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diff --git a/21263-8.txt b/21263-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46a2838 --- /dev/null +++ b/21263-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16115 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Old Road, Vol. 2 (of 2), by John Ruskin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Old Road, Vol. 2 (of 2) + A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: April 30, 2007 [EBook #21263] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE OLD ROAD, VOL. 2 (OF 2) *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Library Edition + + THE COMPLETE WORKS + + OF + + JOHN RUSKIN + + ON THE OLD ROAD + VOLUMES I-II + + NATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION + NEW YORK CHICAGO + + + + + ON THE OLD ROAD. + + _A COLLECTION OF + MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS AND ARTICLES + ON ART AND LITERATURE._ + + PUBLISHED 1834-1885. + + VOL. II. + + + + + CONTENTS OF VOL. II. + + + PAGE + + PICTURE GALLERIES. + + PARLIAMENTARY EVIDENCE:-- + NATIONAL GALLERY SITE COMMISSION. 1857 3 + SELECT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 1860 25 + THE ROYAL ACADEMY COMMISSION 50 + A MUSEUM OR PICTURE GALLERY 71 + + MINOR WRITINGS UPON ART. + + THE CAVALLI MONUMENTS, VERONA. 1872 89 + VERONA AND ITS RIVERS (WITH CATALOGUE). 1870 99 + CHRISTIAN ART AND SYMBOLISM. 1872 118 + ART SCHOOLS OF MEDIÆVAL CHRISTENDOM. 1876 121 + THE EXTENSION OF RAILWAYS. 1876 125 + THE STUDY OF BEAUTY. 1883 132 + + NOTES ON NATURAL SCIENCE. + + THE COLOR OF THE RHINE. 1834 141 + THE STRATA OF MONT BLANC. 1834 143 + THE INDURATION OF SANDSTONE. 1836 145 + THE TEMPERATURE OF SPRING AND RIVER WATER. 1836. 148 + METEOROLOGY. 1839 153 + TREE TWIGS. 1861 158 + STRATIFIED ALPS OF SAVOY. 1863 162 + INTELLECTUAL CONCEPTION AND ANIMATED LIFE. 1871 168 + + LITERATURE. + + FICTION--FAIR AND FOUL. 1880-81 175 + FAIRY STORIES. 1868 290 + + ECONOMY. + + HOME, AND ITS ECONOMIES. 1873 299 + USURY. A REPLY AND A REJOINDER. 1880 314 + USURY. A PREFACE. 1885 340 + + THEOLOGY. + + NOTES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHEEPFOLDS. 1851 347 + THE LORD'S PRAYER AND THE CHURCH. 1879-81. (Letters + and Epilogue.) 382 + THE NATURE AND AUTHORITY OF MIRACLE. 1873 418 + + AN OXFORD LECTURE. 1878 429 + + + * * * * * + + + PICTURE GALLERIES: + + _THEIR FUNCTIONS AND FORMATION._ + + + A. PARLIAMENTARY EVIDENCE. + + NATIONAL GALLERY SITE COMMISSION 1857. + SELECT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 1860. + THE ROYAL ACADEMY COMMISSION 1863. + + B. LETTERS ON A MUSEUM OR PICTURE GALLERY. + + (_Art Journal, June and August, 1880._) + + + * * * * * + + +PICTURE GALLERIES--THEIR FUNCTIONS AND FORMATION. + +THE NATIONAL GALLERY SITE COMMISSION.[1] + +_Evidence of John Ruskin, Monday, April 6, 1857._ + + +114. _Chairman._ Has your attention been turned to the desirableness of +uniting sculpture with painting under the same roof?--Yes. + +What is your opinion on the subject?--I think it almost essential that +they should be united, if a National Gallery is to be of service in +teaching the course of art. + +Sculpture of all kinds, or only ancient sculpture?--Of all kinds. + +Do you think that the sculpture in the British Museum should be in the +same building with the pictures in the National Gallery, that is to say, +making an application of your principle to that particular case?--Yes, +certainly; I think so for several reasons--chiefly because I think the +taste of the nation can only be rightly directed by having always +sculpture and painting visible together. Many of the highest and best +points of painting, I think, can only be discerned after some discipline +of the eye by sculpture. That is one very essential reason. I think that +after looking at sculpture one feels the grace of composition infinitely +more, and one also feels how that grace of composition was reached by +the painter. + +Do you consider that if works of sculpture and works of painting were +placed in the same gallery, the same light would be useful for both of +them?--I understood your question only to refer to their collection +under the same roof. I should be sorry to see them in the same room. + +You would not mix them up in the way in which they are mixed up in the +Florentine Gallery, for instance?--Not at all. I think, on the contrary, +that the one diverts the mind from the other, and that, although the one +is an admirable discipline, you should take some time for the +examination of sculpture, and pass afterwards into the painting room, +and so on. You should not be disturbed while looking at paintings by the +whiteness of the sculpture. + +You do not then approve, for example, of the way in which the famous +room, the Tribune, at Florence, is arranged?--No; I think it is merely +arranged for show--for showing how many rich things can be got together. + +115. _Mr. Cockerell._ Then you do not regard sculpture as a proper +decorative portion of the National Gallery of Pictures--you do not admit +the term decoration?--No; I should not use that term of the sculpture +which it was the object of the gallery to exhibit. It might be added, of +course, supposing it became a part of the architecture, but not as +independent--not as a thing to be contemplated separately in the room, +and not as a part of the room. As a part of the room, of course, modern +sculpture might be added; but I have never thought that it would be +necessary. + +You do not consider that sculpture would be a repose after contemplating +painting for some time?--I should not feel it so myself. + +116. _Dean of St. Paul's._ When you speak of removing the sculpture of +the British Museum, and of uniting it with the pictures of the National +Gallery, do you comprehend the whole range of the sculpture in the +British Museum, commencing with the Egyptian, and going down through its +regular series of gradation to the decline of the art?--Yes, because my +great hope respecting the National Gallery is, that it may become a +perfectly consecutive chronological arrangement, and it seems to me that +it is one of the chief characteristics of a National Gallery that it +should be so. + +Then you consider that one great excellence of the collection at the +British Museum is, that it does present that sort of history of the art +of sculpture?--I consider it rather its weakness that it does not. + +Then you would go down further?--I would. + +You are perhaps acquainted with the ivories which have been recently +purchased there?--I am not. + +Supposing there were a fine collection of Byzantine ivories, you would +consider that they were an important link in the general +history?--Certainly. + +Would you unite the whole of that Pagan sculpture with what you call the +later Christian art of Painting?--I should be glad to see it done--that +is to say, I should be glad to see the galleries of painting and +sculpture collaterally placed, and the gallery of sculpture beginning +with the Pagan art, and proceeding to the Christian art, but not +necessarily associating the painting with the sculpture of each epoch; +because the painting is so deficient in many of the periods where the +sculpture is rich, that you could not carry them on collaterally--you +must have your painting gallery and your sculpture gallery. + +You would be sorry to take any portion of the sculpture from the +collection in the British Museum, and to associate it with any +collection of painting?--Yes, I should think it highly inexpedient. My +whole object would be that it might be associated with a larger +collection, a collection from other periods, and not be subdivided. And +it seems to be one of the chief reasons advanced in order to justify +removing that collection, that it cannot be much more enlarged--that you +cannot at present put other sculpture with it. + +Supposing that the collection of ancient Pagan art could not be united +with the National Gallery of pictures, with which would you associate +the mediæval sculpture, supposing we were to retain any considerable +amount of sculpture?--With the painting. + +The mediæval art you would associate with the painting, supposing you +could not put the whole together?--Yes. + +117. _Chairman._ Do you approve of protecting pictures by glass?--Yes, +in every case. I do not know of what size a pane of glass can be +manufactured, but I have never seen a picture so large but that I should +be glad to see it under glass. Even supposing it were possible, which I +suppose it is not, the great Paul Veronese, in the gallery of the +Louvre, I think would be more beautiful under glass. + +Independently of the preservation?--Independently of the preservation, I +think it would be more beautiful. It gives an especial delicacy to light +colors, and does little harm to dark colors--that is, it benefits +delicate pictures most, and its injury is only to very dark pictures. + +Have you ever considered the propriety of covering the sculpture with +glass?--I have never considered it. I did not know until a very few days +ago that sculpture was injured by exposure to our climate and our smoke. + +_Professor Faraday._ But you would cover the pictures, independently of +the preservation, you would cover them absolutely for the artistic +effect, the improvement of the picture?--Not necessarily so, because to +some persons there might be an objectionable character in having to +avoid the reflection more scrupulously than otherwise. I should not +press for it on that head only. The advantage gained is not a great one; +it is only felt by very delicate eyes. As far as I know, many persons +would not perceive that there was a difference, and that is caused by +the very slight color in the glass, which, perhaps, some persons might +think it expedient to avoid altogether. + +Do you put it down to the absolute tint in the glass like a glazing, or +do you put it down to a sort of reflection? Is the effect referable to +the color in the glass, or to some kind of optic action, which the most +transparent glass might produce?--I do not know; but I suppose it to +be referable to the very slight tint in the glass. + +118. _Dean of St. Paul's._ Is it not the case when ladies with very +brilliant dresses look at pictures through glass, that the reflection of +the color of their dresses is so strong as greatly to disturb the +enjoyment and the appreciation of the pictures?--Certainly; but I should +ask the ladies to stand a little aside, and look at the pictures one by +one. There is that disadvantage. + +I am supposing a crowded room--of course the object of a National +Gallery is that it should be crowded--that as large a number of the +public should have access to it as possible--there would of course be +certain limited hours, and the gallery would be liable to get filled +with the public in great numbers?--It would be disadvantageous +certainly, but not so disadvantageous as to balance the much greater +advantage of preservation. I imagine that, in fact, glass is essential; +it is not merely an expedient thing, but an essential thing to the +safety of the pictures for twenty or thirty years. + +Do you consider it essential as regards the atmosphere of London, or of +this country generally?--I speak of London only. I have no experience of +other parts. But I have this experience in my own collection. I kept my +pictures for some time without glass, and I found the deterioration +definite within a very short period--a period of a couple of years. + +You mean at Denmark Hill?--Yes; that deterioration on pictures of the +class I refer to is not to be afterwards remedied--the thing suffers +forever--you cannot get into the interstices. + +_Professor Faraday._ You consider that the picture is permanently +injured by the dirt?--Yes. + +That no cleaning can restore it to what it was?--Nothing can restore it +to what it was, I think, because the operation of cleaning must scrape +away some of the grains of paint. + +Therefore, if you have two pictures, one in a dirtier place, and one in +a cleaner place, no attention will put the one in the dirtier place on +a level with that in the cleaner place?--I think nevermore. + +119. _Chairman._ I see that in your "Notes on the Turner Collection," +you recommended that the large upright pictures would have great +advantage in having a room to themselves. Do you mean each of the large +pictures or a whole collection of large pictures?--Supposing very +beautiful pictures of a large size (it would depend entirely on the +value and size of the picture), supposing we ever acquired such large +pictures as Titian's Assumption, or Raphael's Transfiguration, those +pictures ought to have a room to themselves, and to have a gallery round +them. + +Do you mean that each of them should have a room?--Yes. + +_Dean of St. Paul's._ Have you been recently at Dresden?--No, I have +never been at Dresden. + +Then you do not know the position of the Great Holbein and of the +Madonna de S. Sisto there, which have separate rooms?--No. + +_Mr. Cockerell._ Are you acquainted with the Munich Gallery--No. + +Do you know the plans of it?--No. + +Then you have not seen, perhaps, the most recent arrangements adopted by +that learned people, the Germans, with regard to the exhibition of +pictures?--I have not been into Germany for twenty years. + +120. That subject has been handled by them in an original manner, and +they have constructed galleries at Munich, at Dresden, and I believe at +St. Petersburg upon a new principle, and a very judicious principle. You +have not had opportunities of considering that?--No, I have never +considered that; because I always supposed that there was no difficulty +in producing a beautiful gallery, or an efficient one. I never thought +that there could be any question about the form which such a gallery +should take, or that it was a matter of consideration. The only +difficulty with me was this--the persuading, or hoping to persuade, a +nation that if it had pictures at all, it should have those pictures on +the line of the eye; that it was not well to have a noble picture many +feet above the eye, merely for the glory of the room. Then I think that +as soon as you decide that a picture is to be seen, it is easy to find +out the way of showing it; to say that it should have such and such a +room, with such and such a light; not a raking light, as I heard Sir +Charles Eastlake express it the other day, but rather an oblique and +soft light, and not so near the picture as to catch the eye painfully. +That may be easily obtained, and I think that all other questions after +that are subordinate. + +_Dean of St. Paul's._ Your proposition would require a great extent of +wall?--An immense extent of wall. + +121. _Chairman._ I see you state in the pamphlet to which I have before +alluded, that it is of the highest importance that the works of each +master should be kept together. Would not such an arrangement increase +very much the size of the National Gallery?--I think not, because I have +only supposed in my plan that, at the utmost, two lines of pictures +should be admitted on the walls of the room; that being so, you would be +always able to put all the works of any master together without any +inconvenience or difficulty in fitting them to the size of the room. +Supposing that you put the large pictures high on the walls, then it +might be a question, of course, whether such and such a room or +compartment of the Gallery would hold the works of a particular master; +but supposing the pictures were all on a continuous line, you would only +stop with A and begin with B. + +Then you would only have them on one level and one line?--In general; +that seems to me the common-sense principle. + +_Mr. Richmond._ Then you disapprove of the whole of the European hanging +of pictures in galleries?--I think it very beautiful sometimes, but not +to be imitated. It produces most noble rooms. No one can but be +impressed with the first room at the Louvre, where you have the most +noble Venetian pictures one mass of fire on the four walls; but then +none of the details of those pictures can be seen. + +_Dean of St. Paul's._ There you have a very fine general effect, but you +lose the effect of the beauties of each individual picture?--You lose +all the beauties, all the higher merits; you get merely your general +idea. It is a perfectly splendid room, of which a great part of the +impression depends upon the consciousness of the spectator that it is so +costly. + +122. Would you have those galleries in themselves richly decorated?--Not +richly, but pleasantly. + +Brilliantly, but not too brightly?--Not too brightly. I have not gone +into that question, it being out of my way; but I think, generally, that +great care should be taken to give a certain splendor--a certain +gorgeous effect--so that the spectator may feel himself among splendid +things; so that there shall be no discomfort or meagerness, or want of +respect for the things which are being shown. + +123. _Mr. Richmond._ Then do you think that Art would be more worthily +treated, and the public taste and artists better served, by having even +a smaller collection of works so arranged, than by a much larger one +merely housed and hung four or five deep, as in an auction room?--Yes. +But you put a difficult choice before me, because I do think it a very +important thing that we should have many pictures. Totally new results +might be obtained from a large gallery in which the chronological +arrangement was perfect, and whose curators prepared for that +chronological arrangement, by leaving gaps to be filled by future +acquisition; taking the greatest pains in the selection of the examples, +that they should be thoroughly characteristic; giving a greater price +for a picture which was thoroughly characteristic and expressive of the +habits of a nation; because it appears to me that one of the main uses +of Art at present is not so much as Art, but as teaching us the feelings +of nations. History only tells us what they did; Art tells us their +feelings, and why they did it: whether they were energetic and fiery, or +whether they were, as in the case of the Dutch, imitating minor things, +quiet and cold. All those expressions of feeling cannot come out of +History. Even the contemporary historian does not feel them; he does not +feel what his nation is; but get the works of the same master together, +the works of the same nation together, and the works of the same +century together, and see how the thing will force itself upon +everyone's observation. + +124. Then you would not exclude the genuine work of inferior +masters?--Not by any means. + +You would have the whole as far as you could obtain it?--Yes, as far as +it was characteristic; but I think you can hardly call an inferior +master one who does in the best possible way the thing he undertakes to +do; and I would not take any master who did not in some way excel. For +instance, I would not take a mere imitator of Cuyp among the Dutch; but +Cuyp himself has done insuperable things in certain expressions of +sunlight and repose. Vander Heyden and others may also be mentioned as +first-rate in inferior lines. + +Taking from the rise of art to the time of Raphael, would you in the +National Gallery include examples of all those masters whose names have +come down to the most learned of us?--No. + +Where would you draw the line, and where would you begin to leave +out?--I would only draw the line when I was purchasing a picture. I +think that a person might always spend his money better by making an +effort to get one noble picture than five or six second or third-rate +pictures, provided only, that you had examples of the best kind of work +produced at that time. I would not have second-rate pictures. Multitudes +of masters among the disciples of Giotto might be named; you might have +one or two pictures of Giotto, and one or two pictures of the disciples +of Giotto. + +Then you would rather depend upon the beauty of the work itself; if the +work were beautiful, you would admit it?--Certainly. + +But if it were only historically interesting, would you then reject +it?--Not in the least. I want it historically interesting, but I want as +good an example as I can have of that particular manner. + +Would it not be historically interesting if it were the only picture +known of that particular master, who was a follower of Giotto? For +instance, supposing a work of Cennino Cennini were brought to light, +and had no real merit in it as a work of art, would it not be the duty +of the authorities of a National Gallery to seize upon that picture, and +pay perhaps rather a large price for it?--Certainly; all documentary art +I should include. + +Then what would you exclude?--Merely that which is inferior, and not +documentary; merely another example of the same kind of thing. + +Then you would not multiply examples of the same masters if inferior +men, but you would have one of each. There is no man, I suppose, whose +memory has come down to us after three or four centuries, but has +something worth preserving in his work--something peculiar to himself, +which perhaps no other person has ever done, and you would retain one +example of such, would you not?--I would, if it was in my power, but I +would rather with given funds make an effort to get perfect examples. + +Then you think that the artistic element should govern the archæological +in the selection?--Yes, and the archæological in the arrangement. + +125. _Dean of St. Paul's._ When you speak of arranging the works of one +master consecutively, would you pay any regard or not to the subjects? +You must be well aware that many painters, for instance, Correggio, and +others, painted very incongruous subjects; would you rather keep them +together than disperse the works of those painters to a certain degree +according to their subjects?--I would most certainly keep them together. +I think it an important feature of the master that he did paint +incongruously, and very possibly the character of each picture would be +better understood by seeing them together; the relations of each are +sometimes essential to be seen. + +_Mr. Richmond._ Do you think that the preservation of these works is one +of the first and most important things to be provided for?--It would be +so with me in purchasing a picture. I would pay double the price for it +if I thought it was likely to be destroyed where it was. + +In a note you wrote to me the other day, I find this passage: "The Art +of a nation I think one of the most important points of its history, and +a part which, if once destroyed, no history will ever supply the place +of--and the first idea of a National Gallery is, that it should be a +Library of Art, in which the rudest efforts are, in some cases, hardly +less important than the noblest." Is that your opinion?--Perfectly. That +seems somewhat inconsistent with what I have been saying, but I mean +there, the noblest efforts of the time at which they are produced. I +would take the greatest pains to get an example of eleventh century +work, though the painting is perfectly barbarous at that time. + +126. You have much to do with the education of the working classes in +Art. As far as you are able to tell us, what is your experience with +regard to their liking and disliking in Art--do comparatively uneducated +persons prefer the Art up to the time of Raphael, or down from the time +of Raphael?--we will take the Bolognese School, or the early Florentine +School--which do you think a working man would feel the greatest +interest in looking at?--I cannot tell you, because my working men would +not be allowed to look at a Bolognese picture; I teach them so much love +of detail, that the moment they see a detail carefully drawn, they are +caught by it. The main thing which has surprised me in dealing with +these men is the exceeding refinement of their minds--so that in a +moment I can get carpenters, and smiths, and ordinary workmen, and +various classes to give me a refinement which I cannot get a young lady +to give me when I give her a lesson for the first time. Whether it is +the habit of work which makes them go at it more intensely, or whether +it is (as I rather think) that, as the feminine mind looks for strength, +the masculine mind looks for delicacy, and when you take it simply, and +give it its choice, it will go to the most refined thing, I do not know. + +_Dean of St. Paul's._ Can you see any perceptible improvement in the +state of the public mind and taste in that respect since these measures +have been adopted?--There has not been time to judge of that. + +127. Do these persons who are taking an interest in Art come from +different parts of London?--Yes. + +Of course the distance which they would have to come would be of very +great importance?--Yes. + +Therefore one of the great recommendations of a Gallery, if you wish it +to have an effect upon the public mind in that respect, would be its +accessibility, both with regard to the time consumed in going there, and +to the cheapness, as I may call it, of access?--Most certainly. + +You would therefore consider that the more central the situation, +putting all other points out of consideration, the greater advantage it +would be to the public?--Yes; there is this, however, to be said, that a +central situation involves the crowding of the room with parties wholly +uninterested in the matter--a situation more retired will generally be +serviceable enough for the real student. + +Would not that very much depend upon its being in a thoroughfare? There +might be a central situation which would not be so complete a +thoroughfare as to tempt persons to go in who were not likely to derive +advantage from it?--I think that if this gallery were made so large and +so beautiful as we are proposing, it would be rather a resort, rather a +lounge every day, and all day long, provided it were accessible. + +128. Would not that a good deal depend upon its being in a public +thoroughfare? If it were in a thoroughfare, a great many persons might +pass in who would be driven in by accident, or driven in by caprice, if +they passed it; but if it were at a little distance from a thoroughfare, +it would be less crowded with those persons who are not likely to derive +much advantage from it?--Quite so; but there would always be an +advantage in attracting a crowd; it would always extend its educational +ability in its being crowded. But it would seem to me that all that is +necessary for a noble Museum of the best art should be more or less +removed, and that a collection, solely for the purpose of education, and +for the purpose of interesting people who do not care much about art, +should be provided in the very heart of the population, if possible, +that pictures not of great value, but of sufficient value to interest +the public, and of merit enough to form the basis of early education, +and to give examples of all art, should be collected in the popular +Gallery, but that all the precious things should be removed and put into +the great Gallery, where they would be safest, irrespectively altogether +of accessibility. + +_Chairman._ Then you would, in fact, have not one but two +Galleries?--Two only. + +129. _Professor Faraday._ And you would seem to desire purposely the +removal of the true and head Gallery to some distance, so as to prevent +the great access of persons?--Yes. + +Thinking that all those who could make a real use of a Gallery would go +to that one?--Yes. My opinion in that respect has been altered within +these few days from the fact having been brought to my knowledge of +sculpture being much deteriorated by the atmosphere and the total +impossibility of protecting sculpture. Pictures I do not care about, for +I can protect them, but not sculpture. + +_Dean of St. Paul's._ Whence did you derive that knowledge?--I forget +who told me; it was some authority I thought conclusive, and therefore +took no special note of. + +130. _Chairman._ Do you not consider that it is rather prejudicial to +art that there should be a Gallery notoriously containing no first-rate +works of art, but second-rate or third-rate works?--No; I think it +rather valuable as an expression of the means of education, that there +should be early lessons in art--that there should be this sort of art +selected especially for first studies, and also that there should be a +recognition of the exceeding preciousness of some other art. I think +that portions of it should be set aside as interesting, but not +unreplaceable; but that other portions should be set aside as being +things as to which the function of the nation was, chiefly, to take care +of those things, not for itself merely, but for all its descendants, and +setting the example of taking care of them for ever. + +You do not think, then, that there would be any danger in the studying +or the copying of works which notoriously were not the best works?--On +the contrary, I think it would be better that works not altogether the +best should be first submitted. I never should think of giving the best +work myself to a student to copy--it is hopeless; he would not feel its +beauties--he would merely blunder over it. I am perfectly certain that +that cannot be serviceable in the particular branch of art which I +profess, namely, landscape-painting; I know that I must give more or +less of bad examples. + +_Mr. Richmond._ But you would admit nothing into this second gallery +which was not good or true of its kind?--Nothing which was not good or +true of its kind, but only inferior in value to the others. + +And if there were any other works which might be deposited there with +perfect safety, say precious drawings, which might be protected by +glass, you would not object to exhibit those to the unselected +multitude?--Not in the least; I should be very glad to do so, provided I +could spare them from the grand chronological arrangement. + +Do you think that a very interesting supplementary exhibition might be +got up, say at Trafalgar Square, and retained there?--Yes, and all the +more useful because you would put few works, and you could make it +complete in series--and because, on a small scale, you would have the +entire series. By selecting a few works, you would have an epitome of +the Grand Gallery, the divisions of the chronology being all within the +compartment of a wall, which in the great Gallery would be in a separate +division of the building. + +131. _Mr. Cockerell._ Do you contemplate the possibility of excellent +copies being exhibited of the most excellent works both of sculpture and +of painting?--I have not contemplated that possibility. I have a great +horror of copies of any kind, except only of sculpture. I have great +fear of copies of painting; I think people generally catch the worst +parts of the painting and leave the best. + +But you would select the artist who should make the copy. There are +persons whose whole talent is concentrated in the power of imitation of +a given picture, and a great talent it is.--I have never in my life +seen a good copy of a good picture. + +_Chairman._ Have you not seen any of the German copies of some of the +great Italian masters, which are generally esteemed very admirable +works?--I have not much studied the works of the copyists; I have not +observed them much, never having yet found an exception to that rule +which I have mentioned. When I came across a copyist in the Gallery of +the Vatican, or in the Gallery at Florence, I had a horror of the +mischief, and the scandal and the libel upon the master, from the +supposition that such a thing as that in any way resembled his work, and +the harm that it would do to the populace among whom it was shown. + +_Mr. Richmond._ You look upon it as you would upon coining bad money and +circulating it, doing mischief?--Yes, it is mischievous. + +_Mr. Cockerell._ But you admit engravings--you admit photographs of +these works, which are imitations in another language?--Yes; in abstract +terms, they are rather descriptions of the paintings than copies--they +are rather measures and definitions of them--they are hints and tables +of the pictures, rather than copies of them; they do not pretend to the +same excellence in any way. + +You speak as a connoisseur; how would the common eye of the public agree +with you in that opinion?--I think it would not agree with me. +Nevertheless, if I were taking some of my workmen into the National +Gallery, I should soon have some hope of making them understand in what +excellence consisted, if I could point to a genuine work; but I should +have no such hope if I had only copies of these pictures. + +132. Do you hold much to the archæological, chronological, and +historical series and teaching of pictures?--Yes. + +Are you of opinion that that is essential to the creative teaching, with +reference to our future schools?--No. I should think not essential at +all. The teaching of the future artist, I should think, might be +accomplished by very few pictures of the class which that particular +artist wished to study. I think that the chronological arrangement is +in no-wise connected with the general efficiency of the gallery as a +matter of study for the artist, but very much so as a means of study, +not for persons interested in painting merely, but for those who wish to +examine the general history of nations; and I think that painting should +be considered by that class of persons as containing precious evidence. +It would be part of the philosopher's work to examine the art of a +nation as well as its poetry. + +You consider that art speaks a language and tells a tale which no +written document can effect?--Yes, and far more precious; the whole soul +of a nation generally goes with its art. It may be urged by an ambitious +king to become a warrior nation. It may be trained by a single leader to +become a _great_ warrior nation, and its character at that time may +materially depend upon that one man, but in its art all the mind of the +nation is more or less expressed: it can be said, that was what the +peasant sought to when he went into the city to the cathedral in the +morning--that was the sort of book the poor person read or learned +in--the sort of picture he prayed to. All which involves infinitely more +important considerations than common history. + +133. _Dean of St. Paul's._ When you speak of your objections to copies +of pictures, do you carry that objection to casts of sculpture?--Not at +all. + +Supposing there could be no complete union of the great works of +sculpture in a country with the great works of painting in that country, +would you consider that a good selection of casts comprising the great +remains of sculpture of all ages would be an important addition to a +public gallery?--I should be very glad to see it. + +If you could not have it of originals, you would wish very much to have +a complete collection of casts, of course selected from all the finest +sculptures in the world?--Certainly. + +_Mr. Richmond._ Would you do the same with architecture--would you +collect the remains of architecture, as far as they are to be collected, +and unite them with sculpture and painting?--I should think that +architecture consisted, as far as it was portable, very much in +sculpture. In saying that, I mean, that in the different branches of +sculpture architecture is involved--that is to say, you would have the +statues belonging to such and such a division of a building. Then if you +had casts of those statues, you would necessarily have those casts +placed exactly in the same position as the original statues--it involves +the buildings surrounding them and the elevation--it involves the whole +architecture. + +In addition to that, would you have original drawings of architecture, +and models of great buildings, and photographs, if they could be made +permanent, of the great buildings as well as the moldings and casts of +the moldings, and the members as far as you could obtain them?--Quite +so. + +Would you also include, in the National Gallery, what may be called the +handicraft of a nation--works for domestic use or ornament? For +instance, we know that there were some salt-cellars designed for one of +the Popes; would you have those if they came to us?--Everything, pots +and pans, and salt-cellars, and knives. + +You would have everything that had an interesting art element in +it?--Yes. + +_Dean of St. Paul's._ In short, a modern Pompeian Gallery?--Yes; I know +how much greater extent that involves, but I think that you should +include all the iron work, and china, and pottery, and so on. I think +that all works in metal, all works in clay, all works in carved wood, +should be included. Of course, that involves much. It involves all the +coins--it involves an immense extent. + +134. Supposing it were impossible to concenter in one great museum the +whole of these things, where should you prefer to draw the line? Would +you draw the line between what I may call the ancient Pagan world and +the modern Christian world, and so leave, to what may be called the +ancient world, all the ancient sculpture, and any fragments of ancient +painting which there might be--all the vases, all the ancient bronzes, +and, in short, everything which comes down to a certain period? Do you +think that that would be the best division, or should you prefer any +division which takes special arts, and keeps those arts together?--I +should like the Pagan and Christian division. I think it very essential +that wherever the sculpture of a nation was, there its iron work should +be--that wherever its iron work was, there its pottery should be, and so +on. + +And you would keep the mediæval works together, in whatever form those +mediæval works existed?--Yes; I should not at all feel injured by having +to take a cab-drive from one century to another century. + +Or from the ancient to the modern world?--No. + +_Mr. Richmond._ If it were found convenient to keep separate the Pagan +and the Christian art, with which would you associate the mediæval?--By +"Christian and Pagan Art" I mean, before Christ and after Christ. + +Then the mediæval would come with the paintings?--Yes; and also the +Mahomedan, and all the Pagan art which was after Christ, I should +associate as part, and a most essential part, because it seems to me +that the history of Christianity is complicated perpetually with that +which Christianity was effecting. Therefore, it is a matter of date, not +of Christianity. Everything before Christ I should be glad to see +separated, or you may take any other date that you like. + +But the inspiration of the two schools--the Pagan and the +Christian--seems so different, that there would be no great violence +done to the true theory of a National Gallery in dividing these two, +would there, if each were made complete in itself?--That is to say, +taking the spirit of the world after Christianity was in it, and the +spirit of the world before Christianity was in it. + +_Dean of St. Paul's._ The birth of Christ, you say, is the commencement +of Christian art?--Yes. + +Then Christian influence began, and, of course, that would leave a small +debatable ground, particularly among the ivories for instance, which we +must settle according to circumstances?--Wide of any debatable ground, +all the art of a nation which had never heard of Christianity, the +Hindoo art and so on, would, I suppose, if of the Christian era, go into +the Christian gallery. + +I was speaking rather of the transition period, which, of course, there +must be?--Yes. + +_Mr. Cockerell._ There must be a distinction between the terms "museum" +and "gallery." What are the distinctions which you would draw in the +present case?--I should think "museum" was the right name of the whole +building. A "gallery" is, I think, merely a room in a museum adapted for +the exhibition of works in a series, whose effect depends upon their +collateral showing forth. + +135. There are certainly persons who would derive their chief advantage +from the historical and chronological arrangement which you propose, but +there are others who look alone for the beautiful, and who say, "I have +nothing to do with your pedantry. I desire to have the beautiful before +me. Show me those complete and perfect works which are received and +known as the works of Phidias and the great Greek masters as far as we +possess them, and the works of the great Italian painters. I have not +time, nor does my genius permit that I should trouble myself with those +details." There is a large class who are guided by those feelings?--And +I hope who always will be guided by them; but I should consult their +feelings enough in the setting before them of the most beautiful works +of art. All that I should beg of them to yield to me would be that they +should look at Titian only, or at Raphael only, and not wish to have +Titian and Raphael side by side; and I think I should be able to teach +them, as a matter of beauty, that they did enjoy Titian and Raphael +alone better than mingled. Then I would provide them beautiful galleries +full of the most-noble sculpture. Whenever we come as a country and a +nation to provide beautiful sculpture, it seems to me that the greatest +pains should be taken to set it off beautifully. You should have +beautiful sculpture in the middle of the room, with dark walls round it +to throw out its profile, and you should have all the arrangements made +there so as to harmonize with it, and to set forth every line of it. So +the painting gallery, I think, might be made a glorious thing, if the +pictures were level, and the architecture above produced unity of +impression from the beauty and glow of color and the purity of form. + +_Mr. Richmond._ And you would not exclude a Crevelli because it was +quaint, or an early master of any school--you would have the infancy, +the youth, and the age, of each school, would you not?--Certainly. + +_Dean of St. Paul's._ Of the German as well as the Italian?--Yes. + +_Mr. Richmond._ Spanish, and all the schools?--Certainly. + +136. _Mr. Cockerell._ You are quite aware of the great liberality of the +Government, as we learn from the papers, in a recent instance, namely, +the purchase of a great Paul Veronese?--I am rejoiced to hear it. If it +is confirmed, nothing will have given me such pleasure for a long time. +I think it is the most precious Paul Veronese in the world, as far as +the completion of the picture goes, and quite a priceless picture. + +Can you conceive a Government, or a people, who would countenance so +expensive a purchase, condescending to take up with the occupation of +the upper story of some public building, or with an expedient which +should not be entirely worthy of such a noble Gallery of Pictures?--I do +not think that they ought to do so; but I do not know how far they will +be consistent. I certainly think they ought not to put up with any such +expedient. I am not prepared to say what limits there are to consistency +or inconsistency. + +_Mr. Richmond._ I understand you to have given in evidence that you +think a National Collection should be illustrative of the whole art in +all its branches?--Certainly. + +Not a cabinet of paintings, not a collection of sculptured works, but +illustrative of the whole art?--Yes. + +137. Have you any further remark to offer to the Commissioners?--I wish +to say one word respecting the question of the restoration of statuary. +It seems to me a very simple question. Much harm is being at present +done in Europe by restoration, more harm than was ever done, as far as +I know, by revolutions or by wars. The French are now doing great harm +to their cathedrals, under the idea that they are doing good, destroying +more than all the good they are doing. And all this proceeds from the +one great mistake of supposing that sculpture can be restored when it is +injured. I am very much interested by the question which one of the +Commissioners asked me in that respect; and I would suggest whether it +does not seem easy to avoid all questions of that kind. If the statue is +injured, leave it so, but provide a perfect copy of the statue in its +restored form; offer, if you like, prizes to sculptors for conjectural +restorations, and choose the most beautiful, but do not touch the +original work. + +138. _Professor Faraday._ You said some time ago that in your own +attempts to instruct the public there had not been time yet to see +whether the course taken had produced improvement or not. You see no +signs at all which lead you to suppose that it will not produce the +improvement which you desire?--Far from it--I understood the Dean of St. +Paul's to ask me whether any general effect had been produced upon the +minds of the public. I have only been teaching a class of about forty +workmen for a couple of years, after their work--they not always +attending--and that forty being composed of people passing away and +coming again; and I do not know what they are now doing; I only see a +gradual succession of men in my own class. I rather take them in an +elementary class, and pass them to a master in a higher class. But I +have the greatest delight in the progress which these men have made, so +far as I have seen it; and I have not the least doubt that great things +will be done with respect to them. + +_Chairman._ Will you state precisely what position you hold?--I am +master of the Elementary and Landscape School of Drawing at the Working +Men's College in Great Ormond Street. My efforts are directed not to +making a carpenter an artist, but to making him happier as a carpenter. + + NOTE.--The following analysis of the above evidence was + given in the Index to the Report (p. 184).--ED. + + 114-5-6. Sculpture and painting should be combined under same + roof, not in same room.--Sculpture disciplines the eye to + appreciate painting.--But, if in same room, disturbs the + mind.--Tribune at Florence arranged too much for show--Sculpture + not to be regarded as _decorative_ of a room.--National Gallery + should include works of all kinds of art _of all ages_, arranged + chronologically (_cf._ 132). Mediæval sculpture should go with + painting, if it is found impossible to combine art of all ages. + + 117-8. Pictures should be protected by glass in every case. It + makes them more beautiful, independently of the + preservation,--Glass is not merely expedient, but + essential.--Pictures are permanently injured by dirt. + + 119-20-21. First-rate large pictures should have a room to + themselves, and a gallery round them.--Pictures must be hung on a + line with the eye.--In one, or at most two, lines.--In the Salon + Carre at the Louvre the effect is magnificent, but details of + pictures cannot be seen. + + 122. Galleries should be decorated not splendidly, but pleasantly. + + 123. Great importance of chronological arrangement. Art the truest + history (_cf._ 125 and 132). + + 124. Best works of inferior artists to be secured. + + 125. All the works of a painter, however incongruous their + subjects, to be exhibited in juxtaposition. + + 126. Love of detail in pictures among workmen.--Great refinement of + their perceptions. + + 127. Accessibility of new National Gallery. + + 128. There should be two galleries--one containing gems, placed in + as _safe_ a position as possible; the other containing works good, + but inferior to the highest, and located solely with a view to + accessibility. + + 129. Impossible to protect _sculpture_ from London atmosphere. + + 130. Inferior gallery would be useful as an instructor.--In this + respect superior to the great gallery. + + 131-32. _Copies_ of paintings much to be deprecated. + + 133. Good collection of casts a valuable addition to a national + gallery.--Also architectural fragments and illustrations.--And + everything which involves art. + + 134. If it is impossible to combine works of art of all ages, the + Pagan and Christian division is the best.--"Christian" art + including _all_ art subsequent to the birth of Christ. + + 135. Great importance of arranging and setting off sculpture. + + 136. Recent purchase by Government of the great Paul Veronese. + + 137. "Restoring" abroad. + + 138. Witness is Master of the Elementary and Landscape School of + Drawing at the Working Men's College in Great Ormond + Street.--Progress made by students highly satisfactory. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: This evidence, given by Mr. Ruskin as stated above, is +reprinted from the Report of the National Gallery Site Commission. +London: Harrison and Sons. 1857. Pp. 92-7. Questions 2392-2504. The +Commission consisted of Lord Broughton (chairman), Dean Milman, +Professor Faraday, Mr. Cockerell, R.A., and Mr. George Richmond, all of +whom were present on the occasion of Mr. Ruskin giving his +evidence.--ED.] + + + + +PICTURE GALLERIES--THEIR FUNCTIONS AND FORMATION. + +SELECT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.[2] + +_Evidence of John Ruskin, Tuesday, March 20, 1860._ + + +139. _Chairman._ I believe you have a general acquaintance with +the leading museums, picture galleries, and institutions in this +metropolis?--Yes, I know them well. + +And especially the pictures?--Yes. + +I believe you have also taken much interest in the Working Men's +College?--Yes, much interest. I have been occupied there as a master for +about five years. + +I believe you conduct a class on two days in the week?--On one day of +the week only. + +You have given a great deal of gratuitous instruction to the working +classes?--Not so much to the working classes as to the class which +especially attends the lectures on drawing, but which of course is +connected with the working classes, and through which I know something +about them. + +140. You are probably able to speak with reference to the hours at which +it would be most convenient that these institutions should be opened to +the working classes, so that they might enjoy them?--At all events, I +can form some opinion about it. + +What are the hours which you think would be the most suitable to the +working classes, or those to whom you have imparted instruction?--They +would, of course, have in general no hours but in the evening. + +Do you think the hours which are now found suitable for mechanics' +institutes would be suitable for them, that is, from eight till ten, or +from seven till ten at night?--The earlier the better, I should think; +that being dependent closely upon the other much more important +question, how you can prepare the workmen for taking advantage of these +institutions. The question before us, as a nation, is not, I think, what +opportunities we shall give to the workmen of instruction, unless we +enable them to receive it; and all this is connected closely, in my +mind, with the early closing question, and with the more difficult +question, issuing out of that, how far you can get the hours of labor +regulated, and how far you can get the labor during those hours made not +competitive, and not oppressive to the workmen. + +141. Have you found that the instruction which you have been enabled to +give to the working classes has produced very good results upon them +already? I ought perhaps hardly to speak of my own particular modes of +instruction, because their tendency is rather to lead the workman out of +his class, and I am privately obliged to impress upon my men who come to +the Working Men's College, not to learn in the hope of being anything +but working men, but to learn what may be either advantageous for them +in their work, or make them happy after their work. In my class, they +are especially tempted to think of rising above their own rank, and +becoming artists,--becoming something better than workmen, and that +effect I particularly dread. I want all efforts for bettering the +workmen to be especially directed in this way: supposing that they are +to remain in this position forever, that they have not capacity to rise +above it, and that they are to work as coal miners, or as iron forgers, +staying as they are; how then you may make them happier and wiser? + +I should suppose you would admit that the desire to rise out of a class +is almost inseparable from the amount of self-improvement that you +would wish to give them?--I should think not; I think that the moment a +man desires to rise out of his own class, he does his work badly in it; +he ought to desire to rise in his own class, and not out of it. + +The instruction which you would impart one would suppose would be +beneficial to the laborer in the class which he is in?--Yes. + +142. And that agrees, does it not, with what has been alleged by many +working men, that they have found in their competition with foreigners +that a knowledge of art has been most beneficial to them?--Quite so. + +I believe many foreigners are now in competition with working men in the +metropolis, in matters in which art is involved?--I believe there are +many, and that they are likely still more to increase as the relations +between the nations become closer. + +Is it your opinion that the individual workman who now executes works of +art in this country is less intellectually fit for his occupation than +in former days?--Very much so indeed. + +Have you not some proofs of that which you can adduce for the benefit of +the Committee?--I can only make an assertion; I cannot prove it; but I +assert it with confidence, that no workman, whose mind I have examined, +is, at present, capable of design in the arts, only of imitation, and of +exquisite manual execution, such as is unsurpassable by the work of any +time or any country; manual execution, which, however, being wholly +mechanical, is always profitless to the man himself, and profitless +ultimately to those who possess the work. + +143. With regard to those institutions in which pictures are exhibited, +are you satisfied that the utmost facilities are afforded to the public +compatibly with the expense which is now incurred?--I cannot tell how +far it would be compatible with the expense, but I think that a very +little increase of expense might certainly bring about a great increase +of convenience. + +Various plans have been suggested, by different persons, as to an +improvement in the National Gallery, with regard to the area, and a +better distribution of the pictures?--Yes. + +Are you of opinion that at a very small cost it would be possible to +increase the area considerably in the case of the National Gallery?--I +have not examined the question with respect to the area of the National +Gallery. It depends of course upon questions of rent, and respecting the +mode in which the building is now constructed, which I have not +examined; but in general this is true of large buildings, that expense +wisely directed to giving facilities for seeing the pictures, and not to +the mere show of the building, would always be productive of far more +good to the nation, and especially to the lower orders of the nation, +than expense in any other way directed, with reference to these +institutions. + +144. Some persons have been disposed to doubt whether, if the +institutions were open at night, gas would be found injurious to the +pictures; would that be your impression?--I have no doubt that it would +be injurious to the pictures, if it came in contact with them. It would +be a matter of great regret to me that valuable pictures should be so +exhibited. I have hoped that pictures might be placed in a gallery for +the working classes which would interest them much more than the +_chefs-d'oeuvre_ of the great masters, and which at the same time +would not be a great loss to the nation if destroyed. + +145. Have you had any experience of the working of the evening openings +of the South Kensington Museum?--No direct experience, but my impression +is that the workmen at present being compelled to think always of +getting as much work done in a day as they can, are generally led in +these institutions to look to the machinery, or to anything which bears +upon their trade; it therefore is no rest to them; it may be sometimes, +when they are allowed to take their families, as they do on certain +evenings, to the Kensington Museum, that is a great step; but the great +evil is that the pressure of the work on a man's mind is not removed, +and that he has not rest enough, thorough rest given him by proper +explanations of the things he sees; he is not led by a large printed +explanation beneath the very thing to take a happy and unpainful +interest in every subject brought before him; he wanders about +listlessly, and exerts himself to find out things which are not +sufficiently explained, and gradually he tires of it, and he goes back +to his home, or to his alehouse, unless he is a very intelligent man. + +Would you recommend that some person should follow him through the +building to explain the details?--No; but I would especially recommend +that our institutions should be calculated for the help of persons whose +minds are languid with labor. I find that with ordinary constitutions, +the labor of a day in England oppresses a man, and breaks him down, and +it is not refreshment to him to use his mind after that, but it would be +refreshment to him to have anything read to him, or any amusing thing +told him, or to have perfect rest; he likes to lie back in his chair at +his own fireside, and smoke his pipe, rather than enter into a political +debate, and what we want is an extension of our art institutions, with +interesting things, teaching a man and amusing him at the same time; +above all, large printed explanations under every print and every +picture; and the subjects of the pictures such as they can enjoy. + +146. Have you any other suggestion to offer calculated to enlighten the +Committee on the subject intrusted to them for consideration?--I can +only say what my own feelings have been as to my men. I have found +particularly that natural history was delightful to them; I think that +that has an especial tendency to take their minds off their work, which +is what I always try to do, not ambitiously, but reposingly. I should +like to add to what I said about the danger of injury to +_chefs-d'oeuvre_, that such danger exists, not only as to gas, but +also the breath, the variation of temperature, the extension of the +canvases in a different temperature, the extension of the paint upon +them, and various chemical operations of the human breath, the chance of +an accidental escape of gas, the circulation of variously damp air +through the ventilators; all these ought not to be allowed to affect +the great and unreplaceable works of the best masters; and those works, +I believe, are wholly valueless to the working classes; their merits are +wholly imperceptible except to persons who have given many years of +study to endeavor to qualify themselves to discover them; but what is +wanting for the working man is historical painting of events noble, and +bearing upon his own country; the history of his own country well +represented to him; the natural history of foreign countries well +represented to him; and domestic pathos brought before him. Nothing +assists him so much as having the moral disposition developed rather +than the intellectual after his work; anything that touches his feelings +is good, and puts new life into him; therefore I want modern pictures, +if possible, of that class which would ennoble and refine by their +subjects. I should like prints of all times, engravings of all times; +those would interest him with their variety of means and subject; and +natural history of three kinds, namely, shells, birds, and plants; not +minerals, because a workman cannot study mineralogy at home; but +whatever town he may be in, he may take some interest in the birds and +in the plants, or in the sea shells of his own country and coast. I +should like the commonest of all our plants first, and most fully +illustrated; the commonest of all our birds, and of our shells, and men +would be led to take an interest in those things wholly for their +beauty, and for their separate charm, irrespective of any use that might +be made of them in the arts. There also ought to be, for the more +intelligent workman, who really wants to advance himself in his +business, specimens of the manufactures of all countries, as far as the +compass of such institutions would allow. + +147. You have traveled, I believe, a good deal abroad?