth of Grand Lamaism; the "discoverability" is the only error here. +The Thibet priests have methods of their own of discovering what Man is +Greatest, fit to be supreme over them. Bad methods: but are they so +much worse than our methods,--of understanding him to be always the +eldest-born of a certain genealogy? Alas, it is a difficult thing to +find good methods for!--We shall begin to have a chance of understanding +Paganism, when we first admit that to its followers it was, at one time, +earnestly true. Let us consider it very certain that men did believe +in Paganism; men with open eyes, sound senses, men made altogether like +ourselves; that we, had we been there, should have believed in it. Ask +now, What Paganism could have been? + +Another theory, somewhat more respectable, attributes such things +to Allegory. It was a play of poetic minds, say these theorists; a +shadowing forth, in allegorical fable, in personification and visual +form, of what such poetic minds had known and felt of this Universe. +Which agrees, add they, with a primary law of human nature, still +everywhere observably at work, though in less important things, That +what a man feels intensely, he struggles to speak out of him, to see +represented before him in visual shape, and as if with a kind of life +and historical reality in it. Now doubtless there is such a law, and it +is one of the deepest in human nature; neither need we doubt that it did +operate fundamentally in this business. The hypothesis which ascribes +Paganism wholly or mostly to this agency, I call a little more +respectable; but I cannot yet call it the true hypothesis. Think, would +_we_ believe, and take with us as our life-guidance, an allegory, a +poetic sport? Not sport but earnest is what we should require. It is a +most earnest thing to be alive in this world; to die is not sport for +a man. Man's life never was a sport to him; it was a stern reality, +altogether a serious matter to be alive! + +I find, therefore, that though these Allegory theorists are on the way +towards truth in this matter, they have not reached it either. Pagan +Religion is indeed an Allegory, a Symbol of what men felt and knew about +the Universe; and all Religions are symbols of that, altering always +as that alters: but it seems to me a radical perversion, and even +inversion, of the business, to put that forward as the origin and moving +cause, when it was rather the result and termination. To get beautiful +allegories, a perfect poetic symbol, was not the want of men; but to +know what they were to believe about this Universe, what course they +were to steer in it; what, in this mysterious Life of theirs, they +had to hope and to fear, to do and to forbear doing. The _Pilgrim's +Progress_ is an Allegory, and a beautiful, just and serious one: but +consider whether Bunyan's Allegory could have _preceded_ the Faith it +symbolizes! The Faith had to be already there, standing believed by +everybody;--of which the Allegory could _then_ become a shadow; and, +with all its seriousness, we may say a _sportful_ shadow, a mere play of +the Fancy, in comparison with that awful Fact and scientific certainty +which it poetically strives to emblem. The Allegory is the product of +the certainty, not the producer of it; not in Bunyan's nor in any other +case. For Paganism, therefore, we have still to inquire, Whence came +that scientific certainty, the parent of such a bewildered heap of +allegories, errors and confusions? How was it, what was it? + +Surely it were a foolish attempt to pretend "explaining," in this place, +or in any place, such a phenomenon as that far-distant distracted cloudy +imbroglio of Paganism,--more like a cloud-field than a distant continent +of firm land and facts! It is no longer a reality, yet it was one. We +ought to understand that this seeming cloud-field was once a reality; +that not poetic allegory, least of all that dupery and deception was +the origin of it. Men, I say, never did believe idle songs, never risked +their soul's life on allegories: men in all times, especially in early +earnest times, have had an instinct for detecting quacks, for detesting +quacks. Let us try if, leaving out both the quack theory and the +allegory one, and listening with affectionate attention to that far-off +confused rumor of the Pagan ages, we cannot ascertain so much as this at +least, That there was a kind of fact at the heart of them; that they too +were not mendacious and distracted, but in their own poor way true and +sane! + + +You remember that fancy of Plato's, of a man who had grown to maturity +in some dark distance, and was brought on a sudden into the upper air to +see the sun rise. What would his wonder be, his rapt astonishment at the +sight we daily witness with indifference! With the free open sense of +a child, yet with the ripe faculty of a man, his whole heart would be +kindled by that sight, he would discern it well to be Godlike, his +soul would fall down in worship before it. Now, just such a childlike +greatness was in the primitive nations. The first Pagan Thinker +among rude men, the first man that began to think, was precisely this +child-man of Plato's. Simple, open as a child, yet with the depth and +strength of a man. Nature had as yet no name to him; he had not yet +united under a name the infinite variety of sights, sounds, shapes +and motions, which we now collectively name Universe, Nature, or the +like,--and so with a name dismiss it from us. To the wild deep-hearted +man all was yet new, not veiled under names or formulas; it stood naked, +flashing in on him there, beautiful, awful, unspeakable. Nature was to +this man, what to the Thinker and Prophet it forever is, preternatural. +This green flowery rock-built earth, the trees, the mountains, rivers, +many-sounding seas;--that great deep sea of azure that swims overhead; +the winds sweeping through it; the black cloud fashioning itself +together, now pouring out fire, now hail and rain; what _is_ it? Ay, +what? At bottom we do not yet know; we can never know at all. It is +not by our superior insight that we escape the difficulty; it is by our +superior levity, our inattention, our _want_ of insight. It is by _not_ +thinking that we cease to wonder at it. Hardened round us, encasing +wholly every notion we form, is a wrappage of traditions, hearsays, mere +_words_. We call that fire of the black thunder-cloud "electricity," and +lecture learnedly about it, and grind the like of it out of glass and +silk: but _what_ is it? What made it? Whence comes it? Whither goes it? +Science has done much for us; but it is a poor science that would hide +from us the great deep sacred infinitude of Nescience, whither we can +never penetrate, on which all science swims as a mere superficial film. +This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; +wonderful, inscrutable, _magical_ and more, to whosoever will _think_ of +it. + +That great mystery of TIME, were there no other; the illimitable, +silent, never-resting thing called Time, rolling, rushing on, swift, +silent, like an all-embracing ocean-tide, on which we and all the +Universe swim like exhalations, like apparitions which are, and then are +_not_: this is forever very literally a miracle; a thing to strike us +dumb,--for we have no word to speak about it. This Universe, ah me--what +could the wild man know of it; what can we yet know? That it is a Force, +and thousand-fold Complexity of Forces; a Force which is _not_ we. That +is all; it is not we, it is altogether different from us. Force, Force, +everywhere Force; we ourselves a mysterious Force in the centre of that. +"There is not a leaf rotting on the highway but has Force in it; how +else could it rot?" Nay surely, to the Atheistic Thinker, if such a one +were possible, it must be a miracle too, this huge illimitable whirlwind +of Force, which envelops us here; never-resting whirlwind, high as +Immensity, old as Eternity. What is it? God's Creation, the religious +people answer; it is the Almighty God's! Atheistic science babbles +poorly of it, with scientific nomenclatures, experiments and what not, +as if it were a poor dead thing, to be bottled up in Leyden jars and +sold over counters: but the natural sense of man, in all times, if he +will honestly apply his sense, proclaims it to be a living thing,--ah, +an unspeakable, godlike thing; towards which the best attitude for us, +after never so much science, is awe, devout prostration and humility of +soul; worship if not in words, then in silence. + +But now I remark farther: What in such a time as ours it requires a +Prophet or Poet to teach us, namely, the stripping-off of those poor +undevout wrappages, nomenclatures and scientific hearsays,--this, the +ancient earnest soul, as yet unencumbered with these things, did for +itself. The world, which is now divine only to the gifted, was then +divine to whosoever would turn his eye upon it. He stood bare before it +face to face. "All was Godlike or God:"--Jean Paul still finds it so; +the giant Jean Paul, who has power to escape out of hearsays: but there +then were no hearsays. Canopus shining down over the desert, with its +blue diamond brightness (that wild blue spirit-like brightness, far +brighter than we ever witness here), would pierce into the heart of the +wild Ishmaelitish man, whom it was guiding through the solitary waste +there. To his wild heart, with all feelings in it, with no _speech_ for +any feeling, it might seem a little eye, that Canopus, glancing out on +him from the great deep Eternity; revealing the inner Splendor to him. +Cannot we understand how these men _worshipped_ Canopus; became what +we call Sabeans, worshipping the stars? Such is to me the secret of +all forms of Paganism. Worship is transcendent wonder; wonder for which +there is now no limit or measure; that is worship. To these primeval +men, all things and everything they saw exist beside them were an emblem +of the Godlike, of some God. + +And look what perennial fibre of truth was in that. To us also, through +every star, through every blade of grass, is not a God made visible, if +we will open our minds and eyes? We do not worship in that way now: +but is it not reckoned still a merit, proof of what we call a "poetic +nature," that we recognize how every object has a divine beauty in it; +how every object still verily is "a window through which we may look +into Infinitude itself"? He that can discern the loveliness of things, +we call him Poet! Painter, Man of Genius, gifted, lovable. These poor +Sabeans did even what he does,--in their own fashion. That they did +it, in what fashion soever, was a merit: better than what the entirely +stupid man did, what the horse and camel did,--namely, nothing! + +But now if all things whatsoever that we look upon are emblems to us +of the Highest God, I add that more so than any of them is man such +an emblem. You have heard of St. Chrysostom's celebrated saying in +reference to the Shekinah, or Ark of Testimony, visible Revelation of +God, among the Hebrews: "The true Shekinah is Man!" Yes, it is even so: +this is no vain phrase; it is veritably so. The essence of our being, +the mystery in us that calls itself "I,"--ah, what words have we for +such things?--is a breath of Heaven; the Highest Being reveals himself +in man. This body, these faculties, this life of ours, is it not all as +a vesture for that Unnamed? "There is but one Temple in the Universe," +says the devout Novalis, "and that is the Body of Man. Nothing is holier +shall that high form. Bending before men is a reverence done to this +Revelation in the Flesh. We touch Heaven when we lay our hand on a human +body!" This sounds much like a mere flourish of rhetoric; but it is not +so. If well meditated, it will turn out to be a scientific fact; the +expression, in such words as can be had, of the actual truth of the +thing. We are the miracle of miracles,--the great inscrutable mystery of +God. We cannot understand it, we know not how to speak of it; but we may +feel and know, if we like, that it is verily so. + +Well; these truths were once more readily felt than now. The young +generations of the world, who had in them the freshness of young +children, and yet the depth of earnest men, who did not think that they +had finished off all things in Heaven and Earth by merely giving them +scientific names, but had to gaze direct at them there, with awe and +wonder: they felt better what of divinity is in man and Nature; they, +without being mad, could _worship_ Nature, and man more than anything +else in Nature. Worship, that is, as I said above, admire without limit: +this, in the full use of their faculties, with all sincerity of heart, +they could do. I consider Hero-worship to be the grand modifying element +in that ancient system of thought. What I called the perplexed jungle +of Paganism sprang, we may say, out of many roots: every admiration, +adoration of a star or natural object, was a root or fibre of a root; +but Hero-worship is the deepest root of all; the tap-root, from which in +a great degree all the rest were nourished and grown. + +And now if worship even of a star had some meaning in it, how much more +might that of a Hero! Worship of a Hero is transcendent admiration of +a Great Man. I say great men are still admirable; I say there is, +at bottom, nothing else admirable! No nobler feeling than this of +admiration for one higher than himself dwells in the breast of man. +It is to this hour, and at all hours, the vivifying influence in man's +life. Religion I find stand upon it; not Paganism only, but far higher +and truer religions,--all religion hitherto known. Hero-worship, +heartfelt prostrate admiration, submission, burning, boundless, for +a noblest godlike Form of Man,--is not that the germ of Christianity +itself? The greatest of all Heroes is One--whom we do not name here! +Let sacred silence meditate that sacred matter; you will find it the +ultimate perfection of a principle extant throughout man's whole history +on earth. + +Or coming into lower, less unspeakable provinces, is not all Loyalty +akin to religious Faith also? Faith is loyalty to some inspired +Teacher, some spiritual Hero. And what therefore is loyalty proper, the +life-breath of all society, but an effluence of Hero-worship, submissive +admiration for the truly great? Society is founded on Hero-worship. All +dignities of rank, on which human association rests, are what we may +call a _Hero_archy (Government of Heroes),--or a Hierarchy, for it +is "sacred" enough withal! The Duke means _Dux_, Leader; King is +_Kon-ning_, _Kan-ning_, Man that _knows_ or _cans_. Society everywhere +is some representation, not insupportably inaccurate, of a graduated +Worship of Heroes--reverence and obedience done to men really great and +wise. Not insupportably inaccurate, I say! They are all as bank-notes, +these social dignitaries, all representing gold;--and several of them, +alas, always are _forged_ notes. We can do with some forged false notes; +with a good many even; but not with all, or the most of them forged! +No: there have to come revolutions then; cries of Democracy, Liberty and +Equality, and I know not what:--the notes being all false, and no gold +to be had for _them_, people take to crying in their despair that +there is no gold, that there never was any! "Gold," Hero-worship, _is_ +nevertheless, as it was always and everywhere, and cannot cease till man +himself ceases. + +I am well aware that in these days Hero-worship, the thing I call +Hero-worship, professes to have gone out, and finally ceased. This, for +reasons which it will be worth while some time to inquire into, is +an age that as it were denies the existence of great men; denies the +desirableness of great men. Show our critics a great man, a Luther for +example, they begin to what they call "account" for him; not to worship +him, but take the dimensions of him,--and bring him out to be a little +kind of man! He was the "creature of the Time," they say; the Time +called him forth, the Time did everything, he nothing--but what we the +little critic could have done too! This seems to me but melancholy work. +The Time call forth? Alas, we have known Times _call_ loudly enough for +their great man; but not find him when they called! He was not there; +Providence had not sent him; the Time, _calling_ its loudest, had to go +down to confusion and wreck because he would not come when called. + +For if we will think of it, no Time need have gone to ruin, could it +have _found_ a man great enough, a man wise and good enough: wisdom to +discern truly what the Time wanted, valor to lead it on the right road +thither; these are the salvation of any Time. But I liken common languid +Times, with their unbelief, distress, perplexity, with their languid +doubting characters and embarrassed circumstances, impotently crumbling +down into ever worse distress towards final ruin;--all this I liken to +dry dead fuel, waiting for the lightning out of Heaven that shall kindle +it. The great man, with his free force direct out of God's own hand, is +the lightning. His word is the wise healing word which all can believe +in. All blazes round him now, when he has once struck on it, into fire +like his own. The dry mouldering sticks are thought to have called him +forth. They did want him greatly; but as to calling him forth--! Those +are critics of small vision, I think, who cry: "See, is it not the +sticks that made the fire?" No sadder proof can be given by a man of his +own littleness than disbelief in great men. There is no sadder symptom +of a generation than such general blindness to the spiritual lightning, +with faith only in the heap of barren dead fuel. It is the last +consummation of unbelief. In all epochs of the world's history, we +shall find the Great Man to have been the indispensable savior of his +epoch;--the lightning, without which the fuel never would have burnt. +The History of the World, I said already, was the Biography of Great +Men. + +Such small critics do what they can to promote unbelief and universal +spiritual paralysis: but happily they cannot always completely succeed. +In all times it is possible for a man to arise great enough to feel that +they and their doctrines are chimeras and cobwebs. And what is notable, +in no time whatever can they entirely eradicate out of living men's +hearts a certain altogether peculiar reverence for Great Men; genuine +admiration, loyalty, adoration, however dim and perverted it may be. +Hero-worship endures forever while man endures. Boswell venerates his +Johnson, right truly even in the Eighteenth century. The unbelieving +French believe in their Voltaire; and burst out round him into very +curious Hero-worship, in that last act of his life when they "stifle +him under roses." It has always seemed to me extremely curious this +of Voltaire. Truly, if Christianity be the highest instance of +Hero-worship, then we may find here in Voltaireism one of the lowest! +He whose life was that of a kind of Antichrist, does again on this +side exhibit a curious contrast. No people ever were so little prone +to admire at all as those French of Voltaire. _Persiflage_ was the +character of their whole mind; adoration had nowhere a place in it. Yet +see! The old man of Ferney comes up to Paris; an old, tottering, infirm +man of eighty-four years. They feel that he too is a kind of Hero; +that he has spent his life in opposing error and injustice, delivering +Calases, unmasking hypocrites in high places;--in short that _he_ too, +though in a strange way, has fought like a valiant man. They feel +withal that, if _persiflage_ be the great thing, there never was such a +_persifleur_. He is the realized ideal of every one of them; the thing +they are all wanting to be; of all Frenchmen the most French. He is +properly their god,--such god as they are fit for. Accordingly all +persons, from the Queen Antoinette to the Douanier at the Porte St. +Denis, do they not worship him? People of quality disguise themselves +as tavern-waiters. The Maitre de Poste, with a broad oath, orders his +Postilion, "_Va bon train_; thou art driving M. de Voltaire." At +Paris his carriage is "the nucleus of a comet, whose train fills whole +streets." The ladies pluck a hair or two from his fur, to keep it as a +sacred relic. There was nothing highest, beautifulest, noblest in all +France, that did not feel this man to be higher, beautifuler, nobler. + +Yes, from Norse Odin to English Samuel Johnson, from the divine Founder +of Christianity to the withered Pontiff of Encyclopedism, in all times +and places, the Hero has been worshipped. It will ever be so. We all +love great men; love, venerate and bow down submissive before great men: +nay can we honestly bow down to anything else? Ah, does not every true +man feel that he is himself made higher by doing reverence to what is +really above him? No nobler or more blessed feeling dwells in man's +heart. And to me it is very cheering to consider that no sceptical +logic, or general triviality, insincerity and aridity of any Time and +its influences can destroy this noble inborn loyalty and worship that +is in man. In times of unbelief, which soon have to become times of +revolution, much down-rushing, sorrowful decay and ruin is visible +to everybody. For myself in these days, I seem to see in this +indestructibility of Hero-worship the everlasting adamant lower than +which the confused wreck of revolutionary things cannot fall. The +confused wreck of things crumbling and even crashing and tumbling +all round us in these revolutionary ages, will get down so far; _no_ +farther. It is an eternal corner-stone, from which they can begin to +build themselves up again. That man, in some sense or other, worships +Heroes; that we all of us reverence and must ever reverence Great Men: +this is, to me, the living rock amid all rushings-down whatsoever;--the +one fixed point in modern revolutionary history, otherwise as if +bottomless and shoreless. + + +So much of truth, only under an ancient obsolete vesture, but the spirit +of it still true, do I find in the Paganism of old nations. Nature is +still divine, the revelation of the workings of God; the Hero is still +worshipable: this, under poor cramped incipient forms, is what all +Pagan religions have struggled, as they could, to set forth. I think +Scandinavian Paganism, to us here, is more interesting than any other. +It is, for one thing, the latest; it continued in these regions of +Europe till the eleventh century: eight hundred years ago the Norwegians +were still worshippers of Odin. It is interesting also as the creed of +our fathers; the men whose blood still runs in our veins, whom doubtless +we still resemble in so many ways. Strange: they did believe that, +while we believe so differently. Let us look a little at this poor Norse +creed, for many reasons. We have tolerable means to do it; for there is +another point of interest in these Scandinavian mythologies: that they +have been preserved so well. + +In that strange island Iceland,--burst up, the geologists say, by +fire from the bottom of the sea; a wild land of barrenness and lava; +swallowed many months of every year in black tempests, yet with a wild +gleaming beauty in summertime; towering up there, stern and grim, in +the North Ocean with its snow jokuls, roaring geysers, sulphur-pools and +horrid volcanic chasms, like the waste chaotic battle-field of Frost +and Fire;--where of all places we least looked for Literature or written +memorials, the record of these things was written down. On the seabord +of this wild land is a rim of grassy country, where cattle can subsist, +and men by means of them and of what the sea yields; and it seems they +were poetic men these, men who had deep thoughts in them, and uttered +musically their thoughts. Much would be lost, had Iceland not been burst +up from the sea, not been discovered by the Northmen! The old Norse +Poets were many of them natives of Iceland. + +Saemund, one of the early Christian Priests there, who perhaps had a +lingering fondness for Paganism, collected certain of their old Pagan +songs, just about becoming obsolete then,--Poems or Chants of a mythic, +prophetic, mostly all of a religious character: that is what Norse +critics call the _Elder_ or Poetic _Edda_. _Edda_, a word of uncertain +etymology, is thought to signify _Ancestress_. Snorro Sturleson, an +Iceland gentleman, an extremely notable personage, educated by this +Saemund's grandson, took in hand next, near a century afterwards, to put +together, among several other books he wrote, a kind of Prose Synopsis +of the whole Mythology; elucidated by new fragments of traditionary +verse. A work constructed really with great ingenuity, native talent, +what one might call unconscious art; altogether a perspicuous clear +work, pleasant reading still: this is the _Younger_ or Prose _Edda_. +By these and the numerous other _Sagas_, mostly Icelandic, with the +commentaries, Icelandic or not, which go on zealously in the North to +this day, it is possible to gain some direct insight even yet; and see +that old Norse system of Belief, as it were, face to face. Let us forget +that it is erroneous Religion; let us look at it as old Thought, and try +if we cannot sympathize with it somewhat. + +The primary characteristic of this old Northland Mythology I find to +be Impersonation of the visible workings of Nature. Earnest simple +recognition of the workings of Physical Nature, as a thing wholly +miraculous, stupendous and divine. What we now lecture of as Science, +they wondered at, and fell down in awe before, as Religion The dark +hostile Powers of Nature they figure to themselves as "_Jotuns_," +Giants, huge shaggy beings of a demonic character. Frost, Fire, +Sea-tempest; these are Jotuns. The friendly Powers again, as +Summer-heat, the Sun, are Gods. The empire of this Universe is divided +between these two; they dwell apart, in perennial internecine feud. +The Gods dwell above in Asgard, the Garden of the Asen, or Divinities; +Jotunheim, a distant dark chaotic land, is the home of the Jotuns. + +Curious all this; and not idle or inane, if we will look at the +foundation of it! The power of _Fire_, or _Flame_, for instance, +which we designate by some trivial chemical name, thereby hiding from +ourselves the essential character of wonder that dwells in it as in all +things, is with these old Northmen, Loke, a most swift subtle _Demon_, +of the brood of the Jotuns. The savages of the Ladrones Islands too (say +some Spanish voyagers) thought Fire, which they never had seen before, +was a devil or god, that bit you sharply when you touched it, and that +lived upon dry wood. From us too no Chemistry, if it had not Stupidity +to help it, would hide that Flame is a wonder. What _is_ Flame?--_Frost_ +the old Norse Seer discerns to be a monstrous hoary Jotun, the Giant +_Thrym_, _Hrym_; or _Rime_, the old word now nearly obsolete here, but +still used in Scotland to signify hoar-frost. _Rime_ was not then as now +a dead chemical thing, but a living Jotun or Devil; the monstrous Jotun +_Rime_ drove home his Horses at night, sat "combing their manes,"--which +Horses were _Hail-Clouds_, or fleet _Frost-Winds_. His Cows--No, not +his, but a kinsman's, the Giant Hymir's Cows are _Icebergs_: this Hymir +"looks at the rocks" with his devil-eye, and they _split_ in the glance +of it. + +Thunder was not then mere Electricity, vitreous or resinous; it was the +God Donner (Thunder) or Thor,--God also of beneficent Summer-heat. The +thunder was his wrath: the gathering of the black clouds is the drawing +down of Thor's angry brows; the fire-bolt bursting out of Heaven is +the all-rending Hammer flung from the hand of Thor: he urges his loud +chariot over the mountain-tops,--that is the peal; wrathful he "blows +in his red beard,"--that is the rustling storm-blast before the thunder +begins. Balder again, the White God, the beautiful, the just and +benignant (whom the early Christian Missionaries found to resemble +Christ), is the Sun, beautifullest of visible things; wondrous too, and +divine still, after all our Astronomies and Almanacs! But perhaps +the notablest god we hear tell of is one of whom Grimm the German +Etymologist finds trace: the God _Wunsch_, or Wish. The God _Wish_; who +could give us all that we _wished_! Is not this the sincerest and yet +rudest voice of the spirit of man? The _rudest_ ideal that man ever +formed; which still shows itself in the latest forms of our spiritual +culture. Higher considerations have to teach us that the God _Wish_ is +not the true God. + +Of the other Gods or Jotuns I will mention only for etymology's sake, +that Sea-tempest is the Jotun _Aegir_, a very dangerous Jotun;--and now +to this day, on our river Trent, as I learn, the Nottingham bargemen, +when the River is in a certain flooded state (a kind of backwater, or +eddying swirl it has, very dangerous to them), call it Eager; they cry +out, "Have a care, there is the _Eager_ coming!" Curious; that word +surviving, like the peak of a submerged world! The _oldest_ Nottingham +bargemen had believed in the God Aegir. Indeed our English blood too in +good part is Danish, Norse; or rather, at bottom, Danish and Norse and +Saxon have no distinction, except a superficial one,--as of Heathen and +Christian, or the like. But all over our Island we are mingled largely +with Danes proper,--from the incessant invasions there were: and this, +of course, in a greater proportion along the east coast; and greatest of +all, as I find, in the North Country. From the Humber upwards, all over +Scotland, the Speech of the common people is still in a singular degree +Icelandic; its Germanism has still a peculiar Norse tinge. They too are +"Normans," Northmen,--if that be any great beauty--! + +Of the chief god, Odin, we shall speak by and by. Mark at present so +much; what the essence of Scandinavian and indeed of all Paganism is: +a recognition of the forces of Nature as godlike, stupendous, personal +Agencies,--as Gods and Demons. Not inconceivable to us. It is the +infant Thought of man opening itself, with awe and wonder, on this +ever-stupendous Universe. To me there is in the Norse system something +very genuine, very great and manlike. A broad simplicity, rusticity, so +very different from the light gracefulness of the old Greek Paganism, +distinguishes this Scandinavian System. It is Thought; the genuine +Thought of deep, rude, earnest minds, fairly opened to the things about +them; a face-to-face and heart-to-heart inspection of the things,--the +first characteristic of all good Thought in all times. Not graceful +lightness, half-sport, as in the Greek Paganism; a certain homely +truthfulness and rustic strength, a great rude sincerity, discloses +itself here. It is strange, after our beautiful Apollo statues and clear +smiling mythuses, to come down upon the Norse Gods "brewing ale" to +hold their feast with Aegir, the Sea-Jotun; sending out Thor to get +the caldron for them in the Jotun country; Thor, after many adventures, +clapping the Pot on his head, like a huge hat, and walking off with +it,--quite lost in it, the ears of the Pot reaching down to his heels! +A kind of vacant hugeness, large awkward gianthood, characterizes that +Norse system; enormous force, as yet altogether untutored, stalking +helpless with large uncertain strides. Consider only their primary +mythus of the Creation. The Gods, having got the Giant Ymer slain, a +Giant made by "warm wind," and much confused work, out of the conflict +of Frost and Fire,--determined on constructing a world with him. His +blood made the Sea; his flesh was the Land, the Rocks his bones; of +his eyebrows they formed Asgard their Gods'-dwelling; his skull was the +great blue vault of Immensity, and the brains of it became the Clouds. +What a Hyper-Brobdignagian business! Untamed Thought, great, giantlike, +enormous;--to be tamed in due time into the compact greatness, not +giantlike, but godlike and stronger than gianthood, of the Shakspeares, +the Goethes!--Spiritually as well as bodily these men are our +progenitors. + +I like, too, that representation they have of the tree Igdrasil. All +Life is figured by them as a Tree. Igdrasil, the Ash-tree of Existence, +has its roots deep down in the kingdoms of Hela or Death; its trunk +reaches up heaven-high, spreads its boughs over the whole Universe: it +is the Tree of Existence. At the foot of it, in the Death-kingdom, sit +Three _Nornas_, Fates,--the Past, Present, Future; watering its +roots from the Sacred Well. Its "boughs," with their buddings +and disleafings?--events, things suffered, things done, +catastrophes,--stretch through all lands and times. Is not every leaf +of it a biography, every fibre there an act or word? Its boughs are +Histories of Nations. The rustle of it is the noise of Human Existence, +onwards from of old. It grows there, the breath of Human Passion +rustling through it;--or storm tost, the storm-wind howling through it +like the voice of all the gods. It is Igdrasil, the Tree of Existence. +It is the past, the present, and the future; what was done, what is +doing, what will be done; "the infinite conjugation of the verb _To +do_." Considering how human things circulate, each inextricably in +communion with all,--how the word I speak to you to-day is borrowed, +not from Ulfila the Moesogoth only, but from all men since the first +man began to speak,--I find no similitude so true as this of a Tree. +Beautiful; altogether beautiful and great. The "_Machine_ of the +Universe,"--alas, do but think of that in contrast! + + +Well, it is strange enough this old Norse view of Nature; different +enough from what we believe of Nature. Whence it specially came, one +would not like to be compelled to say very minutely! One thing we may +say: It came from the thoughts of Norse men;--from the thought, above +all, of the _first_ Norse man who had an original power of thinking. The +First Norse "man of genius," as we should call him! Innumerable men had +passed by, across this Universe, with a dumb vague wonder, such as the +very animals may feel; or with a painful, fruitlessly inquiring wonder, +such as men only feel;--till the great Thinker came, the _original_ man, +the Seer; whose shaped spoken Thought awakes the slumbering capability +of all into Thought. It is ever the way with the Thinker, the spiritual +Hero. What he says, all men were not far from saying, were longing to +say. The Thoughts of all start up, as from painful enchanted sleep, +round his Thought; answering to it, Yes, even so! Joyful to men as the +dawning of day from night;--_is_ it not, indeed, the awakening for them +from no-being into being, from death into life? We still honor such a +man; call him Poet, Genius, and so forth: but to these wild men he was +a very magician, a worker of miraculous unexpected blessing for them; a +Prophet, a God!--Thought once awakened does not again slumber; unfolds +itself into a System of Thought; grows, in man after man, generation +after generation,--till its full stature is reached, and _such_ System +of Thought can grow no farther; but must give place to another. + +For the Norse people, the Man now named Odin, and Chief Norse God, we +fancy, was such a man. A Teacher, and Captain of soul and of body; a +Hero, of worth immeasurable; admiration for whom, transcending the known +bounds, became adoration. Has he not the power of articulate Thinking; +and many other powers, as yet miraculous? So, with boundless gratitude, +would the rude Norse heart feel. Has he not solved for them the +sphinx-enigma of this Universe; given assurance to them of their own +destiny there? By him they know now what they have to do here, what to +look for hereafter. Existence has become articulate, melodious by him; +he first has made Life alive!--We may call this Odin, the origin of +Norse Mythology: Odin, or whatever name the First Norse Thinker bore +while he was a man among men. His view of the Universe once promulgated, +a like view starts into being in all minds; grows, keeps ever growing, +while it continues credible there. In all minds it lay written, but +invisibly, as in sympathetic ink; at his word it starts into visibility +in all. Nay, in every epoch of the world, the great event, parent of all +others, is it not the arrival of a Thinker in the world--! + +One other thing we must not forget; it will explain, a little, the +confusion of these Norse Eddas. They are not one coherent System of +Thought; but properly the _summation_ of several successive systems. All +this of the old Norse Belief which is flung out for us, in one level of +distance in the Edda, like a picture painted on the same canvas, does +not at all stand so in the reality. It stands rather at all manner of +distances and depths, of successive generations since the Belief first +began. All Scandinavian thinkers, since the first of them, contributed +to that Scandinavian System of Thought; in ever-new elaboration and +addition, it is the combined work of them all. What history it had, +how it changed from shape to shape, by one thinker's contribution after +another, till it got to the full final shape we see it under in the +Edda, no man will now ever know: _its_ Councils of Trebizond, Councils +of Trent, Athanasiuses, Dantes, Luthers, are sunk without echo in the +dark night! Only that it had such a history we can all know. Wheresover +a thinker appeared, there in the thing he thought of was a contribution, +accession, a change or revolution made. Alas, the grandest "revolution" +of all, the one made by the man Odin himself, is not this too sunk for +us like the rest! Of Odin what history? Strange rather to reflect that +he _had_ a history! That this Odin, in his wild Norse vesture, with his +wild beard and eyes, his rude Norse speech and ways, was a man like us; +with our sorrows, joys, with our limbs, features;--intrinsically all one +as we: and did such a work! But the work, much of it, has perished; the +worker, all to the name. "_Wednesday_," men will say to-morrow; Odin's +day! Of Odin there exists no history; no document of it; no guess about +it worth repeating. + +Snorro indeed, in the quietest manner, almost in a brief business style, +writes down, in his _Heimskringla_, how Odin was a heroic Prince, in the +Black-Sea region, with Twelve Peers, and a great people straitened for +room. How he led these _Asen_ (Asiatics) of his out of Asia; settled +them in the North parts of Europe, by warlike conquest; invented +Letters, Poetry and so forth,--and came by and by to be worshipped as +Chief God by these Scandinavians, his Twelve Peers made into Twelve +Sons of his own, Gods like himself: Snorro has no doubt of this. Saxo +Grammaticus, a very curious Northman of that same century, is still +more unhesitating; scruples not to find out a historical fact in every +individual mythus, and writes it down as a terrestrial event in Denmark +or elsewhere. Torfaeus, learned and cautious, some centuries later, +assigns by calculation a _date_ for it: Odin, he says, came into Europe +about the Year 70 before Christ. Of all which, as grounded on mere +uncertainties, found to be untenable now, I need say nothing. Far, +very far beyond the Year 70! Odin's date, adventures, whole terrestrial +history, figure and environment are sunk from us forever into unknown +thousands of years. + +Nay Grimm, the German Antiquary, goes so far as to deny that any man +Odin ever existed. He proves it by etymology. The word _Wuotan_, which +is the original form of _Odin_, a word spread, as name of their chief +Divinity, over all the Teutonic Nations everywhere; this word, which +connects itself, according to Grimm, with the Latin _vadere_, with +the English _wade_ and such like,--means primarily Movement, Source of +Movement, Power; and is the fit name of the highest god, not of any man. +The word signifies Divinity, he says, among the old Saxon, German and +all Teutonic Nations; the adjectives formed from it all signify divine, +supreme, or something pertaining to the chief god. Like enough! We must +bow to Grimm in matters etymological. Let us consider it fixed that +_Wuotan_ means _Wading_, force of _Movement_. And now still, what +hinders it from being the name of a Heroic Man and _Mover_, as well as +of a god? As for the adjectives, and words formed from it,--did not the +Spaniards in their universal admiration for Lope, get into the habit of +saying "a Lope flower," "a Lope _dama_," if the flower or woman were of +surpassing beauty? Had this lasted, _Lope_ would have grown, in Spain, +to be an adjective signifying _godlike_ also. Indeed, Adam Smith, in his +Essay on Language, surmises that all adjectives whatsoever were formed +precisely in that way: some very green thing, chiefly notable for its +greenness, got the appellative name _Green_, and then the next thing +remarkable for that quality, a tree for instance, was named the _green_ +tree,--as we still say "the _steam_ coach," "four-horse coach," or the +like. All primary adjectives, according to Smith, were formed in this +way; were at first substantives and things. We cannot annihilate a man +for etymologies like that! Surely there was a First Teacher and Captain; +surely there must have been an Odin, palpable to the sense at one time; +no adjective, but a real Hero of flesh and blood! The voice of all +tradition, history or echo of history, agrees with all that thought will +teach one about it, to assure us of this. + +How the man Odin came to be considered a _god_, the chief god?--that +surely is a question which nobody would wish to dogmatize upon. I have +said, his people knew no _limits_ to their admiration of him; they +had as yet no scale to measure admiration by. Fancy your own generous +heart's-love of some greatest man expanding till it _transcended_ all +bounds, till it filled and overflowed the whole field of your thought! +Or what if this man Odin,--since a great deep soul, with the afflatus +and mysterious tide of vision and impulse rushing on him he knows +not whence, is ever an enigma, a kind of terror and wonder to +himself,--should have felt that perhaps _he_ was divine; that _he_ +was some effluence of the "Wuotan," "_Movement_", Supreme Power +and Divinity, of whom to his rapt vision all Nature was the awful +Flame-image; that some effluence of Wuotan dwelt here in him! He was not +necessarily false; he was but mistaken, speaking the truest he knew. A +great soul, any sincere soul, knows not what he is,--alternates between +the highest height and the lowest depth; can, of all things, the least +measure--Himself! What others take him for, and what he guesses that he +may be; these two items strangely act on one another, help to determine +one another. With all men reverently admiring him; with his own wild +soul full of noble ardors and affections, of whirlwind chaotic darkness +and glorious new light; a divine Universe bursting all into godlike +beauty round him, and no man to whom the like ever had befallen, what +could he think himself to be? "Wuotan?" All men answered, "Wuotan!"-- + +And then consider what mere Time will do in such cases; how if a man +was great while living, he becomes tenfold greater when dead. What an +enormous _camera-obscura_ magnifier is Tradition! How a thing grows in +the human Memory, in the human Imagination, when love, worship and +all that lies in the human Heart, is there to encourage it. And in the +darkness, in the entire ignorance; without date or document, no book, no +Arundel-marble; only here and there some dumb monumental cairn. Why, +in thirty or forty years, were there no books, any great man would grow +_mythic_, the contemporaries who had seen him, being once all dead. +And in three hundred years, and in three thousand years--! To attempt +_theorizing_ on such matters would profit little: they are matters which +refuse to be _theoremed_ and diagramed; which Logic ought to know that +she _cannot_ speak of. Enough for us to discern, far in the uttermost +distance, some gleam as of a small real light shining in the centre of +that enormous camera-obscure image; to discern that the centre of it all +was not a madness and nothing, but a sanity and something. + +This light, kindled in the great dark vortex of the Norse Mind, dark but +living, waiting only for light; this is to me the centre of the whole. +How such light will then shine out, and with wondrous thousand-fold +expansion spread itself, in forms and colors, depends not on _it_, so +much as on the National Mind recipient of it. The colors and forms +of your light will be those of the _cut-glass_ it has to shine +through.--Curious to think how, for every man, any the truest fact is +modelled by the nature of the man! I said, The earnest man, speaking to +his brother men, must always have stated what seemed to him a _fact_, a +real Appearance of Nature. But the way in which such Appearance or +fact shaped itself,--what sort of _fact_ it became for him,--was and +is modified by his own laws of thinking; deep, subtle, but universal, +ever-operating laws. The world of Nature, for every man, is the Fantasy +of Himself. This world is the multiplex "Image of his own Dream." Who +knows to what unnamable subtleties of spiritual law all these Pagan +Fables owe their shape! The number Twelve, divisiblest of all, which +could be halved, quartered, parted into three, into six, the most +remarkable number,--this was enough to determine the _Signs of the +Zodiac_, the number of Odin's _Sons_, and innumerable other Twelves. Any +vague rumor of number had a tendency to settle itself into Twelve. So +with regard to every other matter. And quite unconsciously too,--with no +notion of building up "Allegories "! But the fresh clear glance of those +First Ages would be prompt in discerning the secret relations of things, +and wholly open to obey these. Schiller finds in the _Cestus of +Venus_ an everlasting aesthetic truth as to the nature of all Beauty; +curious:--but he is careful not to insinuate that the old Greek Mythists +had any notion of lecturing about the "Philosophy of Criticism"!--On the +whole, we must leave those boundless regions. Cannot we conceive that +Odin was a reality? Error indeed, error enough: but sheer falsehood, +idle fables, allegory aforethought,--we will not believe that our +Fathers believed in these. + + +Odin's _Runes_ are a significant feature of him. Runes, and the miracles +of "magic" he worked by them, make a great feature in tradition. Runes +are the Scandinavian Alphabet; suppose Odin to have been the inventor +of Letters, as well as "magic," among that people! It is the greatest +invention man has ever made! this of marking down the unseen thought +that is in him by written characters. It is a kind of second speech, +almost as miraculous as the first. You remember the astonishment and +incredulity of Atahualpa the Peruvian King; how he made the Spanish +Soldier who was guarding him scratch _Dios_ on his thumb-nail, that he +might try the next soldier with it, to ascertain whether such a miracle +was possible. If Odin brought Letters among his people, he might work +magic enough! + +Writing by Runes has some air of being original among the Norsemen: not +a Phoenician Alphabet, but a native Scandinavian one. Snorro tells us +farther that Odin invented Poetry; the music of human speech, as well as +that miraculous runic marking of it. Transport yourselves into the early +childhood of nations; the first beautiful morning-light of our Europe, +when all yet lay in fresh young radiance as of a great sunrise, and +our Europe was first beginning to think, to be! Wonder, hope; infinite +radiance of hope and wonder, as of a young child's thoughts, in the +hearts of these strong men! Strong sons of Nature; and here was not only +a wild Captain and Fighter; discerning with his wild flashing eyes what +to do, with his wild lion-heart daring and doing it; but a Poet too, all +that we mean by a Poet, Prophet, great devout Thinker and Inventor,--as +the truly Great Man ever is. A Hero is a Hero at all points; in the soul +and thought of him first of all. This Odin, in his rude semi-articulate +way, had a word to speak. A great heart laid open to take in this great +Universe, and man's Life here, and utter a great word about it. A Hero, +as I say, in his own rude manner; a wise, gifted, noble-hearted man. And +now, if we still admire such a man beyond all others, what must these +wild Norse souls, first awakened into thinking, have made of him! To +them, as yet without names for it, he was noble and noblest; Hero, +Prophet, God; _Wuotan_, the greatest of all. Thought is Thought, however +it speak or spell itself. Intrinsically, I conjecture, this Odin must +have been of the same sort of stuff as the greatest kind of men. A great +thought in the wild deep heart of him! The rough words he articulated, +are they not the rudimental roots of those English words we still use? +He worked so, in that obscure element. But he was as a _light_ kindled +in it; a light of Intellect, rude Nobleness of heart, the only kind of +lights we have yet; a Hero, as I say: and he had to shine there, and +make his obscure element a little lighter,--as is still the task of us +all. + +We will fancy him to be the Type Norseman; the finest Teuton whom that +race had yet produced. The rude Norse heart burst up into _boundless_ +admiration round him; into adoration. He is as a root of so many great +things; the fruit of him is found growing from deep thousands of years, +over the whole field of Teutonic Life. Our own Wednesday, as I said, is +it not still Odin's Day? Wednesbury, Wansborough, Wanstead, Wandsworth: +Odin grew into England too, these are still leaves from that root! +He was the Chief God to all the Teutonic Peoples; their Pattern +Norseman;--in such way did _they_ admire their Pattern Norseman; that +was the fortune he had in the world. + +Thus if the man Odin himself have vanished utterly, there is this huge +Shadow of him which still projects itself over the whole History of his +People. For this Odin once admitted to be God, we can understand well +that the whole Scandinavian Scheme of Nature, or dim No-scheme, whatever +it might before have been, would now begin to develop itself altogether +differently, and grow thenceforth in a new manner. What this Odin saw +into, and taught with his runes and his rhymes, the whole Teutonic +People laid to heart and carried forward. His way of thought became +their way of thought:--such, under new conditions, is the history of +every great thinker still. In gigantic confused lineaments, like some +enormous camera-obscure shadow thrown upwards from the dead deeps of the +Past, and covering the whole Northern Heaven, is not that Scandinavian +Mythology in some sort the Portraiture of this man Odin? The gigantic +image of _his_ natural face, legible or not legible there, expanded and +confused in that manner! Ah, Thought, I say, is always Thought. No great +man lives in vain. The History of the world is but the Biography of +great men. + +To me there is something very touching in this primeval figure of +Heroism; in such artless, helpless, but hearty entire reception of a +Hero by his fellow-men. Never so helpless in shape, it is the noblest of +feelings, and a feeling in some shape or other perennial as man himself. +If I could show in any measure, what I feel deeply for a long time now, +That it is the vital element of manhood, the soul of man's history here +in our world,--it would be the chief use of this discoursing at present. +We do not now call our great men Gods, nor admire _without_ limit; ah +no, _with_ limit enough! But if we have no great men, or do not admire +at all,--that were a still worse case. + +This poor Scandinavian Hero-worship, that whole Norse way of looking at +the Universe, and adjusting oneself there, has an indestructible merit +for us. A rude childlike way of recognizing the divineness of Nature, +the divineness of Man; most rude, yet heartfelt, robust, giantlike; +betokening what a giant of a man this child would yet grow to!--It was +a truth, and is none. Is it not as the half-dumb stifled voice of the +long-buried generations of our own Fathers, calling out of the depths of +ages to us, in whose veins their blood still runs: "This then, this is +what we made of the world: this is all the image and notion we could +form to ourselves of this great mystery of a Life and Universe. Despise +it not. You are raised high above it, to large free scope of vision; but +you too are not yet at the top. No, your notion too, so much enlarged, +is but a partial, imperfect one; that matter is a thing no man will +ever, in time or out of time, comprehend; after thousands of years of +ever-new expansion, man will find himself but struggling to comprehend +again a part of it: the thing is larger shall man, not to be +comprehended by him; an Infinite thing!" + + +The essence of the Scandinavian, as indeed of all Pagan Mythologies, we +found to be recognition of the divineness of Nature; sincere communion +of man with the mysterious invisible Powers visibly seen at work in +the world round him. This, I should say, is more sincerely done in +the Scandinavian than in any Mythology I know. Sincerity is the great +characteristic of it. Superior sincerity (far superior) consoles us for +the total want of old Grecian grace. Sincerity, I think, is better than +grace. I feel that these old Northmen wore looking into Nature with open +eye and soul: most earnest, honest; childlike, and yet manlike; with +a great-hearted simplicity and depth and freshness, in a true, loving, +admiring, unfearing way. A right valiant, true old race of men. Such +recognition of Nature one finds to be the chief element of Paganism; +recognition of Man, and his Moral Duty, though this too is not wanting, +comes to be the chief element only in purer forms of religion. Here, +indeed, is a great distinction and epoch in Human Beliefs; a great +landmark in the religious development of Mankind. Man first puts himself +in relation with Nature and her Powers, wonders and worships over those; +not till a later epoch does he discern that all Power is Moral, that the +grand point is the distinction for him of Good and Evil, of _Thou shalt_ +and _Thou shalt not_. + +With regard to all these fabulous delineations in the _Edda_, I will +remark, moreover, as indeed was already hinted, that most probably they +must have been of much newer date; most probably, even from the first, +were comparatively idle for the old Norsemen, and as it were a kind of +Poetic sport. Allegory and Poetic Delineation, as I said above, cannot +be religious Faith; the Faith itself must first be there, then Allegory +enough will gather round it, as the fit body round its soul. The Norse +Faith, I can well suppose, like other Faiths, was most active while +it lay mainly in the silent state, and had not yet much to say about +itself, still less to sing. + +Among those shadowy _Edda_ matters, amid all that fantastic congeries +of assertions, and traditions, in their musical Mythologies, the main +practical belief a man could have was probably not much more than this: +of the _Valkyrs_ and the _Hall of Odin_; of an inflexible _Destiny_; and +that the one thing needful for a man was _to be brave_. The _Valkyrs_ +are Choosers of the Slain: a Destiny inexorable, which it is useless +trying to bend or soften, has appointed who is to be slain; this was +a fundamental point for the Norse believer;--as indeed it is for all +earnest men everywhere, for a Mahomet, a Luther, for a Napoleon too. It +lies at the basis this for every such man; it is the woof out of which +his whole system of thought is woven. The _Valkyrs_; and then that these +_Choosers_ lead the brave to a heavenly _Hall of Odin_; only the base +and slavish being thrust elsewhither, into the realms of Hela the +Death-goddess: I take this to have been the soul of the whole Norse +Belief. They understood in their heart that it was indispensable to be +brave; that Odin would have no favor for them, but despise and thrust +them out, if they were not brave. Consider too whether there is not +something in this! It is an everlasting duty, valid in our day as in +that, the duty of being brave. _Valor_ is still _value_. The first duty +for a man is still that of subduing _Fear_. We must get rid of Fear; +we cannot act at all till then. A man's acts are slavish, not true but +specious; his very thoughts are false, he thinks too as a slave and +coward, till he have got Fear under his feet. Odin's creed, if we +disentangle the real kernel of it, is true to this hour. A man shall +and must be valiant; he must march forward, and quit himself like a +man,--trusting imperturbably in the appointment and _choice_ of the +upper Powers; and, on the whole, not fear at all. Now and always, the +completeness of his victory over Fear will determine how much of a man +he is. + +It is doubtless very savage that kind of valor of the old Northmen. +Snorro tells us they thought it a shame and misery not to die in battle; +and if natural death seemed to be coming on, they would cut wounds in +their flesh, that Odin might receive them as warriors slain. Old kings, +about to die, had their body laid into a ship; the ship sent forth, +with sails set and slow fire burning it; that, once out at sea, it might +blaze up in flame, and in such manner bury worthily the old hero, at +once in the sky and in the ocean! Wild bloody valor; yet valor of +its kind; better, I say, than none. In the old Sea-kings too, what an +indomitable rugged energy! Silent, with closed lips, as I fancy them, +unconscious that they were specially brave; defying the wild ocean with +its monsters, and all men and things;--progenitors of our own Blakes +and Nelsons! No Homer sang these Norse Sea-kings; but Agamemnon's was +a small audacity, and of small fruit in the world, to some of them;--to +Hrolf's of Normandy, for instance! Hrolf, or Rollo Duke of Normandy, the +wild Sea-king, has a share in governing England at this hour. + +Nor was it altogether nothing, even that wild sea-roving and battling, +through so many generations. It needed to be ascertained which was +the _strongest_ kind of men; who were to be ruler over whom. Among the +Northland Sovereigns, too, I find some who got the title _Wood-cutter_; +Forest-felling Kings. Much lies in that. I suppose at bottom many of +them were forest-fellers as well as fighters, though the Skalds talk +mainly of the latter,--misleading certain critics not a little; for no +nation of men could ever live by fighting alone; there could not produce +enough come out of that! I suppose the right good fighter was oftenest +also the right good forest-feller,--the right good improver, discerner, +doer and worker in every kind; for true valor, different enough from +ferocity, is the basis of all. A more legitimate kind of valor that; +showing itself against the untamed Forests and dark brute Powers of +Nature, to conquer Nature for us. In the same direction have not we +their descendants since carried it far? May such valor last forever with +us! + +That the man Odin, speaking with a Hero's voice and heart, as with an +impressiveness out of Heaven, told his People the infinite importance +of Valor, how man thereby became a god; and that his People, feeling a +response to it in their own hearts, believed this message of his, and +thought it a message out of Heaven, and him a Divinity for telling it +them: this seems to me the primary seed-grain of the Norse Religion, +from which all manner of mythologies, symbolic practices, speculations, +allegories, songs and sagas would naturally grow. Grow,--how strangely! +I called it a small light shining and shaping in the huge vortex of +Norse darkness. Yet the darkness itself was _alive_; consider that. It +was the eager inarticulate uninstructed Mind of the whole Norse People, +longing only to become articulate, to go on articulating ever farther! +The living doctrine grows, grows;--like a Banyan-tree; the first _seed_ +is the essential thing: any branch strikes itself down into the earth, +becomes a new root; and so, in endless complexity, we have a whole wood, +a whole jungle, one seed the parent of it all. Was not the whole Norse +Religion, accordingly, in some sense, what we called "the enormous +shadow of this man's likeness"? Critics trace some affinity in some +Norse mythuses, of the Creation and such like, with those of the +Hindoos. The Cow Adumbla, "licking the rime from the rocks," has a +kind of Hindoo look. A Hindoo Cow, transported into frosty countries. +Probably enough; indeed we may say undoubtedly, these things will have +a kindred with the remotest lands, with the earliest times. Thought does +not die, but only is changed. The first man that began to think in this +Planet of ours, he was the beginner of all. And then the second man, and +the third man;--nay, every true Thinker to this hour is a kind of Odin, +teaches men _his_ way of thought, spreads a shadow of his own likeness +over sections of the History of the World. + + +Of the distinctive poetic character or merit of this Norse Mythology +I have not room to speak; nor does it concern us much. Some wild +Prophecies we have, as the _Voluspa_ in the _Elder Edda_; of a rapt, +earnest, sibylline sort. But they were comparatively an idle adjunct of +the matter, men who as it were but toyed with the matter, these +later Skalds; and it is _their_ songs chiefly that survive. In later +centuries, I suppose, they would go on singing, poetically symbolizing, +as our modern Painters paint, when it was no longer from the innermost +heart, or not from the heart at all. This is everywhere to be well kept +in mind. + +Gray's fragments of Norse Lore, at any rate, will give one no notion +of it;--any more than Pope will of Homer. It is no square-built gloomy +palace of black ashlar marble, shrouded in awe and horror, as Gray gives +it us: no; rough as the North rocks, as the Iceland deserts, it is; with +a heartiness, homeliness, even a tint of good humor and robust mirth in +the middle of these fearful things. The strong old Norse heart did not +go upon theatrical sublimities; they had not time to tremble. I like +much their robust simplicity; their veracity, directness of conception. +Thor "draws down his brows" in a veritable Norse rage; "grasps his +hammer till the _knuckles grow white_." Beautiful traits of pity too, an +honest pity. Balder "the white God" dies; the beautiful, benignant; he +is the Sungod. They try all Nature for a remedy; but he is dead. Frigga, +his mother, sends Hermoder to seek or see him: nine days and nine nights +he rides through gloomy deep valleys, a labyrinth of gloom; arrives at +the Bridge with its gold roof: the Keeper says, "Yes, Balder did pass +here; but the Kingdom of the Dead is down yonder, far towards the +North." Hermoder rides on; leaps Hell-gate, Hela's gate; does see +Balder, and speak with him: Balder cannot be delivered. Inexorable! Hela +will not, for Odin or any God, give him up. The beautiful and gentle has +to remain there. His Wife had volunteered to go with him, to die with +him. They shall forever remain there. He sends his ring to Odin; Nanna +his wife sends her _thimble_ to Frigga, as a remembrance.