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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. + + + + + +ON HEROES, HERO-WORSHIP, AND THE HEROIC IN HISTORY +By Thomas Carlyle + + +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. + +[May 5, 1840.] +LECTURE I. +THE HERO AS DIVINITY. ODIN. PAGANISM: SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY. + +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." + + +[May 8, 1840.] +LECTURE II. +THE HERO AS PROPHET. MAHOMET: ISLAM. + +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. + + +[May 12, 1840.] +LECTURE III. +THE HERO AS POET. DANTE: SHAKSPEARE. + +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. Thc _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_. + + +[May 15, 1840.] +LECTURE IV. +THE HERO AS PRIEST. LUTHER; REFORMATION: KNOX; PURITANISM. + +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! + + +[May 19, 1840.] +LECTURE V. +THE HERO AS MAN OF LETTERS. JOHNSON, ROUSSEAU, BURNS. + +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--! + + +[May 22, 1840.] +LECTURE VI. +THE HERO AS KING. CROMWELL, NAPOLEON: MODERN REVOLUTIONISM. + +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, +183O, 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 Etext of Heroes and Hero Worship, by Carlyle + |