--Yes. + +And you have seen in many foreign countries that far more interest is +taken in the improvement of the people in this matter than is taken in +this country?--Far more. + +Do you think that you can trace the good effects which result from that +mode of treatment?--The circumstances are so different that I do not +feel able to give evidence of any definite effect from such efforts; +only, it stands to reason, that it must be so. There are so many +circumstances at present against us, in England, that we must not be +sanguine as to too speedy an effect. I believe that one great reason of +the superiority of foreign countries in manufactures is, that they have +more beautiful things about them continually, and it is not possible for +a man who is educated in the streets of our manufacturing towns ever to +attain that refinement of eye or sense; he cannot do it; and he is +accustomed in his home to endure that which not the less blunts his +senses. + +The Committee has been informed that with regard to some of our museums, +particularly the British Museum, they are very much overcharged with +objects, and I apprehend that the same remark would be true as to some +of our picture galleries. Are you of opinion that it would be conducive +to the general elevation of the people in this country if our works of +art, and objects of interest, were circulated more expeditiously, and +more conveniently, than at present, throughout the various manufacturing +districts?--I think that all precious works of art ought to be treated +with a quite different view, and that they ought to be kept together +where men whose work is chiefly concerned with art, and where the +artistically higher classes can take full advantage of them. They ought, +therefore, to be all together, as in the Louvre at Paris, and as in the +Uffizii at Florence, everything being illustrative of other things, but +kept separate from the collections intended for the working classes, +which may be as valuable as you choose, but they should be usable, and +above all things so situated that the working classes could get at them +easily, without keepers to watch what they are about, and have their +wives and children with them, and be able to get at them freely, so that +they might look at a thing as their own, not merely as the nation's, but +as a gift from the nation to them as the working class. + +You would cultivate a taste at the impressionable age?--Especially in +the education of children, that being just the first question, I +suppose, which lies at the root of all you can do for the workman. + +148. With regard to the circulation of pictures and such loans of +pictures as have heretofore been made in Manchester and elsewhere, are +you of opinion that, in certain cases, during a part of the year, some +of our best pictures might be lent for particular periods, to particular +towns, to be restored in the same condition, so as to give those towns +an opportunity of forming an opinion upon them, which otherwise they +would not have?--I would rather keep them all in the metropolis, and +move them as little as possible when valuable. + +_Mr. Slaney._ That would not apply to loans by independent gentlemen who +were willing to lend their pictures?--I should be very glad if it were +possible to lend pictures, and send them about. I think it is one of the +greatest movements in the nation, showing the increasing kindness of the +upper classes towards the lower, that that has been done; but I think +nothing can justify the risking of noble pictures by railway, for +instance; that, of course, is an artist's view of the matter; but I do +not see that the advantage to be gained would at all correspond with the +danger of loss which is involved. + +149. _Mr. Hanbury._ You mentioned that you thought it was very desirable +that there should be lectures given to the working classes?--Yes. + +Do you think that the duplicate specimens at the British Museum could be +made available for lectures on natural history, if a part of that +institution could be arranged for the purpose?--I should think so; but +it is a question that I have no right to have an opinion upon. Only the +officers of the institution can say what number of their duplicate +specimens they could spare. + +I put the question to you because I have observed in the British Museum +that the people took a great interest in the natural history department, +and, upon one occasion, a friend of mine stopped, and explained some of +the objects, and at once a very numerous crowd was attracted round him, +and the officials had to interfere, and told him to move on.--So much +more depends upon the explanation than on the thing explained, that I +believe, with very simple collections of very small value, but well +chosen, and exhibited by a thoroughly intelligent lecturer, you might +interest the lower classes, and teach them to any extent. + +Would it be difficult to find such lecturers as you speak of?--Not in +time; perhaps at present it would be, because we have got so much in the +habit of thinking that science consists in language, and in fine words, +and not in ascertaining the nature of the thing. The workman cannot be +deceived by fine words; he always wants to know something about the +thing, and its properties. Many of our lecturers would, I have no doubt, +be puzzled if they were asked to explain the habits of a common bird. + +150. Is there an increasing desire for information and improvement among +the working classes?--A thirsty desire for it in every direction, +increasing day by day, and likely to increase; it would grow by what it +feeds upon. + +To what do you attribute this improvement?--Partly to the healthy and +proper efforts which have been made to elevate the working classes; +partly, I am sorry to say, to an ambitious desire throughout the nation +always to get on to a point which it has not yet reached, and which +makes one man struggle with another in every way. I think that the idea +that knowledge is power is at the root of the movement among the working +classes, much more so than in any other. + +Do you consider that the distance of our public institutions is a great +hindrance to the working classes?--Very great indeed. + +You would, therefore, probably consider it a boon if another institution +such as the British Museum could be established in the eastern end of +the metropolis?--I should be most thankful to see it, especially there. + +151. _Mr. Slaney._ I think you stated that you considered, that for the +working classes it is a great thing to have relaxation of mind after the +close occupation of the day; that they would embrace an opportunity of +attending popular lectures on branches of natural history which they +could comprehend, if they were given to them in plain and simple +language?--Yes. + +For instance, if you were to give a popular lecture upon British birds, +giving them an explanation of the habits of the various birds, assisted +by tolerably good plates, or figures describing the different habits of +migration of those that come to us in spring, remain during the summer, +and depart in the autumn to distant countries; of those which come in +the autumn, remain during the winter, and then leave us; of those which +charm us with their song, and benefit us in various ways; do you think +that such a lecture would be acceptable to the working classes?--It +would be just what they would enjoy the most, and what would do them the +most good. + +Do you not think that such lectures might be given without any very +great cost, by finding persons who would endeavor to make the subjects +plain and pleasant, not requiring a very expensive apparatus, either of +figures or of birds, but which might be pointed out to them, and +explained to them from time to time?--No; I think that no such lectures +would be of use, unless a permanent means of quiet study were given to +the men between times. As far as I know, lectures are always entirely +useless, except as a matter of amusement, unless some opportunity be +afforded of accurate intermediate study, and although I should deprecate +the idea, on the one side, of giving the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of the +highest masters to the workman for his daily experiments, so I should +deprecate, on the other, the idea of any economy if I saw a definite +plan of helping a man in his own times of quiet study. + +152. There are some popular works on British birds which the men might +be referred to, containing accounts of the birds and their habits, which +might be referred to subsequently?--Yes. + +There are several works relating to British birds which are very +beautifully illustrated, and to those they might be referred; do you not +think that something might also be done with regard to popular lectures +upon British plants, and particularly those which are perhaps the most +common, and only neglected because of their being common; that you might +point out to them the different soils in which they grow, so that they +might be able to make excursions to see them in their wild state?--My +wish is, that in every large manufacturing town there should be a +perfect collection, at all events of the principal genera of British +plants and birds, thoroughly well arranged, and a library associated +with it, containing the best illustrative works on the subject, and that +from time to time lectures should be given by the leading scientific +men, which I am sure they would be willing to give if such collections +were opened to them. + +I dare say you know that there is one book upon British birds, which was +compiled by a gentleman who was in trade, and lived at the corner of St. +James's Street for many years, which is prized by all who are devoted to +that study, and which would be easily obtained for the working men. Do +you not think that this would relax their minds and be beneficial to +them in many ways, especially if they were able to follow up the +study?--Yes, in every way. + +As to plants, might not they interest their wives as well?--I quite +believe so. + +If such things could be done by subscription in the vicinity of large +towns, such as Manchester, would they not be very much responded to by +the grateful feelings of the humbler people, who themselves would +subscribe probably some trifle?--I think they would be grateful, however +it were done. But I should like it to be done as an expression of the +sense of the nation, as doing its duty towards the workmen, rather than +it should be done as a kind of charity by private subscription. + +153. _Sir Robert Peel._ You have been five years connected with the +Working Men's College?--Yes; I think about that time. + +Is the attendance good there?--There is a fair attendance, I believe. + +Of the working classes?--Yes; in the other lecture-rooms; not much in +mine. + +Do they go there as they please without going beforehand for +tickets?--They pass through an introductory examination, which is not +severe in any way, but merely shows that they are able to take advantage +of the classes there; of course they pay a certain sum, which is not at +all, at present, I believe, supporting to the college, for every class, +just to insure their paying attention to it. + +You stated that you did not think lectures would be of any use unless +there was what you called active intermediate study?--I think not. + +What did you mean by active intermediate study? if a man is working +every day of the week until Saturday afternoon, how could that take +place?--I think that you could not at all provide lectures once or twice +a week at the institutions throughout the kingdom. By intermediate +study, I mean merely that a man should have about him, when he came into +the room, things that shall tempt him to look at them, and get +interested in, say in one bird, or in one plant. + +While the lecture was going on?--No, that might be given once a +fortnight, or once a month, but that this intermediate attention should +be just that which a man is delighted to give to a single plant which he +cultivates in his own garden, or a single bird which he may happen to +have obtained; the best of all modes of study. + +154. You are in favor of the Early Closing Association?--I will not say +that I am, because I have not examined their principles. I want to have +our labor regulated, so that it shall be impossible for men to be so +entirely crushed in mind and in body as they are by the system of +competition. + +You stated that you would wish the hours during which they would be able +to enjoy the institutions to be as early as possible?--Yes, certainly. + +But it would be impossible to have them earlier than they are now, on +account of the organization of labor in the country.--I do not know what +is possible. I do not know what the number of hours necessary for labor +will ultimately be found to be. + +Still you are of opinion that, if there was a half-holiday on the +Saturday, it would be an advantage to the working classes, and enable +them to visit and enjoy these institutions?--Certainly. + +155. You observed, I think, that there was a thirsty desire on the part +of the working classes for improvement?--Certainly. + +And you also stated that there was a desire on their part to rise in +that class, but not out of it?--I did not say that they wanted to rise +in that class; they wish to emerge from it; they wish to become +something better than workmen, and I want to keep them in that class; I +want to teach every man to rest contented in his station, and I want all +people, in all stations, to better and help each other as much as they +can. + +But you never saw a man, did you, who was contented?--Yes, I have seen +several; nearly all the very good workmen are contented; I find that it +is only the second-rate workmen who are discontented. + +156. Surely competition with foreigners is a great advantage to the +working classes of this country?--No. + +It has been stated that competition is an immense advantage in the +extension of artistic knowledge among the people of this country, who +are rapidly stepping on the heels of foreigners?--An acquaintance with +what foreign nations have accomplished may be very useful to our +workmen, but a spirit of competition with foreign nations is useful to +no one. + +Will you be good enough to state why?--Every nation has the power of +producing a certain number of objects of art, or of manufacturing +productions which are peculiar to it, and which it can produce +thoroughly well; and, when that is rightly understood, every nation will +strive to do its own work as well as it can be done, and will desire to +be supplied, by other nations, with that which they can produce; for +example, if we tried here in England to produce silk, we might possibly +grow unhealthy mulberry trees and bring up unhealthy silkworms, but not +produce good silk. It may be a question how far we should compete with +foreigners in matters of taste. I think it doubtful, even in that view, +that we should ever compete with them thoroughly. I find evidence in +past art, that the French have always had a gift of color, which the +English never had. + +157. You stated that you thought that at very little expense the +advantages to be derived from our national institutions might be greatly +increased; will you state why you think very little expense would be +necessary, and how it should be done?--By extending the space primarily, +and by adding very cheap but completely illustrative works; by making +all that such institutions contain thoroughly accessible; and giving, as +I think I have said before, explanations, especially in a visible form, +beside the thing to be illustrated, not in a separate form. + +But that only would apply to daytime?--To nighttime as well. + +But would you not have to introduce a system of lighting?--Yes; a system +of lighting I should only regret as applied to the great works of art; I +should think that the brightest system of lighting should be applied, +especially of an evening, so that such places should be made delightful +to the workman, and withdraw him from the alehouse and all other evil +temptation; but I want them rather to be occupied by simple, and more or +less cheap collections, than by the valuable ones, for fear of fire. + +If, at the British Museum, they had printed information upon natural +history, that, you think, would do great good?--Yes. + +158. You stated that you thought there was far more interest taken in +foreign countries in the intellectual development of the working classes +than in England?--I answered that question rather rashly. I hardly ever +see anything of society in foreign countries, and I was thinking, at the +time, of the great efforts now being made in France, and of the general +comfort of the institutions that are open. + +Not political?--No. + +Still you think that there is more interest taken in the intellectual +development of the working classes in foreign countries than in +England?--I think so, but I do not trust my own opinion. + +I have lived abroad, and I have remarked that there is a natural +facility in the French people, for instance, in acquiring a knowledge of +art, and of combination of colors, but I never saw more, but far less +desire or interest taken in the working classes than in England.--As far +as relates to their intellectual development, I say yes; but I think +there is a greater disposition to make them happy, and allow them to +enjoy their happiness, in ordinary associations, at _fêtes_, and +everything of that kind, that is amusing or recreative to them. + +But that is only on Sundays?--No; on all _fête_ days, and throughout, I +think you see the working man, with his wife, happier in the gardens or +in the suburbs of a town, and on the whole in a happier state; there is +less desire to get as much out of him for the money as they can; less of +that desire to oppress him and to use him as a machine than there is in +England. But, observe, I do not lean upon that point; and I do not quite +see how that bears upon the question, because, whatever interest there +may be in foreign countries, or in ours, it is not as much as it should +be in either. + +But you were throwing a slur upon the character of the upper classes in +this country, by insinuating that abroad a great deal more interest was +taken in the working classes than in England. Now I assert, that quite +the contrary is the fact.--I should be very sorry to express all the +feelings that I have respecting the relations between the upper classes +and the working classes in this country; it is a subject which cannot at +present be discussed, and one upon which I would decline any further +examination. + +159. You stated that the working men were not so happy in this country +as they were abroad, pursuing the same occupations?--I should think +certainly not. + +You have been in Switzerland?--Yes. + +And at Zurich?--Not lately. + +That is the seat of a great linen manufacture?--I have never examined +the manufactures there, nor have I looked at Switzerland as a +manufacturing country. + +But you stated that there was much more interest taken in the +intellectual developments of the working classes in foreign countries +than in England?--Yes; but I was not thinking of Switzerland or of +Zurich. I was thinking of France, and I was thinking of the working +classes generally, not specially the manufacturing working classes. I +used the words "working classes" generally. + +Then do you withdraw the expression that you made use of, that in +foreign countries the upper classes take more interest in the condition +of the working classes, than they do in England?--I do not withdraw it; +I only said that it was my impression. + +But you cannot establish it?--No. + +Therefore it is merely a matter of individual impression?--Entirely so. + +You said, I think, that abroad the people enjoy their public +institutions better, because inspectors do not follow them about?--I did +not say so. I was asked the question whether I thought teaching should +be given by persons accompanying the workman about, and I said certainly +not. I would rather leave him to himself, with such information as +could be given to him by printed documents. + +160. _Mr. Sclater Booth._ With regard to the National Gallery, are you +aware that there is great pressure and want of space there now, both +with regard to the room for hanging pictures, and also with reference to +the crowds of persons who frequent the National Gallery?--I am quite +sure that if there is not great pressure, there will be soon, owing to +the number of pictures which are being bought continually. + +Do you not think that an extension of the space in the National Gallery +is a primary consideration, which ought to take precedence of any +improvement that might be made in the rooms as they are, with a view to +opening them of an evening?--Most certainly. + +That is the first thing, you think, that ought to be done?--Most +certainly. + +When you give your lectures at the Working Men's College, is it your +habit to refer to special pictures in the National Gallery, or to +special works of art in the British Museum?--Never; I try to keep +whatever instruction I give bearing upon what is easily accessible to +the workman, or what he can see at the moment. I do not count upon his +having time to go to these institutions; I like to put the thing in his +hand, and have it about. + +Has it never been a stumbling-block in your path that you have found a +workman unable to compare your lectures with any illustrations that you +may have referred him to?--I have never prepared my lectures with a view +to illustrate them by the works of the great masters. + +161. You spoke, and very justly, of the importance of fixing on works of +art printed explanations; are you not aware that that has been done to +some extent at the Kensington Museum?--Yes. + +Do you not think that a great part of the popularity of that institution +is owing to that circumstance?--I think so, certainly. + +On the whole, I gather from your evidence that you are not very sanguine +as to the beneficial results that would arise from the opening of the +British Museum and the National Gallery of an evening, as those +institutions are at present constituted, from a want of space and the +crowding of the objects there?--Whatever the results might be, from +opening them, as at present constituted, I think better results might be +attained by preparing institutions for the workman himself alone. + +Do you think that museums of birds and plants, established in various +parts of the metropolis, illustrated and furnished with pictures of +domestic interest, and possibly with specimens of manufactures, would be +more desirable, considering the mode in which the large institutions are +now seen?--I think in these great institutions attention ought +specially to be paid to giving perfect security to all the works and +objects of art which they possess; and to giving convenience to the +thorough student, whose business lies with those museums; and that +collections for the amusement and improvement of the working classes +ought to be entirely separate. + +If such institutions as I have described were to be established, you +would of course desire that they should be opened of an evening, and be +specially arranged, with a view to evening exhibition?--Certainly. + +It has been stated that the taxpayer has a right to have these +exhibitions opened at hours when the workpeople can go to them, they +being taxpayers; do not you think that the real interest of the taxpayer +is, first, to have the pictures as carefully preserved as possible, and +secondly, that they should be accessible to those whose special +occupation in life is concerned in their study?--Most certainly. + +Is not the interest of the taxpayer reached in this way, rather than by +any special opportunity being given of visiting at particular +hours?--Most certainly. + +162. _Mr. Kinnaird._ Have you ever turned your attention to any peculiar +localities, where museums of paintings and shells, and of birds and +plants, might be opened for the purpose referred to?--Never; I have +never examined the subject. + +Has it ever occurred to you that the Vestry Halls, which have recently +been erected, and which are lighted, might be so appropriated?--No; I +have never considered the subject at all. + +Supposing that suitable premises could be found, do you not think that +many people would contribute modern paintings, and engravings, and +various other objects of interest?--I think it is most probable; in +fact, I should say certain. + +You would view such an attempt with great favor?--Yes; with great +delight indeed. + +You rather look upon it as the duty of the Government to provide such +institutions for the people?--I feel that very strongly indeed. + +Do you not think that the plan which has been adopted at Versailles, of +having modern history illustrated by paintings, would prove of great +interest to the people?--I should think it would be an admirable plan in +every way. + +And a very legitimate step to be taken by the Government, for the +purpose of encouraging art in that way?--Most truly. + +Would it have, do you think, an effect in encouraging art in this +country?--I should think so, certainly. + +Whose duty would you consider it to be to superintend the formation of +such collections? are there any Government officers who are at present +capable of organizing a staff for employment in local museums that you +are aware of?--I do not know; I have not examined that subject at all. + +163. _Chairman._ The Committee would like to understand you more +definitely upon the point that has been referred to, as to foreigners +and Englishmen. I presume that what you wished the Committee to +understand was, that upon the whole, so far as you have observed, more +facilities are in point of fact afforded to the working classes, in some +way or other, abroad than in this country for seeing pictures and +visiting public institutions?--My answer referred especially to the +aspect of the working classes as I have watched them in their times of +recreation; I see them associated with the upper classes, more happily +for themselves; I see them walking through the Louvre, and walking +through the gardens of all the great cities of Europe, and apparently +less ashamed of themselves, and more happily combined with all the upper +classes of society, than they are here. Here our workmen, somehow, are +always miserably dressed, and they always keep out of the way, both at +such institutions and at church. The temper abroad seems to be, while +there is a sterner separation and a more aristocratic feeling between +the upper and the lower classes, yet just on that account the workman +confesses himself for a workman, and is treated with affection. I do not +say workmen merely, but the lower classes generally, are treated with +affection, and familiarity, and sympathy by the master or employer, +which has to me often been very touching in separate eases; and that +impression being on my mind, I answered, not considering that the +question was of any importance, hastily; and I am not at present +prepared to say how far I could, by thinking, justify that impression. + +164. _Mr. Kinnaird._ In your experience, in the last few years, have you +not seen a very marked improvement in the working classes in this +country in every respect to which you have alluded; take the last twenty +years, or since you have turned your attention that way?--I have no +evidence before me in England of that improvement, because I think that +the struggle for existence becomes every day more severe, and that, +while greater efforts are made to help the workman, the principles on +which our commerce is conducted are every day oppressing him, and +sinking him deeper. + +Have you ever visited the manufacturing districts of Lancashire and +Yorkshire, with a view of ascertaining the state of the people +there?--Not with a definite view. My own work has nothing to do with +those subjects; and it is only incidentally, because I gratuitously give +such instruction as I am able to give at the Working Men's College, that +I am able to give you any facts on this subject. All the rest that I can +give is, as Sir Robert Peel accurately expressed it, nothing but +personal impression. + +You admit that the Working Men's College is, after all, a very limited +sphere?--A very limited sphere. + +165. _Sir Robert Peel._ You have stated that, in the Louvre, a working +man looks at the pictures with a greater degree of self-respect than the +same classes do in the National Gallery here?--I think so. + +You surely never saw a man of the upper class, in England, scorn at a +working man because he appeared in his working dress in the National +Gallery in London?--I have certainly seen working men apprehensive of +such scorn. + +_Chairman._ Is it not the fact, that the upper and lower classes +scarcely ever meet on the same occasions?--I think, if possible, they do +not. + +Is it not the fact that the laboring classes almost invariably cease +labor at such hours as would prevent them from going to see pictures at +the time when the upper classes do go?--I meant, before, to signify +assent to your question, that they do not meet if it can be avoided. + +_Sir Robert Peel._ Take the Crystal Palace as an example; do not working +men and all classes meet there together, and did you ever see a working +man _gêné_ in the examination of works of art?--I am sure that a working +man very often would not go where he would like to go. + +But you think he would abroad?--I think they would go abroad; I only say +that I believe such is the fact. + +_Mr. Slaney._ Do not you think that the light-hearted temperament of our +southern neighbors, and the fineness of the climate, which permits them +to enjoy themselves more in the open air, has something to do with +it?--I hope that the old name of Merry England may be recovered one of +these days. I do not think that it is in the disposition of the +inhabitants to be in the least duller than other people. + +_Sir Robert Peel._ When was that designation lost?--I am afraid ever +since our manufactures have prospered. + +_Chairman._ Referring to the Crystal Palace, do you think that that was +an appropriate instance to put, considering the working man pays for his +own, and is not ashamed to enjoy his own for his own money?--I have +never examined the causes of the feeling; it did not appear to me to be +a matter of great importance what was the state of feeling in foreign +countries. I felt that it depended upon so many circumstances, that I +thought it would be a waste of time to trace it. + +166. _Sir Robert Peel._ You stated that abroad the working classes were +much better dressed?--Yes. + +Do you think so?--Yes. + +Surely they cannot be better dressed than they are in England, for you +hardly know a working man here from an aristocrat?--It is precisely +because I do know working men on a Sunday and every other day of the +week from an aristocrat that I like their dress better in France; it is +the ordinary dress belonging to their position, and it expresses +momentarily what they are; it is the blue blouse which hangs freely +over their frames, keeping them sufficiently protected from cold and +dust; but here it is a shirt open at the collar, very dirty, very much +torn, with ragged hair, and a ragged coat, and altogether a dress of +misery. + +You think that they are better dressed abroad because they wear a +blouse?--Because they wear a costume appropriate to their work. + +Are you aware that they make it an invariable custom to leave off the +blouse on Sundays and on holidays, and that after they have finished +their work they take off their blouse?--I am not familiar, nor do I +profess to be familiar, with the customs of the Continent; I am only +stating my impressions; but I like especially their habit of wearing a +national costume. I believe the national costume of work in Switzerland +to be at the root of what prosperity Switzerland yet is retaining. I +think, for instance, although it may sound rather singular to say so, +that the pride which the women take in their clean chemise sleeves, is +one of the healthiest things in Switzerland, and that it is operative in +every way on the health of the mind and the body, their keeping their +costume pure, fresh, and beautiful. + +You stated that the working classes were better dressed abroad than in +England?--As far as I know, that is certainly the fact. + +Still their better dress consists of a blouse, which they take off when +they have finished their work?--I bow to your better knowledge of the +matter. + +_Chairman._ Are you aware that a considerable number of the working +classes are in bed on the Sunday?--Perhaps it is the best place for +them. + +167. _Mr. Kinnaird._ You trace the deterioration in the condition of the +working classes to the increase of trade and manufactures in this +country?--To the increase of competitive trades and manufactures. + +It is your conviction that we may look upon this vast extension of +trade, and commerce, and competition, altogether as an evil?--Not on +the vast extension of trade, but on the vast extension of the struggle +of man with man, instead of the principle of help of man by man. + +_Chairman._ I understood you to say, that you did not object to trade, +but that you wished each country to produce that which it was best +fitted to produce, with a view to an interchange of its commodities with +those of other countries?--Yes. + +You did not intend to cast a slur upon the idea of competition?--Yes, +very distinctly; I intended not only to cast a slur, but to express my +excessive horror of the principle of competition, in every way; for +instance, we ought not to try to grow claret here, nor to produce silk; +we ought to produce coal and iron, and the French should give us wine +and silk. + +You say that, with a view to an interchange of such commodities?--Yes. + +Each country producing that which it is best fitted to produce?--Yes, as +well as it can; not striving to imitate or compete with the productions +of other countries. Finally, I believe that the way of ascertaining what +ought to be done for the workman in any position, is for any one of us +to suppose that he was our own son, and that he was left without any +parents, and without any help; that there was no chance of his ever +emerging out of the state in which he was, and then, that what we should +each of us like to be done for our son, so left, we should strive to do +for the workman. + + The following analysis of the above evidence was mainly given in + the Index to the Report (p. 153).--ED. + + 139. Is well acquainted with the museums, picture galleries, etc., + in the metropolis.--Conducts a drawing class at the Working Men's + College. + + 140. Desirableness of the public institutions being open in the + evening (cp. 154, 161). + + 141. Remarks relative to the system of teaching expedient for the + working classes; system pursued by witness at the Working Men's + College.--Workmen to aim at rising in their class, not _out of_ it + (cp. 155). + + 142. Backward state, intellectually, of the working man of the + present time; superiority of the foreigner. + + 143. Improvement of the National Gallery suggested (cp. 157, 160). + + 144. Inexpediency of submitting valuable ancient pictures to the + risk of injury from gas, etc. (cp. 146, 157). + + 145. Statement as to the minds of the working classes after their + day's labor being too much oppressed to enable them to enjoy or + appreciate the public institutions, if merely opened in the + evening. + + 146. Suggested collection of pictures and prints of a particular + character for the inspection of the working classes.--Suggestions + with a view to special collections of shells, birds, and plants + being prepared for the use of the working classes; system of + lectures, of illustration, and of intermediate study necessary in + connection with such collections (cp. 151-52). + + 147. Statement as to greater interest being taken in France and + other foreign countries than in England in the intellectual + development of the working classes; examination on this point, and + on the effect produced thereby upon the character and demeanor of + the working people (cp. 158, 163-64). + + 148. Objection to circulating valuable or rare works of art + throughout the country, on account of the risk of + injury--Disapproval of inspectors, etc., going about with the + visitors (cp. 159).--Advantage in the upper classes lending + pictures, etc., for public exhibition. + + 149. Lectures to working men. Advantage if large printed + explanations were placed under every picture (cp. 157, 161). + + 150. Great desire among the working classes to acquire knowledge; + grounds of such desire (cp. 155).--Great boon if a museum were + formed at the east end of London. + + 151. Lectures on natural history for working men. + + 152. Books available on British birds. + + 153. Intermediate study essential to use of Lectures.--Good + attendance at Working Men's College.--Terms and conditions of + admission to it. + + 154. Approval of Saturday half-holiday movement (cp. 140, 161). + + 155. See above, s. 142. + + 156. Competition in trade and labor regarded by witness as a great + evil. + + 157. See above, s. 143, 149. + + 158-59. Happier condition of lower classes abroad than at home. + Their dress also better abroad. 163-64, 166, and see above, s. 142. + + 160. See above, s. 143, 149, 157. + + 161. See above, s. 149, 154. + + 162. Use of existing public buildings for art collections. + + 163-64. See above, s. 158-59. + + 165. Surely England may one day be Merry England again.--When it + ceased to be so. + + 166. See above, s. 158-59. + + 167. Increase of trade and deteriorated condition of + working-classes.--Our duty to them. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: Reprinted from "The Report of the Select Committee on +Public Institutions. _Ordered by_ the House of Commons _to be printed_, +27 March 1860," pp. 113-123. The following members of the Committee were +present on the occasion of the above evidence being given: -Sir John +Trelawny (_Chairman_), Mr. Sclater Booth, Mr. Du Pre, Mr. Kinnaird, Mr. +Hanbury, Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Slaney, and Mr. John Tollemache.--ED.] + + + + +PICTURE GALLERIES--THEIR FUNCTIONS AND FORMATION. + +THE ROYAL ACADEMY COMMISSION.[3] + +_Evidence of John Ruskin, Monday, June 8th, 1863._ + + +168. _Chairman._ You have, no doubt, frequently considered the position +of the Royal Academy in this country?--Yes. + +Is it in all points satisfactory to you?--No, certainly not. + +Do you approve, for example, of the plan by which, on a vacancy +occurring, the Royal Academicians supply that vacancy, or would you wish +to see that election confided to any other hands?--I should wish to see +the election confided to other hands. I think that all elections are +liable to mistake, or mischance, when the electing body elect the +candidate into them. I rather think that elections are only successful +where the candidate is elected into a body other than the body of +electors; but I have not considered the principles of election fully +enough to be able to give any positive statement of opinion upon that +matter. I only feel that at present the thing is liable to many errors +and mischances. + +Does it not seem, however, that there are some precedents, such, for +example, as the Institute of France, in which the body electing to the +vacancies that occur within it keeps up a very high character, and +enjoys a great reputation?--There are many such precedents; and, as +every such body for its own honor must sometimes call upon the most +intellectual men of the country to join it, I should think that every +such body must retain a high character where the country itself has a +proper sense of the worth of its best men; but the system of election +may be wrong, though the sense of the country may be right; and I think, +in appealing to a precedent to justify a system, we should estimate +properly what has been brought about by the feeling of the country. We +are all, I fancy, too much in the habit of looking to forms as the cause +of what really is caused by the temper of the nation at the particular +time, working, through the forms, for good or evil. + +If, however, the election of Academicians were to be confided to artists +who were not already Academicians themselves, would it be easy to meet +this objection, that they would have in many cases a personal interest +in the question; that each might be striving for his own admission to +that distinction; whereas, when the election takes place among those who +have already attained that distinction, direct personal interest at all +events is absent?--I should think personal interest would act in a +certain sense in either case; it would branch into too many subtleties +of interest to say in what way it would act. I should think that it +would be more important to the inferior body to decide rightly upon +those who were to govern them, than to the superior body to decide upon +those who were to govern other people; and that the superior body would +therefore generally choose those who were likely to be pleasant to +themselves;--pleasant, either as companions, or in carrying out a system +which they chose for their own convenience to adopt; while the inferior +body would choose men likely to carry out the system that would tend +most to the general progress of art. + +169. As I understand you, though you have a decided opinion that it +would be better for some other constituent body to elect the members of +the Royal Academy, you have not a decided opinion as to how that +constituent body would best be composed?--By no means. + +I presume you would wish that constituent body to consist of artists, +though you are not prepared to say precisely how they should be +selected?--I should like the constituent body to consist both of artists +and of the public. I feel great difficulties in offering any suggestion +as to the manner in which the electors should elect: but I should like +the public as well as artists to have a voice, so that we might have the +public feeling brought to bear upon painting as we have now upon music; +and that the election of those who were to attract the public eye, or +direct the public mind, should indicate also the will of the public in +some respects; not that I think that "will" always wise, but I think you +would then have pointed out in what way those who are teaching the +public should best regulate the teaching; and also it would give the +public itself an interest in art, and a sense of responsibility, which +in the present state of things they never can have. + +Will you explain more fully the precedent of music to which you have +just adverted?--The fame of any great singer or any great musician +depends upon the public enthusiasm and feeling respecting him. No Royal +Academy can draw a large audience to the opera by stating that such and +such a piece of music is good, or that such and such a voice is clear; +if the public do not feel the voice to be delicious, and if they do not +like the music, they will not go to hear it. The fame of the musician, +whether singer, instrumentalist, or composer, is founded mainly upon his +having produced a strong effect upon the public intellect and +imagination. I should like that same effect to be produced by painters, +and to be expressed by the public enthusiasm and approbation; not merely +by expressions of approbation in conversation, but by the actual voice +which in the theater is given by the shout and by the clapping of the +hands. You cannot clap a picture, nor clap a painter at his work, but I +should like the public in some way to bring their voice to bear upon the +painter's work. + +170. Have you formed any opinion upon the position of the Associates in +the Royal Academy?--I have thought of it a little, but the present +system of the Academy is to me so entirely nugatory, it produces so +little effect in any way (what little effect it does produce being in my +opinion mischievous), that it has never interested me; and I have felt +the difficulty so greatly, that I never, till your lordship's letter +reached me, paid much attention to it. I always thought it would be a +waste of time to give much time to thinking how it might be altered; so +that as to the position of Associates I can say little, except that I +think, in any case, there ought to be some period of probation, and some +advanced scale of dignity, indicative of the highest attainments in art, +which should be only given to the oldest and most practiced painters. + +From the great knowledge which you possess of British art, looking to +the most eminent painters, sculptors, and architects at this time, +should you say that the number of the Royal Academy is sufficient fully +to represent them, or would you recommend an increase in the present +number of Academicians?--I have not considered in what proportion the +Academicianships at present exist. That is rather a question bearing +upon the degree of dignity which one would be glad to confer. I should +like the highest dignity to be limited, but I should like the inferior +dignity corresponding to the Associateship to be given, as the degrees +are given in the universities, without any limitation of number, to +those possessing positive attainments and skill. I should think a very +limited number of Academicianships would always meet all the +requirements of the highest intellect of the country. + +171. Have you formed any opinion upon the expediency of intrusting +laymen with some share in the management of the affairs of the +Academy?--No, I have formed no opinion upon that matter. I do not know +what there is at present to be managed in the Academy. I should think if +the Academy is to become an available school, laymen cannot be joined in +the management of that particular department. In matters of revenue, and +in matters concerning the general interests and dignity of the Academy, +they might be. + +Should you think that non-professional persons would be fitly associated +with artists in such questions as the selection and hanging of the +pictures sent in for exhibition?--No, I think not. + +Some persons have suggested that the president of the Academy should not +always nor of necessity be himself an artist; should you approve of any +system by which a gentleman of high social position, not an artist, was +placed at the head of such a body as the Academy?--"Of such a body as +the Academy," if I may be permitted to repeat your words, must of course +have reference to the constitution to be given to it. As at present +constituted, I do not know what advantage might or might not be derived +from such a gentleman being appointed president. As I should like to see +it constituted, I think he ought to be an artist only. + +172. Have you had any reason to observe or to make yourself acquainted +with the working of the schools of the Royal Academy?--Yes, I have +observed it. I have not made myself acquainted with the actual methods +of teaching at present in use, but I know the general effect upon the +art of the country. + +What should you say was that effect?--Nearly nugatory: exceedingly +painful in this respect, that the teaching of the Academy separates, as +the whole idea of the country separates, the notion of art-education +from other education, and when you have made that one fundamental +mistake, all others follow. You teach a young man to manage his chalk +and his brush--not always that--but having done that, you suppose you +have made a painter of him; whereas to educate a painter is the same +thing as to educate a clergyman or a physician--you must give him a +liberal education primarily, and that must be connected with the kind of +learning peculiarly fit for his profession. That error is partly owing +to our excessively vulgar and excessively shallow English idea that the +artist's profession is not, and cannot be, a liberal one. We respect a +physician, and call him a gentleman, because he can give us a purge and +clean out our stomachs; but we do not call an artist a gentleman, whom +we expect to invent for us the face of Christ. When we have made that +primary mistake, all other mistakes in education are trivial in +comparison. The very notion of an art academy should be, a body of +teachers of the youth who are to be the guides of the nation through its +senses; and that is a very important means of guiding it. We have done a +good deal through dinners, but we may some day do a good deal more +through pictures. + +You would have a more comprehensive system of teaching?--Much more +comprehensive. + +173. Do I rightly understand you that you would wish it to embrace +branches of liberal education in general, and not be merely confined to +specific artistic studies?--Certainly. I would have the Academy +education corresponding wholly to the university education. The schools +of the country ought to teach the boy the first conditions of +manipulation. He should come up, I say not at what age, but probably at +about fourteen or fifteen, to the central university of art, wherever +that was established; and then, while he was taught to paint and to +carve and to work in metal--just as in old times he would have been +taught to manage the sword and lance, they being the principal business +of his life,--during the years from fifteen to twenty, the chief +attention of his governors should be to make a gentleman of him in the +highest sense; and to give him an exceedingly broad and liberal +education, which should enable him not only to work nobly, but to +conceive nobly. + +174. As to the point, however, of artistic manipulation, is not it the +fact that many great painters have differed, and do differ, from each +other, and would it therefore be easy for the Academy to adopt any +authoritative system of teaching, excluding one mode and acknowledging +another?--Not easy, but very necessary. There have been many methods; +but there has never been a case of a great school which did not fix upon +its method: and there has been no case of a thoroughly great school +which did not fix upon the right method, as far as circumstances enabled +it to do so. The meaning of a successful school is, that it has adopted +a method which it teaches to its young painters, so that right working +becomes a habit with them; so that with no thought, and no effort, and +no torment, and no talk about it, they have the habit of doing what +their school teaches them. + +You do not think a system is equally good which leaves to each eminent +professor, according to the bent of his genius or the result of his +experience, to instruct young men, the instruction varying with the +character of each professor?--Great benefit would arise if each +professor founded his own school, and were interested in his own pupils; +but, as has been sufficiently illustrated in the schools of Domenichino +and Guido, there is apt to arise rivalry between the masters, with no +correlative advantages, unless the masters are all of one mind. And the +only successful idea of an academy has been where the practice was +consistent, and where there was no contradiction. Considering the +knowledge we now have, and the means we now have of comparing all the +works of the greatest painters, though, as you suggest by your question, +it is not easy to adopt an authoritative system, yet it is perfectly +possible. Let us get at the best method and let us teach that. There is +unquestionably a best way if we can find it; and we have now in England +the means of finding it out. + +The teaching in the Academy is now, under all circumstances, gratuitous; +would you wish that system to continue, or should you prefer to see a +system of payment?--I am not prepared to answer that question. It would +depend upon the sort of system that was adopted and on the kind of +persons you received into your schools. + +175. I presume you would say that in artistic teaching there are some +points on which there would be common ground, and others upon which +there must be specific teaching; for instance, in sculpture and painting +there is a point up to which the proportions of the human figure have to +be studied, but afterwards there is a divergence between the two arts of +chiseling marble and laying colors on the canvas?--Certainly. I should +think all that might be arranged in an Academy system very simply. You +would have first your teaching of drawing with the soft point; and +associated with that, chiaroscuro: you would then have the teaching of +drawing with the hard or black point, involving the teaching of the best +system of engraving, and all that was necessary to form your school of +engravers: you would then proceed to metal work; and on working in metal +you would found your school of sculpture, and on that your school of +architecture: and finally, and above all, you would have your school of +painting, including oil painting and fresco painting, and all painting +in permanent material; (not comprising painting in any material that was +not permanent:) and with that you would associate your school of +chemistry, which should teach what was permanent and what was not; which +school of chemistry should declare authoritatively, with the Academy's +seal, what colors would stand and what process would secure their +standing: and should have a sort of Apothecaries' Hall where anybody who +required them could procure colors in the purest state; all these things +being organized in one great system, and only possibly right by their +connection and in their connection. + +176. Do you approve of the encouragement which of late years has been +given to fresco painting, and do you look forward to much extension of +that branch of art in England?--I found when I was examining the term +"fresco painting," that it was a wide one, that none of us seemed to +know quite the limitation or extent of it; and after giving a good deal +more time to the question I am still less able to answer distinctly on +an understanding of the term "fresco painting:" but using the term +"decorative painting, applicable to walls in permanent materials," I +think it essential that every great school should include as one of its +main objects the teaching of wall painting in permanent materials, and +on a large scale. + +You think it should form a branch of the system of teaching in the +Academy?--I think it should form a branch of the teaching in the +Academy, possibly the principal branch. + +Does it so far as you know form a separate branch of teaching in any of +the foreign academies?--I do not know. + +177. Looking generally, and of course without mentioning any names, have +you in the course of the last few years been generally satisfied with +the selection of artists into the Royal Academy?--No, certainly not. + +Do you think that some artists of merit have been excluded, or that +artists whom you think not deserving of that honor have been +elected?--More; that artists not deserving of the honor have been +elected. I think it does no harm to any promising artist to be left out +of the Academy, but it does harm to the public sometimes that an +unpromising artist should be let into it. + +You think there have been cases within the last few years in which +persons, in your judgment, not entitled to that distinction have +nevertheless been elected?--Certainly. + +178. With respect to the selection of pictures for the exhibition, are +you satisfied in general with that selection, or have you in particular +instances seen ground to think that it has been injudiciously +exercised?--In some cases it has been injudiciously exercised, but it is +a matter of small importance; it causes heartburning probably, but +little more. If a rejected picture is good, the public will see it some +day or other, and find out that it is a good picture. I care little +about what pictures are let in or not, but I do care about seeing the +pictures that are let in. The main point, which everyone would desire to +see determined, is how the pictures that are admitted are to be best +seen. No picture deserving of being seen at all should be so hung as to +give you any pain or fatigue in seeing it. If you let a picture into the +room at all, it should not be hung so high as that either the feelings +of the artist or the neck of the public should be hurt. + +179. _Viscount Hardinge._ I gather from your evidence that you would +wish to see the Royal Academy a sort of central university to which +young men from other institutions should be sent. Assuming that there +were difficulties in the way of carrying that out, do you think, under +the present system, you could exact from young men who are candidates +for admission into the Royal Academy, some educational test?--Certainly; +I think much depends upon that. If the system of education which I have +been endeavoring to point out were adopted, you would have in every one +of those professions very practiced workmen. You could not have any of +this education carried out, unless you had thoroughly practiced workmen; +and you should fix your pass as you fix your university pass, and you +should pass a man in architecture, sculpture, and painting, because he +knows his business, and knows as much of any other science as is +necessary for his profession. You require a piece of work from him, and +you examine him, and then you pass him,--call him whatever you +like;--but you say to the public, Here is a workman in this branch who +will do your work well. + +You do not think there would in such a system be any risk of excluding +men who might hereafter be great men who under such a system might not +be able to pass?