--Ah me--! + +For indeed Valor is the fountain of Pity too;--of Truth, and all that +is great and good in man. The robust homely vigor of the Norse heart +attaches one much, in these delineations. Is it not a trait of right +honest strength, says Uhland, who has written a fine _Essay_ on Thor, +that the old Norse heart finds its friend in the Thunder-god? That it +is not frightened away by his thunder; but finds that Summer-heat, the +beautiful noble summer, must and will have thunder withal! The Norse +heart _loves_ this Thor and his hammer-bolt; sports with him. Thor is +Summer-heat: the god of Peaceable Industry as well as Thunder. He is the +Peasant's friend; his true henchman and attendant is Thialfi, _Manual +Labor_. Thor himself engages in all manner of rough manual work, scorns +no business for its plebeianism; is ever and anon travelling to the +country of the Jotuns, harrying those chaotic Frost-monsters, subduing +them, at least straitening and damaging them. There is a great broad +humor in some of these things. + +Thor, as we saw above, goes to Jotun-land, to seek Hymir's Caldron, that +the Gods may brew beer. Hymir the huge Giant enters, his gray beard +all full of hoar-frost; splits pillars with the very glance of his eye; +Thor, after much rough tumult, snatches the Pot, claps it on his head; +the "handles of it reach down to his heels." The Norse Skald has a kind +of loving sport with Thor. This is the Hymir whose cattle, the +critics have discovered, are Icebergs. Huge untutored Brobdignag +genius,--needing only to be tamed down; into Shakspeares, Dantes, +Goethes! It is all gone now, that old Norse work,--Thor the Thunder-god +changed into Jack the Giant-killer: but the mind that made it is here +yet. How strangely things grow, and die, and do not die! There are twigs +of that great world-tree of Norse Belief still curiously traceable. This +poor Jack of the Nursery, with his miraculous shoes of swiftness, coat +of darkness, sword of sharpness, he is one. _Hynde Etin_, and still more +decisively _Red Etin of Ireland_, _in_ the Scottish Ballads, these +are both derived from Norseland; _Etin_ is evidently a _Jotun_. Nay, +Shakspeare's _Hamlet_ is a twig too of this same world-tree; there seems +no doubt of that. Hamlet, _Amleth_ I find, is really a mythic personage; +and his Tragedy, of the poisoned Father, poisoned asleep by drops in his +ear, and the rest, is a Norse mythus! Old Saxo, as his wont was, made it +a Danish history; Shakspeare, out of Saxo, made it what we see. That +is a twig of the world-tree that has _grown_, I think;--by nature or +accident that one has grown! + +In fact, these old Norse songs have a _truth_ in them, an inward +perennial truth and greatness,--as, indeed, all must have that can very +long preserve itself by tradition alone. It is a greatness not of mere +body and gigantic bulk, but a rude greatness of soul. There is a sublime +uncomplaining melancholy traceable in these old hearts. A great free +glance into the very deeps of thought. They seem to have seen, these +brave old Northmen, what Meditation has taught all men in all ages, That +this world is after all but a show,--a phenomenon or appearance, no real +thing. All deep souls see into that,--the Hindoo Mythologist, the German +Philosopher,--the Shakspeare, the earnest Thinker, wherever he may be: + + "We are such stuff as Dreams are made of!" + +One of Thor's expeditions, to Utgard (the _Outer_ Garden, central seat +of Jotun-land), is remarkable in this respect. Thialfi was with him, and +Loke. After various adventures, they entered upon Giant-land; wandered +over plains, wild uncultivated places, among stones and trees. At +nightfall they noticed a house; and as the door, which indeed formed +one whole side of the house, was open, they entered. It was a simple +habitation; one large hall, altogether empty. They stayed there. +Suddenly in the dead of the night loud noises alarmed them. Thor grasped +his hammer; stood in the door, prepared for fight. His companions within +ran hither and thither in their terror, seeking some outlet in that rude +hall; they found a little closet at last, and took refuge there. Neither +had Thor any battle: for, lo, in the morning it turned out that the +noise had been only the _snoring_ of a certain enormous but peaceable +Giant, the Giant Skrymir, who lay peaceably sleeping near by; and this +that they took for a house was merely his _Glove_, thrown aside there; +the door was the Glove-wrist; the little closet they had fled into was +the Thumb! Such a glove;--I remark too that it had not fingers as ours +have, but only a thumb, and the rest undivided: a most ancient, rustic +glove! + +Skrymir now carried their portmanteau all day; Thor, however, had his +own suspicions, did not like the ways of Skrymir; determined at night to +put an end to him as he slept. Raising his hammer, he struck down into +the Giant's face a right thunder-bolt blow, of force to rend rocks. The +Giant merely awoke; rubbed his cheek, and said, Did a leaf fall? Again +Thor struck, so soon as Skrymir again slept; a better blow than before; +but the Giant only murmured, Was that a grain of sand? Thor's third +stroke was with both his hands (the "knuckles white" I suppose), and +seemed to dint deep into Skrymir's visage; but he merely checked his +snore, and remarked, There must be sparrows roosting in this tree, I +think; what is that they have dropt?--At the gate of Utgard, a place so +high that you had to "strain your neck bending back to see the top +of it," Skrymir went his ways. Thor and his companions were admitted; +invited to take share in the games going on. To Thor, for his part, they +handed a Drinking-horn; it was a common feat, they told him, to drink +this dry at one draught. Long and fiercely, three times over, Thor +drank; but made hardly any impression. He was a weak child, they told +him: could he lift that Cat he saw there? Small as the feat seemed, Thor +with his whole godlike strength could not; he bent up the creature's +back, could not raise its feet off the ground, could at the utmost raise +one foot. Why, you are no man, said the Utgard people; there is an Old +Woman that will wrestle you! Thor, heartily ashamed, seized this haggard +Old Woman; but could not throw her. + +And now, on their quitting Utgard, the chief Jotun, escorting them +politely a little way, said to Thor: "You are beaten then:--yet be not +so much ashamed; there was deception of appearance in it. That Horn you +tried to drink was the _Sea_; you did make it ebb; but who could drink +that, the bottomless! The Cat you would have lifted,--why, that is the +_Midgard-snake_, the Great World-serpent, which, tail in mouth, girds +and keeps up the whole created world; had you torn that up, the world +must have rushed to ruin! As for the Old Woman, she was _Time_, Old Age, +Duration: with her what can wrestle? No man nor no god with her; gods +or men, she prevails over all! And then those three strokes you +struck,--look at these _three valleys_; your three strokes made these!" +Thor looked at his attendant Jotun: it was Skrymir;--it was, say Norse +critics, the old chaotic rocky _Earth_ in person, and that glove-_house_ +was some Earth-cavern! But Skrymir had vanished; Utgard with its +sky-high gates, when Thor grasped his hammer to smite them, had gone to +air; only the Giant's voice was heard mocking: "Better come no more to +Jotunheim!"-- + +This is of the allegoric period, as we see, and half play, not of the +prophetic and entirely devout: but as a mythus is there not real antique +Norse gold in it? More true metal, rough from the Mimer-stithy, than in +many a famed Greek Mythus _shaped_ far better! A great broad Brobdignag +grin of true humor is in this Skrymir; mirth resting on earnestness and +sadness, as the rainbow on black tempest: only a right valiant heart is +capable of that. It is the grim humor of our own Ben Jonson, rare old +Ben; runs in the blood of us, I fancy; for one catches tones of it, +under a still other shape, out of the American Backwoods. + +That is also a very striking conception that of the _Ragnarok_, +Consummation, or _Twilight of the Gods_. It is in the _Voluspa_ Song; +seemingly a very old, prophetic idea. The Gods and Jotuns, the divine +Powers and the chaotic brute ones, after long contest and partial +victory by the former, meet at last in universal world-embracing +wrestle and duel; World-serpent against Thor, strength against strength; +mutually extinctive; and ruin, "twilight" sinking into darkness, +swallows the created Universe. The old Universe with its Gods is sunk; +but it is not final death: there is to be a new Heaven and a new Earth; +a higher supreme God, and Justice to reign among men. Curious: this law +of mutation, which also is a law written in man's inmost thought, had +been deciphered by these old earnest Thinkers in their rude style; and +how, though all dies, and even gods die, yet all death is but a phoenix +fire-death, and new-birth into the Greater and the Better! It is the +fundamental Law of Being for a creature made of Time, living in this +Place of Hope. All earnest men have seen into it; may still see into it. + +And now, connected with this, let us glance at the _last_ mythus of the +appearance of Thor; and end there. I fancy it to be the latest in +date of all these fables; a sorrowing protest against the advance of +Christianity,--set forth reproachfully by some Conservative Pagan. +King Olaf has been harshly blamed for his over-zeal in introducing +Christianity; surely I should have blamed him far more for an under-zeal +in that! He paid dear enough for it; he died by the revolt of his +Pagan people, in battle, in the year 1033, at Stickelstad, near that +Drontheim, where the chief Cathedral of the North has now stood for +many centuries, dedicated gratefully to his memory as _Saint_ Olaf. The +mythus about Thor is to this effect. King Olaf, the Christian Reform +King, is sailing with fit escort along the shore of Norway, from haven +to haven; dispensing justice, or doing other royal work: on leaving a +certain haven, it is found that a stranger, of grave eyes and aspect, +red beard, of stately robust figure, has stept in. The courtiers address +him; his answers surprise by their pertinency and depth: at length he +is brought to the King. The stranger's conversation here is not less +remarkable, as they sail along the beautiful shore; but after some time, +he addresses King Olaf thus: "Yes, King Olaf, it is all beautiful, with +the sun shining on it there; green, fruitful, a right fair home for you; +and many a sore day had Thor, many a wild fight with the rock Jotuns, +before he could make it so. And now you seem minded to put away Thor. +King Olaf, have a care!" said the stranger, drawing down his brows;--and +when they looked again, he was nowhere to be found.--This is the last +appearance of Thor on the stage of this world! + +Do we not see well enough how the Fable might arise, without unveracity +on the part of any one? It is the way most Gods have come to appear +among men: thus, if in Pindar's time "Neptune was seen once at the +Nemean Games," what was this Neptune too but a "stranger of noble grave +aspect,"--fit to be "seen"! There is something pathetic, tragic for me +in this last voice of Paganism. Thor is vanished, the whole Norse world +has vanished; and will not return ever again. In like fashion to that, +pass away the highest things. All things that have been in this world, +all things that are or will be in it, have to vanish: we have our sad +farewell to give them. + +That Norse Religion, a rude but earnest, sternly impressive +_Consecration of Valor_ (so we may define it), sufficed for these old +valiant Northmen. Consecration of Valor is not a bad thing! We will take +it for good, so far as it goes. Neither is there no use in _knowing_ +something about this old Paganism of our Fathers. Unconsciously, and +combined with higher things, it is in us yet, that old Faith withal! To +know it consciously, brings us into closer and clearer relation with the +Past,--with our own possessions in the Past. For the whole Past, as I +keep repeating, is the possession of the Present; the Past had always +something _true_, and is a precious possession. In a different time, in +a different place, it is always some other _side_ of our common Human +Nature that has been developing itself. The actual True is the sum +of all these; not any one of them by itself constitutes what of Human +Nature is hitherto developed. Better to know them all than misknow them. +"To which of these Three Religions do you specially adhere?" inquires +Meister of his Teacher. "To all the Three!" answers the other: "To all +the Three; for they by their union first constitute the True Religion." + + + + + +LECTURE II. THE HERO AS PROPHET. MAHOMET: ISLAM. + +[May 8, 1840.] + +From the first rude times of Paganism among the Scandinavians in the +North, we advance to a very different epoch of religion, among a very +different people: Mahometanism among the Arabs. A great change; what a +change and progress is indicated here, in the universal condition and +thoughts of men! + +The Hero is not now regarded as a God among his fellowmen; but as one +God-inspired, as a Prophet. It is the second phasis of Hero-worship: +the first or oldest, we may say, has passed away without return; in the +history of the world there will not again be any man, never so great, +whom his fellowmen will take for a god. Nay we might rationally ask, +Did any set of human beings ever really think the man they _saw_ there +standing beside them a god, the maker of this world? Perhaps not: it was +usually some man they remembered, or _had_ seen. But neither can this +any more be. The Great Man is not recognized henceforth as a god any +more. + +It was a rude gross error, that of counting the Great Man a god. Yet let +us say that it is at all times difficult to know _what_ he is, or how +to account of him and receive him! The most significant feature in the +history of an epoch is the manner it has of welcoming a Great Man. Ever, +to the true instincts of men, there is something godlike in him. Whether +they shall take him to be a god, to be a prophet, or what they shall +take him to be? that is ever a grand question; by their way of answering +that, we shall see, as through a little window, into the very heart +of these men's spiritual condition. For at bottom the Great Man, as he +comes from the hand of Nature, is ever the same kind of thing: Odin, +Luther, Johnson, Burns; I hope to make it appear that these are all +originally of one stuff; that only by the world's reception of them, and +the shapes they assume, are they so immeasurably diverse. The worship +of Odin astonishes us,--to fall prostrate before the Great Man, into +_deliquium_ of love and wonder over him, and feel in their hearts that +he was a denizen of the skies, a god! This was imperfect enough: but +to welcome, for example, a Burns as we did, was that what we can call +perfect? The most precious gift that Heaven can give to the Earth; a man +of "genius" as we call it; the Soul of a Man actually sent down from +the skies with a God's-message to us,--this we waste away as an idle +artificial firework, sent to amuse us a little, and sink it into ashes, +wreck and ineffectuality: _such_ reception of a Great Man I do not +call very perfect either! Looking into the heart of the thing, one may +perhaps call that of Burns a still uglier phenomenon, betokening still +sadder imperfections in mankind's ways, than the Scandinavian +method itself! To fall into mere unreasoning _deliquium_ of love +and admiration, was not good; but such unreasoning, nay irrational +supercilious no-love at all is perhaps still worse!--It is a thing +forever changing, this of Hero-worship: different in each age, difficult +to do well in any age. Indeed, the heart of the whole business of the +age, one may say, is to do it well. + +We have chosen Mahomet not as the most eminent Prophet; but as the one +we are freest to speak of. He is by no means the truest of Prophets; +but I do esteem him a true one. Farther, as there is no danger of our +becoming, any of us, Mahometans, I mean to say all the good of him I +justly can. It is the way to get at his secret: let us try to understand +what _he_ meant with the world; what the world meant and means with him, +will then be a more answerable question. Our current hypothesis about +Mahomet, that he was a scheming Impostor, a Falsehood incarnate, that +his religion is a mere mass of quackery and fatuity, begins really to be +now untenable to any one. The lies, which well-meaning zeal has heaped +round this man, are disgraceful to ourselves only. When Pococke inquired +of Grotius, Where the proof was of that story of the pigeon, trained to +pick peas from Mahomet's ear, and pass for an angel dictating to him? +Grotius answered that there was no proof! It is really time to dismiss +all that. The word this man spoke has been the life-guidance now of a +hundred and eighty millions of men these twelve hundred years. These +hundred and eighty millions were made by God as well as we. A greater +number of God's creatures believe in Mahomet's word at this hour, than +in any other word whatever. Are we to suppose that it was a miserable +piece of spiritual legerdemain, this which so many creatures of the +Almighty have lived by and died by? I, for my part, cannot form any such +supposition. I will believe most things sooner than that. One would be +entirely at a loss what to think of this world at all, if quackery so +grew and were sanctioned here. + +Alas, such theories are very lamentable. If we would attain to knowledge +of anything in God's true Creation, let us disbelieve them wholly! +They are the product of an Age of Scepticism: they indicate the saddest +spiritual paralysis, and mere death-life of the souls of men: more +godless theory, I think, was never promulgated in this Earth. A false +man found a religion? Why, a false man cannot build a brick house! If +he do not know and follow truly the properties of mortar, burnt clay and +what else be works in, it is no house that he makes, but a rubbish-heap. +It will not stand for twelve centuries, to lodge a hundred and eighty +millions; it will fall straightway. A man must conform himself to +Nature's laws, _be_ verily in communion with Nature and the truth of +things, or Nature will answer him, No, not at all! Speciosities +are specious--ah me!--a Cagliostro, many Cagliostros, prominent +world-leaders, do prosper by their quackery, for a day. It is like a +forged bank-note; they get it passed out of _their_ worthless hands: +others, not they, have to smart for it. Nature bursts up in fire-flames, +French Revolutions and such like, proclaiming with terrible veracity +that forged notes are forged. + +But of a Great Man especially, of him I will venture to assert that it +is incredible he should have been other than true. It seems to me the +primary foundation of him, and of all that can lie in him, this. No +Mirabeau, Napoleon, Burns, Cromwell, no man adequate to do anything, but +is first of all in right earnest about it; what I call a sincere man. I +should say _sincerity_, a deep, great, genuine sincerity, is the first +characteristic of all men in any way heroic. Not the sincerity that +calls itself sincere; ah no, that is a very poor matter indeed;--a +shallow braggart conscious sincerity; oftenest self-conceit mainly. +The Great Man's sincerity is of the kind he cannot speak of, is not +conscious of: nay, I suppose, he is conscious rather of insincerity; for +what man can walk accurately by the law of truth for one day? No, the +Great Man does not boast himself sincere, far from that; perhaps does +not ask himself if he is so: I would say rather, his sincerity does +not depend on himself; he cannot help being sincere! The great Fact +of Existence is great to him. Fly as he will, he cannot get out of the +awful presence of this Reality. His mind is so made; he is great by +that, first of all. Fearful and wonderful, real as Life, real as Death, +is this Universe to him. Though all men should forget its truth, and +walk in a vain show, he cannot. At all moments the Flame-image glares +in upon him; undeniable, there, there!--I wish you to take this as my +primary definition of a Great Man. A little man may have this, it +is competent to all men that God has made: but a Great Man cannot be +without it. + +Such a man is what we call an _original_ man; he comes to us at +first-hand. A messenger he, sent from the Infinite Unknown with tidings +to us. We may call him Poet, Prophet, God;--in one way or other, we all +feel that the words he utters are as no other man's words. Direct from +the Inner Fact of things;--he lives, and has to live, in daily communion +with that. Hearsays cannot hide it from him; he is blind, homeless, +miserable, following hearsays; _it_ glares in upon him. Really his +utterances, are they not a kind of "revelation;"--what we must call such +for want of some other name? It is from the heart of the world that he +comes; he is portion of the primal reality of things. God has made many +revelations: but this man too, has not God made him, the latest +and newest of all? The "inspiration of the Almighty giveth him +understanding:" we must listen before all to him. + + +This Mahomet, then, we will in no wise consider as an Inanity and +Theatricality, a poor conscious ambitious schemer; we cannot conceive +him so. The rude message he delivered was a real one withal; an earnest +confused voice from the unknown Deep. The man's words were not false, +nor his workings here below; no Inanity and Simulacrum; a fiery mass +of Life cast up from the great bosom of Nature herself. To _kindle_ +the world; the world's Maker had ordered it so. Neither can the faults, +imperfections, insincerities even, of Mahomet, if such were never so +well proved against him, shake this primary fact about him. + +On the whole, we make too much of faults; the details of the business +hide the real centre of it. Faults? The greatest of faults, I should +say, is to be conscious of none. Readers of the Bible above all, one +would think, might know better. Who is called there "the man according +to God's own heart"? David, the Hebrew King, had fallen into sins +enough; blackest crimes; there was no want of sins. And thereupon the +unbelievers sneer and ask, Is this your man according to God's heart? +The sneer, I must say, seems to me but a shallow one. What are faults, +what are the outward details of a life; if the inner secret of it, the +remorse, temptations, true, often-baffled, never-ended struggle of it, +be forgotten? "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Of +all acts, is not, for a man, _repentance_ the most divine? The deadliest +sin, I say, were that same supercilious consciousness of no sin;--that +is death; the heart so conscious is divorced from sincerity, humility +and fact; is dead: it is "pure" as dead dry sand is pure. David's life +and history, as written for us in those Psalms of his, I consider to be +the truest emblem ever given of a man's moral progress and warfare here +below. All earnest souls will ever discern in it the faithful struggle +of an earnest human soul towards what is good and best. Struggle often +baffled, sore baffled, down as into entire wreck; yet a struggle never +ended; ever, with tears, repentance, true unconquerable purpose, begun +anew. Poor human nature! Is not a man's walking, in truth, always that: +"a succession of falls"? Man can do no other. In this wild element of +a Life, he has to struggle onwards; now fallen, deep-abased; and ever, +with tears, repentance, with bleeding heart, he has to rise again, +struggle again still onwards. That his struggle _be_ a faithful +unconquerable one: that is the question of questions. We will put +up with many sad details, if the soul of it were true. Details by +themselves will never teach us what it is. I believe we misestimate +Mahomet's faults even as faults: but the secret of him will never be +got by dwelling there. We will leave all this behind us; and assuring +ourselves that he did mean some true thing, ask candidly what it was or +might be. + + +These Arabs Mahomet was born among are certainly a notable people. Their +country itself is notable; the fit habitation for such a race. Savage +inaccessible rock-mountains, great grim deserts, alternating with +beautiful strips of verdure: wherever water is, there is greenness, +beauty; odoriferous balm-shrubs, date-trees, frankincense-trees. +Consider that wide waste horizon of sand, empty, silent, like a +sand-sea, dividing habitable place from habitable. You are all alone +there, left alone with the Universe; by day a fierce sun blazing down +on it with intolerable radiance; by night the great deep Heaven with its +stars. Such a country is fit for a swift-handed, deep-hearted race of +men. There is something most agile, active, and yet most meditative, +enthusiastic in the Arab character. The Persians are called the French +of the East; we will call the Arabs Oriental Italians. A gifted noble +people; a people of wild strong feelings, and of iron restraint over +these: the characteristic of noble-mindedness, of genius. The wild +Bedouin welcomes the stranger to his tent, as one having right to all +that is there; were it his worst enemy, he will slay his foal to treat +him, will serve him with sacred hospitality for three days, will set him +fairly on his way;--and then, by another law as sacred, kill him if +he can. In words too as in action. They are not a loquacious people, +taciturn rather; but eloquent, gifted when they do speak. An earnest, +truthful kind of men. They are, as we know, of Jewish kindred: but +with that deadly terrible earnestness of the Jews they seem to combine +something graceful, brilliant, which is not Jewish. They had "Poetic +contests" among them before the time of Mahomet. Sale says, at Ocadh, +in the South of Arabia, there were yearly fairs, and there, when the +merchandising was done, Poets sang for prizes:--the wild people gathered +to hear that. + +One Jewish quality these Arabs manifest; the outcome of many or of all +high qualities: what we may call religiosity. From of old they had +been zealous worshippers, according to their light. They worshipped the +stars, as Sabeans; worshipped many natural objects,--recognized them as +symbols, immediate manifestations, of the Maker of Nature. It was wrong; +and yet not wholly wrong. All God's works are still in a sense symbols +of God. Do we not, as I urged, still account it a merit to recognize a +certain inexhaustible significance, "poetic beauty" as we name it, in +all natural objects whatsoever? A man is a poet, and honored, for doing +that, and speaking or singing it,--a kind of diluted worship. They had +many Prophets, these Arabs; Teachers each to his tribe, each according +to the light he had. But indeed, have we not from of old the noblest +of proofs, still palpable to every one of us, of what devoutness and +noble-mindedness had dwelt in these rustic thoughtful peoples? Biblical +critics seem agreed that our own _Book of Job_ was written in that +region of the world. I call that, apart from all theories about it, one +of the grandest things ever written with pen. One feels, indeed, as +if it were not Hebrew; such a noble universality, different from noble +patriotism or sectarianism, reigns in it. A noble Book; all men's Book! +It is our first, oldest statement of the never-ending Problem,--man's +destiny, and God's ways with him here in this earth. And all in such +free flowing outlines; grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity; in its +epic melody, and repose of reconcilement. There is the seeing eye, +the mildly understanding heart. So _true_ every way; true eyesight +and vision for all things; material things no less than spiritual: the +Horse,--"hast thou clothed his neck with _thunder_?"--he "_laughs_ +at the shaking of the spear!" Such living likenesses were never since +drawn. Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation; oldest choral melody as +of the heart of mankind;--so soft, and great; as the summer midnight, as +the world with its seas and stars! There is nothing written, I think, in +the Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit.-- + +To the idolatrous Arabs one of the most ancient universal objects of +worship was that Black Stone, still kept in the building called Caabah, +at Mecca. Diodorus Siculus mentions this Caabah in a way not to be +mistaken, as the oldest, most honored temple in his time; that is, +some half-century before our Era. Silvestre de Sacy says there is some +likelihood that the Black Stone is an aerolite. In that case, some man +might _see_ it fall out of Heaven! It stands now beside the Well Zemzem; +the Caabah is built over both. A Well is in all places a beautiful +affecting object, gushing out like life from the hard earth;--still more +so in those hot dry countries, where it is the first condition of being. +The Well Zemzem has its name from the bubbling sound of the waters, +_zem-zem_; they think it is the Well which Hagar found with her little +Ishmael in the wilderness: the aerolite and it have been sacred now, and +had a Caabah over them, for thousands of years. A curious object, that +Caabah! There it stands at this hour, in the black cloth-covering the +Sultan sends it yearly; "twenty-seven cubits high;" with circuit, +with double circuit of pillars, with festoon-rows of lamps and quaint +ornaments: the lamps will be lighted again _this_ night,--to glitter +again under the stars. An authentic fragment of the oldest Past. It is +the _Keblah_ of all Moslem: from Delhi all onwards to Morocco, the eyes +of innumerable praying men are turned towards it, five times, this day +and all days: one of the notablest centres in the Habitation of Men. + +It had been from the sacredness attached to this Caabah Stone and +Hagar's Well, from the pilgrimings of all tribes of Arabs thither, that +Mecca took its rise as a Town. A great town once, though much decayed +now. It has no natural advantage for a town; stands in a sandy hollow +amid bare barren hills, at a distance from the sea; its provisions, its +very bread, have to be imported. But so many pilgrims needed lodgings: +and then all places of pilgrimage do, from the first, become places of +trade. The first day pilgrims meet, merchants have also met: where +men see themselves assembled for one object, they find that they can +accomplish other objects which depend on meeting together. Mecca +became the Fair of all Arabia. And thereby indeed the chief staple and +warehouse of whatever Commerce there was between the Indian and the +Western countries, Syria, Egypt, even Italy. It had at one time a +population of 100,000; buyers, forwarders of those Eastern and Western +products; importers for their own behoof of provisions and corn. The +government was a kind of irregular aristocratic republic, not without a +touch of theocracy. Ten Men of a chief tribe, chosen in some rough way, +were Governors of Mecca, and Keepers of the Caabah. The Koreish were +the chief tribe in Mahomet's time; his own family was of that tribe. The +rest of the Nation, fractioned and cut asunder by deserts, lived under +similar rude patriarchal governments by one or several: herdsmen, +carriers, traders, generally robbers too; being oftenest at war one with +another, or with all: held together by no open bond, if it were not this +meeting at the Caabah, where all forms of Arab Idolatry assembled in +common adoration;--held mainly by the _inward_ indissoluble bond of +a common blood and language. In this way had the Arabs lived for long +ages, unnoticed by the world; a people of great qualities, unconsciously +waiting for the day when they should become notable to all the world. +Their Idolatries appear to have been in a tottering state; much was +getting into confusion and fermentation among them. Obscure tidings of +the most important Event ever transacted in this world, the Life and +Death of the Divine Man in Judea, at once the symptom and cause of +immeasurable change to all people in the world, had in the course of +centuries reached into Arabia too; and could not but, of itself, have +produced fermentation there. + + +It was among this Arab people, so circumstanced, in the year 570 of our +Era, that the man Mahomet was born. He was of the family of Hashem, +of the Koreish tribe as we said; though poor, connected with the chief +persons of his country. Almost at his birth he lost his Father; at the +age of six years his Mother too, a woman noted for her beauty, her +worth and sense: he fell to the charge of his Grandfather, an old man, a +hundred years old. A good old man: Mahomet's Father, Abdallah, had been +his youngest favorite son. He saw in Mahomet, with his old life-worn +eyes, a century old, the lost Abdallah come back again, all that was +left of Abdallah. He loved the little orphan Boy greatly; used to say, +They must take care of that beautiful little Boy, nothing in their +kindred was more precious than he. At his death, while the boy was still +but two years old, he left him in charge to Abu Thaleb the eldest of the +Uncles, as to him that now was head of the house. By this Uncle, a just +and rational man as everything betokens, Mahomet was brought up in the +best Arab way. + +Mahomet, as he grew up, accompanied his Uncle on trading journeys and +such like; in his eighteenth year one finds him a fighter following his +Uncle in war. But perhaps the most significant of all his journeys is +one we find noted as of some years' earlier date: a journey to the Fairs +of Syria. The young man here first came in contact with a quite foreign +world,--with one foreign element of endless moment to him: the Christian +Religion. I know not what to make of that "Sergius, the Nestorian Monk," +whom Abu Thaleb and he are said to have lodged with; or how much any +monk could have taught one still so young. Probably enough it is greatly +exaggerated, this of the Nestorian Monk. Mahomet was only fourteen; +had no language but his own: much in Syria must have been a strange +unintelligible whirlpool to him. But the eyes of the lad were open; +glimpses of many things would doubtless be taken in, and lie very +enigmatic as yet, which were to ripen in a strange way into views, into +beliefs and insights one day. These journeys to Syria were probably the +beginning of much to Mahomet. + +One other circumstance we must not forget: that he had no +school-learning; of the thing we call school-learning none at all. The +art of writing was but just introduced into Arabia; it seems to be the +true opinion that Mahomet never could write! Life in the Desert, with +its experiences, was all his education. What of this infinite Universe +he, from his dim place, with his own eyes and thoughts, could take in, +so much and no more of it was he to know. Curious, if we will reflect on +it, this of having no books. Except by what he could see for himself, or +hear of by uncertain rumor of speech in the obscure Arabian Desert, he +could know nothing. The wisdom that had been before him or at a distance +from him in the world, was in a manner as good as not there for him. Of +the great brother souls, flame-beacons through so many lands and times, +no one directly communicates with this great soul. He is alone there, +deep down in the bosom of the Wilderness; has to grow up so,--alone with +Nature and his own Thoughts. + +But, from an early age, he had been remarked as a thoughtful man. His +companions named him "_Al Amin_, The Faithful." A man of truth and +fidelity; true in what he did, in what he spake and thought. They noted +that _he_ always meant something. A man rather taciturn in speech; +silent when there was nothing to be said; but pertinent, wise, sincere, +when he did speak; always throwing light on the matter. This is the only +sort of speech _worth_ speaking! Through life we find him to have been +regarded as an altogether solid, brotherly, genuine man. A serious, +sincere character; yet amiable, cordial, companionable, jocose even;--a +good laugh in him withal: there are men whose laugh is as untrue as +anything about them; who cannot laugh. One hears of Mahomet's beauty: +his fine sagacious honest face, brown florid complexion, beaming black +eyes;--I somehow like too that vein on the brow, which swelled up +black when he was in anger: like the "_horseshoe_ vein" in Scott's +_Redgauntlet_. It was a kind of feature in the Hashem family, this black +swelling vein in the brow; Mahomet had it prominent, as would appear. +A spontaneous, passionate, yet just, true-meaning man! Full of wild +faculty, fire and light; of wild worth, all uncultured; working out his +life-task in the depths of the Desert there. + +How he was placed with Kadijah, a rich Widow, as her Steward, and +travelled in her business, again to the Fairs of Syria; how he managed +all, as one can well understand, with fidelity, adroitness; how her +gratitude, her regard for him grew: the story of their marriage is +altogether a graceful intelligible one, as told us by the Arab authors. +He was twenty-five; she forty, though still beautiful. He seems to have +lived in a most affectionate, peaceable, wholesome way with this wedded +benefactress; loving her truly, and her alone. It goes greatly +against the impostor theory, the fact that he lived in this entirely +unexceptionable, entirely quiet and commonplace way, till the heat of +his years was done. He was forty before he talked of any mission from +Heaven. All his irregularities, real and supposed, date from after +his fiftieth year, when the good Kadijah died. All his "ambition," +seemingly, had been, hitherto, to live an honest life; his "fame," +the mere good opinion of neighbors that knew him, had been sufficient +hitherto. Not till he was already getting old, the prurient heat of his +life all burnt out, and _peace_ growing to be the chief thing this world +could give him, did he start on the "career of ambition;" and, belying +all his past character and existence, set up as a wretched empty +charlatan to acquire what he could now no longer enjoy! For my share, I +have no faith whatever in that. + +Ah no: this deep-hearted Son of the Wilderness, with his beaming black +eyes and open social deep soul, had other thoughts in him than ambition. +A silent great soul; he was one of those who cannot _but_ be in earnest; +whom Nature herself has appointed to be sincere. While others walk in +formulas and hearsays, contented enough to dwell there, this man could +not screen himself in formulas; he was alone with his own soul and the +reality of things. The great Mystery of Existence, as I said, glared in +upon him, with its terrors, with its splendors; no hearsays could hide +that unspeakable fact, "Here am I!" Such _sincerity_, as we named it, +has in very truth something of divine. The word of such a man is a Voice +direct from Nature's own Heart. Men do and must listen to that as to +nothing else;--all else is wind in comparison. From of old, a thousand +thoughts, in his pilgrimings and wanderings, had been in this man: +What am I? What _is_ this unfathomable Thing I live in, which men name +Universe? What is Life; what is Death? What am I to believe? What am +I to do? The grim rocks of Mount Hara, of Mount Sinai, the stern sandy +solitudes answered not. The great Heaven rolling silent overhead, with +its blue-glancing stars, answered not. There was no answer. The man's +own soul, and what of God's inspiration dwelt there, had to answer! + +It is the thing which all men have to ask themselves; which we too have +to ask, and answer. This wild man felt it to be of _infinite_ moment; +all other things of no moment whatever in comparison. The jargon of +argumentative Greek Sects, vague traditions of Jews, the stupid routine +of Arab Idolatry: there was no answer in these. A Hero, as I repeat, +has this first distinction, which indeed we may call first and last, the +Alpha and Omega of his whole Heroism, That he looks through the shows +of things into _things_. Use and wont, respectable hearsay, respectable +formula: all these are good, or are not good. There is something behind +and beyond all these, which all these must correspond with, be the image +of, or they are--_Idolatries_; "bits of black wood pretending to be +God;" to the earnest soul a mockery and abomination. Idolatries never so +gilded, waited on by heads of the Koreish, will do nothing for this man. +Though all men walk by them, what good is it? The great Reality +stands glaring there upon _him_. He there has to answer it, or perish +miserably. Now, even now, or else through all Eternity never! Answer it; +_thou_ must find an answer.--Ambition? What could all Arabia do for this +man; with the crown of Greek Heraclius, of Persian Chosroes, and all +crowns in the Earth;--what could they all do for him? It was not of the +Earth he wanted to hear tell; it was of the Heaven above and of the Hell +beneath. All crowns and sovereignties whatsoever, where would _they_ in +a few brief years be? To be Sheik of Mecca or Arabia, and have a bit of +gilt wood put into your hand,--will that be one's salvation? I decidedly +think, not. We will leave it altogether, this impostor hypothesis, as +not credible; not very tolerable even, worthy chiefly of dismissal by +us. + +Mahomet had been wont to retire yearly, during the month Ramadhan, into +solitude and silence; as indeed was the Arab custom; a praiseworthy +custom, which such a man, above all, would find natural and useful. +Communing with his own heart, in the silence of the mountains; himself +silent; open to the "small still voices:" it was a right natural custom! +Mahomet was in his fortieth year, when having withdrawn to a cavern +in Mount Hara, near Mecca, during this Ramadhan, to pass the month in +prayer, and meditation on those great questions, he one day told his +wife Kadijah, who with his household was with him or near him this year, +That by the unspeakable special favor of Heaven he had now found it all +out; was in doubt and darkness no longer, but saw it all. That all these +Idols and Formulas were nothing, miserable bits of wood; that there was +One God in and over all; and we must leave all Idols, and look to Him. +That God is great; and that there is nothing else great! He is the +Reality. Wooden Idols are not real; He is real. He made us at first, +sustains us yet; we and all things are but the shadow of Him; a +transitory garment veiling the Eternal Splendor. "_Allah akbar_, God is +great;"--and then also "_Islam_," That we must submit to God. That our +whole strength lies in resigned submission to Him, whatsoever He do to +us. For this world, and for the other! The thing He sends to us, were +it death and worse than death, shall be good, shall be best; we resign +ourselves to God.--"If this be _Islam_," says Goethe, "do we not all +live in _Islam_?" Yes, all of us that have any moral life; we all live +so. It has ever been held the highest wisdom for a man not merely to +submit to Necessity,--Necessity will make him submit,--but to know and +believe well that the stern thing which Necessity had ordered was +the wisest, the best, the thing wanted there. To cease his frantic +pretension of scanning this great God's-World in his small fraction of a +brain; to know that it _had_ verily, though deep beyond his soundings, +a Just Law, that the soul of it was Good;--that his part in it was to +conform to the Law of the Whole, and in devout silence follow that; not +questioning it, obeying it as unquestionable. + +I say, this is yet the only true morality known. A man is right and +invincible, virtuous and on the road towards sure conquest, precisely +while he joins himself to the great deep Law of the World, in spite +of all superficial laws, temporary appearances, profit-and-loss +calculations; he is victorious while he co-operates with that great +central Law, not victorious otherwise:--and surely his first chance of +co-operating with it, or getting into the course of it, is to know with +his whole soul that it is; that it is good, and alone good! This is the +soul of Islam; it is properly the soul of Christianity;--for Islam is +definable as a confused form of Christianity; had Christianity not been, +neither had it been. Christianity also commands us, before all, to be +resigned to God. We are to take no counsel with flesh and blood; give +ear to no vain cavils, vain sorrows and wishes: to know that we know +nothing; that the worst and cruelest to our eyes is not what it seems; +that we have to receive whatsoever befalls us as sent from God above, +and say, It is good and wise, God is great! "Though He slay me, yet will +I trust in Him." Islam means in its way Denial of Self, Annihilation +of Self. This is yet the highest Wisdom that Heaven has revealed to our +Earth. + +Such light had come, as it could, to illuminate the darkness of this +wild Arab soul. A confused dazzling splendor as of life and Heaven, in +the great darkness which threatened to be death: he called it revelation +and the angel Gabriel;--who of us yet can know what to call it? It +is the "inspiration of the Almighty" that giveth us understanding. To +_know_; to get into the truth of anything, is ever a mystic act,--of +which the best Logics can but babble on the surface. "Is not Belief the +true god-announcing Miracle?" says Novalis.--That Mahomet's whole soul, +set in flame with this grand Truth vouchsafed him, should feel as if +it were important and the only important thing, was very natural. That +Providence had unspeakably honored him by revealing it, saving him from +death and darkness; that he therefore was bound to make known the same +to all creatures: this is what was meant by "Mahomet is the Prophet of +God;" this too is not without its true meaning.-- + +The good Kadijah, we can fancy, listened to him with wonder, with doubt: +at length she answered: Yes, it was true this that he said. One can +fancy too the boundless gratitude of Mahomet; and how of all the +kindnesses she had done him, this of believing the earnest struggling +word he now spoke was the greatest. "It is certain," says Novalis, "my +Conviction gains infinitely, the moment another soul will believe in +it." It is a boundless favor.--He never forgot this good Kadijah. +Long afterwards, Ayesha his young favorite wife, a woman who indeed +distinguished herself among the Moslem, by all manner of qualities, +through her whole long life; this young brilliant Ayesha was, one day, +questioning him: "Now am not I better than Kadijah? She was a widow; +old, and had lost her looks: you love me better than you did +her?"--"No, by Allah!" answered Mahomet: "No, by Allah! She believed +in me when none else would believe. In the whole world I had but one +friend, and she was that!"--Seid, his Slave, also believed in him; +these with his young Cousin Ali, Abu Thaleb's son, were his first +converts. + +He spoke of his Doctrine to this man and that; but the most treated it +with ridicule, with indifference; in three years, I think, he had gained +but thirteen followers. His progress was slow enough. His encouragement +to go on, was altogether the usual encouragement that such a man in such +a case meets. After some three years of small success, he invited forty +of his chief kindred to an entertainment; and there stood up and told +them what his pretension was: that he had this thing to promulgate +abroad to all men; that it was the highest thing, the one thing: which +of them would second him in that? Amid the doubt and silence of all, +young Ali, as yet a lad of sixteen, impatient of the silence, started +up, and exclaimed in passionate fierce language, That he would! +The assembly, among whom was Abu Thaleb, Ali's Father, could not be +unfriendly to Mahomet; yet the sight there, of one unlettered elderly +man, with a lad of sixteen, deciding on such an enterprise against all +mankind, appeared ridiculous to them; the assembly broke up in laughter. +Nevertheless it proved not a laughable thing; it was a very serious +thing! As for this young Ali, one cannot but like him. A noble-minded +creature, as he shows himself, now and always afterwards; full of +affection, of fiery daring. Something chivalrous in him; brave as +a lion; yet with a grace, a truth and affection worthy of Christian +knighthood. He died by assassination in the Mosque at Bagdad; a death +occasioned by his own generous fairness, confidence in the fairness of +others: he said, If the wound proved not unto death, they must pardon +the Assassin; but if it did, then they must slay him straightway, that +so they two in the same hour might appear before God, and see which side +of that quarrel was the just one! + +Mahomet naturally gave offence to the Koreish, Keepers of the Caabah, +superintendents of the Idols. One or two men of influence had joined +him: the thing spread slowly, but it was spreading. Naturally he gave +offence to everybody: Who is this that pretends to be wiser than we all; +that rebukes us all, as mere fools and worshippers of wood! Abu Thaleb +the good Uncle spoke with him: Could he not be silent about all that; +believe it all for himself, and not trouble others, anger the chief men, +endanger himself and them all, talking of it? Mahomet answered: If the +Sun stood on his right hand and the Moon on his left, ordering him to +hold his peace, he could not obey! No: there was something in this Truth +he had got which was of Nature herself; equal in rank to Sun, or Moon, +or whatsoever thing Nature had made. It would speak itself there, so +long as the Almighty allowed it, in spite of Sun and Moon, and all +Koreish and all men and things. It must do that, and could do no other. +Mahomet answered so; and, they say, "burst into tears." Burst into +tears: he felt that Abu Thaleb was good to him; that the task he had got +was no soft, but a stern and great one. + +He went on speaking to who would listen to him; publishing his Doctrine +among the pilgrims as they came to Mecca; gaining adherents in this +place and that. Continual contradiction, hatred, open or secret danger +attended him. His powerful relations protected Mahomet himself; but by +and by, on his own advice, all his adherents had to quit Mecca, and seek +refuge in Abyssinia over the sea. The Koreish grew ever angrier; laid +plots, and swore oaths among them, to put Mahomet to death with their +own hands. Abu Thaleb was dead, the good Kadijah was dead. Mahomet is +not solicitous of sympathy from us; but his outlook at this time was +one of the dismalest. He had to hide in caverns, escape in disguise; fly +hither and thither; homeless, in continual peril of his life. More than +once it seemed all over with him; more than once it turned on a straw, +some rider's horse taking fright or the like, whether Mahomet and his +Doctrine had not ended there, and not been heard of at all. But it was +not to end so. + +In the thirteenth year of his mission, finding his enemies all banded +against him, forty sworn men, one out of every tribe, waiting to take +his life, and no continuance possible at Mecca for him any longer, +Mahomet fled to the place then called Yathreb, where he had gained some +adherents; the place they now call Medina, or "_Medinat al Nabi_, the +City of the Prophet," from that circumstance. It lay some two hundred +miles off, through rocks and deserts; not without great difficulty, in +such mood as we may fancy, he escaped thither, and found welcome. The +whole East dates its era from this Flight, _hegira_ as they name it: the +Year 1 of this Hegira is 622 of our Era, the fifty-third of Mahomet's +life. He was now becoming an old man; his friends sinking round him one +by one; his path desolate, encompassed with danger: unless he could find +hope in his own heart, the outward face of things was but hopeless +for him. It is so with all men in the like case. Hitherto Mahomet had +professed to publish his Religion by the way of preaching and persuasion +alone. But now, driven foully out of his native country, since unjust +men had not only given no ear to his earnest Heaven's-message, the deep +cry of his heart, but would not even let him live if he kept speaking +it,--the wild Son of the Desert resolved to defend himself, like a man +and Arab. If the Koreish will have it so, they shall have it. Tidings, +felt to be of infinite moment to them and all men, they would not listen +to these; would trample them down by sheer violence, steel and murder: +well, let steel try it then! Ten years more this Mahomet had; all of +fighting of breathless impetuous toil and struggle; with what result we +know. + +Much has been said of Mahomet's propagating his Religion by the sword. +It is no doubt far nobler what we have to boast of the Christian +Religion, that it propagated itself peaceably in the way of preaching +and conviction. Yet withal, if we take this for an argument of the truth +or falsehood of a religion, there is a radical mistake in it. The sword +indeed: but where will you get your sword! Every new opinion, at its +starting, is precisely in a _minority of one_. In one man's head alone, +there it dwells as yet. One man alone of the whole world believes it; +there is one man against all men. That _he_ take a sword, and try to +propagate with that, will do little for him. You must first get your +sword! On the whole, a thing will propagate itself as it can. We do not +find, of the Christian Religion either, that it always disdained the +sword, when once it had got one. Charlemagne's conversion of the Saxons +was not by preaching. I care little about the sword: I will allow a +thing to struggle for itself in this world, with any sword or tongue +or implement it has, or can lay hold of. We will let it preach, and +pamphleteer, and fight, and to the uttermost bestir itself, and do, beak +and claws, whatsoever is in it; very sure that it will, in the long-run, +conquer nothing which does not deserve to be conquered. What is better +than itself, it cannot put away, but only what is worse. In this great +Duel, Nature herself is umpire, and can do no wrong: the thing which is +deepest-rooted in Nature, what we call _truest_, that thing and not the +other will be found growing at last. + +Here however, in reference to much that there is in Mahomet and his +success, we are to remember what an umpire Nature is; what a greatness, +composure of depth and tolerance there is in her. You take wheat to +cast into the Earth's bosom; your wheat may be mixed with chaff, chopped +straw, barn-sweepings, dust and all imaginable rubbish; no matter: +you cast it into the kind just Earth; she grows the wheat,--the whole +rubbish she silently absorbs, shrouds _it_ in, says nothing of the +rubbish. The yellow wheat is growing there; the good Earth is silent +about all the rest,--has silently turned all the rest to some benefit +too, and makes no complaint about it! So everywhere in Nature! She is +true and not a lie; and yet so great, and just, and motherly in her +truth. She requires of a thing only that it _be_ genuine of heart; she +will protect it if so; will not, if not so. There is a soul of truth in +all the things she ever gave harbor to. Alas, is not this the history of +all highest Truth that comes or ever came into the world? The _body_ of +them all is imperfection, an element of light in darkness: to us they +have to come embodied in mere Logic, in some merely _scientific_ Theorem +of the Universe; which _cannot_ be complete; which cannot but be found, +one day, incomplete, erroneous, and so die and disappear. The body of +all Truth dies; and yet in all, I say, there is a soul which never dies; +which in new and ever-nobler embodiment lives immortal as man himself! +It is the way with Nature. The genuine essence of Truth never dies. That +it be genuine, a voice from the great Deep of Nature, there is the point +at Nature's judgment-seat. What _we_ call pure or impure, is not with +her the final question. Not how much chaff is in you; but whether you +have any wheat. Pure? I might say to many a man: Yes, you are pure; pure +enough; but you are chaff,--insincere hypothesis, hearsay, formality; +you never were in contact with the great heart of the Universe at all; +you are properly neither pure nor impure; you _are_ nothing, Nature has +no business with you. + +Mahomet's Creed we called a kind of Christianity; and really, if we +look at the wild rapt earnestness with which it was believed and laid +to heart, I should say a better kind than that of those miserable Syrian +Sects, with their vain janglings about _Homoiousion_ and _Homoousion_, +the head full of worthless noise, the heart empty and dead! The truth +of it is embedded in portentous error and falsehood; but the truth of +it makes it be believed, not the falsehood: it succeeded by its truth. +A bastard kind of Christianity, but a living kind; with a heart-life in +it; not dead, chopping barren logic merely! Out of all that rubbish +of Arab idolatries, argumentative theologies, traditions, subtleties, +rumors and hypotheses of Greeks and Jews, with their idle wire-drawings, +this wild man of the Desert, with his wild sincere heart, earnest as +death and life, with his great flashing natural eyesight, had seen into +the kernel of the matter. Idolatry is nothing: these Wooden Idols +of yours, "ye rub them with oil and wax, and the flies stick on +them,"--these are wood, I tell you! They can do nothing for you; they +are an impotent blasphemous presence; a horror and abomination, if ye +knew them. God alone is; God alone has power; He made us, He can kill +us and keep us alive: "_Allah akbar_, God is great." Understand that His +will is the best for you; that howsoever sore to flesh and blood, you +will find it the wisest, best: you are bound to take it so; in this +world and in the next, you have no other thing that you can do! + +And now if the wild idolatrous men did believe this, and with their +fiery hearts lay hold of it to do it, in what form soever it came to +them, I say it was well worthy of being believed. In one form or the +other, I say it is still the one thing worthy of being believed by all +men. Man does hereby become the high-priest of this Temple of a +World. He is in harmony with the Decrees of the Author of this World; +cooperating with them, not vainly withstanding them: I know, to this +day, no better definition of Duty than that same. All that is _right_ +includes itself in this of co-operating with the real Tendency of the +World: you succeed by this (the World's Tendency will succeed), you are +good, and in the right course there. _Homoiousion_, _Homoousion_, vain +logical jangle, then or before or at any time, may jangle itself out, +and go whither and how it likes: this is the _thing_ it all struggles to +mean, if it would mean anything. If it do not succeed in meaning this, +it means nothing. Not that Abstractions, logical Propositions, be +correctly worded or incorrectly; but that living concrete Sons of Adam +do lay this to heart: that is the important point. Islam devoured all +these vain jangling Sects; and I think had right to do so. It was +a Reality, direct from the great Heart of Nature once more. Arab +idolatries, Syrian formulas, whatsoever was not equally real, had to go +up in flame,--mere dead _fuel_, in various senses, for this which was +_fire_. + + +It was during these wild warfarings and strugglings, especially after +the Flight to Mecca, that Mahomet dictated at intervals his Sacred Book, +which they name _Koran_, or _Reading_, "Thing to be read." This is the +Work he and his disciples made so much of, asking all the world, Is not +that a miracle? The Mahometans regard their Koran with a reverence which +few Christians pay even to their Bible. It is admitted every where as +the standard of all law and all practice; the thing to be gone upon in +speculation and life; the message sent direct out of Heaven, which this +Earth has to conform to, and walk by; the thing to be read. Their Judges +decide by it; all Moslem are bound to study it, seek in it for the light +of their life. They have mosques where it is all read daily; thirty +relays of priests take it up in succession, get through the whole each +day. There, for twelve hundred years, has the voice of this Book, at all +moments, kept sounding through the ears and the hearts of so many men. +We hear of Mahometan Doctors that had read it seventy thousand times! + +Very curious: if one sought for "discrepancies of national taste," here +surely were the most eminent instance of that! We also can read the +Koran; our Translation of it, by Sale, is known to be a very fair one. +I must say, it is as toilsome reading as I ever undertook. A wearisome +confused jumble, crude, incondite; endless iterations, long-windedness, +entanglement; most crude, incondite;--insupportable stupidity, in short! +Nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European through the Koran. +We read in it, as we might in the State-Paper Office, unreadable masses +of lumber, that perhaps we may get some glimpses of a remarkable man. It +is true we have it under disadvantages: the Arabs see more method in it +than we. Mahomet's followers found the Koran lying all in fractions, as +it had been written down at first promulgation; much of it, they say, +on shoulder-blades of mutton, flung pell-mell into a chest: and +they published it, without any discoverable order as to time or +otherwise;--merely trying, as would seem, and this not very strictly, to +put the longest chapters first. The real beginning of it, in that way, +lies almost at the end: for the earliest portions were the shortest. +Read in its historical sequence it perhaps would not be so bad. Much +of it, too, they say, is rhythmic; a kind of wild chanting song, in the +original. This may be a great point; much perhaps has been lost in the +Translation here. Yet with every allowance, one feels it difficult to +see how any mortal ever could consider this Koran as a Book written in +Heaven, too good for the Earth; as a well-written book, or indeed as +a _book_ at all; and not a bewildered rhapsody; _written_, so far as +writing goes, as badly as almost any book ever was! So much for national +discrepancies, and the standard of taste. + +Yet I should say, it was not unintelligible how the Arabs might so love +it. When once you get this confused coil of a Koran fairly off your +hands, and have it behind you at a distance, the essential type of it +begins to disclose itself; and in this there is a merit quite other than +the literary one. If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to +reach other hearts; all art and author-craft are of small amount to +that. One would say the primary character of the Koran is this of its +_genuineness_, of its being a _bona-fide_ book. Prideaux, I know, and +others have represented it as a mere bundle of juggleries; chapter +after chapter got up to excuse and varnish the author's successive sins, +forward his ambitions and quackeries: but really it is time to dismiss +all that. I do not assert Mahomet's continual sincerity: who is +continually sincere? But I confess I can make nothing of the critic, +in these times, who would accuse him of deceit _prepense_; of conscious +deceit generally, or perhaps at all;--still more, of living in a mere +element of conscious deceit, and writing this Koran as a forger and +juggler would have done! Every candid eye, I think, will read the Koran +far otherwise than so. It is the confused ferment of a great rude human +soul; rude, untutored, that cannot even read; but fervent, earnest, +struggling vehemently to utter itself in words. With a kind of +breathless intensity he strives to utter himself; the thoughts crowd on +him pell-mell: for very multitude of things to say, he can get +nothing said. The meaning that is in him shapes itself into no form of +composition, is stated in no sequence, method, or coherence;--they are +not _shaped_ at all, these thoughts of his; flung out unshaped, as they +struggle and tumble there, in their chaotic inarticulate state. We +said "stupid:" yet natural stupidity is by no means the character of +Mahomet's Book; it is natural uncultivation rather. The man has not +studied speaking; in the haste and pressure of continual fighting, has +not time to mature himself into fit speech. The panting breathless haste +and vehemence of a man struggling in the thick of battle for life +and salvation; this is the mood he is in! A headlong haste; for very +magnitude of meaning, he cannot get himself articulated into words. The +successive utterances of a soul in that mood, colored by the various +vicissitudes of three-and-twenty years; now well uttered, now worse: +this is the Koran. + +For we are to consider Mahomet, through these three-and-twenty years, as +the centre of a world wholly in conflict. Battles with the Koreish and +Heathen, quarrels among his own people, backslidings of his own wild +heart; all this kept him in a perpetual whirl, his soul knowing rest +no more. In wakeful nights, as one may fancy, the wild soul of the man, +tossing amid these vortices, would hail any light of a decision for +them as a veritable light from Heaven; _any_ making-up of his mind, so +blessed, indispensable for him there, would seem the inspiration of a +Gabriel. Forger and juggler? No, no! This great fiery heart, seething, +simmering like a great furnace of thoughts, was not a juggler's. His +Life was a Fact to him; this God's Universe an awful Fact and Reality. +He has faults enough. The man was an uncultured semi-barbarous Son of +Nature, much of the Bedouin still clinging to him: we must take him for +that. But for a wretched Simulacrum, a hungry Impostor without eyes +or heart, practicing for a mess of pottage such blasphemous swindlery, +forgery of celestial documents, continual high-treason against his Maker +and Self, we will not and cannot take him. + +Sincerity, in all senses, seems to me the merit of the Koran; what had +rendered it precious to the wild Arab men. It is, after all, the first +and last merit in a book; gives rise to merits of all kinds,--nay, at +bottom, it alone can give rise to merit of any kind. Curiously, +through these incondite masses of tradition, vituperation, complaint, +ejaculation in the Koran, a vein of true direct insight, of what we +might almost call poetry, is found straggling. The body of the Book +is made up of mere tradition, and as it were vehement enthusiastic +extempore preaching. He returns forever to the old stories of the +Prophets as they went current in the Arab memory: how Prophet after +Prophet, the Prophet Abraham, the Prophet Hud, the Prophet Moses, +Christian and other real and fabulous Prophets, had come to this Tribe +and to that, warning men of their sin; and been received by them even as +he Mahomet was,--which is a great solace to him. These things he +repeats ten, perhaps twenty times; again and ever again, with wearisome +iteration; has never done repeating them. A brave Samuel Johnson, in his +forlorn garret, might con over the Biographies of Authors in that way! +This is the great staple of the Koran. But curiously, through all this, +comes ever and anon some glance as of the real thinker and seer. He has +actually an eye for the world, this Mahomet: with a certain directness +and rugged vigor, he brings home still, to our heart, the thing his own +heart has been opened to. I make but little of his praises of Allah, +which many praise; they are borrowed I suppose mainly from the Hebrew, +at least they are far surpassed there. But the eye that flashes direct +into the heart of things, and _sees_ the truth of them; this is to me a +highly interesting object. Great Nature's own gift; which she bestows on +all; but which only one in the thousand does not cast sorrowfully away: +it is what I call sincerity of vision; the test of a sincere heart. + +Mahomet can work no miracles; he often answers impatiently: I can work +no miracles. I? "I am a Public Preacher;" appointed to preach this +doctrine to all creatures. Yet the world, as we can see, had really from +of old been all one great miracle to him. Look over the world, says he; +is it not wonderful, the work of Allah; wholly "a sign to you," if your +eyes were open! This Earth, God made it for you; "appointed paths in +it;" you can live in it, go to and fro on it.--The clouds in the dry +country of Arabia, to Mahomet they are very wonderful: Great clouds, he +says, born in the deep bosom of the Upper Immensity, where do they +come from! They hang there, the great black monsters; pour down their +rain-deluges "to revive a dead earth," and grass springs, and "tall +leafy palm-trees with their date-clusters hanging round. Is not that a +sign?" Your cattle too,--Allah made them; serviceable dumb creatures; +they change the grass into milk; you have your clothing from them, very +strange creatures; they come ranking home at evening-time, "and," adds +he, "and are a credit to you!" Ships also,--he talks often about ships: +Huge moving mountains, they spread out their cloth wings, go bounding +through the water there, Heaven's wind driving them; anon they lie +motionless, God has withdrawn the wind, they lie dead, and cannot stir! +Miracles? cries he: What miracle would you have? Are not you yourselves +there? God made you, "shaped you out of a little clay." Ye were small +once; a few years ago ye were not at all. Ye have beauty, strength, +thoughts, "ye have compassion on one another." Old age comes on you, and +gray hairs; your strength fades into feebleness; ye sink down, and again +are not. "Ye have compassion on one another:" this struck me much: Allah +might have made you having no compassion on one another,--how had it +been then! This is a great direct thought, a glance at first-hand into +the very fact of things. Rude vestiges of poetic genius, of whatsoever +is best and truest, are visible in this man. A strong untutored +intellect; eyesight, heart: a strong wild man,--might have shaped +himself into Poet, King, Priest, any kind of Hero. + +To his eyes it is forever clear that this world wholly is miraculous. +He sees what, as we said once before, all great thinkers, the rude +Scandinavians themselves, in one way or other, have contrived to see: +That this so solid-looking material world is, at bottom, in very deed, +Nothing; is a visual and factual Manifestation of God's power and +presence,--a shadow hung out by Him on the bosom of the void Infinite; +nothing more. The mountains, he says, these great rock-mountains, they +shall dissipate themselves "like clouds;" melt into the Blue as clouds +do, and not be! He figures the Earth, in the Arab fashion, Sale tells +us, as an immense Plain or flat Plate of ground, the mountains are +set on that to _steady_ it. At the Last Day they shall disappear "like +clouds;" the whole Earth shall go spinning, whirl itself off into wreck, +and as dust and vapor vanish in the Inane. Allah withdraws his hand +from it, and it ceases to be. The universal empire of Allah, presence +everywhere of an unspeakable Power, a Splendor, and a Terror not to be +named, as the true force, essence and reality, in all things whatsoever, +was continually clear to this man. What a modern talks of by the name, +Forces of Nature, Laws of Nature; and does not figure as a divine +thing; not even as one thing at all, but as a set of things, undivine +enough,--salable, curious, good for propelling steamships! With our +Sciences and Cyclopaedias, we are apt to forget the _divineness_, in +those laboratories of ours. We ought not to forget it! That once well +forgotten, I know not what else were worth remembering. Most sciences, +I think were then a very dead thing; withered, contentious, empty;--a +thistle in late autumn. The best science, without this, is but as the +dead _timber_; it is not the growing tree and forest,--which gives +ever-new timber, among other things! Man cannot _know_ either, unless +he can _worship_ in some way. His knowledge is a pedantry, and dead +thistle, otherwise. + +Much has been said and written about the sensuality of Mahomet's +Religion; more than was just. The indulgences, criminal to us, which +he permitted, were not of his appointment; he found them practiced, +unquestioned from immemorial time in Arabia; what he did was to curtail +them, restrict them, not on one but on many sides. His Religion is not +an easy one: with rigorous fasts, lavations, strict complex formulas, +prayers five times a day, and abstinence from wine, it did not "succeed +by being an easy religion." As if indeed any religion, or cause holding +of religion, could succeed by that! It is a calumny on men to say +that they are roused to heroic action by ease, hope of pleasure, +recompense,--sugar-plums of any kind, in this world or the next! In the +meanest mortal there lies something nobler. The poor swearing soldier, +hired to be shot, has his "honor of a soldier," different from +drill-regulations and the shilling a day. It is not to taste sweet +things, but to do noble and true things, and vindicate himself under +God's Heaven as a god-made Man, that the poorest son of Adam dimly +longs. Show him the way of doing that, the dullest day-drudge kindles +into a hero. They wrong man greatly who say he is to be seduced by ease. +Difficulty, abnegation, martyrdom, death are the _allurements_ that act +on the heart of man. Kindle the inner genial life of him, you have +a flame that burns up all lower considerations. Not happiness, but +something higher: one sees this even in the frivolous classes, with +their "point of honor" and the like. Not by flattering our appetites; +no, by awakening the Heroic that slumbers in every heart, can any +Religion gain followers. + +Mahomet himself, after all that can be said about him, was not a sensual +man. We shall err widely if we consider this man as a common voluptuary, +intent mainly on base enjoyments,--nay on enjoyments of any kind. His +household was of the frugalest; his common diet barley-bread and water: +sometimes for months there was not a fire once lighted on his hearth. +They record with just pride that he would mend his own shoes, patch +his own cloak. A poor, hard-toiling, ill-provided man; careless of what +vulgar men toil for. Not a bad man, I should say; something better in +him than _hunger_ of any sort,--or these wild Arab men, fighting and +jostling three-and-twenty years at his hand, in close contact with him +always, would not have reverenced him so! They were wild men, bursting +ever and anon into quarrel, into all kinds of fierce sincerity; without +right worth and manhood, no man could have commanded them. They called +him Prophet, you say? Why, he stood there face to face with them; bare, +not enshrined in any mystery; visibly clouting his own cloak, cobbling +his own shoes; fighting, counselling, ordering in the midst of them: +they must have seen what kind of a man he _was_, let him be _called_ +what you like! No emperor with his tiaras was obeyed as this man in a +cloak of his own clouting. During three-and-twenty years of rough actual +trial. I find something of a veritable Hero necessary for that, of +itself. + +His last words are a prayer; broken ejaculations of a heart struggling +up, in trembling hope, towards its Maker. We cannot say that his +religion made him _worse_; it made him better; good, not bad. Generous +things are recorded of him: when he lost his Daughter, the thing he +answers is, in his own dialect, every way sincere, and yet equivalent to +that of Christians, "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away; blessed +be the name of the Lord." He answered in like manner of Seid, his +emancipated well-beloved Slave, the second of the believers. Seid had +fallen in the War of Tabuc, the first of Mahomet's fightings with the +Greeks. Mahomet said, It was well; Seid had done his Master's work, +Seid had now gone to his Master: it was all well with Seid. Yet Seid's +daughter found him weeping over the body;--the old gray-haired man +melting in tears! "What do I see?" said she.--"You see a friend weeping +over his friend."--He went out for the last time into the mosque, two +days before his death; asked, If he had injured any man? Let his own +back bear the stripes. If he owed any man? A voice answered, "Yes, me +three drachms," borrowed on such an occasion. Mahomet ordered them to +be paid: "Better be in shame now," said he, "than at the Day of +Judgment."--You remember Kadijah, and the "No, by Allah!" Traits of that +kind show us the genuine man, the brother of us all, brought visible +through twelve centuries,--the veritable Son of our common Mother. + +Withal I like Mahomet for his total freedom from cant. He is a rough +self-helping son of the wilderness; does not pretend to be what he is +not. There is no ostentatious pride in him; but neither does he go much +upon humility: he is there as he can be, in cloak and shoes of his own +clouting; speaks plainly to all manner of Persian Kings, Greek Emperors, +what it is they are bound to do; knows well enough, about himself, "the +respect due unto thee." In a life-and-death war with Bedouins, cruel +things could not fail; but neither are acts of mercy, of noble natural +pity and generosity wanting. Mahomet makes no apology for the one, no +boast of the other. They were each the free dictate of his heart; each +called for, there and then. Not a mealy-mouthed man! A candid ferocity, +if the case call for it, is in him; he does not mince matters! The War +of Tabuc is a thing he often speaks of: his men refused, many of them, +to march on that occasion; pleaded the heat of the weather, the harvest, +and so forth; he can never forget that. Your harvest? It lasts for a +day. What will become of your harvest through all Eternity? Hot weather? +Yes, it was hot; "but Hell will be hotter!" Sometimes a rough sarcasm +turns up: He says to the unbelievers, Ye shall have the just measure of +your deeds at that Great Day. They will be weighed out to you; ye shall +not have short weight!--Everywhere he fixes the matter in his eye; +he _sees_ it: his heart, now and then, is as if struck dumb by the +greatness of it. "Assuredly," he says: that word, in the Koran, is +written down sometimes as a sentence by itself: "Assuredly." + +No _Dilettantism_ in this Mahomet; it is a business of Reprobation and +Salvation with him, of Time and Eternity: he is in deadly earnest about +it! Dilettantism, hypothesis, speculation, a kind of amateur-search for +Truth, toying and coquetting with Truth: this is the sorest sin. The +root of all other imaginable sins. It consists in the heart and soul +of the man never having been _open_ to Truth;--"living in a vain show." +Such a man not only utters and produces falsehoods, but is himself a +falsehood. The rational moral principle, spark of the Divinity, is sunk +deep in him, in quiet paralysis of life-death. The very falsehoods of +Mahomet are truer than the truths of such a man. He is the insincere +man: smooth-polished, respectable in some times and places; inoffensive, +says nothing harsh to anybody; most _cleanly_,--just as carbonic acid +is, which is death and poison. + +We will not praise Mahomet's moral precepts as always of the superfinest +sort; yet it can be said that there is always a tendency to good in +them; that they are the true dictates of a heart aiming towards what is +just and true. The sublime forgiveness of Christianity, turning of the +other cheek when the one has been smitten, is not here: you _are_ to +revenge yourself, but it is to be in measure, not overmuch, or beyond +justice. On the other hand, Islam, like any great Faith, and insight +into the essence of man, is a perfect equalizer of men: the soul of one +believer outweighs all earthly kingships; all men, according to Islam +too, are equal. Mahomet insists not on the propriety of giving alms, but +on the necessity of it: he marks down by law how much you are to give, +and it is at your peril if you neglect. The tenth part of a man's annual +income, whatever that may be, is the _property_ of the poor, of those +that are afflicted and need help. Good all this: the natural voice of +humanity, of pity and equity dwelling in the heart of this wild Son of +Nature speaks _so_. + +Mahomet's Paradise is sensual, his Hell sensual: true; in the one and +the other there is enough that shocks all spiritual feeling in us. But +we are to recollect that the Arabs already had it so; that Mahomet, in +whatever he changed of it, softened and diminished all this. The worst +sensualities, too, are the work of doctors, followers of his, not his +work. In the Koran there is really very little said about the joys +of Paradise; they are intimated rather than insisted on. Nor is it +forgotten that the highest joys even there shall be spiritual; the pure +Presence of the Highest, this shall infinitely transcend all other joys. +He says, "Your salutation shall be, Peace." _Salam_, Have Peace!--the +thing that all rational souls long for, and seek, vainly here below, +as the one blessing. "Ye shall sit on seats, facing one another: all +grudges shall be taken away out of your hearts." All grudges! Ye shall +love one another freely; for each of you, in the eyes of his brothers, +there will be Heaven enough! + +In reference to this of the sensual Paradise and Mahomet's sensuality, +the sorest chapter of all for us, there were many things to be said; +which it is not convenient to enter upon here. Two remarks only I shall +make, and therewith leave it to your candor. The first is furnished me +by Goethe; it is a casual hint of his which seems well worth taking note +of. In one of his Delineations, in _Meister's Travels_ it is, the hero +comes upon a Society of men with very strange ways, one of which was +this: "We require," says the Master, "that each of our people shall +restrict himself in one direction," shall go right against his desire in +one matter, and _make_ himself do the thing he does not wish, "should we +allow him the greater latitude on all other sides." There seems to me a +great justness in this. Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not +the evil: it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that +is. Let a man assert withal that he is king over his habitudes; that +he could and would shake them off, on cause shown: this is an excellent +law. The Month Ramadhan for the Moslem, much in Mahomet's Religion, +much in his own Life, bears in that direction; if not by forethought, +or clear purpose of moral improvement on his part, then by a certain +healthy manful instinct, which is as good. + +But there is another thing to be said about the Mahometan Heaven and +Hell. This namely, that, however gross and material they may be, they +are an emblem of an everlasting truth, not always so well remembered +elsewhere. That gross sensual Paradise of his; that horrible flaming +Hell; the great enormous Day of Judgment he perpetually insists on: what +is all this but a rude shadow, in the rude Bedouin imagination, of that +grand spiritual Fact, and Beginning of Facts, which it is ill for us too +if we do not all know and feel: the Infinite Nature of Duty? That man's +actions here are of _infinite_ moment to him, and never die or end at +all; that man, with his little life, reaches upwards high as Heaven, +downwards low as Hell, and in his threescore years of Time holds an +Eternity fearfully and wonderfully hidden: all this had burnt itself, as +in flame-characters, into the wild Arab soul. As in flame and lightning, +it stands written there; awful, unspeakable, ever present to him. With +bursting earnestness, with a fierce savage sincerity, half-articulating, +not able to articulate, he strives to speak it, bodies it forth in that +Heaven and that Hell. Bodied forth in what way you will, it is the first +of all truths. It is venerable under all embodiments. What is the chief +end of man here below? Mahomet has answered this question, in a way that +might put some of us to shame! He does not, like a Bentham, a Paley, +take Right and Wrong, and calculate the profit and loss, ultimate +pleasure of the one and of the other; and summing all up by addition and +subtraction into a net result, ask you, Whether on the whole the Right +does not preponderate considerably? No; it is not _better_ to do the one +than the other; the one is to the other as life is to death,--as Heaven +is to Hell. The one must in nowise be done, the other in nowise left +undone. You shall not measure them; they are incommensurable: the one +is death eternal to a man, the other is life eternal. Benthamee Utility, +virtue by Profit and Loss; reducing this God's-world to a dead +brute Steam-engine, the infinite celestial Soul of Man to a kind of +Hay-balance for weighing hay and thistles on, pleasures and pains +on:--If you ask me which gives, Mahomet or they, the beggarlier and +falser view of Man and his Destinies in this Universe, I will answer, it +is not Mahomet--! + +On the whole, we will repeat that this Religion of Mahomet's is a kind +of Christianity; has a genuine element of what is spiritually highest +looking through it, not to be hidden by all its imperfections. The +Scandinavian God _Wish_, the god of all rude men,--this has been +enlarged into a Heaven by Mahomet; but a Heaven symbolical of sacred +Duty, and to be earned by faith and well-doing, by valiant action, and +a divine patience which is still more valiant. It is Scandinavian +Paganism, and a truly celestial element superadded to that. Call it not +false; look not at the falsehood of it, look at the truth of it. For +these twelve centuries, it has been the religion and life-guidance of +the fifth part of the whole kindred of Mankind. Above all things, it has +been a religion heartily _believed_. These Arabs believe their religion, +and try to live by it! No Christians, since the early ages, or only +perhaps the English Puritans in modern times, have ever stood by their +Faith as the Moslem do by theirs,--believing it wholly, fronting Time +with it, and Eternity with it. This night the watchman on the streets +of Cairo when he cries, "Who goes?" will hear from the passenger, along +with his answer, "There is no God but God." _Allah akbar_, _Islam_, +sounds through the souls, and whole daily existence, of these dusky +millions. Zealous missionaries preach it abroad among Malays, black +Papuans, brutal Idolaters;--displacing what is worse, nothing that is +better or good. + +To the Arab Nation it was as a birth from darkness into light; Arabia +first became alive by means of it. A poor shepherd people, roaming +unnoticed in its deserts since the creation of the world: a Hero-Prophet +was sent down to them with a word they could believe: see, the unnoticed +becomes world-notable, the small has grown world-great; within one +century afterwards, Arabia is at Grenada on this hand, at Delhi on +that;--glancing in valor and splendor and the light of genius, Arabia +shines through long ages over a great section of the world. Belief +is great, life-giving. The history of a Nation becomes fruitful, +soul-elevating, great, so soon as it believes. These Arabs, the man +Mahomet, and that one century,--is it not as if a spark had fallen, one +spark, on a world of what seemed black unnoticeable sand; but lo, the +sand proves explosive powder, blazes heaven-high from Delhi to Grenada! +I said, the Great Man was always as lightning out of Heaven; the rest of +men waited for him like fuel, and then they too would flame. + + + + + +LECTURE III. THE HERO AS POET. DANTE: SHAKSPEARE. + +[May 12, 1840.] + +The Hero as Divinity, the Hero as Prophet, are productions of old ages; +not to be repeated in the new. They presuppose a certain rudeness of +conception, which the progress of mere scientific knowledge puts an end +to. There needs to be, as it were, a world vacant, or almost vacant +of scientific forms, if men in their loving wonder are to fancy their +fellow-man either a god or one speaking with the voice of a god. +Divinity and Prophet are past. We are now to see our Hero in the less +ambitious, but also less questionable, character of Poet; a character +which does not pass. The Poet is a heroic figure belonging to all ages; +whom all ages possess, when once he is produced, whom the newest age as +the oldest may produce;--and will produce, always when Nature pleases. +Let Nature send a Hero-soul; in no age is it other than possible that he +may be shaped into a Poet. + +Hero, Prophet, Poet,--many different names, in different times, and +places, do we give to Great Men; according to varieties we note in them, +according to the sphere in which they have displayed themselves! We +might give many more names, on this same principle. I will remark again, +however, as a fact not unimportant to be understood, that the different +_sphere_ constitutes the grand origin of such distinction; that the Hero +can be Poet, Prophet, King, Priest or what you will, according to the +kind of world he finds himself born into. I confess, I have no notion +of a truly great man that could not be _all_ sorts of men. The Poet who +could merely sit on a chair, and compose stanzas, would never make +a stanza worth much. He could not sing the Heroic warrior, unless he +himself were at least a Heroic warrior too. I fancy there is in him the +Politician, the Thinker, Legislator, Philosopher;--in one or the other +degree, he could have been, he is all these. So too I cannot understand +how a Mirabeau, with that great glowing heart, with the fire that was +in it, with the bursting tears that were in it, could not have written +verses, tragedies, poems, and touched all hearts in that way, had his +course of life and education led him thitherward. The grand fundamental +character is that of Great Man; that the man be great. Napoleon has +words in him which are like Austerlitz Battles. Louis Fourteenth's +Marshals are a kind of poetical men withal; the things Turenne says +are full of sagacity and geniality, like sayings of Samuel Johnson. The +great heart, the clear deep-seeing eye: there it lies; no man whatever, +in what province soever, can prosper at all without these. Petrarch and +Boccaccio did diplomatic messages, it seems, quite well: one can easily +believe it; they had done things a little harder than these! Burns, +a gifted song-writer, might have made a still better Mirabeau. +Shakspeare,--one knows not what _he_ could not have made, in the supreme +degree. + +True, there are aptitudes of Nature too. Nature does not make all great +men, more than all other men, in the self-same mould. Varieties of +aptitude doubtless; but infinitely more of circumstance; and far +oftenest it is the _latter_ only that are looked to. But it is as with +common men in the learning of trades. You take any man, as yet a vague +capability of a man, who could be any kind of craftsman; and make him +into a smith, a carpenter, a mason: he is then and thenceforth that +and nothing else. And if, as Addison complains, you sometimes see a +street-porter, staggering under his load on spindle-shanks, and near +at hand a tailor with the frame of a Samson handling a bit of cloth +and small Whitechapel needle,--it cannot be considered that aptitude +of Nature alone has been consulted here either!--The Great Man also, +to what shall he be bound apprentice? Given your Hero, is he to become +Conqueror, King, Philosopher, Poet? It is an inexplicably complex +controversial-calculation between the world and him! He will read the +world and its laws; the world with its laws will be there to be read. +What the world, on _this_ matter, shall permit and bid is, as we said, +the most important fact about the world.-- + + +Poet and Prophet differ greatly in our loose modern notions of them. In +some old languages, again, the titles are synonymous; _Vates_ means +both Prophet and Poet: and indeed at all times, Prophet and Poet, well +understood, have much kindred of meaning. Fundamentally indeed they are +still the same; in this most important respect especially, That they +have penetrated both of them into the sacred mystery of the Universe; +what Goethe calls "the open secret." "Which is the great secret?" asks +one.--"The _open_ secret,"--open to all, seen by almost none! That +divine mystery, which lies everywhere in all Beings, "the Divine Idea +of the World, that which lies at the bottom of Appearance," as Fichte +styles it; of which all Appearance, from the starry sky to the grass of +the field, but especially the Appearance of Man and his work, is but the +_vesture_, the embodiment that renders it visible. This divine mystery +_is_ in all times and in all places; veritably is. In most times and +places it is greatly overlooked; and the Universe, definable always in +one or the other dialect, as the realized Thought of God, is considered +a trivial, inert, commonplace matter,--as if, says the Satirist, it were +a dead thing, which some upholsterer had put together! It could do no +good, at present, to _speak_ much about this; but it is a pity for every +one of us if we do not know it, live ever in the knowledge of it. Really +a most mournful pity;--a failure to live at all, if we live otherwise! + +But now, I say, whoever may forget this divine mystery, the _Vates_, +whether Prophet or Poet, has penetrated into it; is a man sent hither to +make it more impressively known to us. That always is his message; he +is to reveal that to us,--that sacred mystery which he more than others +lives ever present with. While others forget it, he knows it;--I might +say, he has been driven to know it; without consent asked of him, he +finds himself living in it, bound to live in it. Once more, here is no +Hearsay, but a direct Insight and Belief; this man too could not help +being a sincere man! Whosoever may live in the shows of things, it is +for him a necessity of nature to live in the very fact of things. A +man once more, in earnest with the Universe, though all others were +but toying with it. He is a _Vates_, first of all, in virtue of being +sincere. So far Poet and Prophet, participators in the "open secret," +are one. + +With respect to their distinction again: The _Vates_ Prophet, we might +say, has seized that sacred mystery rather on the moral side, as Good +and Evil, Duty and Prohibition; the _Vates_ Poet on what the Germans +call the aesthetic side, as Beautiful, and the like. The one we may call +a revealer of what we are to do, the other of what we are to love. +But indeed these two provinces run into one another, and cannot be +disjoined. The Prophet too has his eye on what we are to love: how else +shall he know what it is we are to do? The highest Voice ever heard on +this earth said withal, "Consider the lilies of the field; they toil +not, neither do they spin: yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed +like one of these." A glance, that, into the deepest deep of Beauty. +"The lilies of the field,"--dressed finer than earthly princes, +springing up there in the humble furrow-field; a beautiful _eye_ looking +out on you, from the great inner Sea of Beauty! How could the rude +Earth make these, if her Essence, rugged as she looks and is, were not +inwardly Beauty? In this point of view, too, a saying of Goethe's, which +has staggered several, may have meaning: "The Beautiful," he intimates, +"is higher than the Good; the Beautiful includes in it the Good." The +_true_ Beautiful; which however, I have said somewhere, "differs from +the _false_ as Heaven does from Vauxhall!" So much for the distinction +and identity of Poet and Prophet.-- + +In ancient and also in modern periods we find a few Poets who are +accounted perfect; whom it were a kind of treason to find fault with. +This is noteworthy; this is right: yet in strictness it is only an +illusion. At bottom, clearly enough, there is no perfect Poet! A vein +of Poetry exists in the hearts of all men; no man is made altogether of +Poetry. We are all poets when we _read_ a poem well. The "imagination +that shudders at the Hell of Dante," is not that the same faculty, +weaker in degree, as Dante's own? No one but Shakspeare can embody, +out of _Saxo Grammaticus_, the story of _Hamlet_ as Shakspeare did: but +every one models some kind of story out of it; every one embodies it +better or worse. We need not spend time in defining. Where there is no +specific difference, as between round and square, all definition must +be more or less arbitrary. A man that has _so_ much more of the poetic +element developed in him as to have become noticeable, will be called +Poet by his neighbors. World-Poets too, those whom we are to take for +perfect Poets, are settled by critics in the same way. One who rises +_so_ far above the general level of Poets will, to such and such +critics, seem a Universal Poet; as he ought to do. And yet it is, and +must be, an arbitrary distinction. All Poets, all men, have some touches +of the Universal; no man is wholly made of that. Most Poets are very +soon forgotten: but not the noblest Shakspeare or Homer of them can be +remembered _forever_;--a day comes when he too is not! + +Nevertheless, you will say, there must be a difference between true +Poetry and true Speech not poetical: what is the difference? On this +point many things have been written, especially by late German Critics, +some of which are not very intelligible at first. They say, for +example, that the Poet has an _infinitude_ in him; communicates an +_Unendlichkeit_, a certain character of "infinitude," to whatsoever he +delineates. This, though not very precise, yet on so vague a matter is +worth remembering: if well meditated, some meaning will gradually be +found in it. For my own part, I find considerable meaning in the old +vulgar distinction of Poetry being _metrical_, having music in it, being +a Song. Truly, if pressed to give a definition, one might say this as +soon as anything else: If your delineation be authentically _musical_, +musical not in word only, but in heart and substance, in all the +thoughts and utterances of it, in the whole conception of it, then +it will be poetical; if not, not.--Musical: how much lies in that! A +_musical_ thought is one spoken by a mind that has penetrated into the +inmost heart of the thing; detected the inmost mystery of it, namely the +_melody_ that lies hidden in it; the inward harmony of coherence which +is its soul, whereby it exists, and has a right to be, here in this +world. All inmost things, we may say, are melodious; naturally utter +themselves in Song. The meaning of Song goes deep. Who is there that, +in logical words, can express the effect music has on us? A kind of +inarticulate unfathomable speech, which leads us to the edge of the +Infinite, and lets us for moments gaze into that! + +Nay all speech, even the commonest speech, has something of song in +it: not a parish in the world but has its parish-accent;--the rhythm or +_tune_ to which the people there _sing_ what they have to say! Accent is +a kind of chanting; all men have accent of their own,--though they only +_notice_ that of others. Observe too how all passionate language does +of itself become musical,--with a finer music than the mere accent; the +speech of a man even in zealous anger becomes a chant, a song. All deep +things are Song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, Song; +as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls! The primal element of +us; of us, and of all things. The Greeks fabled of Sphere-Harmonies: it +was the feeling they had of the inner structure of Nature; that the soul +of all her voices and utterances was perfect music. Poetry, therefore, +we will call _musical Thought_. The Poet is he who _thinks_ in that +manner. At bottom, it turns still on power of intellect; it is a man's +sincerity and depth of vision that makes him a Poet. See deep enough, +and you see musically; the heart of Nature _being_ everywhere music, if +you can only reach it. + +The _Vates_ Poet, with his melodious Apocalypse of Nature, seems to +hold a poor rank among us, in comparison with the _Vates_ Prophet; his +function, and our esteem of him for his function, alike slight. The Hero +taken as Divinity; the Hero taken as Prophet; then next the Hero taken +only as Poet: does it not look as if our estimate of the Great Man, +epoch after epoch, were continually diminishing? We take him first for +a god, then for one god-inspired; and now in the next stage of it, his +most miraculous word gains from us only the recognition that he is a +Poet, beautiful verse-maker, man of genius, or such like!--It looks so; +but I persuade myself that intrinsically it is not so. If we consider +well, it will perhaps appear that in man still there is the _same_ +altogether peculiar admiration for the Heroic Gift, by what name soever +called, that there at any time was. + +I should say, if we do not now reckon a Great Man literally divine, +it is that our notions of God, of the supreme unattainable Fountain of +Splendor, Wisdom and Heroism, are ever rising _higher_; not altogether +that our reverence for these qualities, as manifested in our like, is +getting lower. This is worth taking thought of. Sceptical Dilettantism, +the curse of these ages, a curse which will not last forever, does +indeed in this the highest province of human things, as in all +provinces, make sad work; and our reverence for great men, all +crippled, blinded, paralytic as it is, comes out in poor plight, hardly +recognizable. Men worship the shows of great men; the most disbelieve +that there is any reality of great men to worship. The dreariest, +fatalest faith; believing which, one would literally despair of +human things. Nevertheless look, for example, at Napoleon! A Corsican +lieutenant of artillery; that is the show of _him_: yet is he not +obeyed, worshipped after his sort, as all the Tiaraed and Diademed of +the world put together could not be? High Duchesses, and ostlers of +inns, gather round the Scottish rustic, Burns;--a strange feeling +dwelling in each that they never heard a man like this; that, on the +whole, this is the man! In the secret heart of these people it still +dimly reveals itself, though there is no accredited way of uttering +it at present, that this rustic, with his black brows and flashing +sun-eyes, and strange words moving laughter and tears, is of a dignity +far beyond all others, incommensurable with all others. Do not we feel +it so? But now, were Dilettantism, Scepticism, Triviality, and all that +sorrowful brood, cast out of us,--as, by God's blessing, they shall one +day be; were faith in the shows of things entirely swept out, replaced +by clear faith in the _things_, so that a man acted on the impulse of +that only, and counted the other non-extant; what a new livelier feeling +towards this Burns were it! + +Nay here in these ages, such as they are, have we not two mere Poets, if +not deified, yet we may say beatified? Shakspeare and Dante are Saints +of Poetry; really, if we will think of it, _canonized_, so that it is +impiety to meddle with them. The unguided instinct of the world, working +across all these perverse impediments, has arrived at such result. Dante +and Shakspeare are a peculiar Two. They dwell apart, in a kind of royal +solitude; none equal, none second to them: in the general feeling of the +world, a certain transcendentalism, a glory as of complete perfection, +invests these two. They _are_ canonized, though no Pope or Cardinals +took hand in doing it! Such, in spite of every perverting influence, +in the most unheroic times, is still our indestructible reverence for +heroism.--We will look a little at these Two, the Poet Dante and the +Poet Shakspeare: what little it is permitted us to say here of the Hero +as Poet will most fitly arrange itself in that fashion. + + +Many volumes have been written by way of commentary on Dante and his +Book; yet, on the whole, with no great result. His Biography is, as +it were, irrecoverably lost for us. An unimportant, wandering, +sorrow-stricken man, not much note was taken of him while he lived; and +the most of that has vanished, in the long space that now intervenes. +It is five centuries since he ceased writing and living here. After +all commentaries, the Book itself is mainly what we know of him. The +Book;--and one might add that Portrait commonly attributed to Giotto, +which, looking on it, you cannot help inclining to think genuine, +whoever did it. To me it is a most touching face; perhaps of all faces +that I know, the most so. Lonely there, painted as on vacancy, with the +simple laurel wound round it; the deathless sorrow and pain, the known +victory which is also deathless;--significant of the whole history of +Dante! I think it is the mournfulest face that ever was painted from +reality; an altogether tragic, heart-affecting face. There is in it, +as foundation of it, the softness, tenderness, gentle affection as of +a child; but all this is as if congealed into sharp contradiction, into +abnegation, isolation, proud hopeless pain. A soft ethereal soul looking +out so stern, implacable, grim-trenchant, as from imprisonment of +thick-ribbed ice! Withal it is a silent pain too, a silent scornful +one: the lip is curled in a kind of godlike disdain of the thing that is +eating out his heart,--as if it were withal a mean insignificant thing, +as if he whom it had power to torture and strangle were greater than it. +The face of one wholly in protest, and lifelong unsurrendering battle, +against the world. Affection all converted into indignation: an +implacable indignation; slow, equable, silent, like that of a god! The +eye too, it looks out as in a kind of _surprise_, a kind of inquiry, Why +the world was of such a sort? This is Dante: so he looks, this "voice of +ten silent centuries," and sings us "his mystic unfathomable song." + +The little that we know of Dante's Life corresponds well enough with +this Portrait and this Book. He was born at Florence, in the upper class +of society, in the year 1265. His education was the best then going; +much school-divinity, Aristotelean logic, some Latin classics,--no +inconsiderable insight into certain provinces of things: and Dante, with +his earnest intelligent nature, we need not doubt, learned better than +most all that was learnable. He has a clear cultivated understanding, +and of great subtlety; this best fruit of education he had contrived to +realize from these scholastics. He knows accurately and well what +lies close to him; but, in such a time, without printed books or free +intercourse, he could not know well what was distant: the small clear +light, most luminous for what is near, breaks itself into singular +_chiaroscuro_ striking on what is far off. This was Dante's learning +from the schools. In life, he had gone through the usual destinies; been +twice out campaigning as a soldier for the Florentine State, been on +embassy; had in his thirty-fifth year, by natural gradation of talent +and service, become one of the Chief Magistrates of Florence. He had met +in boyhood a certain Beatrice Portinari, a beautiful little girl of his +own age and rank, and grown up thenceforth in partial sight of her, +in some distant intercourse with her. All readers know his graceful +affecting account of this; and then of their being parted; of her being +wedded to another, and of her death soon after. She makes a great figure +in Dante's Poem; seems to have made a great figure in his life. Of all +beings it might seem as if she, held apart from him, far apart at +last in the dim Eternity, were the only one he had ever with his whole +strength of affection loved. She died: Dante himself was wedded; but it +seems not happily, far from happily. I fancy, the rigorous earnest man, +with his keen excitabilities, was not altogether easy to make happy. + +We will not complain of Dante's miseries: had all gone right with him as +he wished it, he might have been Prior, Podesta, or whatsoever they +call it, of Florence, well accepted among neighbors,--and the world had +wanted one of the most notable words ever spoken or sung. Florence +would have had another prosperous Lord Mayor; and the ten dumb centuries +continued voiceless, and the ten other listening centuries (for there +will be ten of them and more) had no _Divina Commedia_ to hear! We will +complain of nothing. A nobler destiny was appointed for this Dante; and +he, struggling like a man led towards death and crucifixion, could not +help fulfilling it. Give _him_ the choice of his happiness! He knew not, +more than we do, what was really happy, what was really miserable. + +In Dante's Priorship, the Guelf-Ghibelline, Bianchi-Neri, or some other +confused disturbances rose to such a height, that Dante, whose party had +seemed the stronger, was with his friends cast unexpectedly forth into +banishment; doomed thenceforth to a life of woe and wandering. His +property was all confiscated and more; he had the fiercest feeling that +it was entirely unjust, nefarious in the sight of God and man. He tried +what was in him to get reinstated; tried even by warlike surprisal, with +arms in his hand: but it would not do; bad only had become worse. There +is a record, I believe, still extant in the Florence Archives, dooming +this Dante, wheresoever caught, to be burnt alive. Burnt alive; so +it stands, they say: a very curious civic document. Another curious +document, some considerable number of years later, is a Letter of +Dante's to the Florentine Magistrates, written in answer to a milder +proposal of theirs, that he should return on condition of apologizing +and paying a fine. He answers, with fixed stern pride: "If I cannot +return without calling myself guilty, I will never return, _nunquam +revertar_." + +For Dante there was now no home in this world. He wandered from patron +to patron, from place to place; proving, in his own bitter words, "How +hard is the path, _Come e duro calle_." The wretched are not cheerful +company. Dante, poor and banished, with his proud earnest nature, with +his moody humors, was not a man to conciliate men. Petrarch reports of +him that being at Can della Scala's court, and blamed one day for his +gloom and taciturnity, he answered in no courtier-like way. Della +Scala stood among his courtiers, with mimes and buffoons (_nebulones ac +histriones_) making him heartily merry; when turning to Dante, he said: +"Is it not strange, now, that this poor fool should make himself so +entertaining; while you, a wise man, sit there day after day, and have +nothing to amuse us with at all?" Dante answered bitterly: "No, +not strange; your Highness is to recollect the Proverb, _Like to +Like_;"--given the amuser, the amusee must also be given! Such a man, +with his proud silent ways, with his sarcasms and sorrows, was not made +to succeed at court. By degrees, it came to be evident to him that he +had no longer any resting-place, or hope of benefit, in this earth. The +earthly world had cast him forth, to wander, wander; no living heart to +love him now; for his sore miseries there was no solace here. + +The deeper naturally would the Eternal World impress itself on him; that +awful reality over which, after all, this Time-world, with its Florences +and banishments, only flutters as an unreal shadow. Florence thou shalt +never see: but Hell and Purgatory and Heaven thou shalt surely see! +What is Florence, Can della Scala, and the World and Life altogether? +ETERNITY: thither, of a truth, not elsewhither, art thou and all things +bound! The great soul of Dante, homeless on earth, made its home more +and more in that awful other world. Naturally his thoughts brooded on +that, as on the one fact important for him. Bodied or bodiless, it is +the one fact important for all men:--but to Dante, in that age, it was +bodied in fixed certainty of scientific shape; he no more doubted of +that _Malebolge_ Pool, that it all lay there with its gloomy circles, +with its _alti guai_, and that he himself should see it, than we doubt +that we should see Constantinople if we went thither. Dante's heart, +long filled with this, brooding over it in speechless thought and awe, +bursts forth at length into "mystic unfathomable song;" and this his +_Divine Comedy_, the most remarkable of all modern Books, is the result. + +It must have been a great solacement to Dante, and was, as we can see, +a proud thought for him at times, That he, here in exile, could do this +work; that no Florence, nor no man or men, could hinder him from doing +it, or even much help him in doing it. He knew too, partly, that it was +great; the greatest a man could do. "If thou follow thy star, _Se tu +segui tua stella_,"--so could the Hero, in his forsakenness, in his +extreme need, still say to himself: "Follow thou thy star, thou shalt +not fail of a glorious haven!" The labor of writing, we find, and indeed +could know otherwise, was great and painful for him; he says, This Book, +"which has made me lean for many years." Ah yes, it was won, all of it, +with pain and sore toil,--not in sport, but in grim earnest. His Book, +as indeed most good Books are, has been written, in many senses, with +his heart's blood. It is his whole history, this Book. He died after +finishing it; not yet very old, at the age of fifty-six;--broken-hearted +rather, as is said. He lies buried in his death-city Ravenna: _Hic +claudor Dantes patriis extorris ab oris_. The Florentines begged back +his body, in a century after; the Ravenna people would not give it. +"Here am I Dante laid, shut out from my native shores." + +I said, Dante's Poem was a Song: it is Tieck who calls it "a mystic +unfathomable Song;" and such is literally the character of it. Coleridge +remarks very pertinently somewhere, that wherever you find a sentence +musically worded, of true rhythm and melody in the words, there is +something deep and good in the meaning too. For body and soul, word and +idea, go strangely together here as everywhere. Song: we said before, +it was the Heroic of Speech! All _old_ Poems, Homer's and the rest, are +authentically Songs. I would say, in strictness, that all right Poems +are; that whatsoever is not _sung_ is properly no Poem, but a piece of +Prose cramped into jingling lines,--to the great injury of the grammar, +to the great grief of the reader, for most part! What we wants to get at +is the _thought_ the man had, if he had any: why should he twist it into +jingle, if he _could_ speak it out plainly? It is only when the heart +of him is rapt into true passion of melody, and the very tones of him, +according to Coleridge's remark, become musical by the greatness, depth +and music of his thoughts, that we can give him right to rhyme and +sing; that we call him a Poet, and listen to him as the Heroic of +Speakers,--whose speech is Song. Pretenders to this are many; and to an +earnest reader, I doubt, it is for most part a very melancholy, not to +say an insupportable business, that of reading rhyme! Rhyme that had +no inward necessity to be rhymed;--it ought to have told us plainly, +without any jingle, what it was aiming at. I would advise all men who +_can_ speak their thought, not to sing it; to understand that, in +a serious time, among serious men, there is no vocation in them for +singing it. Precisely as we love the true song, and are charmed by it as +by something divine, so shall we hate the false song, and account it a +mere wooden noise, a thing hollow, superfluous, altogether an insincere +and offensive thing. + +I give Dante my highest praise when I say of his _Divine Comedy_ that it +is, in all senses, genuinely a Song. In the very sound of it there is +a _canto fermo_; it proceeds as by a chant. The language, his simple +_terza rima_, doubtless helped him in this. One reads along naturally +with a sort of _lilt_. But I add, that it could not be otherwise; for +the essence and material of the work are themselves rhythmic. Its depth, +and rapt passion and sincerity, makes it musical;--go _deep_ enough, +there is music everywhere. A true inward symmetry, what one calls +an architectural harmony, reigns in it, proportionates it all: +architectural; which also partakes of the character of music. The three +kingdoms, _Inferno_, _Purgatorio_, _Paradiso_, look out on one +another like compartments of a great edifice; a great supernatural +world-cathedral, piled up there, stern, solemn, awful; Dante's World of +Souls! It is, at bottom, the _sincerest_ of all Poems; sincerity, +here too, we find to be the measure of worth. It came deep out of +the author's heart of hearts; and it goes deep, and through long +generations, into ours. The people of Verona, when they saw him on the +streets, used to say, "_Eccovi l' uom ch' e stato all' Inferno_, See, +there is the man that was in Hell!" Ah yes, he had been in Hell;--in +Hell enough, in long severe sorrow and struggle; as the like of him +is pretty sure to have been. Commedias that come out _divine_ are not +accomplished otherwise. Thought, true labor of any kind, highest +virtue itself, is it not the daughter of Pain? Born as out of the black +whirlwind;--true _effort_, in fact, as of a captive struggling to free +himself: that is Thought. In all ways we are "to become perfect through +_suffering_."--_But_, as I say, no work known to me is so elaborated as +this of Dante's. It has all been as if molten, in the hottest furnace of +his soul. It had made him "lean" for many years. Not the general whole +only; every compartment of it is worked out, with intense earnestness, +into truth, into clear visuality. Each answers to the other; each fits +in its place, like a marble stone accurately hewn and polished. It is +the soul of Dante, and in this the soul of the middle ages, rendered +forever rhythmically visible there. No light task; a right intense one: +but a task which is _done_. + +Perhaps one would say, _intensity_, with the much that depends on it, is +the prevailing character of Dante's genius. Dante does not come before +us as a large catholic mind; rather as a narrow, and even sectarian +mind: it is partly the fruit of his age and position, but partly too of +his own nature. His greatness has, in all senses, concentred itself into +fiery emphasis and depth. He is world-great not because he is worldwide, +but because he is world-deep. Through all objects he pierces as it +were down into the heart of Being. I know nothing so intense as Dante. +Consider, for example, to begin with the outermost development of his +intensity, consider how he paints. He has a great power of vision; +seizes the very type of a thing; presents that and nothing more. You +remember that first view he gets of the Hall of Dite: _red_ pinnacle, +red-hot cone of iron glowing through the dim immensity of gloom;--so +vivid, so distinct, visible at once and forever! It is as an emblem of +the whole genius of Dante. There is a brevity, an abrupt precision in +him: Tacitus is not briefer, more condensed; and then in Dante it seems +a natural condensation, spontaneous to the man. One smiting word; and +then there is silence, nothing more said. His silence is more eloquent +than words. It is strange with what a sharp decisive grace he snatches +the true likeness of a matter: cuts into the matter as with a pen of +fire. Plutus, the blustering giant, collapses at Virgil's rebuke; it +is "as the sails sink, the mast being suddenly broken." Or that poor +Brunetto Latini, with the _cotto aspetto_, "face _baked_," parched brown +and lean; and the "fiery snow" that falls on them there, a "fiery snow +without wind," slow, deliberate, never-ending! Or the lids of those +Tombs; square sarcophaguses, in that silent dim-burning Hall, each with +its Soul in torment; the lids laid open there; they are to be shut at +the Day of Judgment, through Eternity. And how Farinata rises; and how +Cavalcante falls--at hearing of his Son, and the past tense "_fue_"! The +very movements in Dante have something brief; swift, decisive, almost +military. It is of the inmost essence of his genius this sort of +painting. The fiery, swift Italian nature of the man, so silent, +passionate, with its quick abrupt movements, its silent "pale rages," +speaks itself in these things. + +For though this of painting is one of the outermost developments of a +man, it comes like all else from the essential faculty of him; it is +physiognomical of the whole man. Find a man whose words paint you a +likeness, you have found a man worth something; mark his manner of doing +it, as very characteristic of him. In the first place, he could not have +discerned the object at all, or seen the vital type of it, unless he +had, what we may call, _sympathized_ with it,--had sympathy in him to +bestow on objects. He must have been _sincere_ about it too; sincere +and sympathetic: a man without worth cannot give you the likeness of +any object; he dwells in vague outwardness, fallacy and trivial hearsay, +about all objects. And indeed may we not say that intellect altogether +expresses itself in this power of discerning what an object is? +Whatsoever of faculty a man's mind may have will come out here. Is it +even of business, a matter to be done? The gifted man is he who _sees_ +the essential point, and leaves all the rest aside as surplusage: it is +his faculty too, the man of business's faculty, that he discern the true +_likeness_, not the false superficial one, of the thing he has got to +work in. And how much of _morality_ is in the kind of insight we get +of anything; "the eye seeing in all things what it brought with it the +faculty of seeing"! To the mean eye all things are trivial, as certainly +as to the jaundiced they are yellow. Raphael, the Painters tell us, is +the best of all Portrait-painters withal. No most gifted eye can exhaust +the significance of any object. In the commonest human face there lies +more than Raphael will take away with him. + +Dante's painting is not graphic only, brief, true, and of a vividness as +of fire in dark night; taken on the wider scale, it is every way noble, +and the outcome of a great soul. Francesca and her Lover, what qualities +in that! A thing woven as out of rainbows, on a ground of eternal black. +A small flute-voice of infinite wail speaks there, into our very heart +of hearts. A touch of womanhood in it too: _della bella persona, che +mi fu tolta_; and how, even in the Pit of woe, it is a solace that _he_ +will never part from her! Saddest tragedy in these _alti guai_. And +the racking winds, in that _aer bruno_, whirl them away again, to +wail forever!