--There are risks in every system, but I think every man +worth anything would pass. A great many who would be good for nothing +would pass, but your really great man would assuredly pass. + +180. Has it ever struck you that it would be advantageous to art if +there were at the universities professors of art who might give lectures +and give instruction to young men who might desire to avail themselves +of it, as you have lectures on botany and geology?--Yes, assuredly. The +want of interest on the part of the upper classes in art has been very +much at the bottom of the abuses which have crept into all systems of +education connected with it. If the upper classes could only be +interested in it by being led into it when young, a great improvement +might be looked for; therefore I feel the expediency of such an addition +to the education of our universities. + +181. Is not that want of refinement which may be observed in many of the +pictures from time to time exhibited in the Royal Academy to be +attributed in a great measure to the want of education amongst +artists?--It is to be attributed to that, and to the necessity which +artists are under of addressing a low class of spectators: an artist to +live must catch the public eye. Our upper classes supply a very small +amount of patronage to artists at present, their main patronage being +from the manufacturing districts and from the public interested in +engravings;--an exceedingly wide sphere, but a low sphere,--and you +catch the eye of that class much more by pictures having reference to +their amusements than by any noble subject better treated, and the +better treated it was the less it would interest that class. + +Is it not often the case that pictures exhibiting such a want of +refinement, at the same time fetch large prices amongst what I may call +the mercantile patrons of art?--Certainly; and, the larger the price, +the more harm done of course to the school, for that is a form of +education you cannot resist. Plato said long ago, when you have your +demagogue against you no human form of education can resist that. + +182. _Sir E. Head._ What is your opinion of the present mode of teaching +in the life school and the painting school, namely, by visitors +constantly changing?--I should think it mischievous. The unfortunate +youths, I should imagine, would just get what they could pick up; it +would be throwing them crumbs very much as you throw bones to the +animals in the Zoological Gardens. + +Do you conceive that anything which can be properly called a school, is +likely to be formed where the teaching is conducted in that +way?--Assuredly not. + +183. You stated that in the event of the introduction of lay members +into the Academy, you would not think it desirable that they should take +part in the selection or hanging of pictures for exhibition. Is not +there a great distinction between the selection of the pictures and the +hanging of the pictures, and might not they take part in the one without +taking part in the other?--I should think hardly. My notion of hanging a +picture is to put it low enough to be seen. If small it should be placed +near the eye. Anybody can hang a picture, but the question should be, is +there good painting enough in this picture to make it acceptable to the +public, or to make it just to the artist to show it? And none but +artists can quite judge of the workmanship which should entitle it to +enter the Academy. + +Do you think it depends solely upon the workmanship?--Not by any means +solely, but I think that is the first point that should be looked to. An +ill-worked picture ought not to be admitted; let it be exhibited +elsewhere if you will, but your Academy has no business to let bad work +pass. If a man cannot carve or paint, though his work may be well +conceived, do not let his work pass. Unless you require good work in +your Academy exhibition, you can form no school. + +_Mr. Reeve._ Applying the rule you have just laid down, would the effect +be to exclude a considerable proportion of the works now exhibited in +the Academy?--Yes; more of the Academicians' than of others. + +_Sir E. Head._ Selection now being made by technical artists?--No. + +Professional?--Yes. + +_Lord Elcho._ Do you think that none but professional artists +are capable of judging of the actual merit or demerit of a +painting?--Non-professional persons may offer a very strong opinion upon +the subject, which may happen to be right,--or which may be wrong. + +Your opinion is that the main thing with respect to the exhibition is, +that the pictures should be seen; that they should not be hung too high +or too low. That question has been already raised before the Commission, +and it has been suggested that two feet from the ground should be the +minimum height for the base of the picture, and some witnesses have said +that six feet and others eight feet should be the maximum height for the +base of the picture; what limit would you fix?--I should say that the +horizontal line in the perspective of the picture ought always to be +opposite the spectator's eye, no matter what the height may be from the +floor. If the horizontal line is so placed that it must be above the +spectator's eye, in consequence of the size of the picture, it cannot +be helped, but I would always get the horizontal line opposite the eye +if possible. + +184. _Chairman._ Should you concur in the suggestion which a witness has +made before this Commission, that it would be an improvement, if the +space admitted of it, that works of sculpture should be intermixed in +the same apartment with works of painting, instead of being kept as at +present in separate apartments?--I should think it would be very +delightful to have some works of sculpture mixed with works of painting; +that it would make the exhibition more pleasing, and that the eye would +be rested sometimes by turning from the colors to the marble, and would +see the colors of the paintings better in return. Sir Joshua Reynolds +mentions the power which some of the Flemish pictures seemed to derive, +in his opinion, by looking at them after having consulted his note-book. +Statuary placed among the pictures would have the same effect. I would +not have the sculpture that was sent in for the exhibition of the year +exhibited with the paintings, but I would have works of sculpture placed +permanently in the painting rooms. + +_Lord Elcho._ Supposing there were no works of sculpture available for +being placed in the rooms permanently, and supposing among the works +sent in for annual exhibition there were works of a character fit to be +placed among the paintings, should you see any objection to their being +so placed?--That would cause an immense amount of useless trouble, and +perpetual quarrels among the sculptors, as to whose works were entitled +to be placed in the painting rooms or not. + +Are you aware that in the exhibition in Paris in 1855, that was the +system adopted?--No. If the French adopted it, it was likely to be +useful, and doubtless they would carry it out very cleverly; but we have +not the knack of putting the right things in the right places by any +means. + +Did you see our own International Exhibition last year?--No. + +Are you aware that a similar system was resorted to in the exhibition of +pictures there?--I should think in our exhibitions we must put anything +where it would go, in the sort of way that we manage them. + +185. At the present moment there are on the books of the Academy five +honorary members, who hold certain titular offices, Earl Stanhope being +antiquary to the Academy, Mr. Grote being professor of ancient history, +Dean Milman being professor of ancient literature, the Bishop of Oxford +being chaplain, and Sir Henry Holland being secretary for foreign +correspondence; these professors never deliver any lectures and have no +voice whatever in the management, but have mere honorary titular +distinctions; should you think it desirable that gentlemen of their +position and character should have a voice in the management of the +affairs of the Academy?--It would be much more desirable that they +should give lectures upon the subjects with which they are acquainted. I +should think Earl Stanhope and all the gentlemen you have mentioned, +would be much happier in feeling that they were of use in their +positions; and that if you gave them something to do they would very +nobly do it. If you give them nothing to do I think they ought not to +remain in the institution. + +186. It has been suggested that the Academy now consisting of forty-two +might be increased advantageously to fifty professional members, +architecture, sculpture, and painting being fairly represented, and that +in addition to those fifty there might be elected or nominated somehow +or other ten non-professional persons, that is, men taking an interest +in art, who had a certain position and standing in the country, and who +might take an active part in the management of the affairs of the +institution, so tending to bring the Royal Academy and the public +together?--I do not know enough of society to be able to form an opinion +upon the subject. + +Irrespective of society, as a question of art, you know enough of +non-professional persons interested in art to judge as to whether the +infusion of such an element into the Academy might be of advantage to +the Academy and to art generally?--I think if you educate our upper +classes to take more interest in art, which implies, of course, to know +something about it, they might be most efficient members of the +Academy; but if you leave them, as you leave them now, to the education +which they get at Oxford and Cambridge, and give them the sort of scorn +which all the teaching there tends to give, for art and artists, the +less they have to do with an academy of art the better. + +Assuming that, at present, you have not a very great number of those +persons in the country, do you not think that the mere fact of the +adoption of such a principle in any reform in the constitution of the +Academy might have the effect of turning attention more to this matter +at the Universities, and leading to the very thing which you think so +desirable?--No, I should think not. It would only at present give the +impression that the whole system was somewhat artificial, and that it +was to remain ineffective. + +Notwithstanding the neglect of this matter at the Universities, do you +think, at the present moment, you could not find ten non-professional +persons, of the character you would think desirable, to add to the +Academy?--If I may be so impertinent, I may say that you as one of the +upper classes, and I as a layman in the lower classes, are tolerably +fair examples of the kind of persons who take an interest in art, and I +think both of us would do a great deal of mischief if we had much to do +with the Academy. + +187. Assuming those two persons to be appointed lay members, will you +state in what way you think they would do mischief in the councils of +the Academy?--We should be disturbing elements, whereas what I should +try to secure, if I had anything to do with its arrangements, would be +entire tranquillity, a regular system of tuition in which there should +be little excitement, and little operation of popular, aristocratic, or +any other disturbing influence; none of criticism, and therefore none of +tiresome people like myself;--none of money patronage, or even of +aristocratic patronage. The whole aim of the teachers should be to +produce work which could be demonstrably shown to be good and useful, +and worthy of being bought, or used in any way; and after that the +whole question of patronage and interest should be settled. The school +should teach its art-grammar thoroughly in everything, and in every +material, and should teach it carefully; and that could be done if a +perfect system were adopted, and above all, if a few thoroughly good +examples were put before the students. That is a point which I think of +very great importance. I think it very desirable that grants should be +made by the Government to obtain for the pupils of the Academy beautiful +examples of every kind, the very loveliest and best; not too many; and +that their minds should not be confused by having placed before them +examples of all schools and times; they are confused enough by what they +see in the shops, and in the annual exhibitions. Let engraving be taught +by Marc Antonio and Albert Dürer,--painting by Giorgione, Paul Veronese, +Titian and Velasquez,--and sculpture by good Greek and selected Roman +examples, and let there be no question of other schools or their merits. +Let those things be shown as good and right, and let the student be +trained in those principles:--if afterwards he strikes out an original +path, let him; but do not let him torment himself and other people with +his originalities, till he knows what is right, so far as is known at +present. + +You are opposed, on the whole, to the introduction of the lay +element?--Yes; but I am not opposed strongly or distinctly to it, +because I have not knowledge enough of society to know how it would +work. + +Your not being in favor of it results from your belief that the lay +element that would be useful to the Academy does not at present exist in +this country; but you think, if it did exist, and if it could be made to +grow out of our schools and universities by art teaching, it might, with +advantage to the Academy and to artists, be introduced into the +Academy?--Yes. + +188. Supposing the class of Royal Academicians to be retained, and that +you had fifty Royal Academicians, should you think it desirable that +their works should be exhibited by themselves, so that the public might +see together the works of those considered to be the first artists of +this country?--Certainly, I should like all pictures to be well seen, +but I should like one department of the exhibition to be given to the +Associates or Graduates. I use that term because I suppose those +Associates to have a degree given them for a certain amount of +excellence, and any person who had attained that degree should be +allowed to send in so many pictures. Then the pictures sent in by +persons who had attained the higher honor of Royal Academician should be +separately exhibited. + +That would act as a stimulus to them to keep up their position and show +themselves worthy of the honor?--Yes. I do not think they ought to be +mixed at all as they are now. + +189. What is your opinion with reference to the present system of +traveling studentships?--I think it might be made very useful indeed. + +On the one hand it has been suggested that there should be, as is the +system adopted by the French Academy, a permanent professor at Rome to +look after the students; on the other hand it has been said that it is +not desirable, if you have those traveling studentships, that the +students should go to Rome, that it is better for them to travel, and to +go to Venice or Lombardy, and to have no fixed school in connection with +the Academy at Rome. To which of those two systems do you give the +preference?--I should prefer the latter; if a man goes to travel, he +ought to travel, and not be plagued with schools. + +It has been suggested that fellowships might be given to rising artists, +pecuniary assistance being attached to those fellowships, the artist +being required annually to send in some specimen of his work to show +what he was doing, but it being left optional with him to go abroad or +to work at home; should you think that would be desirable, or as has +been suggested in a letter by Mr. Armitage, supposing those fellowships +to be established for four years, that two of those years should be +spent abroad and two at home?--Without entering into any detail as to +whether two years should be spent abroad and two years at home, I feel +very strongly that one of the most dangerous and retarding influences +you have operating upon art is the enormous power of money, and the +chances of entirely winning or entirely losing, that is, of making your +fortune in a year by a large taking picture, or else starving for ten +years by very good small ones. The whole life of an artist is a lottery, +and a very wild lottery, and the best artist is liable to be warped away +from what he knows is right by the chance of at once making a vast +fortune by catching the public eye, the public eye being only to be +caught by bright colors and certain conditions of art not always +desirable. If, therefore, connected with the Academy schools there could +be the means of giving a fixed amount of income to certain men, who +would as a consideration for that income furnish a certain number of +works that might be agreed upon, or undertake any national work that +might be agreed upon, that I believe would be the healthiest way in +which a good painter could be paid. To give him his bread and cheese, +and so much a day, and say, Here are such and such things we want you to +do, is, I believe, the healthiest, simplest, and happiest way in which +great work can be produced. But whether it is compatible with our +present system I cannot say, nor whether every man would not run away as +soon as he found he could get two or three thousand pounds by painting a +catching picture. I think your best men would not. + +You would be in favor of those fellowships?--Yes. + +190. I gather that you are in favor of the encouragement of mural +decoration, fresco painting, and so forth. The system that prevails +abroad, in France, for instance, is for painters to employ pupils to +work under them. It was in that way that Delaroche painted his hemicycle +at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, employing four pupils, who worked for +him, and who from his small sketch drew the full-sized picture on the +walls, which was subsequently corrected by him. They then colored it up +to his sketch, after which he shut himself up again, and completed it. +On the other hand, if you go to the Victoria Gallery in the House of +Lords, you find Mr. Maclise at work on a space of wall forty-eight feet +long, painting the Death of Nelson on the deck of the "Victory," every +figure being life size, the deck of the ship and the ropes and +everything being the actual size, and you see him painting with his own +hand each little bit of rope and the minutest detail. Which of the two +systems do you think is the soundest and most calculated to produce +great and noble work?--The first is the best for the pupils, the other +is the best for the public. But unquestionably not only can a great work +be executed as Mr. Maclise is executing his, but no really great work +was executed otherwise, for in all mighty work, whether in fresco or +oil, every touch and hue of color to the last corner has been put on +lovingly by the painter's own hand, not leaving to a pupil to paint so +much as a pebble under a horse's foot. + +191. Do you believe that most of the works of the great masters in Italy +were so executed?--No; because the pupils were nearly as mighty as the +masters. Great men took such an interest in their work, and they were so +modest and simple that they were repeatedly sacrificing themselves to +the interests of their religion or of the society they were working for; +and when a thing was to be done in a certain time it could only be done +by bringing in aid; but whenever precious work was to be done, then the +great man said, "Lock me up here by myself, give me a little wine and +cheese, and come in a month, and I will show you what I have done." + +Do you think it desirable that the pupils should be so trained as to be +capable of assisting great masters in such works?--Assuredly. + + NOTE.--The following analysis of the above evidence was + given in the Index to the Report (pp. 139, 140).--ED. + + 168-69. The Academy not in all points satisfactory. Would wish to + see the Academicians not self-elected.--But by a constituency + consisting both of artists and the public.--Public influence to be + the same in painting as in music. + + 170. As to the Associates: is in favor of some period of + probation.--Their class to be unlimited, with a very limited number + of Academicians. + + 171. Has formed no opinion on the question of introducing laymen + into the Academy; in matters of revenue they might be joined with + artists, but not in the selection and hanging of pictures: opposed + on the whole to their introduction, considering the present state + of art education.--As he would like to see the Academy constituted, + thinks the president ought to be an artist. + + 172. General effect of the Academy's teaching upon the art of the + country merely nugatory.--Would have a much more comprehensive + system of teaching. + + 173. The Academy education to correspond wholly to the University + education. + + 174. Not easy but very necessary for the Academy to adopt an + authoritative system of teaching. + + 175. His idea of what the Academy teaching should be; would have a + school of chemistry. + + 176. The teaching of wall-painting in permanent materials should be + a branch, possibly the principal branch. + + 177. Not satisfied with the selection of artists to be members of + the Academy. + + 178. In some cases the selection of pictures has been injudicious, + but this a matter of small importance; the main point is how the + pictures that are admitted are to be best seen. + + 179. In favor of an educational test for candidates for admission + into the Academy. + + 180. And of professors of art at the Universities. + + 181. Causes of the want of refinement observable in many modern + pictures; the large prices they fetch harmful. + + 182. Teaching by visitors constantly changing mischievous. + + 183. How a picture should be hung.--An ill-worked picture ought not + to be admitted by the Academy.--Bearing of this last opinion upon + the present Exhibition. + + 184. Would have works of sculpture placed permanently in the + painting-room, but not any of those sent in for the Exhibition of + the year. + + 185. In favor of the present honorary members being made of use in + their positions. + + 186. Introduction of laymen into the Academy deprecated under + present circumstances, and why.--Present feeling towards art and + artists at the Universities. + + 187. Desirable that Government grants should be made to obtain for + the pupils of the Academy beautiful examples of every kind of art. + + 188. In favor of separate exhibitions of the works of Associates + (or Graduates) and Academicians. + + 189. In favor of art-fellowships, but not of a fixed school in + connection with the Academy at Rome. + + 190. Comparison of the French, and English systems (as regards + assistance from pupils) in the production of great public + paintings. + + 191. How the works of the Italian masters were executed.--Desirable + that pupils should be trained to assist great masters in public + works. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: Reprinted from "The Report of the Commissioners appointed +to inquire into the Present Position of the Royal Academy in Relation to +the Fine Arts." London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1863 (pp. 546-55. +Questions 5079-5142). The Commission consisted of Earl Stanhope +(_Chairman_), Viscount Hardinge, Lord Elcho, Sir E. W. Head, Mr. William +Stirling, Mr. H. D. Seymour, and Mr. Henry Reeve, all of whom, except +Mr. Seymour, were present at the above sitting.--ED.] + + + + +A MUSEUM OR PICTURE GALLERY: + +ITS FUNCTIONS AND ITS FORMATION.[4] + + + _March 20th, 1880._ + + MY DEAR ----, + +192. If I put off writing the paper you asked me for, till I can do it +conveniently, it may hang fire till this time next year. If you will +accept a note on the subject now and then, keeping them till there are +enough to be worth printing, all practical ends may be enough answered, +and much more quickly. + +The first function of a Museum--(for a little while I shall speak of Art +and Natural History as alike cared for in an ideal one)--is to give +example of perfect order and perfect elegance, in the true sense of that +test word, to the disorderly and rude populace. Everything in its _own_ +place, everything looking its best because it is there, nothing crowded, +nothing unnecessary, nothing puzzling. Therefore, after a room has been +once arranged, there must be no change in it. For new possessions there +must be new rooms, and after twenty years' absence--coming back to the +room in which one learned one's bird or beast alphabet, we should be +able to show our children the old bird on the old perch in the +accustomed corner. But--first of all, let the room be beautifully +complete, _i.e._ complete enough for its proper business. + +193. In the British Museum, at the top of the stairs, we encounter in a +terrific alliance a giraffe, a hippopotamus, and a basking shark. The +public--young and old--pass with a start and a stare, and remain as wise +as they were before about all the three creatures. The day before +yesterday I was standing by the big fish--a father came up to it with +his little boy. "That's a shark," says he; "it turns on its side when it +wants to eat you," and so went on--literally as wise as he was before; +for he had read in a book that sharks turn on their side to bite, and he +never looked at the ticket, which told him this particular shark only +ate small fish. Now he never looked at the ticket, because he didn't +expect to find anything on it except that this was the Sharkogobalus +Smith-Jonesianius. But if, round the walls of the room, there had been +all the _well-known_ kinds of shark, going down, in graduated sizes, +from that basking one to our waggling dog-fish, and if every one of +these had had a plain English ticket, with ten words of common sense on +it, saying where and how the beast lived, and a number (unchangeable) +referring to a properly arranged manual of the shark tribe (sold by the +Museum publisher, who ought to have his little shop close by the +porter's lodge), both father and son must have been much below the level +of average English man and boy in mother wit if they did not go out of +the room by the door in front of them very distinctly, and--to +themselves--amazingly, wiser than they had come in by the door behind +them. + +194. If I venture to give instances of fault from the British Museum, it +is because, on the whole, it is the best-ordered and pleasantest +institution in all England, and the grandest concentration of the means +of human knowledge in the world. And I am heartily sorry for the +break-up of it, and augur no good from any changes of arrangement likely +to take place in concurrence with Kensington, where, the same day that I +had been meditating by the old shark, I lost myself in a Cretan +labyrinth of military ironmongery, advertisements of spring blinds, +model fish-farming, and plaster bathing nymphs with a year's smut on all +the noses of them; and had to put myself in charge of a policeman to get +out again. Ever affectionately yours, + + J. RUSKIN. + + + _March 29th, 1880._ + + MY DEAR ----, + +195. The only chance of my getting these letters themselves into fairly +consistent and Museum-like order is by writing a word or two always the +first thing in the morning till I get them done; so, I shall at least +remember what I was talking of the day before; but for the rest--I must +speak of one thing or another as it may come into my head, for there are +too many to classify without pedantry and loss of time. + +My requirement of "elegance" in that last letter contemplates chiefly +architecture and fittings. These should not only be perfect in +stateliness, durability, and comfort, but beautiful to the utmost point +consistent with due subordination to the objects displayed. To enter a +room in the Louvre is an education in itself; but two steps on the +filthy floor and under the iron forks, half scaffold, half gallows, of +the big Norwood glass bazaar, debase mind and eye at once below +possibility of looking at anything with profit all the day afterwards. I +have just heard that a French picture dealer is to have charge of the +picture gallery there, and that the whole interior is to become +virtually a large café, when--it is hoped--the glass monster may at last +"pay." Concerning which beautiful consummation of Mr. Dickens's +"Fairyland" (see my pamphlet[5] on the opening of the so-called +"palace"), be it here at once noted, that all idea of any "payment," in +that sense, must be utterly and scornfully abjured on the foundation +stone of every National or Civic Museum. There must be neither companies +to fill their own pockets out of it, nor trustees who can cramp the +management, or interfere with the officering, or shorten the supplies of +it. Put one man of reputation and sense at its head; give him what staff +he asks for, and a fixed annual sum for expenditure--specific accounts +to be printed annually for all the world's seeing--and let him alone. +The original expenditure for building and fitting must be magnificent, +and the current expenditure for cleaning and refitting magnanimous; but +a certain proportion of this current cost should be covered by small +entrance fees, exacted, not for any miserly helping out of the +floor-sweepers' salaries, but for the sake of the visitors themselves, +that the rooms may not be incumbered by the idle, or disgraced by the +disreputable. You must not make your Museum a refuge against either rain +or ennui, nor let into perfectly well-furnished, and even, in the true +sense, palatial, rooms, the utterly squalid and ill-bred portion of the +people. There should, indeed, be refuges for the poor from rain and +cold, and decent rooms accessible to indecent persons, if they like to +go there; but neither of these charities should be part of the function +of a Civic Museum. + +196. Make the entrance fee a silver penny (a silver groat, typically +representing the father, mother, eldest son, and eldest daughter, +passing always the total number of any one family), and every person +admitted, however young, being requested to sign their name, or make +their mark. + +That the entrance money should be always of silver is one of the +beginnings of education in the place--one of the conditions of its +"elegance" on the very threshold. + +And the institution of silver for bronze in the lower coinage is a part +of the system of National education which I have been teaching these +last ten years--a very much deeper and wider one than any that can be +given in museums--and without which all museums will ultimately be +vain.--Ever affectionately yours, + + J. R. + +P.S.--There should be a well-served coffee-room attached to the +building; but this part of the establishment without any luxury in +furniture or decoration, and without any cooking apparatus for +carnivora. + + + _Easter Monday, 1880._ + + DEAR ----, + +197. The day is auspicious for the beginning of reflection on the right +manner of manifestation of all divine things to those who desire to see +them. For every house of the Muses, where, indeed, they live, is an +Interpreter's by the wayside, or rather, a place of oracle and +interpretation in one. And the right function of every museum, to simple +persons, is the manifestation to them of what is lovely in the life of +Nature, and heroic in the life of Men. + +There are already, you see, some quaint restrictions in that last +sentence, whereat sundry of our friends will start, and others stop. I +must stop also, myself, therefore, for a minute or two, to insist on +them. + +198. A Museum, primarily, is to be for _simple_ persons. Children, that +is to say, and peasants. For your student, your antiquary, or your +scientific gentleman, there must be separate accommodation, or they must +be sent elsewhere. The Town Museum is to be for the Town's People, the +Village Museum for the Villagers. Keep that first principle clear to +start with. If you want to found an academy of painting in +Littleborough, or of literature in Squattlesea Mere, you must get your +advice from somebody else, not me. + +199. Secondly. The museum is to manifest to these simple persons the +beauty and life of all things and creatures in their perfectness. Not +their modes of corruption, disease, or death. Not even, always, their +genesis, in the more or less blundering beginnings of it; not even their +modes of nourishment, if destructive; you must not stuff a blackbird +pulling up a worm, nor exhibit in a glass case a crocodile crunching a +baby. + +Neither must you ever show bones or guts, or any other charnel-house +stuff. Teach your children to know the lark's note from the +nightingale's; the length of their larynxes is their own business, and +God's. + +I cannot enough insist upon this point, nor too solemnly. If you wish +your children to be surgeons, send them to Surgeons' College; if +jugglers or necromancers, to Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke; and if +butchers, to the shambles: but if you want them to lead the calm life of +country gentlemen and gentlewomen, manservants and maidservants, let +them seek none of Death's secrets till they die. Ever faithfully and +affectionately yours, + + J. R. + + + _Easter Tuesday, 1880._ + + DEAR ----, + +200. I must enter to-day somewhat further on the practical, no less than +emotional, reason for the refusal of anatomical illustrations to the +general public. + +It is difficult enough to get one clear idea into anybody, of any single +thing. But next to impossible to get _two_ clear ideas into them, of the +same thing. We have had lions' heads for door-knockers these hundred and +fifty years, without ever learning so much as what a lion's head is +like. But with good modern stuffing and fetching, I can manage now to +make a child really understand something about the beast's look, and his +mane, and his sullen eyes and brindled lips. But if I'm bothered at the +same time with a big bony box, that has neither mane, lips, nor eyes, +and have to explain to the poor wretch of a parish schoolboy how somehow +this fits on to that, I will be bound that, at a year's end, draw one as +big as the other, and he won't know a lion's head from a tiger's--nor a +lion's skull from a rabbit's. Nor is it the parish boy only who suffers. +The scientific people themselves miss half their points from the habit +of hacking at things, instead of looking at them. When I gave my lecture +on the Swallow[6] at Oxford, I challenged every anatomist there to tell +me the use of his tail (I believe half of them didn't know he had one). +Not a soul of them could tell me, which I knew beforehand; but I did not +know, till I had looked well through their books, how they were +quarreling about his wings! Actually at this moment (Easter Tuesday, +1880), I don't believe you can find in any scientific book in Europe a +true account of the way a bird flies--or how a snake serpentines. My +Swallow lecture was the first bit of clear statement on the one point, +and when I get my Snake lecture published, you will have the first +extant bit of clear statement on the other; and that is simply because +the anatomists can't, for their life, look at a thing till they have +skinned it. + +201. And matters get worse and worse every hour. Yesterday, after +writing the first leaf of this note, I went into the British Museum, and +found a nasty skeleton of a lizard, with its under jaw dropped off, on +the top of a table of butterflies--temporarily of course--but then +everything has been temporary or temporizing at the British Museum for +the last half-century; making it always a mere waste and weariness to +the general public, because, forsooth, it had always to be kept up to +the last meeting of the Zoological Society, and last edition of the +_Times_. As if there had not been beasts enough before the Ark to tell +our children the manners of, on a Sunday afternoon! + +202. I had gone into the Museum that day to see the exact form of a +duck's wing, the examination of a lively young drake's here at Coniston +having closed in his giving me such a cut on the wrist with it, that I +could scarcely write all the morning afterwards. Now in the whole bird +gallery there are only two ducks' wings expanded, and those in different +positions. Fancy the difference to the mob, and me, if the shells and +monkey skeletons were taken away from the mid-gallery, and instead, +three gradated series of birds put down the length of it (or half the +length--or a quarter would do it--with judgment), showing the +transition, in length of beak, from bunting to woodcock--in length of +leg, from swift to stilted plover--and in length of wing, from auk to +frigate-bird; the wings, all opened, in one specimen of each bird to +their full sweep, and in another, shown at the limit of the down back +stroke. For what on earth--or in air--is the use to me of seeing their +boiled sternums and scalped sinciputs, when I'm never shown either how +they bear their breasts--or where they carry their heads? + +Enough of natural history, you will say! I will come to art in my next +letter--finishing the ugly subject of this one with a single sentence +from section ix. of the "Tale of a Tub," commending the context of it to +my friends of the Royal Academy. + +"Last week, I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much +it altered her person for the worse."--Ever, my dear ----, affectionately +yours, + + J. R. + + + _7th April, 1880._ + + MY DEAR ----, + +203. I suppose that proper respect for the great first principles of the +British Constitution, that every man should do as he pleases, think what +he likes, and see everything that can be seen for money, will make most +of your readers recoil from my first principle of Museum +arrangement,--that nothing should be let inside the doors that isn't +good of its sort,--as from an attempt to restore the Papacy, revive the +Inquisition, and away with everybody to the lowest dungeon of the +castle moat. They must at their pleasure charge me with these sinister +views; they will find that there is no dexter view to be had of the +business, which does not consist primarily in knowing Bad from Good, and +Right from Wrong. Nor, if they will condescend to begin simply enough, +and at the bottom of the said business, and let the cobbler judge of the +crepida, and the potter of the pot, will they find it so supremely +difficult to establish authorities that shall be trustworthy, and +judgments that shall be sure. + +204. Suppose, for instance, at Leicester, whence came first to us the +inquiry on such points, one began by setting apart a Hunter's Room, in +which a series of portraits of their Master's favorites, for the last +fifty years or so, should be arranged, with certificate from each Squire +of his satisfaction, to such and such a point, with the portrait of +Lightfoot, or Lucifer, or Will o' the Wisp; and due notification, for +perhaps a recreant and degenerate future, of the virtues and perfections +at this time sought and secured in the English horse. Would not such a +chamber of chivalry have, in its kind, a quite indisputable authority +and historical value, not to be shaken by any future impudence or +infidelity? + +Or again in Staffordshire, would it not be easily answered to an honest +question of what is good and not, in clay or ware, "This will work, and +that will stand"? and might not a series of the mugs which have been +matured with discrimination, and of the pots which have been popular in +use, be so ordered as to display their qualities in a convincing and +harmonious manner against all gainsayers? + +205. Nor is there any mystery of taste, or marvel of skill, concerning +which you may not get quite easy initiation and safe pilotage for the +common people, provided you once make them clearly understand that there +is indeed something to be learned, and something to be admired, in the +arts, which will need their attention for a time; and cannot be +explained with a word, nor seen with a wink. And provided also, and with +still greater decision, you set over them masters, in each branch of +the arts, who know their own minds in that matter, and are not afraid to +speak them, nor to say, "We know," when they know, and "We don't know," +when they don't. + +To which end, the said several branches must be held well apart, and +dealt with one at a time. Every considerable town ought to have its +exemplary collections of woodwork, iron-work, and jewelry, attached to +the schools of their several trades, leaving to be illustrated in its +public museum, as in an hexagonal bee's cell, the six queenly and +muse-taught arts of needlework, writing, pottery, sculpture, +architecture, and painting. + +206. For each of these, there should be a separate Tribune or Chamber of +absolute tribunal, which need not be large--that, so called, of +Florence, not the size of a railway waiting-room, has actually for the +last century determined the taste of the European public in two +arts!--in which the absolute best in each art, so far as attainable by +the communal pocket, should be authoritatively exhibited, with simple +statement that it is good, and reason why it is good, and notification +in what particulars it is unsurpassable, together with some not too +complex illustrations of the steps by which it has attained to that +perfection, where these can be traced far back in history. + +207. These six Tribunes, or Temples, of Fame, being first set with their +fixed criteria, there should follow a series of historical galleries, +showing the rise and fall (if fallen) of the arts in their beautiful +associations, as practiced in the great cities and by the great nations +of the world. The history of Egypt, of Persia, of Greece, of Italy, of +France, and of England, should be given in their arts,--dynasty by +dynasty and age by age; and for a seventh, a Sunday Room, for the +history of Christianity in its art, including the farthest range and +feeblest efforts of it; reserving for this room, also, what power could +be reached in delineation of the great monasteries and cathedrals which +were once the glory of all Christian lands. + +208. In such a scheme, every form of noble art would take harmonious +and instructive place, and often very little and disregarded things be +found to possess unthought-of interest and hidden relative beauty; but +its efficiency--and in this chiefly let it be commended to the patience +of your practical readers--would depend, not on its extent, but on its +strict and precise limitation. The methods of which, if you care to have +my notions of them, I might perhaps enter into, next month, with some +illustrative detail.--Ever most truly yours, + + J. R. + + + _10th June, 1880._[7] + + MY DEAR ----, + +209. I can't give you any talk on detail, yet; but, not to drop a stitch +in my story, I want to say why I've attached so much importance to +needlework, and put it in the opening court of the six. You see they are +progressive, so that I don't quite put needlework on a _level_ with +painting. But a nation that would learn to "touch" _must_ primarily know +how to "stitch." I am always busy, for a good part of the day, in my +wood, and wear out my leathern gloves fast, after once I can wear them +at all: but that's the precise difficulty of the matter. I get them from +the shop looking as stout and trim as you please, and half an hour after +I've got to work they split up the fingers and thumbs like ripe +horse-chestnut shells, and I find myself with five dangling rags round +my wrist, and a rotten white thread draggling after me through the wood, +or tickling my nose, as if Ariadne and Arachne had lost their wits +together. I go home, invoking the universe against sewing-machines; and +beg the charity of a sound stitch or two from any of the maids who know +their woman's art; and thenceforward the life of the glove proper +begins. Wow, it is not possible for any people that put up with this +sort of thing, to learn to paint, or do anything else with their fingers +decently:--only, for the most part they don't think their museums are +meant to show them how to do anything decently, but rather how to be +idle, indecently. Which extremely popular and extremely erroneous +persuasion, if you please, we must get out of our way before going +further. + +210. I owe some apology, by the way, to Mr. Frith, for the way I spoke +of his picture[8] in my letter to the Leicester committee, not intended +for publication, though I never write what I would not allow to be +published, and was glad that they asked leave to print it. It was not I +who instanced the picture, it had been named in the meeting of the +committee as the kind of thing that people best like, and I was obliged +to say _why_ people best liked it:--namely, not for the painting, which +is good, and worthy their liking, but for the sight of the racecourse +and its humors. And the reason that such a picture ought not to be in a +museum, is precisely because in a museum people ought not to fancy +themselves on a racecourse. If they want to see races, let them go to +races; and if rogues, to Bridewells. They come to museums to see +something different from rogues and races. + +211. But, to put the matter at once more broadly, and more accurately, +be it remembered, for sum of all, that a museum is not a theater. Both +are means of noble education--but you must not mix up the two. Dramatic +interest is one thing; aesthetic charm another; a pantomime must not +depend on its fine color, nor a picture on its fine pantomime. + +Take a special instance. It is long since I have been so pleased in the +Royal Academy as I was by Mr. Britton Rivière's "Sympathy." The dog in +uncaricatured doggedness, divine as Anubis, or the Dog-star; the child +entirely childish and lovely, the carpet might have been laid by +Veronese. A most precious picture in itself, yet not one for a museum. +Everybody would think only of the story in it; everybody be wondering +what the little girl had done, and how she would be forgiven, and if she +wasn't, how soon she would stop crying, and give the doggie a kiss, and +comfort his heart. All which they might study at home among their own +children and dogs just as well; and should not come to the museum to +plague the real students there, since there is not anything of especial +notableness or unrivaled quality in the actual painting. + +212. On the other hand, one of the four pictures I chose for permanent +teaching in Fors was one of a child and a dog. The child is doing +nothing; neither is the dog. But the dog is absolutely and beyond +comparison the best painted dog in the world--ancient or modern--on this +side of it, or at the Antipodes, (so far as I've seen the contents of +said world). And the child is painted so that child _cannot_ be better +done. _That_ is a picture for a museum. + +Not that dramatic, still less didactic, intention should disqualify a +work of art for museum purposes. But--broadly--dramatic and didactic art +should be universally national, the luster of our streets, the treasure +of our palaces, the pleasure of our homes. Much art that is weak, +transitory, and rude may thus become helpful to us. But the museum is +only for what is eternally right, and well done, according to divine law +and human skill. The least things are to be there--and the greatest--but +all _good_ with the goodness that makes a child cheerful and an old man +calm; the simple should go there to learn, and the wise to remember. + +213. And now to return to what I meant to be the subject of this +letter--the arrangement of our first ideal room in such a museum. As I +think of it, I would fain expand the single room, first asked for, into +one like Prince Houssain's,--no, Prince Houssain had the flying +tapestry, and I forget which prince had the elastic palace. But, indeed, +it must be a lordly chamber which shall be large enough to exhibit the +true nature of thread and needle--omened in "Thread-needle Street!" + +The structure, first of wool and cotton, of fur, and hair, and down, of +hemp, flax, and silk:--microscope permissible if any cause can be shown +_why_ wool is soft, and fur fine, and cotton downy, and down downier; +and how a flax fiber differs from a dandelion stalk, and how the +substance of a mulberry leaf can become velvet for Queen Victoria's +crown, and clothing of purple for the housewife of Solomon. + +Then the phase of its dyeing. What azures, and emeralds, and Tyrians +scarlets can be got into fibers of thread. + +214. Then the phase of its spinning. The mystery of that divine +spiral, from finest to firmest, which renders lace possible at +Valenciennes--anchorage possible, after Trafalgar--if Hardy had but done +as he was bid. + +Then the mystery of weaving. The eternal harmony of warp and woof, of +all manner of knotting, knitting, and reticulation, the art which makes +garment possible, woven from the top throughout, draughts of fishes +possible, miraculous enough in any pilchard or herring shoal, gathered +into companionable catchableness;--which makes, in fine, so many Nations +possible, and Saxon and Norman beyond the rest. + +215. And finally, the accomplished phase of needlework, the _Acu +Tetigisti_ of all time, which does, indeed, practically exhibit what +mediæval theologists vainly tried to conclude inductively--How many +angels can stand on a needle-point. To show the essential nature of a +stitch--drawing the separate into the inseparable, from the lowly work +of duly restricted sutor, and modestly installed cobbler, to the +needle-Scripture of Matilda, the Queen. + +All the acicular Art of Nations, savage and civilized, from Lapland +boot, letting in no snow-water--to Turkey cushion bossed with pearl--to +valance of Venice gold in needlework -to the counterpanes and samplers +of our own lovely ancestresses, imitable, perhaps, once more, with good +help from Whiteland's College--and Girton. + +216. It was but yesterday, my own womankind were in much wholesome and +sweet excitement delightful to behold, in the practice of some new +device of remedy for rents (to think how much of evil there is in the +two senses of that four-lettered word! as in the two methods of +intonation of its synonym tear!) whereby they might be daintily effaced, +and with a newness which would never make them worse. The process began +beautifully, even to my uninformed eyes, in the likeness of herring-bone +masonry, crimson on white, but it seemed to me marvelous that anything +should yet be discoverable in needle process, and that of so utilitarian +character. + +All that is reasonable, I say of such work is to be in our first museum +room. All that Athena and Penelope would approve. Nothing that vanity +has invented for change, or folly loved for costliness; but all that can +bring honest pride into homely life, and give security to health--and +honor to beauty. + + J. RUSKIN. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 4: These letters are reprinted from the _Art Journal_ of June +and August 1880, where they were prefaced with the following note by the +editor in explanation of their origin:--"We are enabled, through Mr. +Ruskin's kindness, to publish this month a series of letters to a friend +upon the functions and formation of a model Museum or Picture Gallery. +As stated in our last issue the question arose thus:--At the +distribution of the prizes to the School of Art at Leicester by Mr. J. +D. Linton and Mr. James Orrock, members of the Institute of Painters in +Water Colors, the latter, after stating the vital importance of study +from nothing but the finest models, and expressing his regret that the +present price of works of Art of the first class rendered their +attainment by schools almost prohibitory, offered drawings by William +Hunt and David Cox as a nucleus for a collection. He urged others to +follow this example, and with so much success that a few days saw a +large sum and many works of Art promised in aid of a students' gallery. +The attention of the Leicester Corporation was thereupon drawn to the +movement, and they at once endeavored to annex the scheme to their +Museum. Failing in this, they in friendly rivalry subscribed a large sum +of money, and the question at once arose how best to dispose of it, each +naturally thinking his own ideas the best. At this juncture Mr. Ruskin's +aid was invoked by one section of the subscribers, and he replied in a +letter which, owing to its having been circulated without its context, +has been open to some misconstruction. As he was only asked, so he only +advised, what should _not_ be done. However, the letter bore its fruits, +for both parties have had the attention of the country drawn to their +proposals, and so are now more diffident how to set about carrying them +into effect than they were before. Under these circumstances Mr. Ruskin +has been induced to set out the mode in which he considers an Art Museum +should be formed." + +The letter which was "open to some misconstruction" may be found in +_Arrows of the Chace_.] + +[Footnote 5: Reprinted in vol. i., §§ 253-273.--ED.] + +[Footnote 6: In 1873. See the second lecture of _Love's +Meinie_.--ED..] + +[Footnote 7: _Art Journal_, August, 1880.] + +[Footnote 8: The "Derby Day." See _Arrows of the Chase_.] + + + * * * * * + + +MINOR WRITINGS UPON ART. + + + THE CAVALLI MONUMENTS, VERONA. 1872. + + VERONA AND ITS RIVERS (WITH CATALOGUE). 1870. + + CHRISTIAN ART AND SYMBOLISM. 1872. + + ART SCHOOLS OF MEDIÆVAL CHRISTENDOM. 1876. + + THE EXTENSION OF RAILWAYS. 1876. + + THE STUDY OF BEAUTY. 1883. + + + * * * * * + + +THE CAVALLI MONUMENTS IN THE CHURCH OF ST. ANASTASIA, VERONA.[9] + + +217. The tomb of Federigo and Nicola Cavalli is in the southernmost +chapel of the five which form the east end of the church of St. +Anastasia at Verona. + +The traveler in Italy is so often called upon to admire what he cannot +enjoy, that it must relieve the mind of any reader intending to visit +Verona to be assured that this church deserves nothing but extraordinary +praise; it has, however, some characters which a quarter of an hour's +attention will make both interesting and instructive, and which I will +note briefly before giving an account of the Cavalli chapel. This church +"would, if the font were finished, probably be the most perfect specimen +in existence of the style to which it belongs," says a critic quoted in +"Murray's Guide." The conjecture is a bold one, for the font is not only +unfinished, and for the most part a black mass of ragged brickwork, but +the portion pretending to completion is in three styles; approaches +excellence only in one of them; and in that the success is limited to +the sides of the single entrance door. The flanks and vaults of this +porch, indeed, deserve our almost unqualified admiration for their +beautiful polychrome masonry. They are built of large masses of green +serpentine alternating with red and white marble, and the joints are so +delicate and firm that a casual spectator might pass the gate with +contempt, thinking the stone was painted. + +218. The capitals on these two sides, the carved central shaft, and the +horizontal lintel of this door are also excellent examples of Veronese +thirteenth century sculpture, and have merits of a high order, but of +which the general observer cannot be cognizant. I do not mean, in +saying this, to extol them greatly; the best art is pleasing to all, and +its virtue, or a portion of its virtue, instantly manifest. But there +are some good qualities in every earnest work which can only be +ascertained by attention; and in saying that a casual observer cannot +see the good qualities in early Veronese sculpture, I mean that it +possesses none but these, nor of these many. + +219. Yet it is worth a minute's delay to observe how much the sculpture +has counted on attention. In later work, figures of the size of life, or +multitudinous small ones, please, if they do not interest, the spectator +who can spare them a momentary glance. But all the figures on this door +are diminutive, and project so slightly from the stone as scarcely to +catch the eye; there are none in the sides and none in the vault of the +gate, and it is only by deliberate examination that we find the faith +which is to be preached in the church, and the honor of its preacher, +conclusively engraved on the lintel and door-post. The spiral flutings +of the central shaft are uninterrupted, so as to form a slight recess +for the figure of St. Dominic, with, I believe, St. Peter Martyr and St. +Thomas Aquinas, one on each side with the symbols of the sun and moon. +At the end of the lintel, on the left, is St. Anastasia; on the right, +St. Catherine (of Siena); in the center, on the projecting capital, the +Madonna; and on the lintel, the story of Christ, in the four passages of +the Annunciation, Nativity, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. + +220. This is the only part of the front of the church which is certainly +part of the first structure in 1260. The two statues of St. Anastasia +and St. Catherine are so roughly joined to the lateral capitals as to +induce a suspicion that even these latter and the beautiful polychrome +vault are of later work, not, however, later than 1300. The two pointed +arches which divide the tympanum are assuredly subsequent, and the +fresco which occupies it is a bad work of the end of the fourteenth +century; and the marble frieze and foundations of the front are at least +not earlier than 1426. + +Of this portion of the building the foundation is noble, and its color +beautifully disposed, but the sculpture of the paneling is poor, and of +no interest or value. + +221. On entering the church, and turning immediately to the left, there +will be seen on the inner side of the external wall a tomb under a +boldly trefoiled canopy. It is a sarcophagus with a recumbent figure on +it, which is the only work of art in the church deserving serious +attention. It is the tomb of Gerard Bolderius "sui temporis physicorum +principi," says his epitaph,[10] not, as far as I can discover, untruly. +On the front of the sarcophagus is the semi-figure of Christ rising from +the tomb, used generally at the period for the type of resurrection, +between the Virgin and St. John; and two shields, bearing, one the +fleur-de-lys, the other an eagle. The recumbent figure is entirely +simple and right in treatment, sculptured without ostentation of skill +or exaggeration of sentiment, by a true artist, who endeavors only to +give the dead due honor, and his own art subordinate and modest scope. + +This monument, being the best in St. Anastasia, is, by the usual spite +of fortune, placed where it is quite invisible except on bright days. On +the opposite side of the church, the first monument on the right, well +lighted by the tall western window, should be looked at next to the +physician's; for as that is the best, this is essentially the worst, +piece of sculptured art in the building; a series of academy studies in +marble, well executed, but without either taste or invention, and +necessarily without meaning, the monument having been erected to a +person whose only claim to one was his having stolen money enough to pay +for it before he died. It is one of the first pieces extant of entirely +mechanical art workmanship, done for money; and the perfection of its +details may justify me in directing special attention to it. + +222. There are no other monuments, still less pictures, in the body of +the church deserving notice. The general effect of the interior is +impressive, owing partly to the boldness and simplicity of the pillars +which sustain the roof; partly to the darkness which involves them: +these Dominican churches being, in fact, little more than vast halls for +preaching in, and depending little on decoration, and not at all on +light. But the sublimity of shadow soon fails when it has nothing +interesting to shade; and the chapel or monuments which, opposite each +interval between the pillars, fill the sides of the aisles, possess no +interest except in their arabesques of cinque-cento sculpture, of which +far better examples may be seen elsewhere; while the differences in +their ages, styles, and purposes hinder them from attaining any unity of +decorative effect, and break the unity of the church almost as fatally, +though not as ignobly, as the incoherent fillings of the aisles at +Westminster. The Cavalli chapel itself, though well deserving the +illustration which the Arundel Society has bestowed upon it, is filled +with a medley of tombs and frescoes of different dates, partly +superseding, none illustrating, each other, and instructive mainly as +showing the unfortunate results of freedom and "private enterprise" in +matters of art, as compared with the submission to the design of one +ruling mind which is the glory of all the chapels in Italy where the art +is entirely noble. + +223. Instructive, thus, at least, even if seen hastily; much better +teaching may be had even from the unharmonious work, if we give time and +thought to it. The upper fresco on the north wall, representing the +Baptism of Christ, has no beauty, and little merit as art; yet the +manner of its demerit is interesting. St. John kneels to baptize. This +variation from the received treatment, in which he stands above the +Christ, is enough in itself to show that the poor Veronese painter had +some intelligence of his subject; and the quaint and haggard figure, +grim-featured, with its black hair rising in separate locks like a crown +of thorns, is a curious intermediate type between the grotesque +conception which we find in earlier art (or, for instance, on the coins +of Florence) and the beautiful, yet always melancholy and severe figures +of St. John painted by Cima da Conegliano at Venice. With this stern +figure, in raiment of camel's hair, compare the Magdalen in the frescoes +at the side of the altar, who is veiled from head to foot with her own, +and sustained by six angels, being the type of repentance from the +passions, as St. John of resistance to them. Both symbols are, to us, to +say the very least, without charm, and to very few without offense; yet +consider how much nobler the temper of the people must have been who +could take pleasure in art so gloomy and unadorned, than that of the +populace of to-day, which must be caught with bright colors and excited +by popular sentiment. + +224. Both these frescoes, with the others on the north wall of the +chapel, and Madonna between four saints on the south side, by the +Cavalli tomb, are evidently of fourteenth century work, none of it good, +but characteristic; and the last-named work (seen in the plate) is so +graceful as to be quite worth some separate illustration. But the one +above it is earlier, and of considerable historical interest. It was +discovered with the other paintings surrounding the tomb, about the year +1838, when Persico published his work, "Verona, e la sua Provincia," in +which he says (p. 13), "levatane l'antica incrostatura, tornarono a vita +novella." + +It would have been more serviceable to us if we could have known the +date of the rough cast, than of its removal; the period of entire +contempt for ancient art being a subject of much interest in the +ecclesiastical history of Italy. But the tomb itself was an +incrustation, having been raised with much rudeness and carelessness +amidst the earlier art which recorded the first rise of the Cavalli +family. + +225. It will be seen by reference to the plate that the frescoes round +the tomb have no symmetrical relation to it. They are all of earlier +date, and by better artists. The tomb itself is roughly carved, and +coarsely painted, by men who were not trying to do their best, and could +not have done anything very well, even if they had tried: it is an +entirely commonplace and dull work, though of a good school, and has +been raised against the highest fresco with a strange disregard of the +merit of the work itself, and of its historical value to the family. +This fresco is attributable by Persico to Giotto, but is, I believe, +nothing more than an interesting example of the earnest work of his +time, and has no quality on which I care to enlarge; nor is it +ascertainable who the three knights are whom it commemorates, unless +some evidence be found of the date of the painting, and there is, yet, +none but that of its manner. But they are all three Cavallis, and I +believe them to represent the three first founders of the family, +Giovanni, "che fioriva intorno al 1274," his son Nicola (1297), and +grandson Federigo, who was Podesta of Vicenza under the Scaligers in +1331, and by whom I suppose the fresco to have been commanded. The +Cavallis came first from Germany into the service of the Visconti of +Milan, as condottieri, thence passing into the service of the Scaligers. +Whether I am right in this conjecture or not, we have, at all events, +record in this chapel of seven knights of the family, of whom two are +named on the sarcophagus, of which the inscription (on the projecting +ledge under the recumbent figure) is:-- + + S. (Sepulchrum) nobilis et egregii viri Federici et egregii et + strenui viri domini Nicolai de Cavalis suorunique heredum, qui + spiritum redidit astris Ano Dni MCCCLXXXX. + +Of which, I think, the force may be best given thus in modern terms:-- + +"The tomb of the noble and distinguished Herr Frederic, and of the +distinguished and energetic Herr the Lord Nicholas of the house of the +Horse, and of their heirs, who gave back his soul to the stars in the +year of our Lord 1390." + +226. This Frederic and Nicolas Cavalli were the brothers of the Jacopo +Cavalli who is buried at Venice, and who, by a singular fatality, was +enrolled among the Venetian nobles of the senate in the year in which +his brother died at Verona (for I assume the "spiritum redidit" to be +said of the first-named brother). Jacopo married Constance della Scala, +of Verona, and had five sons, of whom one, Giorgio, Conte di Schio, +plotted, after the fall of the Scaligers, for their restoration to power +in Verona, and was exiled, by decree of the Council of Ten, to Candia, +where he died. From another son, Conrad, are descended the Cavallis of +Venice, whose palace has been the principal material from which recent +searchers for the picturesque in Venice compose pictures of the Grand +Canal. It forms the square mass of architecture on the left, in the +continually repeated view of the Church of the Salute seen from the +steps of the Academy. + +The genealogy of the family, from the thirteenth century, when they +first appeared in Italy, to the founder of this Venetian lordship, had +better be set before the reader in one view.[11] + + GIOVANNI, + Condottiere in service of the Visconti, 1274. + | + NICOLA, + Condottiere, 1297. + | + FEDERICO, + Podesta of Vicenza under the Scaligers, 1331. + | + CONRADO, + Condottiere, 1350. + | + |--------------+-------------| + FEDERIGO, JACOPO, NICOLA, + | + |---------+----------+----------+----------| + NICOLA, GIOVANNI, CONRADO, FEDERIGO, GIORGIO. + Founds Venetian family. + +227. Now, as above stated, I believe that the fresco of the three +knights was commanded by the Podesta of Vicenza, on his receiving that +authority from the Scaligers in 1331, and that it represents Giovanni, +Nicola, and himself; while the tomb of Federigo and Nicola would be +ordered by the Venetian Cavallis, and completed without much care for +the record of the rise of the family at Verona. + +Whether my identification of the figures seen kneeling in the fresco be +correct or not, the representation of these three Cavalli knights to the +Madonna, each interceded for by his patron saint, will be found to +receive a peculiar significance if the reader care to review the +circumstances influencing the relation of the German chivalry to the +power of the Church in the very year when Giovanni Cavalli entered the +ranks of the Visconti. + +228. For the three preceding centuries, Milan, the oldest archbishopric +of Lombardy, had been the central point at which the collision between +the secular and ecclesiastical power took place in Europe. The Guelph +and Ghibelline naturally met and warred throughout the plain of +Lombardy; but the intense civic stubbornness and courage of the Milanese +population formed a kind of rock in their tide-way, where the quarrel of +burgher with noble confused itself with, embittered, and brought again +and again to trial by battle, that of pope with emperor. In 1035 their +warrior archbishop, heading their revolt against Conrad of Franconia, +organized the first disciplined resistance of foot-soldiers to cavalry +by his invention and decoration of the Carroccio; and the contest was +only closed, after the rebuilding of the walls of ruined Milan, by the +wandering of Barbarossa, his army scattered, through the maize fields, +which the traveler now listlessly crosses at speed in the train between +Milan and Arona, little noting the name of the small station, "Legnano," +where the fortune of the Lombard republic finally prevailed. But it was +only by the death of Frederick II. that the supremacy of the Church was +secured; and when Innocent IV., who had written, on hearing of that +death, to his Sicilian clergy, in words of blasphemous exultation, +entered Milan, on his journey from Lyons to Perugia, the road, for ten +miles before he reached the gates, was lined by the entire population of +the city, drawn forth in enthusiastic welcome; as they had invented a +sacred car for the advance of their standard in battle, they invented +some similar honor for the head of their Church as the harbinger of +peace: under a canopy of silk, borne by the first gentlemen of Milan, +the Pope received the hosannas of a people who had driven into shameful +flight their Caesar-king; and it is not uninteresting for the English +traveler to remember, as he walks through the vast arcades of shops, in +the form of a cross, by which the Milanese of to-day express their +triumph in liberation from Teutonic rule, that the "Baldacchino" of all +mediæval religious ceremony owed its origin to the taste of the +milliners of Milan, as the safety of the best knights in European battle +rested on the faithful craftsmanship of her armorers. + +229. But at the date when the Cavalli entered the service of the great +Milanese family, the state of parties within the walls had singularly +changed. Three years previously (1271) Charles of Anjou had drawn +together the remnants of the army of his dead brother, had confiscated +to his own use the goods of the crusading knights whose vessels had been +wrecked on the coast of Sicily, and called the pontifical court to +Viterbo, to elect a pope who might confirm his dominion over the +kingdoms of Sicily and Jerusalem. + +On the deliberations of the Cardinals at Viterbo depended the fates of +Italy and the Northern Empire. They chose Tebaldo Visconti, then a monk +in pilgrimage at Jerusalem. But, before that election was accomplished, +one of the candidates for the Northern Empire had involuntarily +withdrawn his claim; Guy de Montfort had murdered, at the altar foot, +the English Count of Cornwall, to avenge his father, Simon de Montfort, +killed at Evesham. The death of the English king of the Romans left the +throne of Germany vacant. Tebaldo had returned from Jerusalem with no +personal ambition, but having at heart only the restoration of Greece to +Europe, and the preaching of a new crusade in Syria. A general council +was convoked by him at Lyons, with this object; but before anything +could be accomplished in the conclave, it was necessary to balance the +overwhelming power of Charles of Anjou, and the Visconti (Gregory X.) +ratified, in 1273, the election of Rudolph of Hapsburg. + +230. But Charles of Anjou owed his throne, in reality, to the assistance +of the Milanese. Their popular leader, Napoleone della Torre, had +facilitated his passage through Lombardy, which otherwise must have been +arrested by the Ghibelline states; and in the year in which the Visconti +pope had appointed the council at Lyons, the Visconti archbishop of +Milan was heading the exiled nobles in vain attempts to recover their +supremacy over the popular party. The new Emperor Rudolph not only sent +a representative to the council, but a German contingent to aid the +exiled archbishop. The popular leader was defeated, and confined in an +iron cage, in the year 1274, and the first entrance of the Cavalli into +the Italian armies is thus contemporary with the conclusive triumph of +the northern monarchic over the republican power, or, more literally, of +the wandering rider, Eques, or Ritter, living by pillage, over the +sedentary burgher, living by art, and hale peasant, living by labor. The +essential nature of the struggle is curiously indicated in relation to +this monument by the two facts that the revolt of the Milanese burghers, +headed by their archbishop, began by a gentleman's killing an +importunate creditor, and that, at Venice, the principal circumstance +recorded of Jacopo Cavalli (see my notice of his tomb in the "Stones of +Venice," Vol. III. ch. ii. § 69) is his refusal to assault Feltre, +because the senate would not grant him the pillage of the town. The +reader may follow out, according to his disposition, what thoughts the +fresco of the three kneeling knights, each with his helmet-crest, in the +shape of a horse's head, thrown back from his shoulders, may suggest to +him on review of these passages of history: one thought only I must +guard him against, strictly; namely, that a condottiere's religion must +necessarily have been false or hypocritical. The folly of nations is in +nothing more manifest than in their placid reconciliation of noble +creeds with base practices. But the reconciliation, in the fourteenth as +in the nineteenth century, was usually foolish only, not insincere. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 9: Published by the Arundel Society (1872), together with a +chromo-lithograph after a drawing by Herr Gnauth.--ED.] + +[Footnote 10: + + D.M. + Gerardo Bolderio + sui temporis + Physicorum Principi + Franciscus et + Matthaeus Nepotes + P.P.] + +[Footnote 11: I am indebted for this genealogy to the research and to +the courtesy of Mr. J. Stefani. The help given me by other Venetian +friends, especially Mr. Rawdon Brown, dates from many years back in +matters of this kind.] + + + + +VERONA AND ITS RIVERS.[12] + + +231. The discourse began with a description of the scenery of the +eastern approach to Verona, with special remarks upon its magnificent +fortifications, consisting of a steep ditch, some thirty feet deep by +sixty or eighty wide, cut out of the solid rock, and the precipice-like +wall above, with towers crested with forked battlements set along it at +due intervals. The rock is a soft and crumbling limestone, containing +"fossil creatures still so like the creatures they were once, that there +it first occurred to the human brain to imagine that the buried shapes +were not mockeries of life, but had indeed once lived; and, under those +white banks by the roadside, was born, like a poor Italian gypsy, the +modern science of geology." ... "The wall was chiefly built, the moat +entirely excavated, by Can Grande della Scala; and it represents +typically the form, of defense which rendered it possible for the life +and the arts of citizens to be preserved and practiced in an age of +habitual war. Not only so, but it is the wall of the actual city which +headed the great Lombard league, which was the beginner of personal and +independent power in the Italian nation, and the first banner-bearer, +therefore, of all that has been vitally independent in religion and in +art throughout the entire Christian world to this day." At the upper +angle of the wall, looking down the northern descent, is seen a great +round tower at the foot of it, not forked in battlements, but with +embrasures for guns. "The battlemented wall was the cradle of civic +life. That low circular tower is the cradle of modern war and of all its +desolation. It is the first European tower for artillery; the beginning +of fortification against gunpowder--the beginning, that is to say, of +the end of _all_ fortification." + +232. After noticing the beautiful vegetation of the district, Mr. Ruskin +described the view from the promontory or spur, about ten miles long, of +which the last rock dies into the plain at the eastern gate of Verona. +"This promontory," he said, "is one of the sides of the great gate out +of Germany into Italy, through which the Goths always entered, cloven up +to Innspruck by the Inn, and down to Verona by the Adige. And by this +gate not only the Gothic armies came, but after the Italian nation is +formed, the current of northern life enters still into its heart through +the mountain artery, as constantly and strongly as the cold waves of the +Adige itself." ... "The rock of this promontory hardens as we trace it +back to the Alps, first into a limestone having knots of splendid brown +jasper in it as our chalk has flints, and in a few miles more into true +marble, colored by iron into a glowing orange or pale warm red--the +peach-blossom marble, of which Verona is chiefly built--and then as you +advance farther into the hills into variegated marbles very rich and +grotesque in their veinings." + +233. After dilating on the magnificent landscape viewed from the top of +this promontory, embracing the blue plain of Lombardy and its cities" +Mr. Ruskin said:-- + +"I do not think that there is any other rock in all the world from which +the places and monuments of so complex and deep a fragment of the +history of its ages can be visible as from this piece of crag with its +blue and prickly weeds. For you have thus beneath you at once the +birthplaces of Virgil and of Livy--the homes of Dante and Petrarch, and +the source of the most sweet and pathetic inspiration to your own +Shakespeare--the spot where the civilization of the Gothic kingdoms was +founded on the throne of Theodoric; and there whatever was strongest in +the Italian race redeemed itself into life by its league against +Barbarossa; the beginning of the revival of natural science and medicine +in the schools of Padua; the center of Italian chivalry, in the power +of the Scaligers; of Italian cruelty, in that of Ezzelin; and, lastly, +the birthplace of the highest art; for among those hills, or by this +very Adige bank, were born Mantegna, Titian, Correggio, and Veronese." + +234. Mr. Ruskin then referred to a series of drawings and photographs +taken at Verona by himself and his assistants, Mr. Burgess and Mr. +Bunney, which he had divided into three series, and of which he had +furnished a number of printed catalogues illustrated with notes.[13] + +I. "Lombard, extending to the end of the twelfth century, being the +expression of the introduction of Christianity into barbaric minds; +Christianization. + +II. "The Gothic period. Dante's time, from 1200 to 1400 (Dante beginning +his poem exactly in the midst of it, in 1300); the period of vital +Christianity, and of the development of the laws of chivalry and forms +of imagination which are founded on Christianity. + +III. "The first period of the revival, in which the arts of Greece and +some of its religion return and join themselves to Christianity; not +taking away its sincerity or earnestness, but making it poetical instead +of practical. In the following period even this poetical Christianity +expired; the arts became devoted to the pursuit of pleasure, and in that +they persist except where they are saved by a healthy naturalism or +domesticity. + +235. I. "The Lombardic period is one of savage but noble life gradually +subjected to law. It is the forming of men, not out of clay but wild +beasts. And art of this period in all countries, including our own +Norman especially, is, in the inner heart of it, the subjection of +savage or terrible, or foolish and erring life, to a dominant law. It is +government and conquest of fearful dreams. There is in it as yet no +germ of true hope--only the conquest of evil, and the waking from +darkness and terror. The literature of it is, as in Greece, far in +advance of art, and is already full of the most tender and impassioned +beauty, while the art is still grotesque and dreadful; but, however +wild, it is supreme above all others by its expression of governing law, +and here at Verona is the very center and utmost reach of that +expression. + +"I know nothing in architecture at once so exquisite and so wild and so +strange in the expression of self-conquest achieved almost in a dream. +For observe, these barbaric races, educated in violence--chiefly in war +and in hunting--cannot feel or see clearly as they are gradually +civilized whether this element in which they have been brought up is +evil or not. They _must_ be good soldiers and hunters--that is their +life; yet they know that killing is evil, and they do not expect to find +wild beasts in heaven. They have been trained by pain, by violence, by +hunger and cold. They know there is a good in these things as well as +evil: they are perpetually hesitating between the one and the other +thought of them. But one thing they see clearly, that killing and +hunting, and every form of misery, pleasure, and of passion, must +somehow at last be subdued by law, which shall bring good out of it all, +and which they feel more and more constraining them every hour. Now, if +with this sympathy you look at their dragon and wild beast decoration, +you will find that it now tells you about these Lombards far more than +they could know of themselves.... All the actions, and much more the +arts, of men tell to others, not only what the worker does not know, but +what he can never know of himself, which you can only recognize by being +in an element more advanced and wider than his.... In deliberate +symbolism, the question is always, not what a symbol meant first or +meant elsewhere, but what it means now and means here. Now, this dragon +symbol of the Lombard is used of course all over the world; it means +good here, and evil there; sometimes means nothing; sometimes +everything. You have always to ask what the man who here uses it means +by it. Whatever is in his mind, that he is sure partly to express by +it; nothing else than that can he express by it." + +236. II. In the second period Mr. Ruskin said was to be found "the +highest development of Italian character and chivalry, with an entirely +believed Christian religion; you get, therefore, joy and courtesy, and +hope, and a lovely peace in death. And with these you have two fearful +elements of evil. You have first such confidence in the virtue of the +creed that men hate and persecute all who do not accept it. And worse +still, you find such confidence in the power of the creed that men not +only can do anything that is wrong, and be themselves for a word of +faith pardoned, but are even sure that after the wrong is done God is +sure to put it all right again for them, or even make things better than +they were before. Now, I need not point out to you how the spirit of +persecution, as well as of vain hope founded on creed only, is mingled +in every line with the lovely moral teaching of the 'Divina Conmedia,' +nor need I point out to you how, between the persecution of other +people's creeds and the absolution of one's own crimes, all Christian +error is concluded." + +In relation to this Mr. Ruskin referred to the history of the founder of +the power of the Scalas, Mastino, a simple citizen, chosen first to be +podesta and then captain of Verona, for his justice and sagacity, who, +although wise and peaceful in his policy, employed the civil power in +the persecution of heresy, burning above two hundred persons; and he +also related how Can Signorio della Scala on his death-bed, after giving +a pious charge to his children, ordered the murder of his +brother--examples of the boundless possibility of self-deception. One of +these children killed the other, and was himself driven from the throne, +so ending the dynasty of the Scalas. Referring to his illustrations, Mr. +Ruskin pointed out the expressions of hope, in the conquest of death, +and the rewards of faith, apparent in the art of the time. The Lombard +architecture expresses the triumph of law over passion, the Christian, +that of hope over sorrow. + +Mr. Ruskin concluded his remarks on this period by commenting on the +history and the tomb of Can Grande della Scala, a good knight and true, +as busy and bright a life as is found in the annals of chivalry. + +237. III. "The period when classical literature and art were again known +in Italy, and the painters and sculptors, who had been gaining steadily +in power for two hundred years--power not of practice merely, but of +race also--with every circumstance in their favor around them, received +their finally perfect instruction, both in geometrical science, in that +of materials, and in the anatomy and action of the human body. Also the +people about them--the models of their work--had been perfected in +personal beauty by a chivalric war; in imagination by a transcendental +philosophy; in practical intellect by stern struggle for civic law; and +in commerce, not in falsely made or vile or unclean things, but in +lovely things, beautifully and honestly made. And now, therefore, you +get out of all the world's long history since it was peopled by men till +now--you get just fifty years of perfect work. Perfect. It is a strong +word; it is also a _true_ one. The doing of these fifty years is +unaccusably Right, as art; what its sentiment may be--whether too great +or too little, whether superficial or sincere--is another question, but +as artists' work it admits no conception of anything better. + +"It is true that in the following age, founded on the absolutely stern +rectitude of this, there came a phase of gigantic power and of exquisite +ease and felicity which possess an awe and a charm of their own. They +are more inimitable than the work of the perfect school. But they are +not _perfect_." ... + +238. This period Mr. Ruskin named "the 'Time of the Masters,' Fifty +Years, including Luini, Leonardo, John Bellini, Vitto Carpaccio, Andrea +Mantegna, Andrea Verrocchio, Cima da Conegliano, Perugino, and in date, +though only in his earlier life, belonging to the school, Raphael.... +The great fifty years was the prime of life of three men: John Bellini, +born 1430, died at 90, in 1516; Mantegna, born 1430, died at 76, in +1506; and Vittor Carpaccio, who died in 1522." + +"The object of these masters is wholly different from that of the former +school. The central Gothic men always want chiefly to impress you with +the facts of their subject; but the masters of this finished time desire +only to make everything dainty and delightful. We have not many pictures +of the class in England, but several have been of late added to the +National Gallery, and the Perugino there, especially the compartment +with Raphael and Tobit, and the little St. Jerome by John Bellini, will +perfectly show you this main character--pictorial perfectness and +deliciousness--sought before everything else. You will find, if you look +into that St. Jerome, that everything in it is exquisite, complete, and +pure; there is not a particle of dust in the cupboards, nor a cloud in +the air; the wooden shutters are dainty, the candlesticks are dainty, +the saint's scarlet hat is dainty, and its violet tassel, and its +ribbon, and his blue cloak and his spare pair of shoes, and his little +brown partridge--it is all a perfect quintessence of innocent +luxury--absolute delight, without one drawback in it, nor taint of the +Devil anywhere." ... + +239. After dilating on several other pictures of this class, giving +evidence of the entire devotion of the artists of the period to their +art and work, Mr. Ruskin adverted to the second part of his discourse, +the rivers of Verona. "There is but one river at Verona, nevertheless +Dante connects its name with that of the Po when he says of the whole of +Lombardy,-- + + 'In sul paese, ch' Adice e Po riga, + Solea valore e cortesia trovarsi + Prima che Federigo avesse briga.' + +I want to speak for a minute or two about those great rivers, because in +the efforts that are now being made to restore some of its commerce to +Venice precisely the same questions are in course of debate which again +and again, ever since Venice was a city, have put her senate at +pause--namely, how to hold in check the continually advancing morass +formed by the silt brought down by the Alpine rivers. Is it not strange +that for at least six hundred years the Venetians have been contending +with those rivers at their _mouths_--that is to say, where their +strength has become wholly irresistible--and never once thought of +contending with them at their sources, where their infinitely separated +streamlets might be, and are meant by Heaven to be, ruled as easily as +children? And observe how sternly, how constantly the place where they +are to be governed is marked by the mischief done by their liberty. +Consider what the advance of the delta of the Po in the Adriatic +signifies among the Alps. The evil of the delta itself, however great, +is as nothing in comparison of that which is in its origin. + +240. "The gradual destruction of the harborage of Venice, the endless +cost of delaying it, the malaria of the whole coast down to Ravenna, +nay, the raising of the bed of the Po, to the imperiling of all +Lombardy, are but secondary evils. Every acre of that increasing delta +means _the devastation of part of an Alpine valley, and the loss of so +much fruitful soil and ministering rain_. Some of you now present must +have passed this year through the valleys of the Toccia and Ticino. You +know therefore the devastation that was caused there, as well as in the +valley of the Rhone, by the great floods of 1868, and that ten years of +labor, even if the peasantry had still the heart for labor, cannot +redeem those districts into fertility. What you have there seen on a +vast scale takes place to a certain extent during every summer +thunderstorm, and from the ruin of some portion of fruitful land the +dust descends to increase the marshes of the Po. But observe +further--whether fed by sudden melting of snow or by storm--every +destructive rise of the Italian rivers signifies the loss of so much +power of irrigation on the south side of the Alps. You must all well +know the look of their chain--seen from Milan or Turin late in +summer--how little snow is left, except on Monte Rosa, how vast a +territory of brown mountain-side heated and barren, without rocks, yet +without forest. There is in that brown-purple zone, and along the +flanks of every valley that divides it, another Lombardy of cultivable +land; and every drift of rain that swells the mountain torrents if it +were caught where it falls is literally rain of gold. We seek gold +beneath the rocks; and we will not so much as make a trench along the +hillside to catch it where it falls from heaven, and where, if not so +caught, it changes into a frantic monster, first ravaging hamlet, hill, +and plain, then sinking along the shores of Venice into poisoned sleep. +Think what that belt of the Alps might be--up to four thousand feet +above the plain--if the system of terraced irrigation which even +half-savage nations discovered and practiced long ago in China and in +Borneo, and by which our own engineers have subdued vast districts of +farthest India, were but in part also practiced here--here, in the +oldest and proudest center of European arts, where Leonardo da +Vinci--master among masters--first discerned the laws of the coiling +clouds and wandering streams, so that to this day his engineering +remains unbettered by modern science; and yet in this center of all +human achievements of genius no thought has been taken to receive with +sacred art these great gifts of quiet snow and flying rain. Think, I +repeat, what that south slope of the Alps might be: one paradise of +lovely pasture and avenued forest of chestnut and blossomed trees, with +cascades docile and innocent as infants, laughing all summer long from +crag to crag and pool to pool, and the Adige and the Po, the Dora and +the Ticino, no more defiled, no more alternating between fierce flood +and venomous languor, but in calm clear currents bearing ships to every +city and health to every field of all that azure plain of Lombard +Italy.... + +241. "It has now become a most grave object with me to get some of the +great pictures of the Italian schools into England; and that, I think, +at this time--with good help--might be contrived. Further, without in +the least urging my plans impatiently on anyone else, I know thoroughly +that this, which I have said _should_ be done, _can_ be done, for the +Italian rivers, and that no method of employment of our idle +able-bodied laborers would be in the end more remunerative, or in the +beginnings of it more healthful and every way beneficial than, with the +concurrence of the Italian and Swiss governments, setting them to redeem +the valleys of the Ticino and the Rhone. And I pray you to think of +this; for I tell you truly--you who care for Italy--that both her +passions and her mountain streams are noble; but that her happiness +depends not on the liberty, but the right government of both."[14] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 12: Report (with extracts) of a paper entitled "A Talk +respecting Verona and its Rivers," read by Mr. Ruskin at the Weekly +Evening Meeting of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Feb. 4th, +1870. See _Proceedings_ of the Royal Institution, vol. vi., p. +55.--ED.] + +[Footnote 13: This catalogue (London: Queen Street Printing-Office, +1870) is printed below, p. 109, § 242 _seqq._--ED.] + +[Footnote 14: See _Arrows of the Chace_.] + + + + +CATALOGUE. + +(_See ante,_ p. 101.--ED.) + +_Drawings and Photographs, illustrative of the Architecture of Verona, +shown at the Royal Institution, Feb. 4th, 1870._ + + +SECTION I. NOS. 1 TO 7. LOMBARD. + +242. (1.) _Porch of the Church of St. Zeno._ (Photograph.) + + Of the 12th century. + +(2.) _Porch of the South Entrance of the Duomo._ + + Probably of the 10th or 11th century, and highly remarkable for the + wildness of its grotesque or monstrous sculpture, which has been + most carefully rendered by the draughts-man, Mr. Bunney. + + It will save space to note that the sketches by my two most + skillful and patient helpers, Mr. A. Burgess and Mr. Bunney, will + be respectively marked (A) and (B), and my own (R). + +(3.) _Porch of the Western Entrance of the Duomo._ (Photograph.) + + Later in date--but still of 12th or very early 13th century. + Details of it are given in the next drawings. + +243. (4.) _Griffin_ (I keep the intelligible old English spelling), + _sustaining the Pillar on the North Side of the Porch seen in No. 3._ + (R.) + + Painted last summer. + + I engraved his head and breast, seen from the other side, in the + plate of "True and False Griffins," in "Modern Painters." Only the + back of the head and neck of the small dragon he holds in his + fore-claws can be seen from this side. + +(5.) _Capital of the Pillar sustained by the Griffin, of which the base + is seen in No. 4._ (A.) + + First-rate sculpture of the time, and admirably drawn. + +(6.) _Portion of decorative Lombardic molding from the South Side of the + Duomo._ (A.) + + Showing the peculiar writhing of the branched tracery with a + serpentine flexure--altogether different from the springing lines + of Gothic ornament. It would be almost impossible to draw this + better; it is much more like the real thing than a cast would be. + +(7.) _Lion, with Dragon in its claws, of Lombardic sculpture_ (now built + into a wall at Venice); _above it, head of one of the Dogs which + support the Tomb of Can Grande, at Verona._ (R.) + + The lion--in its emaciated strength, and the serpent with its vital + writhe and deadly reverted bite, are both characteristic of the + finest Lombard work. The dog's head is 14th century Gothic--a + masterpiece of broad, subtle, easy sculpture, getting expression + with every touch, and never losing the least undulation of surface, + while it utterly disdains the mere imitation of hair, or attainment + of effect by deep cutting. + + +SECTION II. NOS. 8 TO 38. GOTHIC. + +244. (8.) _North Porch of the Church of St. Fermo._ 13th century. (B.) + + Mr. Bunney's drawing is so faithful and careful as almost to enable + the spectator to imagine himself on the spot. The details of this + porch are among the most interesting in the Gothic of Italy, but I + was obliged, last year, to be content with this general view, taken + in terror of the whole being "restored"; and with the two following + drawings. + +(9.) _Base of the Central Pillar. North Porch, St. Fermo._ (B.) + + In facsimile, as nearly as possible, and of the real size, to show + the perpetual variety in the touch; and in the disposition and size + of the masses. + +(10.) _Shaft-Capitals of the Interior Arch of the North Porch, St. + Fermo._ (B.) + + Contrived so that, while appearing symmetrical, and even + monotonous, not one lobe of any of the leaves shall be like + another. + + Quite superb in the original, but grievously difficult to draw, and + losing, in this sketch, much of their grace. + +245. (11.) _Western Door of the Church of St. Anastasia, with the Tomb + of the Count of Castelbarco on the left, over the arch._ (Photograph.) + + In the door, its central pillar, carved lintels and encompassing + large pointed arch, with its deep moldings and flanking shafts, are + of the finest Veronese 13th century work. The two minor pointed + arches are of the 14th century. The flanking pilasters, with double + panels and garlands above, are the beginning of a façade intended + to have been erected in the 15th century. + + The Count of Castelbarco, the Chancellor of Can Grande della Scala, + died about the year 1330, and his tomb cannot be much later in + date. + + The details of this group of buildings are illustrated under the + numbers next in series. + +(12.) _Pillars and Lintels of the Western Door of St. Anastasia._ + (Photograph.) + + The sculpture of the lintel is first notable for its concise and + intense story of the Life of Christ. + + 1. The Annunciation. (Both Virgin and Angel kneeling.) + + 2. The Nativity. + + 3. The Epiphany. (Chosen as a sign of life giver to the + Gentiles.) + + 4. Christ bearing His Cross. (Chosen as a sign of His + personal life in its entirety.) + + 5. The Crucifixion. + + 6. The Resurrection. + + Secondly. As sculpture, this lintel shows all the principal + features of the characteristic 13th century design of Verona. + + Diminutive and stunted figures; the heads ugly in features, stern + in expression; but the drapery exquisitely disposed in minute but + not deep-cut folds. + +(13.) _The Angels on the left hand of the subject of the Resurrection in + No. 12._ (A.) + + Drawn of its actual size, excellently. + + The appearance of fusion and softness in the contours is not caused + by time, but is intentional, and reached by great skill in the + sculptor, faithfully rendered in the drawing. + +(14.) _Sketch of the Capital of the Central Pillar in No. 12._ (R.) + + (With slight notes of a 16th century bracket of a street balcony on + each side.) + + Drawn to show the fine curvatures and softness of treatment in + Veronese sculpture of widely separated periods. + +246. (15.) _Unfinished Sketch of the Castelbarco Tomb, seen from one of + the windows of the Hotel of the "Two Towers."_ (R.) + + That inn was itself one of the palaces of the Scaligers; and the + traveler should endeavor always to imagine the effect of the little + Square of Sta. Anastasia when the range of its buildings was + complete; the Castelbarco Tomb on one side, this Gothic palace on + the other, and the great door of the church between. The masonry of + the canopy of this tomb was so locked and dove-tailed that it stood + balanced almost without cement; but of late, owing to the + permission given to heavily loaded carts to pass continually under + the archway, the stones were so loosened by the vibration that the + old roof became unsafe, and was removed, and a fine smooth one of + trimly cut white stone substituted, while I was painting the rest + of the tomb, against time. Hence the unfinished condition of my + sketch the last that can ever be taken of the tomb as it was built. + +(16.) _The Castelbarco Tomb, seen laterally._ (B.) + + A most careful drawing, leaving little to be desired in realization + of the subject. It is taken so near the tomb as to make the + perspective awkward, but I liked this quaint view better than more + distant ones. + + The drawing of the archway, and of the dark gray and red masonry of + the tomb is very beautiful. + +247. (17.) _Lion with Hind in its Claws._ (A.) + + The support of the sarcophagus, under the feet of the recumbent + figure in the Castelbarco Tomb. + +(18.) _Lion with Dragon in its claws._ (A.) + + The support of the sarcophagus at the head of the figure. + +(19.) _St. Luke._ (A.) + + Sculpture of one of the four small panels at the angles of the + sarcophagus in the Castelbarco Tomb. I engraved the St. Mark for + the illustration of noble grotesque in the "Stones of Venice." But + this drawing more perfectly renders the stern touch of the old + sculptor. + +(20.) _Two of the Spurs of the bases of the Nave Pillars in the Church + of St. Anastasia._ (A.) + + Of the real size. Not generally seen in the darkness of the Church, + and very fine in their rough way. + +248. (21.) _Tomb of Can Grande, general view._ (R.) + + Put together some time since, from Photograph and Sketches taken in + the year 1852; and inaccurate, but useful in giving a general idea. + +(22.) _Tomb of Can Grande._ (R.) + + Sketch made carefully on the spot last year. The sarcophagus + unfinished; the details of it would not go into so small a space. + +(23.) _The Sarcophagus and recumbent Statue of Can Grande, drawn + separately._ (R.) + + Sketched on the spot last year. Almost a faultless type of powerful + and solemn Gothic sculpture. (Can Grande died in 1329.) + +(24.) _The Two Dogs._ (R.) + + The kneeling Madonna and sculpture of right hand upper panel of the + Sarcophagus of Can Grande. + + The drawing of the panel is of real size, representing the Knight + at the Battle of Vicenza. + +(25.) _The Cornice of the Sarcophagus of Can Grande._ (A.) + + Of its real size, admirably drawn, and quite showing the softness + and Correggio-like touch of its leafage, and its symmetrical + formality of design, while the flow of every leaf is changeful. + +249. (26.) _Study of the Sarcophagus of the Tomb of Mastino II., + Verona._ (R.) + + Sketched in 1852. + +(27.) _Head of the recumbent Statue of Mastino II._ (A.) + + Beautifully drawn by Mr. Burgess. + + Can Mastino II. had three daughters:--Madonna Beatrice (called + afterwards "the Queen," for having "tutte le grazie che i cieli + ponno concedere a femina," and always simply called by historians + Lady "Reina" della Scala), Madonna Alta-luna, and Madonna Verde. + Lady Reina married Bernabó Visconti, Duke of Milan; Lady Alta-luna, + Louis of Brandebourg; and Lady Verde, Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. + Their father died of "Sovereign melancholy" in 1350, being + forty-three years old. + +(28.) _Part of Cornice of the Sarcophagus of Mastino II._ (A.) + + One of the most beautiful Gothic cornices in Italy; its effect + being obtained with extreme simplicity of execution out of two + ridges of marble, each cut first into one united sharp edge all + along, and then drilled through, and modeled into leaf and flower. + +(29.) _Sketch, real size, of the pattern incised and painted on the + drapery of the Tomb of Can Mastino II._ (R.) + + It is worth notice for the variety of its pattern; observe, the + floral fillings of spaces resemble each other, but are never the + same. There is no end, when one begins drawing detail of this kind + carefully. Slight as it is, the sketch gives some idea of the easy + flow of the stone drapery, and of the care taken by the sculptor to + paint his pattern _as if_ it were bent at the apparent fold. + +250. (30.) _Tomb of Can Signorio della Scala._ + + Samuel Prout's sketch on the spot; (afterwards lithographed by him + in his "Sketches in France and Italy";) quite admirable in feeling, + composition, and concise abstraction of essential character. + + The family palace of the Scaligers, in which Dante was received, is + seen behind it. + +(31.) _A single niche and part of the iron-work of the Tomb of Can + Signorio._ (R.) + + As seen from the palace of the Scaligers; the remains of another + house of the same family are seen in the little street beyond. + +(32.) _Study of details of the top of the Tomb of Can Signorio._ (R.) + + Needing more work than I had time for, and quite spoiled by hurry; + but interesting in pieces here and there; look, for instance, at + the varied size and design of the crockets; and beauty of the + cornices. + +(33.) _Bracket under Sarcophagus of Giovanni della Scala._ (A.) + + Characteristic of the finest later treatment of flowing foliage. + +251. (34.) _Part of the front of the Ducal Palace, Venice._ (R.) + + Sketched, in 1852, by measurement, with extreme care; and showing + the sharp window traceries, which are rarely seen in Photographs. + +(35.) _Angle of the Ducal Palace, looking Seaward from the Piazzetta._ + (R.) + + Sketched last year, (restorations being threatened) merely to show + the way in which the light is let through the edges of the angle by + penetration of the upper capital, and of the foliage in the + sculpture below; so that the mass may not come unbroken against the + sky. + +(36.) _Photograph of the Angle Capital of Upper Arcade seen in No. 34._ + + Showing the pierced portions, and their treatment. + +(37-38.) _Capitals of the Upper Arcade._ + + Showing the grandest treatment of architectural foliage attained by + the 14th century masters; massive for all purposes of support; + exquisitely soft and refined in contour, and faultlessly composed. + + +SECTION III. TIME OF "THE MASTERS." + +252. (39.) _Study of the top of the Pilaster next the Castelbarco Tomb._ + (R.) + + The wild fig leaves are unfinished; for my assistant having + unfortunately shown his solicitude for their preservation too + energetically to some street boys who were throwing stones at them, + they got a ladder, and rooted them up the same night. The purple + and fine-grained white marbles of the pilaster are entirely + uninjured in surface by three hundred years' exposure. The coarse + white marble above has moldered, and is gray with lichens. + +(40.) _Study of the base of the same Pilaster, and connected Facade._ + (R.) + + Showing the effect of differently colored marbles arranged in + carefully inequal masses. + +253. (41.) _Interior Court of the Ducal Palace of Venice, with Giant's + Stair._ (R.) + + Sketched in 1841, and perhaps giving some characters which more + finished drawing would lose. + +(42.) _The Piazza d' Erbe, Verona._ (R.) + + Sketched in 1841, showing general effect and pretty grouping of the + later Veronese buildings. + +(43.) _Piazza de' Signori, Verona._ + + Sketched last year. Note the bill advertising Victor Hugo's "Homme + qui rit," pasted on the wall of the palace. + + The great tower is of the Gothic time. Note its noble sweep of + delicately ascending curves sloped inwards. + +(44.) _Gate of Ruined School of St. John, Venice._ (Photograph.) + + Exquisite in floral sculpture, and finish of style. + +(45.) _Hawthorn Leaves, from the base of Pilaster, in the Church of St. + Maria dé Miracoli, Venice._ (R.) + + In the finest style of floral sculpture. It cannot be surpassed for + perfectness of treatment; especially for the obtaining of life and + softness, by broad surfaces and fine grouping. + +(46.) _Basrelief from one of the Inner Doors of the Ducal Palace._ + + Very noble, and typical of the pure style. + +(47.) _St. John Baptist and other Saints._ (Cima da Conegliano.) + + Consummate work; but the photograph, though well taken, darkens it + terribly. + +(48.) _Meeting of Joachim and Anna._ (Vettor Carpaccio.) (Photograph.) + +(49.) _Madonna and Saints._ (John Bellini.) Portrait. (Mantegna.) + (Photographs.) + +(50.) _Madonna._ (John Bellini.) + + With Raphael's "Della Seggiola." Showing the first transition from + the style of the "Masters" to that of modern times. + + _The Photographs in the above series are all from the Pictures + themselves._ + + + + +CHRISTIAN ART AND SYMBOLISM.[15] + +A PREFACE. + + +254. The writer of this book has long been my friend, and in the early +days of friendship was my disciple. + +But, of late, I have been his; for he has devoted himself earnestly to +the study of forms of Christian Art which I had little opportunity of +examining, and has been animated in that study by a brightness of +enthusiasm which has been long impossible to me. Knowing this, and that +he was able perfectly to fill what must otherwise have been a rudely +bridged chasm in my teaching at Oxford, I begged him to give these +lectures, and to arrange them for press. And this he has done to please +me; and now that he has done it, I am, in one sense, anything but +pleased: for I like his writing better than my own, and am more jealous +of it than I thought it was in me to be of any good work--how much less +of my friend's! I console myself by reflecting, or at least repeating to +myself and endeavoring to think, that he could not have found out all +this if I had not shown him the way. But most deeply and seriously I am +thankful for such help, in a work far too great for my present strength; +help all the more precious because my friend can bring to the +investigation of early Christian Art, and its influence, the integrity +and calmness of the faith in which it was wrought, happier than I in +having been a personal comforter and helper of men, fulfilling his life +in daily and unquestionable duty; while I have been, perhaps wrongly, +always hesitatingly, persuading myself that it was my duty to do the +things which pleased me. + +255. Also, it has been necessary to much of my analytical work that I +should regard the art of every nation as much as possible from their own +natural point of view; and I have striven so earnestly to realize belief +which I supposed to be false, and sentiment which was foreign to my +temper, that at last I scarcely know how far I think with other people's +minds, and see with anyone's eyes but my own. Even the effort to recover +my temporarily waived conviction occasionally fails; and what was once +secured to me becomes theoretical like the rest. + +But my old scholar has been protected by his definitely directed life +from the temptations of this speculative equity; and I believe his +writings to contain the truest expression yet given in England of the +feelings with which a Christian gentleman of sense and learning should +regard the art produced in ancient days, by the dawn of the faiths which +still guide his conduct and secure his peace. + +256. On all the general principles of Art, Mr. Tyrwhitt and I are +absolutely at one; but he has often the better of me in his acute +personal knowledge of men and their ways. When we differ in our thoughts +of things, it is because we know them on contrary sides; and often his +side is that most naturally seen, and which it is most desirable to see. +There is one important matter, for instance, on which we are thus +apparently at issue, and yet are not so in reality. These lectures show, +throughout, the most beautiful and just reverence for Michael Angelo, +and are of especial value in their account of him; while the last +lecture on Sculpture,[16] which I gave at Oxford, is entirely devoted to +examining the modes in which his genius failed, and perverted that of +other men. But Michael Angelo is great enough to make praise and blame +alike necessary, and alike inadequate, in any true record of him. My +friend sees him as a traveler sees from a distance some noble mountain +range, obscure in golden clouds and purple shade; and I see him as a +sullen miner would the same mountains, wandering among their precipices +through chill of storm and snow, and discerning that their strength was +perilous and their substance sterile. Both of us see truly, both +partially; the complete truth is the witness of both. + +257. The notices of Holbein, and the English whom he painted (see +especially the sketch of Sir Thomas Wyatt in the sixth lecture), are to +my mind of singular value, and the tenor of the book throughout, as far +as I can judge--for, as I said, much of it treats of subjects with which +I am unfamiliar--so sound, and the feeling in it so warm and true, and +true in the warmth of it, that it refreshes me like the sight of the +things themselves it speaks of. New and vivid sight of them it will give +to many readers; and to all who will regard my commendation I commend +it; asking those who have hitherto credited my teaching to read these +lectures as they would my own; and trusting that others, who have +doubted me, will see reason to put faith in my friend. + + PISA, _30th April, 1872._ + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 15: Preface to the above-named book, by the Rev. St. John +Tyrwhitt. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1872.--ED.] + +[Footnote 16: See Mr. Ruskin's pamphlet on "The Relation of Michael +Angelo to Tintoret," being (although separately printed) the seventh +lecture of the course (1872) published as _Aratra Pentelici_--ED.] + + + + +ART SCHOOLS OF MEDIÆVAL CHRISTENDOM.[17] + +A PREFACE. + + +258. The number of British and American travelers who take unaffected +interest in the early art of Europe is already large, and is daily +increasing; daily also, as I thankfully perceive, feeling themselves +more and more in need of a guidebook containing as much trustworthy +indication as they can use of what they may most rationally spend their +time in examining. The books of reference published by Mr. Murray, +though of extreme value to travelers, who make it their object to see +(in his, and their, sense of the word) whatever is to be seen, are of +none whatever, or may perhaps be considered, justly, as even of quite +the reverse of value, to travelers who wish to see only what they may in +simplicity understand, and with pleasure remember; while the histories +of art, and biographies of artists, to which the more earnest student in +his novitiate must have recourse, are at once so voluminous, so vague, +and so contradictory, that I cannot myself conceive his deriving any +other benefit from their study than a deep conviction of the difficulty +of the subject, and of the incertitude of human opinions. + +259. It seemed to me, on reading the essays collected in this volume, as +they appeared in the periodical[18] for which they were written, that +the author not only possessed herself a very true discernment of the +qualities in mediæval art which were justly deserving of praise, but had +unusually clear understanding of the degree in which she might expect to +cultivate such discernment in the general mind of polite travelers; nor +have I less admired her aptitude in collation of essentially +illustrative facts, so as to bring the history of a very widely +contemplative range of art into tenable compass and very graceful and +serviceable form. Her reading, indeed, has been, with respect to many +very interesting periods of religious workmanship, much more extensive +than my own; and when I consented to edit the volume of collected +papers, it was not without the assurance of considerable advantage to +myself during the labor of revising them. + +260. The revision, however, I am sorry to say, has been interrupted and +imperfect, very necessarily the last from the ignorance I have just +confessed of more than one segment of the great illuminated field of +early religious art, to which the writer most wisely has directed equal +and symmetrical attention, and interrupted partly under extreme pressure +of other occupation, and partly in very fear of being tempted to oppress +the serenity of the general prospect, which I think these essays are +eminently calculated to open before an ingenious reader, with the stormy +chiaroscuro of my own preference and reprobation. I leave the work, +therefore, absolutely Miss Owen's, with occasional note of remonstrance, +but without retouch, though it must be distinctly understood that when I +allow my name to stand as the editor of a book, it is in no mere +compliment (if my editorship could indeed be held as such) to the genius +or merit of the author; but it means that I hold myself entirely +responsible, in main points, for the accuracy of the views advanced, and +that I wish the work to be received, by those who have confidence in my +former teaching, as an extension and application of the parts of it +which I have felt to be incomplete. + + OXFORD, _November 27, 1875._ + + NOTE.