--Strange to think: Dante was the friend of this poor +Francesca's father; Francesca herself may have sat upon the Poet's knee, +as a bright innocent little child. Infinite pity, yet also infinite +rigor of law: it is so Nature is made; it is so Dante discerned that she +was made. What a paltry notion is that of his _Divine Comedy's_ being a +poor splenetic impotent terrestrial libel; putting those into Hell whom +he could not be avenged upon on earth! I suppose if ever pity, tender +as a mother's, was in the heart of any man, it was in Dante's. But a +man who does not know rigor cannot pity either. His very pity will be +cowardly, egoistic,--sentimentality, or little better. I know not in +the world an affection equal to that of Dante. It is a tenderness, a +trembling, longing, pitying love: like the wail of AEolian harps, soft, +soft; like a child's young heart;--and then that stern, sore-saddened +heart! These longings of his towards his Beatrice; their meeting +together in the _Paradiso_; his gazing in her pure transfigured eyes, +her that had been purified by death so long, separated from him so +far:--one likens it to the song of angels; it is among the purest +utterances of affection, perhaps the very purest, that ever came out of +a human soul. + +For the _intense_ Dante is intense in all things; he has got into the +essence of all. His intellectual insight as painter, on occasion too +as reasoner, is but the result of all other sorts of intensity. Morally +great, above all, we must call him; it is the beginning of all. His +scorn, his grief are as transcendent as his love;--as indeed, what are +they but the _inverse_ or _converse_ of his love? "_A Dio spiacenti ed +a' nemici sui_, Hateful to God and to the enemies of God:" lofty scorn, +unappeasable silent reprobation and aversion; "_Non ragionam di lor_, We +will not speak of _them_, look only and pass." Or think of this; "They +have not the _hope_ to die, _Non han speranza di morte_." One day, +it had risen sternly benign on the scathed heart of Dante, that he, +wretched, never-resting, worn as he was, would full surely _die_; "that +Destiny itself could not doom him not to die." Such words are in this +man. For rigor, earnestness and depth, he is not to be paralleled in the +modern world; to seek his parallel we must go into the Hebrew Bible, and +live with the antique Prophets there. + +I do not agree with much modern criticism, in greatly preferring +the _Inferno_ to the two other parts of the Divine _Commedia_. Such +preference belongs, I imagine, to our general Byronism of taste, and +is like to be a transient feeling. The _Purgatorio_ and _Paradiso_, +especially the former, one would almost say, is even more excellent than +it. It is a noble thing that _Purgatorio_, "Mountain of Purification;" +an emblem of the noblest conception of that age. If sin is so fatal, +and Hell is and must be so rigorous, awful, yet in Repentance too is +man purified; Repentance is the grand Christian act. It is beautiful how +Dante works it out. The _tremolar dell' onde_, that "trembling" of the +ocean-waves, under the first pure gleam of morning, dawning afar on the +wandering Two, is as the type of an altered mood. Hope has now dawned; +never-dying Hope, if in company still with heavy sorrow. The obscure +sojourn of demons and reprobate is underfoot; a soft breathing of +penitence mounts higher and higher, to the Throne of Mercy itself. "Pray +for me," the denizens of that Mount of Pain all say to him. "Tell my +Giovanna to pray for me," my daughter Giovanna; "I think her mother +loves me no more!" They toil painfully up by that winding steep, "bent +down like corbels of a building," some of them,--crushed together so +"for the sin of pride;" yet nevertheless in years, in ages and aeons, +they shall have reached the top, which is heaven's gate, and by Mercy +shall have been admitted in. The joy too of all, when one has prevailed; +the whole Mountain shakes with joy, and a psalm of praise rises, when +one soul has perfected repentance and got its sin and misery left +behind! I call all this a noble embodiment of a true noble thought. + +But indeed the Three compartments mutually support one another, are +indispensable to one another. The _Paradiso_, a kind of inarticulate +music to me, is the redeeming side of the _Inferno_; the _Inferno_ +without it were untrue. All three make up the true Unseen World, +as figured in the Christianity of the Middle Ages; a thing forever +memorable, forever true in the essence of it, to all men. It was perhaps +delineated in no human soul with such depth of veracity as in this +of Dante's; a man _sent_ to sing it, to keep it long memorable. Very +notable with what brief simplicity he passes out of the every-day +reality, into the Invisible one; and in the second or third stanza, we +find ourselves in the World of Spirits; and dwell there, as among things +palpable, indubitable! To Dante they _were_ so; the real world, as it +is called, and its facts, was but the threshold to an infinitely higher +Fact of a World. At bottom, the one was as _preternatural_ as the other. +Has not each man a soul? He will not only be a spirit, but is one. To +the earnest Dante it is all one visible Fact; he believes it, sees it; +is the Poet of it in virtue of that. Sincerity, I say again, is the +saving merit, now as always. + +Dante's Hell, Purgatory, Paradise, are a symbol withal, an emblematic +representation of his Belief about this Universe:--some Critic in a +future age, like those Scandinavian ones the other day, who has ceased +altogether to think as Dante did, may find this too all an "Allegory," +perhaps an idle Allegory! It is a sublime embodiment, or sublimest, +of the soul of Christianity. It expresses, as in huge world-wide +architectural emblems, how the Christian Dante felt Good and Evil to +be the two polar elements of this Creation, on which it all turns; +that these two differ not by preferability of one to the other, but by +incompatibility absolute and infinite; that the one is excellent and +high as light and Heaven, the other hideous, black as Gehenna and the +Pit of Hell! Everlasting Justice, yet with Penitence, with everlasting +Pity,--all Christianism, as Dante and the Middle Ages had it, is +emblemed here. Emblemed: and yet, as I urged the other day, with +what entire truth of purpose; how unconscious of any embleming! Hell, +Purgatory, Paradise: these things were not fashioned as emblems; was +there, in our Modern European Mind, any thought at all of their being +emblems! Were they not indubitable awful facts; the whole heart of man +taking them for practically true, all Nature everywhere confirming them? +So is it always in these things. Men do not believe an Allegory. The +future Critic, whatever his new thought may be, who considers this +of Dante to have been all got up as an Allegory, will commit one sore +mistake!--Paganism we recognized as a veracious expression of the +earnest awe-struck feeling of man towards the Universe; veracious, true +once, and still not without worth for us. But mark here the difference +of Paganism and Christianism; one great difference. Paganism emblemed +chiefly the Operations of Nature; the destinies, efforts, combinations, +vicissitudes of things and men in this world; Christianism emblemed +the Law of Human Duty, the Moral Law of Man. One was for the sensuous +nature: a rude helpless utterance of the first Thought of men,--the +chief recognized virtue, Courage, Superiority to Fear. The other was not +for the sensuous nature, but for the moral. What a progress is here, if +in that one respect only--! + +And so in this Dante, as we said, had ten silent centuries, in a very +strange way, found a voice. The _Divina Commedia_ is of Dante's writing; +yet in truth it belongs to ten Christian centuries, only the finishing +of it is Dante's. So always. The craftsman there, the smith with that +metal of his, with these tools, with these cunning methods,--how little +of all he does is properly _his_ work! All past inventive men work +there with him;--as indeed with all of us, in all things. Dante is the +spokesman of the Middle Ages; the Thought they lived by stands here, in +everlasting music. These sublime ideas of his, terrible and beautiful, +are the fruit of the Christian Meditation of all the good men who had +gone before him. Precious they; but also is not he precious? Much, had +not he spoken, would have been dumb; not dead, yet living voiceless. + +On the whole, is it not an utterance, this mystic Song, at once of one +of the greatest human souls, and of the highest thing that Europe +had hitherto realized for itself? Christianism, as Dante sings it, is +another than Paganism in the rude Norse mind; another than "Bastard +Christianism" half-articulately spoken in the Arab Desert, seven hundred +years before!--The noblest _idea_ made _real_ hitherto among men, is +sung, and emblemed forth abidingly, by one of the noblest men. In the +one sense and in the other, are we not right glad to possess it? As I +calculate, it may last yet for long thousands of years. For the +thing that is uttered from the inmost parts of a man's soul, differs +altogether from what is uttered by the outer part. The outer is of the +day, under the empire of mode; the outer passes away, in swift endless +changes; the inmost is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. True +souls, in all generations of the world, who look on this Dante, will +find a brotherhood in him; the deep sincerity of his thoughts, his woes +and hopes, will speak likewise to their sincerity; they will feel that +this Dante too was a brother. Napoleon in Saint Helena is charmed with +the genial veracity of old Homer. The oldest Hebrew Prophet, under a +vesture the most diverse from ours, does yet, because he speaks from the +heart of man, speak to all men's hearts. It is the one sole secret of +continuing long memorable. Dante, for depth of sincerity, is like an +antique Prophet too; his words, like theirs, come from his very heart. +One need not wonder if it were predicted that his Poem might be the +most enduring thing our Europe has yet made; for nothing so endures as a +truly spoken word. All cathedrals, pontificalities, brass and stone, +and outer arrangement never so lasting, are brief in comparison to an +unfathomable heart-song like this: one feels as if it might survive, +still of importance to men, when these had all sunk into new +irrecognizable combinations, and had ceased individually to be. Europe +has made much; great cities, great empires, encyclopaedias, creeds, +bodies of opinion and practice: but it has made little of the class +of Dante's Thought. Homer yet _is_ veritably present face to face with +every open soul of us; and Greece, where is _it_? Desolate for thousands +of years; away, vanished; a bewildered heap of stones and rubbish, the +life and existence of it all gone. Like a dream; like the dust of King +Agamemnon! Greece was; Greece, except in the _words_ it spoke, is not. + +The uses of this Dante? We will not say much about his "uses." A human +soul who has once got into that primal element of _Song_, and sung forth +fitly somewhat therefrom, has worked in the _depths_ of our existence; +feeding through long times the life-roots of all excellent human +things whatsoever,--in a way that "utilities" will not succeed well in +calculating! We will not estimate the Sun by the quantity of gaslight +it saves us; Dante shall be invaluable, or of no value. One remark I +may make: the contrast in this respect between the Hero-Poet and the +Hero-Prophet. In a hundred years, Mahomet, as we saw, had his Arabians +at Grenada and at Delhi; Dante's Italians seem to be yet very much where +they were. Shall we say, then, Dante's effect on the world was small in +comparison? Not so: his arena is far more restricted; but also it is far +nobler, clearer;--perhaps not less but more important. Mahomet speaks +to great masses of men, in the coarse dialect adapted to such; a dialect +filled with inconsistencies, crudities, follies: on the great masses +alone can he act, and there with good and with evil strangely blended. +Dante speaks to the noble, the pure and great, in all times and places. +Neither does he grow obsolete, as the other does. Dante burns as a pure +star, fixed there in the firmament, at which the great and the high of +all ages kindle themselves: he is the possession of all the chosen of +the world for uncounted time. Dante, one calculates, may long survive +Mahomet. In this way the balance may be made straight again. + +But, at any rate, it is not by what is called their effect on the world, +by what _we_ can judge of their effect there, that a man and his work +are measured. Effect? Influence? Utility? Let a man _do_ his work; the +fruit of it is the care of Another than he. It will grow its own fruit; +and whether embodied in Caliph Thrones and Arabian Conquests, so that it +"fills all Morning and Evening Newspapers," and all Histories, which are +a kind of distilled Newspapers; or not embodied so at all;--what matters +that? That is not the real fruit of it! The Arabian Caliph, in so far +only as he did something, was something. If the great Cause of Man, and +Man's work in God's Earth, got no furtherance from the Arabian Caliph, +then no matter how many scimetars he drew, how many gold piasters +pocketed, and what uproar and blaring he made in this world,--_he_ was +but a loud-sounding inanity and futility; at bottom, he _was_ not +at all. Let us honor the great empire of _Silence_, once more! The +boundless treasury which we do not jingle in our pockets, or count up +and present before men! It is perhaps, of all things, the usefulest for +each of us to do, in these loud times.-- + + +As Dante, the Italian man, was sent into our world to embody musically +the Religion of the Middle Ages, the Religion of our Modern Europe, its +Inner Life; so Shakspeare, we may say, embodies for us the Outer Life +of our Europe as developed then, its chivalries, courtesies, humors, +ambitions, what practical way of thinking, acting, looking at the +world, men then had. As in Homer we may still construe Old Greece; so in +Shakspeare and Dante, after thousands of years, what our modern Europe +was, in Faith and in Practice, will still be legible. Dante has given us +the Faith or soul; Shakspeare, in a not less noble way, has given us the +Practice or body. This latter also we were to have; a man was sent for +it, the man Shakspeare. Just when that chivalry way of life had reached +its last finish, and was on the point of breaking down into slow or +swift dissolution, as we now see it everywhere, this other sovereign +Poet, with his seeing eye, with his perennial singing voice, was sent to +take note of it, to give long-enduring record of it. Two fit men: Dante, +deep, fierce as the central fire of the world; Shakspeare, wide, placid, +far-seeing, as the Sun, the upper light of the world. Italy produced the +one world-voice; we English had the honor of producing the other. + +Curious enough how, as it were by mere accident, this man came to us. +I think always, so great, quiet, complete and self-sufficing is +this Shakspeare, had the Warwickshire Squire not prosecuted him for +deer-stealing, we had perhaps never heard of him as a Poet! The woods +and skies, the rustic Life of Man in Stratford there, had been enough +for this man! But indeed that strange outbudding of our whole English +Existence, which we call the Elizabethan Era, did not it too come as +of its own accord? The "Tree Igdrasil" buds and withers by its own +laws,--too deep for our scanning. Yet it does bud and wither, and every +bough and leaf of it is there, by fixed eternal laws; not a Sir +Thomas Lucy but comes at the hour fit for him. Curious, I say, and not +sufficiently considered: how everything does co-operate with all; not +a leaf rotting on the highway but is indissoluble portion of solar and +stellar systems; no thought, word or act of man but has sprung +withal out of all men, and works sooner or later, recognizably or +irrecognizable, on all men! It is all a Tree: circulation of sap and +influences, mutual communication of every minutest leaf with the lowest +talon of a root, with every other greatest and minutest portion of the +whole. The Tree Igdrasil, that has its roots down in the Kingdoms of +Hela and Death, and whose boughs overspread the highest Heaven--! + +In some sense it may be said that this glorious Elizabethan Era with its +Shakspeare, as the outcome and flowerage of all which had preceded +it, is itself attributable to the Catholicism of the Middle Ages. The +Christian Faith, which was the theme of Dante's Song, had produced this +Practical Life which Shakspeare was to sing. For Religion then, as it +now and always is, was the soul of Practice; the primary vital fact +in men's life. And remark here, as rather curious, that Middle-Age +Catholicism was abolished, so far as Acts of Parliament could abolish +it, before Shakspeare, the noblest product of it, made his appearance. +He did make his appearance nevertheless. Nature at her own time, with +Catholicism or what else might be necessary, sent him forth; taking +small thought of Acts of Parliament. King Henrys, Queen Elizabeths go +their way; and Nature too goes hers. Acts of Parliament, on the whole, +are small, notwithstanding the noise they make. What Act of Parliament, +debate at St. Stephen's, on the hustings or elsewhere, was it that +brought this Shakspeare into being? No dining at Freemason's Tavern, +opening subscription-lists, selling of shares, and infinite other +jangling and true or false endeavoring! This Elizabethan Era, and all +its nobleness and blessedness, came without proclamation, preparation of +ours. Priceless Shakspeare was the free gift of Nature; given altogether +silently;--received altogether silently, as if it had been a thing of +little account. And yet, very literally, it is a priceless thing. One +should look at that side of matters too. + +Of this Shakspeare of ours, perhaps the opinion one sometimes hears a +little idolatrously expressed is, in fact, the right one; I think the +best judgment not of this country only, but of Europe at large, is +slowly pointing to the conclusion, that Shakspeare is the chief of all +Poets hitherto; the greatest intellect who, in our recorded world, has +left record of himself in the way of Literature. On the whole, I know +not such a power of vision, such a faculty of thought, if we take all +the characters of it, in any other man. Such a calmness of depth; placid +joyous strength; all things imaged in that great soul of his so true and +clear, as in a tranquil unfathomable sea! It has been said, that in +the constructing of Shakspeare's Dramas there is, apart from all other +"faculties" as they are called, an understanding manifested, equal to +that in Bacon's _Novum Organum_ That is true; and it is not a truth that +strikes every one. It would become more apparent if we tried, any of +us for himself, how, out of Shakspeare's dramatic materials, _we_ could +fashion such a result! The built house seems all so fit,--every way +as it should be, as if it came there by its own law and the nature of +things,--we forget the rude disorderly quarry it was shaped from. The +very perfection of the house, as if Nature herself had made it, hides +the builder's merit. Perfect, more perfect than any other man, we +may call Shakspeare in this: he discerns, knows as by instinct, what +condition he works under, what his materials are, what his own force and +its relation to them is. It is not a transitory glance of insight that +will suffice; it is deliberate illumination of the whole matter; it is +a calmly _seeing_ eye; a great intellect, in short. How a man, of some +wide thing that he has witnessed, will construct a narrative, what kind +of picture and delineation he will give of it,--is the best measure you +could get of what intellect is in the man. Which circumstance is vital +and shall stand prominent; which unessential, fit to be suppressed; +where is the true _beginning_, the true sequence and ending? To find out +this, you task the whole force of insight that is in the man. He must +_understand_ the thing; according to the depth of his understanding, +will the fitness of his answer be. You will try him so. Does like join +itself to like; does the spirit of method stir in that confusion, so +that its embroilment becomes order? Can the man say, _Fiat lux_, Let +there be light; and out of chaos make a world? Precisely as there is +light in himself, will he accomplish this. + +Or indeed we may say again, it is in what I called Portrait-painting, +delineating of men and things, especially of men, that Shakspeare is +great. All the greatness of the man comes out decisively here. It is +unexampled, I think, that calm creative perspicacity of Shakspeare. The +thing he looks at reveals not this or that face of it, but its inmost +heart, and generic secret: it dissolves itself as in light before him, +so that he discerns the perfect structure of it. Creative, we said: +poetic creation, what is this too but _seeing_ the thing sufficiently? +The _word_ that will describe the thing, follows of itself from such +clear intense sight of the thing. And is not Shakspeare's _morality_, +his valor, candor, tolerance, truthfulness; his whole victorious +strength and greatness, which can triumph over such obstructions, +visible there too? Great as the world. No _twisted_, poor convex-concave +mirror, reflecting all objects with its own convexities and concavities; +a perfectly _level_ mirror;--that is to say withal, if we will +understand it, a man justly related to all things and men, a good man. +It is truly a lordly spectacle how this great soul takes in all kinds +of men and objects, a Falstaff, an Othello, a Juliet, a Coriolanus; +sets them all forth to us in their round completeness; loving, just, the +equal brother of all. _Novum Organum_, and all the intellect you will +find in Bacon, is of a quite secondary order; earthy, material, poor in +comparison with this. Among modern men, one finds, in strictness, almost +nothing of the same rank. Goethe alone, since the days of Shakspeare, +reminds me of it. Of him too you say that he _saw_ the object; you may +say what he himself says of Shakspeare: "His characters are like watches +with dial-plates of transparent crystal; they show you the hour like +others, and the inward mechanism also is all visible." + +The seeing eye! It is this that discloses the inner harmony of things; +what Nature meant, what musical idea Nature has wrapped up in these +often rough embodiments. Something she did mean. To the seeing eye that +something were discernible. Are they base, miserable things? You can +laugh over them, you can weep over them; you can in some way or other +genially relate yourself to them;--you can, at lowest, hold your peace +about them, turn away your own and others' face from them, till the hour +come for practically exterminating and extinguishing them! At bottom, +it is the Poet's first gift, as it is all men's, that he have intellect +enough. He will be a Poet if he have: a Poet in word; or failing that, +perhaps still better, a Poet in act. Whether he write at all; and if +so, whether in prose or in verse, will depend on accidents: who knows +on what extremely trivial accidents,--perhaps on his having had a +singing-master, on his being taught to sing in his boyhood! But the +faculty which enables him to discern the inner heart of things, and the +harmony that dwells there (for whatsoever exists has a harmony in the +heart of it, or it would not hold together and exist), is not the result +of habits or accidents, but the gift of Nature herself; the primary +outfit for a Heroic Man in what sort soever. To the Poet, as to every +other, we say first of all, _See_. If you cannot do that, it is of no +use to keep stringing rhymes together, jingling sensibilities against +each other, and _name_ yourself a Poet; there is no hope for you. If you +can, there is, in prose or verse, in action or speculation, all manner +of hope. The crabbed old Schoolmaster used to ask, when they brought him +a new pupil, "But are ye sure he's _not a dunce_?" Why, really one +might ask the same thing, in regard to every man proposed for whatsoever +function; and consider it as the one inquiry needful: Are ye sure he's +not a dunce? There is, in this world, no other entirely fatal person. + +For, in fact, I say the degree of vision that dwells in a man is a +correct measure of the man. If called to define Shakspeare's faculty, I +should say superiority of Intellect, and think I had included all under +that. What indeed are faculties? We talk of faculties as if they were +distinct, things separable; as if a man had intellect, imagination, +fancy, &c., as he has hands, feet and arms. That is a capital error. +Then again, we hear of a man's "intellectual nature," and of his +"moral nature," as if these again were divisible, and existed apart. +Necessities of language do perhaps prescribe such forms of utterance; +we must speak, I am aware, in that way, if we are to speak at all. +But words ought not to harden into things for us. It seems to me, our +apprehension of this matter is, for most part, radically falsified +thereby. We ought to know withal, and to keep forever in mind, that +these divisions are at bottom but _names_; that man's spiritual nature, +the vital Force which dwells in him, is essentially one and indivisible; +that what we call imagination, fancy, understanding, and so forth, are +but different figures of the same Power of Insight, all indissolubly +connected with each other, physiognomically related; that if we knew one +of them, we might know all of them. Morality itself, what we call the +moral quality of a man, what is this but another _side_ of the one vital +Force whereby he is and works? All that a man does is physiognomical of +him. You may see how a man would fight, by the way in which he sings; +his courage, or want of courage, is visible in the word he utters, in +the opinion he has formed, no less than in the stroke he strikes. He is +_one_; and preaches the same Self abroad in all these ways. + +Without hands a man might have feet, and could still walk: but, consider +it,--without morality, intellect were impossible for him; a thoroughly +immoral _man_ could not know anything at all! To know a thing, what we +can call knowing, a man must first _love_ the thing, sympathize with it: +that is, be _virtuously_ related to it. If he have not the justice to +put down his own selfishness at every turn, the courage to stand by the +dangerous-true at every turn, how shall he know? His virtues, all +of them, will lie recorded in his knowledge. Nature, with her truth, +remains to the bad, to the selfish and the pusillanimous forever a +sealed book: what such can know of Nature is mean, superficial, +small; for the uses of the day merely.--But does not the very Fox know +something of Nature? Exactly so: it knows where the geese lodge! The +human Reynard, very frequent everywhere in the world, what more does he +know but this and the like of this? Nay, it should be considered too, +that if the Fox had not a certain vulpine _morality_, he could not even +know where the geese were, or get at the geese! If he spent his time +in splenetic atrabiliar reflections on his own misery, his ill usage +by Nature, Fortune and other Foxes, and so forth; and had not courage, +promptitude, practicality, and other suitable vulpine gifts and graces, +he would catch no geese. We may say of the Fox too, that his morality +and insight are of the same dimensions; different faces of the same +internal unity of vulpine life!--These things are worth stating; for +the contrary of them acts with manifold very baleful perversion, in this +time: what limitations, modifications they require, your own candor will +supply. + +If I say, therefore, that Shakspeare is the greatest of Intellects, +I have said all concerning him. But there is more in Shakspeare's +intellect than we have yet seen. It is what I call an unconscious +intellect; there is more virtue in it than he himself is aware of. +Novalis beautifully remarks of him, that those Dramas of his are +Products of Nature too, deep as Nature herself. I find a great truth in +this saying. Shakspeare's Art is not Artifice; the noblest worth of it +is not there by plan or precontrivance. It grows up from the deeps of +Nature, through this noble sincere soul, who is a voice of Nature. The +latest generations of men will find new meanings in Shakspeare, new +elucidations of their own human being; "new harmonies with the infinite +structure of the Universe; concurrences with later ideas, affinities +with the higher powers and senses of man." This well deserves +meditating. It is Nature's highest reward to a true simple great +soul, that he get thus to be _a part of herself_. Such a man's works, +whatsoever he with utmost conscious exertion and forethought shall +accomplish, grow up withal unconsciously, from the unknown deeps in +him;--as the oak-tree grows from the Earth's bosom, as the mountains and +waters shape themselves; with a symmetry grounded on Nature's own laws, +conformable to all Truth whatsoever. How much in Shakspeare lies hid; +his sorrows, his silent struggles known to himself; much that was not +known at all, not speakable at all: like _roots_, like sap and forces +working underground! Speech is great; but Silence is greater. + +Withal the joyful tranquillity of this man is notable. I will not +blame Dante for his misery: it is as battle without victory; but true +battle,--the first, indispensable thing. Yet I call Shakspeare greater +than Dante, in that he fought truly, and did conquer. Doubt it not, he +had his own sorrows: those _Sonnets_ of his will even testify expressly +in what deep waters he had waded, and swum struggling for his life;--as +what man like him ever failed to have to do? It seems to me a heedless +notion, our common one, that he sat like a bird on the bough; and sang +forth, free and off-hand, never knowing the troubles of other men. Not +so; with no man is it so. How could a man travel forward from rustic +deer-poaching to such tragedy-writing, and not fall in with sorrows +by the way? Or, still better, how could a man delineate a Hamlet, a +Coriolanus, a Macbeth, so many suffering heroic hearts, if his own +heroic heart had never suffered?--And now, in contrast with all this, +observe his mirthfulness, his genuine overflowing love of laughter! You +would say, in no point does he _exaggerate_ but only in laughter. Fiery +objurgations, words that pierce and burn, are to be found in Shakspeare; +yet he is always in measure here; never what Johnson would remark as +a specially "good hater." But his laughter seems to pour from him in +floods; he heaps all manner of ridiculous nicknames on the butt he is +bantering, tumbles and tosses him in all sorts of horse-play; you would +say, with his whole heart laughs. And then, if not always the finest, it +is always a genial laughter. Not at mere weakness, at misery or poverty; +never. No man who _can_ laugh, what we call laughing, will laugh at +these things. It is some poor character only _desiring_ to laugh, and +have the credit of wit, that does so. Laughter means sympathy; good +laughter is not "the crackling of thorns under the pot." Even at +stupidity and pretension this Shakspeare does not laugh otherwise than +genially. Dogberry and Verges tickle our very hearts; and we dismiss +them covered with explosions of laughter: but we like the poor fellows +only the better for our laughing; and hope they will get on well there, +and continue Presidents of the City-watch. Such laughter, like sunshine +on the deep sea, is very beautiful to me. + + +We have no room to speak of Shakspeare's individual works; though +perhaps there is much still waiting to be said on that head. Had we, for +instance, all his plays reviewed as _Hamlet_, in _Wilhelm Meister_, is! +A thing which might, one day, be done. August Wilhelm Schlegel has a +remark on his Historical Plays, _Henry Fifth_ and the others, which is +worth remembering. He calls them a kind of National Epic. Marlborough, +you recollect, said, he knew no English History but what he had learned +from Shakspeare. There are really, if we look to it, few as memorable +Histories. The great salient points are admirably seized; all rounds +itself off, into a kind of rhythmic coherence; it is, as Schlegel says, +epic;--as indeed all delineation by a great thinker will be. There are +right beautiful things in those Pieces, which indeed together form one +beautiful thing. That battle of Agincourt strikes me as one of the +most perfect things, in its sort, we anywhere have of Shakspeare's. The +description of the two hosts: the worn-out, jaded English; the dread +hour, big with destiny, when the battle shall begin; and then that +deathless valor: "Ye good yeomen, whose limbs were made in England!" +There is a noble Patriotism in it,--far other than the "indifference" +you sometimes hear ascribed to Shakspeare. A true English heart +breathes, calm and strong, through the whole business; not boisterous, +protrusive; all the better for that. There is a sound in it like the +ring of steel. This man too had a right stroke in him, had it come to +that! + +But I will say, of Shakspeare's works generally, that we have no full +impress of him there; even as full as we have of many men. His works are +so many windows, through which we see a glimpse of the world that was +in him. All his works seem, comparatively speaking, cursory, imperfect, +written under cramping circumstances; giving only here and there a note +of the full utterance of the man. Passages there are that come upon you +like splendor out of Heaven; bursts of radiance, illuminating the very +heart of the thing: you say, "That is _true_, spoken once and forever; +wheresoever and whensoever there is an open human soul, that will +be recognized as true!" Such bursts, however, make us feel that the +surrounding matter is not radiant; that it is, in part, temporary, +conventional. Alas, Shakspeare had to write for the Globe Playhouse: +his great soul had to crush itself, as it could, into that and no other +mould. It was with him, then, as it is with us all. No man works save +under conditions. The sculptor cannot set his own free Thought before +us; but his Thought as he could translate it into the stone that was +given, with the tools that were given. _Disjecta membra_ are all that we +find of any Poet, or of any man. + + +Whoever looks intelligently at this Shakspeare may recognize that he too +was a _Prophet_, in his way; of an insight analogous to the Prophetic, +though he took it up in another strain. Nature seemed to this man also +divine; unspeakable, deep as Tophet, high as Heaven; "We are such stuff +as Dreams are made of!" That scroll in Westminster Abbey, which few read +with understanding, is of the depth of any seer. But the man sang; did +not preach, except musically. We called Dante the melodious Priest +of Middle-Age Catholicism. May we not call Shakspeare the still more +melodious Priest of a _true_ Catholicism, the "Universal Church" of +the Future and of all times? No narrow superstition, harsh asceticism, +intolerance, fanatical fierceness or perversion: a Revelation, so far as +it goes, that such a thousand-fold hidden beauty and divineness dwells +in all Nature; which let all men worship as they can! We may say +without offence, that there rises a kind of universal Psalm out of this +Shakspeare too; not unfit to make itself heard among the still more +sacred Psalms. Not in disharmony with these, if we understood them, but +in harmony!--I cannot call this Shakspeare a "Sceptic," as some do; +his indifference to the creeds and theological quarrels of his time +misleading them. No: neither unpatriotic, though he says little about +his Patriotism; nor sceptic, though he says little about his Faith. Such +"indifference" was the fruit of his greatness withal: his whole heart +was in his own grand sphere of worship (we may call it such); these +other controversies, vitally important to other men, were not vital to +him. + +But call it worship, call it what you will, is it not a right glorious +thing, and set of things, this that Shakspeare has brought us? For +myself, I feel that there is actually a kind of sacredness in the fact +of such a man being sent into this Earth. Is he not an eye to us all; +a blessed heaven-sent Bringer of Light?--And, at bottom, was it not +perhaps far better that this Shakspeare, every way an unconscious man, +was _conscious_ of no Heavenly message? He did not feel, like Mahomet, +because he saw into those internal Splendors, that he specially was the +"Prophet of God:" and was he not greater than Mahomet in that? Greater; +and also, if we compute strictly, as we did in Dante's case, more +successful. It was intrinsically an error that notion of Mahomet's, of +his supreme Prophethood; and has come down to us inextricably involved +in error to this day; dragging along with it such a coil of fables, +impurities, intolerances, as makes it a questionable step for me here +and now to say, as I have done, that Mahomet was a true Speaker at all, +and not rather an ambitious charlatan, perversity and simulacrum; no +Speaker, but a Babbler! Even in Arabia, as I compute, Mahomet will have +exhausted himself and become obsolete, while this Shakspeare, this Dante +may still be young;--while this Shakspeare may still pretend to be a +Priest of Mankind, of Arabia as of other places, for unlimited periods +to come! + +Compared with any speaker or singer one knows, even with Aeschylus or +Homer, why should he not, for veracity and universality, last like them? +He is _sincere_ as they; reaches deep down like them, to the universal +and perennial. But as for Mahomet, I think it had been better for +him _not_ to be so conscious! Alas, poor Mahomet; all that he was +_conscious_ of was a mere error; a futility and triviality,--as indeed +such ever is. The truly great in him too was the unconscious: that he +was a wild Arab lion of the desert, and did speak out with that great +thunder-voice of his, not by words which he _thought_ to be great, but +by actions, by feelings, by a history which _were_ great! His Koran has +become a stupid piece of prolix absurdity; we do not believe, like him, +that God wrote that! The Great Man here too, as always, is a Force +of Nature. Whatsoever is truly great in him springs up from the +_in_articulate deeps. + + +Well: this is our poor Warwickshire Peasant, who rose to be Manager of +a Playhouse, so that he could live without begging; whom the Earl of +Southampton cast some kind glances on; whom Sir Thomas Lucy, many thanks +to him, was for sending to the Treadmill! We did not account him a god, +like Odin, while he dwelt with us;--on which point there were much to +be said. But I will say rather, or repeat: In spite of the sad state +Hero-worship now lies in, consider what this Shakspeare has actually +become among us. Which Englishman we ever made, in this land of ours, +which million of Englishmen, would we not give up rather than the +Stratford Peasant? There is no regiment of highest Dignitaries that we +would sell him for. He is the grandest thing we have yet done. For our +honor among foreign nations, as an ornament to our English Household, +what item is there that we would not surrender rather than him? Consider +now, if they asked us, Will you give up your Indian Empire or your +Shakspeare, you English; never have had any Indian Empire, or never have +had any Shakspeare? Really it were a grave question. Official persons +would answer doubtless in official language; but we, for our part too, +should not we be forced to answer: Indian Empire, or no Indian Empire; +we cannot do without Shakspeare! Indian Empire will go, at any rate, +some day; but this Shakspeare does not go, he lasts forever with us; we +cannot give up our Shakspeare! + +Nay, apart from spiritualities; and considering him merely as a real, +marketable, tangibly useful possession. England, before long, this +Island of ours, will hold but a small fraction of the English: in +America, in New Holland, east and west to the very Antipodes, there will +be a Saxondom covering great spaces of the Globe. And now, what is it +that can keep all these together into virtually one Nation, so that +they do not fall out and fight, but live at peace, in brotherlike +intercourse, helping one another? This is justly regarded as the +greatest practical problem, the thing all manner of sovereignties and +governments are here to accomplish: what is it that will accomplish +this? Acts of Parliament, administrative prime-ministers cannot. America +is parted from us, so far as Parliament could part it. Call it not +fantastic, for there is much reality in it: Here, I say, is an English +King, whom no time or chance, Parliament or combination of Parliaments, +can dethrone! This King Shakspeare, does not he shine, in crowned +sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of +rallying-signs; indestructible; really more valuable in that point of +view than any other means or appliance whatsoever? We can fancy him +as radiant aloft over all the Nations of Englishmen, a thousand years +hence. From Paramatta, from New York, wheresoever, under what sort of +Parish-Constable soever, English men and women are, they will say to one +another: "Yes, this Shakspeare is ours; we produced him, we speak +and think by him; we are of one blood and kind with him." The most +common-sense politician, too, if he pleases, may think of that. + +Yes, truly, it is a great thing for a Nation that it get an articulate +voice; that it produce a man who will speak forth melodiously what the +heart of it means! Italy, for example, poor Italy lies dismembered, +scattered asunder, not appearing in any protocol or treaty as a unity +at all; yet the noble Italy is actually _one_: Italy produced its Dante; +Italy can speak! The Czar of all the Russias, he is strong with so many +bayonets, Cossacks and cannons; and does a great feat in keeping such a +tract of Earth politically together; but he cannot yet speak. Something +great in him, but it is a dumb greatness. He has had no voice of genius, +to be heard of all men and times. He must learn to speak. He is a great +dumb monster hitherto. His cannons and Cossacks will all have rusted +into nonentity, while that Dante's voice is still audible. The Nation +that has a Dante is bound together as no dumb Russia can be.--We must +here end what we had to say of the _Hero-Poet_. + + + + +LECTURE IV. THE HERO AS PRIEST. LUTHER; REFORMATION: KNOX; PURITANISM. + +[May 15, 1840.] + +Our present discourse is to be of the Great Man as Priest. We +have repeatedly endeavored to explain that all sorts of Heroes are +intrinsically of the same material; that given a great soul, open to the +Divine Significance of Life, then there is given a man fit to speak +of this, to sing of this, to fight and work for this, in a great, +victorious, enduring manner; there is given a Hero,--the outward shape +of whom will depend on the time and the environment he finds himself +in. The Priest too, as I understand it, is a kind of Prophet; in him too +there is required to be a light of inspiration, as we must name it. He +presides over the worship of the people; is the Uniter of them with the +Unseen Holy. He is the spiritual Captain of the people; as the Prophet +is their spiritual King with many captains: he guides them heavenward, +by wise guidance through this Earth and its work. The ideal of him +is, that he too be what we can call a voice from the unseen Heaven; +interpreting, even as the Prophet did, and in a more familiar manner +unfolding the same to men. The unseen Heaven,--the "open secret of the +Universe,"--which so few have an eye for! He is the Prophet shorn of +his more awful splendor; burning with mild equable radiance, as the +enlightener of daily life. This, I say, is the ideal of a Priest. So in +old times; so in these, and in all times. One knows very well that, in +reducing ideals to practice, great latitude of tolerance is needful; +very great. But a Priest who is not this at all, who does not any longer +aim or try to be this, is a character--of whom we had rather not speak +in this place. + +Luther and Knox were by express vocation Priests, and did faithfully +perform that function in its common sense. Yet it will suit us better +here to consider them chiefly in their historical character, rather as +Reformers than Priests. There have been other Priests perhaps equally +notable, in calmer times, for doing faithfully the office of a Leader of +Worship; bringing down, by faithful heroism in that kind, a light from +Heaven into the daily life of their people; leading them forward, as +under God's guidance, in the way wherein they were to go. But when +this same _way_ was a rough one, of battle, confusion and danger, the +spiritual Captain, who led through that, becomes, especially to us who +live under the fruit of his leading, more notable than any other. He +is the warfaring and battling Priest; who led his people, not to quiet +faithful labor as in smooth times, but to faithful valorous conflict, +in times all violent, dismembered: a more perilous service, and a more +memorable one, be it higher or not. These two men we will account our +best Priests, inasmuch as they were our best Reformers. Nay I may ask, +Is not every true Reformer, by the nature of him, a _Priest_ first of +all? He appeals to Heaven's invisible justice against Earth's visible +force; knows that it, the invisible, is strong and alone strong. He is +a believer in the divine truth of things; a _seer_, seeing through the +shows of things; a worshipper, in one way or the other, of the divine +truth of things; a Priest, that is. If he be not first a Priest, he will +never be good for much as a Reformer. + +Thus then, as we have seen Great Men, in various situations, building +up Religions, heroic Forms of human Existence in this world, Theories +of Life worthy to be sung by a Dante, Practices of Life by a +Shakspeare,--we are now to see the reverse process; which also is +necessary, which also may be carried on in the Heroic manner. Curious +how this should be necessary: yet necessary it is. The mild shining +of the Poet's light has to give place to the fierce lightning of the +Reformer: unfortunately the Reformer too is a personage that cannot +fail in History! The Poet indeed, with his mildness, what is he but +the product and ultimate adjustment of Reform, or Prophecy, with its +fierceness? No wild Saint Dominics and Thebaid Eremites, there had been +no melodious Dante; rough Practical Endeavor, Scandinavian and other, +from Odin to Walter Raleigh, from Ulfila to Cranmer, enabled Shakspeare +to speak. Nay the finished Poet, I remark sometimes, is a symptom that +his epoch itself has reached perfection and is finished; that before +long there will be a new epoch, new Reformers needed. + +Doubtless it were finer, could we go along always in the way of _music_; +be tamed and taught by our Poets, as the rude creatures were by their +Orpheus of old. Or failing this rhythmic _musical_ way, how good were it +could we get so much as into the _equable_ way; I mean, if _peaceable_ +Priests, reforming from day to day, would always suffice us! But it is +not so; even this latter has not yet been realized. Alas, the battling +Reformer too is, from time to time, a needful and inevitable phenomenon. +Obstructions are never wanting: the very things that were once +indispensable furtherances become obstructions; and need to be shaken +off, and left behind us,--a business often of enormous difficulty. It is +notable enough, surely, how a Theorem or spiritual Representation, so we +may call it, which once took in the whole Universe, and was completely +satisfactory in all parts of it to the highly discursive acute intellect +of Dante, one of the greatest in the world,--had in the course of +another century become dubitable to common intellects; become deniable; +and is now, to every one of us, flatly incredible, obsolete as Odin's +Theorem! To Dante, human Existence, and God's ways with men, were all +well represented by those _Malebolges_, _Purgatorios_; to Luther not +well. How was this? Why could not Dante's Catholicism continue; but +Luther's Protestantism must needs follow? Alas, nothing will _continue_. + +I do not make much of "Progress of the Species," as handled in these +times of ours; nor do I think you would care to hear much about it. +The talk on that subject is too often of the most extravagant, confused +sort. Yet I may say, the fact itself seems certain enough; nay we can +trace out the inevitable necessity of it in the nature of things. Every +man, as I have stated somewhere, is not only a learner but a doer: he +learns with the mind given him what has been; but with the same mind +he discovers farther, he invents and devises somewhat of his own. +Absolutely without originality there is no man. No man whatever +believes, or can believe, exactly what his grandfather believed: he +enlarges somewhat, by fresh discovery, his view of the Universe, and +consequently his Theorem of the Universe,--which is an _infinite_ +Universe, and can never be embraced wholly or finally by any view or +Theorem, in any conceivable enlargement: he enlarges somewhat, I say; +finds somewhat that was credible to his grandfather incredible to him, +false to him, inconsistent with some new thing he has discovered or +observed. It is the history of every man; and in the history of Mankind +we see it summed up into great historical amounts,--revolutions, new +epochs. Dante's Mountain of Purgatory does _not_ stand "in the ocean of +the other Hemisphere," when Columbus has once sailed thither! Men find +no such thing extant in the other Hemisphere. It is not there. It must +cease to be believed to be there. So with all beliefs whatsoever in this +world,--all Systems of Belief, and Systems of Practice that spring from +these. + +If we add now the melancholy fact, that when Belief waxes uncertain, +Practice too becomes unsound, and errors, injustices and miseries +everywhere more and more prevail, we shall see material enough for +revolution. At all turns, a man who will _do_ faithfully, needs to +believe firmly. If he have to ask at every turn the world's suffrage; if +he cannot dispense with the world's suffrage, and make his own suffrage +serve, he is a poor eye-servant; the work committed to him will be +_mis_done. Every such man is a daily contributor to the inevitable +downfall. Whatsoever work he does, dishonestly, with an eye to the +outward look of it, is a new offence, parent of new misery to somebody +or other. Offences accumulate till they become insupportable; and are +then violently burst through, cleared off as by explosion. Dante's +sublime Catholicism, incredible now in theory, and defaced still worse +by faithless, doubting and dishonest practice, has to be torn asunder by +a Luther, Shakspeare's noble Feudalism, as beautiful as it once looked +and was, has to end in a French Revolution. The accumulation of offences +is, as we say, too literally _exploded_, blasted asunder volcanically; +and there are long troublous periods, before matters come to a +settlement again. + +Surely it were mournful enough to look only at this face of the matter, +and find in all human opinions and arrangements merely the fact that +they were uncertain, temporary, subject to the law of death! At bottom, +it is not so: all death, here too we find, is but of the body, not of +the essence or soul; all destruction, by violent revolution or howsoever +it be, is but new creation on a wider scale. Odinism was _Valor_; +Christianism was _Humility_, a nobler kind of Valor. No thought that +ever dwelt honestly as true in the heart of man but _was_ an honest +insight into God's truth on man's part, and _has_ an essential truth in +it which endures through all changes, an everlasting possession for us +all. And, on the other hand, what a melancholy notion is that, which +has to represent all men, in all countries and times except our own, as +having spent their life in blind condemnable error, mere lost Pagans, +Scandinavians, Mahometans, only that we might have the true ultimate +knowledge! All generations of men were lost and wrong, only that this +present little section of a generation might be saved and right. They +all marched forward there, all generations since the beginning of the +world, like the Russian soldiers into the ditch of Schweidnitz Fort, +only to fill up the ditch with their dead bodies, that we might march +over and take the place! It is an incredible hypothesis. + +Such incredible hypothesis we have seen maintained with fierce emphasis; +and this or the other poor individual man, with his sect of individual +men, marching as over the dead bodies of all men, towards sure victory +but when he too, with his hypothesis and ultimate infallible credo, sank +into the ditch, and became a dead body, what was to be said?--Withal, it +is an important fact in the nature of man, that he tends to reckon his +own insight as final, and goes upon it as such. He will always do it, +I suppose, in one or the other way; but it must be in some wider, wiser +way than this. Are not all true men that live, or that ever lived, +soldiers of the same army, enlisted, under Heaven's captaincy, to do +battle against the same enemy, the empire of Darkness and Wrong? Why +should we misknow one another, fight not against the enemy but against +ourselves, from mere difference of uniform? All uniforms shall be good, +so they hold in them true valiant men. All fashions of arms, the Arab +turban and swift scimetar, Thor's strong hammer smiting down _Jotuns_, +shall be welcome. Luther's battle-voice, Dante's march-melody, all +genuine things are with us, not against us. We are all under one +Captain, soldiers of the same host.--Let us now look a little at this +Luther's fighting; what kind of battle it was, and how he comported +himself in it. Luther too was of our spiritual Heroes; a Prophet to his +country and time. + + +As introductory to the whole, a remark about Idolatry will perhaps be +in place here. One of Mahomet's characteristics, which indeed belongs to +all Prophets, is unlimited implacable zeal against Idolatry. It is the +grand theme of Prophets: Idolatry, the worshipping of dead Idols as +the Divinity, is a thing they cannot away with, but have to denounce +continually, and brand with inexpiable reprobation; it is the chief of +all the sins they see done under the sun. This is worth noting. We will +not enter here into the theological question about Idolatry. Idol is +_Eidolon_, a thing seen, a symbol. It is not God, but a Symbol of God; +and perhaps one may question whether any the most benighted mortal ever +took it for more than a Symbol. I fancy, he did not think that the poor +image his own hands had made _was_ God; but that God was emblemed by +it, that God was in it some way or other. And now in this sense, one may +ask, Is not all worship whatsoever a worship by Symbols, by _eidola_, or +things seen? Whether _seen_, rendered visible as an image or picture to +the bodily eye; or visible only to the inward eye, to the imagination, +to the intellect: this makes a superficial, but no substantial +difference. It is still a Thing Seen, significant of Godhead; an Idol. +The most rigorous Puritan has his Confession of Faith, and intellectual +Representation of Divine things, and worships thereby; thereby is +worship first made possible for him. All creeds, liturgies, religious +forms, conceptions that fitly invest religious feelings, are in this +sense _eidola_, things seen. All worship whatsoever must proceed by +Symbols, by Idols:--we may say, all Idolatry is comparative, and the +worst Idolatry is only _more_ idolatrous. + +Where, then, lies the evil of it? Some fatal evil must lie in it, or +earnest prophetic men would not on all hands so reprobate it. Why is +Idolatry so hateful to Prophets? It seems to me as if, in the worship +of those poor wooden symbols, the thing that had chiefly provoked the +Prophet, and filled his inmost soul with indignation and aversion, was +not exactly what suggested itself to his own thought, and came out of +him in words to others, as the thing. The rudest heathen that worshipped +Canopus, or the Caabah Black-Stone, he, as we saw, was superior to the +horse that worshipped nothing at all! Nay there was a kind of lasting +merit in that poor act of his; analogous to what is still meritorious in +Poets: recognition of a certain endless _divine_ beauty and significance +in stars and all natural objects whatsoever. Why should the Prophet +so mercilessly condemn him? The poorest mortal worshipping his Fetish, +while his heart is full of it, may be an object of pity, of contempt and +avoidance, if you will; but cannot surely be an object of hatred. Let +his heart _be_ honestly full of it, the whole space of his dark narrow +mind illuminated thereby; in one word, let him entirely _believe_ in +his Fetish,--it will then be, I should say, if not well with him, yet +as well as it can readily be made to be, and you will leave him alone, +unmolested there. + +But here enters the fatal circumstance of Idolatry, that, in the era +of the Prophets, no man's mind _is_ any longer honestly filled with his +Idol or Symbol. Before the Prophet can arise who, seeing through it, +knows it to be mere wood, many men must have begun dimly to doubt that +it was little more. Condemnable Idolatry is _insincere_ Idolatry. +Doubt has eaten out the heart of it: a human soul is seen clinging +spasmodically to an Ark of the Covenant, which it half feels now to have +become a Phantasm. This is one of the balefulest sights. Souls are no +longer filled with their Fetish; but only pretend to be filled, and +would fain make themselves feel that they are filled. "You do not +believe," said Coleridge; "you only believe that you believe." It is the +final scene in all kinds of Worship and Symbolism; the sure symptom +that death is now nigh. It is equivalent to what we call Formulism, and +Worship of Formulas, in these days of ours. No more immoral act can be +done by a human creature; for it is the beginning of all immorality, or +rather it is the impossibility henceforth of any morality whatsoever: +the innermost moral soul is paralyzed thereby, cast into fatal magnetic +sleep! Men are no longer _sincere_ men. I do not wonder that the earnest +man denounces this, brands it, prosecutes it with inextinguishable +aversion. He and it, all good and it, are at death-feud. Blamable +Idolatry is _Cant_, and even what one may call Sincere-Cant. +Sincere-Cant: that is worth thinking of! Every sort of Worship ends with +this phasis. + +I find Luther to have been a Breaker of Idols, no less than any other +Prophet. The wooden gods of the Koreish, made of timber and bees-wax, +were not more hateful to Mahomet than Tetzel's Pardons of Sin, made of +sheepskin and ink, were to Luther. It is the property of every Hero, in +every time, in every place and situation, that he come back to reality; +that he stand upon things, and not shows of things. According as he +loves, and venerates, articulately or with deep speechless thought, the +awful realities of things, so will the hollow shows of things, however +regular, decorous, accredited by Koreishes or Conclaves, be intolerable +and detestable to him. Protestantism, too, is the work of a Prophet: +the prophet-work of that sixteenth century. The first stroke of honest +demolition to an ancient thing grown false and idolatrous; preparatory +afar off to a new thing, which shall be true, and authentically divine! + +At first view it might seem as if Protestantism were entirely +destructive to this that we call Hero-worship, and represent as the +basis of all possible good, religious or social, for mankind. One +often hears it said that Protestantism introduced a new era, radically +different from any the world had ever seen before: the era of "private +judgment," as they call it. By this revolt against the Pope, every man +became his own Pope; and learnt, among other things, that he must never +trust any Pope, or spiritual Hero-captain, any more! Whereby, is not +spiritual union, all hierarchy and subordination among men, henceforth +an impossibility? So we hear it said.