--The "notes of remonstrance" or approbation + scattered through the volume are not numerous. They are given + below, preceded in each case by the (italicized) statement or + expression: giving rise to them:-- + + (1) P. 73. "_The peculiar characteristic of the Byzantine churches + is the dome._" "Form derived first from the Catacombs. See Lord + Lindsay." + + (2) P. 89. "_The octagon baptistry at Florence, ascribed to Lombard + kings...._" "No; it is Etruscan work of pure descent." + + (3) _Id._ "_S. Michele, of Pavia, pure Lombard of seventh century, + rebuilt in tenth._" "Churches were often rebuilt with their + original sculptures. I believe many in this church to be Lombard. + See next page." + + (4) P. 95. "_The revolution begun by Rafaelle has ended in the + vulgar painting, the sentimental prints, and the colored + statuettes, which have made the religious art of the nineteenth + century a by-word for its feebleness on the one side, its + superstition on the other._" "Excellent; but my good scholar has + not distinguished vulgar from non-vulgar naturalism. Perhaps she + will as I read on." + + [Compare the last note in the book, pp. 487-8, where Miss Owen's + statement that "_the cause of Rafaelle's popularity ... has been + that predominance of exaggerated dramatic representation, which in + his pictures is visible above all moral and spiritual qualities,_" + is noted to be "Intensely and accurately true."] + + (5) P. 108. "_It may be ... it is scarcely credible._" "What does + it matter what may be or what is scarcely credible? I hope the + reader will consider what a waste of time the thinking of things is + when we can never rightly know them." + + (6) P. 109. On the statement that "_no vital school of art has ever + existed save as the expression of the vital and unquestioned faith + of a people,_" followed by some remarks on external helps to + devotion, there is a note at the word "people." "Down to this line + this page is unquestionably and entirely true. I do not answer for + the rest of the clause, but do not dispute it." + + (7) P. 113. _S. Michele at Lucca._ "The church is now only a modern + architect's copy." + + (8) P. 129. "_There is a good model of this pulpit_" (Niccola's in + the Pisan Baptistry) "_in the Kensington Museum, through which we + may learn much of the rise of Gothic sculpture._" "You cannot do + anything of the kind. Pisan sculpture can only be studied in the + original marble; half its virtue is in the chiseling." + + (9) P. 136. "_S. Donato's shrine_" (by Giovanni Picano) "_in Arezzo + Cathedral is one of the finest monuments of the Pisan school._" + "No. He tried to be too fine, and overdid it. The work is merely + accumulated commonplace." + + (10) P. 170. On Giotto drawing without compasses a circle with a + crayon, "_not a brush, with which, as Professor Ruskin explained, + the feat would have been impossible. See 'Giotto and his Works in + Padua.'_" "Don't; but practice with a camel's-hair brush till you + can do it. I knew nothing of brush-work proper when I wrote that + essay on Padua." + + (11) P. 179. In the first of the bas-reliefs of Giotto's tower at + Florence, "_Noah lies asleep, or, as Professor Ruskin maintains, + drunk._" "I don't 'maintain' anything of the sort; I _know_ it. He + is as drunk as a man can be, and the expression of drunkenness + given with deliberate and intense skill, as on the angle of the + Ducal Palace at Venice." + + (12) P. 179. On Giotto's "_astronomy, figured by an old man_" on + the same tower. "Above which are seen, by the astronomy of his + heart, the heavenly host represented above the stars." + + (13) P. 190. "_The Loggia dei Langi_" (at Florence) ... "_the round + arches, new to those times ... See Vasari._" "Vasari is an ass with + precious things in his panniers; but you must not ask his opinion + on any matter. The round arches new to those times had been the + universal structure form in all Italy, Roman or Lombard, feebly and + reluctantly pointed in the thirteenth century, and occasionally, as + in the Campo Santo of Pisa, and Orcagna's own Or San Michele, + standing within three hundred yards of the Loggia arches 'new to + those times,' filled with tracery, itself composed of intersecting + round arches. Now, it does not matter two soldi to the history of + art who _built_, but who designed and carved the Loggia. It is out + and out the grandest in Italy, and its archaic virtues themselves + are impracticable and inconceivable. I don't vouch for its being + Orcagna's, nor do I vouch for the Campo Santo frescoes being his. I + have never specially studied him; nor do I know what men of might + there were to work with or after him. But I know the Loggia to be + mighty architecture of Orcagna's style and time, and the Last + Judgment and Triumph of Death in the Campo Santo to be the sternest + lessons written on the walls of Tuscany, and worth more study alone + than English travelers usually give to Pisa, Lucca, Pistoja, and + Florence altogether." + + (14) P. 468. "_The Gothic style for churches never took root in + Venice._" "Not quite correct. The Ducal Palace traceries are shown + in the 'Stones of Venice' (vol. ii.) to have been founded on those + of the Frari." + + (15) P. 471. Mantegna. "_No feeling had he for vital beauty of + human face, or the lower creatures of the earth._" To this Miss + Owen adds in a note, "Professor Ruskin reminds me to notice here, + in qualification, Mantegna's power of painting inanimate forms, as, + _e. g._, in the trees and leaves of his Madonna of the National + Gallery. 'He is,' says Professor Ruskin, 'the most wonderful + leaf-painter of Lombardy.'" + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 17: Preface to the above-named book by Miss A. C. Owen, edited +by Mr. Ruskin. London: Mozley & Smith, 1876.--ED.] + +[Footnote 18: _The Monthly Packet._--ED.] + + + + +THE EXTENSION OF RAILWAYS IN THE LAKE DISTRICT.[19] + +A PROTEST. + + +261. The evidence collected in the following pages, in support of their +pleading, is so complete, and the summary of his cause given with so +temperate mastery by Mr. Somervell, that I find nothing to add in +circumstance, and little to re-enforce in argument. And I have less +heart to the writing even of what brief preface so good work might by +its author's courtesy be permitted to receive from me, occupied as I so +long have been in efforts tending in the same direction, because, on +that very account, I am far less interested than my friend in this local +and limited resistance to the elsewhere fatally victorious current of +modern folly, cruelty, and ruin. When the frenzy of avarice is daily +drowning our sailors, suffocating our miners, poisoning our children, +and blasting the cultivable surface of England into a treeless waste of +ashes,[20] what does it really matter whether a flock of sheep, more or +less, be driven from the slopes of Helvellyn, or the little pool of +Thirlmere filled with shale, or a few wild blossoms of St. John's vale +lost to the coronal of English spring? Little to anyone; and--let me say +this, at least, in the outset of all saying--_nothing_ to _me_. No one +need charge me with selfishness in any word or action for defense of +these mossy hills. I do not move, with such small activity as I have yet +shown in the business, because I live at Coniston (where no sound of the +iron wheels by Dunmail Raise can reach me), nor because I can find no +other place to remember Wordsworth by, than the daffodil margin of his +little Rydal marsh. What thoughts and work are yet before me, such as he +taught, must be independent of any narrow associations. All my own dear +mountain grounds and treasure-cities, Chamouni, Interlachen, Lucerne, +Geneva, Venice, are long ago destroyed by the European populace; and +now, for my own part, I don't care what more they do; they may drain +Loch Katrine, drink Loch Lomond, and blow all Wales and Cumberland into +a heap of slate shingle; the world is wide enough yet to find me some +refuge during the days appointed for me to stay in it. But it is no less +my duty, in the cause of those to whom the sweet landscapes of England +are yet precious, and to whom they may yet teach what they taught me, in +early boyhood, and would still if I had it now to learn,--it is my duty +to plead with what earnestness I may, that these sacred sibylline books +may be redeemed from perishing. + +262. But again, I am checked, because I don't know how to speak to the +persons who _need_ to be spoken to in this matter. + +Suppose I were sitting, where still, in much-changed Oxford, I am happy +to find myself, in one of the little latticed cells of the Bodleian +Library, and my kind and much-loved friend, Mr. Coxe, were to come to me +with news that it was proposed to send nine hundred excursionists +through the library every day, in three parties of three hundred each; +that it was intended they should elevate their minds by reading all the +books they could lay hold of while they stayed;--and that practically +scientific persons accompanying them were to look out for and burn all +the manuscripts that had any gold in their illuminations, that the said +gold might be made of practical service; but that he, Mr. Coxe, could +not, for his part, sympathize with the movement, and hoped I would write +something in deprecation of it! As I should then feel, I feel now, at +Mr. Somervell's request that I would write him a preface in defense of +Helvellyn. What could I say for Mr. Coxe? Of course, that nine hundred +people should see the library daily, instead of one, is only fair to the +nine hundred, and if there is gold in the books, is it not public +property? If there is copper or slate in Helvellyn, shall not the public +burn or hammer it out--and they say they will, of course--in spite of +us? What does it signify to _them_ how we poor old quiet readers in this +mountain library feel? True, we know well enough,--what the nine hundred +excursionist scholars don't--that the library can't be read quite +through in a quarter of an hour; also, that there is a pleasure in real +reading, quite different from that of turning pages; and that gold in a +missal, or slate in a crag, may be more precious than in a bank or a +chimney-pot. But how are these practical people to credit us,--these, +who cannot read, nor ever will; and who have been taught that nothing is +virtuous but care for their bellies, and nothing useful but what goes +into them? + +263. Whether to be credited or not, the real facts of the matter, made +clear as they are in the following pages, can be briefly stated for the +consideration of any candid person. + +The arguments in favor of the new railway are in the main four, and may +be thus answered. + +1. "There are mineral treasures in the district capable of development." + +_Answer._ It is a wicked fiction, got up by whosoever has got it up, +simply to cheat shareholders. Every lead and copper vein in Cumberland +has been known for centuries; the copper of Coniston does not pay; and +there is none so rich in Helvellyn. And the main central volcanic rocks, +through which the track lies, produce neither slate nor hematite, while +there is enough of them at Llanberis and Dalton to roof and iron-grate +all England into one vast Bedlam, if it honestly perceives itself in +need of that accommodation. + +2. "The scenery must be made accessible to the public." + +_Answer._ It is more than accessible already; the public are pitched +into it head-foremost, and necessarily miss two-thirds of it. The Lake +scenery really begins, on the south, at Lancaster, where the Cumberland +hills are seen over Morecambe Bay; on the north, at Carlisle, where the +moors of Skiddaw are seen over the rich plains between them and the +Solway. No one who loves mountains would lose a step of the approach, +from these distances, on either side. But the stupid herds of modern +tourists let themselves be emptied, like coals from a sack, at +Windermere and Keswick. Having got there, what the new railway has to do +is to shovel those who have come to Keswick to Windermere, and to shovel +those who have come to Windermere to Keswick. And what then? + +3. "But cheap and swift transit is necessary for the working population, +who otherwise could not see the scenery at all." + +_Answer._ After all your shrieking about what the operatives spend in +drink, can't you teach them to save enough out of their year's wages to +pay for a chaise and pony for a day, to drive Missis and the Baby that +pleasant twenty miles, stopping when they like, to unpack the basket on +a mossy bank? If they can't enjoy the scenery that way, they can't any +way; and all that your railroad company can do for them is only to open +taverns and skittle grounds round Grasmere, which will soon, then, be +nothing but a pool of drainage, with a beach of broken gingerbeer +bottles; and their minds will be no more improved by contemplating the +scenery of such a lake than of Blackpool. + +4. What else is to be said? I protest I can find nothing, unless that +engineers and contractors must live. Let them live, but in a more useful +and honorable way than by keeping Old Bartholomew Fair under Helvellyn, +and making a steam merry-go-round of the lake country. + +There are roads to be mended, where the parish will not mend them, +harbors of refuge needed, where our deck-loaded ships are in helpless +danger; get your commissions and dividends where you know that work is +needed, not where the best you can do is to persuade pleasure-seekers +into giddier idleness. + +264. The arguments brought forward by the promoters of the railway may +thus be summarily answered. Of those urged in the following pamphlet in +defense of the country as it is, I care only myself to direct the +reader's attention to one (see pp. 27, 28), the certainty, namely, of +the deterioration of moral character in the inhabitants of every +district penetrated by a railway. Where there is little moral character +to be lost, this argument has small weight. But the Border peasantry of +Scotland and England, painted with absolute fidelity by Scott and +Wordsworth (for leading types out of this exhaustless portraiture, I may +name Dandie Dinmont and Michael), are hitherto a scarcely injured race, +whose strength and virtue yet survive to represent the body and soul of +England before her days of mechanical decrepitude and commercial +dishonor. There are men working in my own fields who might have fought +with Henry the Fifth at Agincourt without being discerned from among his +knights; I can take my tradesmen's word for a thousand pounds; my garden +gate opens on the latch to the public road, by day and night, without +fear of any foot entering but my own, and my girl-guests may wander by +road, or moorland, or through every bosky dell of this wild wood, free +as the heather bees or squirrels. + +What effect, on the character of such a population, will be produced by +the influx of that of the suburbs of our manufacturing towns, there is +evidence enough, if the reader cares to ascertain the facts, in every +newspaper on his morning table. + +265. And now one final word concerning the proposed beneficial effect on +the minds of those whom you send to corrupt us. + +I have said I take no selfish interest in this resistance to the +railroad. But I do take an unselfish one. It is precisely because I +passionately wish to improve the minds of the populace, and because I am +spending my own mind, strength, and fortune, wholly on that object, that +I don't want to let them see Helvellyn while they are drunk. I suppose +few men now living have so earnestly felt--none certainly have so +earnestly declared--that the beauty of nature is the blessedest and most +necessary of lessons for men; and that all other efforts in education +are futile till you have taught your people to love fields, birds, and +flowers. Come then, my benevolent friends, join with me in that +teaching. I have been at it all my life, and without pride, do solemnly +assure you that I know how it is to be managed. I cannot indeed tell +you, in this short preface, how, completely, to fulfill so glorious a +task. But I can tell you clearly, instantly, and emphatically, in what +temper you must set about it. _Here_ are you, a Christian, a gentleman, +and a trained scholar; _there_ is your subject of education--a Godless +clown, in helpless ignorance. You can present no more blessed offering +to God than that human creature, raised into faith, gentleness, and the +knowledge of the works of his Lord. But observe this--you must not hope +to make so noble an offering to God of that which doth cost you nothing! +You must be resolved to labor, and to lose, yourself, before you can +rescue this overlabored lost sheep, and offer it alive to its Master. If +then, my benevolent friend, you are prepared to take out your two pence, +and to give them to the hosts here in Cumberland, saying--"Take care of +him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, I will repay thee when I come to +Cumberland myself," on _these_ terms--oh my benevolent friends, I am +with you, hand and glove, in every effort you wish to make for the +enlightenment of poor men's eyes. But if your motive is, on the +contrary, to put two pence into your own purse, stolen between the +Jerusalem and Jericho of Keswick and Ambleside, out of the poor drunken +traveler's pocket;--if your real object, in your charitable offering, +is, not even to lend unto the Lord by _giving_ to the poor, but to lend +unto the Lord by making a dividend out of the poor;--then, my pious +friends, enthusiastic Ananias, pitiful Judas, and sanctified Korah, I +will do my best in God's name, to stay your hands, and stop your +tongues. + +BRANTWOOD, _22nd June, 1876._ + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 19: Preface to a pamphlet (1876) entitled "A Protest against +the Extension of Railways in the Lake District," compiled by Robert +Somervell (Windermere, J. Garnett; London, Simpkin, Marshall & Co.). The +pamphlet also contained a printed announcement as follows:--"The author +of 'Modern Painters' earnestly requests all persons who may have taken +interest in his writings, or who have any personal regard for him, to +assist him now in the circulation of the inclosed paper, drawn up by his +friend Mr. Somervell, for the defense of the Lake District of England, +and to press the appeal, so justly and temperately made in it, on the +attention of their personal friends."--ED.] + +[Footnote 20: See--the illustration being coincidently given as I +correct this page for press--the description of the horrible service, +and history of the fatal explosion of dynamite, on the once lovely +estates of the Duke of Hamilton, in the _Hamilton Advertiser_ of 10th +and 17th June.] + + + + +THE STUDY OF BEAUTY AND ART IN LARGE TOWNS.[21] + + +266. I have been asked by Mr. Horsfall to write a few words of +introduction to the following papers. The trust is a frank one, for our +friendship has been long and intimate enough to assure their author that +my feelings and even practical convictions in many respects differ from +his, and in some, relating especially to the subjects here treated of, +are even opposed to his; so that my private letters (which, to speak +truth, he never attends to a word of) are little more than a series of +exhortations to him to sing--once for all--the beautiful Cavalier ditty +of "Farewell, Manchester," and pour the dew of his artistic benevolence +on less recusant ground. Nevertheless, as assuredly he knows much more +of his own town than I do, and as his mind is evidently made up to do +the best he can for it, the only thing left for me to do is to help him +all I can in the hard task he has set himself, or, if I can't help, at +least to bear witness to the goodness of the seed he has set himself to +sow among thorns. For, indeed, the principles on which he is working are +altogether true and sound; and the definitions and defense of them, in +this pamphlet, are among the most important pieces of Art teaching which +I have ever met with in recent English literature; in past +Art-literature there cannot of course be anything parallel to them, +since the difficulties to be met and mischiefs to be dealt with are +wholly of to-day. And in all the practical suggestions and +recommendations given in the following pages I not only concur, but am +myself much aided as I read them in the giving form to my own plans for +the museum at Sheffield; nor do I doubt that they will at once commend +themselves to every intelligent and candid reader. But, to my own mind, +the statements of principle on which these recommendations are based are +far the more valuable part of the writings, for these are true and +serviceable for all time, and in all places; while in simplicity and +lucidity they are far beyond any usually to be found in essays on Art, +and the political significance of the laws thus defined is really, I +believe, here for the first time rightly grasped and illustrated. + +267. Of these, however, the one whose root is deepest and range widest +will be denied by many readers, and doubted by others, so that it may be +well to say a word or two farther in its interpretation and defense--the +saying, namely, that "faith cannot dwell in hideous towns," and that +"familiarity with beauty is a most powerful aid to belief." This is a +curious saying, in front of the fact that the primary force of +infidelity in the Renaissance times was its pursuit of carnal beauty, +and that nowadays (at least, so far as my own experience reaches) more +faith may be found in the back streets of most cities than in the fine +ones. Nevertheless the saying is wholly true, first, because carnal +beauty is not true beauty; secondly, because, rightly judged, the fine +streets of most modern towns are more hideous than the back ones; +lastly--and this is the point on which I must enlarge--because +universally the first condition to the believing there is Order in +Heaven is the Sight of Order upon Earth; Order, that is to say, not the +result of physical law, but of some spiritual power prevailing over it, +as, to take instances from my own old and favorite subject, the ordering +of the clouds in a beautiful sunset, which corresponds to a painter's +invention of them, or the ordering of the colors on a bird's wing, or of +the radiations of a crystal of hoarfrost or of sapphire, concerning any +of which matters men, so called of science, are necessarily and forever +silent, because the distribution of colors in spectra and the relation +of planes in crystals are final and causeless facts, _orders_, that is +to say, not _laws_. And more than this, the infidel temper which is +incapable of perceiving this spiritual beauty has an instant and +constant tendency to delight in the reverse of it, so that practically +its investigation is always, by preference, of forms of death or disease +and every state of disorder and dissolution, the affectionate analysis +of vice in modern novels being a part of the same science. And, to keep +to my own special field of study--the order of clouds,--there is a +grotesquely notable example of the connection between infidelity and the +sense of ugliness in a paper in the last _Contemporary Review_, in which +an able writer, who signs Vernon Lee, but whose personal view or purpose +remains to the close of the essay inscrutable, has rendered with +considerable acuteness and animation the course of a dialogue between +one of the common modern men about town who are the parasites of their +own cigars and two more or less weak and foolish friends of hesitatingly +adverse instincts: the three of them, however, practically assuming +their own wisdom to be the highest yet attained by the human race; and +their own diversion on the mountainous heights of it being by the aspect +of a so-called "preposterous" sunset, described in the following +terms:-- + + * * * * * + +A brilliant light, which seemed to sink out of the landscape all its +reds and yellows, and with them all life; bleaching the yellowing +cornfields and brown heath; but burnishing into demoniac[22] energy of +color the pastures and oak woods, brilliant against the dark sky, as if +filled with green fire. + +Along the roadside the poppies, which an ordinary sunset makes flame, +were quite extinguished, like burnt-out embers; the yellow hearts of the +daisies were quite lost, merged into their shining white petals. And, +striking against the windows of the old black and white checkered farm +(a ghastly skeleton in this light), it made them not flare, nay, not +redden in the faintest degree, but reflect a brilliant speck of white +light. Everything was unsubstantial, yet not as in a mist, nay, rather +substantial, but flat, as if cut out of paper and pasted on the black +branches and green leaves, the livid, glaring houses, with roofs of +dead, scarce perceptible rod (as when an iron turning white-hot from +red-hot in the stithy grows also dull and dim). + +"It looks like the eve of the coming of Antichrist, as described in +mediæval hymns," remarked Vere: "the sun, before setting nevermore to +rise, sucking all life out of the earth, leaving it but a mound of livid +cinders, barren and crumbling, through which the buried nations will +easily break their way when they rise." + + * * * * * + +As I have above said, I do not discern the purpose of the writer of this +paper; but it would be impossible to illustrate more clearly this +chronic insanity of infidel thought which makes all nature spectral; +while, with exactly correspondent and reflective power, whatever _is_ +dreadful or disordered in external things reproduces itself in disease +of the human mind affected by them. + + * * * * * + +268. The correspondent relations of beauty to morality are illustrated +in the following pages in a way which leaves little to be desired, and +scarcely any room for dissent; but I have marked for my own future +reference the following passages, of which I think it will further the +usefulness of the book that the reader should initially observe the +contents and connection.[23] + +1 (p. 15, line 6--10). Our idea of beauty in all things depends on what +we believe they ought to be and do. + +2 (p. 17, line 8--17). Pleasure is most to be found in safe and pure +ways, and the greatest happiness of life is to have a great many +_little_ happinesses. + +3 (p. 24, line 10--30). The wonder and sorrow that in a country +possessing an Established Church, no book exists which can be put into +the hands of youth to show them the best things that can be done in +life, and prevent their wasting it. + +4 (p. 28, line 21--36). There is every reason to believe that +susceptibility to beauty can be gained through proper training in +childhood by almost everyone. + +5 (p. 29, line 33--35). But if we are to attain to either a higher +morality or a strong love of beauty, such attainment must be the result +of a strenuous effort and a strong will. + +6 (p. 41, line 16--22). Rightness of form and aspect must first be shown +to the people in things which interest them, and about the rightness of +appearance in which it is possible for them to care a great deal. + +7 (p. 42, line 1--10). And, therefore, rightness of appearance of the +bodies, and the houses, and the actions of the people of these large +towns, is of more importance than rightness of appearance in what is +usually called art, and pictures of noble action and passion and of +beautiful scenery are of far greater value than art in things which +cannot deeply affect human thought and feeling. + +The practical suggestions which, deduced from these principles, occupy +the greater part of Mr. Horsfall's second paper, exhibit an untried +group of resources in education; and it will be to myself the best +encouragement in whatever it has been my hope to institute of Art School +at Oxford if the central influence of the University may be found +capable of extension by such means, in methods promoting the general +happiness of the people of England. + +BRANTWOOD, _28th June, 1883._ + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 21: Introduction by Mr. Ruskin to a pamphlet entitled "The +Study of Beauty and Art in Large Towns, two papers by T. C. Horsfall" +(London, Macmillan & Co., 1883). The first of the two papers was +originally read at the Congress at Nottingham of the Social Science +Association, and the second at the Manchester Field Naturalists' +Society.--ED.] + +[Footnote 22: See "Art of England."] + +[Footnote 23: The passages referred to are as follows:-- + +1. "Our idea of what beauty is in human being's, in pictures, in houses, +in chairs, in animals, in cities, in everything, in short, which we know +to have a use, in the main depends on what we believe that human beings, +pictures, and the rest ought to be and do. + +2. "Every bank in every country lane, every bush, every tree, the sky by +day and by night, every aspect of nature, is full of beautiful form or +color, or of both, for those whose eyes and hearts and brains have been +opened to perceive beauty. Richter has somewhere said that man's +_greatest_ defect is that he has such a lot of _small_ ones. With equal +truth it may be said that the greatest happiness man can have is to have +a great many little happinesses, and therefore a strong love of beauty, +which enables almost every square inch of unspoiled country to give us +pleasant sensations, is one of the best possessions we can have. + +3. "It must be evident to everyone who watches life carefully that +hardly anyone reaches the objects which all should live for who does not +strive to reach them, and that at present not one person in a hundred so +much as knows what are the objects which should be sought in life. It is +astounding, therefore, that in a country which possesses an Established +Church, richly endowed universities, and even several professors of +education, no book exists which can be put into the hands of every +intelligent youth, and of every intelligent father and mother, showing +what our wisest and best men believe are the best things which can be +done in life, and what is the kind of training which makes the doing of +these things most easy. It is often said that each of us can profit only +by his own experience, but no one believes that. No one can see how many +well-meaning persons mistake means for ends and drift into error and +sin, simply because neither they nor their parents have known what +course should be steered, and what equipment is needed, in the voyage of +life,--no one can see this and doubt that a 'guidebook to life,' +containing the results of the comparison of the experiences of even +half-a-dozen able and sincere men, would save countless people from +wasting their lives as most lives are now wasted. + +4. "That which is true with regard to music is true with regard to +beauty of form and color. Because a great many grown-up people, in spite +of great efforts, find it impossible to sing correctly or even to +perceive any pleasantness in music, it used to be commonly supposed that +a great many people are born without the power of gaining love of, and +skill in, music. Now it is known that it is a question of early +training, that in every thousand children there are very few,--not, I +believe, on an average, more than two or three,--who cannot gain the +power of singing correctly and of enjoying music, if they are taught +well in childhood while their nervous system can still easily form +habits and has not yet formed the habit of being insensible to +differences of sound. + +"There is every reason to believe that susceptibility to beauty of form +and color can also be gained through proper training in childhood by +almost everyone. + +5. "In such circumstances as ours there is no such thing as 'a _wise_ +passiveness.' If we are to attain to a high morality or to strong love +of beauty, attainment must be the result of strenuous effort, of strong +will. + +6. "The principle I refer to is, that, as art is the giving of right or +beautiful form, or of beautiful or right appearance, if we desire to +make people take keen interest in art, if we desire to make them love +good art, we must show it them when applied to things which themselves +are very interesting to them, and about the rightness of appearance of +which it is therefore possible for them to care a great deal. + +7. "Success in bringing the influence of art to bear on the masses of +the population in large towns, or on any set of people who have to earn +their bread and have not time to acquire an unhealthy appetite for +nonsense verses or nonsense pictures, will certainly only be attained by +persons who know that art is important just in proportion to the +importance of that which it clothes, and who themselves feel that +rightness of appearance of the bodies, and the houses, and the actions, +in short of the whole life, of the population of those large towns which +are now, or threaten soon to be, 'England,' is of far greater importance +than rightness of appearance in all that which is usually called 'art,' +and who feel, to speak of only the fine arts, that rightness of +appearance in pictures of noble action and passion, and of beautiful +scenery, love of which is almost a necessary of mental health, is of far +greater importance than art can be in things which cannot deeply affect +human thought and feeling."--ED.] + + + * * * * * + + +NOTES ON NATURAL SCIENCE. + +THE COLOR OF THE RHINE. 1834. + +THE STRATA OF MONT BLANC. 1834. + +THE INDURATION OF SANDSTONE. 1836. + +THE TEMPERATURE OF SPRING AND RIVER WATER. 1836. + +METEOROLOGY. 1839. + + * * * + +TREE TWIGS. 1861. + +STRATIFIED ALPS OF SAVOY. 1863. + +INTELLECTUAL CONCEPTION AND ANIMATED LIFE. 1871. + + + * * * * * + + +INQUIRIES ON THE CAUSES OF THE COLOR OF THE WATER OF THE RHINE.[24] + + +269. I do not think the causes of the color of transparent water have +been sufficiently ascertained. I do not mean that effect of color which +is simply optical, as the color of the sea, which is regulated by the +sky above or the state of the atmosphere, but I mean the settled color +of transparent water, which has, when analyzed, been found pure. Now, +copper will tinge water green, and that very strongly; but water thus +impregnated will not be transparent, and will deposit the copper it +holds in solution upon any piece of iron which may be thrown into it. +There is a lake in a defile on the northwest flank of Snowdon, which is +supplied by a stream which previously passes over several veins of +copper; this lake is, of course, of a bright verdigris green, but it is +not transparent. Now the coloring effect, of which I speak, is well seen +in the water of the Rhone and Rhine. The former of these rivers, when it +enters the Lake of Geneva, after having received the torrents descending +from the mountains of the Valais, is fouled with mud, or white with the +calcareous matter which it holds in solution. Having deposited this in +the Lake Leman[25] (thereby gradually forming an immense delta), it +issues from the lake perfectly pure, and flows through the streets of +Geneva so transparent, that the bottom can be seen twenty feet below the +surface, jet so blue, that you might imagine it to be a solution of +indigo. In like manner, the Rhine, after purifying itself in the Lake of +Constance, flows forth, colored of a clear green, and this under all +circumstances and in all weathers. It is sometimes said that this arises +from the torrents which supply these rivers generally flowing from the +glaciers, the green and blue color of which may have given rise to this +opinion; but the color of the ice is purely optical, as the fragments +detached from the mass appear white. Perhaps some correspondent can +afford me information on the subject. + + J. R.[26] + +_March, 1834._ + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 24: From London's _Magazine of Natural History_ (London, +Longmans & Co., 1834), vol. vii., No. 41, pp. 438-9, being its author's +earliest contribution to literature.--ED.] + +[Footnote 25: This lake, however, if the poet have spoken truly, is not +very feculent:-- + + "Lake Leman woos me with its crystal face, + The mirror where the stars and mountains view + The stillness of their aspect in each trace + Its clear depth yields of their far height and hue." + +BYRON.] + +[Footnote 26: In the number of the magazine in which this note appeared +was an article by "E. L." on the perforation of a leaden pipe by rats, +upon which, in a subsequent number (Vol. vii., p. 592), J. R. notes as +follows: "E. S. has been, surely, too inattentive to proportions: there +is an inconsistency in the dimensions of a leaden pipe about 1-1/4 in. in +external diameter, with a bore of about 3/4 in. in diameter; thus leaving +a solid circumference of metal varying from 1/2 in. to 3/4 in. in +thickness.--_J. R._, _Sept. 1834._"--ED.] + + + + +FACTS AND CONSIDERATIONS ON THE STRATA OF MONT BLANC, AND ON SOME +INSTANCES OF TWISTED STRATA OBSERVABLE IN SWITZERLAND.[27] + + +270. The granite ranges of Mont Blanc are as interesting to the +geologist as they are to the painter. The granite is dark red, often +inclosing veins of quartz, crystallized and compact, and likewise +well-formed crystals of schorl. The average elevation of its range of +peaks, which extends from Mont Blanc to the Tète Noire, is about 12,000 +English feet above the level of the sea. [The highest culminating point +is 15,744 feet.] The Aiguille de Servoz, and that of Dru, are excellent +examples of the pyramidal and spiratory formation which these granite +ranges in general assume. They rise out of immense fields of snow, but, +being themselves too steep for snow to rest upon, form red, bare, and +inaccessible peaks, which even the chamois scarcely dares to climb. +Their bases appear sometimes abutted (if I may so speak) by mica slate, +which forms the southeast side of the Valley of Chamonix, whose flanks, +if intersected, might appear as (in _fig._ 72), _a_, granite, forming on +the one side (B) the Mont Blanc, on the other (C) the Mont Breven; _b_, +mica slate resting on the base of Mont Blanc, and which contains +amianthus and quartz, in which capillary crystals of titanium occur; +_c_, calcareous rock; _d_, alluvium, forming the Valley of Chamonix. I +should have mentioned that the granite appears to contain a small +quantity of gold, as that metal is found among the granite débris and +siliceous sand of the river Arve [_Bakewell_, i. 375]; and I have two +or three specimens in which chlorite (both compact and in minute +crystals) occupies the place of mica. + + J. R. + +_March_, 1834. + + * * * * * + +With this paper were printed some observations on it by the Rev. W. B. +Clarke, after which (p. 648) appears the following note by J. R. + + * * * * * + +271. "TWISTED STRATA.--The contortions of the limestone at the +fall of the Nant d'Arpenaz, on the road from Geneva to Chamonix, are +somewhat remarkable. The rock is a hard dark brown limestone, forming +part of a range of secondary cliffs, which rise from 500 feet to 1000 +feet above the defile which they border. The base itself is about 800 +feet high. The strata bend very regularly except at _e_ and _f_,[28] +where they appear to have been fractured. + + * * * * * + +_To what Properties in Nature is it owing that the Stones in Buildings, +formed originally of the frailest Materials, gradually become indurated +by Exposure to the Atmosphere and by Age, and stand the Wear and Tear of +Time and Weather every bit as well, in some instances much better, than +the hardest and most compact Limestones and Granite?_[29] + +272. In addition to the fact mentioned by Mr. Hunter[30] relative to the +induration of soft sandstone, I would adduce an excellent example of the +same effect in the cathedral of Basle, in Switzerland. The cathedral is +wholly built of a soft coarse-grained sandstone, of so deep a red as to +resemble long-burned brick. The numerous and delicate ornaments and fine +tracery on the exterior are in a state of excellent preservation, and +present none of the moldering appearance so common in old cathedrals +that are built of stone which, when quarried, was much harder than this +sandstone. The pavement in the interior is composed of the same +material; and, as almost every slab is a tomb, it is charged with the +arms, names, and often statues in low relief, of those who lie below, +delicately sculptured in the soft material. Yet, though these sculptures +have been worn for ages by the feet of multitudes, they are very little +injured; they still stand out in bold and distinct relief: not an +illegible letter, not an untraceable ornament is to be found; and it is +said, and I believe with truth, that they have now grown so hard as not +to be in the least degree farther worn by the continual tread of +thousands; and that the longer the stone is exposed to the air, the +harder it becomes. The cathedral was built in 1019. + +273. The causes of the different effects of air on stone must be +numerous, and the investigation of them excessively difficult. With +regard, first, to rocks _en masse_, if their structure be crystalline, +or their composition argillaceous, the effect of the air will, I think, +ordinarily, be found injurious. Thus, in granite, which has a kind of +parallelogrammatic cleavage, water introduces itself into the fissures, +and the result, in a sharp frost, will be a disintegration of the rocks +_en masse_; and, if the felspar be predominant in the composition of the +granite, it will be subject to a rapid decomposition. The morvine of +some of the Chamouni and Allée Blanche glaciers is composed of a white +granite, being chiefly composed of quartz and felspar, with a little +chlorite. The sand and gravel at the edge of these glaciers appears far +more the result of decomposition than attrition. All finely foliated +rocks, slates, etc., are liable to injury from frost or wet weather. The +road of the Simplon, on the Italian side, is in some parts dangerous in, +or after, wet weather, on account of the rocks of slate continually +falling from the overhanging mountains above; this, however, is mere +disintegration, not decomposition. Not so with the breccias of Central +Switzerland. The rock of Righi is composed of pebbles of different +kinds, joined by a red argillaceous gluten. When this rock has not been +exposed to the air, it is very hard: you may almost as easily break the +pebbles as detach them from their matrix; but, when exposed for a few +years to wind and weather, the matrix becomes soft, and the pebbles may +be easily detached. I was struck with the difference between this rock +and a breccia at Epinal, in France, where the matrix was a red +sandstone, like that of the cathedral at Basle. Here, though the rock +had every appearance of having been long exposed to the air, it was as +hard as iron; and it was utterly impossible to detach any of the pebbles +from the bed: it was difficult even to break the rock at all. I cannot +positively state that the gluten in these sandstones is calcareous, but +I suppose it to have been so. Compact calcareous rock, as far as I +remember, appears to be subject to no injury from the weather. Many +churches in Italy, and almost the whole cities of Venice and Genoa, are +built of very fine marble; and the perfection of the delicate carvings, +however aged, is most remarkable. I remember a church, near Pavia, +coated with the finest and most expensive marbles; a range of +beautifully sculptured medallions running round its base, though old, +were as distinct and fine in their execution as if they had just come +out of the sculptor's studio. If, therefore, the gluten of the sandstone +be either calcareous or siliceous, it will naturally produce the effect +above alluded to, though it is certainly singular that the stone should +be soft when first quarried. Sandstone is a rock in which you seldom see +many cracks or fissures in the strata: they are generally continuous and +solid. Now, there may be a certain degree of density in the mass, which +could not be increased without producing, as in granite, fissures +running through it: the particles may be supposed to be held in a +certain degree of tension, and there may be a tendency to what the +French call _assaissement_ (I do not know the English term), which is, +nevertheless, resisted by the stone _en masse_; and a quantity of water +may likewise be held, not in a state of chemical combination, but in one +of close mixture with the rock. On being broken or quarried, the +_assaissement_ may take place, the particles of stone may draw closer +together, the attraction become stronger; and, on the exposure to the +air, the water, however intimately combined, will, in a process of +years, be driven off, occasioning the consolidation of the calcareous, +and the near approach of the siliceous, particles, and a consequent +gradual induration of the whole body of the stone. I offer this +supposition with all diffidence; there may be many other causes, which +cannot be developed until proper experiments have been made. It would be +interesting to ascertain the relative hardness of different specimens of +sandstone, taken from different depths in a bed, the surface of which +was exposed to the air, as of specimens exposed to the air for different +lengths of time. + + J. R. + +HERNE HILL, _July 25, 1836._ + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 27: London's _Magazine of Natural History_, Vol. vii., pp. +644-5. The note was illustrated by engravings from two sketches by the +author of the Aiguille de Servoz and of the Aiguille Dru, and by a +diagram explanatory of its last sentence but one.--ED.] + +[Footnote 28: "A small neat copy of a sketch carefully taken on the +spot," which, according to the editor of the magazine, accompanied this +communication, was not, however, published. See the magazine.--ED.] + +[Footnote 29: Loudon's _Magazine of Natural History_, Vol. ix., No. 65, +pp. 488-90.--ED.] + +[Footnote 30: The question here discussed was originally asked in the +magazine (Vol. ix., pp. 379-80) by Mr. W. Perceval Hunter with reference +to the condition of Bodiam Castle, in Sussex.--ED.] + + + + +OBSERVATIONS ON THE CAUSES WHICH OCCASION THE VARIATION OF TEMPERATURE +BETWEEN SPRING AND RIVER WATER.--BY J. R.[31] + + +274. The difference in temperature between river and spring water, which +gives rise to the query of your correspondent Indigena (p. 491),[32] may +be the result of many causes, the principal of which is, however, +without doubt, the interior heat of the earth. It is a well known fact, +that this heat increases in a considerable ratio as we descend, making a +difference of several degrees between the temperature of the earth at +its surface and at depths of 500 or 600 feet; raising, of course, the +temperature of all springs which have their source at even moderate +depths, and entirely securing them from the effects of frost, which, it +is well known, cannot penetrate the earth to a greater depth than 3 or 4 +ft. + +275. Many instances might be given of the strong effect of this interior +heat. The glaciers of the Alps, for instance, frequently cover an extent +of three or four square leagues, with a mass of ice 400, 500, or even +600 feet deep, thus entirely preventing the access of exterior heat to +the soil; yet the radiation of heat from the ground itself is so +powerful as to dissolve the ice very rapidly, and to occasion streams of +no inconsiderable size beneath the ice, whose temperature, in summer, +is, I believe, as far as can be ascertained, not many degrees below that +of streams exposed to the air; and the radiation of heat from the water +of these streams forms vaults under the ice, which are frequently 40 ft. +or 50 ft. above the water; and which are formed, as a glance will show, +not by the force of the stream, which would only tear itself a broken +cave sufficient for its passage, but by the heat which radiates from it, +and gives the arch its immense height, and beautifully regular form. + +These streams continue to flow in winter as well as in summer, although +in less quantity; and it is this process which chiefly prevents the +glacier from increasing in size; for the melting at the surface is, in +comparison, very inconsiderable, even in summer, the wind being cold, +the sun having little power, and slight frosts being frequent during the +night. It is also this melting beneath the ice (subglacial, suppose we +call it) which loosens the ice from the ground, and occasions, or rather +permits, the perpetual downward movement, with which + + "The glacier's cold and restless mass + Moves onward day by day." + +276. But more forcible and striking evidence is afforded by experiments +made in mines of great depth. Between 60 ft. and 80 ft. down, the +temperature of the earth is, I believe, the same at all times and in all +places; and below this depth it gradually increases. Near Bex, in the +Valais, there is a perpendicular shaft 677 ft. deep, or about 732 ft. +English, with water at the bottom, the temperature of which was +ascertained by Saussure. He does not tell us whether he used Réaumur's +or the centesimal thermometer; but the result of his experiment was +this:--In a lateral gallery, connected with the main shaft, but +deserted, and, therefore, unaffected by breath or the heat of lamps, at +321 ft. 10 in. below the surface, the temperature of the water and the +air was exactly the same, 11-1/2°; or, if the centesimal thermometer was +used, 52-4/5 Fahr.; if Réaumur's, 57-7/8 Fahr. + +277. In another gallery, 564 feet below the surface, the water and air +had likewise the same temperature, 12-1/2°, either 54-4/5 or 6O-1/4 +Fahr. The water at the bottom, 677 feet, was 14°, 57-1/2 or 63-1/4 Fahr. +The ratio in which the heat increases, therefore, increased as we +descend, since a difference of 113 feet between the depth of the bottom +of the shaft and the lowest gallery makes a greater difference in +temperature than the difference of 243 feet between the lowest and upper +gallery. This heat is the more striking when it is considered that the +water is impregnated with salt; indeed, Saussure appears inclined to +consider it accidental, perhaps occasioned by the combustion of pyrites, +or other causes in the interior of the mountain ("Voyages dans les +Alpes," tom. iv., c. 50). All experiments of this kind, indeed, are +liable to error, from the frequent occurrence of warm springs, and other +accidental causes of increase in temperature. The water at the bottom of +deep lakes is always found several degrees colder than the atmosphere, +even when the water at the surface is warmer: but that may be accounted +for by the difference in the specific gravity of water at different +temperatures; and, as the heat of the sun and atmosphere in summer is +greater than the mean heat of the earth at moderate depths, the water at +the bottom, even if it becomes of the same heat with the earth, must be +colder than that at the surface, which, from its exposure to the sun, +becomes frequently warmer than the air. The same causes affect the +temperature of the sea; and the greater saturation of the water below +with salt renders it yet more susceptible of cold. Under-currents from +the poles, and the sinking of the water of low temperature, which +results from the melting of the icebergs which float into warmer +latitudes, contribute still farther to lower the temperature of the deep +sea. If, then, the temperature of the sea at great depths is found not +many degrees lower than that at the surface, it would be a striking +proof of the effect produced by the heat of the earth; but I am not +aware of the results of the experiments which have been made on this +subject. + +278. We must, then, rest satisfied with the well-ascertained fact, that +the temperature of the earth, even at depths of a few feet, never +descends, in temperate latitudes, to the freezing point; and that at the +depth of 60 feet it is always the same, in winter much higher, in summer +considerably lower, than that of the atmosphere. Spring water, then, +which has its source at a considerable depth, will, when it first rises, +be of this mean temperature; while, after it has flowed for some +distance, it becomes of the temperature of the atmosphere, or, in +summer, even warmer, owing to the action of the sun, both directly and +reflected or radiated from its bottom. Besides this equable temperature +in the water itself, spring or well water is usually covered; and, even +if exposed, if the well is very deep, the water will not freeze, or at +least very slightly; for frost does not act with its full power, except +where there is a free circulation of air. In open ponds, wherever bushes +hang over the water, the ice is weak. Indigena's supposition, that there +are earthy particles in river water, which render it more susceptible of +cold than spring water, cannot be true; for then the relative +temperatures would be the same in winter and in summer, which is not the +case; and, besides, there are frequently more earthy particles in +mineral springs, or even common land springs, than in clear river water, +provided it has not been fouled by extraneous matter; for it has a +tendency to deposit the earthy particles which it holds in suspension. + +279. It is evident, also, that the supposition of Mr. Carr (Vol. v., p. +395) relative to anchor frosts, that the stones at the bottom acquire a +greater degree of cold, or, to speak more correctly, lose more heat, +than the water, is erroneous. J. G. has given the reasons at p. 770; and +the glaciers of Switzerland afford us an example. When a stone is +deposited on a glacier of any considerable size, but not larger than 1 +foot or 18 inches in diameter, it becomes penetrated with the heat of +the sun, melts the ice below it, and sinks into the glacier. But this +effect does not cease, as might be supposed, when the stone sinks +beneath the water which it has formed; on the contrary, it continues to +absorb heat from the rays of the sun, to keep the water above it liquid +by its radiation, and to sink deeper into the body of the glacier, until +it gets down beyond the reach of the sun's rays, when the water of the +well which it has formed is no longer kept liquid, and the stone is +buried in the ice. In summer, however, the water is kept liquid; and +circular wells, formed in this manner, are of frequent occurrence on the +glaciers, sometimes, in the morning, covered by a thin crust of ice. + +Thus, the stones at the bottom of streams must tend to raise, rather +than lower, this temperature. Is it possible that, in the agitation of a +stream at its bottom, if violent, momentary and minute vacua may be +formed, tending to increase the intensity of the cold? + +HERNE HILL, _Sept. 2, 1836._ + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 31: London's _Magazine of Natural History_, vol. ix., pp. +533-536.--ED.] + +[Footnote 32: The query was as follows:-- + +_An Inquiry for the Cause of the Difference in Temperature of River +Water and Spring Water, both in Summer and Winter._--In the summer time +the river water is much warmer than that from a spring; during the +severe frosts of winter it is colder; and when the stream is covered +over with ice, the spring, that is, well or pump water is unaffected by +frost. Does this difference proceed from the exposure of the surface of +the river water, in summer, to the sun's direct influence, and, in +winter, to that of frost; while the well water, being covered, is +protected from their power? Or is there in river water, from the earthy +particles it contains, a greater susceptibility of heat and +cold?--_Indigena_. _April 19, 1836._--ED.] + + + + +METEOROLOGY.[33] + + +280. The comparison and estimation of the relative advantages of +separate departments of science is a task which is always partially +executed, because it is never entered upon with an unbiased mind; for, +since it is only the accurate knowledge of a science which can enable us +to present its beauty, or estimate its utility, the branches of +knowledge with which we are most familiar will always appear the most +important. The endeavor, therefore, to judge of the relative _beauty_ or +_interest_ of the sciences is utterly hopeless. Let the astronomer boast +of the magnificence of his speculations, the mathematician of the +immutability of his facts, the chemist of the infinity of his +combinations, and we will admit that they all have equal ground for +their enthusiasm. But the highest standard of estimation is that of +utility. The far greater proportion of mankind, the uninformed, who are +unable to perceive the beauty of the sciences whose benefits they +experience, are the true, the just, the only judges of their relative +importance. It is they who feel what impartial men of learning know, +that the mass of general knowledge is a perfect and beautiful body, +among whose members there should be no schism, and whose prosperity must +always be greatest when none are partially pursued, and none unduly +rejected. We do not, therefore, advance any proud and unjustifiable +claims to the superiority of that branch of science for the furtherance +of which this society has been formed over all others; but we zealously +come forward to deprecate the apathy with which it has long been +regarded, to dissipate the prejudices which that apathy alone could have +engendered, and to vindicate its claims to an honorable and equal +position among the proud thrones of its sister sciences. We do not bring +meteorology forward as a pursuit adapted for the occupation of tedious +leisure, or the amusement of a careless hour. Such qualifications are no +inducements to its pursuit by men of science and learning, and to these +alone do we now address ourselves. Neither do we advance it on the +ground of its interest or beauty, though it is a science possessing both +in no ordinary degree. As to its beauty, it may be remarked that it is +not calculated to harden the mind it strengthens, and bind it down to +the measurement of magnitudes and estimation of quantities, destroying +all higher feelings, all finer sensibilities: it is not to be learned +among the gaseous exhalations of the deathful laboratory; it has no +dwelling in the cold caves of the dark earth; it is not to be followed +up among the charnel houses of creation. But it is a science of the pure +air, and of the bright heaven; its thoughts are amidst the loveliness of +creation; it leads the mind, as well as the eye, to the morning mist, +and the noonday glory, and the twilight-cloud, to the purple peace of +the mountain heaven, to the cloudy repose of the green valley; now +expatiating in the silence of stormless ether, now on the rushing of the +wings of the wind. It is indeed a knowledge which must be felt to be, in +its very essence, full of the soul of the beautiful. For its interest, +it is universal, unabated in every place, and in all time. He, whose +kingdom is the heaven, can never meet with an uninteresting space, can +never exhaust the phenomena of an hour; he is in a realm of perpetual +change, of eternal motion, of infinite mystery. Light and darkness, and +cold and heat, are to him as friends of familiar countenance, but of +infinite variety of conversation; and while the geologist yearns for the +mountain, the botanist for the field, and the mathematician for the +study, the meteorologist, like a spirit of a higher order than any, +rejoices in the kingdoms of the air. + +281. But, as we before said, it is neither for its interest, nor for its +beauty, that we recommend the study of meteorology. It involves +questions of the highest practical importance, and the solution of which +will be productive of most substantial benefit to those classes who can +least comprehend the speculations from which these advantages are +derived. Times and seasons and climates, calms and tempests, clouds and +winds, whose alternations appear to the inexperienced mind the confused +consequences of irregular, indefinite, and accidental causes, arrange +themselves before the meteorologist in beautiful succession of +undisturbed order, in direct derivation from definite causes; it is for +him to trace the path of the tempest round the globe, to point out the +place whence it arose, to foretell the time of its decline, to follow +the hours around the earth, as she "spins beneath her pyramid of night," +to feel the pulses of ocean, to pursue the course of its currents and +its changes, to measure the power, direction, and duration of mysterious +and invisible influences, and to assign constant and regular periods to +the seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and +night, which we know shall not cease, till the universe be no more. It +may be thought we are exaggerating the effects of a science which is yet +in its infancy. But it must be remembered that we are not speaking of +its attained, but of its attainable power: it is the young Hercules for +the fostering of whose strength the Meteorological Society has been +formed. + +282. There is one point, it must now be observed, in which the science +of meteorology differs from all others. A Galileo, or a Newton, by the +unassisted workings of his solitary mind, may discover the secrets of +the heavens, and form a new system of astronomy. A Davy in his lonely +meditations on the crags of Cornwall, or in his solitary laboratory, +might discover the most sublime mysteries of nature, and trace out the +most intricate combinations of her elements. But the meteorologist is +impotent if alone; his observations are useless; for they are made upon +a point, while the speculations to be derived from them must be on +space. It is of no avail that he changes his position, ignorant of what +is passing behind him and before; he desires to estimate the movements +of space, and can only observe the dancing of atoms; he would calculate +the currents of the atmosphere of the world, while he only knows the +direction of a breeze. It is perhaps for this reason that the cause of +meteorology has hitherto been so slightly supported; no progress can be +made by the most gigantic efforts of a solitary intellect, and the +co-operation demanded was difficult to obtain, because it was necessary +that the individuals should think, observe, and act simultaneously, +though separated from each other by distances on the greatness of which +depended the utility of the observations. + +283. The Meteorological Society, therefore, has been formed, not for a +city, nor for a kingdom, but for the world. It wishes to be the central +point, the moving power of a vast machine, and it feels that unless it +can be this, it must be powerless; if it cannot do all, it can do +nothing. It desires to have at its command, at stated periods, perfect +systems of methodical and simultaneous observations,--it wishes its +influence and its power to be omnipotent over the globe, so that it may +be able to know, at any given instant, the state of the atmosphere at +every point on its surface. Let it not be supposed that this is a +chimerical imagination, the vain dream of a few philosophical +enthusiasts. It is co-operation which we now come forward to request, in +full confidence, that if our efforts are met with a zeal worthy of the +cause, our associates will be astonished, _individually_, by the result +of their labors in a body. Let none be discouraged because they are +alone, or far distant from their associates. What was formerly weakness +will now have become strength. Let the pastor of the Alps observe the +variations of his mountain winds; let the voyagers send us notes of the +changes on the surface of the sea; let the solitary dweller in the +American prairie observe the passages of the storms, and the variations +of the climate; and each, who alone would have been powerless, will find +himself a part of one mighty mind, a ray of light entering into one vast +eye, a member of a multitudinous power, contributing to the knowledge, +and aiding the efforts, which will be capable of solving the most deeply +hidden problems of nature, penetrating into the most occult causes, and +reducing to principle and order the vast multitude of beautiful and +wonderful phenomena by which the wisdom and benevolence of the Supreme +Deity regulates the course of the times and the seasons, robes the globe +with verdure and fruitfulness, and adapts it to minister to the wants, +and contribute to the felicity, of the innumerable tribes of animated +existence. + + OXFORD UNIVERSITY. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 33: From the "Transactions of the Meteorological Society," +Vol. i., pp. 56-9 (London, 1839). The full title of the paper was +"Remarks on the Present State of Meteorological Science." The Society +was instituted in 1823, but appears to have published no previous +transactions.--ED.] + + + + +ON TREE TWIGS.[34] + + +284. The speaker's purpose was to exhibit the development of the common +forms of branch, in dicotyledonous trees, from the fixed type of the +annual shoot. Three principal modes of increase and growth might be +distinguished in all accumulative change, namely:-- + +1. Simple aggregation, having no periodical or otherwise defined limit, +and subject only to laws of cohesion and crystallization, as in +inorganic matter. + +2. Addition of similar parts to each other, under some law fixing their +limits and securing their unity. + +3. Enlargement, or systematic change in arrangement, of a typical form, +as in the growth of the members of an animal. + +285. The growth of trees came under the second of these heads. A tree +did not increase in stem or boughs as the wrist and hand of a child +increased to the wrist and hand of a man; but it was built up by +additions of similar parts, as a city is increased by the building of +new rows of houses. + +Any annual shoot was most conveniently to be considered as a single rod, +which would always grow vertically if possible. + +Every such rod or pillar was, in common timber trees, typically either +polygonal in section, or rectangular. + +If polygonal, the leaves were arranged on it in a spiral order, as in +the elm or oak. + +If rectangular, the leaves were arranged on it in pairs, set alternately +at right angles to each other. + +Intermediate forms connected each of these types with those of +monocotyledonous trees. The structure of the _arbor vitæ_ might be +considered as typically representing the link between the rectangular +structure and that of monocotyledons; and that of the pine between the +polygonal structure and that of monocotyledons. + +Every leaf during its vitality secreting carbon from the atmosphere, +with the elements of water, formed a certain quantity of woody tissue, +which extended down the outside of the tree to the ground, and farther +to the extremities of the roots. The mode in which this descending +masonry was added appeared to depend on the peculiar functions of +cambium, and (the speaker believed) was as yet unexplained by botanists. + +286. Every leaf, besides forming this masonry all down the tree, +protected a bud at the base of its own stalk. From this bud, unless +rendered abortive, a new shoot would spring next year. Now, supposing +that out of the leaf-buds on each shoot of a pentagonal tree, only five +at its extremity or on its side were permitted to develop themselves, +even under this limitation the number of shoots developed from a single +one in the seventh year would be 78,125. The external form of a +healthily grown tree at any period of its development was therefore +composed of a mass of sprays, whose vitality was approximately +distributed over the _surface_ of the tree to an equal depth. The +branches beneath at once supported, and were fed by, this orbicular +field, or animated external garment of vegetation, from every several +leaf of which, as from an innumerable multitude of small green +fountains, the streams of woody fiber descended, met, and united as +rivers do, and gathered their full flood into the strength of the stem. + +287. The principal errors which had been committed by artists in drawing +trees had arisen from their regarding the bough as ramifying +irregularly, and somewhat losing in energy towards the extremity; +whereas the real boughs threw their whole energy, and multiplied their +substance, towards the extremities, ranking themselves in more or less +cup-shaped tiers round the trunk, and forming a compact united surface +at the exterior of the tree. + +288. In the course of arrival at this form, the bough, throughout its +whole length, showed itself to be influenced by a force like that of an +animal's instinct. Its minor curves and angles were all subjected to one +strong ruling tendency and law of advance, dependent partly on the aim +of every shoot to raise itself upright, partly on the necessity which +each was under to yield due place to the neighboring leaves, and obtain +for itself as much light and air as possible. It had indeed been +ascertained that vegetable tissue was liable to contractions and +expansion (under fixed mechanical conditions) by light, heat, moisture, +etc. But vegetable tissue in the living branch did not contract nor +expand under external influence alone. The principle of life manifested +itself either by contention with, or felicitous recognition of, external +force. It accepted with a visible, active, and apparently joyful +concurrence, the influences which led the bough towards its due place in +the economy of the tree; and it obeyed reluctantly, partially, and with +distorted curvatures, those which forced it to violate the typical +organic form. The attention of painters of foliage had seldom been drawn +with sufficient accuracy to the lines either of branch curvature, or +leaf contour, as expressing these subtle laws of incipient volition; but +the relative merit of the great schools of figure design might, in +absence of all other evidence, be determined, almost without error, by +observing the precision of their treatment of leaf curvature. The +leaf-painting round the head of Ariosto by Titian, in the National +Gallery, might be instanced. + +289. The leaf thus differed from the flower in forming and protecting +behind it, not only the bud in which was the form of a new shoot like +itself, but a piece of permanent work, and produced substance, by which +every following shoot could be placed under different circumstances from +its predecessor. Every leaf labored to solidify this substance during +its own life; but the seed left by the flower matured only as the flower +perished. + +This difference in the action and endurance of the flower and leaf had +been applied by nearly all great nations as a type of the variously +active and productive states of life among individuals or commonwealths. +Chaucer's poem of the "Flower and Leaf" is the most definite expression +of the mediæval feeling in this respect, while the fables of the rape of +Proserpine and of Apollo and Daphne embody that of the Greeks. There is +no Greek goddess corresponding to the Flora of the Romans. Their Flora +is Persephone, "the bringer of death." She plays for a little while in +the Sicilian fields, gathering flowers, then snatched away by Pluto, +receives her chief power as she vanishes from our sight, and is crowned +in the grave. Daphne, on the other hand, is the daughter of one of the +great Arcadian river gods, and of the earth; she is the type of the +river mist filling the rocky vales of Arcadia; the sun, pursuing this +mist from dell to dell, is Apollo pursuing Daphne; where the mist is +protected from his rays by the rock shadows, the laurel and other +richest vegetation spring by the river-sides, so that the laurel-leaf +becomes the type, in the Greek mind, of the beneficent ministry and +vitality of the rivers and the earth, under the beams of sunshine; and +therefore it is chosen to form the signet-crown of highest honor for +gods or men, honor for work born of the strength and dew of the earth +and informed by the central light of heaven; work living, perennial, and +beneficent. + + J. R. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 34: Read by Mr. Ruskin at the weekly evening meeting of the +Royal Institution (see _Proceedings_, vol. iii., pp. 358-60), April 19, +1861.--ED.] + + + + +ON THE FORMS OF THE STRATIFIED ALPS OF SAVOY.[35] + + +290. The purpose of the discourse was to trace some of the influences +which have produced the present external forms of the stratified +mountains of Savoy, and the probable extent and results of the future +operation of such influences. + +The subject was arranged under three heads:-- + + I. The Materials of the Savoy Alps. + II. The Mode of their Formation. + III. The Mode of their subsequent Sculpture. + +291. I. _Their Materials._--The investigation was limited to those Alps +which consist, in whole or in part, either of Jura limestone, of +Neocomian beds, or of the Hippurite limestone, and include no important +masses of other formations. All these rocks are marine deposits; and the +first question to be considered with respect to the development of +mountains out of them is the kind of change they must undergo in being +dried. Whether prolonged through vast periods of time, or hastened by +heat and pressure, the drying and solidification of such rocks involved +their contraction, and usually, in consequence, their being traversed +throughout by minute fissures. Under certain conditions of pressure, +these fissures take the aspect of slaty cleavage; under others, they +become irregular cracks, dividing all the substance of the stone. If +these are not filled, the rock would become a mere heap of débris, and +be incapable of establishing itself in any bold form. This is provided +against by a metamorphic action, which either arranges the particles of +the rock, throughout, in new and more crystalline conditions, or else +causes some of them to separate from the rest, to traverse the body of +the rock, and arrange themselves in its fissures; thus forming a cement, +usually of finer and purer substance than the rest of the stone. In +either case the action tends continually to the purification and +segregation of the elements of the stone. The energy of such action +depends on accidental circumstances: first, on the attractions of the +component elements among themselves; secondly, on every change of +external temperature and relation. So that mountains are at different +periods in different stages of health (so to call it) or disease. We +have mountains of a languid temperament, mountains with checked +circulations, mountains in nervous fevers, mountains in atrophy and +decline. + +292. This change in the structure of existing rocks is traceable through +continuous gradations, so that a black mud or calcareous slime is +imperceptibly modified into a magnificently hard and crystalline +substance, inclosing nests of beryl, topaz, and sapphire, and veined +with gold. But it cannot be determined how far, or in what localities, +these changes are yet arrested; in the plurality of instances they are +evidently yet in progress. It appears rational to suppose that as each +rock approaches to its perfect type the change becomes slower; its +perfection being continually neared, but never reached; its change being +liable also to interruption or reversal by new geological phenomena. In +the process of this change, rocks expand or contract; and, in portions, +their multitudinous fissures give them a ductility or viscosity like +that of glacier-ice on a larger scale. So that many formations are best +to be conceived as glaciers, or frozen fields of crag, whose depth is to +be measured in miles instead of fathoms, whose crevasses are filled with +solvent flame, with vapor, with gelatinous flint, or with crystallizing +elements of mingled natures; the whole mass changing its dimensions and +flowing into new channels, though by gradations which cannot be +measured, and in periods of time of which human life forms no +appreciable unit. + +293. II. _Formation._--Mountains are to be arranged, with respect to +their structure, under two great classes--those which are cut out of the +beds of which they are composed, and those which are formed by the +convolution or contortion of the beds themselves. The Savoy mountains +are chiefly of this latter class. When stratified formations are +contorted, it is usually either by pressure from below, which raises one +part of the formation above the rest, or by lateral pressure, which +reduces the whole formation into a series of waves. The ascending +pressure may be limited in its sphere of operation; the lateral one +necessarily affects extensive tracts of country, and the eminences it +produces vanish only by degrees, like the waves left in the wake of a +ship. The Savoy mountains have undergone both these kinds of violence in +very complex modes and at different periods, so that it becomes almost +impossible to trace separately and completely the operation of any given +force at a given point. + +294. The speaker's intention was to have analyzed, as far as possible, +the action of the forming forces in one wave of simple elevation, the +Mont Salève, and in another of lateral compression, the Mont Brezon: but +the investigation of the Mont Salève had presented unexpected +difficulty. Its façade had been always considered to be formed by +vertical beds, raised into that position during the tertiary periods; +the speaker's investigations had, on the contrary, led him to conclude +that the appearance of vertical beds was owing to a peculiarly sharp and +distinct cleavage, at right angles with the beds, but nearly parallel to +their strike, elsewhere similarly manifested in the Jurassic series of +Savoy, and showing itself on the fronts of most of the precipices formed +of that rock. The attention of geologists was invited to the +determination of this question. + +The compressed wave of the Brezon, more complex in arrangement, was more +clearly defined. A section of it was given, showing the reversed +position of the Hippurite limestone in the summit and lower precipices. +This limestone wave was shown to be one of a great series, running +parallel with the Alps, and constituting an undulatory district, +chiefly composed of chalk beds, separated from the higher limestone +district of the Jura and Lias by a long trench or moat, filled with +members of the tertiary series--chiefly nummulite limestones and flysch. +This trench might be followed from Faverges, at the head of the lake of +Annecy, across Savoy. It separated Mont Vergi from the Mont Dorons, and +the Dent d'Oche from the Dent du Midi; then entered Switzerland, +separating the Moleson from the Diablerets; passed on through the +districts of Thun and Brientz, and, dividing itself into two, caused the +zigzagged form of the lake of Lucerne. The principal branch then passed +between the high Sentis and the Glarnisch, and broke into confusion in +the Tyrol. On the north side of this trench the chalk beds were often +vertical, or cast into repeated folds, of which the escarpments were +mostly turned away from the Alps; but on the south side of the trench, +the Jurassic, Triassic, and Carboniferous beds, though much distorted, +showed a prevailing tendency to lean towards the Alps, and turn their +escarpments to the central chain. + +295. Both these systems of mountains are intersected by transverse +valleys, owing their origin, in the first instance, to a series of +transverse curvilinear fractures, which affect the forms even of every +minor ridge, and produce its principal ravines and boldest rocks, even +where no distinctly excavated valleys exist. Thus, the Mont Vergi and +the Aiguilles of Salouvre are only fragmentary remains of a range of +horizontal beds, once continuous, but broken by this transverse system +of curvilinear cleavage, and worn or weathered into separate summits. + +The means of this ultimate sculpture or weathering were lastly to be +considered. + + * * * * * + +296. III. _Sculpture._--The final reductions of mountainform are owing +either to disintegration, or to the action of water, in the condition of +rain, rivers, or ice, aided by frost and other circumstances of +temperature and atmosphere. + +All important existing forms are owing to disintegration, or the action +of water. That of ice had been curiously over-rated. As an instrument of +sculpture, ice is much less powerful than water; the apparently +energetic effects of it being merely the exponents of disintegration. A +glacier did not produce its moraine, but sustained and exposed the +fragments which fell on its surface, pulverizing these by keeping them +in motion, but producing very unimportant effects on the rock below; the +roundings and striation produced by ice were superficial; while a +torrent penetrated into every angle and cranny, undermining and wearing +continually, and carrying stones, at the lowest estimate, six hundred +thousand times as fast as the glacier. Had the quantity of rain which +has fallen on Mont Blanc in the form of snow (and descended in the +ravines as ice) fallen as rain, and descended in torrents, the ravines +would have been much deeper than they are now, and the glacier may so +far be considered as exercising a protective influence. But its power of +carriage is unlimited, and when masses of earth or rock are once +loosened, the glacier carries them away, and exposes fresh surfaces. +Generally, the work of water and ice is in mountain surgery like that of +lancet and sponge--one for incision, the other for ablution. No +excavation by ice was possible on a large scale, any more than by a +stream of honey; and its various actions, with their limitations, were +only to be understood by keeping always clearly in view the great law of +its motion as a viscous substance, determined by Professor James Forbes. + +297. The existing forms of the Alps are, therefore, traceable chiefly to +denudation as they rose from the sea, followed by more or less violent +aqueous action, partly arrested during the glacial periods, while the +produced diluvium was carried away into the valley of the Rhine or into +the North Sea. One very important result of denudation had not yet been +sufficiently regarded; namely, that when portions of a thick bed (as the +Rudisten-kalk) had been entirely removed, the weight of the remaining +masses, pressing unequally on the inferior beds, would, when these were +soft (as the Neocomian marls), press them up into arched conditions, +like those of the floors of coal-mines in what the miners called +"creeps." Many anomalous positions of the beds of Spatangenkalk in the +district of the Lake of Annecy were in all probability owing to this +cause: they might be studied advantageously in the sloping base of the +great Rochers de Lanfon, which, disintegrating in curved, nearly +vertical flakes, each a thousand feet in height, were nevertheless a +mere outlying remnant of the great horizontal formation of the Parmelan, +and formed, like it, of very thin horizontal beds of Rudisten-kalk, +imposed on shaly masses of Neocomian, modified by their pressure. More +complex forms of harder rock were wrought by the streams and rains into +fantastic outlines; and the transverse gorges were cut deep where they +had been first traced by fault or distortion. The analysis of this +aqueous action would alone require a series of discourses; but the sum +of the facts was that the best and most interesting portions of the +mountains were just those which were finally left, the centers and +joints, as it were, of the Alpine anatomy. Immeasurable periods of time +would be required to wear these away; and to all appearances, during the +process of their destruction, others were rising to take their place, +and forms of perhaps far more nobly organized mountain would witness the +collateral progress of humanity. + + J. R. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 35: Read by Mr. Ruskin at the weekly evening meeting of the +Royal Institution (see _Proceedings_, vol. iv., pp. 142-46), June 5, +1863.--ED.] + + + + +THE RANGE OF INTELLECTUAL CONCEPTION PROPORTIONED TO THE RANK IN +ANIMATED LIFE.[36] + +A THEOREM. + + +298. I suppose this theorem to be a truism; but I venture to state it, +because it is surely desirable that it should be recognized as an axiom +by metaphysicians, and practically does not seem to me yet to have been +so. I say "animated life" because the word "life" by itself might have +been taken to include that of vegetables; and I say "animated" instead +of "spiritual" life because the Latin "anima," and pretty Italian +corruption of it, "alma," involving the new idea of nourishment of the +body as by the Aliment or Alms of God, seems to me to convey a better +idea of the existence of conscious creatures than any derivative of +"spiritus," "pneuma," or "psyche." + +I attach, however, a somewhat lower sense to the word "conception" than +is, I believe, usual with metaphysicians, for, as a painter, I belong to +a lower rank of animated being than theirs, and can only mean by +conception what I know of it. A painter never conceives anything +absolutely, and is indeed incapable of conceiving anything at all, +except as a phenomenon or sensation, or as the mode or locus of a +phenomenon or sensation. That which is not an appearance, or a feeling, +or a mode of one or the other, is to him nothing. + +299. For instance, he would deny the definition of the phenomenon which +he is himself first concerned in producing--a line--as "length without +breadth." He would say, "That which has no breadth is nothing, and +nothing cannot be long." He would define a line as a narrow and long +phenomenon, and a mathematician's idea of it as an idea of the +direction of such a phenomenon. + +The act of conception or imagination with him, therefore, is merely the +memory, simple or combined, of things that he has seen or felt. He has +no ray, no incipience of faculty beyond this. No quantity of the +sternest training in the school of Hegel, would ever enable him to think +the Absolute. He would persist in an obstinate refusal to use the word +"think" at all in a transitive sense. He would never, for instance, say, +"I think the table," but "I think the table is turning," or is not, as +the case might be. And if he were to be taught in any school whatever to +conceive a table, his first demand would be that he should be shown one, +or referred to other things that had the qualities of one in +illustrative degree. + +300. And even respecting the constant methods or laws of phenomena, he +cannot raise the statement of them into an act of conception. The +statement that two right lines can never inclose a space merely appears +to him another form of verbal definition, or, at the grandest, a +definition in prophetic extent, saying in other words that a line which +incloses, or ever may inclose, a space, is not, and never will be, a +right one. He would admit that what he now conceives as two things, +doubled, would always be what he now conceives as four things. But +assuming the existence of a world in which, whenever two things were +actually set in juxtaposition with other two things, they became +actually three times, or actually five, he supposes that the practice of +arithmetic, and laws of it, would change in relation to this new +condition in matter; and he accepts, therefore, the statement that twice +two are four only as an accident of the existing phenomena of matter. + +301. A painter therefore may, I think, be looked upon as only +representing a high order of sensational creatures, incapable of any but +physical ideas and impressions; and I continue my paper, therefore, only +in the name of the docile, and therefore improvable, part of the Brute +Creation. + +And in their name I would suggest that we should be much more docile +than we are if we were never occupied in efforts to conceive things +above our natures. To take an instance, in a creature somewhat lower +than myself. I came by surprise the other day on a cuttle-fish in a pool +at low tide. On being touched with the point of my umbrella, he first +filled the pool with ink, and then finding himself still touched in the +darkness, lost his temper, and attacked the umbrella with much psyche or +anima, hugging it tightly with all his eight arms, and making efforts, +like an impetuous baby with a coral, to get it into his mouth. On my +offering him a finger instead, he sucked that with two or three of his +arms with an apparently malignant satisfaction, and on being shaken off, +retired with an air of frantic misanthropy into the cloud of his ink. + +302. Now, it seems to me not a little instructive to reflect how +entirely useless such a manifestation of a superior being was to his +cuttle-fish mind, and how fortunate it was for his fellow-octopods that +he had no command of pens as well as ink, nor any disposition to write +on the nature of umbrellas or of men. + +It may be observed, further, that whatever ideas he was able to form +respecting either were positively false--so contrary to truth as to be +worse than none, and simply dangerous to himself, so far as he might be +induced to act upon them--that, namely, an umbrella was an eatable +thing, or a man a conquerable one, that the individual man who looked at +him was hostile to him or that his purposes could be interfered with by +ejection of ink. Every effort made by the fish under these convictions +was harmful to himself; his only wisdom would have been to lie quietly +and unreflectively in his pool. + +And with us painters also, the only result of any efforts we make to +acquaint ourselves with the subjects of metaphysical inquiry has been an +increased sense of the prudence of lying placidly and unreflectively in +our pools, or at least limiting ourselves to such gentle efforts of +imagination as may be consistent with the as yet imperfectly developed +powers, I do not say even of cephalopodic, but of Ascidian nervous +centers. + +303. But it may be easily imagined how pleasantly, to persons thus +subdued in self-estimation, the hope presents itself which is involved +in the Darwinian theory, that their pools themselves may be capable of +indefinite extension, and their natures of indefinite development--the +hope that our descendants may one day be ashamed of us, and debate the +question of their parentage with astonishment and disgust. + +And it seems to me that the aim of elementary metaphysical study might +henceforth become more practical than that of any other science. For in +hitherto taking little cognizance of the limitation of thought by the +structure of the body, we have surely also lost sight of the power of +certain modes of thought over the processes of that structure. Taking, +for instance, the emotion of anger, of which the cephalopoda are indeed +as capable as we are, but inferior to us in being unable to decide +whether they do well to be angry or not, I do not think the chemical +effect of that emotion on the particles of the blood, in decomposing and +otherwise paralyzing or debilitating them, has been sufficiently +examined, nor the actual quantity of nervous energy which a fit of anger +of given violence withdraws from the body and restores to space, neither +the correlative power of volition in restraining the passion, or in +directing the choice of salutary thought, as of salutary herbs on +streams. And even we painters, who dare not call ourselves capable of +thought, are capable of choice in more or less salutary vision. In the +degree in which we lose such power of choice in vision, so that the +spectral phenomena which are the materials of our industry present +themselves under forms beyond our control, we become insane; and +although for all our best work a certain degree of this insanity is +necessary, and the first occurring conceptions are uncommanded, as in +dreams, we have, when in health, always instantaneous power of accepting +some, refusing others, perfecting the outlines and colors of those we +wish to keep, and arranging them in such relations as we choose. + +304. And unquestionably the forms of the body which painters +instinctively recognize as best, and call "beautiful," are so far under +the command of the plastic force of voluntary thought, that the +original and future authority of such a plastic force over the whole of +creation cannot but seem to painters a direct, though not a certain +influence; and they would at once give their adherence to the statement +made many years since in his opening lectures in Oxford by the present +Regius Professor of Medicine (as far as I can recollect approximately, +in these terms)--that "it is quite as logical, and far more easy, to +conceive of original anima as adapting itself to forms of substance, +than of original substance as adapting to itself modes of mind." + +305. It is surely, therefore, not too much to expect of future schools +of metaphysicians that they will direct mankind into methods of thought +which will be at once happy, unerring, and medicinal, and therefore +entirely wise; that they will mark the limits beyond which uniformity +must be dangerous, and speculation vain; and that they will at no +distant period terminate the acrimony of theologians, and the +insolences, as well as the sorrows, of groundless faith, by showing that +it is appointed for us, in common with the rest of the animal creation, +to live in the midst of an universe the nature of which is as much +better than we can believe, as it is greater than we can understand. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 36: Contemporary Review, June, 1871.--ED.] + + + * * * * * + + +LITERATURE. + + +FICTION--FAIR AND FOUL. + +(_Nineteenth Century, June, August, Sept., Nov. 1880, and Oct. 1881._) + + +FAIRY STORIES. + +(_Preface to "German Popular Stories," 1868._) + + + * * * * * + + +FICTION, FAIR AND FOUL. + + +1.[37] + +1. On the first mild--or, at least, the first bright--day of March, in +this year, I walked through what was once a country lane, between the +hostelry of the Half-moon at the bottom of Herne Hill, and the secluded +College of Dulwich. + +In my young days, Croxsted Lane was a green byroad traversable for some +distance by carts; but rarely so traversed, and, for the most part, +little else than a narrow strip of untilled field, separated by +blackberry hedges from the better-cared-for meadows on each side of it: +growing more weeds, therefore, than they, and perhaps in spring a +primrose or two--white archangel--daisies plenty, and purple thistles in +autumn. A slender rivulet, boasting little of its brightness, for there +are no springs at Dulwich, yet fed purely enough by the rain and morning +dew, here trickled--there loitered--through the long grass beneath the +hedges, and expanded itself, where it might, into moderately clear and +deep pools, in which, under their veils of duckweed, a fresh-water shell +or two, sundry curious little skipping shrimps, any quantity of tadpoles +in their time, and even sometimes a tittlebat, offered themselves to my +boyhood's pleased, and not inaccurate, observation. There, my mother and +I used to gather the first buds of the hawthorn; and there, in after +years, I used to walk in the summer shadows, as in a place wilder and +sweeter than our garden, to think over any passage I wanted to make +better than usual in _Modern Painters_. + +So, as aforesaid, on the first kindly day of this year, being thoughtful +more than usual of those old times, I went to look again at the place. + +2. Often, both in those days, and since, I have put myself hard to it, +vainly, to find words wherewith to tell of beautiful things; but beauty +has been in the world since the world was made, and human language can +make a shift, somehow, to give account of it, whereas the peculiar +forces of devastation induced by modern city life have only entered the +world lately; and no existing terms of language known to me are enough +to describe the forms of filth, and modes of ruin, that varied +themselves along the course of Croxsted Lane. The fields on each side of +it are now mostly dug up for building, or cut through into gaunt corners +and nooks of blind ground by the wild crossings and concurrencies of +three railroads. Half a dozen handfuls of new cottages, with Doric +doors, are dropped about here and there among the gashed ground: the +lane itself, now entirely grassless, is a deep-rutted, heavy-hillocked +cart-road, diverging gatelessly into various brickfields or pieces of +waste; and bordered on each side by heaps of--Hades only knows +what!--mixed dust of every unclean thing that can crumble in drought, +and mildew of every unclean thing that can rot or rust in damp: ashes +and rags, beer-bottles and old shoes, battered pans, smashed crockery, +shreds of nameless clothes, door-sweepings, floor-sweepings, kitchen +garbage, back-garden sewage, old iron, rotten timber jagged with +out-torn nails, cigar-ends, pipe-bowls, cinders, bones, and ordure, +indescribable; and, variously kneaded into, sticking to, or fluttering +foully here and there over all these,--remnants broadcast, of every +manner of newspaper, advertisement or big-lettered bill, festering and +flaunting out their last publicity in the pits of stinking dust and +mortal slime. + +3. The lane ends now where its prettiest windings once began; being cut +off by a cross-road leading out of Dulwich to a minor railway station: +and on the other side of this road, what was of old the daintiest +intricacy of its solitude is changed into a straight, and evenly +macadamized carriage drive between new houses of extreme respectability, +with good attached gardens and offices--most of these tenements being +larger--all more pretentious, and many, I imagine, held at greatly +higher rent than my father's, tenanted for twenty years at Herne Hill. +And it became matter of curious meditation to me what must here become +of children resembling my poor little dreamy quondam self in temper, and +thus brought up at the same distance from London, and in the same or +better circumstances of worldly fortune; but with only Croxsted Lane in +its present condition for their country walk. The trimly kept road +before their doors, such as one used to see in the fashionable suburbs +of Cheltenham or Leamington, presents nothing to their study but gravel, +and gas-lamp posts; the modern addition of a vermilion letter-pillar +contributing indeed to the splendor, but scarcely to the interest of the +scene; and a child of any sense or fancy would hastily contrive escape +from such a barren desert of politeness, and betake itself to +investigation, such as might be feasible, of the natural history of +Croxsted Lane. + +4. But, for its sense or fancy, what food, or stimulus, can it find, in +that foul causeway of its youthful pilgrimage? What would have happened +to myself, so directed, I cannot clearly imagine. Possibly, I might have +got interested in the old iron and wood-shavings; and become an engineer +or a carpenter: but for the children of to-day, accustomed, from the +instant they are out of their cradles, to the sight of this infinite +nastiness, prevailing as a fixed condition of the universe, over the +face of nature, and accompanying all the operations of industrious man, +what is to be the scholastic issue? unless, indeed, the thrill of +scientific vanity in the primary analysis of some unheard-of process of +corruption--or the reward of microscopic research in the sight of worms +with more legs, and acari of more curious generation than ever vivified +the more simply smelling plasma of antiquity. + +One result of such elementary education is, however, already certain; +namely, that the pleasure which we may conceive taken by the children of +the coming time, in the analysis of physical corruption, guides, into +fields more dangerous and desolate, the expatiation of an imaginative +literature: and that the reactions of moral disease upon itself, and +the conditions of languidly monstrous character developed in an +atmosphere of low vitality, have become the most valued material of +modern fiction, and the most eagerly discussed texts of modern +philosophy. + +5. The many concurrent reasons for this mischief may, I believe, be +massed under a few general heads.[38] + +I. There is first the hot fermentation and unwholesome secrecy of the +population crowded into large cities, each mote in the misery lighter, +as an individual soul, than a dead leaf, but becoming oppressive and +infectious each to his neighbor, in the smoking mass of decay. The +resulting modes of mental ruin and distress are continually new; and in +a certain sense, worth study in their monstrosity: they have accordingly +developed a corresponding science of fiction, concerned mainly with the +description of such forms of disease, like the botany of leaf-lichens. + +In De Balzac's story of _Father Goriot_, a grocer makes a large fortune, +of which he spends on himself as much as may keep him alive; and on his +two daughters, all that can promote their pleasures or their pride. He +marries them to men of rank, supplies their secret expenses, and +provides for his favorite a separate and clandestine establishment with +her lover. On his death-bed, he sends for this favorite daughter, who +wishes to come, and hesitates for a quarter of an hour between doing so, +and going to a ball at which it has been for the last month her chief +ambition to be seen. She finally goes to the ball. + +The story is, of course, one of which the violent contrasts and spectral +catastrophe could only take place, or be conceived, in a large city. A +village grocer cannot make a large fortune, cannot marry his daughters +to titled squires, and cannot die without having his children brought to +him, if in the neighborhood, by fear of village gossip, if for no better +cause. + +6. II. But a much more profound feeling than this mere curiosity of +science in morbid phenomena is concerned in the production of the +carefulest forms of modern fiction. The disgrace and grief resulting +from the mere trampling pressure and electric friction of town life, +become to the sufferers peculiarly mysterious in their undeservedness, +and frightful in their inevitableness. The power of all surroundings +over them for evil; the incapacity of their own minds to refuse the +pollution, and of their own wills to oppose the weight, of the +staggering mass that chokes and crushes them into perdition, brings +every law of healthy existence into question with them, and every +alleged method of help and hope into doubt. Indignation, without any +calming faith in justice, and self-contempt, without any curative +self-reproach, dull the intelligence, and degrade the conscience, into +sullen incredulity of all sunshine outside the dunghill, or breeze +beyond the wafting of its impurity; and at last a philosophy develops +itself, partly satiric, partly consolatory, concerned only with the +regenerative vigor of manure, and the necessary obscurities of fimetic +Providence; showing how everybody's fault is somebody else's, how +infection has no law, digestion no will, and profitable dirt no +dishonor. + +And thus an elaborate and ingenious scholasticism, in what may be called +the Divinity of Decomposition, has established itself in connection with +the more recent forms of romance, giving them at once a complacent tone +of clerical dignity, and an agreeable dash of heretical impudence; while +the inculcated doctrine has the double advantage of needing no laborious +scholarship for its foundation, and no painful self-denial for its +practice. + +7. III. The monotony of life in the central streets of any great modern +city, but especially in those of London, where every emotion intended to +be derived by men from the sight of nature, or the sense of art, is +forbidden forever, leaves the craving of the heart for a sincere, yet +changeful, interest, to be fed from one source only. Under natural +conditions the degree of mental excitement necessary to bodily health is +provided by the course of the seasons, and the various skill and +fortune of agriculture. In the country every morning of the year brings +with it a new aspect of springing or fading nature; a new duty to be +fulfilled upon earth, and a new promise or warning in heaven. No day is +without its innocent hope, its special prudence, its kindly gift, and +its sublime danger; and in every process of wise husbandry, and every +effort of contending or remedial courage, the wholesome passions, pride, +and bodily power of the laborer are excited and exerted in happiest +unison. The companionship of domestic, the care of serviceable, animals, +soften and enlarge his life with lowly charities, and discipline him in +familiar wisdoms and unboastful fortitudes; while the divine laws of +seedtime which cannot be recalled, harvest which cannot be hastened, and +winter in which no man can work, compel the impatiences and coveting of +his heart into labor too submissive to be anxious, and rest too sweet to +be wanton. What thought can enough comprehend the contrast between such +life, and that in streets where summer and winter are only alternations +of heat and cold; where snow never fell white, nor sunshine clear; where +the ground is only a pavement, and the sky no more than the glass roof +of an arcade; where the utmost power of a storm is to choke the gutters, +and the finest magic of spring, to change mud into dust: where--chief +and most fatal difference in state--there is no interest of occupation +for any of the inhabitants but the routine of counter or desk within +doors, and the effort to pass each other without collision outside; so +that from morning to evening the only possible variation of the monotony +of the hours, and lightening of the penalty of existence, must be some +kind of mischief, limited, unless by more than ordinary godsend of +fatality, to the fall of a horse, or the slitting of a pocket? + +8. I said that under these laws of inanition, the craving of the human +heart for some kind of excitement could be supplied from _one_ source +only. It might have been thought by any other than a sternly tentative +philosopher, that the denial of their natural food to human feelings +would have provoked a reactionary desire for it; and that the +dreariness of the street would have been gilded by dreams of pastoral +felicity. Experience has shown the fact to be otherwise; the thoroughly +trained Londoner can enjoy no other excitement than that to which he has +been accustomed, but asks for _that_ in continually more ardent or more +virulent concentration; and the ultimate power of fiction to entertain +him is by varying to his fancy the modes, and defining for his dullness +the horrors, of Death. In the single novel of "Bleak House" there are +nine deaths (or left for death's, in the drop scene) carefully wrought +out or led up to, either by way of pleasing surprise, as the baby's at +the brick-maker's, or finished in their threatenings and sufferings, +with as much enjoyment as can be contrived in the anticipation, and as +much pathology as can be concentrated in the description. Under the +following varieties of method:-- + + One by assassination Mr. Tulkinghorn. + One by starvation, with phthisis Joe. + One by chagrin Richard. + One by spontaneous combustion Mr. Krook. + One by sorrow Lady Dedlock's lover. + One by remorse Lady Dedlock. + One by insanity Miss Flite. + One by paralysis Sir Leicester. + +Besides the baby, by fever, and a lively young Frenchwoman left to be +hanged. + +And all this, observe, not in a tragic, adventurous, or military story, +but merely as the further enlivenment of a narrative intended to be +amusing; and as a properly representative average of the statistics of +civilian mortality in the center of London. + +9. Observe further, and chiefly. It is not the mere number of deaths +(which, if we count the odd troopers in the last scene, is exceeded in +"Old Mortality," and reached, within one or two, both in "Waverley" and +"Guy Mannering") that marks the peculiar tone of the modern novel. It is +the fact that all these deaths, but one, are of inoffensive, or at least +in the world's estimate, respectable persons; and that they are all +grotesquely either violent or miserable, purporting thus to illustrate +the modern theology that the appointed destiny of a large average of our +population is to die like rats in a drain, either by trap or poison. +Not, indeed, that a lawyer in full practice can be usually supposed as +faultless in the eye of Heaven as a dove or a woodcock; but it is not, +in former divinities, thought the will of Providence that he should be +dropped by a shot from a client behind his fire-screen, and retrieved in +the morning by his housemaid under the chandelier. Neither is Lady +Dedlock less reprehensible in her conduct than many women of fashion +have been and will be: but it would not therefore have been thought +poetically just, in old-fashioned morality, that she should be found by +her daughter lying dead, with her face in the mud of a St. Giles's +churchyard. + +10. In the work of the great masters death is always either heroic, +deserved, or quiet and natural (unless their purpose be totally and +deeply tragic, when collateral meaner death is permitted, like that of +Polonius or Roderigo). In "Old Mortality," four of the deaths, +Bothwell's, Ensign Grahame's, Macbriar's, and Evandale's, are +magnificently heroic; Burley's and Oliphant's long deserved, and swift; +the troopers', met in the discharge of their military duty, and the old +miser's as gentle as the passing of a cloud, and almost beautiful in its +last words of--now unselfish--care. + + * * * * * + +"Ailie" (he aye ca'd me Ailie, we were auld acquaintance), "Ailie, take +ye care and hand the gear weel thegither; for the name of Morton of +Milnwood's gane out like the last sough of an auld sang." And sae he +fell out o' ae dwam into another, and ne'er spak a word mair, unless it +something we you'dna mak out, about a dipped candle being gude eneugh +to see to dee wi'. He cou'd ne'er bide to see a molded ane, and there +was ane, by ill luck, on the table. + + * * * * * + +In "Guy Mannering," the murder, though unpremeditated, of a single +person, (himself not entirely innocent, but at least by heartlessness in +a cruel function earning his fate,) is avenged to the uttermost on all +the men conscious of the crime; Mr. Bertram's death, like that of his +wife, brief in pain, and each told in the space of half a dozen lines; +and that of the heroine of the tale, self-devoted, heroic in the +highest, and happy. + +Nor is it ever to be forgotten, in the comparison of Scott's with +inferior work, that his own splendid powers were, even in early life, +tainted, and in his latter years destroyed, by modern conditions of +commercial excitement, then first, but rapidly, developing themselves. +There are parts even in his best novels colored to meet tastes which he +despised; and many pages written in his later ones to lengthen his +article for the indiscriminate market. + +11. But there was one weakness of which his healthy mind remained +incapable to the last. In modern stories prepared for more refined or +fastidious audiences than those of Dickens, the funereal excitement is +obtained, for the most part, not by the infliction of violent or +disgusting death; but in the suspense, the pathos, and the more or less +by all felt, and recognized, mortal phenomena of the sick-room. The +temptation, to weak writers, of this order of subject is especially +great, because the study of it from the living--or dying--model is so +easy, and to many has been the most impressive part of their own +personal experience; while, if the description be given even with +mediocre accuracy, a very large section of readers will admire its +truth, and cherish its melancholy. Few authors of second or third rate +genius can either record or invent a probable conversation in ordinary +life; but few, on the other hand, are so destitute of observant faculty +as to be unable to chronicle the broken syllables and languid movements +of an invalid. The easily rendered, and too surely recognized, image of +familiar suffering is felt at once to be real where all else had been +false; and the historian of the gestures of fever and words of delirium +can count on the applause of a gratified audience as surely as the +dramatist who introduces on the stage of his flagging action a carriage +that can be driven or a fountain that will flow. But the masters of +strong imagination disdain such work, and those of deep sensibility +shrink from it.[39] Only under conditions of personal weakness, +presently to be noted, would Scott comply with the cravings of his lower +audience in scenes of terror like the death of Front-de-Boeuf. But he +never once withdrew the sacred curtain of the sick-chamber, nor +permitted the disgrace of wanton tears round the humiliation of +strength, or the wreck of beauty. + +12. IV. No exception to this law of reverence will be found in the +scenes in Coeur de Lion's illness introductory to the principal +incident in the "Talisman." An inferior writer would have made the king +charge in imagination at the head of his chivalry, or wander in dreams +by the brooks of Aquitaine; but Scott allows us to learn no more +startling symptoms of the king's malady than that he was restless and +impatient, and could not wear his armor. Nor is any bodily weakness, or +crisis of danger, permitted to disturb for an instant the royalty of +intelligence and heart in which he examines, trusts and obeys the +physician whom his attendants fear. + +Yet the choice of the main subject in this story and its companion--the +trial, to a point of utter torture, of knightly faith, and several +passages in the conduct of both, more especially the exaggerated scenes +in the House of Baldringham, and hermitage of Engedi, are signs of the +gradual decline in force of intellect and soul which those who love +Scott best have done him the worst injustice in their endeavors to +disguise or deny. The mean anxieties, moral humiliations, and +mercilessly demanded brain-toil, which killed him, show their sepulchral +grasp for many and many a year before their final victory; and the +states of more or less dulled, distorted, and polluted imagination which +culminate in "Castle Dangerous" cast a Stygian hue over "St. Ronan's +Well," "The Fair Maid of Perth," and "Anne of Geierstein," which lowers +them, the first altogether, the other two at frequent intervals, into +fellowship with the normal disease which festers throughout the whole +body of our lower fictitious literature. + +13. Fictitious! I use the ambiguous word deliberately; for it is +impossible to distinguish in these tales of the prison-house how far +their vice and gloom are thrown into their manufacture only to meet a +vile demand, and how far they are an integral condition of thought in +the minds of men trained from their youth up in the knowledge of +Londinian and Parisian misery. The speciality of the plague is a delight +in the exposition of the relations between guilt and decrepitude; and I +call the results of it literature "of the prison-house," because the +thwarted habits of body and mind, which are the punishment of reckless +crowding in cities, become, in the issue of that punishment, frightful +subjects of exclusive interest to themselves; and the art of fiction in +which they finally delight is only the more studied arrangement and +illustration, by colored fire-lights, of the daily bulletins of their +own wretchedness, in the prison calendar, the police news, and the +hospital report. + +14. The reader will perhaps be surprised at my separating the greatest +work of Dickens, "Oliver Twist," with honor, from the loathsome mass to +which it typically belongs. That book is an earnest and uncaricatured +record of states of criminal life, written with didactic purpose, full +of the gravest instruction, nor destitute of pathetic studies of noble +passion. Even the "Mysteries of Paris" and Gaboriau's "Crime d'Orcival" +are raised, by their definiteness of historical intention and +forewarning anxiety, far above the level of their order, and may be +accepted as photographic evidence of an otherwise incredible +civilization, corrupted in the infernal fact of it, down to the genesis +of such figures as the Vicomte d'Orcival, the Stabber,[40] the Skeleton, +and the She-wolf. But the effectual head of the whole cretinous school +is the renowned novel in which the hunchbacked lover watches the +execution of his mistress from the tower of Notre-Dame; and its strength +passes gradually away into the anatomical preparations, for the general +market, of novels like "Poor Miss Finch," in which the heroine is blind, +the hero epileptic, and the obnoxious brother is found dead with his +hands dropped off, in the Arctic regions.