--Now I need not deny that +Protestantism was a revolt against spiritual sovereignties, Popes and +much else. Nay I will grant that English Puritanism, revolt against +earthly sovereignties, was the second act of it; that the enormous +French Revolution itself was the third act, whereby all sovereignties +earthly and spiritual were, as might seem, abolished or made sure +of abolition. Protestantism is the grand root from which our whole +subsequent European History branches out. For the spiritual will always +body itself forth in the temporal history of men; the spiritual is the +beginning of the temporal. And now, sure enough, the cry is everywhere +for Liberty and Equality, Independence and so forth; instead of _Kings_, +Ballot-boxes and Electoral suffrages: it seems made out that any +Hero-sovereign, or loyal obedience of men to a man, in things temporal +or things spiritual, has passed away forever from the world. I should +despair of the world altogether, if so. One of my deepest convictions +is, that it is not so. Without sovereigns, true sovereigns, temporal +and spiritual, I see nothing possible but an anarchy; the hatefulest of +things. But I find Protestantism, whatever anarchic democracy it have +produced, to be the beginning of new genuine sovereignty and order. +I find it to be a revolt against _false_ sovereigns; the painful but +indispensable first preparative for _true_ sovereigns getting place +among us! This is worth explaining a little. + +Let us remark, therefore, in the first place, that this of "private +judgment" is, at bottom, not a new thing in the world, but only new at +that epoch of the world. There is nothing generically new or peculiar in +the Reformation; it was a return to Truth and Reality in opposition +to Falsehood and Semblance, as all kinds of Improvement and genuine +Teaching are and have been. Liberty of private judgment, if we will +consider it, must at all times have existed in the world. Dante had not +put out his eyes, or tied shackles on himself; he was at home in +that Catholicism of his, a free-seeing soul in it,--if many a poor +Hogstraten, Tetzel, and Dr. Eck had now become slaves in it. Liberty of +judgment? No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, could ever +compel the soul of a man to believe or to disbelieve: it is his own +indefeasible light, that judgment of his; he will reign, and believe +there, by the grace of God alone! The sorriest sophistical Bellarmine, +preaching sightless faith and passive obedience, must first, by some +kind of _conviction_, have abdicated his right to be convinced. His +"private judgment" indicated that, as the advisablest step _he_ could +take. The right of private judgment will subsist, in full force, +wherever true men subsist. A true man _believes_ with his whole +judgment, with all the illumination and discernment that is in him, and +has always so believed. A false man, only struggling to "believe that +he believes," will naturally manage it in some other way. Protestantism +said to this latter, Woe! and to the former, Well done! At bottom, it +was no new saying; it was a return to all old sayings that ever had been +said. Be genuine, be sincere: that was, once more, the meaning of it. +Mahomet believed with his whole mind; Odin with his whole mind,--he, and +all _true_ Followers of Odinism. They, by their private judgment, had +"judged "--_so_. + +And now I venture to assert, that the exercise of private judgment, +faithfully gone about, does by no means necessarily end in selfish +independence, isolation; but rather ends necessarily in the opposite +of that. It is not honest inquiry that makes anarchy; but it is error, +insincerity, half-belief and untruth that make it. A man protesting +against error is on the way towards uniting himself with all men that +believe in truth. There is no communion possible among men who believe +only in hearsays. The heart of each is lying dead; has no power of +sympathy even with _things_,--or he would believe _them_ and not +hearsays. No sympathy even with things; how much less with his +fellow-men! He cannot unite with men; he is an anarchic man. Only in a +world of sincere men is unity possible;--and there, in the long-run, it +is as good as _certain_. + +For observe one thing, a thing too often left out of view, or rather +altogether lost sight of in this controversy: That it is not necessary a +man should himself have _discovered_ the truth he is to believe in, and +never so _sincerely_ to believe in. A Great Man, we said, was always +sincere, as the first condition of him. But a man need not be great in +order to be sincere; that is not the necessity of Nature and all Time, +but only of certain corrupt unfortunate epochs of Time. A man can +believe, and make his own, in the most genuine way, what he has received +from another;--and with boundless gratitude to that other! The merit of +_originality_ is not novelty; it is sincerity. The believing man is the +original man; whatsoever he believes, he believes it for himself, not +for another. Every son of Adam can become a sincere man, an original +man, in this sense; no mortal is doomed to be an insincere man. Whole +ages, what we call ages of Faith, are original; all men in them, or the +most of men in them, sincere. These are the great and fruitful ages: +every worker, in all spheres, is a worker not on semblance but on +substance; every work issues in a result: the general sum of such work +is great; for all of it, as genuine, tends towards one goal; all of +it is _additive_, none of it subtractive. There is true union, true +kingship, loyalty, all true and blessed things, so far as the poor Earth +can produce blessedness for men. + +Hero-worship? Ah me, that a man be self-subsistent, original, true, or +what we call it, is surely the farthest in the world from indisposing +him to reverence and believe other men's truth! It only disposes, +necessitates and invincibly compels him to disbelieve other men's dead +formulas, hearsays and untruths. A man embraces truth with his eyes +open, and because his eyes are open: does he need to shut them before he +can love his Teacher of truth? He alone can love, with a right gratitude +and genuine loyalty of soul, the Hero-Teacher who has delivered him +out of darkness into light. Is not such a one a true Hero and +Serpent-queller; worthy of all reverence! The black monster, Falsehood, +our one enemy in this world, lies prostrate by his valor; it was he that +conquered the world for us!--See, accordingly, was not Luther himself +reverenced as a true Pope, or Spiritual Father, _being_ verily such? +Napoleon, from amid boundless revolt of Sansculottism, became a King. +Hero-worship never dies, nor can die. Loyalty and Sovereignty are +everlasting in the world:--and there is this in them, that they +are grounded not on garnitures and semblances, but on realities and +sincerities. Not by shutting your eyes, your "private judgment;" no, but +by opening them, and by having something to see! Luther's message was +deposition and abolition to all false Popes and Potentates, but life and +strength, though afar off, to new genuine ones. + +All this of Liberty and Equality, Electoral suffrages, Independence and +so forth, we will take, therefore, to be a temporary phenomenon, by no +means a final one. Though likely to last a long time, with sad enough +embroilments for us all, we must welcome it, as the penalty of sins that +are past, the pledge of inestimable benefits that are coming. In all +ways, it behooved men to quit simulacra and return to fact; cost what it +might, that did behoove to be done. With spurious Popes, and Believers +having no private judgment,--quacks pretending to command over +dupes,--what can you do? Misery and mischief only. You cannot make an +association out of insincere men; you cannot build an edifice except +by plummet and level,--at right-angles to one another! In all this wild +revolutionary work, from Protestantism downwards, I see the blessedest +result preparing itself: not abolition of Hero-worship, but rather what +I would call a whole World of Heroes. If Hero mean _sincere man_, why +may not every one of us be a Hero? A world all sincere, a believing +world: the like has been; the like will again be,--cannot help being. +That were the right sort of Worshippers for Heroes: never could the +truly Better be so reverenced as where all were True and Good!--But we +must hasten to Luther and his Life. + + +Luther's birthplace was Eisleben in Saxony; he came into the world there +on the 10th of November, 1483. It was an accident that gave this honor +to Eisleben. His parents, poor mine-laborers in a village of that +region, named Mohra, had gone to the Eisleben Winter-Fair: in the tumult +of this scene the Frau Luther was taken with travail, found refuge in +some poor house there, and the boy she bore was named MARTIN LUTHER. +Strange enough to reflect upon it. This poor Frau Luther, she had gone +with her husband to make her small merchandisings; perhaps to sell the +lock of yarn she had been spinning, to buy the small winter-necessaries +for her narrow hut or household; in the whole world, that day, there was +not a more entirely unimportant-looking pair of people than this Miner +and his Wife. And yet what were all Emperors, Popes and Potentates, in +comparison? There was born here, once more, a Mighty Man; whose light +was to flame as the beacon over long centuries and epochs of the world; +the whole world and its history was waiting for this man. It is strange, +it is great. It leads us back to another Birth-hour, in a still meaner +environment, Eighteen Hundred years ago,--of which it is fit that we +_say_ nothing, that we think only in silence; for what words are there! +The Age of Miracles past? The Age of Miracles is forever here--! + +I find it altogether suitable to Luther's function in this Earth, and +doubtless wisely ordered to that end by the Providence presiding over +him and us and all things, that he was born poor, and brought up poor, +one of the poorest of men. He had to beg, as the school-children +in those times did; singing for alms and bread, from door to door. +Hardship, rigorous Necessity was the poor boy's companion; no man nor no +thing would put on a false face to flatter Martin Luther. Among things, +not among the shows of things, had he to grow. A boy of rude figure, yet +with weak health, with his large greedy soul, full of all faculty and +sensibility, he suffered greatly. But it was his task to get acquainted +with _realities_, and keep acquainted with them, at whatever cost: his +task was to bring the whole world back to reality, for it had dwelt too +long with semblance! A youth nursed up in wintry whirlwinds, in desolate +darkness and difficulty, that he may step forth at last from his stormy +Scandinavia, strong as a true man, as a god: a Christian Odin,--a right +Thor once more, with his thunder-hammer, to smite asunder ugly enough +_Jotuns_ and Giant-monsters! + +Perhaps the turning incident of his life, we may fancy, was that death +of his friend Alexis, by lightning, at the gate of Erfurt. Luther had +struggled up through boyhood, better and worse; displaying, in spite +of all hindrances, the largest intellect, eager to learn: his father +judging doubtless that he might promote himself in the world, set him +upon the study of Law. This was the path to rise; Luther, with little +will in it either way, had consented: he was now nineteen years of age. +Alexis and he had been to see the old Luther people at Mansfeldt; were +got back again near Erfurt, when a thunder-storm came on; the bolt +struck Alexis, he fell dead at Luther's feet. What is this Life +of ours?--gone in a moment, burnt up like a scroll, into the blank +Eternity! What are all earthly preferments, Chancellorships, Kingships? +They lie shrunk together--there! The Earth has opened on them; in a +moment they are not, and Eternity is. Luther, struck to the heart, +determined to devote himself to God and God's service alone. In spite +of all dissuasions from his father and others, he became a Monk in the +Augustine Convent at Erfurt. + +This was probably the first light-point in the history of Luther, his +purer will now first decisively uttering itself; but, for the present, +it was still as one light-point in an element all of darkness. He says +he was a pious monk, _ich bin ein frommer Monch gewesen_; faithfully, +painfully struggling to work out the truth of this high act of his; but +it was to little purpose. His misery had not lessened; had rather, as it +were, increased into infinitude. The drudgeries he had to do, as novice +in his Convent, all sorts of slave-work, were not his grievance: +the deep earnest soul of the man had fallen into all manner of black +scruples, dubitations; he believed himself likely to die soon, and far +worse than die. One hears with a new interest for poor Luther that, at +this time, he lived in terror of the unspeakable misery; fancied that he +was doomed to eternal reprobation. Was it not the humble sincere nature +of the man? What was he, that he should be raised to Heaven! He that +had known only misery, and mean slavery: the news was too blessed to +be credible. It could not become clear to him how, by fasts, vigils, +formalities and mass-work, a man's soul could be saved. He fell into +the blackest wretchedness; had to wander staggering as on the verge of +bottomless Despair. + +It must have been a most blessed discovery, that of an old Latin Bible +which he found in the Erfurt Library about this time. He had never seen +the Book before. It taught him another lesson than that of fasts and +vigils. A brother monk too, of pious experience, was helpful. Luther +learned now that a man was saved not by singing masses, but by the +infinite grace of God: a more credible hypothesis. He gradually got +himself founded, as on the rock. No wonder he should venerate the Bible, +which had brought this blessed help to him. He prized it as the Word of +the Highest must be prized by such a man. He determined to hold by that; +as through life and to death he firmly did. + +This, then, is his deliverance from darkness, his final triumph over +darkness, what we call his conversion; for himself the most important of +all epochs. That he should now grow daily in peace and clearness; that, +unfolding now the great talents and virtues implanted in him, he should +rise to importance in his Convent, in his country, and be found more and +more useful in all honest business of life, is a natural result. He was +sent on missions by his Augustine Order, as a man of talent and fidelity +fit to do their business well: the Elector of Saxony, Friedrich, named +the Wise, a truly wise and just prince, had cast his eye on him as a +valuable person; made him Professor in his new University of Wittenberg, +Preacher too at Wittenberg; in both which capacities, as in all duties +he did, this Luther, in the peaceable sphere of common life, was gaining +more and more esteem with all good men. + +It was in his twenty-seventh year that he first saw Rome; being sent +thither, as I said, on mission from his Convent. Pope Julius the Second, +and what was going on at Rome, must have filled the mind of Luther +with amazement. He had come as to the Sacred City, throne of God's +High-priest on Earth; and he found it--what we know! Many thoughts it +must have given the man; many which we have no record of, which perhaps +he did not himself know how to utter. This Rome, this scene of false +priests, clothed not in the beauty of holiness, but in far other +vesture, is _false_: but what is it to Luther? A mean man he, how shall +he reform a world? That was far from his thoughts. A humble, solitary +man, why should he at all meddle with the world? It was the task of +quite higher men than he. His business was to guide his own footsteps +wisely through the world. Let him do his own obscure duty in it well; +the rest, horrible and dismal as it looks, is in God's hand, not in his. + +It is curious to reflect what might have been the issue, had Roman +Popery happened to pass this Luther by; to go on in its great wasteful +orbit, and not come athwart his little path, and force him to assault +it! Conceivable enough that, in this case, he might have held his peace +about the abuses of Rome; left Providence, and God on high, to deal with +them! A modest quiet man; not prompt he to attack irreverently persons +in authority. His clear task, as I say, was to do his own duty; to +walk wisely in this world of confused wickedness, and save his own soul +alive. But the Roman High-priesthood did come athwart him: afar off +at Wittenberg he, Luther, could not get lived in honesty for it; he +remonstrated, resisted, came to extremity; was struck at, struck again, +and so it came to wager of battle between them! This is worth attending +to in Luther's history. Perhaps no man of so humble, peaceable a +disposition ever filled the world with contention. We cannot but see +that he would have loved privacy, quiet diligence in the shade; that it +was against his will he ever became a notoriety. Notoriety: what would +that do for him? The goal of his march through this world was the +Infinite Heaven; an indubitable goal for him: in a few years, he should +either have attained that, or lost it forever! We will say nothing at +all, I think, of that sorrowfulest of theories, of its being some mean +shopkeeper grudge, of the Augustine Monk against the Dominican, +that first kindled the wrath of Luther, and produced the Protestant +Reformation. We will say to the people who maintain it, if indeed any +such exist now: Get first into the sphere of thought by which it is +so much as possible to judge of Luther, or of any man like Luther, +otherwise than distractedly; we may then begin arguing with you. + +The Monk Tetzel, sent out carelessly in the way of trade, by Leo +Tenth,--who merely wanted to raise a little money, and for the rest +seems to have been a Pagan rather than a Christian, so far as he was +anything,--arrived at Wittenberg, and drove his scandalous trade there. +Luther's flock bought Indulgences; in the confessional of his Church, +people pleaded to him that they had already got their sins pardoned. +Luther, if he would not be found wanting at his own post, a false +sluggard and coward at the very centre of the little space of ground +that was his own and no other man's, had to step forth against +Indulgences, and declare aloud that _they_ were a futility and sorrowful +mockery, that no man's sins could be pardoned by _them_. It was the +beginning of the whole Reformation. We know how it went; forward from +this first public challenge of Tetzel, on the last day of October, 1517, +through remonstrance and argument;--spreading ever wider, rising ever +higher; till it became unquenchable, and enveloped all the world. +Luther's heart's desire was to have this grief and other griefs amended; +his thought was still far other than that of introducing separation in +the Church, or revolting against the Pope, Father of Christendom.--The +elegant Pagan Pope cared little about this Monk and his doctrines; +wished, however, to have done with the noise of him: in a space of some +three years, having tried various softer methods, he thought good to end +it by _fire_. He dooms the Monk's writings to be burnt by the hangman, +and his body to be sent bound to Rome,--probably for a similar purpose. +It was the way they had ended with Huss, with Jerome, the century +before. A short argument, fire. Poor Huss: he came to that Constance +Council, with all imaginable promises and safe-conducts; an earnest, +not rebellious kind of man: they laid him instantly in a stone dungeon +"three feet wide, six feet high, seven feet long;" _burnt_ the true +voice of him out of this world; choked it in smoke and fire. That was +_not_ well done! + +I, for one, pardon Luther for now altogether revolting against the Pope. +The elegant Pagan, by this fire-decree of his, had kindled into noble +just wrath the bravest heart then living in this world. The bravest, if +also one of the humblest, peaceablest; it was now kindled. These words +of mine, words of truth and soberness, aiming faithfully, as human +inability would allow, to promote God's truth on Earth, and save men's +souls, you, God's vicegerent on earth, answer them by the hangman and +fire? You will burn me and them, for answer to the God's-message they +strove to bring you? You are not God's vicegerent; you are another's +than his, I think! I take your Bull, as an emparchmented Lie, and burn +_it_. _You_ will do what you see good next: this is what I do.--It was +on the 10th of December, 1520, three years after the beginning of the +business, that Luther, "with a great concourse of people," took this +indignant step of burning the Pope's fire-decree "at the Elster-Gate of +Wittenberg." Wittenberg looked on "with shoutings;" the whole world was +looking on. The Pope should not have provoked that "shout"! It was +the shout of the awakening of nations. The quiet German heart, modest, +patient of much, had at length got more than it could bear. Formulism, +Pagan Popeism, and other Falsehood and corrupt Semblance had ruled long +enough: and here once more was a man found who durst tell all men that +God's-world stood not on semblances but on realities; that Life was a +truth, and not a lie! + +At bottom, as was said above, we are to consider Luther as a Prophet +Idol-breaker; a bringer-back of men to reality. It is the function of +great men and teachers. Mahomet said, These idols of yours are wood; you +put wax and oil on them, the flies stick on them: they are not God, I +tell you, they are black wood! Luther said to the Pope, This thing of +yours that you call a Pardon of Sins, it is a bit of rag-paper with ink. +It is nothing else; it, and so much like it, is nothing else. God alone +can pardon sins. Popeship, spiritual Fatherhood of God's Church, is that +a vain semblance, of cloth and parchment? It is an awful fact. God's +Church is not a semblance, Heaven and Hell are not semblances. I stand +on this, since you drive me to it. Standing on this, I a poor German +Monk am stronger than you all. I stand solitary, friendless, but on +God's Truth; you with your tiaras, triple-hats, with your treasuries and +armories, thunders spiritual and temporal, stand on the Devil's Lie, and +are not so strong--! + +The Diet of Worms, Luther's appearance there on the 17th of April, 1521, +may be considered as the greatest scene in Modern European History; the +point, indeed, from which the whole subsequent history of civilization +takes its rise. After multiplied negotiations, disputations, it had +come to this. The young Emperor Charles Fifth, with all the Princes +of Germany, Papal nuncios, dignitaries spiritual and temporal, are +assembled there: Luther is to appear and answer for himself, whether he +will recant or not. The world's pomp and power sits there on this +hand: on that, stands up for God's Truth, one man, the poor miner Hans +Luther's Son. Friends had reminded him of Huss, advised him not to go; +he would not be advised. A large company of friends rode out to meet +him, with still more earnest warnings; he answered, "Were there as many +Devils in Worms as there are roof-tiles, I would on." The people, on +the morrow, as he went to the Hall of the Diet, crowded the windows and +house-tops, some of them calling out to him, in solemn words, not to +recant: "Whosoever denieth me before men!" they cried to him,--as in +a kind of solemn petition and adjuration. Was it not in reality our +petition too, the petition of the whole world, lying in dark bondage +of soul, paralyzed under a black spectral Nightmare and triple-hatted +Chimera, calling itself Father in God, and what not: "Free us; it rests +with thee; desert us not!" + +Luther did not desert us. His speech, of two hours, distinguished itself +by its respectful, wise and honest tone; submissive to whatsoever could +lawfully claim submission, not submissive to any more than that. His +writings, he said, were partly his own, partly derived from the Word of +God. As to what was his own, human infirmity entered into it; unguarded +anger, blindness, many things doubtless which it were a blessing for him +could he abolish altogether. But as to what stood on sound truth and +the Word of God, he could not recant it. How could he? "Confute me," he +concluded, "by proofs of Scripture, or else by plain just arguments: I +cannot recant otherwise. For it is neither safe nor prudent to do aught +against conscience. Here stand I; I can do no other: God assist me!"--It +is, as we say, the greatest moment in the Modern History of Men. English +Puritanism, England and its Parliaments, Americas, and vast work these +two centuries; French Revolution, Europe and its work everywhere at +present: the germ of it all lay there: had Luther in that moment done +other, it had all been otherwise! The European World was asking him: +Am I to sink ever lower into falsehood, stagnant putrescence, loathsome +accursed death; or, with whatever paroxysm, to cast the falsehoods out +of me, and be cured and live?-- + + +Great wars, contentions and disunion followed out of this Reformation; +which last down to our day, and are yet far from ended. Great talk and +crimination has been made about these. They are lamentable, undeniable; +but after all, what has Luther or his cause to do with them? It seems +strange reasoning to charge the Reformation with all this. When Hercules +turned the purifying river into King Augeas's stables, I have no doubt +the confusion that resulted was considerable all around: but I think +it was not Hercules's blame; it was some other's blame! The Reformation +might bring what results it liked when it came, but the Reformation +simply could not help coming. To all Popes and Popes' advocates, +expostulating, lamenting and accusing, the answer of the world is: Once +for all, your Popehood has become untrue. No matter how good it was, how +good you say it is, we cannot believe it; the light of our whole mind, +given us to walk by from Heaven above, finds it henceforth a thing +unbelievable. We will not believe it, we will not try to believe it,--we +dare not! The thing is _untrue_; we were traitors against the Giver +of all Truth, if we durst pretend to think it true. Away with it; let +whatsoever likes come in the place of it: with _it_ we can have no +farther trade!--Luther and his Protestantism is not responsible +for wars; the false Simulacra that forced him to protest, they are +responsible. Luther did what every man that God has made has not only +the right, but lies under the sacred duty, to do: answered a Falsehood +when it questioned him, Dost thou believe me?--No!--At what cost soever, +without counting of costs, this thing behooved to be done. Union, +organization spiritual and material, a far nobler than any Popedom or +Feudalism in their truest days, I never doubt, is coming for the world; +sure to come. But on Fact alone, not on Semblance and Simulacrum, will +it be able either to come, or to stand when come. With union grounded +on falsehood, and ordering us to speak and act lies, we will not have +anything to do. Peace? A brutal lethargy is peaceable, the noisome grave +is peaceable. We hope for a living peace, not a dead one! + +And yet, in prizing justly the indispensable blessings of the New, let +us not be unjust to the Old. The Old was true, if it no longer is. In +Dante's days it needed no sophistry, self-blinding or other dishonesty, +to get itself reckoned true. It was good then; nay there is in the soul +of it a deathless good. The cry of "No Popery" is foolish enough in +these days. The speculation that Popery is on the increase, building new +chapels and so forth, may pass for one of the idlest ever started. Very +curious: to count up a few Popish chapels, listen to a few Protestant +logic-choppings,--to much dull-droning drowsy inanity that still calls +itself Protestant, and say: See, Protestantism is _dead_; Popeism is +more alive than it, will be alive after it!--Drowsy inanities, not a +few, that call themselves Protestant are dead; but _Protestantism_ has +not died yet, that I hear of! Protestantism, if we will look, has in +these days produced its Goethe, its Napoleon; German Literature and the +French Revolution; rather considerable signs of life! Nay, at bottom, +what else is alive _but_ Protestantism? The life of most else that one +meets is a galvanic one merely,--not a pleasant, not a lasting sort of +life! + +Popery can build new chapels; welcome to do so, to all lengths. Popery +cannot come back, any more than Paganism can,--_which_ also still +lingers in some countries. But, indeed, it is with these things, as with +the ebbing of the sea: you look at the waves oscillating hither, thither +on the beach; for _minutes_ you cannot tell how it is going; look in +half an hour where it is,--look in half a century where your Popehood +is! Alas, would there were no greater danger to our Europe than the poor +old Pope's revival! Thor may as soon try to revive.--And withal this +oscillation has a meaning. The poor old Popehood will not die away +entirely, as Thor has done, for some time yet; nor ought it. We may say, +the Old never dies till this happen, Till all the soul of good that was +in it have got itself transfused into the practical New. While a good +work remains capable of being done by the Romish form; or, what is +inclusive of all, while a pious _life_ remains capable of being led +by it, just so long, if we consider, will this or the other human soul +adopt it, go about as a living witness of it. So long it will obtrude +itself on the eye of us who reject it, till we in our practice too have +appropriated whatsoever of truth was in it. Then, but also not till +then, it will have no charm more for any man. It lasts here for a +purpose. Let it last as long as it can.-- + + +Of Luther I will add now, in reference to all these wars and bloodshed, +the noticeable fact that none of them began so long as he continued +living. The controversy did not get to fighting so long as he was there. +To me it is proof of his greatness in all senses, this fact. How seldom +do we find a man that has stirred up some vast commotion, who does +not himself perish, swept away in it! Such is the usual course of +revolutionists. Luther continued, in a good degree, sovereign of this +greatest revolution; all Protestants, of what rank or function soever, +looking much to him for guidance: and he held it peaceable, continued +firm at the centre of it. A man to do this must have a kingly faculty: +he must have the gift to discern at all turns where the true heart of +the matter lies, and to plant himself courageously on that, as a strong +true man, that other true men may rally round him there. He will not +continue leader of men otherwise. Luther's clear deep force of judgment, +his force of all sorts, of _silence_, of tolerance and moderation, among +others, are very notable in these circumstances. + +Tolerance, I say; a very genuine kind of tolerance: he distinguishes +what is essential, and what is not; the unessential may go very much as +it will. A complaint comes to him that such and such a Reformed Preacher +"will not preach without a cassock." Well, answers Luther, what harm +will a cassock do the man? "Let him have a cassock to preach in; let +him have three cassocks if he find benefit in them!" His conduct in the +matter of Karlstadt's wild image-breaking; of the Anabaptists; of the +Peasants' War, shows a noble strength, very different from spasmodic +violence. With sure prompt insight he discriminates what is what: a +strong just man, he speaks forth what is the wise course, and all men +follow him in that. Luther's Written Works give similar testimony of +him. The dialect of these speculations is now grown obsolete for us; +but one still reads them with a singular attraction. And indeed the mere +grammatical diction is still legible enough; Luther's merit in literary +history is of the greatest: his dialect became the language of all +writing. They are not well written, these Four-and-twenty Quartos of +his; written hastily, with quite other than literary objects. But in no +Books have I found a more robust, genuine, I will say noble faculty of +a man than in these. A rugged honesty, homeliness, simplicity; a rugged +sterling sense and strength. He dashes out illumination from him; his +smiting idiomatic phrases seem to cleave into the very secret of the +matter. Good humor too, nay tender affection, nobleness and depth: this +man could have been a Poet too! He had to _work_ an Epic Poem, not +write one. I call him a great Thinker; as indeed his greatness of heart +already betokens that. + +Richter says of Luther's words, "His words are half-battles." They may +be called so. The essential quality of him was, that he could fight and +conquer; that he was a right piece of human Valor. No more valiant man, +no mortal heart to be called _braver_, that one has record of, ever +lived in that Teutonic Kindred, whose character is valor. His defiance +of the "Devils" in Worms was not a mere boast, as the like might be if +now spoken. It was a faith of Luther's that there were Devils, spiritual +denizens of the Pit, continually besetting men. Many times, in his +writings, this turns up; and a most small sneer has been grounded on it +by some. In the room of the Wartburg where he sat translating the Bible, +they still show you a black spot on the wall; the strange memorial of +one of these conflicts. Luther sat translating one of the Psalms; he was +worn down with long labor, with sickness, abstinence from food: there +rose before him some hideous indefinable Image, which he took for the +Evil One, to forbid his work: Luther started up, with fiend-defiance; +flung his inkstand at the spectre, and it disappeared! The spot still +remains there; a curious monument of several things. Any apothecary's +apprentice can now tell us what we are to think of this apparition, in +a scientific sense: but the man's heart that dare rise defiant, face to +face, against Hell itself, can give no higher proof of fearlessness. +The thing he will quail before exists not on this Earth or under +it.--Fearless enough! "The Devil is aware," writes he on one occasion, +"that this does not proceed out of fear in me. I have seen and defied +innumerable Devils. Duke George," of Leipzig, a great enemy of his, +"Duke George is not equal to one Devil,"--far short of a Devil! "If I +had business at Leipzig, I would ride into Leipzig, though it rained +Duke Georges for nine days running." What a reservoir of Dukes to ride +into--! + +At the same time, they err greatly who imagine that this man's courage +was ferocity, mere coarse disobedient obstinacy and savagery, as many +do. Far from that. There may be an absence of fear which arises from the +absence of thought or affection, from the presence of hatred and stupid +fury. We do not value the courage of the tiger highly! With Luther it +was far otherwise; no accusation could be more unjust than this of mere +ferocious violence brought against him. A most gentle heart withal, full +of pity and love, as indeed the truly valiant heart ever is. The tiger +before a _stronger_ foe--flies: the tiger is not what we call valiant, +only fierce and cruel. I know few things more touching than those soft +breathings of affection, soft as a child's or a mother's, in this great +wild heart of Luther. So honest, unadulterated with any cant; homely, +rude in their utterance; pure as water welling from the rock. What, in +fact, was all that down-pressed mood of despair and reprobation, +which we saw in his youth, but the outcome of pre-eminent thoughtful +gentleness, affections too keen and fine? It is the course such men as +the poor Poet Cowper fall into. Luther to a slight observer might have +seemed a timid, weak man; modesty, affectionate shrinking tenderness the +chief distinction of him. It is a noble valor which is roused in a heart +like this, once stirred up into defiance, all kindled into a heavenly +blaze. + +In Luther's _Table-Talk_, a posthumous Book of anecdotes and sayings +collected by his friends, the most interesting now of all the Books +proceeding from him, we have many beautiful unconscious displays of the +man, and what sort of nature he had. His behavior at the death-bed of +his little Daughter, so still, so great and loving, is among the most +affecting things. He is resigned that his little Magdalene should die, +yet longs inexpressibly that she might live;--follows, in awe-struck +thought, the flight of her little soul through those unknown realms. +Awe-struck; most heartfelt, we can see; and sincere,--for after all +dogmatic creeds and articles, he feels what nothing it is that we know, +or can know: His little Magdalene shall be with God, as God wills; for +Luther too that is all; _Islam_ is all. + +Once, he looks out from his solitary Patmos, the Castle of Coburg, in +the middle of the night: The great vault of Immensity, long flights of +clouds sailing through it,--dumb, gaunt, huge:--who supports all that? +"None ever saw the pillars of it; yet it is supported." God supports it. +We must know that God is great, that God is good; and trust, where +we cannot see.--Returning home from Leipzig once, he is struck by the +beauty of the harvest-fields: How it stands, that golden yellow corn, +on its fair taper stem, its golden head bent, all rich and waving +there,--the meek Earth, at God's kind bidding, has produced it once +again; the bread of man!--In the garden at Wittenberg one evening at +sunset, a little bird has perched for the night: That little bird, says +Luther, above it are the stars and deep Heaven of worlds; yet it has +folded its little wings; gone trustfully to rest there as in its home: +the Maker of it has given it too a home!--Neither are mirthful turns +wanting: there is a great free human heart in this man. The common +speech of him has a rugged nobleness, idiomatic, expressive, genuine; +gleams here and there with beautiful poetic tints. One feels him to be +a great brother man. His love of Music, indeed, is not this, as it were, +the summary of all these affections in him? Many a wild unutterability +he spoke forth from him in the tones of his flute. The Devils fled from +his flute, he says. Death-defiance on the one hand, and such love of +music on the other; I could call these the two opposite poles of a great +soul; between these two all great things had room. + +Luther's face is to me expressive of him; in Kranach's best portraits +I find the true Luther. A rude plebeian face; with its huge crag-like +brows and bones, the emblem of rugged energy; at first, almost a +repulsive face. Yet in the eyes especially there is a wild silent +sorrow; an unnamable melancholy, the element of all gentle and fine +affections; giving to the rest the true stamp of nobleness. Laughter was +in this Luther, as we said; but tears also were there. Tears also were +appointed him; tears and hard toil. The basis of his life was Sadness, +Earnestness. In his latter days, after all triumphs and victories, he +expresses himself heartily weary of living; he considers that God alone +can and will regulate the course things are taking, and that perhaps the +Day of Judgment is not far. As for him, he longs for one thing: that +God would release him from his labor, and let him depart and be at rest. +They understand little of the man who cite this in discredit of him!--I +will call this Luther a true Great Man; great in intellect, in courage, +affection and integrity; one of our most lovable and precious men. +Great, not as a hewn obelisk; but as an Alpine mountain,--so simple, +honest, spontaneous, not setting up to be great at all; there for quite +another purpose than being great! Ah yes, unsubduable granite, piercing +far and wide into the Heavens; yet in the clefts of it fountains, green +beautiful valleys with flowers! A right Spiritual Hero and Prophet; once +more, a true Son of Nature and Fact, for whom these centuries, and many +that are to come yet, will be thankful to Heaven. + + +The most interesting phasis which the Reformation anywhere assumes, +especially for us English, is that of Puritanism. In Luther's own +country Protestantism soon dwindled into a rather barren affair: not a +religion or faith, but rather now a theological jangling of argument, +the proper seat of it not the heart; the essence of it sceptical +contention: which indeed has jangled more and more, down to +Voltaireism itself,--through Gustavus-Adolphus contentions onwards to +French-Revolution ones! But in our Island there arose a Puritanism, +which even got itself established as a Presbyterianism and National +Church among the Scotch; which came forth as a real business of the +heart; and has produced in the world very notable fruit. In some senses, +one may say it is the only phasis of Protestantism that ever got to the +rank of being a Faith, a true heart-communication with Heaven, and of +exhibiting itself in History as such. We must spare a few words for +Knox; himself a brave and remarkable man; but still more important as +Chief Priest and Founder, which one may consider him to be, of the Faith +that became Scotland's, New England's, Oliver Cromwell's. History will +have something to say about this, for some time to come! + +We may censure Puritanism as we please; and no one of us, I suppose, +but would find it a very rough defective thing. But we, and all men, may +understand that it was a genuine thing; for Nature has adopted it, +and it has grown, and grows. I say sometimes, that all goes by +wager-of-battle in this world; that _strength_, well understood, is +the measure of all worth. Give a thing time; if it can succeed, it is a +right thing. Look now at American Saxondom; and at that little Fact of +the sailing of the Mayflower, two hundred years ago, from Delft Haven in +Holland! Were we of open sense as the Greeks were, we had found a Poem +here; one of Nature's own Poems, such as she writes in broad facts over +great continents. For it was properly the beginning of America: there +were straggling settlers in America before, some material as of a body +was there; but the soul of it was first this. These poor men, driven +out of their own country, not able well to live in Holland, determine +on settling in the New World. Black untamed forests are there, and wild +savage creatures; but not so cruel as Star-chamber hangmen. They +thought the Earth would yield them food, if they tilled honestly; the +everlasting heaven would stretch, there too, overhead; they should be +left in peace, to prepare for Eternity by living well in this world of +Time; worshipping in what they thought the true, not the idolatrous way. +They clubbed their small means together; hired a ship, the little ship +Mayflower, and made ready to set sail. + +In Neal's _History of the Puritans_ [Neal (London, 1755), i. 490] is an +account of the ceremony of their departure: solemnity, we might call it +rather, for it was a real act of worship. Their minister went down with +them to the beach, and their brethren whom they were to leave behind; +all joined in solemn prayer, That God would have pity on His poor +children, and go with them into that waste wilderness, for He also had +made that, He was there also as well as here.--Hah! These men, I think, +had a work! The weak thing, weaker than a child, becomes strong one day, +if it be a true thing. Puritanism was only despicable, laughable then; +but nobody can manage to laugh at it now. Puritanism has got weapons and +sinews; it has firearms, war-navies; it has cunning in its ten fingers, +strength in its right arm; it can steer ships, fell forests, remove +mountains;--it is one of the strongest things under this sun at present! + +In the history of Scotland, too, I can find properly but one epoch: +we may say, it contains nothing of world-interest at all but this +Reformation by Knox. A poor barren country, full of continual broils, +dissensions, massacrings; a people in the last state of rudeness and +destitution; little better perhaps than Ireland at this day. Hungry +fierce barons, not so much as able to form any arrangement with each +other _how to divide_ what they fleeced from these poor drudges; but +obliged, as the Colombian Republics are at this day, to make of every +alteration a revolution; no way of changing a ministry but by hanging +the old ministers on gibbets: this is a historical spectacle of no very +singular significance! "Bravery" enough, I doubt not; fierce fighting in +abundance: but not braver or fiercer than that of their old Scandinavian +Sea-king ancestors; _whose_ exploits we have not found worth dwelling +on! It is a country as yet without a soul: nothing developed in it but +what is rude, external, semi-animal. And now at the Reformation, the +internal life is kindled, as it were, under the ribs of this outward +material death. A cause, the noblest of causes kindles itself, like a +beacon set on high; high as Heaven, yet attainable from Earth;--whereby +the meanest man becomes not a Citizen only, but a Member of Christ's +visible Church; a veritable Hero, if he prove a true man! + +Well; this is what I mean by a whole "nation of heroes;" a _believing_ +nation. There needs not a great soul to make a hero; there needs a +god-created soul which will be true to its origin; that will be a great +soul! The like has been seen, we find. The like will be again seen, +under wider forms than the Presbyterian: there can be no lasting good +done till then.--Impossible! say some. Possible? Has it not _been_, in +this world, as a practiced fact? Did Hero-worship fail in Knox's case? +Or are we made of other clay now? Did the Westminster Confession of +Faith add some new property to the soul of man? God made the soul +of man. He did not doom any soul of man to live as a Hypothesis and +Hearsay, in a world filled with such, and with the fatal work and fruit +of such--! + +But to return: This that Knox did for his Nation, I say, we may really +call a resurrection as from death. It was not a smooth business; but it +was welcome surely, and cheap at that price, had it been far rougher. On +the whole, cheap at any price!--as life is. The people began to _live_: +they needed first of all to do that, at what cost and costs soever. +Scotch Literature and Thought, Scotch Industry; James Watt, David Hume, +Walter Scott, Robert Burns: I find Knox and the Reformation acting in +the heart's core of every one of these persons and phenomena; I find +that without the Reformation they would not have been. Or what of +Scotland? The Puritanism of Scotland became that of England, of +New England. A tumult in the High Church of Edinburgh spread into a +universal battle and struggle over all these realms;--there came +out, after fifty years' struggling, what we all call the "_Glorious_ +Revolution" a _Habeas Corpus_ Act, Free Parliaments, and much +else!--Alas, is it not too true what we said, That many men in the van +do always, like Russian soldiers, march into the ditch of Schweidnitz, +and fill it up with their dead bodies, that the rear may pass over them +dry-shod, and gain the honor? How many earnest rugged Cromwells, Knoxes, +poor Peasant Covenanters, wrestling, battling for very life, in rough +miry places, have to struggle, and suffer, and fall, greatly censured, +_bemired_,--before a beautiful Revolution of Eighty-eight can step +over them in official pumps and silk-stockings, with universal +three-times-three! + +It seems to me hard measure that this Scottish man, now after three +hundred years, should have to plead like a culprit before the world; +intrinsically for having been, in such way as it was then possible to +be, the bravest of all Scotchmen! Had he been a poor Half-and-half, he +could have crouched into the corner, like so many others; Scotland +had not been delivered; and Knox had been without blame. He is the one +Scotchman to whom, of all others, his country and the world owe a debt. +He has to plead that Scotland would forgive him for having been worth to +it any million "unblamable" Scotchmen that need no forgiveness! He bared +his breast to the battle; had to row in French galleys, wander forlorn +in exile, in clouds and storms; was censured, shot at through his +windows; had a right sore fighting life: if this world were his place of +recompense, he had made but a bad venture of it. I cannot apologize for +Knox. To him it is very indifferent, these two hundred and fifty years +or more, what men say of him. But we, having got above all those details +of his battle, and living now in clearness on the fruits of his victory, +we, for our own sake, ought to look through the rumors and controversies +enveloping the man, into the man himself. + +For one thing, I will remark that this post of Prophet to his Nation was +not of his seeking; Knox had lived forty years quietly obscure, before +he became conspicuous. He was the son of poor parents; had got a college +education; become a Priest; adopted the Reformation, and seemed well +content to guide his own steps by the light of it, nowise unduly +intruding it on others. He had lived as Tutor in gentlemen's families; +preaching when any body of persons wished to hear his doctrine: resolute +he to walk by the truth, and speak the truth when called to do it; +not ambitious of more; not fancying himself capable of more. In this +entirely obscure way he had reached the age of forty; was with the small +body of Reformers who were standing siege in St. Andrew's Castle,--when +one day in their chapel, the Preacher after finishing his exhortation to +these fighters in the forlorn hope, said suddenly, That there ought to +be other speakers, that all men who had a priest's heart and gift in +them ought now to speak;--which gifts and heart one of their own number, +John Knox the name of him, had: Had he not? said the Preacher, appealing +to all the audience: what then is _his_ duty? The people answered +affirmatively; it was a criminal forsaking of his post, if such a man +held the word that was in him silent. Poor Knox was obliged to stand +up; he attempted to reply; he could say no word;--burst into a flood +of tears, and ran out. It is worth remembering, that scene. He was in +grievous trouble for some days. He felt what a small faculty was his +for this great work. He felt what a baptism he was called to be baptized +withal. He "burst into tears." + +Our primary characteristic of a Hero, that he is sincere, applies +emphatically to Knox. It is not denied anywhere that this, whatever +might be his other qualities or faults, is among the truest of men. With +a singular instinct he holds to the truth and fact; the truth alone is +there for him, the rest a mere shadow and deceptive nonentity. However +feeble, forlorn the reality may seem, on that and that only _can_ he +take his stand. In the Galleys of the River Loire, whither Knox and the +others, after their Castle of St. Andrew's was taken, had been sent as +Galley-slaves,--some officer or priest, one day, presented them an Image +of the Virgin Mother, requiring that they, the blasphemous heretics, +should do it reverence. Mother? Mother of God? said Knox, when the turn +came to him: This is no Mother of God: this is "_a pented bredd_,"--_a_ +piece of wood, I tell you, with paint on it! She is fitter for swimming, +I think, than for being worshipped, added Knox; and flung the thing +into the river. It was not very cheap jesting there: but come of it what +might, this thing to Knox was and must continue nothing other than the +real truth; it was a _pented bredd_: worship it he would not. + +He told his fellow-prisoners, in this darkest time, to be of courage; +the Cause they had was the true one, and must and would prosper; the +whole world could not put it down. Reality is of God's making; it is +alone strong. How many _pented bredds_, pretending to be real, are +fitter to swim than to be worshipped!--This Knox cannot live but by +fact: he clings to reality as the shipwrecked sailor to the cliff. He is +an instance to us how a man, by sincerity itself, becomes heroic: it +is the grand gift he has. We find in Knox a good honest intellectual +talent, no transcendent one;--a narrow, inconsiderable man, as compared +with Luther: but in heartfelt instinctive adherence to truth, in +_sincerity_, as we say, he has no superior; nay, one might ask, What +equal he has? The heart of him is of the true Prophet cast. "He lies +there," said the Earl of Morton at his grave, "who never feared the +face of man." He resembles, more than any of the moderns, an Old-Hebrew +Prophet. The same inflexibility, intolerance, rigid narrow-looking +adherence to God's truth, stern rebuke in the name of God to all that +forsake truth: an Old-Hebrew Prophet in the guise of an Edinburgh +Minister of the Sixteenth Century. We are to take him for that; not +require him to be other. + +Knox's conduct to Queen Mary, the harsh visits he used to make in her +own palace, to reprove her there, have been much commented upon. Such +cruelty, such coarseness fills us with indignation. On reading the +actual narrative of the business, what Knox said, and what Knox meant, +I must say one's tragic feeling is rather disappointed. They are not +so coarse, these speeches; they seem to me about as fine as the +circumstances would permit! Knox was not there to do the courtier; he +came on another errand. Whoever, reading these colloquies of his with +the Queen, thinks they are vulgar insolences of a plebeian priest to a +delicate high lady, mistakes the purport and essence of them altogether. +It was unfortunately not possible to be polite with the Queen of +Scotland, unless one proved untrue to the Nation and Cause of Scotland. +A man who did not wish to see the land of his birth made a hunting-field +for intriguing ambitious Guises, and the Cause of God trampled underfoot +of Falsehoods, Formulas and the Devil's Cause, had no method of making +himself agreeable! "Better that women weep," said Morton, "than +that bearded men be forced to weep." Knox was the constitutional +opposition-party in Scotland: the Nobles of the country, called by their +station to take that post, were not found in it; Knox had to go, or no +one. The hapless Queen;--but the still more hapless Country, if _she_ +were made happy! Mary herself was not without sharpness enough, among +her other qualities: "Who are you," said she once, "that presume to +school the nobles and sovereign of this realm?"--"Madam, a subject born +within the same," answered he. Reasonably answered! If the "subject" +have truth to speak, it is not the "subject's" footing that will fail +him here.-- + +We blame Knox for his intolerance. Well, surely it is good that each of +us be as tolerant as possible. Yet, at bottom, after all the talk there +is and has been about it, what is tolerance? Tolerance has to tolerate +the unessential; and to see well what that is. Tolerance has to be +noble, measured, just in its very wrath, when it can tolerate no longer. +But, on the whole, we are not altogether here to tolerate! We are +here to resist, to control and vanquish withal. We do not "tolerate" +Falsehoods, Thieveries, Iniquities, when they fasten on us; we say to +them, Thou art false, thou art not tolerable! We are here to extinguish +Falsehoods, and put an end to them, in some wise way! I will not quarrel +so much with the way; the doing of the thing is our great concern. In +this sense Knox was, full surely, intolerant. + +A man sent to row in French Galleys, and such like, for teaching the +Truth in his own land, cannot always be in the mildest humor! I am not +prepared to say that Knox had a soft temper; nor do I know that he had +what we call an ill temper. An ill nature he decidedly had not. Kind +honest affections dwelt in the much-enduring, hard-worn, ever-battling +man. That he _could_ rebuke Queens, and had such weight among those +proud turbulent Nobles, proud enough whatever else they were; and could +maintain to the end a kind of virtual Presidency and Sovereignty in that +wild realm, he who was only "a subject born within the same:" this of +itself will prove to us that he was found, close at hand, to be no mean +acrid man; but at heart a healthful, strong, sagacious man. Such alone +can bear rule in that kind. They blame him for pulling down cathedrals, +and so forth, as if he were a seditious rioting demagogue: precisely the +reverse is seen to be the fact, in regard to cathedrals and the rest +of it, if we examine! Knox wanted no pulling down of stone edifices; he +wanted leprosy and darkness to be thrown out of the lives of men. Tumult +was not his element; it was the tragic feature of his life that he was +forced to dwell so much in that. Every such man is the born enemy of +Disorder; hates to be in it: but what then? Smooth Falsehood is not +Order; it is the general sum-total of Disorder. Order is _Truth_,--each +thing standing on the basis that belongs to it: Order and Falsehood +cannot subsist together. + +Withal, unexpectedly enough, this Knox has a vein of drollery in him; +which I like much, in combination with his other qualities. He has a +true eye for the ridiculous. His _History_, with its rough earnestness, +is curiously enlivened with this. When the two Prelates, entering +Glasgow Cathedral, quarrel about precedence; march rapidly up, take +to hustling one another, twitching one another's rochets, and at last +flourishing their crosiers like quarter-staves, it is a great sight for +him every way! Not mockery, scorn, bitterness alone; though there is +enough of that too. But a true, loving, illuminating laugh mounts up +over the earnest visage; not a loud laugh; you would say, a laugh in +the _eyes_ most of all. An honest-hearted, brotherly man; brother to the +high, brother also to the low; sincere in his sympathy with both. He had +his pipe of Bourdeaux too, we find, in that old Edinburgh house of his; +a cheery social man, with faces that loved him! They go far wrong who +think this Knox was a gloomy, spasmodic, shrieking fanatic. Not at all: +he is one of the solidest of men. Practical, cautious-hopeful, patient; +a most shrewd, observing, quietly discerning man. In fact, he has very +much the type of character we assign to the Scotch at present: a certain +sardonic taciturnity is in him; insight enough; and a stouter heart than +he himself knows of. He has the power of holding his peace over many +things which do not vitally concern him,--"They? what are they?" But the +thing which does vitally concern him, that thing he will speak of; and +in a tone the whole world shall be made to hear: all the more emphatic +for his long silence. + +This Prophet of the Scotch is to me no hateful man!--He had a sore fight +of an existence; wrestling with Popes and Principalities; in defeat, +contention, life-long struggle; rowing as a galley-slave, wandering as +an exile. A sore fight: but he won it. "Have you hope?" they asked him +in his last moment, when he could no longer speak. He lifted his finger, +"pointed upwards with his finger," and so died. Honor to him! His works +have not died. The letter of his work dies, as of all men's; but the +spirit of it never. + +One word more as to the letter of Knox's work. The unforgivable offence +in him is, that he wished to set up Priests over the head of Kings. In +other words, he strove to make the Government of Scotland a _Theocracy_. +This indeed is properly the sum of his offences, the essential sin; +for which what pardon can there be? It is most true, he did, at bottom, +consciously or unconsciously, mean a Theocracy, or Government of God. He +did mean that Kings and Prime Ministers, and all manner of persons, in +public or private, diplomatizing or whatever else they might be doing, +should walk according to the Gospel of Christ, and understand that this +was their Law, supreme over all laws. He hoped once to see such a thing +realized; and the Petition, _Thy Kingdom come_, no longer an empty word. +He was sore grieved when he saw greedy worldly Barons clutch hold of +the Church's property; when he expostulated that it was not secular +property, that it was spiritual property, and should be turned to _true_ +churchly uses, education, schools, worship;--and the Regent Murray had +to answer, with a shrug of the shoulders, "It is a devout imagination!" +This was Knox's scheme of right and truth; this he zealously endeavored +after, to realize it. If we think his scheme of truth was too narrow, +was not true, we may rejoice that he could not realize it; that it +remained after two centuries of effort, unrealizable, and is a "devout +imagination" still. But how shall we blame _him_ for struggling to +realize it? Theocracy, Government of God, is precisely the thing to +be struggled for! All Prophets, zealous Priests, are there for that +purpose. Hildebrand wished a Theocracy; Cromwell wished it, fought for +it; Mahomet attained it. Nay, is it not what all zealous men, whether +called Priests, Prophets, or whatsoever else called, do essentially +wish, and must wish? That right and truth, or God's Law, reign supreme +among men, this is the Heavenly Ideal (well named in Knox's time, +and namable in all times, a revealed "Will of God") towards which the +Reformer will insist that all be more and more approximated. All true +Reformers, as I said, are by the nature of them Priests, and strive for +a Theocracy. + +How far such Ideals can ever be introduced into Practice, and at what +point our impatience with their non-introduction ought to begin, +is always a question. I think we may say safely, Let them introduce +themselves as far as they can contrive to do it! If they are the true +faith of men, all men ought to be more or less impatient always where +they are not found introduced. There will never be wanting Regent +Murrays enough to shrug their shoulders, and say, "A devout +imagination!" We will praise the Hero-priest rather, who does what is in +him to bring them in; and wears out, in toil, calumny, contradiction, +a noble life, to make a God's Kingdom of this Earth. The Earth will not +become too godlike! + + + + +LECTURE V. THE HERO AS MAN OF LETTERS. JOHNSON, ROUSSEAU, BURNS. + +[May 19, 1840.] + +Hero-Gods, Prophets, Poets, Priests are forms of Heroism that belong to +the old ages, make their appearance in the remotest times; some of +them have ceased to be possible long since, and cannot any more show +themselves in this world. The Hero as _Man of Letters_, again, of which +class we are to speak to-day, is altogether a product of these new ages; +and so long as the wondrous art of _Writing_, or of Ready-writing which +we call _Printing_, subsists, he may be expected to continue, as one +of the main forms of Heroism for all future ages. He is, in various +respects, a very singular phenomenon. + +He is new, I say; he has hardly lasted above a century in the world yet. +Never, till about a hundred years ago, was there seen any figure of a +Great Soul living apart in that anomalous manner; endeavoring to speak +forth the inspiration that was in him by Printed Books, and find place +and subsistence by what the world would please to give him for doing +that. Much had been sold and bought, and left to make its own bargain +in the market-place; but the inspired wisdom of a Heroic Soul never till +then, in that naked manner. He, with his copy-rights and copy-wrongs, +in his squalid garret, in his rusty coat; ruling (for this is what he +does), from his grave, after death, whole nations and generations who +would, or would not, give him bread while living,--is a rather curious +spectacle! Few shapes of Heroism can be more unexpected. + +Alas, the Hero from of old has had to cramp himself into strange shapes: +the world knows not well at any time what to do with him, so foreign is +his aspect in the world! It seemed absurd to us, that men, in their rude +admiration, should take some wise great Odin for a god, and worship him +as such; some wise great Mahomet for one god-inspired, and religiously +follow his Law for twelve centuries: but that a wise great Johnson, a +Burns, a Rousseau, should be taken for some idle nondescript, extant in +the world to amuse idleness, and have a few coins and applauses thrown +him, that he might live thereby; _this_ perhaps, as before hinted, will +one day seem a still absurder phasis of things!