[41] + +15. This literature of the Prison-house, understanding by the word not +only the cell of Newgate, but also and even more definitely the cell of +the Hôtel-Dieu, the Hôpital des Fous, and the grated corridor with the +dripping slabs of the Morgue, having its central root thus in the Ile de +Paris--or historically and pre-eminently the "Cité de Paris"--is, when +understood deeply, the precise counter-corruption of the religion of the +Sainte Chapelle, just as the worst forms of bodily and mental ruin are +the corruption of love. I have therefore called it "Fiction mécroyante," +with literal accuracy and precision: according to the explanation of the +word, which the reader may find in any good French dictionary,[42] and +round its Arctic pole in the Morgue, he may gather into one Caina of +gelid putrescence the entire product of modern infidel imagination, +amusing itself with destruction of the body, and busying itself with +aberration of the mind. + +16. Aberration, palsy, or plague, observe, as distinguished from normal +evil, just as the venom of rabies or cholera differs from that of a wasp +or a viper. The life of the insect and serpent deserves, or at least +permits, our thoughts; not so the stages of agony in the fury-driven +hound. There is some excuse, indeed, for the pathologic labor of the +modern novelist in the fact that he cannot easily, in a city population, +find a healthy mind to vivisect: but the greater part of such amateur +surgery is the struggle, in an epoch of wild literary competition, to +obtain novelty of material. The varieties of aspect and color in healthy +fruit, be it sweet or sour, may be within certain limits described +exhaustively. Not so the blotches of its conceivable blight: and while +the symmetries of integral human character can only be traced by +harmonious and tender skill, like the branches of a living tree, the +faults and gaps of one gnawed away by corroding accident can be shuffled +into senseless change like the wards of a Chubb lock. + +17. V. It is needless to insist on the vast field for this dice-cast or +card-dealt calamity which opens itself in the ignorance, money-interest, +and mean passion, of city marriage. Peasants know each other as +children--meet, as they grow up in testing labor; and if a stout +farmer's son marries a handless girl, it is his own fault. Also in the +patrician families of the field, the young people know what they are +doing, and marry a neighboring estate, or a covetable title, with some +conception of the responsibilities they undertake. But even among these, +their season in the confused metropolis creates licentious and +fortuitous temptation before unknown; and in the lower middle orders, an +entirely new kingdom of discomfort and disgrace has been preached to +them in the doctrines of unbridled pleasure which are merely an apology +for their peculiar forms of ill-breeding. It is quite curious how often +the catastrophe, or the leading interest, of a modern novel, turns upon +the want, both in maid and bachelor, of the common self-command which +was taught to their grandmothers and grandfathers as the first element +of ordinarily decent behavior. Rashly inquiring the other day the plot +of a modern story[43] from a female friend, I elicited, after some +hesitation, that it hinged mainly on the young people's "forgetting +themselves in a boat;" and I perceive it to be accepted as nearly an +axiom in the code of modern civic chivalry that the strength of amiable +sentiment is proved by our incapacity on proper occasions to express, +and on improper ones to control it. The pride of a gentleman of the old +school used to be in his power of saying what he meant, and being silent +when he ought (not to speak of the higher nobleness which bestowed love +where it was honorable, and reverence where it was due); but the +automatic amours and involuntary proposals of recent romance acknowledge +little further law of morality than the instinct of an insect, or the +effervescence of a chemical mixture. + +18. There is a pretty little story of Alfred de Musset's--"La Mouche," +which, if the reader cares to glance at it, will save me further trouble +in explaining the disciplinarian authority of mere old-fashioned +politeness, as in some sort protective of higher things. It describes, +with much grace and precision, a state of society by no means +pre-eminently virtuous, or enthusiastically heroic; in which many people +do extremely wrong, and none sublimely right. But as there are heights +of which the achievement is unattempted, there are abysses to which fall +is barred; neither accident nor temptation will make any of the +principal personages swerve from an adopted resolution, or violate an +accepted principle of honor; people are expected as a matter of course +to speak with propriety on occasion, and to wait with patience when they +are bid: those who do wrong, admit it; those who do right don't boast of +it; everybody knows his own mind, and everybody has good manners. + +19. Nor must it be forgotten that in the worst days of the +self-indulgence which destroyed the aristocracies of Europe, their +vices, however licentious, were never, in the fatal modern sense, +"unprincipled." The vainest believed in virtue; the vilest respected it. +"Chaque chose avait son nom,"[44] and the severest of English moralists +recognizes the accurate wit, the lofty intellect, and the unfretted +benevolence, which redeemed from vitiated surroundings the circle of +d'Alembert and Marmontel.[45] + +I have said, with too slight praise, that the vainest, in those days, +"believed" in virtue. Beautiful and heroic examples of it were always +before them; nor was it without the secret significance attaching to +what may seem the least accidents in the work of a master, that Scott +gave to both his heroines of the age of revolution in England the name +of the queen of the highest order of English chivalry.[46] + +20. It is to say little for the types of youth and maid which alone +Scott felt it a joy to imagine, or thought it honorable to portray, that +they act and feel in a sphere where they are never for an instant +liable to any of the weaknesses which disturb the calm, or shake the +resolution, of chastity and courage in a modern novel. Scott lived in a +country and time, when, from highest to lowest, but chiefly in that +dignified and nobly severe[47] middle class to which he himself +belonged, a habit of serene and stainless thought was as natural to the +people as their mountain air. Women like Rose Bradwardine and Ailie +Dinmont were the grace and guard of almost every household (God be +praised that the race of them is not yet extinct, for all that Mall or +Boulevard can do), and it has perhaps escaped the notice of even +attentive readers that the comparatively uninteresting character of Sir +Walter's heroes had always been studied among a class of youths who were +simply incapable of doing anything seriously wrong; and could only be +embarrassed by the consequences of their levity or imprudence. + +21. But there is another difference in the woof of a Waverley novel from +the cobweb of a modern one, which depends on Scott's larger view of +human life. Marriage is by no means, in his conception of man and woman, +the most important business of their existence;[48] nor love the only +reward to be proposed to their virtue or exertion. It is not in his +reading of the laws of Providence a necessity that virtue should, either +by love or any other external blessing, be rewarded at all;[49] and +marriage is in all cases thought of as a constituent of the happiness of +life, but not as its only interest, still less its only aim. And upon +analyzing with some care the motives of his principal stories, we shall +often find that the love in them is merely a light by which the sterner +features of character are to be irradiated, and that the marriage of the +hero is as subordinate to the main bent of the story as Henry the +Fifth's courtship of Katherine is to the battle of Agincourt. Nay, the +fortunes of the person who is nominally the subject of the tale are +often little more than a background on which grander figures are to be +drawn, and deeper fates forthshadowed. The judgments between the faith +and chivalry of Scotland at Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge owe little of +their interest in the mind of a sensible reader to the fact that the +captain of the Popinjay is carried a prisoner to one battle, and returns +a prisoner from the other: and Scott himself, while he watches the white +sail that bears Queen Mary for the last time from her native land, very +nearly forgets to finish his novel, or to tell us--and with small sense +of any consolation to be had out of that minor circumstance,--that +"Roland and Catherine were united, spite of their differing faiths." + +22. Neither let it be thought for an instant that the slight, and +sometimes scornful, glance with which Scott passes over scenes which a +novelist of our own day would have analyzed with the airs of a +philosopher, and painted with the curiosity of a gossip, indicates any +absence in his heart of sympathy with the great and sacred elements of +personal happiness. An era like ours, which has with diligence and +ostentation swept its heart clear of all the passions once known as +loyalty, patriotism, and piety, necessarily magnifies the apparent force +of the one remaining sentiment which sighs through the barren chambers, +or clings inextricably round the chasms of ruin; nor can it but regard +with awe the unconquerable spirit which still tempts or betrays the +sagacities of selfishness into error or frenzy which is believed to be +love. + +That Scott was never himself, in the sense of the phrase as employed by +lovers of the Parisian school, "ivre d'amour," may be admitted without +prejudice to his sensibility,[50] and that he never knew "l'amor che +move 'l sol e l'altre stelle," was the chief, though unrecognized, +calamity of his deeply checkered life. But the reader of honor and +feeling will not therefore suppose that the love which Miss Vernon +sacrifices, stooping for an instant from her horse, is of less noble +stamp, or less enduring faith, than that which troubles and degrades the +whole existence of Consuelo; or that the affection of Jeanie Deans for +the companion of her childhood, drawn like a field of soft blue heaven +beyond the cloudy wrack of her sorrow, is less fully in possession of +her soul than the hesitating and self-reproachful impulses under which a +modern heroine forgets herself in a boat, or compromises herself in the +cool of the evening. + +23. I do not wish to return over the waste ground we have traversed, +comparing, point by point, Scott's manner with those of Bermondsey and +the Faubourgs; but it may be, perhaps, interesting at this moment to +examine, with illustration from those Waverley novels which have so +lately _re_tracted the attention of a fair and gentle public,[51] the +universal conditions of "style," rightly so called, which are in all +ages, and above all local currents or wavering tides of temporary +manners, pillars of what is forever strong, and models of what is +forever fair. + +But I must first define, and that within strict horizon, the works of +Scott, in which his perfect mind may be known, and his chosen ways +understood. + +His great works of prose fiction, excepting only the first half-volume +of "Waverley," were all written in twelve years, 1814-26 (of his own age +forty-three to fifty-five), the actual time employed in their +composition being not more than a couple of months out of each year; and +during that time only the morning hours and spare minutes during the +professional day. "Though the first volume of 'Waverley' was begun long +ago, and actually lost for a time, yet the other two were begun and +finished between the 4th of June and the 1st of July, during all which I +attended my duty in court, and proceeded without loss of time or +hindrance of business."[52] + +Few of the maxims for the enforcement of which, in "Modern Painters," +long ago, I got the general character of a lover of paradox, are more +singular, or more sure, than the statement, apparently so encouraging to +the idle, that if a great thing can be done at all, it can be done +easily. But it is that kind of ease with which a tree blossoms after +long years of gathered strength, and all Scott's great writings were the +recreations of a mind confirmed in dutiful labor, and rich with organic +gathering of boundless resource. + +Omitting from our count the two minor and ill-finished sketches of the +"Black Dwarf" and "Legend of Montrose," and, for a reason presently to +be noticed, the unhappy "St. Ronan's," the memorable romances of Scott +are eighteen, falling into three distinct groups, containing six each. + +24. The first group is distinguished from the other two by characters of +strength and felicity which never more appeared after Scott was struck +down by his terrific illness in 1819. It includes "Waverley," "Guy +Mannering," "The Antiquary," "Rob Roy," "Old Mortality," and "The Heart +of Midlothian." + +The composition of these occupied the mornings of his happiest days, +between the ages of forty-three and forty-eight. On the 8th of April, +1819 (he was forty-eight on the preceding 15th of August), he began for +the first time to dictate--being unable for the exertion of +writing--"The Bride of Lammermuir," "the affectionate Laidlaw beseeching +him to stop dictating when his audible suffering filled every pause. +'Nay, Willie,' he answered, 'only see that the doors are fast. I would +fain keep all the cry as well as all the wool to ourselves; but as for +giving over work, that can only be when I am in woolen.'"[53] From this +time forward the brightness of joy and sincerity of inevitable humor, +which perfected the imagery of the earlier novels, are wholly absent, +except in the two short intervals of health unaccountably restored, in +which he wrote "Redgauntlet" and "Nigel." + +It is strange, but only a part of the general simplicity of Scott's +genius, that these revivals of earlier power were unconscious, and that +the time of extreme weakness in which he wrote "St. Ronan's Well," was +that in which he first asserted his own restoration. + +25. It is also a deeply interesting characteristic of his noble nature +that he never gains anything by sickness; the whole man breathes or +faints as one creature: the ache that stiffens a limb chills his heart, +and every pang of his stomach paralyzes the brain. It is not so with +inferior minds, in the workings of which it is often impossible to +distinguish native from narcotic fancy, and the throbs of conscience +from those of indigestion. Whether in exaltation or languor, the colors +of mind are always morbid which gleam on the sea for the "Ancient +Mariner," and through the casements on "St. Agnes' Eve"; but Scott is at +once blinded and stultified by sickness; never has a fit of the cramp +without spoiling a chapter, and is perhaps the only author of vivid +imagination who never wrote a foolish word but when he was ill. + +It remains only to be noticed on this point that any strong natural +excitement, affecting the deeper springs of his heart, would at once +restore his intellectual powers to their fullness, and that, far towards +their sunset: but that the strong will on which he prided himself, +though it could trample upon pain, silence grief, and compel industry, +never could warm his imagination, or clear the judgment in his darker +hours. + +I believe that this power of the heart over the intellect is common to +all great men: but what the special character of emotion was, that alone +could lift Scott above the power of death, I am about to ask the +reader, in a little while, to observe with joyful care. + +26. The first series of romances then, above-named, are all that exhibit +the emphasis of his unharmed faculties. The second group, composed in +the three years subsequent to illness all but mortal, bear every one of +them more or less the seal of it. + +They consist of the "Bride of Lammermuir," "Ivanhoe," the "Monastery," +the "Abbot," "Kenilworth," and the "Pirate."[54] The marks of broken +health on all these are essentially twofold--prevailing melancholy, and +fantastic improbability. Three of the tales are agonizingly tragic, the +"Abbot" scarcely less so in its main event, and "Ivanhoe" deeply wounded +through all its bright panoply; while even in that most powerful of the +series the impossible archeries and ax-strokes, the incredibly opportune +appearances of Locksley, the death of Ulrica, and the resuscitation of +Athelstane, are partly boyish, partly feverish. Caleb in the "Bride," +Triptolemus and Halcro in the "Pirate," are all laborious, and the first +incongruous; half a volume of the "Abbot" is spent in extremely dull +detail of Roland's relations with his fellow-servants and his mistress, +which have nothing whatever to do with the future story; and the lady of +Avenel herself disappears after the first volume, "like a snaw-wreath +when it's thaw, Jeanie." The public has for itself pronounced on the +"Monastery," though as much too harshly as it has foolishly praised the +horrors of "Ravenswood" and the nonsense of "Ivanhoe"; because the +modern public finds in the torture and adventure of these, the kind of +excitement which it seeks at an opera, while it has no sympathy whatever +with the pastoral happiness of Glendearg, or with the lingering +simplicities of superstition which give historical likelihood to the +legend of the White Lady. + +But both this despised tale and its sequel have Scott's heart in them. +The first was begun to refresh himself in the intervals of artificial +labor on "Ivanhoe." "It was a relief," he said, "to interlay the scenery +most familiar to me[55] with the strange world for which I had to draw +so much on imagination." Through all the closing scenes of the second he +is raised to his own true level by his love for the queen. And within +the code of Scott's work to which I am about to appeal for illustration +of his essential powers, I accept the "Monastery" and "Abbot," and +reject from it the remaining four of this group. + +27. The last series contains two quite noble ones, "Redgauntlet" and +"Nigel"; two of very high value, "Durward" and "Woodstock"; the slovenly +and diffuse "Peveril," written for the trade;[56] the sickly "Tales of +the Crusaders," and the entirely broken and diseased "St. Ronan's Well." +This last I throw out of count altogether, and of the rest, accept only +the four first named as sound work; so that the list of the novels in +which I propose to examine his methods and ideal standards, reduces +itself to these following twelve (named in order of production): +"Waverley," "Guy Mannering," the "Antiquary," "Rob Roy," "Old +Mortality," the "Heart of Midlothian," the "Monastery," the "Abbot," +"Redgauntlet," the "Fortunes of Nigel," "Quentin Durward," and +"Woodstock."[57] + +28. It is, however, too late to enter on my subject in this article, +which I may fitly close by pointing out some of the merely verbal +characteristics of his style, illustrative in little ways of the +questions we have been examining, and chiefly of the one which may be +most embarrassing to many readers, the difference, namely, between +character and disease. + +One quite distinctive charm in the Waverleys is their modified use of +the Scottish dialect; but it has not generally been observed, either by +their imitators, or the authors of different taste who have written for +a later public, that there is a difference between the dialect of a +language, and its corruption. + +A dialect is formed in any district where there are persons of +intelligence enough to use the language itself in all its fineness and +force, but under the particular conditions of life, climate, and temper, +which introduce words peculiar to the scenery, forms of word and idioms +of sentence peculiar to the race, and pronunciations indicative of their +character and disposition. + +Thus "burn" (of a streamlet) is a word possible only in a country where +there are brightly running waters, "lassie," a word possible only where +girls are as free as the rivulets, and "auld," a form of the southern +"old," adopted by a race of finer musical ear than the English. + +On the contrary, mere deteriorations, or coarse, stridulent, and, in the +ordinary sense of the phrase, "broad" forms of utterance, are not +dialects at all, having nothing dialectic in them; and all phrases +developed in states of rude employment, and restricted intercourse, are +injurious to the tone and narrowing to the power of the language they +affect. Mere breadth of accent does not spoil a dialect as long as the +speakers are men of varied idea and good intelligence; but the moment +the life is contracted by mining, millwork, or any oppressive and +monotonous labor, the accents and phrases become debased. It is part of +the popular folly of the day to find pleasure in trying to write and +spell these abortive, crippled, and more or less brutal forms of human +speech. + +29. Abortive, crippled, or brutal, are however not necessarily +"corrupted" dialects. Corrupt language is that gathered by ignorance, +invented by vice, misused by insensibility, or minced and mouthed by +affectation, especially in the attempt to deal with words of which only +half the meaning is understood or half the sound heard. Mrs. Gamp's +"aperiently so"--and the "underminded" with primal sense of undermine, +of--I forget which gossip, in the "Mill on the Floss," are master-and +mistress-pieces in this latter kind. Mrs. Malaprop's "allegories on the +banks of the Nile" are in somewhat higher order of mistake: Mrs. Tabitha +Bramble's ignorance is vulgarized by her selfishness, and Winifred +Jenkins' by her conceit. The "wot" of Noah Claypole, and the other +degradations of cockneyism (Sam Weller and his father are in nothing +more admirable than in the power of heart and sense that can purify even +these); the "trewth" of Mr. Chadband, and "natur" of Mr. Squeers, are +examples of the corruption of words by insensibility: the use of the +word "bloody" in modern low English is a deeper corruption, not altering +the form of the word, but defiling the thought in it. + +Thus much being understood, I shall proceed to examine thoroughly a +fragment of Scott's Lowland Scottish dialect; not choosing it of the +most beautiful kind; on the contrary, it shall be a piece reaching as +low down as he ever allows Scotch to go--it is perhaps the only unfair +patriotism in him, that if ever he wants a word or two of really +villainous slang, he gives it in English or Dutch--not Scotch. + +I had intended in the close of this paper to analyze and compare the +characters of Andrew Fairservice and Richie Moniplies, for examples, the +former of innate evil, unaffected by external influences, and +undiseased, but distinct from natural goodness as a nettle is distinct +from balm or lavender; and the latter of innate goodness, contracted and +pinched by circumstance, but still undiseased, as an oak-leaf crisped by +frost, not by the worm. This, with much else in my mind, I must put off; +but the careful study of one sentence of Andrew's will give us a good +deal to think of. + +30. I take his account of the rescue of Glasgow Cathedral at the time of +the Reformation. + + Ah! it's a brave kirk--nane o' yere whigmaleeries an curliewurlies + and opensteek hems about it--a' solid, weel-jointed mason-wark, + that will stand as lang as the warld, keep hands and gunpowther aff + it. It had amaist a douncome lang syne at the Reformation, when + they pu'd doun the kirks of St. Andrews and Perth, and thereawa', + to cleanse them o' Papery, and idolatry, and image-worship, and + surplices, and sic-like rags o' the muckle hure that sitteth on + seven hills, as if ane wasna braid eneugh for her auld hinder end. + Sae the commons o' Renfrew, and o' the Barony, and the Gorbals, and + a' about, they behoved to come into Glasgow ae fair morning, to try + their hand on purging the High Kirk o' Popish nicknackets. But the + townsmen o' Glasgow, they were feared their auld edifice might slip + the girths in gaun through siccan rough physic, sae they rang the + common bell, and assembled the train-bands wi' took o' drum. By + good luck, the worthy James Rabat was Dean o' Guild that year--(and + a gude mason he was himsell, made him the keener to keep up the + auld bigging), and the trades assembled, and offered downright + battle to the commons, rather than their kirk should coup the + crans, as others had done elsewhere. It wasna for luve o' + Paperie--na, na!--nane could ever say that o' the trades o' + Glasgow--Sae they sune came to an agreement to take a' the + idolatrous statues of sants (sorrow be on them!) out o' their + neuks--And sae the bits o' stane idols were broken in pieces by + Scripture warrant, and flung into the Molendinar burn, and the auld + kirk stood as crouse as a cat when the flaes are kaimed aff her, + and a'body was alike pleased. And I hae heard wise folk say, that + if the same had been done in ilka kirk in Scotland, the Reform wad + just hae been as pure as it is e'en now, and we wad hae mair + Christianlike kirks; for I hae been sae lang in England, that + naething will drived out o' my head, that the dog-kennel at + Osbaldistone-Hall is better than mony a house o' God in Scotland. + +31. Now this sentence is in the first place a piece of Scottish +history of quite inestimable and concentrated value. Andrew's temperament +is the type of a vast class of Scottish--shall we call it +"_sow_-thistlian"--mind, which necessarily takes the view of either Pope +or saint that the thistle in Lebanon took of the cedar or lilies in +Lebanon; and the entire force of the passions which, in the Scottish +revolution, foretold and forearmed the French one, is told in this one +paragraph; the coarseness of it, observe, being admitted, not for the +sake of the laugh, any more than an onion in broth merely for its +flavor, but for the meat of it; the inherent constancy of that +coarseness being a fact in this order of mind, and an essential part of +the history to be told. + +Secondly, observe that this speech, in the religious passion of it, such +as there may be, is entirely sincere. Andrew is a thief, a liar, a +coward, and, in the Fair service from which he takes his name, a +hypocrite; but in the form of prejudice, which is all that his mind is +capable of in the place of religion, he is entirely sincere. He does not +in the least pretend detestation of image worship to please his master, +or anyone else; he honestly scorns the "carnal morality[58] as dowd and +fusionless as rue-leaves at Yule" of the sermon in the upper cathedral; +and when wrapt in critical attention to the "real savor o' doctrine" in +the crypt, so completely forgets the hypocrisy of his fair service as +to return his master's attempt to disturb him with hard punches of the +elbow. + +Thirdly. He is a man of no mean sagacity, quite up to the average +standard of Scottish common sense, not a low one; and, though incapable +of understanding any manner of lofty thought or passion, is a shrewd +measurer of weaknesses, and not without a spark or two of kindly +feeling. See first his sketch of his master's character to Mr. +Hammorgaw, beginning: "He's no a'thegither sae void o' sense, neither"; +and then the close of the dialogue: "But the lad's no a bad lad after +a', and he needs some careful body to look after him." + +Fourthly. He is a good workman; knows his own business well, and can +judge of other craft, if sound, or otherwise. + +All these four qualities of him must be known before we can understand +this single speech. Keeping them in mind, I take it up, word by word. + +32. You observe, in the outset, Scott makes no attempt whatever to +indicate accents or modes of pronunciation by changed spelling, unless +the word becomes a quite definitely new, and securely writable one. The +Scottish way of pronouncing "James," for instance, is entirely peculiar, +and extremely pleasant to the ear. But it is so, just because it does +_not_ change the word into Jeems, nor into Jims, nor into Jawms. A +modern writer of dialects would think it amusing to use one or other of +these ugly spellings. But Scott writes the name in pure English, knowing +that a Scots reader will speak it rightly, and an English one be wise in +letting it alone. On the other hand he writes "weel" for "well," because +that word is complete in its change, and may be very closely expressed +by the double _e_. The ambiguous _u_'s in "gude" and "sune" are +admitted, because far liker the sound than the double _o_ would be, and +that in "hure," for grace' sake, to soften the word; so also "flaes" for +"fleas." "Mony" for "many" is again positively right in sound, and +"neuk" differs from our "nook" in sense, and is not the same word at +all, as we shall presently see. + +Secondly, observe, not a word is corrupted in any indecent haste, +slowness, slovenliness, or incapacity of pronunciation. There is no +lisping, drawling, slobbering, or snuffling: the speech is as clear as a +bell and as keen as an arrow: and its elisions and contractions are +either melodious, ("na," for "not,"--"pu'd," for "pulled,") or as normal +as in a Latin verse. The long words are delivered without the slightest +bungling; and "bigging" finished to its last _g_. + +33. I take the important words now in their places. + +_Brave._ The old English sense of the word in "to go brave," retained, +expressing Andrew's sincere and respectful admiration. Had he meant to +insinuate a hint of the church's being too fine, he would have said +"braw." + +_Kirk._ This is of course just as pure and unprovincial a word as +"Kirche," or "église." + +_Whigmaleerie._ I cannot get at the root of this word, but it is one +showing that the speaker is not bound by classic rules, but will use any +syllables that will enrich his meaning. "Nipperty-tipperty" (of his +master's "poetry-nonsense") is another word of the same class. +"Curliewurlie" is of course just as pure as Shakespeare's "Hurlyburly." +But see first suggestion of the idea to Scott at Blair-Adam (L. vi. +264). + +_Opensteek hems._ More description, or better, of the later Gothic +cannot be put into four syllables. "Steek," melodious for stitch, has a +combined sense of closing or fastening. And note that the later Gothic +being precisely what Scott knew best (in Melrose) and liked best, it is, +here as elsewhere, quite as much himself[59] as Frank, that he is +laughing at, when he laughs _with_ Andrew, whose "opensteek hems" are +only a ruder metaphor for his own "willow-wreaths changed to stone." + +_Gunpowther._ "-Ther" is a lingering vestige of the French "-dre." + +_Syne._ One of the melodious and mysterious Scottish words which have +partly the sound of wind and stream in them, and partly the range of +softened idea which is like a distance of blue hills over border land +("far in the distant Cheviot's blue"). Perhaps even the least +sympathetic "Englisher" might recognize this, if he heard "Old Long +Since" vocally substituted for the Scottish words to the air. I do not +know the root; but the word's proper meaning is not "since," but before +or after an interval of some duration, "as weel sune as syne." "But +first on Sawnie gies a ca', Syne, bauldly in she enters." + +_Behoved_ (_to come_). A rich word, with peculiar idiom, always used +more or less ironically of anything done under a partly mistaken and +partly pretended notion of duty. + +_Siccan._ Far prettier, and fuller in meaning than "such." It contains +an added sense of wonder; and means properly "so great" or "so unusual." + +_Took_ (_o' drum_). Classical "tuck" from Italian "toccata," the +preluding "touch" or flourish, on any instrument (but see Johnson under +word "tucket," quoting "Othello"). The deeper Scottish vowels are used +here to mark the deeper sound of the bass drum, as in more solemn +warning. + +_Bigging._ The only word in all the sentence of which the Scottish form +is less melodious than the English, "and what for no," seeing that +Scottish architecture is mostly little beyond Bessie Bell's and Mary +Gray's? "They biggit a bow're by yon burnside, and theekit it ow're wi' +rashes." But it is pure Anglo-Saxon in roots; see glossary to +Fairbairn's edition of the Douglas "Virgil," 1710. + +_Coup._ Another of the much-embracing words; short for "upset," but with +a sense of awkwardness as the inherent cause of fall; compare Richie +Moniplies (also for sense of "behoved"): "Ae auld hirplin deevil of a +potter behoved just to step in my way, and offer me a pig (earthen +pot--etym. dub.), as he said 'just to put my Scotch ointment in'; and I +gave him a push, as but natural, and the tottering deevil coupit owre +amang his own pigs, and damaged a score of them." So also Dandie Dinmont +in the postchaise: "'Od! I hope they'll no coup us." + +_The Crans._ Idiomatic; root unknown to me, but it means in this use, +fall total, and without recovery.[60] + +_Molendinar._ From "molendinum," the grinding-place. I do not know if +actually the local name,[61] or Scott's invention. Compare Sir Piercie's +"Molinaras." But at all events used here with by-sense of degradation of +the formerly idle saints to grind at the mill. + +_Crouse._ Courageous, softened with a sense of comfort. + +_Ilka._ Again a word with azure distance, including the whole sense of +"each" and "every." The reader must carefully and reverently distinguish +these comprehensive words, which gather two or more perfectly understood +meanings into one _chord_ of meaning, and are harmonies more than words, +from the above-noted blunders between two half-hit meanings, struck as a +bad piano-player strikes the edge of another note. In English we have +fewer of these combined thoughts; so that Shakespeare rather plays with +the distinct lights of his words, than melts them into one. So again +Bishop Douglas spells, and doubtless spoke, the word "rose," +differently, according to his purpose; if as the chief or governing +ruler of flowers, "rois," but if only in her own beauty, rose. + +_Christianlike._ The sense of the decency and order proper to +Christianity is stronger in Scotland than in any other country, and the +word "Christian" more distinctly opposed to "beast." Hence the +back-handed cut at the English for their over-pious care of dogs. + +34. I am a little surprised myself at the length to which this +examination of one small piece of Sir Walter's first-rate work has +carried us, but here I must end for this time, trusting, if the Editor +of the _Nineteenth Century_ permit me, yet to trespass, perhaps more +than once, on his readers' patience; but, at all events, to examine in a +following paper the technical characteristics of Scott's own style, both +in prose and verse, together with Byron's, as opposed to our fashionably +recent dialects and rhythms; the essential virtues of language, in both +the masters of the old school, hinging ultimately, little as it might be +thought, on certain unalterable views of theirs concerning the code +called "of the Ten Commandments," wholly at variance with the dogmas of +automatic morality which, summed again by the witches' line, "Fair is +foul, and foul is fair," hover through the fog and filthy air of our +prosperous England. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 37: _Nineteenth Century_, June, 1880.] + +[Footnote 38: See _Time and Tide_, § 72.--ED.] + +[Footnote 39: Nell, in the "Old Curiosity Shop," was simply killed for +the market, as a butcher kills a lamb (see Forster's "Life,") and Paul +was written under the same conditions of illness which affected Scott--a +part of the ominous palsies, grasping alike author and subject both in +"Dombey" and "Little Dorrit."] + +[Footnote 40: "Chourineur" not striking with dagger-point, but ripping +with knife-edge. Yet I do him, and La Louve, injustice in classing them +with the two others; they are put together only as parts in the same +phantasm. Compare with La Louve, the strength of wild virtue in the +"Louvécienne" (Lucienne) of Gaboriau--she, province-born and bred; and +opposed to Parisian civilization in the character of her seamstress +friend. "De ce Paris, où elle était née, elle savait tout--elle +connaissait tout. Rien ne l'étonnait, nul ne l'intimidait. Sa science +des détails matériels de l'existence était inconcevable. Impossible de +la duper!--Eh bien! cette fille si laborieuse et si économe n'avait même +pas la plus vague notion des sentiments qui sont l'honneur de la femme. +Je n'avais pas idée d'une si complète absence de sens moral; d'une si +inconscience dépravation, d'une impudence si effrontément +naïve."--"L'Argent des autres," vol. i. p. 358.] + +[Footnote 41: The reader who cares to seek it may easily find medical +evidence of the physical effects of certain states of brain disease in +producing especially images of truncated and Hermes-like deformity, +complicated with grossness. Horace, in the "Epodes," scoffs at it, but +not without horror. Luca Signorelli and Raphael in their arabesques are +deeply struck by it: Dürer, defying and playing with it alternately, is +almost beaten down again and again in the distorted faces, hewing +halberts, and suspended satyrs of his arabesques round the polyglot +Lord's Prayer; it takes entire possession of Balzac in the "Contes +Drolatiques"; it struck Scott in the earliest days of his childish +"visions" intensified by the ax-stroke murder of his grand aunt (L. i. +142, and see close of this note). It chose for him the subject of the +"Heart of Midlothian," and produced afterwards all the recurrent ideas +of executions, tainting "Nigel," almost spoiling "Quentin +Durward"--utterly the "Fair Maid of Perth": and culminating in "Bizarro" +(L. x. 149). It suggested all the deaths by falling, or sinking, as in +delirious sleep--Kennedy, Eveline Neville (nearly repeated in Clara +Mowbray), Amy Robsart, the Master of Ravenswood in the quicksand, +Morris, and Corporal Grace-be-here--compare the dream of Gride, in +"Nicholas Nickleby," and Dickens's own last words, _on the ground_ (so +also, in my own inflammation of the brain, two years ago, I dreamed that +I fell through the earth and came out on the other side). In its +grotesque and distorting power, it produced all the figures of the Lay +Goblin, Pacolet, Flibbertigibbet, Cockledemoy, Geoffrey Hudson, Fenella, +and Nectabanus; in Dickens it in like manner gives Quilp, Krook, Smike, +Smallweed, Miss Mowcher, and the dwarfs and wax-work of Nell's caravan; +and runs entirely wild in "Barnaby Budge," where, with a corps de drame +composed of one idiot, two madmen, a gentleman-fool who is also a +villain, a shop-boy fool who is also a blackguard, a hangman, a +shriveled virago, and a doll in ribbons--carrying this company through +riot and fire, till he hangs the hangman, one of the madmen, his mother, +and the idiot, runs the gentleman-fool through in a bloody duel, and +burns and crushes the shop-boy fool into shapelessness, he cannot yet be +content without shooting the spare lover's leg off, and marrying him to +the doll in a wooden one; the shapeless shop-boy being finally also +married in _two_ wooden ones. It is this mutilation, observe, which is +the very sign manual of the plague; joined, in the artistic forms of it, +with a love of thorniness--(in their mystic root, the truncation of the +limbless serpent and the spines of the dragon's wing. Compare "Modern +Painters," vol. iv., "Chapter on the Mountain Gloom," s. 19); and in +_all_ forms of it, with petrifaction or loss of power by cold in the +blood, whence the last Darwinian process of the witches' charm--"cool it +with a baboon's _blood, then_ the charm is firm and good." The two +frescoes in the colossal handbills which have lately decorated the +streets of London (the baboon with the mirror, and the Maskelyne and +Cooke decapitation) are the final English forms of Raphael's arabesque +under this influence; and it is well worth while to get the number for +the week ending April 3, 1880, of "Young Folks--a magazine of +instructive and entertaining literature for boys and girls of all ages," +containing "A Sequel to Desdichado" (the modern development of Ivanhoe), +in which a quite monumental example of the kind of art in question will +be found as a leading illustration of this characteristic sentence, +"See, good Cerberus," said Sir Rupert, "_my hand has been struck off. +You must make me a hand of iron, one with springs in it, so that I can +make it grasp a dagger_." The text is also, as it professes to be, +instructive; being the ultimate degeneration of what I have above called +the "folly" of "Ivanhoe"; for the folly begets folly down, and down; and +whatever Scott and Turner did wrong has thousands of imitators--their +wisdom none will so much as hear, how much less follow! + +In both of the Masters, it is always to be remembered that the evil and +good are alike conditions of literal _vision_: and therefore also, +inseparably connected with the state of the health. I believe the first +elements of all Scott's errors were in the milk of his consumptive +nurse, which all but killed him as an infant (L. i. 19)--and was without +doubt the cause of the teething fever that ended in his lameness (L. i. +20). Then came (if the reader cares to know what I mean by "Fors," let +him read the page carefully) the fearful accidents to his only sister, +and her death (L. i. 17); then the madness of his nurse, who planned his +own murder (21), then the stories continually told him of the executions +at Carlisle (24), his aunt's husband having seen them; issuing, he +himself scarcely knows how, in the unaccountable terror that came upon +him at the sight of statuary (31)--especially Jacob's ladder; then the +murder of Mrs. Swinton, and finally the nearly fatal bursting of the +blood vessel at Kelso, with the succeeding nervous illness +(65-67)--solaced, while he was being "bled and blistered till he had +scarcely a pulse left," by that history of the Knights of Malta--fondly +dwelt on and realized by actual modeling of their fortress, which +returned to his mind for the theme of its last effort in passing away.] + +[Footnote 42: "Se dit par dénigrement, d'un chrétien qui ne croit pas +les dogmes de sa religion."--Fleming, vol. ii. p. 659.] + +[Footnote 43: The novel alluded to is "The Mill on the Floss." See +below, p. 272, § 108.--ED.] + +[Footnote 44: "A son nom," properly. The sentence is one of Victor +Cherbuliez's, in "Prosper Randoce," which is full of other valuable +ones. See the old nurse's "ici bas les choses vont de travers, comme un +chien qui va à vêpres," p. 93; and compare Prosper's treasures, "la +petite Vénus, et le petit Christ d'ivoire," p. 121; also Madame +Brehanne's request for the divertissement of "quelque belle batterie à +coups de couteau" with Didier's answer. "Hélas! madame, vous jouez de +malheur, ici dans la Drôme, l'on se massacre aussi peu que possible," p. +33.] + +[Footnote 45: Edgeworth's "Tales," (Hunter, 1827), "Harrington and +Ormond," vol. iii. p. 260.] + +[Footnote 46: Alice of Salisbury, Alice Lee, Alice Bridgnorth.] + +[Footnote 47: Scott's father was habitually ascetic. "I have heard his +son tell that it was common with him, if any one observed that the soup +was good, to taste it again, and say, 'Yes--it is too good, bairns,' and +dash a tumbler of cold water into his plate."--Lockhart's "Life" (Black, +Edinburgh, 1869), vol. i. p. 312. In other places I refer to this book +in the simple form of "L."] + +[Footnote 48: A young lady sang to me, just before I copied out this +page for press, a Miss Somebody's "great song," "Live, and Love, and +Die." Had it been written for nothing better than silkworms, it should +at least have added--Spin.] + +[Footnote 49: See passage of introduction to "Ivanhoe," wisely quoted in +L. vi. 106.] + +[Footnote 50: See below, note, p. 199, on the conclusion of +"Woodstock."] + +[Footnote 51: The reference is to a series of "Waverley Tableaux" given +in London shortly before the publication of this paper.--ED.] + +[Footnote 52: L. iv. 177.] + +[Footnote 53: L. vi. 67.] + +[Footnote 54: "One other such novel, and there's an end; but who can +last forever? who ever lasted so long?"--Sydney Smith (of the _Pirate_) +to Jeffrey, December 30, 1821. (_Letters_, vol. ii. p. 223.)] + +[Footnote 55: L. vi. p. 188. Compare the description of Fairy Dean, vii. +192.] + +[Footnote 56: All, alas! were now in a great measure so written. +"Ivanhoe," "The Monastery," "The Abbot," and "Kenilworth" were all +published between December 1819 and January 1821, Constable & Co. giving +five thousand guineas for the remaining copyright of them, Scott +clearing ten thousand before the bargain was completed; and before the +"Fortunes of Nigel" issued from the press Scott had exchanged +instruments and received his bookseller's bills for no less than four +"works of fiction," not one of them otherwise described in the deeds of +agreement, to be produced in unbroken succession, _each of them to fill +up at least three volumes, but with proper saving clauses as to increase +of copy money in case any of them should run to four_; and within two +years all this anticipation had been wiped off by "Peveril of the Peak," +"Quentin Durward," "St. Ronan's Well," and "Redgauntlet."] + +[Footnote 57: "Woodstock" was finished 26th March, 1826. He knew then of +his ruin; and wrote in bitterness, but not in weakness. The closing +pages are the most beautiful of the book. But a month afterwards Lady +Scott died; and he never wrote glad word more.] + +[Footnote 58: Compare Mr. Spurgeon's not unfrequent orations on the same +subject.] + +[Footnote 59: There are three definite and intentional portraits of +himself, in the novels, each giving a separate part of himself: Mr. +Oldbuck, Frank Osbaldistone, and Alan Fairford.] + +[Footnote 60: See note, p. 224.--ED.] + +[Footnote 61: Andrew knows Latin, and might have coined the word in his +conceit; but, writing to a kind friend in Glasgow, I find the brook was +called "Molyndona" even before the building of the Subdean Mill in 1446. +See also account of the locality in Mr. George's admirable volume, "Old +Glasgow," pp. 129, 149, etc. The Protestantism of Glasgow, since +throwing that powder of saints into her brook Kidron, has presented it +with other pious offerings; and my friend goes on to say that the brook, +once famed for the purity of its waters (much used for bleaching), "has +for nearly a hundred years been a crawling stream of loathsomeness. It +is now bricked over, and a carriage-way made on the top of it; +underneath the foul mess still passes through the heart of the city, +till it falls into the Clyde close to the harbor."] + + + + +FICTION, FAIR AND FOUL.[62] + +II. + + +35. _"He hated greetings in the market-place_, and there were generally +loiterers in the streets to persecute him _either about the events of +the day_, or about some petty pieces of business." + +These lines, which the reader will find near the beginning of the +sixteenth chapter of the first volume of the "Antiquary," contain two +indications of the old man's character, which, receiving the ideal of +him as a portrait of Scott himself, are of extreme interest to me. They +mean essentially that neither Monkbarns nor Scott had any mind to be +called of men, Rabbi, in mere hearing of the mob; and especially that +they hated to be drawn back out of their far-away thoughts, or forward +out of their long-ago thoughts, by any manner of "daily" news, whether +printed or gabbled. Of which two vital characteristics, deeper in both +men, (for I must always speak of Scott's creations as if they were as +real as himself,) than any of their superficial vanities, or passing +enthusiasms, I have to speak more at another time. I quote the passage +just now, because there was one piece of the daily news of the year 1815 +which did extremely interest Scott, and materially direct the labor of +the latter part of his life; nor is there any piece of history in this +whole nineteenth century quite so pregnant with various instruction as +the study of the reasons which influenced Scott and Byron in their +opposite views of the glories of the battle of Waterloo. + +36. But I quote it for another reason also. The principal greeting which +Mr. Oldbuck on this occasion receives in the market-place, being +compared with the speech of Andrew Fairservice, examined in my first +paper, will furnish me with the text of what I have mainly to say in the +present one. + + "'Mr. Oldbuck,' said the town-clerk (a more important person, who + came in front and ventured to stop the old gentleman), 'the + provost, understanding you were in town, begs on no account that + you'll quit it without seeing him; he wants to speak to ye about + bringing the water frae the Fairwell spring through a part o' your + lands.' + + "'What the deuce!--have they nobody's land but mine to cut and + carve on?--I won't consent, tell them.' + + "'And the provost,' said the clerk, going on, without noticing the + rebuff, 'and the council, wad be agreeable that you should hae the + auld stanes at Donagild's Chapel, that ye was wussing to hae.' + + "'Eh?--what?--Oho! that's another story--Well, well, I'll call upon + the provost, and we'll talk about it.' + + "'But ye maun speak your mind on't forthwith, Monkbarns, if ye want + the stanes; for Deacon Harlewalls thinks the carved through-stanes + might be put with advantage on the front of the new council + house--that is, the twa cross-legged figures that the callants used + to ca' Robbin and Bobbin, ane on ilka door-cheek; and the other + stane, that they ca'd Ailie Dailie, abune the door. It will be very + tastefu', the Deacon says, and just in the style of modern Gothic.' + + "'Good Lord deliver me from this Gothic generation!' exclaimed the + Antiquary,--'a monument of a knight-templar on each side of a + Grecian porch, and a Madonna on the top of it!--_O crimini!_--Well, + tell the provost I wish to have the stones, and we'll not differ + about the water-course.--It's lucky I happened to come this way + to-day.' + + "They parted mutually satisfied; but the wily clerk had most reason + to exult in the dexterity he had displayed, since the whole + proposal of an exchange between the monuments (which the council + had determined to remove as a nuisance, because they encroached + three feet upon the public road) and the privilege of conveying the + water to the burgh, through the estate of Monkbarns, was an idea + which had originated with himself upon the pressure of the moment." + +37. In this single page of Scott, will the reader please note the kind +of prophetic instinct with which the great men of every age mark and +forecast its destinies? The water from the Fairwell is the future +Thirlmere carried to Manchester; the "auld stanes"[63] at Donagild's +Chapel, removed as a _nuisance_, foretell the necessary view taken by +modern cockneyism, Liberalism, and progress, of all things that remind +them of the noble dead, of their fathers' fame, or of their own duty; +and the public road becomes their idol, instead of the saint's shrine. +Finally, the roguery of the entire transaction--the mean man seeing the +weakness of the honorable, and "besting" him--in modern slang, in the +manner and at the pace of modern trade--"on the pressure of the moment." + +But neither are these things what I have at present quoted the passage +for. + +I quote it, that we may consider how much wonderful and various history +is gathered in the fact recorded for us in this piece of entirely fair +fiction, that in the Scottish borough of Fairport (Montrose, really), in +the year 17--of Christ, the knowledge given by the pastors and teachers +provided for its children by enlightened Scottish Protestantism, of +their fathers' history, and the origin of their religion, had resulted +in this substance and sum;--that the statues of two crusading knights +had become, to their children, Bobbin and Bobbin; and the statue of the +Madonna, Ailie Dailie. + +A marvelous piece of history, truly: and far too comprehensive for +general comment here. Only one small piece of it I must carry forward +the readers' thoughts upon. + +38. The pastors and teachers aforesaid, (represented typically in +another part of this errorless book by Mr. Blattergowl,) are not, +whatever else they may have to answer for, answerable for these names. +The names are of the children's own choosing and bestowing, but not of +the children's own inventing. "Robin" is a classically endearing +cognomen, recording the _errant_ heroism of old days--the name of the +Bruce and of Rob Roy. "Bobbin" is a poetical and symmetrical fulfillment +and adornment of the original phrase. "Ailie" is the last echo of "Ave," +changed into the softest Scottish Christian name familiar to the +children, itself the beautiful feminine form of royal "Louis"; the +"Dailie" again symmetrically added for kinder and more musical +endearment. The last vestiges, you see, of honor for the heroism and +religion of their ancestors, lingering on the lips of babes and +sucklings. + +But what is the meaning of this necessity the children find themselves +under of completing the nomenclature rhythmically and rhymingly? Note +first the difference carefully, and the attainment of both qualities by +the couplets in question. Rhythm is the syllabic and quantitative +measure of the words, in which Robin both in weight and time, balances +Bobbin; and Dailie holds level scale with Ailie. But rhyme is the added +correspondence of sound; unknown and undesired, so far as we can learn, +by the Greek Orpheus, but absolutely essential to, and, as special +virtue, becoming titular of, the Scottish Thomas. + +39. The "Ryme,"[64] you may at first fancy, is the especially childish +part of the work. Not so. It is the especially chivalric and Christian +part of it. It characterizes the Christian chant or canticle, as a +higher thing than a Greek ode, melos, or hymnos, or than a Latin carmen. + +Think of it; for this again is wonderful! That these children of +Montrose should have an element of music in their souls which Homer had +not,--which a melos of David the Prophet and King had not,--which +Orpheus and Amphion had not,--which Apollo's unrymed oracles became mute +at the sound of. + +A strange new equity this,--melodious justice and judgment, as it +were,--in all words spoken solemnly and ritualistically by Christian +human creatures;--Robin and Bobbin--by the Crusader's tomb, up to "Dies +iræ, dies illa," at judgment of the crusading soul. + +You have to understand this most deeply of all Christian minstrels, from +first to last; that they are more musical, because more joyful, than any +others on earth: ethereal minstrels, pilgrims of the sky, true to the +kindred points of heaven and home; their joy essentially the sky-lark's, +in light, in purity; but, with their human eyes, looking for the +glorious appearing of something in the sky, which the bird cannot. + +This it is that changes Etruscan murmur into Terza rima--Horatian Latin +into Provençal troubadour's melody; not, because less artful, less wise. + +40. Here is a little bit, for instance, of French ryming just before +Chaucer's time--near enough to our own French to be intelligible to us +yet. + + "O quant très-glorieuse vie, + Quant cil qui tout peut et maistrie, + Veult esprouver pour nécessaire, + Ne pour quant il ne blasma mie + La vie de Marthe sa mie: + Mais il lui donna exemplaire + D'autrement vivre, et de bien plaire + A Dieu; et plut de bien à faire: + Pour se conclut-il que Marie + Qui estoit à ses piedz sans braire, + Et pensoit d'entendre et de taire, + Estleut la plus saine partie. + + La meilleur partie esleut-elle + Et la plus saine et la plus belle, + Qui jà ne luy sera ostée + Car par vérité se fut celle + Qui fut tousjours fresche et nouvelle, + D'aymer Dieu et d'en estre aymée; + Car jusqu'au cueur fut entamée, + Et si ardamment enflamée, + Que tousjours ardoit I'estincelle; + Par quoi elle fut visitée + Et de Dieu premier confortée; + Car charité est trop ysnelle." + +41. The only law of _meter_, observed in this song, is that each line +shall be octosyllabic: + + Qui fut | tousjours | fresche et | nouvelle, + D'autre | ment vi | vret de | bien (ben) plaire + Et pen | soit den | tendret | de taire. + +But the reader must note that words which were two-syllabled in Latin +mostly remain yet so in the French. + + La _vi_ | _e_ de | Marthe | sa mie, + +although _mie_, which is pet language, loving abbreviation of _amica_ +through _amie_, remains monosyllabic. But _vie_ elides its _e_ before a +vowel: + + Car Mar- | the me | nait vie | active + Et Ma- | ri-e | contemp | lative; + +and custom endures many exceptions. Thus _Marie_ may be three-syllabled, +as above, or answer to _mie_ as a dissyllable; but _vierge_ is always, I +think, dissyllabic, _vier-ge_, with even stronger accent on the _-ge_, +for the Latin _-go_. + +Then, secondly, of quantity, there is scarcely any fixed law. The meters +may be timed as the minstrel chooses--fast or slow--and the iambic +current checked in reverted eddy, as the words chance to come. + +But, thirdly, there is to be rich ryming and chiming, no matter how +simply got, so only that the words jingle and tingle together with due +art of interlacing and answering in different parts of the stanza, +correspondent to the involutions of tracery and illumination. The whole +twelve-line stanza is thus constructed with two rymes only, six of each, +thus arranged: + + A A B | A A B | B B A | B B A | + +dividing the verse thus into four measures, reversed in ascent and +descent, or _descant_ more properly; and doubtless with correspondent +phases in the voice-given, and duly accompanying, or following, music; +Thomas the Rymer's own precept, that "tong is chefe in mynstrelsye," +being always kept faithfully in mind.[65] + +42. Here then you have a sufficient example of the pure chant of the +Christian ages; which is always at heart joyful, and divides itself into +the four great forms; Song of Praise, Song of Prayer, Song of Love, and +Song of Battle; praise, however, being the keynote of passion through +all the four forms; according to the first law which I have already +given in the "Laws of Fésole"; "all great Art is Praise," of which the +contrary is also true, all foul or miscreant Art is accusation, [Greek: +diabolê]: "She gave me of the tree and I did eat" being an entirely +museless expression on Adam's part, the briefly essential contrary of +Love-song. + +With these four perfect forms of Christian chant, of which we may take +for pure examples the "Te Deum," the "Te Lucis Ante," the "Amor che +nella mente,"[66] and the "Chant de Roland," are mingled songs of +mourning, of Pagan origin (whether Greek or Danish), holding grasp still +of the races that have once learned them, in times of suffering and +sorrow; and songs of Christian humiliation or grief, regarding chiefly +the sufferings of Christ, or the conditions of our own sin: while +through the entire system of these musical complaints are interwoven +moralities, instructions, and related histories, in illustration of +both, passing into Epic and Romantic verse, which gradually, as the +forms and learnings of society increase, becomes less joyful, and more +didactic, or satiric, until the last echoes of Christian joy and melody +vanish in the "Vanity of human wishes." + +43. And here I must pause for a minute or two to separate the different +branches of our inquiry clearly from one another. For one thing, the +reader must please put for the present out of his head all thought of +the progress of "civilization"--that is to say, broadly, of the +substitution of wigs for hair, gas for candles, and steam for legs. This +is an entirely distinct matter from the phases of policy and religion. +It has nothing to do with the British Constitution, or the French +Revolution, or the unification of Italy. There are, indeed, certain +subtle relations between the state of mind, for instance, in Venice, +which makes her prefer a steamer to a gondola, and that which makes her +prefer a gazetteer to a duke; but these relations are not at all to be +dealt with until we solemnly understand that whether men shall be +Christians and poets, or infidels and dunces, does not depend on the way +they cut their hair, tie their breeches, or light their fires. Dr. +Johnson might have worn his wig in fullness conforming to his dignity, +without therefore coming to the conclusion that human wishes were vain; +nor is Queen Antoinette's civilized hair-powder, as opposed to Queen +Bertha's savagely loose hair, the cause of Antoinette's laying her head +at last in scaffold dust, but Bertha in a pilgrim-haunted tomb. + +44. Again, I have just now used the words "poet" and "dunce," meaning +the degree of each quality possible to average human nature. Men are +eternally divided into the two classes of poet (believer, maker, and +praiser) and dunce (or unbeliever, unmaker, and dispraiser). And in +process of ages they have the power of making faithful and formative +creatures of themselves, or unfaithful and _de_-formative. And this +distinction between the creatures who, blessing, are blessed, and +evermore _benedicti_, and the creatures who, cursing, are cursed, and +evermore maledicti, is one going through all humanity; antediluvian in +Cain and Abel, diluvian in Ham and Shem. And the question for the public +of any given period is not whether they are a constitutional or +unconstitutional vulgus, but whether they are a benignant or malignant +vulgus. So also, whether it is indeed the gods who have given any +gentleman the grace to despise the rabble, depends wholly on whether it +is indeed the rabble, or he, who are the malignant persons. + +45. But yet again. This difference between the persons to whom Heaven, +according to Orpheus, has granted "the hour of delight,"[67] and those +whom it has condemned to the hour of detestableness, being, as I have +just said, of all times and nations,--it is an interior and more +delicate difference which we are examining in the gift of _Christian_ as +distinguished from unchristian, song. Orpheus, Pindar, and Horace are +indeed distinct from the prosaic rabble, as the bird from the snake; but +between Orpheus and Palestrina, Horace and Sidney, there is another +division, and a new power of music and song given to the humanity which +has hope of the Resurrection. + +_This_ is the root of all life and all rightness in Christian harmony, +whether of word or instrument; and so literally, that in precise manner +as this hope disappears, the power of song is taken away, and taken away +utterly. "When the Christian falls back out of the bright hope of the +Resurrection, even the Orpheus song is forbidden him. Not to have known +the hope is blameless: one may sing, unknowing, as the swan, or +Philomela. But to have known and fall away from it, and to declare that +the human wishes, which are summed in that one--"Thy kingdom come"--are +vain! The Fates ordain there shall be no singing after that denial. + +46. For observe this, and earnestly. The old Orphic song, with its dim +hope of yet once more Eurydice,--the Philomela song--granted after the +cruel silence,--the Halcyon song--with its fifteen days of peace, were +all sad, or joyful only in some vague vision of conquest over death. But +the Johnsonian vanity of wishes is on the whole satisfactory to +Johnson--accepted with gentlemanly resignation by Pope--triumphantly and +with bray of penny trumpets and blowing of steam-whistles, proclaimed +for the glorious discovery of the civilized ages, by Mrs. Barbauld, Miss +Edgeworth, Adam Smith, and Co. There is no God, but have we not invented +gunpowder?