--Meanwhile, since it +is the spiritual always that determines the material, this same +Man-of-Letters Hero must be regarded as our most important modern +person. He, such as he may be, is the soul of all. What he teaches, the +whole world will do and make. The world's manner of dealing with him is +the most significant feature of the world's general position. Looking +well at his life, we may get a glance, as deep as is readily possible +for us, into the life of those singular centuries which have produced +him, in which we ourselves live and work. + +There are genuine Men of Letters, and not genuine; as in every kind +there is a genuine and a spurious. If _hero_ be taken to mean genuine, +then I say the Hero as Man of Letters will be found discharging a +function for us which is ever honorable, ever the highest; and was once +well known to be the highest. He is uttering forth, in such way as he +has, the inspired soul of him; all that a man, in any case, can do. I +say _inspired_; for what we call "originality," "sincerity," "genius," +the heroic quality we have no good name for, signifies that. The Hero +is he who lives in the inward sphere of things, in the True, Divine +and Eternal, which exists always, unseen to most, under the Temporary, +Trivial: his being is in that; he declares that abroad, by act or speech +as it may be in declaring himself abroad. His life, as we said before, +is a piece of the everlasting heart of Nature herself: all men's life +is,--but the weak many know not the fact, and are untrue to it, in most +times; the strong few are strong, heroic, perennial, because it cannot +be hidden from them. The Man of Letters, like every Hero, is there +to proclaim this in such sort as he can. Intrinsically it is the same +function which the old generations named a man Prophet, Priest, Divinity +for doing; which all manner of Heroes, by speech or by act, are sent +into the world to do. + +Fichte the German Philosopher delivered, some forty years ago at +Erlangen, a highly remarkable Course of Lectures on this subject: +"_Ueber das Wesen des Gelehrten_, On the Nature of the Literary Man." +Fichte, in conformity with the Transcendental Philosophy, of which he +was a distinguished teacher, declares first: That all things which we +see or work with in this Earth, especially we ourselves and all persons, +are as a kind of vesture or sensuous Appearance: that under all there +lies, as the essence of them, what he calls the "Divine Idea of +the World;" this is the Reality which "lies at the bottom of all +Appearance." To the mass of men no such Divine Idea is recognizable in +the world; they live merely, says Fichte, among the superficialities, +practicalities and shows of the world, not dreaming that there is +anything divine under them. But the Man of Letters is sent hither +specially that he may discern for himself, and make manifest to us, this +same Divine Idea: in every new generation it will manifest itself in +a new dialect; and he is there for the purpose of doing that. Such is +Fichte's phraseology; with which we need not quarrel. It is his way of +naming what I here, by other words, am striving imperfectly to +name; what there is at present no name for: The unspeakable Divine +Significance, full of splendor, of wonder and terror, that lies in the +being of every man, of every thing,--the Presence of the God who made +every man and thing. Mahomet taught this in his dialect; Odin in his: it +is the thing which all thinking hearts, in one dialect or another, are +here to teach. + +Fichte calls the Man of Letters, therefore, a Prophet, or as he prefers +to phrase it, a Priest, continually unfolding the Godlike to men: Men +of Letters are a perpetual Priesthood, from age to age, teaching all +men that a God is still present in their life, that all "Appearance," +whatsoever we see in the world, is but as a vesture for the "Divine Idea +of the World," for "that which lies at the bottom of Appearance." In the +true Literary Man there is thus ever, acknowledged or not by the world, +a sacredness: he is the light of the world; the world's Priest;--guiding +it, like a sacred Pillar of Fire, in its dark pilgrimage through the +waste of Time. Fichte discriminates with sharp zeal the _true_ Literary +Man, what we here call the _Hero_ as Man of Letters, from multitudes of +false unheroic. Whoever lives not wholly in this Divine Idea, or living +partially in it, struggles not, as for the one good, to live wholly +in it,--he is, let him live where else he like, in what pomps and +prosperities he like, no Literary Man; he is, says Fichte, a "Bungler, +_Stumper_." Or at best, if he belong to the prosaic provinces, he may +be a "Hodman;" Fichte even calls him elsewhere a "Nonentity," and has +in short no mercy for him, no wish that _he_ should continue happy among +us! This is Fichte's notion of the Man of Letters. It means, in its own +form, precisely what we here mean. + +In this point of view, I consider that, for the last hundred years, by +far the notablest of all Literary Men is Fichte's countryman, Goethe. To +that man too, in a strange way, there was given what we may call a life +in the Divine Idea of the World; vision of the inward divine mystery: +and strangely, out of his Books, the world rises imaged once more as +godlike, the workmanship and temple of a God. Illuminated all, not +in fierce impure fire-splendor as of Mahomet, but in mild celestial +radiance;--really a Prophecy in these most unprophetic times; to my +mind, by far the greatest, though one of the quietest, among all the +great things that have come to pass in them. Our chosen specimen of the +Hero as Literary Man would be this Goethe. And it were a very pleasant +plan for me here to discourse of his heroism: for I consider him to be +a true Hero; heroic in what he said and did, and perhaps still more in +what he did not say and did not do; to me a noble spectacle: a great +heroic ancient man, speaking and keeping silence as an ancient Hero, in +the guise of a most modern, high-bred, high-cultivated Man of Letters! +We have had no such spectacle; no man capable of affording such, for the +last hundred and fifty years. + +But at present, such is the general state of knowledge about Goethe, it +were worse than useless to attempt speaking of him in this case. +Speak as I might, Goethe, to the great majority of you, would remain +problematic, vague; no impression but a false one could be realized. +Him we must leave to future times. Johnson, Burns, Rousseau, three great +figures from a prior time, from a far inferior state of circumstances, +will suit us better here. Three men of the Eighteenth Century; the +conditions of their life far more resemble what those of ours still are +in England, than what Goethe's in Germany were. Alas, these men did not +conquer like him; they fought bravely, and fell. They were not heroic +bringers of the light, but heroic seekers of it. They lived under +galling conditions; struggling as under mountains of impediment, and +could not unfold themselves into clearness, or victorious interpretation +of that "Divine Idea." It is rather the _Tombs_ of three Literary Heroes +that I have to show you. There are the monumental heaps, under which +three spiritual giants lie buried. Very mournful, but also great and +full of interest for us. We will linger by them for a while. + + +Complaint is often made, in these times, of what we call the +disorganized condition of society: how ill many forces of society fulfil +their work; how many powerful are seen working in a wasteful, chaotic, +altogether unarranged manner. It is too just a complaint, as we all +know. But perhaps if we look at this of Books and the Writers of +Books, we shall find here, as it were, the summary of all other +disorganizations;--a sort of _heart_, from which, and to which all other +confusion circulates in the world! Considering what Book writers do in +the world, and what the world does with Book writers, I should say, It +is the most anomalous thing the world at present has to show.--We should +get into a sea far beyond sounding, did we attempt to give account of +this: but we must glance at it for the sake of our subject. The worst +element in the life of these three Literary Heroes was, that they found +their business and position such a chaos. On the beaten road there is +tolerable travelling; but it is sore work, and many have to perish, +fashioning a path through the impassable! + +Our pious Fathers, feeling well what importance lay in the speaking of +man to men, founded churches, made endowments, regulations; everywhere +in the civilized world there is a Pulpit, environed with all manner of +complex dignified appurtenances and furtherances, that therefrom a man +with the tongue may, to best advantage, address his fellow-men. They +felt that this was the most important thing; that without this there was +no good thing. It is a right pious work, that of theirs; beautiful to +behold! But now with the art of Writing, with the art of Printing, a +total change has come over that business. The Writer of a Book, is not +he a Preacher preaching not to this parish or that, on this day or +that, but to all men in all times and places? Surely it is of the last +importance that _he_ do his work right, whoever do it wrong;--that the +_eye_ report not falsely, for then all the other members are astray! +Well; how he may do his work, whether he do it right or wrong, or do +it at all, is a point which no man in the world has taken the pains +to think of. To a certain shopkeeper, trying to get some money for +his books, if lucky, he is of some importance; to no other man of any. +Whence he came, whither he is bound, by what ways he arrived, by what +he might be furthered on his course, no one asks. He is an accident in +society. He wanders like a wild Ishmaelite, in a world of which he is as +the spiritual light, either the guidance or the misguidance! + +Certainly the Art of Writing is the most miraculous of all things man +has devised. Odin's _Runes_ were the first form of the work of a Hero; +_Books_ written words, are still miraculous _Runes_, the latest form! +In Books lies the _soul_ of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible +voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has +altogether vanished like a dream. Mighty fleets and armies, harbors and +arsenals, vast cities, high-domed, many-engined,--they are precious, +great: but what do they become? Agamemnon, the many Agamemnons, +Pericleses, and their Greece; all is gone now to some ruined fragments, +dumb mournful wrecks and blocks: but the Books of Greece! There Greece, +to every thinker, still very literally lives: can be called up again +into life. No magic _Rune_ is stranger than a Book. All that Mankind has +done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in +the pages of Books. They are the chosen possession of men. + +Do not Books still accomplish _miracles_, as _Runes_ were fabled to do? +They persuade men. Not the wretchedest circulating-library novel, +which foolish girls thumb and con in remote villages, but will help to +regulate the actual practical weddings and households of those foolish +girls. So "Celia" felt, so "Clifford" acted: the foolish Theorem of +Life, stamped into those young brains, comes out as a solid Practice +one day. Consider whether any _Rune_ in the wildest imagination of +Mythologist ever did such wonders as, on the actual firm Earth, some +Books have done! What built St. Paul's Cathedral? Look at the heart of +the matter, it was that divine Hebrew BOOK,--the word partly of the man +Moses, an outlaw tending his Midianitish herds, four thousand years ago, +in the wildernesses of Sinai! It is the strangest of things, yet nothing +is truer. With the art of Writing, of which Printing is a simple, an +inevitable and comparatively insignificant corollary, the true reign +of miracles for mankind commenced. It related, with a wondrous new +contiguity and perpetual closeness, the Past and Distant with the +Present in time and place; all times and all places with this our actual +Here and Now. All things were altered for men; all modes of important +work of men: teaching, preaching, governing, and all else. + +To look at Teaching, for instance. Universities are a notable, +respectable product of the modern ages. Their existence too is modified, +to the very basis of it, by the existence of Books. Universities arose +while there were yet no Books procurable; while a man, for a single +Book, had to give an estate of land. That, in those circumstances, when +a man had some knowledge to communicate, he should do it by gathering +the learners round him, face to face, was a necessity for him. If you +wanted to know what Abelard knew, you must go and listen to Abelard. +Thousands, as many as thirty thousand, went to hear Abelard and that +metaphysical theology of his. And now for any other teacher who had also +something of his own to teach, there was a great convenience opened: +so many thousands eager to learn were already assembled yonder; of all +places the best place for him was that. For any third teacher it was +better still; and grew ever the better, the more teachers there came. +It only needed now that the King took notice of this new phenomenon; +combined or agglomerated the various schools into one school; gave it +edifices, privileges, encouragements, and named it _Universitas_, +or School of all Sciences: the University of Paris, in its essential +characters, was there. The model of all subsequent Universities; which +down even to these days, for six centuries now, have gone on to found +themselves. Such, I conceive, was the origin of Universities. + +It is clear, however, that with this simple circumstance, facility of +getting Books, the whole conditions of the business from top to bottom +were changed. Once invent Printing, you metamorphosed all Universities, +or superseded them! The Teacher needed not now to gather men personally +round him, that he might _speak_ to them what he knew: print it in a +Book, and all learners far and wide, for a trifle, had it each at his +own fireside, much more effectually to learn it!--Doubtless there is +still peculiar virtue in Speech; even writers of Books may still, in +some circumstances, find it convenient to speak also,--witness our +present meeting here! There is, one would say, and must ever remain +while man has a tongue, a distinct province for Speech as well as for +Writing and Printing. In regard to all things this must remain; to +Universities among others. But the limits of the two have nowhere yet +been pointed out, ascertained; much less put in practice: the University +which would completely take in that great new fact, of the existence of +Printed Books, and stand on a clear footing for the Nineteenth +Century as the Paris one did for the Thirteenth, has not yet come into +existence. If we think of it, all that a University, or final highest +School can do for us, is still but what the first School began +doing,--teach us to _read_. We learn to _read_, in various languages, +in various sciences; we learn the alphabet and letters of all manner +of Books. But the place where we are to get knowledge, even theoretic +knowledge, is the Books themselves! It depends on what we read, +after all manner of Professors have done their best for us. The true +University of these days is a Collection of Books. + +But to the Church itself, as I hinted already, all is changed, in its +preaching, in its working, by the introduction of Books. The Church is +the working recognized Union of our Priests or Prophets, of those who by +wise teaching guide the souls of men. While there was no Writing, even +while there was no Easy-writing, or _Printing_, the preaching of the +voice was the natural sole method of performing this. But now with +Books!--He that can write a true Book, to persuade England, is not he +the Bishop and Archbishop, the Primate of England and of All England? +I many a time say, the writers of Newspapers, Pamphlets, Poems, Books, +these _are_ the real working effective Church of a modern country. Nay +not only our preaching, but even our worship, is not it too accomplished +by means of Printed Books? The noble sentiment which a gifted soul +has clothed for us in melodious words, which brings melody into our +hearts,--is not this essentially, if we will understand it, of the +nature of worship? There are many, in all countries, who, in this +confused time, have no other method of worship. He who, in any way, +shows us better than we knew before that a lily of the fields is +beautiful, does he not show it us as an effluence of the Fountain of all +Beauty; as the _handwriting_, made visible there, of the great Maker of +the Universe? He has sung for us, made us sing with him, a little verse +of a sacred Psalm. Essentially so. How much more he who sings, who +says, or in any way brings home to our heart the noble doings, feelings, +darings and endurances of a brother man! He has verily touched our +hearts as with a live coal _from the altar_. Perhaps there is no worship +more authentic. + +Literature, so far as it is Literature, is an "apocalypse of Nature," a +revealing of the "open secret." It may well enough be named, in Fichte's +style, a "continuous revelation" of the Godlike in the Terrestrial and +Common. The Godlike does ever, in very truth, endure there; is +brought out, now in this dialect, now in that, with various degrees +of clearness: all true gifted Singers and Speakers are, consciously or +unconsciously, doing so. The dark stormful indignation of a Byron, so +wayward and perverse, may have touches of it; nay the withered mockery +of a French sceptic,--his mockery of the False, a love and worship of +the True. How much more the sphere-harmony of a Shakspeare, of a Goethe; +the cathedral music of a Milton! They are something too, those humble +genuine lark-notes of a Burns,--skylark, starting from the humble +furrow, far overhead into the blue depths, and singing to us so +genuinely there! For all true singing is of the nature of worship; as +indeed all true _working_ may be said to be,--whereof such _singing_ is +but the record, and fit melodious representation, to us. Fragments of a +real "Church Liturgy" and "Body of Homilies," strangely disguised from +the common eye, are to be found weltering in that huge froth-ocean of +Printed Speech we loosely call Literature! Books are our Church too. + +Or turning now to the Government of men. Witenagemote, old Parliament, +was a great thing. The affairs of the nation were there deliberated and +decided; what we were to _do_ as a nation. But does not, though the name +Parliament subsists, the parliamentary debate go on now, everywhere +and at all times, in a far more comprehensive way, _out_ of Parliament +altogether? Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, +in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a _Fourth Estate_ more +important far than they all. It is not a figure of speech, or a witty +saying; it is a literal fact,--very momentous to us in these times. +Literature is our Parliament too. Printing, which comes necessarily out +of Writing, I say often, is equivalent to Democracy: invent Writing, +Democracy is inevitable. Writing brings Printing; brings universal +everyday extempore Printing, as we see at present. Whoever can +speak, speaking now to the whole nation, becomes a power, a branch +of government, with inalienable weight in law-making, in all acts of +authority. It matters not what rank he has, what revenues or garnitures. +the requisite thing is, that he have a tongue which others will listen +to; this and nothing more is requisite. The nation is governed by all +that has tongue in the nation: Democracy is virtually _there_. Add only, +that whatsoever power exists will have itself, by and by, organized; +working secretly under bandages, obscurations, obstructions, it will +never rest till it get to work free, unencumbered, visible to all. +Democracy virtually extant will insist on becoming palpably extant.-- + +On all sides, are we not driven to the conclusion that, of the things +which man can do or make here below, by far the most momentous, +wonderful and worthy are the things we call Books! Those poor bits +of rag-paper with black ink on them;--from the Daily Newspaper to +the sacred Hebrew BOOK, what have they not done, what are they not +doing!--For indeed, whatever be the outward form of the thing (bits +of paper, as we say, and black ink), is it not verily, at bottom, the +highest act of man's faculty that produces a Book? It is the _Thought_ +of man; the true thaumaturgic virtue; by which man works all things +whatsoever. All that he does, and brings to pass, is the vesture of a +Thought. This London City, with all its houses, palaces, steam-engines, +cathedrals, and huge immeasurable traffic and tumult, what is it but a +Thought, but millions of Thoughts made into One;--a huge immeasurable +Spirit of a THOUGHT, embodied in brick, in iron, smoke, dust, Palaces, +Parliaments, Hackney Coaches, Katherine Docks, and the rest of it! Not +a brick was made but some man had to _think_ of the making of that +brick.--The thing we called "bits of paper with traces of black ink," is +the _purest_ embodiment a Thought of man can have. No wonder it is, in +all ways, the activest and noblest. + +All this, of the importance and supreme importance of the Man of Letters +in modern Society, and how the Press is to such a degree superseding +the Pulpit, the Senate, the _Senatus Academicus_ and much else, has been +admitted for a good while; and recognized often enough, in late times, +with a sort of sentimental triumph and wonderment. It seems to me, the +Sentimental by and by will have to give place to the Practical. If Men +of Letters _are_ so incalculably influential, actually performing such +work for us from age to age, and even from day to day, then I think +we may conclude that Men of Letters will not always wander like +unrecognized unregulated Ishmaelites among us! Whatsoever thing, as I +said above, has virtual unnoticed power will cast off its wrappages, +bandages, and step forth one day with palpably articulated, universally +visible power. That one man wear the clothes, and take the wages, of a +function which is done by quite another: there can be no profit in +this; this is not right, it is wrong. And yet, alas, the _making_ of it +right,--what a business, for long times to come! Sure enough, this that +we call Organization of the Literary Guild is still a great way off, +encumbered with all manner of complexities. If you asked me what were +the best possible organization for the Men of Letters in modern society; +the arrangement of furtherance and regulation, grounded the most +accurately on the actual facts of their position and of the world's +position,--I should beg to say that the problem far exceeded my faculty! +It is not one man's faculty; it is that of many successive men turned +earnestly upon it, that will bring out even an approximate solution. +What the best arrangement were, none of us could say. But if you ask, +Which is the worst? I answer: This which we now have, that Chaos should +sit umpire in it; this is the worst. To the best, or any good one, there +is yet a long way. + +One remark I must not omit, That royal or parliamentary grants of money +are by no means the chief thing wanted! To give our Men of Letters +stipends, endowments and all furtherance of cash, will do little +towards the business. On the whole, one is weary of hearing about the +omnipotence of money. I will say rather that, for a genuine man, it is +no evil to be poor; that there ought to be Literary Men poor,--to show +whether they are genuine or not! Mendicant Orders, bodies of good men +doomed to beg, were instituted in the Christian Church; a most natural +and even necessary development of the spirit of Christianity. It was +itself founded on Poverty, on Sorrow, Contradiction, Crucifixion, every +species of worldly Distress and Degradation. We may say, that he who has +not known those things, and learned from them the priceless lessons they +have to teach, has missed a good opportunity of schooling. To beg, and +go barefoot, in coarse woollen cloak with a rope round your loins, +and be despised of all the world, was no beautiful business;--nor an +honorable one in any eye, till the nobleness of those who did so had +made it honored of some! + +Begging is not in our course at the present time: but for the rest of +it, who will say that a Johnson is not perhaps the better for being +poor? It is needful for him, at all rates, to know that outward profit, +that success of any kind is _not_ the goal he has to aim at. Pride, +vanity, ill-conditioned egoism of all sorts, are bred in his heart, as +in every heart; need, above all, to be cast out of his heart,--to be, +with whatever pangs, torn out of it, cast forth from it, as a thing +worthless. Byron, born rich and noble, made out even less than +Burns, poor and plebeian. Who knows but, in that same "best possible +organization" as yet far off, Poverty may still enter as an important +element? What if our Men of Letters, men setting up to be Spiritual +Heroes, were still _then_, as they now are, a kind of "involuntary +monastic order;" bound still to this same ugly Poverty,--till they had +tried what was in it too, till they had learned to make it too do for +them! Money, in truth, can do much, but it cannot do all. We must know +the province of it, and confine it there; and even spurn it back, when +it wishes to get farther. + +Besides, were the money-furtherances, the proper season for them, the +fit assigner of them, all settled,--how is the Burns to be recognized +that merits these? He must pass through the ordeal, and prove himself. +_This_ ordeal; this wild welter of a chaos which is called Literary +Life: this too is a kind of ordeal! There is clear truth in the idea +that a struggle from the lower classes of society, towards the upper +regions and rewards of society, must ever continue. Strong men are +born there, who ought to stand elsewhere than there. The manifold, +inextricably complex, universal struggle of these constitutes, and must +constitute, what is called the progress of society. For Men of Letters, +as for all other sorts of men. How to regulate that struggle? There is +the whole question. To leave it as it is, at the mercy of blind Chance; +a whirl of distracted atoms, one cancelling the other; one of the +thousand arriving saved, nine hundred and ninety-nine lost by the way; +your royal Johnson languishing inactive in garrets, or harnessed to the +yoke of Printer Cave; your Burns dying broken-hearted as a Gauger; your +Rousseau driven into mad exasperation, kindling French Revolutions +by his paradoxes: this, as we said, is clearly enough the _worst_ +regulation. The _best_, alas, is far from us! + +And yet there can be no doubt but it is coming; advancing on us, as yet +hidden in the bosom of centuries: this is a prophecy one can risk. +For so soon as men get to discern the importance of a thing, they do +infallibly set about arranging it, facilitating, forwarding it; and rest +not till, in some approximate degree, they have accomplished that. I +say, of all Priesthoods, Aristocracies, Governing Classes at present +extant in the world, there is no class comparable for importance to that +Priesthood of the Writers of Books. This is a fact which he who runs may +read,--and draw inferences from. "Literature will take care of itself," +answered Mr. Pitt, when applied to for some help for Burns. "Yes," adds +Mr. Southey, "it will take care of itself; _and of you too_, if you do +not look to it!" + +The result to individual Men of Letters is not the momentous one; they +are but individuals, an infinitesimal fraction of the great body; they +can struggle on, and live or else die, as they have been wont. But it +deeply concerns the whole society, whether it will set its _light_ on +high places, to walk thereby; or trample it under foot, and scatter it +in all ways of wild waste (not without conflagration), as heretofore! +Light is the one thing wanted for the world. Put wisdom in the head of +the world, the world will fight its battle victoriously, and be the best +world man can make it. I called this anomaly of a disorganic Literary +Class the heart of all other anomalies, at once product and parent; some +good arrangement for that would be as the _punctum saliens_ of a +new vitality and just arrangement for all. Already, in some European +countries, in France, in Prussia, one traces some beginnings of an +arrangement for the Literary Class; indicating the gradual possibility +of such. I believe that it is possible; that it will have to be +possible. + +By far the most interesting fact I hear about the Chinese is one on +which we cannot arrive at clearness, but which excites endless curiosity +even in the dim state: this namely, that they do attempt to make their +Men of Letters their Governors! It would be rash to say, one understood +how this was done, or with what degree of success it was done. All +such things must be very unsuccessful; yet a small degree of success is +precious; the very attempt how precious! There does seem to be, all over +China, a more or less active search everywhere to discover the men of +talent that grow up in the young generation. Schools there are for +every one: a foolish sort of training, yet still a sort. The youths who +distinguish themselves in the lower school are promoted into +favorable stations in the higher, that they may still more distinguish +themselves,--forward and forward: it appears to be out of these that +the Official Persons, and incipient Governors, are taken. These are they +whom they _try_ first, whether they can govern or not. And surely with +the best hope: for they are the men that have already shown intellect. +Try them: they have not governed or administered as yet; perhaps they +cannot; but there is no doubt they _have_ some Understanding,--without +which no man can! Neither is Understanding a _tool_, as we are too apt +to figure; "it is a _hand_ which can handle any tool." Try these men: +they are of all others the best worth trying.--Surely there is no +kind of government, constitution, revolution, social apparatus or +arrangement, that I know of in this world, so promising to one's +scientific curiosity as this. The man of intellect at the top of +affairs: this is the aim of all constitutions and revolutions, if they +have any aim. For the man of true intellect, as I assert and believe +always, is the noble-hearted man withal, the true, just, humane and +valiant man. Get him for governor, all is got; fail to get him, though +you had Constitutions plentiful as blackberries, and a Parliament in +every village, there is nothing yet got--! + +These things look strange, truly; and are not such as we commonly +speculate upon. But we are fallen into strange times; these things will +require to be speculated upon; to be rendered practicable, to be in some +way put in practice. These, and many others. On all hands of us, there +is the announcement, audible enough, that the old Empire of Routine +has ended; that to say a thing has long been, is no reason for its +continuing to be. The things which have been are fallen into decay, are +fallen into incompetence; large masses of mankind, in every society of +our Europe, are no longer capable of living at all by the things which +have been. When millions of men can no longer by their utmost exertion +gain food for themselves, and "the third man for thirty-six weeks each +year is short of third-rate potatoes," the things which have been must +decidedly prepare to alter themselves!--I will now quit this of the +organization of Men of Letters. + + +Alas, the evil that pressed heaviest on those Literary Heroes of ours +was not the want of organization for Men of Letters, but a far deeper +one; out of which, indeed, this and so many other evils for the Literary +Man, and for all men, had, as from their fountain, taken rise. That our +Hero as Man of Letters had to travel without highway, companionless, +through an inorganic chaos,--and to leave his own life and faculty lying +there, as a partial contribution towards _pushing_ some highway through +it: this, had not his faculty itself been so perverted and paralyzed, he +might have put up with, might have considered to be but the common lot +of Heroes. His fatal misery was the _spiritual paralysis_, so we may +name it, of the Age in which his life lay; whereby his life too, do what +he might, was half paralyzed! The Eighteenth was a _Sceptical_ Century; +in which little word there is a whole Pandora's Box of miseries. +Scepticism means not intellectual Doubt alone, but moral Doubt; all +sorts of infidelity, insincerity, spiritual paralysis. Perhaps, in few +centuries that one could specify since the world began, was a life of +Heroism more difficult for a man. That was not an age of Faith,--an +age of Heroes! The very possibility of Heroism had been, as it were, +formally abnegated in the minds of all. Heroism was gone forever; +Triviality, Formulism and Commonplace were come forever. The "age of +miracles" had been, or perhaps had not been; but it was not any longer. +An effete world; wherein Wonder, Greatness, Godhood could not now +dwell;--in one word, a godless world! + +How mean, dwarfish are their ways of thinking, in this time,--compared +not with the Christian Shakspeares and Miltons, but with the old Pagan +Skalds, with any species of believing men! The living TREE Igdrasil, +with the melodious prophetic waving of its world-wide boughs, +deep-rooted as Hela, has died out into the clanking of a World-MACHINE. +"Tree" and "Machine:" contrast these two things. I, for my share, +declare the world to be no machine! I say that it does _not_ go by +wheel-and-pinion "motives" self-interests, checks, balances; that there +is something far other in it than the clank of spinning-jennies, and +parliamentary majorities; and, on the whole, that it is not a machine at +all!--The old Norse Heathen had a truer motion of God's-world than these +poor Machine-Sceptics: the old Heathen Norse were _sincere_ men. But +for these poor Sceptics there was no sincerity, no truth. Half-truth and +hearsay was called truth. Truth, for most men, meant plausibility; to be +measured by the number of votes you could get. They had lost any +notion that sincerity was possible, or of what sincerity was. How many +Plausibilities asking, with unaffected surprise and the air of offended +virtue, What! am not I sincere? Spiritual Paralysis, I say, nothing left +but a Mechanical life, was the characteristic of that century. For the +common man, unless happily he stood _below_ his century and belonged to +another prior one, it was impossible to be a Believer, a Hero; he lay +buried, unconscious, under these baleful influences. To the strongest +man, only with infinite struggle and confusion was it possible to work +himself half loose; and lead as it were, in an enchanted, most tragical +way, a spiritual death-in-life, and be a Half-Hero! + +Scepticism is the name we give to all this; as the chief symptom, as the +chief origin of all this. Concerning which so much were to be said! It +would take many Discourses, not a small fraction of one Discourse, to +state what one feels about that Eighteenth Century and its ways. As +indeed this, and the like of this, which we now call Scepticism, is +precisely the black malady and life-foe, against which all teaching and +discoursing since man's life began has directed itself: the battle of +Belief against Unbelief is the never-ending battle! Neither is it in the +way of crimination that one would wish to speak. Scepticism, for that +century, we must consider as the decay of old ways of believing, the +preparation afar off for new better and wider ways,--an inevitable +thing. We will not blame men for it; we will lament their hard fate. We +will understand that destruction of old _forms_ is not destruction of +everlasting _substances_; that Scepticism, as sorrowful and hateful as +we see it, is not an end but a beginning. + +The other day speaking, without prior purpose that way, of Bentham's +theory of man and man's life, I chanced to call it a more beggarly one +than Mahomet's. I am bound to say, now when it is once uttered, that +such is my deliberate opinion. Not that one would mean offence against +the man Jeremy Bentham, or those who respect and believe him. Bentham +himself, and even the creed of Bentham, seems to me comparatively worthy +of praise. It is a determinate _being_ what all the world, in a cowardly +half-and-half manner, was tending to be. Let us have the crisis; we +shall either have death or the cure. I call this gross, steam-engine +Utilitarianism an approach towards new Faith. It was a laying-down +of cant; a saying to oneself: "Well then, this world is a dead iron +machine, the god of it Gravitation and selfish Hunger; let us see what, +by checking and balancing, and good adjustment of tooth and pinion, +can be made of it!" Benthamism has something complete, manful, in such +fearless committal of itself to what it finds true; you may call it +Heroic, though a Heroism with its _eyes_ put out! It is the culminating +point, and fearless ultimatum, of what lay in the half-and-half state, +pervading man's whole existence in that Eighteenth Century. It seems to +me, all deniers of Godhood, and all lip-believers of it, are bound to +be Benthamites, if they have courage and honesty. Benthamism is an +_eyeless_ Heroism: the Human Species, like a hapless blinded Samson +grinding in the Philistine Mill, clasps convulsively the pillars of +its Mill; brings huge ruin down, but ultimately deliverance withal. Of +Bentham I meant to say no harm. + +But this I do say, and would wish all men to know and lay to heart, +that he who discerns nothing but Mechanism in the Universe has in the +fatalest way missed the secret of the Universe altogether. That all +Godhood should vanish out of men's conception of this Universe seems to +me precisely the most brutal error,--I will not disparage Heathenism by +calling it a Heathen error,--that men could fall into. It is not true; +it is false at the very heart of it. A man who thinks so will think +_wrong_ about all things in the world; this original sin will vitiate +all other conclusions he can form. One might call it the most lamentable +of Delusions,--not forgetting Witchcraft itself! Witchcraft worshipped +at least a living Devil; but this worships a dead iron Devil; no God, +not even a Devil! Whatsoever is noble, divine, inspired, drops +thereby out of life. There remains everywhere in life a despicable +_caput-mortuum_; the mechanical hull, all soul fled out of it. How can a +man act heroically? The "Doctrine of Motives" will teach him that it is, +under more or less disguise, nothing but a wretched love of Pleasure, +fear of Pain; that Hunger, of applause, of cash, of whatsoever victual +it may be, is the ultimate fact of man's life. Atheism, in brief;--which +does indeed frightfully punish itself. The man, I say, is become +spiritually a paralytic man; this godlike Universe a dead mechanical +steam-engine, all working by motives, checks, balances, and I know not +what; wherein, as in the detestable belly of some Phalaris'-Bull of his +own contriving, he the poor Phalaris sits miserably dying! + +Belief I define to be the healthy act of a man's mind. It +is a mysterious indescribable process, that of getting to +believe;--indescribable, as all vital acts are. We have our mind given +us, not that it may cavil and argue, but that it may see into something, +give us clear belief and understanding about something, whereon we are +then to proceed to act. Doubt, truly, is not itself a crime. Certainly +we do not rush out, clutch up the first thing we find, and straightway +believe that! All manner of doubt, inquiry, [Gr.] _skepsis_ as it is +named, about all manner of objects, dwells in every reasonable mind. It +is the mystic working of the mind, on the object it is _getting_ to know +and believe. Belief comes out of all this, above ground, like the tree +from its hidden _roots_. But now if, even on common things, we require +that a man keep his doubts _silent_, and not babble of them till they in +some measure become affirmations or denials; how much more in regard to +the highest things, impossible to speak of in words at all! That a man +parade his doubt, and get to imagine that debating and logic (which +means at best only the manner of _telling_ us your thought, your belief +or disbelief, about a thing) is the triumph and true work of what +intellect he has: alas, this is as if you should _overturn_ the tree, +and instead of green boughs, leaves and fruits, show us ugly taloned +roots turned up into the air,--and no growth, only death and misery +going on! + +For the Scepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral +also; a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. A man lives by +believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things. A +sad case for him when all that he can manage to believe is something +he can button in his pocket, and with one or the other organ eat and +digest! Lower than that he will not get. We call those ages in which +he gets so low the mournfulest, sickest and meanest of all ages. The +world's heart is palsied, sick: how can any limb of it be whole? +Genuine Acting ceases in all departments of the world's work; dexterous +Similitude of Acting begins. The world's wages are pocketed, the +world's work is not done. Heroes have gone out; Quacks have come in. +Accordingly, what Century, since the end of the Roman world, which also +was a time of scepticism, simulacra and universal decadence, so +abounds with Quacks as that Eighteenth? Consider them, with their +tumid sentimental vaporing about virtue, benevolence,--the wretched +Quack-squadron, Cagliostro at the head of them! Few men were without +quackery; they had got to consider it a necessary ingredient and amalgam +for truth. Chatham, our brave Chatham himself, comes down to the House, +all wrapt and bandaged; he "has crawled out in great bodily suffering," +and so on;--_forgets_, says Walpole, that he is acting the sick man; in +the fire of debate, snatches his arm from the sling, and oratorically +swings and brandishes it! Chatham himself lives the strangest mimetic +life, half-hero, half-quack, all along. For indeed the world is full of +dupes; and you have to gain the _world's_ suffrage! How the duties of +the world will be done in that case, what quantities of error, which +means failure, which means sorrow and misery, to some and to many, will +gradually accumulate in all provinces of the world's business, we need +not compute. + +It seems to me, you lay your finger here on the heart of the world's +maladies, when you call it a Sceptical World. An insincere world; a +godless untruth of a world! It is out of this, as I consider, that the +whole tribe of social pestilences, French Revolutions, Chartisms, and +what not, have derived their being,--their chief necessity to be. This +must alter. Till this alter, nothing can beneficially alter. My one hope +of the world, my inexpugnable consolation in looking at the miseries of +the world, is that this is altering. Here and there one does now find +a man who knows, as of old, that this world is a Truth, and no +Plausibility and Falsity; that he himself is alive, not dead or +paralytic; and that the world is alive, instinct with Godhood, beautiful +and awful, even as in the beginning of days! One man once knowing this, +many men, all men, must by and by come to know it. It lies there clear, +for whosoever will take the _spectacles_ off his eyes and honestly look, +to know! For such a man the Unbelieving Century, with its unblessed +Products, is already past; a new century is already come. The old +unblessed Products and Performances, as solid as they look, are +Phantasms, preparing speedily to vanish. To this and the other noisy, +very great-looking Simulacrum with the whole world huzzaing at its +heels, he can say, composedly stepping aside: Thou art not _true_; thou +art not extant, only semblant; go thy way!--Yes, hollow Formulism, gross +Benthamism, and other unheroic atheistic Insincerity is visibly and +even rapidly declining. An unbelieving Eighteenth Century is but an +exception,--such as now and then occurs. I prophesy that the world will +once more become _sincere_; a believing world; with _many_ Heroes in it, +a heroic world! It will then be a victorious world; never till then. + +Or indeed what of the world and its victories? Men speak too much about +the world. Each one of us here, let the world go how it will, and be +victorious or not victorious, has he not a Life of his own to lead? One +Life; a little gleam of Time between two Eternities; no second chance to +us forevermore! It were well for us to live not as fools and simulacra, +but as wise and realities. The world's being saved will not save us; nor +the world's being lost destroy us. We should look to ourselves: there is +great merit here in the "duty of staying at home"! And, on the whole, +to say truth, I never heard of "world's" being "saved" in any other way. +That mania of saving worlds is itself a piece of the Eighteenth Century +with its windy sentimentalism. Let us not follow it too far. For the +saving of the _world_ I will trust confidently to the Maker of the +world; and look a little to my own saving, which I am more competent +to!--In brief, for the world's sake, and for our own, we will rejoice +greatly that Scepticism, Insincerity, Mechanical Atheism, with all their +poison-dews, are going, and as good as gone.-- + +Now it was under such conditions, in those times of Johnson, that our +Men of Letters had to live. Times in which there was properly no truth +in life. Old truths had fallen nigh dumb; the new lay yet hidden, not +trying to speak. That Man's Life here below was a Sincerity and Fact, +and would forever continue such, no new intimation, in that dusk of +the world, had yet dawned. No intimation; not even any French +Revolution,--which we define to be a Truth once more, though a Truth +clad in hell-fire! How different was the Luther's pilgrimage, with +its assured goal, from the Johnson's, girt with mere traditions, +suppositions, grown now incredible, unintelligible! Mahomet's Formulas +were of "wood waxed and oiled," and could be burnt out of one's way: +poor Johnson's were far more difficult to burn.--The strong man will +ever find _work_, which means difficulty, pain, to the full measure of +his strength. But to make out a victory, in those circumstances of our +poor Hero as Man of Letters, was perhaps more difficult than in any. Not +obstruction, disorganization, Bookseller Osborne and Fourpence-halfpenny +a day; not this alone; but the light of his own soul was taken from him. +No landmark on the Earth; and, alas, what is that to having no loadstar +in the Heaven! We need not wonder that none of those Three men rose to +victory. That they fought truly is the highest praise. With a mournful +sympathy we will contemplate, if not three living victorious Heroes, as +I said, the Tombs of three fallen Heroes! They fell for us too; making +a way for us. There are the mountains which they hurled abroad in their +confused War of the Giants; under which, their strength and life spent, +they now lie buried. + + +I have already written of these three Literary Heroes, expressly or +incidentally; what I suppose is known to most of you; what need not be +spoken or written a second time. They concern us here as the singular +_Prophets_ of that singular age; for such they virtually were; and the +aspect they and their world exhibit, under this point of view, might +lead us into reflections enough! I call them, all three, Genuine Men +more or less; faithfully, for most part unconsciously, struggling to be +genuine, and plant themselves on the everlasting truth of things. This +to a degree that eminently distinguishes them from the poor artificial +mass of their contemporaries; and renders them worthy to be considered +as Speakers, in some measure, of the everlasting truth, as Prophets in +that age of theirs. By Nature herself a noble necessity was laid on them +to be so. They were men of such magnitude that they could not live on +unrealities,--clouds, froth and all inanity gave way under them: there +was no footing for them but on firm earth; no rest or regular motion for +them, if they got not footing there. To a certain extent, they were Sons +of Nature once more in an age of Artifice; once more, Original Men. + +As for Johnson, I have always considered him to be, by nature, one +of our great English souls. A strong and noble man; so much left +undeveloped in him to the last: in a kindlier element what might he not +have been,--Poet, Priest, sovereign Ruler! On the whole, a man must not +complain of his "element," of his "time," or the like; it is thriftless +work doing so. His time is bad: well then, he is there to make it +better!--Johnson's youth was poor, isolated, hopeless, very miserable. +Indeed, it does not seem possible that, in any the favorablest outward +circumstances, Johnson's life could have been other than a painful one. +The world might have had more of profitable _work_ out of him, or less; +but his _effort_ against the world's work could never have been a light +one. Nature, in return for his nobleness, had said to him, Live in an +element of diseased sorrow. Nay, perhaps the sorrow and the nobleness +were intimately and even inseparably connected with each other. At all +events, poor Johnson had to go about girt with continual hypochondria, +physical and spiritual pain. Like a Hercules with the burning +Nessus'-shirt on him, which shoots in on him dull incurable misery: the +Nessus'-shirt not to be stript off, which is his own natural skin! In +this manner _he_ had to live. Figure him there, with his scrofulous +diseases, with his great greedy heart, and unspeakable chaos of +thoughts; stalking mournful as a stranger in this Earth; eagerly +devouring what spiritual thing he could come at: school-languages +and other merely grammatical stuff, if there were nothing better! The +largest soul that was in all England; and provision made for it of +"fourpence-halfpenny a day." Yet a giant invincible soul; a true man's. +One remembers always that story of the shoes at Oxford: the rough, +seamy-faced, rawboned College Servitor stalking about, in winter-season, +with his shoes worn out; how the charitable Gentleman Commoner secretly +places a new pair at his door; and the rawboned Servitor, lifting them, +looking at them near, with his dim eyes, with what thoughts,--pitches +them out of window! Wet feet, mud, frost, hunger or what you will; but +not beggary: we cannot stand beggary! Rude stubborn self-help here; +a whole world of squalor, rudeness, confused misery and want, yet of +nobleness and manfulness withal. It is a type of the man's life, +this pitching away of the shoes. An original man;--not a second-hand, +borrowing or begging man. Let us stand on our own basis, at any rate! On +such shoes as we ourselves can get. On frost and mud, if you will, but +honestly on that;--on the reality and substance which Nature gives _us_, +not on the semblance, on the thing she has given another than us--! + +And yet with all this rugged pride of manhood and self-help, was there +ever soul more tenderly affectionate, loyally submissive to what was +really higher than he? Great souls are always loyally submissive, +reverent to what is over them; only small mean souls are otherwise. I +could not find a better proof of what I said the other day, That the +sincere man was by nature the obedient man; that only in a World +of Heroes was there loyal Obedience to the Heroic. The essence of +_originality_ is not that it be _new_: Johnson believed altogether in +the old; he found the old opinions credible for him, fit for him; and in +a right heroic manner lived under them. He is well worth study in regard +to that. For we are to say that Johnson was far other than a mere man +of words and formulas; he was a man of truths and facts. He stood by the +old formulas; the happier was it for him that he could so stand: but in +all formulas that _he_ could stand by, there needed to be a most +genuine substance. Very curious how, in that poor Paper-age, so barren, +artificial, thick-quilted with Pedantries, Hearsays, the great Fact of +this Universe glared in, forever wonderful, indubitable, unspeakable, +divine-infernal, upon this man too! How he harmonized his Formulas with +it, how he managed at all under such circumstances: that is a thing +worth seeing. A thing "to be looked at with reverence, with pity, with +awe." That Church of St. Clement Danes, where Johnson still _worshipped_ +in the era of Voltaire, is to me a venerable place. + +It was in virtue of his _sincerity_, of his speaking still in some sort +from the heart of Nature, though in the current artificial dialect, that +Johnson was a Prophet. Are not all dialects "artificial"? Artificial +things are not all false;--nay every true Product of Nature will +infallibly _shape_ itself; we may say all artificial things are, at +the starting of them, _true_. What we call "Formulas" are not in their +origin bad; they are indispensably good. Formula is _method_, habitude; +found wherever man is found. Formulas fashion themselves as Paths do, as +beaten Highways, leading toward some sacred or high object, whither many +men are bent. Consider it. One man, full of heartfelt earnest impulse, +finds out a way of doing somewhat,--were it of uttering his soul's +reverence for the Highest, were it but of fitly saluting his fellow-man. +An inventor was needed to do that, a _poet_; he has articulated the +dim-struggling thought that dwelt in his own and many hearts. This +is his way of doing that; these are his footsteps, the beginning of a +"Path." And now see: the second men travels naturally in the footsteps +of his foregoer, it is the _easiest_ method. In the footsteps of his +foregoer; yet with improvements, with changes where such seem good; at +all events with enlargements, the Path ever _widening_ itself as more +travel it;--till at last there is a broad Highway whereon the whole +world may travel and drive. While there remains a City or Shrine, or +any Reality to drive to, at the farther end, the Highway shall be right +welcome! When the City is gone, we will forsake the Highway. In this +manner all Institutions, Practices, Regulated Things in the world have +come into existence, and gone out of existence. Formulas all begin +by being _full_ of substance; you may call them the _skin_, the +articulation into shape, into limbs and skin, of a substance that is +already there: _they_ had not been there otherwise. Idols, as we said, +are not idolatrous till they become doubtful, empty for the worshipper's +heart. Much as we talk against Formulas, I hope no one of us is ignorant +withal of the high significance of _true_ Formulas; that they were, and +will ever be, the indispensablest furniture of our habitation in this +world.-- + +Mark, too, how little Johnson boasts of his "sincerity." He has no +suspicion of his being particularly sincere,--of his being particularly +anything! A hard-struggling, weary-hearted man, or "scholar" as he calls +himself, trying hard to get some honest livelihood in the world, not +to starve, but to live--without stealing! A noble unconsciousness is in +him. He does not "engrave _Truth_ on his watch-seal;" no, but he stands +by truth, speaks by it, works and lives by it. Thus it ever is. Think of +it once more. The man whom Nature has appointed to do great things is, +first of all, furnished with that openness to Nature which renders him +incapable of being _in_sincere! To his large, open, deep-feeling heart +Nature is a Fact: all hearsay is hearsay; the unspeakable greatness of +this Mystery of Life, let him acknowledge it or not, nay even though +he seem to forget it or deny it, is ever present to _him_,--fearful +and wonderful, on this hand and on that. He has a basis of sincerity; +unrecognized, because never questioned or capable of question. Mirabeau, +Mahomet, Cromwell, Napoleon: all the Great Men I ever heard of have +this as the primary material of them. Innumerable commonplace men are +debating, are talking everywhere their commonplace doctrines, which they +have learned by logic, by rote, at second-hand: to that kind of man all +this is still nothing. He must have truth; truth which _he_ feels to be +true. How shall he stand otherwise? His whole soul, at all moments, in +all ways, tells him that there is no standing. He is under the noble +necessity of being true. Johnson's way of thinking about this world is +not mine, any more than Mahomet's was: but I recognize the everlasting +element of _heart-sincerity_ in both; and see with pleasure how neither +of them remains ineffectual. Neither of them is as _chaff_ sown; in both +of them is something which the seedfield will _grow_. + +Johnson was a Prophet to his people; preached a Gospel to them,--as all +like him always do. The highest Gospel he preached we may describe as a +kind of Moral Prudence: "in a world where much is to be done, and little +is to be known," see how you will _do_ it! A thing well worth preaching. +"A world where much is to be done, and little is to be known:" do not +sink yourselves in boundless bottomless abysses of Doubt, of wretched +god-forgetting Unbelief;--you were miserable then, powerless, mad: +how could you _do_ or work at all? Such Gospel Johnson preached and +taught;--coupled, theoretically and practically, with this other great +Gospel, "Clear your mind of Cant!" Have no trade with Cant: stand on the +cold mud in the frosty weather, but let it be in your own _real_ torn +shoes: "that will be better for you," as Mahomet says! I call this, I +call these two things _joined together_, a great Gospel, the greatest +perhaps that was possible at that time. + +Johnson's Writings, which once had such currency and celebrity, are +now as it were disowned by the young generation. It is not wonderful; +Johnson's opinions are fast becoming obsolete: but his style of thinking +and of living, we may hope, will never become obsolete. I find in +Johnson's Books the indisputablest traces of a great intellect and great +heart;--ever welcome, under what obstructions and perversions soever. +They are _sincere_ words, those of his; he means things by them. A +wondrous buckram style,--the best he could get to then; a measured +grandiloquence, stepping or rather stalking along in a very solemn +way, grown obsolete now; sometimes a tumid _size_ of phraseology not in +proportion to the contents of it: all this you will put up with. For +the phraseology, tumid or not, has always _something within it_. So +many beautiful styles and books, with _nothing_ in them;--a man is +a malefactor to the world who writes such! _They_ are the avoidable +kind!--Had Johnson left nothing but his _Dictionary_, one might have +traced there a great intellect, a genuine man. Looking to its clearness +of definition, its general solidity, honesty, insight and successful +method, it may be called the best of all Dictionaries. There is in it +a kind of architectural nobleness; it stands there like a great solid +square-built edifice, finished, symmetrically complete: you judge that a +true Builder did it. + +One word, in spite of our haste, must be granted to poor Bozzy. He +passes for a mean, inflated, gluttonous creature; and was so in many +senses. Yet the fact of his reverence for Johnson will ever remain +noteworthy. The foolish conceited Scotch Laird, the most conceited man +of his time, approaching in such awe-struck attitude the great dusty +irascible Pedagogue in his mean garret there: it is a genuine reverence +for Excellence; a _worship_ for Heroes, at a time when neither Heroes +nor worship were surmised to exist. Heroes, it would seem, exist always, +and a certain worship of them! We will also take the liberty to deny +altogether that of the witty Frenchman, that no man is a Hero to his +valet-de-chambre. Or if so, it is not the Hero's blame, but the Valet's: +that his soul, namely, is a mean _valet_-soul! He expects his Hero +to advance in royal stage-trappings, with measured step, trains borne +behind him, trumpets sounding before him. It should stand rather, No +man can be a _Grand-Monarque_ to his valet-de-chambre. Strip your Louis +Quatorze of his king-gear, and there _is_ left nothing but a poor forked +radish with a head fantastically carved;--admirable to no valet. The +Valet does not know a Hero when he sees him! Alas, no: it requires a +kind of _Hero_ to do that;--and one of the world's wants, in _this_ as +in other senses, is for most part want of such. + +On the whole, shall we not say, that Boswell's admiration was well +bestowed; that he could have found no soul in all England so worthy of +bending down before? Shall we not say, of this great mournful Johnson +too, that he guided his difficult confused existence wisely; led it +_well_, like a right valiant man? That waste chaos of Authorship by +trade; that waste chaos of Scepticism in religion and politics, in +life-theory and life-practice; in his poverty, in his dust and dimness, +with the sick body and the rusty coat: he made it do for him, like a +brave man. Not wholly without a loadstar in the Eternal; he had still +a loadstar, as the brave all need to have: with his eye set on that, he +would change his course for nothing in these confused vortices of the +lower sea of Time. "To the Spirit of Lies, bearing death and hunger, he +would in nowise strike his flag." Brave old Samuel: _ultimus Romanorum_! + + +Of Rousseau and his Heroism I cannot say so much. He is not what I +call a strong man. A morbid, excitable, spasmodic man; at best, intense +rather than strong. He had not "the talent of Silence," an invaluable +talent; which few Frenchmen, or indeed men of any sort in these times, +excel in! The suffering man ought really "to consume his own smoke;" +there is no good in emitting _smoke_ till you have made it into +_fire_,--which, in the metaphorical sense too, all smoke is capable +of becoming! Rousseau has not depth or width, not calm force for +difficulty; the first characteristic of true greatness. A fundamental +mistake to call vehemence and rigidity strength! A man is not strong who +takes convulsion-fits; though six men cannot hold him then. He that can +walk under the heaviest weight without staggering, he is the strong +man. We need forever, especially in these loud-shrieking days, to remind +ourselves of that. A man who cannot _hold his peace_, till the time come +for speaking and acting, is no right man. + +Poor Rousseau's face is to me expressive of him. A high but narrow +contracted intensity in it: bony brows; deep, strait-set eyes, in +which there is something bewildered-looking,--bewildered, peering with +lynx-eagerness. A face full of misery, even ignoble misery, and also of +the antagonism against that; something mean, plebeian there, redeemed +only by _intensity_: the face of what is called a Fanatic,--a sadly +_contracted_ Hero! We name him here because, with all his drawbacks, and +they are many, he has the first and chief characteristic of a Hero: he +is heartily _in earnest_. In earnest, if ever man was; as none of these +French Philosophers were. Nay, one would say, of an earnestness too +great for his otherwise sensitive, rather feeble nature; and which +indeed in the end drove him into the strangest incoherences, almost +delirations. There had come, at last, to be a kind of madness in him: +his Ideas _possessed_ him like demons; hurried him so about, drove him +over steep places--! + +The fault and misery of Rousseau was what we easily name by a single +word, _Egoism_; which is indeed the source and summary of all faults and +miseries whatsoever. He had not perfected himself into victory over mere +Desire; a mean Hunger, in many sorts, was still the motive principle of +him. I am afraid he was a very vain man; hungry for the praises of men. +You remember Genlis's experience of him. She took Jean Jacques to the +Theatre; he bargaining for a strict incognito,--"He would not be seen +there for the world!" The curtain did happen nevertheless to be drawn +aside: the Pit recognized Jean Jacques, but took no great notice of him! +He expressed the bitterest indignation; gloomed all evening, spake no +other than surly words. The glib Countess remained entirely convinced +that his anger was not at being seen, but at not being applauded +when seen. How the whole nature of the man is poisoned; nothing but +suspicion, self-isolation, fierce moody ways! He could not live with +anybody. A man of some rank from the country, who visited him often, and +used to sit with him, expressing all reverence and affection for him, +comes one day; finds Jean Jacques full of the sourest unintelligible +humor. "Monsieur," said Jean Jacques, with flaming eyes, "I know why you +come here. You come to see what a poor life I lead; how little is in my +poor pot that is boiling there. Well, look into the pot! There is half a +pound of meat, one carrot and three onions; that is all: go and tell the +whole world that, if you like, Monsieur!"--A man of this sort was far +gone. The whole world got itself supplied with anecdotes, for light +laughter, for a certain theatrical interest, from these perversions and +contortions of poor Jean Jacques. Alas, to him they were not laughing or +theatrical; too real to him! The contortions of a dying gladiator: the +crowded amphitheatre looks on with entertainment; but the gladiator is +in agonies and dying. + +And yet this Rousseau, as we say, with his passionate appeals to +Mothers, with his _contrat-social_, with his celebrations of Nature, +even of savage life in Nature, did once more touch upon Reality, +struggle towards Reality; was doing the function of a Prophet to his +Time. As he could, and as the Time could! Strangely through all that +defacement, degradation and almost madness, there is in the inmost heart +of poor Rousseau a spark of real heavenly fire. Once more, out of +the element of that withered mocking Philosophism, Scepticism and +Persiflage, there has arisen in this man the ineradicable feeling and +knowledge that this Life of ours is true: not a Scepticism, Theorem, +or Persiflage, but a Fact, an awful Reality. Nature had made that +revelation to him; had ordered him to speak it out. He got it spoken +out; if not well and clearly, then ill and dimly,--as clearly as he +could. Nay what are all errors and perversities of his, even those +stealings of ribbons, aimless confused miseries and vagabondisms, if we +will interpret them kindly, but the blinkard dazzlement and staggerings +to and fro of a man sent on an errand he is too weak for, by a path he +cannot yet find? Men are led by strange ways. One should have tolerance +for a man, hope of him; leave him to try yet what he will do. While life +lasts, hope lasts for every man. + +Of Rousseau's literary talents, greatly celebrated still among his +countrymen, I do not say much. His Books, like himself, are what I +call unhealthy; not the good sort of Books. There is a sensuality in +Rousseau. Combined with such an intellectual gift as his, it makes +pictures of a certain gorgeous attractiveness: but they are not +genuinely poetical. Not white sunlight: something _operatic_; a kind +of rose-pink, artificial bedizenment. It is frequent, or rather it +is universal, among the French since his time. Madame de Stael has +something of it; St. Pierre; and down onwards to the present astonishing +convulsionary "Literature of Desperation," it is everywhere abundant. +That same _rose-pink_ is not the right hue. Look at a Shakspeare, at a +Goethe, even at a Walter Scott! He who has once seen into this, has seen +the difference of the True from the Sham-True, and will discriminate +them ever afterwards. + +We had to observe in Johnson how much good a Prophet, under all +disadvantages and disorganizations, can accomplish for the world. In +Rousseau we are called to look rather at the fearful amount of evil +which, under such disorganization, may accompany the good. Historically +it is a most pregnant spectacle, that of Rousseau. Banished into Paris +garrets, in the gloomy company of his own Thoughts and Necessities +there; driven from post to pillar; fretted, exasperated till the heart +of him went mad, he had grown to feel deeply that the world was not his +friend nor the world's law. It was expedient, if any way possible, that +such a man should _not_ have been set in flat hostility with the world. +He could be cooped into garrets, laughed at as a maniac, left to starve +like a wild beast in his cage;--but he could not be hindered from +setting the world on fire. The French Revolution found its Evangelist in +Rousseau. His semi-delirious speculations on the miseries of civilized +life, the preferability of the savage to the civilized, and such like, +helped well to produce a whole delirium in France generally. True, you +may well ask, What could the world, the governors of the world, do with +such a man? Difficult to say what the governors of the world could +do with him! What he could do with them is unhappily clear +enough,--_guillotine_ a great many of them! Enough now of Rousseau. + + +It was a curious phenomenon, in the withered, unbelieving second-hand +Eighteenth Century, that of a Hero starting up, among the artificial +pasteboard figures and productions, in the guise of a Robert Burns. Like +a little well in the rocky desert places,--like a sudden splendor of +Heaven in the artificial Vauxhall! People knew not what to make of +it. They took it for a piece of the Vauxhall fire-work; alas, it _let_ +itself be so taken, though struggling half-blindly, as in bitterness of +death, against that! Perhaps no man had such a false reception from his +fellow-men. Once more a very wasteful life-drama was enacted under the +sun. + +The tragedy of Burns's life is known to all of you. Surely we may +say, if discrepancy between place held and place merited constitute +perverseness of lot for a man, no lot could be more perverse then +Burns's. Among those second-hand acting-figures, _mimes_ for most part, +of the Eighteenth Century, once more a giant Original Man; one of those +men who reach down to the perennial Deeps, who take rank with the Heroic +among men: and he was born in a poor Ayrshire hut. The largest soul +of all the British lands came among us in the shape of a hard-handed +Scottish Peasant. + +His Father, a poor toiling man, tried various things; did not succeed in +any; was involved in continual difficulties. The Steward, Factor as +the Scotch call him, used to send letters and threatenings, Burns says, +"which threw us all into tears." The brave, hard-toiling, hard-suffering +Father, his brave heroine of a wife; and those children, of whom Robert +was one! In this Earth, so wide otherwise, no shelter for _them_. The +letters "threw us all into tears:" figure it. The brave Father, I say +always;--a _silent_ Hero and Poet; without whom the son had never been +a speaking one! Burns's Schoolmaster came afterwards to London, learnt +what good society was; but declares that in no meeting of men did he +ever enjoy better discourse than at the hearth of this peasant. And his +poor "seven acres of nursery-ground,"--not that, nor the miserable patch +of clay-farm, nor anything he tried to get a living by, would prosper +with him; he had a sore unequal battle all his days. But he stood to +it valiantly; a wise, faithful, unconquerable man;--swallowing down +how many sore sufferings daily into silence; fighting like an unseen +Hero,--nobody publishing newspaper paragraphs about his nobleness; +voting pieces of plate to him! However, he was not lost; nothing +is lost. Robert is there the outcome of him,--and indeed of many +generations of such as him. + +This Burns appeared under every disadvantage: uninstructed, poor, born +only to hard manual toil; and writing, when it came to that, in a rustic +special dialect, known only to a small province of the country he lived +in. Had he written, even what he did write, in the general language of +England, I doubt not he had already become universally recognized as +being, or capable to be, one of our greatest men. That he should have +tempted so many to penetrate through the rough husk of that dialect of +his, is proof that there lay something far from common within it. He +has gained a certain recognition, and is continuing to do so over all +quarters of our wide Saxon world: wheresoever a Saxon dialect is spoken, +it begins to be understood, by personal inspection of this and the +other, that one of the most considerable Saxon men of the Eighteenth +Century was an Ayrshire Peasant named Robert Burns. Yes, I will say, +here too was a piece of the right Saxon stuff: strong as the Harz-rock, +rooted in the depths of the world;--rock, yet with wells of living +softness in it! A wild impetuous whirlwind of passion and faculty +slumbered quiet there; such heavenly _melody_ dwelling in the heart of +it. A noble rough genuineness; homely, rustic, honest; true simplicity +of strength; with its lightning-fire, with its soft dewy pity;--like the +old Norse Thor, the Peasant-god! + +Burns's Brother Gilbert, a man of much sense and worth, has told me that +Robert, in his young days, in spite of their hardship, was usually +the gayest of speech; a fellow of infinite frolic, laughter, sense and +heart; far pleasanter to hear there, stript cutting peats in the bog, or +such like, than he ever afterwards knew him. I can well believe it. This +basis of mirth ("_fond gaillard_," as old Marquis Mirabeau calls it), a +primal element of sunshine and joyfulness, coupled with his other deep +and earnest qualities, is one of the most attractive characteristics +of Burns. A large fund of Hope dwells in him; spite of his tragical +history, he is not a mourning man. He shakes his sorrows gallantly +aside; bounds forth victorious over them. It is as the lion shaking +"dew-drops from his mane;" as the swift-bounding horse, that _laughs_ +at the shaking of the spear.--But indeed, Hope, Mirth, of the sort +like Burns's, are they not the outcome properly of warm generous +affection,--such as is the beginning of all to every man? + +You would think it strange if I called Burns the most gifted British +soul we had in all that century of his: and yet I believe the day is +coming when there will be little danger in saying so. His writings, all +that he _did_ under such obstructions, are only a poor fragment of him. +Professor Stewart remarked very justly, what indeed is true of all Poets +good for much, that his poetry was not any particular faculty; but the +general result of a naturally vigorous original mind expressing itself +in that way. Burns's gifts, expressed in conversation, are the theme +of all that ever heard him. All kinds of gifts: from the gracefulest +utterances of courtesy, to the highest fire of passionate speech; loud +floods of mirth, soft wailings of affection, laconic emphasis, clear +piercing insight; all was in him. Witty duchesses celebrate him as a +man whose speech "led them off their feet." This is beautiful: but still +more beautiful that which Mr. Lockhart has recorded, which I have more +than once alluded to, How the waiters and ostlers at inns would get +out of bed, and come crowding to hear this man speak! Waiters and +ostlers:--they too were men, and here was a man! I have heard much about +his speech; but one of the best things I ever heard of it was, last +year, from a venerable gentleman long familiar with him. That it was +speech distinguished by always _having something in it_. "He spoke +rather little than much," this old man told me; "sat rather silent in +those early days, as in the company of persons above him; and always +when he did speak, it was to throw new light on the matter." I know not +why any one should ever speak otherwise!--But if we look at his +general force of soul, his healthy _robustness_ every way, the rugged +downrightness, penetration, generous valor and manfulness that was in +him,--where shall we readily find a better-gifted man? + +Among the great men of the Eighteenth Century, I sometimes feel as if +Burns might be found to resemble Mirabeau more than any other. They +differ widely in vesture; yet look at them intrinsically. There is the +same burly thick-necked strength of body as of soul;--built, in both +cases, on what the old Marquis calls a _fond gaillard_. By nature, by +course of breeding, indeed by nation, Mirabeau has much more of bluster; +a noisy, forward, unresting man. But the characteristic of Mirabeau too +is veracity and sense, power of true _insight_, superiority of vision. +The thing that he says is worth remembering. It is a flash of insight +into some object or other: so do both these men speak. The same raging +passions; capable too in both of manifesting themselves as the tenderest +noble affections. Wit; wild laughter, energy, directness, sincerity: +these were in both. The types of the two men are not dissimilar. Burns +too could have governed, debated in National Assemblies; politicized, as +few could. Alas, the courage which had to exhibit itself in capture of +smuggling schooners in the Solway Frith; in keeping _silence_ over so +much, where no good speech, but only inarticulate rage was possible: +this might have bellowed forth Ushers de Breze and the like; and made +itself visible to all men, in managing of kingdoms, in ruling of great +ever-memorable epochs! But they said to him reprovingly, his Official +Superiors said, and wrote: "You are to work, not think." Of your +_thinking-faculty_, the greatest in this land, we have no need; you are +to gauge beer there; for that only are you wanted. Very notable;--and +worth mentioning, though we know what is to be said and answered! As if +Thought, Power of Thinking, were not, at all times, in all places and +situations of the world, precisely the thing that was wanted. The fatal +man, is he not always the unthinking man, the man who cannot think and +_see_; but only grope, and hallucinate, and _mis_see the nature of the +thing he works with? He mis-sees it, mis_takes_ it as we say; takes it +for one thing, and it _is_ another thing,--and leaves him standing like +a Futility there! He is the fatal man; unutterably fatal, put in the +high places of men.--"Why complain of this?" say some: "Strength is +mournfully denied its arena; that was true from of old." Doubtless; +and the worse for the _arena_, answer I! _Complaining_ profits little; +stating of the truth may profit. That a Europe, with its French +Revolution just breaking out, finds no need of a Burns except for +gauging beer,--is a thing I, for one, cannot _rejoice_ at--! + +Once more we have to say here, that the chief quality of Burns is the +_sincerity_ of him. So in his Poetry, so in his Life. The song he sings +is not of fantasticalities; it is of a thing felt, really there; the +prime merit of this, as of all in him, and of his Life generally, is +truth. The Life of Burns is what we may call a great tragic sincerity. A +sort of savage sincerity,--not cruel, far from that; but wild, wrestling +naked with the truth of things. In that sense, there is something of the +savage in all great men. + +Hero-worship,--Odin, Burns? Well; these Men of Letters too were not +without a kind of Hero-worship: but what a strange condition has that +got into now! The waiters and ostlers of Scotch inns, prying about +the door, eager to catch any word that fell from Burns, were doing +unconscious reverence to the Heroic. Johnson had his Boswell for +worshipper. Rousseau had worshippers enough; princes calling on him in +his mean garret; the great, the beautiful doing reverence to the poor +moon-struck man. For himself a most portentous contradiction; the two +ends of his life not to be brought into harmony. He sits at the tables +of grandees; and has to copy music for his own living. He cannot even +get his music copied: "By dint of dining out," says he, "I run the +risk of dying by starvation at home." For his worshippers too a most +questionable thing! If doing Hero-worship well or badly be the test of +vital well-being or ill-being to a generation, can we say that _these_ +generations are very first-rate?--And yet our heroic Men of Letters +do teach, govern, are kings, priests, or what you like to call them; +intrinsically there is no preventing it by any means whatever. The world +has to obey him who thinks and sees in the world. The world can alter +the manner of that; can either have it as blessed continuous summer +sunshine, or as unblessed black thunder and tornado,--with unspeakable +difference of profit for the world! The manner of it is very alterable; +the matter and fact of it is not alterable by any power under the sky. +Light; or, failing that, lightning: the world can take its choice. Not +whether we call an Odin god, prophet, priest, or what we call him; but +whether we believe the word he tells us: there it all lies. If it be a +true word, we shall have to believe it; believing it, we shall have +to do it. What _name_ or welcome we give him or it, is a point that +concerns ourselves mainly. _It_, the new Truth, new deeper revealing of +the Secret of this Universe, is verily of the nature of a message from +on high; and must and will have itself obeyed.-- + +My last remark is on that notablest phasis of Burns's history,--his +visit to Edinburgh. Often it seems to me as if his demeanor there were +the highest proof he gave of what a fund of worth and genuine manhood +was in him. If we think of it, few heavier burdens could be laid on +the strength of a man. So sudden; all common _Lionism_. which ruins +innumerable men, was as nothing to this. It is as if Napoleon had +been made a King of, not gradually, but at once from the Artillery +Lieutenancy in the Regiment La Fere. Burns, still only in his +twenty-seventh year, is no longer even a ploughman; he is flying to the +West Indies to escape disgrace and a jail. This month he is a ruined +peasant, his wages seven pounds a year, and these gone from him: next +month he is in the blaze of rank and beauty, handing down jewelled +Duchesses to dinner; the cynosure of all eyes! Adversity is sometimes +hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a +hundred that will stand adversity. I admire much the way in which Burns +met all this. Perhaps no man one could point out, was ever so sorely +tried, and so little forgot himself. Tranquil, unastonished; not +abashed, not inflated, neither awkwardness nor affectation: he feels +that _he_ there is the man Robert Burns; that the "rank is but the +guinea-stamp;" that the celebrity is but the candle-light, which will +show _what_ man, not in the least make him a better or other man! Alas, +it may readily, unless he look to it, make him a _worse_ man; a wretched +inflated wind-bag,--inflated till he _burst_, and become a _dead_ lion; +for whom, as some one has said, "there is no resurrection of the body;" +worse than a living dog!--Burns is admirable here. + +And yet, alas, as I have observed elsewhere, these Lion-hunters were the +ruin and death of Burns. It was they that rendered it impossible for him +to live! They gathered round him in his Farm; hindered his industry; +no place was remote enough from them. He could not get his Lionism +forgotten, honestly as he was disposed to do so. He falls into +discontents, into miseries, faults; the world getting ever more desolate +for him; health, character, peace of mind, all gone;--solitary enough +now. It is tragical to think of! These men came but to _see_ him; it was +out of no sympathy with him, nor no hatred to him. They came to get a +little amusement; they got their amusement;--and the Hero's life went +for it! + +Richter says, in the Island of Sumatra there is a kind of +"Light-chafers," large Fire-flies, which people stick upon spits, and +illuminate the ways with at night. Persons of condition can thus travel +with a pleasant radiance, which they much admire. Great honor to the +Fire-flies! But--! + + + + +LECTURE VI. THE HERO AS KING. CROMWELL, NAPOLEON: MODERN REVOLUTIONISM. + +[May 22, 1840.] + +We come now to the last form of Heroism; that which we call Kingship. +The Commander over Men; he to whose will our wills are to be +subordinated, and loyally surrender themselves, and find their welfare +in doing so, may be reckoned the most important of Great Men. He is +practically the summary for us of _all_ the various figures of Heroism; +Priest, Teacher, whatsoever of earthly or of spiritual dignity we can +fancy to reside in a man, embodies itself here, to _command_ over us, to +furnish us with constant practical teaching, to tell us for the day and +hour what we are to _do_. He is called _Rex_, Regulator, _Roi_: our own +name is still better; King, _Konning_, which means _Can_-ning, Able-man. + +Numerous considerations, pointing towards deep, questionable, and indeed +unfathomable regions, present themselves here: on the most of which we +must resolutely for the present forbear to speak at all. As Burke said +that perhaps fair _Trial by Jury_ was the soul of Government, and that +all legislation, administration, parliamentary debating, and the rest +of it, went on, in "order to bring twelve impartial men into a +jury-box;"--so, by much stronger reason, may I say here, that the +finding of your _Ableman_ and getting him invested with the _symbols of +ability_, with dignity, worship (_worth_-ship), royalty, kinghood, +or whatever we call it, so that _he_ may actually have room to guide +according to his faculty of doing it,--is the business, well or +ill accomplished, of all social procedure whatsoever in this world! +Hustings-speeches, Parliamentary motions, Reform Bills, French +Revolutions, all mean at heart this; or else nothing. Find in any +country the Ablest Man that exists there; raise _him_ to the supreme +place, and loyally reverence him: you have a perfect government for +that country; no ballot-box, parliamentary eloquence, voting, +constitution-building, or other machinery whatsoever can improve it a +whit. It is in the perfect state; an ideal country. The Ablest Man; he +means also the truest-hearted, justest, the Noblest Man: what he _tells +us to do_ must be precisely the wisest, fittest, that we could anywhere +or anyhow learn;--the thing which it will in all ways behoove US, with +right loyal thankfulness and nothing doubting, to do! Our _doing_ and +life were then, so far as government could regulate it, well regulated; +that were the ideal of constitutions. + +Alas, we know very well that Ideals can never be completely embodied in +practice. Ideals must ever lie a very great way off; and we will right +thankfully content ourselves with any not intolerable approximation +thereto! Let no man, as Schiller says, too querulously "measure by a +scale of perfection the meagre product of reality" in this poor world +of ours. We will esteem him no wise man; we will esteem him a sickly, +discontented, foolish man. And yet, on the other hand, it is never to be +forgotten that Ideals do exist; that if they be not approximated to at +all, the whole matter goes to wreck! Infallibly. No bricklayer builds a +wall _perfectly_ perpendicular, mathematically this is not possible; +a certain degree of perpendicularity suffices him; and he, like a good +bricklayer, who must have done with his job, leaves it so. And yet if he +sway _too much_ from the perpendicular; above all, if he throw plummet +and level quite away from him, and pile brick on brick heedless, just +as it comes to hand--! Such bricklayer, I think, is in a bad way. He has +forgotten himself: but the Law of Gravitation does not forget to act on +him; he and his wall rush down into confused welter of ruin--! + +This is the history of all rebellions, French Revolutions, social +explosions in ancient or modern times. You have put the too _Un_able +Man at the head of affairs! The too ignoble, unvaliant, fatuous man. You +have forgotten that there is any rule, or natural necessity whatever, of +putting the Able Man there. Brick must lie on brick as it may and can. +Unable Simulacrum of Ability, _quack_, in a word, must adjust himself +with quack, in all manner of administration of human things;--which +accordingly lie unadministered, fermenting into unmeasured masses +of failure, of indigent misery: in the outward, and in the inward or +spiritual, miserable millions stretch out the hand for their due supply, +and it is not there. The "law of gravitation" acts; Nature's laws do +none of them forget to act. The miserable millions burst forth into +Sansculottism, or some other sort of madness: bricks and bricklayer lie +as a fatal chaos--! + +Much sorry stuff, written some hundred years ago or more, about the +"Divine right of Kings," moulders unread now in the Public Libraries of +this country. Far be it from us to disturb the calm process by which it +is disappearing harmlessly from the earth, in those repositories! At the +same time, not to let the immense rubbish go without leaving us, as it +ought, some soul of it behind--I will say that it did mean something; +something true, which it is important for us and all men to keep in +mind. To assert that in whatever man you chose to lay hold of (by this +or the other plan of clutching at him); and claps a round piece of metal +on the head of, and called King,--there straightway came to reside +a divine virtue, so that _he_ became a kind of god, and a Divinity +inspired him with faculty and right to rule over you to all lengths: +this,--what can we do with this but leave it to rot silently in +the Public Libraries? But I will say withal, and that is what these +Divine-right men meant, That in Kings, and in all human Authorities, +and relations that men god-created can form among each other, there is +verily either a Divine Right or else a Diabolic Wrong; one or the +other of these two! For it is false altogether, what the last Sceptical +Century taught us, that this world is a steam-engine. There is a God in +this world; and a God's-sanction, or else the violation of such, does +look out from all ruling and obedience, from all moral acts of men. +There is no act more moral between men than that of rule and obedience. +Woe to him that claims obedience when it is not due; woe to him +that refuses it when it is! God's law is in that, I say, however the +Parchment-laws may run: there is a Divine Right or else a Diabolic Wrong +at the heart of every claim that one man makes upon another. + +It can do none of us harm to reflect on this: in all the relations of +life it will concern us; in Loyalty and Royalty, the highest of these. I +esteem the modern error, That all goes by self-interest and the checking +and balancing of greedy knaveries, and that in short, there is nothing +divine whatever in the association of men, a still more despicable +error, natural as it is to an unbelieving century, than that of a +"divine right" in people _called_ Kings. I say, Find me the true +_Konning_, King, or Able-man, and he _has_ a divine right over me. That +we knew in some tolerable measure how to find him, and that all men were +ready to acknowledge his divine right when found: this is precisely the +healing which a sick world is everywhere, in these ages, seeking after! +The true King, as guide of the practical, has ever something of the +Pontiff in him,--guide of the spiritual, from which all practice has +its rise. This too is a true saying, That the _King_ is head of the +_Church_.--But we will leave the Polemic stuff of a dead century to lie +quiet on its bookshelves. + + +Certainly it is a fearful business, that of having your Ableman to +_seek_, and not knowing in what manner to proceed about it! That is +the world's sad predicament in these times of ours. They are times +of revolution, and have long been. The bricklayer with his bricks, +no longer heedful of plummet or the law of gravitation, have toppled, +tumbled, and it all welters as we see! But the beginning of it was not +the French Revolution; that is rather the _end_, we can hope. It were +truer to say, the _beginning_ was three centuries farther back: in +the Reformation of Luther. That the thing which still called itself +Christian Church had become a Falsehood, and brazenly went about +pretending to pardon men's sins for metallic coined money, and to do +much else which in the everlasting truth of Nature it did _not_ now do: +here lay the vital malady. The inward being wrong, all outward went ever +more and more wrong. Belief died away; all was Doubt, Disbelief. The +builder cast _away_ his plummet; said to himself, "What is gravitation? +Brick lies on brick there!" Alas, does it not still sound strange to +many of us, the assertion that there _is_ a God's-truth in the business +of god-created men; that all is not a kind of grimace, an "expediency," +diplomacy, one knows not what--! + +From that first necessary assertion of Luther's, "You, self-styled +_Papa_, you are no Father in God at all; you are--a Chimera, whom I know +not how to name in polite language!"--from that onwards to the shout +which rose round Camille Desmoulins in the Palais-Royal, "_Aux armes_!" +when the people had burst up against _all_ manner of Chimeras,--I find +a natural historical sequence. That shout too, so frightful, +half-infernal, was a great matter. Once more the voice of awakened +nations;--starting confusedly, as out of nightmare, as out of +death-sleep, into some dim feeling that Life was real; that God's-world +was not an expediency and diplomacy! Infernal;--yes, since they would +not have it otherwise. Infernal, since not celestial or terrestrial! +Hollowness, insincerity _has_ to cease; sincerity of some sort has to +begin. Cost what it may, reigns of terror, horrors of French Revolution +or what else, we have to return to truth. Here is a Truth, as I said: a +Truth clad in hell-fire, since they would not but have it so--! + +A common theory among considerable parties of men in England and +elsewhere used to be, that the French Nation had, in those days, as +it were gone _mad_; that the French Revolution was a general act of +insanity, a temporary conversion of France and large sections of the +world into a kind of Bedlam. The Event had risen and raged; but was a +madness and nonentity,--gone now happily into the region of Dreams and +the Picturesque!--To such comfortable philosophers, the Three Days of +July, 1830, must have been a surprising phenomenon. Here is the French +Nation risen again, in musketry and death-struggle, out shooting and +being shot, to make that same mad French Revolution good! The sons and +grandsons of those men, it would seem, persist in the enterprise: they +do not disown it; they will have it made good; will have themselves +shot, if it be not made good. To philosophers who had made up their +life-system, on that "madness" quietus, no phenomenon could be more +alarming. Poor Niebuhr, they say, the Prussian Professor and Historian, +fell broken-hearted in consequence; sickened, if we can believe it, and +died of the Three Days! It was surely not a very heroic death;--little +better than Racine's, dying because Louis Fourteenth looked sternly on +him once. The world had stood some considerable shocks, in its time; +might have been expected to survive the Three Days too, and be found +turning on its axis after even them! The Three Days told all mortals +that the old French Revolution, mad as it might look, was not a +transitory ebullition of Bedlam, but a genuine product of this Earth +where we all live; that it was verily a Fact, and that the world in +general would do well everywhere to regard it as such. + +Truly, without the French Revolution, one would not know what to make +of an age like this at all. We will hail the French Revolution, as +shipwrecked mariners might the sternest rock, in a world otherwise all +of baseless sea and waves. A true Apocalypse, though a terrible one, to +this false withered artificial time; testifying once more that Nature +is _preter_natural; if not divine, then diabolic; that Semblance is +not Reality; that it has to become Reality, or the world will take fire +under it,--burn _it_ into what it is, namely Nothing! Plausibility has +ended; empty Routine has ended; much has ended. This, as with a Trump of +Doom, has been proclaimed to all men. They are the wisest who will +learn it soonest. Long confused generations before it be learned; peace +impossible till it be! The earnest man, surrounded, as ever, with a +world of inconsistencies, can await patiently, patiently strive to do +_his_ work, in the midst of that. Sentence of Death is written down +in Heaven against all that; sentence of Death is now proclaimed on the +Earth against it: this he with his eyes may see. And surely, I +should say, considering the other side of the matter, what enormous +difficulties lie there, and how fast, fearfully fast, in all countries, +the inexorable demand for solution of them is pressing on,--he may +easily find other work to do than laboring in the Sansculottic province +at this time of day! + +To me, in these circumstances, that of "Hero-worship" becomes a fact +inexpressibly precious; the most solacing fact one sees in the world at +present. There is an everlasting hope in it for the management of the +world. Had all traditions, arrangements, creeds, societies that men ever +instituted, sunk away, this would remain. The certainty of Heroes being +sent us; our faculty, our necessity, to reverence Heroes when sent: it +shines like a polestar through smoke-clouds, dust-clouds, and all manner +of down-rushing and conflagration. + +Hero-worship would have sounded very strange to those workers and +fighters in the French Revolution. Not reverence for Great Men; not any +hope or belief, or even wish, that Great Men could again appear in the +world! Nature, turned into a "Machine," was as if effete now; could not +any longer produce Great Men:--I can tell her, she may give up the trade +altogether, then; we cannot do without Great Men!--But neither have I +any quarrel with that of "Liberty and Equality;" with the faith that, +wise great men being impossible, a level immensity of foolish small +men would suffice. It was a natural faith then and there. "Liberty and +Equality; no Authority needed any longer. Hero-worship, reverence for +_such_ Authorities, has proved false, is itself a falsehood; no more +of it! We have had such _forgeries_, we will now trust nothing. So +many base plated coins passing in the market, the belief has now become +common that no gold any longer exists,--and even that we can do very +well without gold!" I find this, among other things, in that universal +cry of Liberty and Equality; and find it very natural, as matters then +stood. + +And yet surely it is but the _transition_ from false to true. Considered +as the whole truth, it is false altogether;--the product of entire +sceptical blindness, as yet only _struggling_ to see. Hero-worship +exists forever, and everywhere: not Loyalty alone; it extends from +divine adoration down to the lowest practical regions of life. "Bending +before men," if it is not to be a mere empty grimace, better dispensed +with than practiced, is Hero-worship,--a recognition that there does +dwell in that presence of our brother something divine; that every +created man, as Novalis said, is a "revelation in the Flesh." They were +Poets too, that devised all those graceful courtesies which make life +noble! Courtesy is not a falsehood or grimace; it need not be such. +And Loyalty, religious Worship itself, are still possible; nay still +inevitable. + +May we not say, moreover, while so many of our late Heroes have worked +rather as revolutionary men, that nevertheless every Great Man, every +genuine man, is by the nature of him a son of Order, not of Disorder? It +is a tragical position for a true man to work in revolutions. He seems +an anarchist; and indeed a painful element of anarchy does encumber him +at every step,--him to whose whole soul anarchy is hostile, hateful. +His mission is Order; every man's is. He is here to make what was +disorderly, chaotic, into a thing ruled, regular. He is the missionary +of Order. Is not all work of man in this world a _making of Order_? The +carpenter finds rough trees; shapes them, constrains them into square +fitness, into purpose and use. We are all born enemies of Disorder: +it is tragical for us all to be concerned in image-breaking and +down-pulling; for the Great Man, _more_ a man than we, it is doubly +tragical. + +Thus too all human things, maddest French Sansculottisms, do and must +work towards Order. I say, there is not a _man_ in them, raging in the +thickest of the madness, but is impelled withal, at all moments, towards +Order. His very life means that; Disorder is dissolution, death. No +chaos but it seeks a _centre_ to revolve round. While man is +man, some Cromwell or Napoleon is the necessary finish of a +Sansculottism.--Curious: in those days when Hero-worship was the most +incredible thing to every one, how it does come out nevertheless, and +assert itself practically, in a way which all have to credit. Divine +_right_, take it on the great scale, is found to mean divine _might_ +withal! While old false Formulas are getting trampled everywhere into +destruction, new genuine Substances unexpectedly unfold themselves +indestructible. In rebellious ages, when Kingship itself seems dead and +abolished, Cromwell, Napoleon step forth again as Kings. The history of +these men is what we have now to look at, as our last phasis of Heroism. +The old ages are brought back to us; the manner in which Kings were +made, and Kingship itself first took rise, is again exhibited in the +history of these Two. + + +We have had many civil wars in England; wars of Red and White Roses, +wars of Simon de Montfort; wars enough, which are not very memorable. +But that war of the Puritans has a significance which belongs to no one +of the others. Trusting to your candor, which will suggest on the other +side what I have not room to say, I will call it a section once more of +that great universal war which alone makes up the true History of the +World,--the war of Belief against Unbelief! The struggle of men intent +on the real essence of things, against men intent on the semblances and +forms of things. The Puritans, to many, seem mere savage Iconoclasts, +fierce destroyers of Forms; but it were more just to call them haters of +_untrue_ Forms. I hope we know how to respect Laud and his King as well +as them. Poor Laud seems to me to have been weak and ill-starred, not +dishonest an unfortunate Pedant rather than anything worse. His "Dreams" +and superstitions, at which they laugh so, have an affectionate, lovable +kind of character. He is like a College-Tutor, whose whole world is +forms, College-rules; whose notion is that these are the life and safety +of the world. He is placed suddenly, with that unalterable luckless +notion of his, at the head not of a College but of a Nation, to regulate +the most complex deep-reaching interests of men. He thinks they ought to +go by the old decent regulations; nay that their salvation will lie in +extending and improving these. Like a weak man, he drives with spasmodic +vehemence towards his purpose; cramps himself to it, heeding no voice of +prudence, no cry of pity: He will have his College-rules obeyed by his +Collegians; that first; and till that, nothing. He is an ill-starred +Pedant, as I said. He would have it the world was a College of that +kind, and the world was _not_ that. Alas, was not his doom stern enough? +Whatever wrongs he did, were they not all frightfully avenged on him? + +It is meritorious to insist on forms; Religion and all else naturally +clothes itself in forms. Everywhere the _formed_ world is the only +habitable one. The naked formlessness of Puritanism is not the thing +I praise in the Puritans; it is the thing I pity,--praising only +the spirit which had rendered that inevitable! All substances clothe +themselves in forms: but there are suitable true forms, and then there +are untrue unsuitable. As the briefest definition, one might say, Forms +which _grow_ round a substance, if we rightly understand that, will +correspond to the real nature and purport of it, will be true, good; +forms which are consciously _put_ round a substance, bad. I invite you +to reflect on this. It distinguishes true from false in Ceremonial Form, +earnest solemnity from empty pageant, in all human things. + +There must be a veracity, a natural spontaneity in forms. In the +commonest meeting of men, a person making, what we call, "set speeches," +is not he an offence? In the mere drawing-room, whatsoever courtesies +you see to be grimaces, prompted by no spontaneous reality within, are a +thing you wish to get away from. But suppose now it were some matter +of vital concernment, some transcendent matter (as Divine Worship is), +about which your whole soul, struck dumb with its excess of feeling, +knew not how to _form_ itself into utterance at all, and preferred +formless silence to any utterance there possible,--what should we say +of a man coming forward to represent or utter it for you in the way of +upholsterer-mummery? Such a man,--let him depart swiftly, if he love +himself! You have lost your only son; are mute, struck down, without +even tears: an importunate man importunately offers to celebrate Funeral +Games for him in the manner of the Greeks! Such mummery is not only not +to be accepted,--it is hateful, unendurable. It is what the old Prophets +called "Idolatry," worshipping of hollow _shows_; what all earnest men +do and will reject. We can partly understand what those poor Puritans +meant. Laud dedicating that St. Catherine Creed's Church, in the +manner we have it described; with his multiplied ceremonial bowings, +gesticulations, exclamations: surely it is rather the rigorous formal +Pedant, intent on his "College-rules," than the earnest Prophet intent +on the essence of the matter! + +Puritanism found _such_ forms insupportable; trampled on such forms;--we +have to excuse it for saying, No form at all rather than such! It stood +preaching in its bare pulpit, with nothing but the Bible in its hand. +Nay, a man preaching from his earnest _soul_ into the earnest _souls_ of +men: is not this virtually the essence of all Churches whatsoever? +The nakedest, savagest reality, I say, is preferable to any semblance, +however dignified. Besides, it will clothe itself with _due_ semblance +by and by, if it be real. No fear of that; actually no fear at all. +Given the living _man_, there will be found _clothes_ for him; he will +find himself clothes. But the suit-of-clothes pretending that _it_ is +both clothes and man--! We cannot "fight the French" by three hundred +thousand red uniforms; there must be _men_ in the inside of them! +Semblance, I assert, must actually _not_ divorce itself from Reality. +If Semblance do,--why then there must be men found to rebel against +Semblance, for it has become a lie! These two Antagonisms at war here, +in the case of Laud and the Puritans, are as old nearly as the world. +They went to fierce battle over England in that age; and fought out +their confused controversy to a certain length, with many results for +all of us. + + +In the age which directly followed that of the Puritans, their cause or +themselves were little likely to have justice done them. Charles Second +and his Rochesters were not the kind of men you would set to judge what +the worth or meaning of such men might have been. That there could be +any faith or truth in the life of a man, was what these poor Rochesters, +and the age they ushered in, had forgotten. Puritanism was hung on +gibbets,--like the bones of the leading Puritans. Its work nevertheless +went on accomplishing itself. All true work of a man, hang the author of +it on what gibbet you like, must and will accomplish itself. We have our +_Habeas-Corpus_, our free Representation of the People; acknowledgment, +wide as the world, that all men are, or else must, shall, and will +become, what we call _free_ men;--men with their life grounded on +reality and justice, not on tradition, which has become unjust and +a chimera! This in part, and much besides this, was the work of the +Puritans. + +And indeed, as these things became gradually manifest, the character +of the Puritans began to clear itself. Their memories were, one after +another, taken _down_ from the gibbet; nay a certain portion of them +are now, in these days, as good as canonized. Eliot, Hampden, Pym, nay +Ludlow, Hutchinson, Vane himself, are admitted to be a kind of Heroes; +political Conscript Fathers, to whom in no small degree we owe what +makes us a free England: it would not be safe for anybody to designate +these men as wicked now. Few Puritans of note but find their apologists +somewhere, and have a certain reverence paid them by earnest men. One +Puritan, I think, and almost he alone, our poor Cromwell, seems to hang +yet on the gibbet, and find no hearty apologist anywhere. Him neither +saint nor sinner will acquit of great wickedness. A man of ability, +infinite talent, courage, and so forth: but he betrayed the Cause. +Selfish ambition, dishonesty, duplicity; a fierce, coarse, hypocritical +_Tartuffe_; turning all that noble Struggle for constitutional Liberty +into a sorry farce played for his own benefit: this and worse is the +character they give of Cromwell. And then there come contrasts with +Washington and others; above all, with these noble Pyms and Hampdens, +whose noble work he stole for himself, and ruined into a futility and +deformity. + +This view of Cromwell seems to me the not unnatural product of a century +like the Eighteenth. As we said of the Valet, so of the Sceptic: He does +not know a Hero when he sees him! The Valet expected purple mantles, +gilt sceptres, bodyguards and flourishes of trumpets: the Sceptic of +the Eighteenth century looks for regulated respectable Formulas, +"Principles," or what else he may call them; a style of speech and +conduct which has got to seem "respectable," which can plead for +itself in a handsome articulate manner, and gain the suffrages of an +enlightened sceptical Eighteenth century! It is, at bottom, the +same thing that both the Valet and he expect: the garnitures of some +_acknowledged_ royalty, which _then_ they will acknowledge! The King +coming to them in the rugged _un_formulistic state shall be no King. + +For my own share, far be it from me to say or insinuate a word of +disparagement against such characters as Hampden, Elliot, Pym; whom I +believe to have been right worthy and useful men. I have read diligently +what books and documents about them I could come at;--with the honestest +wish to admire, to love and worship them like Heroes; but I am sorry to +say, if the real truth must be told, with very indifferent success! At +bottom, I found that it would not do. They are very noble men, these; +step along in their stately way, with their measured euphemisms, +philosophies, parliamentary eloquences, Ship-moneys, _Monarchies of +Man_; a most constitutional, unblamable, dignified set of men. But the +heart remains cold before them; the fancy alone endeavors to get up some +worship of them. What man's heart does, in reality, break forth into any +fire of brotherly love for these men? They are become dreadfully dull +men! One breaks down often enough in the constitutional eloquence of the +admirable Pym, with his "seventhly and lastly." You find that it may +be the admirablest thing in the world, but that it is heavy,--heavy as +lead, barren as brick-clay; that, in a word, for you there is little or +nothing now surviving there! One leaves all these Nobilities standing +in their niches of honor: the rugged outcast Cromwell, he is the man +of them all in whom one still finds human stuff. The great savage +_Baresark_: he could write no euphemistic _Monarchy of Man_; did not +speak, did not work with glib regularity; had no straight story to +tell for himself anywhere. But he stood bare, not cased in euphemistic +coat-of-mail; he grappled like a giant, face to face, heart to heart, +with the naked truth of things! That, after all, is the sort of man for +one. I plead guilty to valuing such a man beyond all other sorts of men. +Smooth-shaven Respectabilities not a few one finds, that are not good +for much. Small thanks to a man for keeping his hands clean, who would +not touch the work but with gloves on! + +Neither, on the whole, does this constitutional tolerance of the +Eighteenth century for the other happier Puritans seem to be a very +great matter. One might say, it is but a piece of Formulism and +Scepticism, like the rest. They tell us, It was a sorrowful thing to +consider that the foundation of our English Liberties should have been +laid by "Superstition." These Puritans came forward with Calvinistic +incredible Creeds, Anti-Laudisms, Westminster Confessions; demanding, +chiefly of all, that they should have liberty to _worship_ in their own +way. Liberty to _tax_ themselves: that was the thing they should have +demanded! It was Superstition, Fanaticism, disgraceful ignorance of +Constitutional Philosophy to insist on the other thing!--Liberty to +_tax_ oneself? Not to pay out money from your pocket except on reason +shown? No century, I think, but a rather barren one would have fixed on +that as the first right of man! I should say, on the contrary, A just +man will generally have better cause than _money_ in what shape soever, +before deciding to revolt against his Government. Ours is a most +confused world; in which a good man will be thankful to see any kind of +Government maintain itself in a not insupportable manner: and here in +England, to this hour, if he is not ready to pay a great many taxes +which he can see very small reason in, it will not go well with him, I +think! He must try some other climate than this. Tax-gatherer? Money? +He will say: "Take my money, since you _can_, and it is so desirable to +you; take it,--and take yourself away with it; and leave me alone to my +work here. I am still here; can still work, after all the money you have +taken from me!" But if they come to him, and say, "Acknowledge a Lie; +pretend to say you are worshipping God, when you are not doing it: +believe not the thing that you find true, but the thing that I find, or +pretend to find true!" He will answer: "No; by God's help, no! You may +take my purse; but I cannot have my moral Self annihilated. The purse is +any Highwayman's who might meet me with a loaded pistol: but the Self is +mine and God my Maker's; it is not yours; and I will resist you to the +death, and revolt against you, and, on the whole, front all manner of +extremities, accusations and confusions, in defence of that!"-- + +Really, it seems to me the one reason which could justify revolting, +this of the Puritans. It has been the soul of all just revolts among +men. Not _Hunger_ alone produced even the French Revolution; no, but +the feeling of the insupportable all-pervading _Falsehood_ which had now +embodied itself in Hunger, in universal material Scarcity and Nonentity, +and thereby become _indisputably_ false in the eyes of all! We will +leave the Eighteenth century with its "liberty to tax itself." We will +not astonish ourselves that the meaning of such men as the Puritans +remained dim to it. To men who believe in no reality at all, how shall a +_real_ human soul, the intensest of all realities, as it were the Voice +of this world's Maker still speaking to us,--be intelligible? What it +cannot reduce into constitutional doctrines relative to "taxing," or +other the like material interest, gross, palpable to the sense, such +a century will needs reject as an amorphous heap of rubbish. Hampdens, +Pyms and Ship-money will be the theme of much constitutional eloquence, +striving to be fervid;--which will glitter, if not as fire does, then +as ice does: and the irreducible Cromwell will remain a chaotic mass of +"madness," "hypocrisy," and much else. + + +From of old, I will confess, this theory of Cromwell's falsity has +been incredible to me. Nay I cannot believe the like, of any Great Man +whatever. Multitudes of Great Men figure in History as false selfish +men; but if we will consider it, they are but _figures_ for us, +unintelligible shadows; we do not see into them as men that could have +existed at all. A superficial unbelieving generation only, with no eye +but for the surfaces and semblances of things, could form such notions +of Great Men. Can a great soul be possible without a _conscience_ in it, +the essence of all _real_ souls, great or small?--No, we cannot figure +Cromwell as a Falsity and Fatuity; the longer I study him and his +career, I believe this the less. Why should we? There is no evidence of +it. Is it not strange that, after all the mountains of calumny this +man has been subject to, after being represented as the very prince of +liars, who never, or hardly ever, spoke truth, but always some cunning +counterfeit of truth, there should not yet have been one falsehood +brought clearly home to him? A prince of liars, and no lie spoken by +him. Not one that I could yet get sight of. It is like Pococke asking +Grotius, Where is your _proof_ of Mahomet's Pigeon? No proof!--Let us +leave all these calumnious chimeras, as chimeras ought to be left. They +are not portraits of the man; they are distracted phantasms of him, the +joint product of hatred and darkness. + +Looking at the man's life with our own eyes, it seems to me, a very +different hypothesis suggests itself. What little we know of his earlier +obscure years, distorted as it has come down to us, does it not all +betoken an earnest, affectionate, sincere kind of man? His nervous +melancholic temperament indicates rather a seriousness _too_ deep for +him. Of those stories of "Spectres;" of the white Spectre in broad +daylight, predicting that he should be King of England, we are not bound +to believe much;--probably no more than of the other black Spectre, +or Devil in person, to whom the Officer _saw_ him sell himself before +Worcester Fight! But the mournful, oversensitive, hypochondriac humor +of Oliver, in his young years, is otherwise indisputably known. The +Huntingdon Physician told Sir Philip Warwick himself, He had often been +sent for at midnight; Mr. Cromwell was full of hypochondria, thought +himself near dying, and "had fancies about the Town-cross." These things +are significant. Such an excitable deep-feeling nature, in that rugged +stubborn strength of his, is not the symptom of falsehood; it is the +symptom and promise of quite other than falsehood! + +The young Oliver is sent to study Law; falls, or is said to have fallen, +for a little period, into some of the dissipations of youth; but if +so, speedily repents, abandons all this: not much above twenty, he is +married, settled as an altogether grave and quiet man. "He pays back +what money he had won at gambling," says the story;--he does not think +any gain of that kind could be really _his_. It is very interesting, +very natural, this "conversion," as they well name it; this awakening of +a great true soul from the worldly slough, to see into the awful _truth_ +of things;--to see that Time and its shows all rested on Eternity, and +this poor Earth of ours was the threshold either of Heaven or of Hell! +Oliver's life at St. Ives and Ely, as a sober industrious Farmer, is it +not altogether as that of a true and devout man? He has renounced the +world and its ways; _its_ prizes are not the thing that can enrich him. +He tills the earth; he reads his Bible; daily assembles his servants +round him to worship God. He comforts persecuted ministers, is fond of +preachers; nay can himself preach,--exhorts his neighbors to be wise, +to redeem the time. In all this what "hypocrisy," "ambition," "cant," +or other falsity? The man's hopes, I do believe, were fixed on the other +Higher World; his aim to get well _thither_, by walking well through his +humble course in _this_ world. He courts no notice: what could notice +here do for him? "Ever in his great Taskmaster's eye." + +It is striking, too, how he comes out once into public view; he, since +no other is willing to come: in resistance to a public grievance. I +mean, in that matter of the Bedford Fens. No one else will go to law +with Authority; therefore he will. That matter once settled, he returns +back into obscurity, to his Bible and his Plough. "Gain influence"? His +influence is the most legitimate; derived from personal knowledge of +him, as a just, religious, reasonable and determined man. In this way +he has lived till past forty; old age is now in view of him, and the +earnest portal of Death and Eternity; it was at this point that he +suddenly became "ambitious"! I do not interpret his Parliamentary +mission in that way! + +His successes in Parliament, his successes through the war, are honest +successes of a brave man; who has more resolution in the heart of him, +more light in the head of him than other men. His prayers to God; his +spoken thanks to the God of Victory, who had preserved him safe, and +carried him forward so far, through the furious clash of a world all set +in conflict, through desperate-looking envelopments at Dunbar; through +the death-hail of so many battles; mercy after mercy; to the "crowning +mercy" of Worcester Fight: all this is good and genuine for a +deep-hearted Calvinistic Cromwell. Only to vain unbelieving Cavaliers, +worshipping not God but their own "love-locks," frivolities and +formalities, living quite apart from contemplations of God, living +_without_ God in the world, need it seem hypocritical. + +Nor will his participation in the King's death involve him in +condemnation with us. It is a stern business killing of a King! But if +you once go to war with him, it lies _there_; this and all else lies +there. Once at war, you have made wager of battle with him: it is he to +die, or else you. Reconciliation is problematic; may be possible, or, +far more likely, is impossible. It is now pretty generally admitted that +the Parliament, having vanquished Charles First, had no way of making +any tenable arrangement with him. The large Presbyterian party, +apprehensive now of the Independents, were most anxious to do so; +anxious indeed as for their own existence; but it could not be. The +unhappy Charles, in those final Hampton-Court negotiations, shows +himself as a man fatally incapable of being dealt with. A man who, once +for all, could not and would not _understand_:--whose thought did not +in any measure represent to him the real fact of the matter; nay worse, +whose _word_ did not at all represent his thought. We may say this +of him without cruelty, with deep pity rather: but it is true and +undeniable. Forsaken there of all but the _name_ of Kingship, he still, +finding himself treated with outward respect as a King, fancied that +he might play off party against party, and smuggle himself into his +old power by deceiving both. Alas, they both _discovered_ that he was +deceiving them. A man whose _word_ will not inform you at all what he +means or will do, is not a man you can bargain with. You must get out +of that man's way, or put him out of yours! The Presbyterians, in +their despair, were still for believing Charles, though found false, +unbelievable again and again. Not so Cromwell: "For all our fighting," +says he, "we are to have a little bit of paper?" No--! + +In fact, everywhere we have to note the decisive practical _eye_ of this +man; how he drives towards the practical and practicable; has a genuine +insight into what _is_ fact. Such an intellect, I maintain, does not +belong to a false man: the false man sees false shows, plausibilities, +expediences: the true man is needed to discern even practical truth. +Cromwell's advice about the Parliament's Army, early in the contest, How +they were to dismiss their city-tapsters, flimsy riotous persons, and +choose substantial yeomen, whose heart was in the work, to be soldiers +for them: this is advice by a man who _saw_. Fact answers, if you see +into Fact! Cromwell's _Ironsides_ were the embodiment of this insight of +his; men fearing God; and without any other fear. No more conclusively +genuine set of fighters ever trod the soil of England, or of any other +land. + +Neither will we blame greatly that word of Cromwell's to them; which +was so blamed: "If the King should meet me in battle, I would kill the +King." Why not? These words were spoken to men who stood as before a +Higher than Kings. They had set more than their own lives on the cast. +The Parliament may call it, in official language, a fighting "_for_ the +King;" but we, for our share, cannot understand that. To us it is no +dilettante work, no sleek officiality; it is sheer rough death and +earnest. They have brought it to the calling-forth of War; horrid +internecine fight, man grappling with man in fire-eyed rage,--the +_infernal_ element in man called forth, to try it by that! _Do_ that +therefore; since that is the thing to be done.--The successes of +Cromwell seem to me a very natural thing! Since he was not shot in +battle, they were an inevitable thing. That such a man, with the eye +to see, with the heart to dare, should advance, from post to post, from +victory to victory, till the Huntingdon Farmer became, by whatever name +you might call him, the acknowledged Strongest Man in England, virtually +the King of England, requires no magic to explain it--! + + +Truly it is a sad thing for a people, as for a man, to fall into +Scepticism, into dilettantism, insincerity; not to know Sincerity when +they see it. For this world, and for all worlds, what curse is so fatal? +The heart lying dead, the eye cannot see. What intellect remains is +merely the _vulpine_ intellect. That a true _King_ be sent them is of +small use; they do not know him when sent. They say scornfully, Is this +your King? The Hero wastes his heroic faculty in bootless contradiction +from the unworthy; and can accomplish little. For himself he does +accomplish a heroic life, which is much, which is all; but for the world +he accomplishes comparatively nothing. The wild rude Sincerity, direct +from Nature, is not glib in answering from the witness-box: in your +small-debt _pie-powder_ court, he is scouted as a counterfeit. The +vulpine intellect "detects" him. For being a man worth any thousand +men, the response your Knox, your Cromwell gets, is an argument for two +centuries whether he was a man at all. God's greatest gift to this Earth +is sneeringly flung away. The miraculous talisman is a paltry plated +coin, not fit to pass in the shops as a common guinea. + +Lamentable this! I say, this must be remedied. Till this be remedied in +some measure, there is nothing remedied. "Detect quacks"? Yes do, for +Heaven's sake; but know withal the men that are to be trusted! Till +we know that, what is all our knowledge; how shall we even so much +as "detect"? For the vulpine sharpness, which considers itself to be +knowledge, and "detects" in that fashion, is far mistaken. Dupes indeed +are many: but, of all _dupes_, there is none so fatally situated as +he who lives in undue terror of being duped. The world does exist; the +world has truth in it, or it would not exist! First recognize what is +true, we shall _then_ discern what is false; and properly never till +then. + +"Know the men that are to be trusted:" alas, this is yet, in these days, +very far from us. The sincere alone can recognize sincerity. Not a Hero +only is needed, but a world fit for him; a world not of _Valets_;--the +Hero comes almost in vain to it otherwise! Yes, it is far from us: but +it must come; thank God, it is visibly coming. Till it do come, what +have we? Ballot-boxes, suffrages, French Revolutions:--if we are as +Valets, and do not know the Hero when we see him, what good are all +these? A heroic Cromwell comes; and for a hundred and fifty years he +cannot have a vote from us. Why, the insincere, unbelieving world is +the _natural property_ of the Quack, and of the Father of quacks and +quackeries! Misery, confusion, unveracity are alone possible there. By +ballot-boxes we alter the _figure_ of our Quack; but the substance of +him continues. The Valet-World _has_ to be governed by the Sham-Hero, by +the King merely _dressed_ in King-gear. It is his; he is its! In brief, +one of two things: We shall either learn to know a Hero, a true Governor +and Captain, somewhat better, when we see him; or else go on to be +forever governed by the Unheroic;--had we ballot-boxes clattering at +every street-corner, there were no remedy in these. + +Poor Cromwell,--great Cromwell! The inarticulate Prophet; Prophet who +could not _speak_. Rude, confused, struggling to utter himself, with his +savage depth, with his wild sincerity; and he looked so strange, +among the elegant Euphemisms, dainty little Falklands, didactic +Chillingworths, diplomatic Clarendons! Consider him. An outer hull +of chaotic confusion, visions of the Devil, nervous dreams, almost +semi-madness; and yet such a clear determinate man's-energy working in +the heart of that. A kind of chaotic man. The ray as of pure starlight +and fire, working in such an element of boundless hypochondria, unformed +black of darkness! And yet withal this hypochondria, what was it but +the very greatness of the man? The depth and tenderness of his wild +affections: the quantity of _sympathy_ he had with things,--the quantity +of insight he would yet get into the heart of things, the mastery he +would yet get over things: this was his hypochondria. The man's misery, +as man's misery always does, came of his greatness. Samuel Johnson too +is that kind of man. Sorrow-stricken, half-distracted; the wide element +of mournful _black_ enveloping him,--wide as the world. It is the +character of a prophetic man; a man with his whole soul _seeing_, and +struggling to see. + +On this ground, too, I explain to myself Cromwell's reputed confusion of +speech. To himself the internal meaning was sun-clear; but the material +with which he was to clothe it in utterance was not there. He had +_lived_ silent; a great unnamed sea of Thought round him all his days; +and in his way of life little call to attempt _naming_ or uttering that. +With his sharp power of vision, resolute power of action, I doubt not he +could have learned to write Books withal, and speak fluently enough;--he +did harder things than writing of Books. This kind of man is precisely +he who is fit for doing manfully all things you will set him on doing. +Intellect is not speaking and logicizing; it is seeing and ascertaining. +Virtue, Virtues, manhood, _hero_hood, is not fair-spoken immaculate +regularity; it is first of all, what the Germans well name it, _Tugend_ +(_Taugend_, _dow_-ing or _Dough_-tiness), Courage and the Faculty to +_do_. This basis of the matter Cromwell had in him. + +One understands moreover how, though he could not speak in Parliament, +he might _preach_, rhapsodic preaching; above all, how he might be great +in extempore prayer. These are the free outpouring utterances of what is +in the heart: method is not required in them; warmth, depth, sincerity +are all that is required. Cromwell's habit of prayer is a notable +feature of him. All his great enterprises were commenced with prayer. +In dark inextricable-looking difficulties, his Officers and he used to +assemble, and pray alternately, for hours, for days, till some definite +resolution rose among them, some "door of hope," as they would name it, +disclosed itself. Consider that. In tears, in fervent prayers, and cries +to the great God, to have pity on them, to make His light shine before +them. They, armed Soldiers of Christ, as they felt themselves to be; +a little band of Christian Brothers, who had drawn the sword against +a great black devouring world not Christian, but Mammonish, +Devilish,--they cried to God in their straits, in their extreme need, +not to forsake the Cause that was His. The light which now rose upon +them,--how could a human soul, by any means at all, get better light? +Was not the purpose so formed like to be precisely the best, wisest, the +one to be followed without hesitation any more? To them it was as the +shining of Heaven's own Splendor in the waste-howling darkness; the +Pillar of Fire by night, that was to guide them on their desolate +perilous way. _Was_ it not such? Can a man's soul, to this hour, get +guidance by any other method than intrinsically by that same,--devout +prostration of the earnest struggling soul before the Highest, the +Giver of all Light; be such _prayer_ a spoken, articulate, or be it a +voiceless, inarticulate one? There is no other method. "Hypocrisy"? One +begins to be weary of all that. They who call it so, have no right to +speak on such matters. They never formed a purpose, what one can call +a purpose. They went about balancing expediencies, plausibilities; +gathering votes, advices; they never were alone with the _truth_ of a +thing at all.--Cromwell's prayers were likely to be "eloquent," and much +more than that. His was the heart of a man who _could_ pray. + +But indeed his actual Speeches, I apprehend, were not nearly so +ineloquent, incondite, as they look. We find he was, what all speakers +aim to be, an impressive speaker, even in Parliament; one who, from the +first, had weight. With that rude passionate voice of his, he was +always understood to _mean_ something, and men wished to know what. +He disregarded eloquence, nay despised and disliked it; spoke always +without premeditation of the words he was to use. The Reporters, too, +in those days seem to have been singularly candid; and to have given the +Printer precisely what they found on their own note-paper. And withal, +what a strange proof is it of Cromwell's being the premeditative +ever-calculating hypocrite, acting a play before the world, That to the +last he took no more charge of his Speeches! How came he not to study +his words a little, before flinging them out to the public? If the words +were true words, they could be left to shift for themselves. + +But with regard to Cromwell's "lying," we will make one remark. This, +I suppose, or something like this, to have been the nature of it. All +parties found themselves deceived in him; each party understood him to +be meaning _this_, heard him even say so, and behold he turns out to +have been meaning _that_! He was, cry they, the chief of liars. But now, +intrinsically, is not all this the inevitable fortune, not of a false +man in such times, but simply of a superior man? Such a man must have +_reticences_ in him. If he walk wearing his heart upon his sleeve for +daws to peck at, his journey will not extend far! There is no use for +any man's taking up his abode in a house built of glass. A man always is +to be himself the judge how much of his mind he will show to other men; +even to those he would have work along with him. There are impertinent +inquiries made: your rule is, to leave the inquirer uninformed on that +matter; not, if you can help it, misinformed, but precisely as dark as +he was! This, could one hit the right phrase of response, is what the +wise and faithful man would aim to answer in such a case. + +Cromwell, no doubt of it, spoke often in the dialect of small subaltern +parties; uttered to them a _part_ of his mind. Each little party thought +him all its own. Hence their rage, one and all, to find him not of their +party, but of his own party. Was it his blame? At all seasons of his +history he must have felt, among such people, how, if he explained to +them the deeper insight he had, they must either have shuddered aghast +at it, or believing it, their own little compact hypothesis must have +gone wholly to wreck. They could not have worked in his province any +more; nay perhaps they could not now have worked in their own province. +It is the inevitable position of a great man among small men. Small men, +most active, useful, are to be seen everywhere, whose whole activity +depends on some conviction which to you is palpably a limited one; +imperfect, what we call an _error_. But would it be a kindness always, +is it a duty always or often, to disturb them in that? Many a man, +doing loud work in the world, stands only on some thin traditionality, +conventionality; to him indubitable, to you incredible: break that +beneath him, he sinks to endless depths! "I might have my hand full of +truth," said Fontenelle, "and open only my little finger." + +And if this be the fact even in matters of doctrine, how much more in +all departments of practice! He that cannot withal _keep his mind to +himself_ cannot practice any considerable thing whatever. And we call it +"dissimulation," all this? What would you think of calling the general +of an army a dissembler because he did not tell every corporal and +private soldier, who pleased to put the question, what his thoughts were +about everything?--Cromwell, I should rather say, managed all this in +a manner we must admire for its perfection. An endless vortex of such +questioning "corporals" rolled confusedly round him through his whole +course; whom he did answer. It must have been as a great true-seeing man +that he managed this too. Not one proved falsehood, as I said; not one! +Of what man that ever wound himself through such a coil of things will +you say so much?-- + + +But in fact there are two errors, widely prevalent, which pervert to the +very basis our judgments formed about such men as Cromwell; about their +"ambition," "falsity," and such like. The first is what I might +call substituting the _goal_ of their career for the course and +starting-point of it. The vulgar Historian of a Cromwell fancies that +he had determined on being Protector of England, at the time when he was +ploughing the marsh lands of Cambridgeshire. His career lay all +mapped out: a program of the whole drama; which he then step by step +dramatically unfolded, with all manner of cunning, deceptive dramaturgy, +as he went on,--the hollow, scheming [Gr.] _Upokrites_, or Play-actor, +that he was! This is a radical perversion; all but universal in such +cases. And think for an instant how different the fact is! How much does +one of us foresee of his own life? Short way ahead of us it is all dim; +an unwound skein of possibilities, of apprehensions, attemptabilities, +vague-looming hopes. This Cromwell had _not_ his life lying all in that +fashion of Program, which he needed then, with that unfathomable cunning +of his, only to enact dramatically, scene after scene! Not so. We see it +so; but to him it was in no measure so. What absurdities would fall away +of themselves, were this one undeniable fact kept honestly in view +by History! Historians indeed will tell you that they do keep it in +view;--but look whether such is practically the fact! Vulgar History, +as in this Cromwell's case, omits it altogether; even the best kinds of +History only remember it now and then. To remember it duly with rigorous +perfection, as in the fact it _stood_, requires indeed a rare faculty; +rare, nay impossible. A very Shakspeare for faculty; or more than +Shakspeare; who could _enact_ a brother man's biography, see with the +brother man's eyes at all points of his course what things _he_ saw; in +short, _know_ his course and him, as few "Historians" are like to do. +Half or more of all the thick-plied perversions which distort our image +of Cromwell, will disappear, if we honestly so much as try to represent +them so; in sequence, as they _were_; not in the lump, as they are +thrown down before us. + +But a second error, which I think the generality commit, refers to this +same "ambition" itself. We exaggerate the ambition of Great Men; we +mistake what the nature of it is. Great Men are not ambitious in that +sense; he is a small poor man that is ambitious so. Examine the man +who lives in misery because he does not shine above other men; who goes +about producing himself, pruriently anxious about his gifts and claims; +struggling to force everybody, as it were begging everybody for God's +sake, to acknowledge him a great man, and set him over the heads of men! +Such a creature is among the wretchedest sights seen under this sun. A +_great_ man? A poor morbid prurient empty man; fitter for the ward of a +hospital, than for a throne among men. I advise you to keep out of his +way. He cannot walk on quiet paths; unless you will look at him, +wonder at him, write paragraphs about him, he cannot live. It is the +_emptiness_ of the man, not his greatness. Because there is nothing in +himself, he hungers and thirsts that you would find something in him. In +good truth, I believe no great man, not so much as a genuine man who had +health and real substance in him of whatever magnitude, was ever much +tormented in this way. + +Your Cromwell, what good could it do him to be "noticed" by noisy crowds +of people? God his Maker already noticed him. He, Cromwell, was already +there; no notice would make _him_ other than he already was. Till his +hair was grown gray; and Life from the down-hill slope was all seen to +be limited, not infinite but finite, and all a measurable matter _how_ +it went,--he had been content to plough the ground, and read his Bible. +He in his old days could not support it any longer, without selling +himself to Falsehood, that he might ride in gilt carriages to Whitehall, +and have clerks with bundles of papers haunting him, "Decide this, +decide that," which in utmost sorrow of heart no man can perfectly +decide! What could gilt carriages do for this man? From of old, was +there not in his life a weight of meaning, a terror and a splendor as +of Heaven itself? His existence there as man set him beyond the need +of gilding. Death, Judgment and Eternity: these already lay as the +background of whatsoever he thought or did. All his life lay begirt as +in a sea of nameless Thoughts, which no speech of a mortal could name. +God's Word, as the Puritan prophets of that time had read it: this was +great, and all else was little to him. To call such a man "ambitious," +to figure him as the prurient wind-bag described above, seems to me the +poorest solecism. Such a man will say: "Keep your gilt carriages and +huzzaing mobs, keep your red-tape clerks, your influentialities, your +important businesses. Leave me alone, leave me alone; there is _too +much of life_ in me already!" Old Samuel Johnson, the greatest soul in +England in his day, was not ambitious. "Corsica Boswell" flaunted at +public shows with printed ribbons round his hat; but the great old +Samuel stayed at home. The world-wide soul wrapt up in its thoughts, in +its sorrows;--what could paradings, and ribbons in the hat, do for it? + +Ah yes, I will say again: The great _silent_ men! Looking round on the +noisy inanity of the world, words with little meaning, actions with +little worth, one loves to reflect on the great Empire of _Silence_. +The noble silent men, scattered here and there, each in his department; +silently thinking, silently working; whom no Morning Newspaper makes +mention of! They are the salt of the Earth. A country that has none or +few of these is in a bad way. Like a forest which had no _roots_; which +had all turned into leaves and boughs;--which must soon wither and be no +forest. Woe for us if we had nothing but what we can _show_, or speak. +Silence, the great Empire of Silence: higher than the stars; deeper than +the Kingdoms of Death! It alone is great; all else is small.--I hope +we English will long maintain our _grand talent pour le silence_. Let +others that cannot do without standing on barrel-heads, to spout, and +be seen of all the market-place, cultivate speech exclusively,--become a +most green forest without roots! Solomon says, There is a time to speak; +but also a time to keep silence. Of some great silent Samuel, not urged +to writing, as old Samuel Johnson says he was, by _want of money_, and +nothing other, one might ask, "Why do not you too get up and speak; +promulgate your system, found your sect?" "Truly," he will answer, "I am +_continent_ of my thought hitherto; happily I have yet had the ability +to keep it in me, no compulsion strong enough to speak it. My 'system' +is not for promulgation first of all; it is for serving myself to live +by. That is the great purpose of it to me. And then the 'honor'? Alas, +yes;--but as Cato said of the statue: So many statues in that Forum of +yours, may it not be better if they ask, Where is Cato's statue?"-- + +But now, by way of counterpoise to this of Silence, let me say that +there are two kinds of ambition; one wholly blamable, the other laudable +and inevitable. Nature has provided that the great silent Samuel shall +not be silent too long. The selfish wish to shine over others, let it +be accounted altogether poor and miserable. "Seekest thou great +things, seek them not:" this is most true. And yet, I say, there is an +irrepressible tendency in every man to develop himself according to the +magnitude which Nature has made him of; to speak out, to act out, what +nature has laid in him. This is proper, fit, inevitable; nay it is a +duty, and even the summary of duties for a man. The meaning of life here +on earth might be defined as consisting in this: To unfold your _self_, +to work what thing you have the faculty for. It is a necessity for +the human being, the first law of our existence. Coleridge beautifully +remarks that the infant learns to _speak_ by this necessity it +feels.--We will say therefore: To decide about ambition, whether it is +bad or not, you have two things to take into view. Not the coveting of +the place alone, but the fitness of the man for the place withal: that +is the question. Perhaps the place was _his_; perhaps he had a natural +right, and even obligation, to seek the place! Mirabeau's ambition to +be Prime Minister, how shall we blame it, if he were "the only man in +France that could have done any good there"? Hopefuler perhaps had he +not so clearly _felt_ how much good he could do! But a poor Necker, who +could do no good, and had even felt that he could do none, yet sitting +broken-hearted because they had flung him out, and he was now quit of +it, well might Gibbon mourn over him.--Nature, I say, has provided amply +that the silent great man shall strive to speak withal; _too_ amply, +rather! + +Fancy, for example, you had revealed to the brave old Samuel Johnson, in +his shrouded-up existence, that it was possible for him to do priceless +divine work for his country and the whole world. That the perfect +Heavenly Law might be made Law on this Earth; that the prayer he prayed +daily, "Thy kingdom come," was at length to be fulfilled! If you had +convinced his judgment of this; that it was possible, practicable; that +he the mournful silent Samuel was called to take a part in it! Would not +the whole soul of the man have flamed up into a divine clearness, +into noble utterance and determination to act; casting all sorrows and +misgivings under his feet, counting all affliction and contradiction +small,--the whole dark element of his existence blazing into articulate +radiance of light and lightning? It were a true ambition this! And think +now how it actually was with Cromwell. From of old, the sufferings of +God's Church, true zealous Preachers of the truth flung into dungeons, +whips, set on pillories, their ears crops off, God's Gospel-cause +trodden under foot of the unworthy: all this had lain heavy on his +soul. Long years he had looked upon it, in silence, in prayer; seeing no +remedy on Earth; trusting well that a remedy in Heaven's goodness would +come,--that such a course was false, unjust, and could not last forever. +And now behold the dawn of it; after twelve years silent waiting, all +England stirs itself; there is to be once more a Parliament, the Right +will get a voice for itself: inexpressible well-grounded hope has come +again into the Earth. Was not such a Parliament worth being a member of? +Cromwell threw down his ploughs, and hastened thither. + +He spoke there,--rugged bursts of earnestness, of a self-seen truth, +where we get a glimpse of them. He worked there; he fought and strove, +like a strong true giant of a man, through cannon-tumult and all +else,--on and on, till the Cause _triumphed_, its once so formidable +enemies all swept from before it, and the dawn of hope had become clear +light of victory and certainty. That _he_ stood there as the strongest +soul of England, the undisputed Hero of all England,--what of this? It +was possible that the Law of Christ's Gospel could now establish itself +in the world! The Theocracy which John Knox in his pulpit might dream of +as a "devout imagination," this practical man, experienced in the whole +chaos of most rough practice, dared to consider as capable of being +_realized_. Those that were highest in Christ's Church, the devoutest +wisest men, were to rule the land: in some considerable degree, it might +be so and should be so. Was it not _true_, God's truth? And if _true_, +was it not then the very thing to do? The strongest practical intellect +in England dared to answer, Yes! This I call a noble true purpose; is it +not, in its own dialect, the noblest that could enter into the heart +of Statesman or man? For a Knox to take it up was something; but for a +Cromwell, with his great sound sense and experience of what our world +_was_,--History, I think, shows it only this once in such a degree. +I account it the culminating point of Protestantism; the most heroic +phasis that "Faith in the Bible" was appointed to exhibit here below. +Fancy it: that it were made manifest to one of us, how we could make the +Right supremely victorious over Wrong, and all that we had longed and +prayed for, as the highest good to England and all lands, an attainable +fact! + +Well, I must say, the _vulpine_ intellect, with its knowingness, its +alertness and expertness in "detecting hypocrites," seems to me a rather +sorry business. We have had but one such Statesman in England; one +man, that I can get sight of, who ever had in the heart of him any such +purpose at all. One man, in the course of fifteen hundred years; and +this was his welcome. He had adherents by the hundred or the ten; +opponents by the million. Had England rallied all round him,--why, +then, England might have been a _Christian_ land! As it is, vulpine +knowingness sits yet at its hopeless problem, "Given a world of Knaves, +to educe an Honesty from their united action;"--how cumbrous a problem, +you may see in Chancery Law-Courts, and some other places! Till at +length, by Heaven's just anger, but also by Heaven's great grace, the +matter begins to stagnate; and this problem is becoming to all men a +_palpably_ hopeless one.-- + + +But with regard to Cromwell and his purposes: Hume, and a multitude +following him, come upon me here with an admission that Cromwell _was_ +sincere at first; a sincere "Fanatic" at first, but gradually became a +"Hypocrite" as things opened round him. This of the Fanatic-Hypocrite +is Hume's theory of it; extensively applied since,--to Mahomet and many +others. Think of it seriously, you will find something in it; not much, +not all, very far from all. Sincere hero hearts do not sink in this +miserable manner. The Sun flings forth impurities, gets balefully +incrusted with spots; but it does not quench itself, and become no Sun +at all, but a mass of Darkness! I will venture to say that such never +befell a great deep Cromwell; I think, never. Nature's own lionhearted +Son; Antaeus-like, his strength is got by _touching the Earth_, his +Mother; lift him up from the Earth, lift him up into Hypocrisy, Inanity, +his strength is gone. We will not assert that Cromwell was an immaculate +man; that he fell into no faults, no insincerities among the rest. He +was no dilettante professor of "perfections," "immaculate conducts." +He was a rugged Orson, rending his rough way through actual true +_work_,--_doubtless_ with many a _fall_ therein. Insincerities, faults, +very many faults daily and hourly: it was too well known to him; known +to God and him! The Sun was dimmed many a time; but the Sun had not +himself grown a Dimness. Cromwell's last words, as he lay waiting for +death, are those of a Christian heroic man. Broken prayers to God, that +He would judge him and this Cause, He since man could not, in justice +yet in pity. They are most touching words. He breathed out his wild +great soul, its toils and sins all ended now, into the presence of his +Maker, in this manner. + +I, for one, will not call the man a Hypocrite! Hypocrite, mummer, the +life of him a mere theatricality; empty barren quack, hungry for the +shouts of mobs? The man had made obscurity do very well for him till his +head was gray; and now he _was_, there as he stood recognized unblamed, +the virtual King of England. Cannot a man do without King's Coaches and +Cloaks? Is it such a blessedness to have clerks forever pestering you +with bundles of papers in red tape? A simple Diocletian prefers planting +of cabbages; a George Washington, no very immeasurable man, does the +like. One would say, it is what any genuine man could do; and would do. +The instant his real work were out in the matter of Kingship,--away with +it! + +Let us remark, meanwhile, how indispensable everywhere a _King_ is, in +all movements of men. It is strikingly shown, in this very War, what +becomes of men when they cannot find a Chief Man, and their enemies can. +The Scotch Nation was all but unanimous in Puritanism; zealous and of +one mind about it, as in this English end of the Island was always far +from being the case. But there was no great Cromwell among them; poor +tremulous, hesitating, diplomatic Argyles and such like: none of them +had a heart true enough for the truth, or durst commit himself to the +truth. They had no leader; and the scattered Cavalier party in that +country had one: Montrose, the noblest of all the Cavaliers; an +accomplished, gallant-hearted, splendid man; what one may call the +Hero-Cavalier. Well, look at it; on the one hand subjects without a +King; on the other a King without subjects! The subjects without King +can do nothing; the subjectless King can do something. This Montrose, +with a handful of Irish or Highland savages, few of them so much as +guns in their hands, dashes at the drilled Puritan armies like a wild +whirlwind; sweeps them, time after time, some five times over, from the +field before him. He was at one period, for a short while, master of all +Scotland. One man; but he was a man; a million zealous men, but without +the one; they against him were powerless! Perhaps of all the persons in +that Puritan struggle, from first to last, the single indispensable one +was verily Cromwell. To see and dare, and decide; to be a fixed pillar +in the welter of uncertainty;--a King among them, whether they called +him so or not. + + +Precisely here, however, lies the rub for Cromwell. His other +proceedings have all found advocates, and stand generally justified; +but this dismissal of the Rump Parliament and assumption of the +Protectorship, is what no one can pardon him. He had fairly grown to be +King in England; Chief Man of the victorious party in England: but it +seems he could not do without the King's Cloak, and sold himself to +perdition in order to get it. Let us see a little how this was. + +England, Scotland, Ireland, all lying now subdued at the feet of the +Puritan Parliament, the practical question arose, What was to be done +with it? How will you govern these Nations, which Providence in a +wondrous way has given up to your disposal? Clearly those hundred +surviving members of the Long Parliament, who sit there as supreme +authority, cannot continue forever to sit. What _is_ to be done?--It +was a question which theoretical constitution-builders may find easy to +answer; but to Cromwell, looking there into the real practical facts of +it, there could be none more complicated. He asked of the Parliament, +What it was they would decide upon? It was for the Parliament to +say. Yet the Soldiers too, however contrary to Formula, they who had +purchased this victory with their blood, it seemed to them that they +also should have something to say in it! We will not "for all our +fighting have nothing but a little piece of paper." We understand that +the Law of God's Gospel, to which He through us has given the victory, +shall establish itself, or try to establish itself, in this land! + +For three years, Cromwell says, this question had been sounded in the +ears of the Parliament. They could make no answer; nothing but talk, +talk. Perhaps it lies in the nature of parliamentary bodies; perhaps +no Parliament could in such case make any answer but even that of talk, +talk! Nevertheless the question must and shall be answered. You sixty +men there, becoming fast odious, even despicable, to the whole nation, +whom the nation already calls Rump Parliament, you cannot continue to +sit there: who or what then is to follow? "Free Parliament," right of +Election, Constitutional Formulas of one sort or the other,--the thing +is a hungry Fact coming on us, which we must answer or be devoured by +it! And who are you that prate of Constitutional Formulas, rights of +Parliament? You have had to kill your King, to make Pride's Purges, to +expel and banish by the law of the stronger whosoever would not let +your Cause prosper: there are but fifty or threescore of you left there, +debating in these days. Tell us what we shall do; not in the way of +Formula, but of practicable Fact! + +How they did finally answer, remains obscure to this day. The diligent +Godwin himself admits that he cannot make it out. The likeliest is, that +this poor Parliament still would not, and indeed could not dissolve and +disperse; that when it came to the point of actually dispersing, they +again, for the tenth or twentieth time, adjourned it,--and Cromwell's +patience failed him. But we will take the favorablest hypothesis ever +started for the Parliament; the favorablest, though I believe it is not +the true one, but too favorable. + +According to this version: At the uttermost crisis, when Cromwell and +his Officers were met on the one hand, and the fifty or sixty Rump +Members on the other, it was suddenly told Cromwell that the Rump in its +despair _was_ answering in a very singular way; that in their splenetic +envious despair, to keep out the Army at least, these men were hurrying +through the House a kind of Reform Bill,--Parliament to be chosen by +the whole of England; equable electoral division into districts; free +suffrage, and the rest of it! A very questionable, or indeed for _them_ +an unquestionable thing. Reform Bill, free suffrage of Englishmen? Why, +the Royalists themselves, silenced indeed but not exterminated, perhaps +_outnumber_ us; the great numerical majority of England was always +indifferent to our Cause, merely looked at it and submitted to it. It is +in weight and force, not by counting of heads, that we are the majority! +And now with your Formulas and Reform Bills, the whole matter, sorely +won by our swords, shall again launch itself to sea; become a mere +hope, and likelihood, _small_ even as a likelihood? And it is not a +likelihood; it is a certainty, which we have won, by God's strength and +our own right hands, and do now hold _here_. Cromwell walked down to +these refractory Members; interrupted them in that rapid speed of their +Reform Bill;--ordered them to begone, and talk there no more.--Can we +not forgive him? Can we not understand him? John Milton, who looked +on it all near at hand, could applaud him. The Reality had swept the +Formulas away before it. I fancy, most men who were realities in England +might see into the necessity of that. + +The strong daring man, therefore, has set all manner of Formulas and +logical superficialities against him; has dared appeal to the genuine +Fact of this England, Whether it will support him or not? It is curious +to see how he struggles to govern in some constitutional way; find some +Parliament to support him; but cannot. His first Parliament, the one +they call Barebones's Parliament, is, so to speak, a _Convocation of the +Notables_. From all quarters of England the leading Ministers and chief +Puritan Officials nominate the men most distinguished by religious +reputation, influence and attachment to the true Cause: these are +assembled to shape out a plan. They sanctioned what was past; shaped as +they could what was to come. They were scornfully called _Barebones's +Parliament_: the man's name, it seems, was not _Barebones_, but +Barbone,--a good enough man. Nor was it a jest, their work; it was a +most serious reality,--a trial on the part of these Puritan Notables how +far the Law of Christ could become the Law of this England. There +were men of sense among them, men of some quality; men of deep piety I +suppose the most of them were. They failed, it seems, and broke down, +endeavoring to reform the Court of Chancery! They dissolved themselves, +as incompetent; delivered up their power again into the hands of the +Lord General Cromwell, to do with it what he liked and could. + +What _will_ he do with it? The Lord General Cromwell, +"Commander-in-chief of all the Forces raised and to be raised;" he +hereby sees himself, at this unexampled juncture, as it were the one +available Authority left in England, nothing between England and utter +Anarchy but him alone. Such is the undeniable Fact of his position and +England's, there and then. What will he do with it? After deliberation, +he decides that he will _accept_ it; will formally, with public +solemnity, say and vow before God and men, "Yes, the Fact is so, and +I will do the best I can with it!" Protectorship, Instrument of +Government,--these are the external forms of the thing; worked out and +sanctioned as they could in the circumstances be, by the Judges, by the +leading Official people, "Council of Officers and Persons of interest in +the Nation:" and as for the thing itself, undeniably enough, at the pass +matters had now come to, there _was_ no alternative but Anarchy or that. +Puritan England might accept it or not; but Puritan England was, in real +truth, saved from suicide thereby!--I believe the Puritan People did, +in an inarticulate, grumbling, yet on the whole grateful and real way, +accept this anomalous act of Oliver's; at least, he and they together +made it good, and always better to the last. But in their Parliamentary +_articulate_ way, they had their difficulties, and never knew fully what +to say to it--! + +Oliver's second Parliament, properly his _first_ regular Parliament, +chosen by the rule laid down in the Instrument of Government, did +assemble, and worked;--but got, before long, into bottomless questions +as to the Protector's _right_, as to "usurpation," and so forth; and had +at the earliest legal day to be dismissed. Cromwell's concluding Speech +to these men is a remarkable one. So likewise to his third Parliament, +in similar rebuke for their pedantries and obstinacies. Most rude, +chaotic, all these Speeches are; but most earnest-looking. You would +say, it was a sincere helpless man; not used to _speak_ the great +inorganic thought of him, but to act it rather! A helplessness of +utterance, in such bursting fulness of meaning. He talks much about +"births of Providence:" All these changes, so many victories and events, +were not forethoughts, and theatrical contrivances of men, of _me_ or +of men; it is blind blasphemers that will persist in calling them so! +He insists with a heavy sulphurous wrathful emphasis on this. As he well +might. As if a Cromwell in that dark huge game he had been playing, the +world wholly thrown into chaos round him, had _foreseen_ it all, and +played it all off like a precontrived puppet-show by wood and wire! +These things were foreseen by no man, he says; no man could tell what +a day would bring forth: they were "births of Providence," God's finger +guided us on, and we came at last to clear height of victory, God's +Cause triumphant in these Nations; and you as a Parliament could +assemble together, and say in what manner all this could be _organized_, +reduced into rational feasibility among the affairs of men. You were +to help with your wise counsel in doing that. "You have had such an +opportunity as no Parliament in England ever had." Christ's Law, the +Right and True, was to be in some measure made the Law of this land. +In place of that, you have got into your idle pedantries, +constitutionalities, bottomless cavillings and questionings about +written laws for my coming here;--and would send the whole matter into +Chaos again, because I have no Notary's parchment, but only God's +voice from the battle-whirlwind, for being President among you! That +opportunity is gone; and we know not when it will return. You have had +your constitutional Logic; and Mammon's Law, not Christ's Law, rules +yet in this land. "God be judge between you and me!" These are his final +words to them: Take you your constitution-formulas in your hand; and I +my informal struggles, purposes, realities and acts; and "God be judge +between you and me!"-- + +We said above what shapeless, involved chaotic things the printed +Speeches of Cromwell are. _Wilfully_ ambiguous, unintelligible, say the +most: a hypocrite shrouding himself in confused Jesuitic jargon! To me +they do not seem so. I will say rather, they afforded the first glimpses +I could ever get into the reality of this Cromwell, nay into the +possibility of him. Try to believe that he means something, search +lovingly what that may be: you will find a real _speech_ lying +imprisoned in these broken rude tortuous utterances; a meaning in the +great heart of this inarticulate man! You will, for thc first time, +begin to see that he was a man; not an enigmatic chimera, unintelligible +to you, incredible to you. The Histories and Biographies written of this +Cromwell, written in shallow sceptical generations that could not +know or conceive of a deep believing man, are far more _obscure_ than +Cromwell's Speeches. You look through them only into the infinite vague +of Black and the Inane. "Heats and jealousies," says Lord Clarendon +himself: "heats and jealousies," mere crabbed whims, theories and +crotchets; these induced slow sober quiet Englishmen to lay down their +ploughs and work; and fly into red fury of confused war against the +best-conditioned of Kings! _Try_ if you can find that true. Scepticism +writing about Belief may have great gifts; but it is really _ultra +vires_ there. It is Blindness laying down the Laws of Optics.-- + +Cromwell's third Parliament split on the same rock as his second. Ever +the constitutional Formula: How came you there? Show us some Notary +parchment! Blind pedants:--"Why, surely the same power which makes you +a Parliament, that, and something more, made me a Protector!" If +my Protectorship is nothing, what in the name of wonder is your +Parliamenteership, a reflex and creation of that?-- + +Parliaments having failed, there remained nothing but the way of +Despotism. Military Dictators, each with his district, to _coerce_ +the Royalist and other gainsayers, to govern them, if not by act of +Parliament, then by the sword. Formula shall _not_ carry it, while the +Reality is here! I will go on, protecting oppressed Protestants abroad, +appointing just judges, wise managers, at home, cherishing true Gospel +ministers; doing the best I can to make England a Christian England, +greater than old Rome, the Queen of Protestant Christianity; I, since +you will not help me; I while God leaves me life!--Why did he not give +it up; retire into obscurity again, since the Law would not acknowledge +him? cry several. That is where they mistake. For him there was no +giving of it up! Prime ministers have governed countries, Pitt, Pombal, +Choiseul; and their word was a law while it held: but this Prime +Minister was one that _could not get resigned_. Let him once resign, +Charles Stuart and the Cavaliers waited to kill him; to kill the Cause +_and_ him. Once embarked, there is no retreat, no return. This Prime +Minister could _retire_ no-whither except into his tomb. + +One is sorry for Cromwell in his old days. His complaint is incessant of +the heavy burden Providence has laid on him. Heavy; which he must bear +till death. Old Colonel Hutchinson, as his wife relates it, Hutchinson, +his old battle-mate, coming to see him on some indispensable business, +much against his will,--Cromwell "follows him to the door," in a +most fraternal, domestic, conciliatory style; begs that he would be +reconciled to him, his old brother in arms; says how much it grieves him +to be misunderstood, deserted by true fellow-soldiers, dear to him +from of old: the rigorous Hutchinson, cased in his Republican formula, +sullenly goes his way.--And the man's head now white; his strong arm +growing weary with its long work! I think always too of his poor Mother, +now very old, living in that Palace of his; a right brave woman; as +indeed they lived all an honest God-fearing Household there: if she +heard a shot go off, she thought it was her son killed. He had to come +to her at least once a day, that she might see with her own eyes that he +was yet living. The poor old Mother!--What had this man gained; what had +he gained? He had a life of sore strife and toil, to his last day. Fame, +ambition, place in History? His dead body was hung in chains, his "place +in History,"--place in History forsooth!--has been a place of ignominy, +accusation, blackness and disgrace; and here, this day, who knows if it +is not rash in me to be among the first that ever ventured to pronounce +him not a knave and liar, but a genuinely honest man! Peace to him. Did +he not, in spite of all, accomplish much for us? _We_ walk smoothly over +his great rough heroic life; step over his body sunk in the ditch there. +We need not _spurn_ it, as we step on it!--Let the Hero rest. It was not +to _men's_ judgment that he appealed; nor have men judged him very well. + + +Precisely a century and a year after this of Puritanism had got itself +hushed up into decent composure, and its results made smooth, in 1688, +there broke out a far deeper explosion, much more difficult to hush up, +known to all mortals, and like to be long known, by the name of French +Revolution. It is properly the third and final act of Protestantism; the +explosive confused return of mankind to Reality and Fact, now that they +were perishing of Semblance and Sham. We call our English Puritanism the +second act: "Well then, the Bible is true; let us go by the Bible!" "In +Church," said Luther; "In Church and State," said Cromwell, "let us go +by what actually _is_ God's Truth." Men have to return to reality; they +cannot live on semblance. The French Revolution, or third act, we may +well call the final one; for lower than that savage _Sansculottism_ men +cannot go. They stand there on the nakedest haggard Fact, undeniable in +all seasons and circumstances; and may and must begin again confidently +to build up from that. The French explosion, like the English one, got +its King,--who had no Notary parchment to show for himself. We have +still to glance for a moment at Napoleon, our second modern King. + +Napoleon does by no means seem to me so great a man as Cromwell. His +enormous victories which reached over all Europe, while Cromwell abode +mainly in our little England, are but as the high _stilts_ on which the +man is seen standing; the stature of the man is not altered thereby. +I find in him no such _sincerity_ as in Cromwell; only a far inferior +sort. No silent walking, through long years, with the Awful Unnamable +of this Universe; "walking with God," as he called it; and faith and +strength in that alone: _latent_ thought and valor, content to lie +latent, then burst out as in blaze of Heaven's lightning! Napoleon lived +in an age when God was no longer believed; the meaning of all Silence, +Latency, was thought to be Nonentity: he had to begin not out of the +Puritan Bible, but out of poor Sceptical _Encyclopedies_. This was +the length the man carried it. Meritorious to get so far. His compact, +prompt, every way articulate character is in itself perhaps small, +compared with our great chaotic inarticulate Cromwell's. Instead of +"dumb Prophet struggling to speak," we have a portentous mixture of the +Quack withal! Hume's notion of the Fanatic-Hypocrite, with such truth as +it has, will apply much better to Napoleon than it did to Cromwell, +to Mahomet or the like,--where indeed taken strictly it has hardly any +truth at all. An element of blamable ambition shows itself, from the +first, in this man; gets the victory over him at last, and involves him +and his work in ruin. + +"False as a bulletin" became a proverb in Napoleon's time. He makes what +excuse he could for it: that it was necessary to mislead the enemy, to +keep up his own men's courage, and so forth. On the whole, there are no +excuses. A man in no case has liberty to tell lies. It had been, in the +long-run, _better_ for Napoleon too if he had not told any. In fact, +if a man have any purpose reaching beyond the hour and day, meant to be +found extant _next_ day, what good can it ever be to promulgate lies? +The lies are found out; ruinous penalty is exacted for them. No man will +believe the liar next time even when he speaks truth, when it is of +the last importance that he be believed. The old cry of wolf!--A Lie is +no-thing; you cannot of nothing make something; you make _nothing_ at +last, and lose your labor into the bargain. + +Yet Napoleon _had_ a sincerity: we are to distinguish between what is +superficial and what is fundamental in insincerity. Across these outer +manoeuverings and quackeries of his, which were many and most +blamable, let us discern withal that the man had a certain instinctive +ineradicable feeling for reality; and did base himself upon fact, so +long as he had any basis. He has an instinct of Nature better than his +culture was. His _savans_, Bourrienne tells us, in that voyage to Egypt +were one evening busily occupied arguing that there could be no God. +They had proved it, to their satisfaction, by all manner of logic. +Napoleon looking up into the stars, answers, "Very ingenious, Messieurs: +but _who made_ all that?" The Atheistic logic runs off from him like +water; the great Fact stares him in the face: "Who made all that?" So +too in Practice: he, as every man that can be great, or have victory in +this world, sees, through all entanglements, the practical heart of the +matter; drives straight towards that. When the steward of his +Tuileries Palace was exhibiting the new upholstery, with praises, and +demonstration how glorious it was, and how cheap withal, Napoleon, +making little answer, asked for a pair of scissors, clips one of the +gold tassels from a window-curtain, put it in his pocket, and walked on. +Some days afterwards, he produced it at the right moment, to the horror +of his upholstery functionary; it was not gold but tinsel! In St. +Helena, it is notable how he still, to his last days, insists on the +practical, the real. "Why talk and complain; above all, why quarrel with +one another? There is no _result_ in it; it comes to nothing that one +can _do_. Say nothing, if one can do nothing!" He speaks often so, to +his poor discontented followers; he is like a piece of silent strength +in the middle of their morbid querulousness there. + +And accordingly was there not what we can call a _faith_ in him, genuine +so far as it went? That this new enormous Democracy asserting itself +here in the French Revolution is an unsuppressible Fact, which the whole +world, with its old forces and institutions, cannot put down; this was +a true insight of his, and took his conscience and enthusiasm along with +it,--a _faith_. And did he not interpret the dim purport of it well? +"_La carriere ouverte aux talens_, The implements to him who can handle +them:" this actually is the truth, and even the whole truth; it includes +whatever the French Revolution or any Revolution, could mean. Napoleon, +in his first period, was a true Democrat. And yet by the nature of him, +fostered too by his military trade, he knew that Democracy, if it were +a true thing at all, could not be an anarchy: the man had a heart-hatred +for anarchy. On that Twentieth of June (1792), Bourrienne and he sat +in a coffee-house, as the mob rolled by: Napoleon expresses the deepest +contempt for persons in authority that they do not restrain this rabble. +On the Tenth of August he wonders why there is no man to command these +poor Swiss; they would conquer if there were. Such a faith in Democracy, +yet hatred of anarchy, it is that carries Napoleon through all his great +work. Through his brilliant Italian Campaigns, onwards to the Peace +of Leoben, one would say, his inspiration is: "Triumph to the French +Revolution; assertion of it against these Austrian Simulacra that +pretend to call it a Simulacrum!" Withal, however, he feels, and has a +right to feel, how necessary a strong Authority is; how the Revolution +cannot prosper or last without such. To bridle in that great devouring, +self-devouring French Revolution; to _tame_ it, so that its intrinsic +purpose can be made good, that it may become _organic_, and be able +to live among other organisms and _formed_ things, not as a wasting +destruction alone: is not this still what he partly aimed at, as the +true purport of his life; nay what he actually managed to do? Through +Wagrams, Austerlitzes; triumph after triumph,--he triumphed so far. +There was an eye to see in this man, a soul to dare and do. He rose +naturally to be the King. All men saw that he _was_ such. The common +soldiers used to say on the march: "These babbling _Avocats_, up at +Paris; all talk and no work! What wonder it runs all wrong? We shall +have to go and put our _Petit Caporal_ there!" They went, and put him +there; they and France at large. Chief-consulship, Emperorship, victory +over Europe;--till the poor Lieutenant of _La Fere_, not unnaturally, +might seem to himself the greatest of all men that had been in the world +for some ages. + +But at this point, I think, the fatal charlatan-element got the upper +hand. He apostatized from his old faith in Facts, took to believing in +Semblances; strove to connect himself with Austrian Dynasties, +Popedoms, with the old false Feudalities which he once saw clearly to +be false;--considered that _he_ would found "his Dynasty" and so forth; +that the enormous French Revolution meant only that! The man was "given +up to strong delusion, that he should believe a lie;" a fearful but +most sure thing. He did not know true from false now when he looked +at them,--the fearfulest penalty a man pays for yielding to untruth of +heart. _Self_ and false ambition had now become his god: self-deception +once yielded to, _all_ other deceptions follow naturally more and more. +What a paltry patchwork of theatrical paper-mantles, tinsel and mummery, +had this man wrapt his own great reality in, thinking to make it +more real thereby! His hollow _Pope's-Concordat_, pretending to be a +re-establishment of Catholicism, felt by himself to be the method +of extirpating it, "_la vaccine de la religion_:" his ceremonial +Coronations, consecrations by the old Italian Chimera in +Notre-Dame,--"wanting nothing to complete the pomp of it," as Augereau +said, "nothing but the half-million of men who had died to put an end to +all that"! Cromwell's Inauguration was by the Sword and Bible; what we +must call a genuinely _true_ one. Sword and Bible were borne before him, +without any chimera: were not these the _real_ emblems of Puritanism; +its true decoration and insignia? It had used them both in a very real +manner, and pretended to stand by them now! But this poor Napoleon +mistook: he believed too much in the _Dupability_ of men; saw no fact +deeper in man than Hunger and this! He was mistaken. Like a man that +should build upon cloud; his house and he fall down in confused wreck, +and depart out of the world. + +Alas, in all of us this charlatan-element exists; and _might_ be +developed, were the temptation strong enough. "Lead us not into +temptation"! But it is fatal, I say, that it _be_ developed. The +thing into which it enters as a cognizable ingredient is doomed to be +altogether transitory; and, however huge it may _look_, is in itself +small. Napoleon's working, accordingly, what was it with all the noise +it made? A flash as of gunpowder wide-spread; a blazing-up as of dry +heath. For an hour the whole Universe seems wrapt in smoke and flame; +but only for an hour. It goes out: the Universe with its old mountains +and streams, its stars above and kind soil beneath, is still there. + +The Duke of Weimar told his friends always, To be of courage; this +Napoleonism was _unjust_, a falsehood, and could not last. It is true +doctrine. The heavier this Napoleon trampled on the world, holding it +tyrannously down, the fiercer would the world's recoil against him be, +one day. Injustice pays itself with frightful compound-interest. I am +not sure but he had better have lost his best park of artillery, or +had his best regiment drowned in the sea, than shot that poor German +Bookseller, Palm! It was a palpable tyrannous murderous injustice, which +no man, let him paint an inch thick, could make out to be other. It +burnt deep into the hearts of men, it and the like of it; suppressed +fire flashed in the eyes of men, as they thought of it,--waiting their +day! Which day _came_: Germany rose round him.--What Napoleon _did_ will +in the long-run amount to what he did justly; what Nature with her laws +will sanction. To what of reality was in him; to that and nothing more. +The rest was all smoke and waste. _La carriere ouverte aux talens_: +that great true Message, which has yet to articulate and fulfil itself +everywhere, he left in a most inarticulate state. He was a great +_ebauche_, a rude-draught never completed; as indeed what great man is +other? Left in _too_ rude a state, alas! + +His notions of the world, as he expresses them there at St. Helena, +are almost tragical to consider. He seems to feel the most unaffected +surprise that it has all gone so; that he is flung out on the rock +here, and the World is still moving on its axis. France is great, and +all-great: and at bottom, he is France. England itself, he says, is by +Nature only an appendage of France; "another Isle of Oleron to +France." So it was by _Nature_, by Napoleon-Nature; and yet look how in +fact--HERE AM I! He cannot understand it: inconceivable that the +reality has not corresponded to his program of it; that France was not +all-great, that he was not France. "Strong delusion," that he should +believe the thing to be which _is_ not! The compact, clear-seeing, +decisive Italian nature of him, strong, genuine, which he once had, +has enveloped itself, half-dissolved itself, in a turbid atmosphere +of French fanfaronade. The world was not disposed to be trodden down +underfoot; to be bound into masses, and built together, as _he_ liked, +for a pedestal to France and him: the world had quite other purposes in +view! Napoleon's astonishment is extreme. But alas, what help now? He +had gone that way of his; and Nature also had gone her way. Having once +parted with Reality, he tumbles helpless in Vacuity; no rescue for him. +He had to sink there, mournfully as man seldom did; and break his great +heart, and die,--this poor Napoleon: a great implement too soon wasted, +till it was useless: our last Great Man! + +Our last, in a double sense. For here finally these wide roamings of +ours through so many times and places, in search and study of Heroes, +are to terminate. I am sorry for it: there was pleasure for me in this +business, if also much pain. It is a great subject, and a most grave +and wide one, this which, not to be too grave about it, I have named +_Hero-worship_. It enters deeply, as I think, into the secret of +Mankind's ways and vitalest interests in this world, and is well worth +explaining at present. With six months, instead of six days, we might +have done better. I promised to break ground on it; I know not whether +I have even managed to do that. I have had to tear it up in the rudest +manner in order to get into it at all. Often enough, with these abrupt +utterances thrown out isolated, unexplained, has your tolerance been put +to the trial. Tolerance, patient candor, all-hoping favor and +kindness, which I will not speak of at present. The accomplished and +distinguished, the beautiful, the wise, something of what is best in +England, have listened patiently to my rude words. With many feelings, I +heartily thank you all; and say, Good be with you all! + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Heroes and Hero Worship, by Thomas Carlyle + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1091 *** |