--who wants a God, with that in his pocket?[68] There is no +Resurrection, neither angel nor spirit; but have we not paper and pens, +and cannot every blockhead print his opinions, and the Day of Judgment +become Republican, with everybody for a judge, and the flat of the +universe for the throne? There is no law, but only gravitation and +congelation, and we are stuck together in an everlasting hail, and +melted together in everlasting mud, and great was the day in which our +worships were born. And there is no gospel, but only, whatever we've +got, to get more, and, wherever we are, to go somewhere else. And are +not these discoveries, to be sung of, and drummed of, and fiddled of, +and generally made melodiously indubitable in the eighteenth century +song of praise? + +47. The Fates will not have it so. No word of song is possible, in that +century, to mortal lips. Only polished versification, sententious +pentameter and hexameter, until, having turned out its toes long enough +without dancing, and pattered with its lips long enough without piping, +suddenly Astræa returns to the earth, and a Day of Judgment of a sort, +and there bursts out a song at last again, a most curtly melodious +triplet of Amphisbænic ryme, "_Ça ira_." + +Amphisbænic, fanged in each ryme with fire, and obeying Ercildoune's +precept, "Tong is chefe of mynstrelsye," to the syllable.--Don +Giovanni's hitherto fondly chanted "Andiam, andiam," become +suddenly impersonal and prophetic: IT shall go, and you also. A +cry--before it is a song, then song and accompaniment +together--perfectly done; and the march "towards the field of Mars. The +two hundred and fifty thousand--they to the sound of stringed +music--preceded by young girls with tricolor streamers, they have +shouldered soldierwise their shovels and picks, and with one throat are +singing _Ça ira_."[69] + +Through all the springtime of 1790, from Brittany to Burgundy, on most +plains of France, under most city walls, there march and +constitutionally wheel to the Ça-iraing mood of fife and drum--our clear +glancing phalanxes;--the song of the two hundred and fifty thousand, +virgin-led, is in the long light of July. Nevertheless, another song is +yet needed, for phalanx, and for maid. For, two springs and summers +having gone--amphisbænic,--on the 28th of August, 1792, "Dumouriez rode +from the camp of Maulde, eastwards to _Sedan_."[70] + +48. "And Longwi has fallen basely, and Brunswick and the Prussian king +will beleaguer Verdun, and Clairfait and the Austrians press deeper in +over the northern marches, Cimmerian Europe behind. And on that same +night Dumouriez assembles council of war at his lodgings in Sedan. +Prussians here, Austrians there, triumphant both. With broad highway to +Paris and little hindrance--_we_ scattered, helpless here and +there--what to advise?" The generals advise retreating, and retreating +till Paris be sacked at the latest day possible. Dumouriez, silent, +dismisses _them_,--keeps only, with a sign, Thouvenot. Silent thus, when +needful, yet having voice, it appears, of what musicians call tenor +quality, of a rare kind. Rubini-esque, even, but scarcely producible to +the fastidious ears at opera. The seizure of the forest of Argonne +follows--the cannonade of Valmy. The Prussians do not march on Paris +_this_ time, the autumnal hours of fate pass on--_ça ira_--and on the +6th of November, Dumouriez meets the Austrians also. "Dumouriez +wide-winged, they wide-winged--at and around Jemappes, its green heights +fringed and maned with red fire. And Dumouriez is swept back on this +wing and swept back on that, and is like to be swept back utterly, when +he rushes up in person, speaks a prompt word or two, and then, with +clear tenor-pipe, uplifts the hymn of the Marseillaise, ten thousand +tenor or bass pipes joining, or say some forty thousand in all, for +every heart leaps up at the sound; and so, with rhythmic march melody, +they rally, they advance, they rush death-defying, and like the fire +whirlwind sweep all manner of Austrians from the scene of action." Thus, +through the lips of Dumouriez, sings Tyrtæus, Rouget de Lisle.[71] "Aux +armes--marchons." Iambic measure with a witness! in what wide strophe +here beginning--in what unthought-of antistrophe returning to that +council chamber in Sedan! + +49. While these two great songs were thus being composed, and sung, and +danced to in cometary cycle, by the French nation, here in our less +giddy island there rose, amidst hours of business in Scotland and of +idleness in England, three troubadours of quite different temper. +Different also themselves, but not opponent; forming a perfect chord, +and adverse all the three of them alike to the French musicians, in this +main point--that while the _Ca ira_ and Marseillaise were essentially +songs of blame and wrath, the British bards wrote, virtually, always +songs of praise, though by no means psalmody in the ancient keys. On the +contrary, all the three are alike moved by a singular antipathy to the +priests, and are pointed at with fear and indignation by the pietists, +of their day;--not without latent cause. For they are all of them, with +the most loving service, servants of that world which the Puritan and +monk alike despised; and, in the triple chord of their song, could not +but appear to the religious persons around them as respectively and +specifically the praisers--Scott of the world, Burns of the flesh, and +Byron of the devil. + +To contend with this carnal orchestra, the religious world, having long +ago rejected its Catholic Psalms as antiquated and unscientific, and +finding its Puritan melodies sunk into faint jar and twangle from their +native trumpet-tone, had nothing to oppose but the innocent, rather than +religious, verses of the school recognized as that of the English Lakes; +very creditable to them; domestic at once and refined; observing the +errors of the world outside of the Lakes with a pitying and tender +indignation, and arriving in lacustrine seclusion at many valuable +principles of philosophy, as pure as the tarns of their mountains, and +of corresponding depth.[72] + +50. I have lately seen, and with extreme pleasure, Mr. Matthew Arnold's +arrangement of Wordsworth's poems; and read with sincere interest his +high estimate of them. But a great poet's work never needs arrangement +by other hands; and though it is very proper that Silver How should +clearly understand and brightly praise its fraternal Rydal Mount, we +must not forget that, over yonder, are the Andes, all the while. + +Wordsworth's rank and scale among poets were determined by himself, in a +single exclamation: + + "What was the great Parnassus' self to thee, + Mount Skiddaw?" + +Answer his question faithfully, and you have the relation between the +great masters of the Muse's teaching and the pleasant fingerer of his +pastoral flute among the reeds of Rydal. + +Wordsworth is simply a Westmoreland peasant, with considerably less +shrewdness than most border Englishmen or Scotsmen inherit; and no sense +of humor: but gifted (in this singularly) with vivid sense of natural +beauty, and a pretty turn for reflections, not always acute, but, as far +as they reach, medicinal to the fever of the restless and corrupted life +around him. Water to parched lips may be better than Samian wine, but do +not let us therefore confuse the qualities of wine and water. I much +doubt there being many inglorious Miltons in our country churchyards; +but I am very sure there are many Wordsworths resting there, who were +inferior to the renowned one only in caring less to hear themselves +talk. + +With an honest and kindly heart, a stimulating egoism, a wholesome +contentment in modest circumstances, and such sufficient ease, in that +accepted state, as permitted the passing of a good deal of time in +wishing that daisies could see the beauty of their own shadows, and +other such profitable mental exercises, Wordsworth has left us a series +of studies of the graceful and happy shepherd life of our lake country, +which to me personally, for one, are entirely sweet and precious; but +they are only so as the mirror of an existent reality in many ways more +beautiful than its picture. + +51. But the other day I went for an afternoon's rest into the cottage of +one of our country people of old statesman class; cottage lying nearly +midway between two village churches, but more conveniently for downhill +walk towards one than the other. I found, as the good housewife made tea +for me, that nevertheless she went up the hill to church. "Why do not +you go to the nearer church?" I asked. "Don't you like the clergyman?" +"Oh no, sir," she answered, "it isn't that; but you know I couldn't +leave my mother." "Your mother! she is buried at H---- then?" "Yes, sir; +and you know I couldn't go to church anywhere else." + +That feelings such as these existed among the peasants, not of +Cumberland only, but of all the tender earth that gives forth her fruit +for the living, and receives her dead to peace, might perhaps have been, +to our great and endless comfort, discovered before now, if Wordsworth +had been content to tell us what he knew of his own villages and people, +not as the leader of a new and only correct school of poetry, but simply +as a country gentleman of sense and feeling, fond of primroses, kind to +the parish children, and reverent of the spade with which Wilkinson had +tilled his lands: and I am by no means sure that his influence on the +stronger minds of his time was anywise hastened or extended by the +spirit of tunefulness under whose guidance he discovered that heaven +rymed to seven, and Foy to boy. + +52. Tuneful nevertheless at heart, and of the heavenly choir, I gladly +and frankly acknowledge him; and our English literature enriched with a +new and a singular virtue in the aërial purity and healthful rightness +of his quiet song;--but _aërial_ only,--not ethereal; and lowly in its +privacy of light. + +A measured mind, and calm; innocent, unrepentant; helpful to sinless +creatures and scathless, such of the flock as do not stray. Hopeful at +least, if not faithful; content with intimations of immortality such as +may be in skipping of lambs, and laughter of children--incurious to see +in the hands the print of the Nails. + +A gracious and constant mind; as the herbage of its native hills, +fragrant and pure;--yet, to the sweep and the shadow, the stress and +distress, of the greater souls of men, as the tufted thyme to the +laurel wilderness of Tempe,--as the gleaming euphrasy to the dark +branches of Dodona. + + [I am obliged to defer the main body of this paper to next + month,--revises penetrating all too late into my lacustrine + seclusion; as chanced also unluckily with the preceding paper, in + which the reader will perhaps kindly correct the consequent + misprints [now corrected, ED.], p. 203, l. 23, of + "scarcely" to "securely," and p. 206, l. 6, "full," with comma to + "fall," without one; noticing besides that "Redgauntlet" has been + omitted in the list, pp. 198, 199; and that the reference to note + should not be at the word "imagination," p. 198, l. 6, but at the + word "trade," l. 15. My dear old friend, Dr. John Brown, sends me, + from Jamieson's _Dictionary_, the following satisfactory end to one + of my difficulties:--"Coup the crans." The language is borrowed + from the "cran," or trivet on which small pots are placed in + cookery, which is sometimes turned with its feet uppermost by an + awkward assistant. Thus it signifies to be _completely_ upset.] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 62: August, 1880.] + +[Footnote 63: The following fragments out of the letters in my own +possession, written by Scott to the builder of Abbotsford, as the outer +decorations of the house were in process of completion, will show how +accurately Scott had pictured himself in Monkbarns. + + + "ABBOTSFORD: _April_ 21, 1817. + + "DEAR SIR,--Nothing can be more obliging than your + attention to the old stones. You have been as true as the sundial + itself." [The sundial had just been erected.] "Of the two I would + prefer the larger one, as it is to be in front of a parapet quite + in the old taste. But in case of accidents it will be safest in + your custody till I come to town again on the 12th of May. Your + former favors (which were weighty as acceptable) have come safely + out here, and will be disposed of with great effect." + + + "ABBOTSFORD: _July_ 30th. + + "I fancy the Tolbooth still keeps its feet, but, as it must soon + descend, I hope you will remember me. I have an important use for + the niche above the door; and though many a man has got a niche + _in_ the Tolbooth by building, I believe I am the first that ever + got a niche out of it on such an occasion. For which I have to + thank your kindness, and to remain very much your obliged humble + servant, + + "WALTER SCOTT." + + + "_August 16._ + + "MY DEAR SIR,--I trouble you with this [_sic_] few lines + to thank you for the very accurate drawings and measurements of the + Tolbooth door, and for your kind promise to attend to my interest + and that of Abbotsford in the matter of the Thistle and Fleur de + Lis. Most of our scutcheons are now mounted, and look very well, as + the house is something after the model of an old hall (not a + castle), where such things are well in character." [Alas--Sir + Walter, Sir Walter!] "I intend the old lion to predominate over a + well which the children have christened the Fountain of the Lions. + His present den, however, continues to be the hall at Castle + Street." + + + "_September 5._ + + "DEAR SIR,--I am greatly obliged to you for securing the + stone. I am not sure that I will put up the gate quite in the old + form, but I would like to secure the means of doing so. The + ornamental stones are now put up, and have a very happy effect. If + you will have the kindness to let me know when the Tolbooth door + comes down, I will send in my carts for the stones; I have an + admirable situation for it. I suppose the door itself" [he means + the wooden one] "will be kept for the new jail; if not, and not + otherwise wanted, I would esteem it curious to possess it. + Certainly I hope so many sore hearts will not pass through the + celebrated door when in my possession as heretofore." + + + "_September 8._ + + "I should esteem it very fortunate if I could have the door also, + though I suppose it is modern, having been burned down at the time + of Porteous-mob. + + "I am very much obliged to the gentlemen who thought these remains + of the Heart of Midlothian are not ill bestowed on their intended + possessor."] + +[Footnote 64: Henceforward, not in affectation, but for the reader's +better convenience, I shall continue to spell "Ryme" without our wrongly +added _h_.] + +[Footnote 65: L. ii. 278.] + +[Footnote 66: "Che nella mente mia _ragiona_." Love--you observe, the +highest _Reasonableness_, instead of French _ivresse_, or even +Shakespearian "mere folly"; and Beatrice as the Goddess of Wisdom in +this third song of the _Convito_, to be compared with the Revolutionary +Goddess of Reason; remembering of the whole poem chiefly the line:-- + + "Costei penso chi che mosso l'universo." + +(See Lyell's "Canzoniere," p. 104.)] + +[Footnote 67: [Greek: hôran tês térpsios]--Plato, "Laws," ii., Steph. +669. "Hour" having here nearly the power of "Fate" with added sense of +being a daughter of Themis.] + +[Footnote 68: "Gunpowder is one of the greatest inventions of modern +times, _and what has given such a superiority to civilized nations over +barbarous_"! ("Evenings at Home"--fifth evening.) No man can owe more +than I both to Mrs. Barbauld and Miss Edgeworth; and I only wish that in +the substance of what they wisely said, they had been more listened to. +Nevertheless, the germs of all modern conceit and error respecting +manufacture and industry, as rivals to Art and to Genius, are +concentrated in "Evenings at Home" and "Harry and Lucy"--being all the +while themselves works of real genius, and prophetic of things that have +yet to be learned and fulfilled. See for instance the paper, "Things by +their Right Names," following the one from which I have just quoted +("The Ship"), and closing the first volume of the old edition of the +"Evenings."] + +[Footnote 69: Carlyle, "French Revolution" (Chapman, 1869), vol. ii. p. +70; conf. p. 25, and the _Ça ira_ at Arras, vol. iii. p. 276.] + +[Footnote 70: _Ibid._ iii. 26.] + +[Footnote 71: Carlyle, "French Revolution," iii. 106, the last sentence +altered in a word or two.] + +[Footnote 72: I have been greatly disappointed, in taking soundings of +our most majestic mountain pools, to find them, in no case, verge on the +unfathomable.] + + + + +FICTION, FAIR AND FOUL. + +III.[73] + +[BYRON] + + "Parching summer hath no warrant + To consume this crystal well; + Rains, that make each brook a torrent, + Neither sully it, nor swell." + + +53. So was it year by year, among the unthought-of hills. Little Duddon +and child Rotha ran clear and glad; and laughed from ledge to pool, and +opened from pool to mere, translucent, through endless days of peace. + +But eastward, between her orchard plains, Loire locked her embracing +dead in silent sands; dark with blood rolled Iser; glacial-pale, +Beresina-Lethe, by whose shore the weary hearts forgot their people, and +their father's house. + +Nor unsullied, Tiber; nor unswoln, Arno and Aufidus; and Euroclydon high +on Helle's wave; meantime, let our happy piety glorify the garden rocks +with snowdrop circlet, and breathe the spirit of Paradise, where life is +wise and innocent. + +Maps many have we, nowadays clear in display of earth constituent, air +current, and ocean tide. Shall we ever engrave the map of meaner +research, whose shadings shall content themselves in the task of showing +the depth, or drought,--the calm, or trouble, of Human Compassion? + +54. For this is indeed all that is noble in the life of Man, and the +source of all that is noble in the speech of Man. Had it narrowed itself +then, in those days, out of all the world, into this peninsula between +Cockermouth and Shap? + +Not altogether so; but indeed the _Vocal_ piety seemed conclusively to +have retired (or excursed?) into that mossy hermitage, above Little +Langdale. The _Un_vocal piety, with the uncomplaining sorrow, of Man, +may have a somewhat wider range, for aught we know: but history +disregards those items; and of firmly proclaimed and sweetly canorous +religion, there really seemed at that juncture none to be reckoned upon, +east of Ingleborough, or north of Criffel. Only under Furness Fells, or +by Bolton Priory, it seems we can still write Ecclesiastical Sonnets, +stanzas on the force of Prayer, Odes to Duty, and complimentary +addresses to the Deity upon His endurance for adoration. Far otherwise, +over yonder, by Spezzia Bay, and Ravenna Pineta, and in ravines of +Hartz. There, the softest voices speak the wildest words; and Keats +discourses of Endymion, Shelley of Demogorgon, Goethe of Lucifer, and +Burger of the Resurrection of Death unto Death--while even Puritan +Scotland and Episcopal Anglia produce for us only these three minstrels +of doubtful tone, who show but small respect for the "unco guid," put +but limited faith in gifted Gilfillan, and translate with unflinching +frankness the _Morgante Maggiore_.[74] + +55. Dismal the aspect of the spiritual world, or at least the sound of +it, might well seem to the eyes and ears of Saints (such as we had) of +the period--dismal in angels' eyes also assuredly! Yet is it possible +that the dismalness in angelic sight may be otherwise quartered, as it +were, from the way of mortal heraldry; and that seen, and heard, of +angels,--again I say--hesitatingly--_is_ it possible that the goodness +of the Unco Guid, and the gift of Gilfillan, and the word of Mr. +Blattergowl, may severally not have been the goodness of God, the gift +of God, nor the word of God: but that in the much blotted and broken +efforts at goodness, and in the careless gift which they themselves +despised,[75] and in the sweet ryme and murmur of their unpurposed +words, the Spirit of the Lord had, indeed, wandering, as in chaos days +on lightless waters, gone forth in the hearts and from the lips of those +other three strange prophets, even though they ate forbidden bread by +the altar of the poured-out ashes, and even though the wild beast of the +desert found them, and slew. + +This, at least, I know, that it had been well for England, though all +her other prophets, of the Press, the Parliament, the Doctor's chair, +and the Bishop's throne, had fallen silent; so only that she had been +able to understand with her heart here and there the simplest line of +these, her despised. + +56. I take one at mere chance: + + "Who thinks of self, when gazing on the sky?"[76] + +Well, I don't know; Mr. Wordsworth certainly did, and observed, with +truth, that its clouds took a sober coloring in consequence of his +experiences. It is much if, indeed, this sadness be unselfish, and our +eyes _have_ kept loving watch o'er Man's Mortality. I have found it +difficult to make anyone nowadays believe that such sobriety can be; and +that Turner saw deeper crimson than others in the clouds of Goldau. But +that any should yet think the clouds brightened by Man's _Im_mortality +instead of dulled by his death,--and, gazing on the sky, look for the +day when every eye must gaze also--for behold, He cometh with +clouds--this it is no more possible for Christian England to apprehend, +however exhorted by her gifted and guid. + +57. "But Byron was not thinking of such things!"--He, the reprobate! how +should such as he think of Christ? + +Perhaps not wholly as you or I think of Him. Take, at chance, another +line or two, to try: + + "Carnage (so Wordsworth tells you) is God's daughter;[77] + If he speak truth, she is Christ's sister, and + Just now, behaved as in the Holy Land." + +Blasphemy, cry you, good reader? Are you sure you understand it? The +first line I gave you was easy Byron--almost shallow Byron--these are of +the man in his depth, and you will not fathom them, like a tarn--nor in +a hurry. + +"Just now behaved as in the Holy Land." How _did_ Carnage behave in the +Holy Land then? You have all been greatly questioning, of late, whether +the sun, which you find to be now going out, ever stood still. Did you +in any lagging minute, on those scientific occasions, chance to reflect +what he was bid stand still _for_? or if not--will you please look--and +what also, going forth again as a strong man to run his course, he saw, +rejoicing? + +"Then Joshua passed from Makkedah unto Libnah--and fought against +Libnah. And the Lord delivered it and the king thereof into the hand of +Israel, and he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls +that were therein." And from Lachish to Eglon, and from Eglon to +Kirjath-Arba, and Sarah's grave in the Amorites' land, "and Joshua smote +all the country of the hills and of the south--and of the vale and of +the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly +destroyed all that breathed--as the Lord God of Israel commanded." + +58. Thus, "it is written": though you perhaps do not so often hear +_these_ texts preached from, as certain others about taking away the +sins of the world. I wonder how the world would like to part with them! +hitherto it has always preferred parting first with its life--and God +has taken it at its word. But Death is not _His_ Begotten Son, for all +that; nor is the death of the innocent in battle carnage His "instrument +for working out a pure intent" as Mr. Wordsworth puts it; but Man's +instrument for working out an impure one, as Byron would have you to +know. Theology perhaps less orthodox, but certainly more +reverent;--neither is the Woolwich Infant a Child of God; neither does +the iron-clad "Thunderer" utter thunders of God--which facts if you had +had the grace or sense to learn from Byron, instead of accusing him of +blasphemy, it had been better at this day for _you_, and for many a +savage soul also, by Euxine shore, and in Zulu and Afghan lands. + +59. It was neither, however, for the theology, nor the use, of these +lines that I quoted them; but to note this main point of Byron's own +character. He was the first great Englishman who felt the cruelty of +war, and, in its cruelty, the shame. Its guilt had been known to George +Fox--its folly shown practically by Penn. But the _compassion_ of the +pious world had still for the most part been shown only in keeping its +stock of Barabbases unhanged if possible: and, till Byron came, neither +Kunersdorf, Eylau, nor Waterloo, had taught the pity and the pride of +men that + + "The drying up a single tear has more + Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore."[78] + +Such pacific verse would not indeed have been acceptable to the +Edinburgh volunteers on Portobello sands. But Byron can write a battle +song too, when it is _his_ cue to fight. If you look at the introduction +to the "Isles of Greece," namely the 85th and 86th stanzas of the 3rd +canto of "Don Juan,"--you will find--what will you _not_ find, if only +you understand them! "He" in the first line, remember, means the typical +modern poet. + + "Thus usually, when he was asked to sing, + He gave the different nations something national. + 'Twas all the same to him--'God save the King' + Or 'Ca ira' according to the fashion all; + His muse made increment of anything + From the high lyric down to the low rational: + If Pindar sang horse-races, what should hinder + Himself from being as pliable as Pindar? + + In France, for instance, he would write a chanson; + In England a six-canto quarto tale; + In Spain, he'd make a ballad or romance on + The last war--much the same in Portugal; + In Germany, the Pegasus he'd prance on + Would be old Goethe's--(see what says de Staël) + In Italy, he'd ape the 'Trecentisti'; + In Greece, he'd sing some sort of hymn like this t'ye." + +60. Note first here, as we did in Scott, the concentrating and +foretelling power. The "God Save the Queen" in England, fallen hollow +now, as the "Ca ira" in France--not a man in France knowing where either +France or "that" (whatever "that" may be) is going to; nor the Queen of +England daring, for her life, to ask the tiniest Englishman to do a +single thing he doesn't like;--nor any salvation, either of Queen or +Realm, being any more possible to God, unless under the direction of the +Royal Society: then, note the estimate of height and depth in poetry, +swept in an instant, "high lyric to low rational." Pindar to Pope +(knowing Pope's height, too, all the while, no man better); then, the +poetic power of France--resumed in a word--Béranger; then the cut at +Marmion, entirely deserved, as we shall see, yet kindly given, for +everything he names in these two stanzas is the best of its kind; then +'Romance in Spain on--the _last_ war, (_present_ war not being to +Spanish poetical taste,) then, Goethe the real heart of all Germany, and +last, the aping of the Trecentisti which has since consummated itself in +Pre-Raphaelitism! that also being the best thing Italy has done through +England, whether in Rossetti's "blessed damozels" or Burne Jones's "days +of creation." Lastly comes the mock at himself--the modern English +Greek--(followed up by the "degenerate into hands like mine" in the song +itself); and then--to amazement, forth he thunders in his +Achilles-voice. We have had one line of him in his clearness--five of +him in his depth--sixteen of him in his play. Hear now but these, out of +his whole heart:-- + + "What,--silent yet? and silent _all_? + Ah no, the voices of the dead + Sound like a distant torrent's fall, + And answer, 'Let _one_ living head, + But one, arise--we come--we come:' + --'Tis but the living who are dumb." + +Resurrection, this, you see like Bürger's; but not of death unto death. + +61. "Sound like a distant torrent's fall." I said the _whole_ heart of +Byron was in this passage. First its compassion, then its indignation, +and the third element, not yet examined, that love of the beauty of this +world in which the three--unholy--children, of its Fiery Furnace were +like to each other; but Byron the widest-hearted. Scott and Burns love +Scotland more than Nature itself: for Burns the moon must rise over +Cumnock Hills,--for Scott, the Rymer's glen divide the Eildons; but, +for Byron, Loch-na-Gar _with Ida_, looks o'er Troy, and the soft murmurs +of the Dee and the Bruar change into voices of the dead on distant +Marathon. + +Yet take the parallel from Scott, by a field of homelier rest:-- + + "And silence aids--though the steep hills + Send to the lake a thousand rills; + In summer tide, so soft they weep, + The sound but lulls the ear asleep; + Your horse's hoof-tread sounds too rude, + So stilly is the solitude. + + Nought living meets the eye or ear, + But well I ween the dead are near; + For though, in feudal strife, a foe + Hath laid our Lady's Chapel low, + Yet still beneath the hallowed soil, + The peasant rests him from his toil, + And, dying, bids his bones be laid + Where erst his simple fathers prayed." + +And last take the same note of sorrow--with Burns's finger on the fall +of it: + + "Mourn, ilka grove the cushat kens, + Ye hazly shaws and briery dens, + Ye burnies, wimplin' down your glens + Wi' toddlin' din, + Or foamin' strang wi' hasty stens + Frae lin to lin." + +62. As you read, one after another, these fragments of chant by the +great masters, does not a sense come upon you of some element in their +passion, no less than in their sound, different, specifically, from that +of "Parching summer hath no warrant"? Is it more profane, think you--or +more tender--nay, perhaps, in the core of it, more true? + +For instance, when we are told that + + "Wharfe, as he moved along, + To matins joined a mournful voice," + +is this disposition of the river's mind to pensive psalmody quite +logically accounted for by the previous statement, (itself by no means +rythmically dulcet,) that + + "The boy is in the arms of Wharfe, + And strangled by a merciless force"? + +Or, when we are led into the improving reflection, + + "How sweet were leisure, could it yield no more + Than 'mid this wave-washed churchyard to recline, + From pastoral graves extracting thoughts divine!" + +--is the divinity of the extract assured to us by its being made at +leisure, and in a reclining attitude--as compared with the meditations +of otherwise active men, in an erect one? Or are we perchance, many of +us, still erring somewhat in our notions alike of Divinity and +Humanity,--poetical extraction, and moral position? + +63. On the chance of its being so, might I ask hearing for just a few +words more of the school of Belial? + +Their occasion, it must be confessed, is a quite unjustifiable one. Some +very wicked people--mutineers, in fact--have retired, misanthropically, +into an unfrequented part of the country, and there find themselves safe +indeed, but extremely thirsty. Whereupon Byron thus gives them to drink: + + "A little stream came tumbling from the height + And straggling into ocean as it might. + Its bounding crystal frolicked in the ray + And gushed from cliff to crag with saltless spray, + Close on the wild wide ocean,--yet as pure + And fresh as Innocence; and more secure. + Its silver torrent glittered o'er the deep + As the shy chamois' eye o'erlooks the steep, + While, far below, the vast and sullen swell + Of ocean's Alpine azure rose and fell."[79] + +Now, I beg, with such authority as an old workman may take concerning +his trade, having also looked at a waterfall or two in my time, and not +unfrequently at a wave, to assure the reader that here is entirely +first-rate literary work. Though Lucifer himself had written it, the +thing is itself good, and not only so, but unsurpassedly good, the +closing line being probably the best concerning the sea yet written by +the race of the sea-kings. + +64. But Lucifer himself _could_ not have written it; neither any servant +of Lucifer. I do not doubt but that most readers were surprised at my +saying, in the close of my first paper, that Byron's "style" depended in +any wise on his views respecting the Ten Commandments. That so +all-important a thing as "style" should depend in the least upon so +ridiculous a thing as moral sense: or that Allegra's father, watching +her drive by in Count G.'s coach and six, had any remnant of so +ridiculous a thing to guide,--or check,--his poetical passion, may alike +seem more than questionable to the liberal and chaste philosophy of the +existing British public. But, first of all, putting the question of who +writes or speaks aside, do you, good reader, _know_ good "style" when +you get it? Can you say, of half a dozen given lines taken anywhere out +of a novel, or poem, or play, That is good, essentially, in style, or +bad, essentially? and can you say why such half-dozen lines are good, or +bad? + +65. I imagine that in most cases, the reply would be given with +hesitation, yet if you will give me a little patience, and take some +accurate pains, I can show you the main tests of style in the space of a +couple of pages. + +I take two examples of absolutely perfect, and in manner highest, _i. +e._, kingly, and heroic, style: the first example in expression of +anger, the second of love. + + (1) + + "We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us, + His present, and your pains, we thank you for. + When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, + We will in France, by God's grace, play a set + Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard." + + (2) + + "My gracious Silence, hail! + Would'st thou have laughed, had I come coffin'd home + That weep'st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear, + Such eyes the widows in Corioli wear + And mothers that lack sons." + +66. Let us note, point by point, the conditions of greatness common to +both these passages, so opposite in temper. + +A. Absolute command over all passion, however intense; this the +first-of-first conditions, (see the King's own sentence just before, "We +are no tyrant, but a Christian King, Unto _whose grace_ our passion is +as subject As are our wretches fettered in our prisons"); and with this +self-command, the supremely surveying grasp of every thought that is to +be uttered, before its utterance; so that each may come in its exact +place, time, and connection. The slightest hurry, the misplacing of a +word, or the unnecessary accent on a syllable, would destroy the "style" +in an instant. + +B. Choice of the fewest and simplest words that can be found in the +compass of the language, to express the thing meant: these few words +being also arranged in the most straightforward and intelligible way; +allowing inversion only when the subject can be made primary without +obscurity: (thus, "his present, and your pains, we thank you for" is +better than "we thank you for his present and your pains," because the +Dauphin's gift is by courtesy put before the Ambassador's pains; but +"when to these balls our rackets we have matched" would have spoiled the +style in a moment, because--I was going to have said, ball and racket +are of equal rank, and therefore only the natural order proper; but also +here the natural order is the desired one, the English racket to have +precedence of the French ball). In the fourth line the "in France" comes +first, as announcing the most important resolution of action; the "by +God's grace" next, as the only condition rendering resolution possible; +the detail of issue follows with the strictest limit in the final word. +The King does not say "danger," far less "dishonor," but "hazard" only; +of _that_ he is, humanly speaking, sure. + +67. C. Perfectly emphatic and clear utterance of the chosen words; +slowly in the degree of their importance, with omission however of every +word not absolutely required; and natural use of the familiar +contractions of final dissyllable. Thus "play a set shall strike" is +better than "play a set _that_ shall strike," and "match'd" is kingly +short--no necessity of meter could have excused "matched" instead. On +the contrary, the three first words, "We are glad," would have been +spoken by the king more slowly and fully than any other syllables in the +whole passage, first pronouncing the kingly "we" at its proudest, and +then the "are" as a continuous state, and then the "glad," as the exact +contrary of what the ambassadors expected him to be.[80] + +D. Absolute spontaneity in doing all this, easily and necessarily as the +heart beats. The king _cannot_ speak otherwise than he does--nor the +hero. The words not merely come to them, but are compelled to them. Even +lisping numbers "come," but mighty numbers are ordained, and inspired. + +E. Melody in the words, changeable with their passion, fitted to it +exactly, and the utmost of which the language is capable--the melody in +prose being Eolian and variable--in verse, nobler by submitting itself +to stricter law. I will enlarge upon this point presently. + +F. Utmost spiritual contents in the words; so that each carries not only +its instant meaning, but a cloudy companionship of higher or darker +meaning according to the passion--nearly always indicated by metaphor: +"play a set"--sometimes by abstraction--(thus in the second passage +"silence" for silent one) sometimes by description instead of direct +epithet ("coffined" for dead) but always indicative of there being more +in the speaker's mind than he has said, or than he can say, full though +his saying be. On the quantity of this attendant fullness depends the +majesty of style; that is to say, virtually, on the quantity of +contained thought in briefest words, such thought being primarily loving +and true: and this the sum of all--that nothing can be well said, but +with truth, nor beautifully, but by love. + +68. These are the essential conditions of noble speech in prose and +verse alike, but the adoption of the form of verse, and especially rymed +verse, means the addition to all these qualities of one more; of music, +that is to say, not Eolian merely, but Apolline; a construction or +architecture of words fitted and befitting, under external laws of time +and harmony. + +When Byron says "rhyme is of the rude,"[81] he means that Burns needs +it,--while Henry the Fifth does not, nor Plato, nor Isaiah--yet in this +need of it by the simple, it becomes all the more religious: and thus +the loveliest pieces of Christian language are all in ryme--the best of +Dante, Chaucer, Douglas, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Sidney. + +69. I am not now able to keep abreast with the tide of modern +scholarship; (nor, to say the truth, do I make the effort, the first +edge of its waves being mostly muddy, and apt to make a shallow sweep of +the shore refuse:) so that I have no better book of reference by me than +the confused essay on the antiquity of ryme at the end of Turner's +"Anglo-Saxons." I cannot however conceive a more interesting piece of +work, if not yet done, than the collection of sifted earliest fragments +known of rymed song in European languages. Of Eastern I know nothing; +but, this side Hellespont, the substance of the matter is all given in +King Canute's impromptu + + "Gaily" (or is it sweetly?--I forget which, and it's no matter) + "sang the monks of Ely, + As Knut the king came sailing by;" + +much to be noted by any who make their religion lugubrious, and their +Sunday the eclipse of the week. And observe further, that if Milton does +not ryme, it is because his faculty of Song was concerning Loss, +chiefly; and he has little more than faculty of Croak, concerning Gain; +while Dante, though modern readers never go further with him than into +the Pit, is stayed only by Casella in the ascent to the Rose of Heaven. +So, Gibbon can write in _his_ manner the Fall of Rome; but Virgil, in +_his_ manner, the rise of it; and finally Douglas, in _his_ manner, +bursts into such rymed passion of praise both of Rome and Virgil, as +befits a Christian Bishop, and a good subject of the Holy See. + + "Master of Masters--sweet source, and springing well, + Wide where over all rings thy heavenly bell; + + * * * * * + + Why should I then with dull forehead and vain, + With rude ingene, and barane, emptive brain, + With bad harsh speech, and lewit barbare tongue + Presume to write, where thy sweet bell is rung, + Or counterfeit thy precious wordis dear? + Na, na--not so; but kneel when I them hear. + But farther more--and lower to descend + Forgive me, Virgil, if I thee offend + Pardon thy scolar, suffer him to ryme + Since _thou_ wast but ane mortal man sometime." + +"Before honor is humility." Does not clearer light come for you on that +law after reading these nobly pious words? And note you _whose_ +humility? How is it that the sound of the bell comes so instinctively +into his chiming verse? This gentle singer is the son of--Archibald +Bell-the-Cat! + +70. And now perhaps you can read with right sympathy the scene in +"Marmion" between his father and King James. + + "His hand the monarch sudden took-- + 'Now, by the Bruce's soul, + Angus, my hasty speech forgive, + For sure as doth his spirit live + As he said of the Douglas old + I well may say of you,-- + That never king did subject hold, + In speech more free, in war more bold, + More tender and more true:' + And while the king his hand did strain + The old man's tears fell down like rain." + +I believe the most infidel of scholastic readers can scarcely but +perceive the relation between the sweetness, simplicity, and melody of +expression in these passages, and the gentleness of the passions they +express, while men who are not scholastic, and yet are true scholars, +will recognize further in them that the simplicity of the educated is +lovelier than the simplicity of the rude. Hear next a piece of Spenser's +teaching how rudeness itself may become more beautiful even by its +mistakes, if the mistakes are made lovingly. + + "Ye shepherds' daughters that dwell on the green, + Hye you there apace; + Let none come there but that virgins been + To adorn her grace: + And when you come, whereas she in place, + See that your rudeness do not you disgrace; + Bind your fillets fast, + And gird in your waste, + For more fineness, with a taudry lace. + + Bring hither the pink and purple cullumbine + With gylliflowers; + Bring coronatiöns, and sops in wine, + Worn of paramours; + Strow me the ground with daffadowndillies + And cowslips, and kingcups, and loved lilies; + The pretty paunce + And the chevisaunce + Shall match with the fair flowre-delice."[82] + +71. Two short pieces more only of master song, and we have enough to +test all by. + + (1) + + "No more, no more, since thou art dead, + Shall we e'er bring coy brides to bed, + No more, at yearly festivals, + We cowslip balls + Or chains of columbines shall make, + For this or that occasion's sake. + No, no! our maiden pleasures be + Wrapt in thy winding-sheet with thee."[83] + + (2) + + "Death is now the phoenix nest, + And the turtle's loyal breast + To eternity doth rest. + Truth may seem, but cannot be; + Beauty brag, but 'tis not she: + Truth and beauty buried be."[84] + +72. If now, with the echo of these perfect verses in your mind, you turn +to Byron, and glance over, or recall to memory, enough of him to give +means of exact comparison, you will, or should, recognize these +following kinds of mischief in him. First, if anyone offends him--as for +instance Mr. Southey, or Lord Elgin--"his manners have not that repose +that marks the caste," etc. _This_ defect in his Lordship's style, being +myself scrupulously and even painfully reserved in the use of +vituperative language, I need not say how deeply I deplore.[85] + +Secondly. In the best and most violet-bedded bits of his work there is +yet, as compared with Elizabethan and earlier verse, a strange taint; an +indefinable--evening flavor of Covent Garden, as it were;--not to say, +escape of gas in the Strand. That is simply what it proclaims +itself--London air. If he had lived all his life in Green-head Ghyll, +things would of course have been different. But it was his fate to come +to town--modern town--like Michael's son; and modern London (and Venice) +are answerable for the state of their drains, not Byron. + +Thirdly. His melancholy is without any relief whatsoever; his jest +sadder than his earnest; while, in Elizabethan work, all lament is full +of hope, and all pain of balsam. + +Of this evil he has himself told you the cause in a single line +prophetic of all things since and now. "Where _he_ gazed, a gloom +pervaded space."[86] + +So that, for instance, while Mr. Wordsworth, on a visit to town, being +an exemplary early riser, could walk, felicitous, on Westminster Bridge, +remarking how the city now did like a garment wear the beauty of the +morning; Byron, rising somewhat later, contemplated only the garment +which the beauty of the morning had by that time received for wear from +the city: and again, while Mr. Wordsworth, in irrepressible religious +rapture, calls God to witness that the houses seem asleep, Byron, lame +demon as he was, flying smoke-drifted, unroofs the houses at a glance, +and sees what the mighty cockney heart of them contains in the still +lying of it, and will stir up to purpose in the waking business of it, + + "The sordor of civilization, mixed + With all the passions which Man's fall hath fixed."[87] + +73. Fourthly, with this steadiness of bitter melancholy, there is joined +a sense of the material beauty, both of inanimate nature, the lower +animals, and human beings, which in the iridescence, color-depth, and +morbid (I use the word deliberately) mystery and softness of it,--with +other qualities indescribable by any single words, and only to be +analyzed by extreme care,--is found, to the full, only in five men that +I know of in modern times; namely, Rousseau, Shelley, Byron, Turner, and +myself,--differing totally and throughout the entire group of us, from +the delight in clear-struck beauty of Angelico and the Trecentisti; and +separated, much more singularly, from the cheerful joys of Chaucer, +Shakespeare, and Scott, by its unaccountable affection for "Rokkes blak" +and other forms of terror and power, such as those of the ice-oceans, +which to Shakespeare were only Alpine rheum; and the Via Malas and +Diabolic Bridges which Dante would have condemned none but lost souls to +climb, or cross;--all this love of impending mountains, coiled +thunder-clouds, and dangerous sea, being joined in us with a sulky, +almost ferine, love of retreat in valleys of Charmettes, gulfs of +Spezzia, ravines of Olympus, low lodgings in Chelsea, and close +brushwood at Coniston. + +74. And, lastly, also in the whole group of us, glows volcanic instinct +of Astræan justice returning not to, but up out of, the earth, which +will not at all suffer us to rest any more in Pope's serene "whatever +is, is right"; but holds, on the contrary, profound conviction that +about ninety-nine hundredths of whatever at present is, is wrong: +conviction making four of us, according to our several manners, leaders +of revolution for the poor, and declarers of political doctrine +monstrous to the ears of mercenary mankind; and driving the fifth, less +sanguine, into mere painted-melody of lament over the fallacy of Hope +and the implacableness of Fate. + +In Byron the indignation, the sorrow, and the effort are joined to the +death: and they are the parts of his nature (as of mine also in its +feebler terms), which the selfishly comfortable public have, literally, +no conception of whatever; and from which the piously sentimental +public, offering up daily the pure oblation of divine tranquillity, +shrink with anathema not unembittered by alarm. + +75. Concerning which matters I hope to speak further and with more +precise illustration in my next paper; but, seeing that this present one +has been hitherto somewhat somber, and perhaps, to gentle readers, not a +little discomposing, I will conclude it with a piece of light biographic +study, necessary to my plan, and as conveniently admissible in this +place as afterwards;--namely, the account of the manner in which +Scott--whom we shall always find, as aforesaid, to be in salient and +palpable elements of character, of the World, worldly, as Burns is of +the Flesh, fleshly, and Byron of the Deuce, damnable,--spent his Sunday. + +76. As usual, from Lockhart's farrago we cannot find out the first thing +we want to know,--whether Scott worked after his week-day custom, on the +Sunday morning. But, I gather, not; at all events his household and his +cattle rested (L. iii. 108). I imagine he walked out into his woods, or +read quietly in his study. Immediately after breakfast, whoever was in +the house, "Ladies and gentlemen, I shall read prayers at eleven, when +I expect you all to attend" (vii. 306). Question of college and other +externally unanimous prayer settled for us very briefly: "if you have no +faith, have at least manners." He read the Church of England service, +lessons and all, the latter, if interesting, eloquently (_ibid._). After +the service, one of Jeremy Taylor's sermons (vi. 188). After sermon, if +the weather was fine, walk with his family, dogs included and guests, to +_cold_ picnic (iii. 109), followed by short extempore biblical +novelettes; for he had his Bible, the Old Testament especially, by +heart, it having been his mother's last gift to him (vi. 174). These +lessons to his children in Bible history were always given, whether +there was picnic or not. For the rest of the afternoon he took his +pleasure in the woods with Tom Purdie, who also always appeared at his +master's elbow on Sunday after dinner was over, and drank long life to +the laird and his lady and all the good company, in a quaigh of whisky +or a tumbler of wine, according to his fancy (vi. 195). Whatever might +happen on the other evenings of the week, Scott always dined at home on +Sunday; and with old friends: never, unless inevitably, receiving any +person with whom he stood on ceremony (v. 335). He came into the room +rubbing his hands like a boy arriving at home for the holidays, his +Peppers and Mustards gamboling about him, "and even the stately Maida +grinning and wagging his tail with sympathy." For the usquebaugh of the +less honored week-days, at the Sunday board he circulated the champagne +briskly during dinner, and considered a pint of claret each man's fair +share afterwards (v. 339). In the evening, music being to the Scottish +worldly mind indecorous, he read aloud some favorite author, for the +amusement or edification of his little circle. Shakespeare it might be, +or Dryden,--Johnson, or Joanna Baillie,--Crabbe, or Wordsworth. But in +those days "Byron was pouring out his spirit fresh and full, and if a +new piece from _his_ hand had appeared, it was _sure to be read by Scott +the Sunday evening afterwards_; and that with such delighted emphasis +as showed how completely the elder bard had kept up his enthusiasm for +poetry at pitch of youth, and all his admiration of genius, free, pure, +and unstained by the least drop of literary jealousy" (v. 341). + +77. With such necessary and easily imaginable varieties as chanced in +having Dandie Dinmont or Captain Brown for guests at Abbotsford, or +Colonel Mannering, Counselor Pleydell, and Dr. Robertson in Castle +Street, such was Scott's habitual Sabbath: a day, we perceive, of eating +the fat, (_dinner_, presumably not cold, being a work of necessity and +mercy--thou also, even thou, Saint Thomas of Turnbull, hast thine!) and +drinking the sweet, abundant in the manner of Mr. Southey's cataract of +Lodore,--"Here it comes, sparkling." A day bestrewn with coronatiöns and +sops in wine; deep in libations to good hope and fond memory; a day of +rest to beast, and mirth to man, (as also to sympathetic beasts that can +be merry,) and concluding itself in an Orphic hour of delight, +signifying peace on Tweedside, and goodwill to men, there or far +away;--always excepting the French, and Boney. + +"Yes, and see what it all came to in the end." + +Not so, dark-virulent Minos-Mucklewrath; the end came of quite other +things; of _these_, came such length of days and peace as Scott had in +his Fatherland, and such immortality as he has in all lands. + +78. Nathless, firm, though deeply courteous, rebuke, for his sometimes +overmuch lightmindedness, was administered to him by the more grave and +thoughtful Byron. For the Lord Abbot of Newstead knew his Bible by heart +as well as Scott, though it had never been given him by his mother as +her dearest possession. Knew it, and what was more, had thought of it, +and sought in it what Scott had never cared to think, nor been fain to +seek. + +And loving Scott well, and always doing him every possible pleasure in +the way he sees to be most agreeable to him--as, for instance, +remembering with precision, and writing down the very next morning, +every blessed word that the Prince Regent had been pleased to say of +him before courtly audience,--he yet conceived that such cheap ryming as +his own "Bride of Abydos," for instance, which he had written from +beginning to end in four days, or even the traveling reflections of +Harold and Juan on men and women, were scarcely steady enough Sunday +afternoon's reading for a patriarch-Merlin like Scott. So he dedicates +to him a work of a truly religious tendency, on which for his own part +he has done his best,--the drama of "Cain." Of which dedication the +virtual significance to Sir Walter might be translated thus. Dearest and +last of Border soothsayers, thou hast indeed told us of Black Dwarfs, +and of White Maidens, also of Gray Friars, and Green Fairies; also of +sacred hollies by the well, and haunted crooks in the glen. But of the +bushes that the black dogs rend in the woods of Phlegethon; and of the +crooks in the glen, and the bickerings of the burnie where ghosts meet +the mightiest of us; and of the black misanthrope, who is by no means +yet a dwarfed one, and concerning whom wiser creatures than Hobbie +Elliot may tremblingly ask "Gude guide us, what's yon?" hast thou yet +known, seeing that thou hast yet told, _nothing_. + +Scott may perhaps have his answer. We shall in good time hear. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 73: September, 1880.] + +[Footnote 74: "It must be put by the original, stanza for stanza, and +verse for verse; and you will see what was permitted in a Catholic +country and a bigoted age to Churchmen, on the score of Religion--and so +tell those buffoons who accuse me of attacking the Liturgy. + +"I write in the greatest haste, it being the hour of the Corso, and I +must go and buffoon with the rest. My daughter Allegra is just gone with +the Countess G. in Count G.'s coach and six. Our old Cardinal is dead, +and the new one not appointed yet--but the masquing goes on the same." +(Letter to Murray, 355th in Moore, dated Ravenna, Feb. 7, 1820.) "A +dreadfully moral place, for you must not look at anybody's wife, except +your neighbor's."] + +[Footnote 75: See quoted _infra_ the mock, by Byron, of himself and all +other modern poets, "Juan," canto iii. stanza 80, and compare canto xiv. +stanza 8. In reference of future quotations the first numeral will stand +always for canto; the second for stanza; the third, if necessary, for +line.] + +[Footnote 76: "Island," ii. 16, where see context.] + +[Footnote 77: "Juan," viii. 5; but, by your Lordship's quotation, +Wordsworth says "instrument,"--not "daughter." Your Lordship had better +have said "Infant" and taken the Woolwich authorities to witness: only +Infant would not have rymed.] + +[Footnote 78: "Juan," viii. 3; compare 14, and 63, with all its lovely +context 61-68: then 82, and afterwards slowly and with thorough +attention, the Devil's speech, beginning, "Yes, Sir, you forget" in +scene 2 of "The Deformed Transformed": then Sardanapalus's, act i. scene +2, beginning, "he is gone, and on his finger bears my signet," and +finally the "Vision of Judgment," stanzas 3 to 5.] + +[Footnote 79: "Island," iii. 3, and compare, of shore surf, the "slings +its high flakes, shivered into sleet" of stanza 7.] + +[Footnote 80: A modern editor--of whom I will not use the expressions +which occur to me--finding the "we" a redundant syllable in the iambic +line, prints, "we're." It is a little thing--but I do not recollect, in +the forty years of my literary experience, any piece of editor's retouch +quite so base. But I don't read the new editions much: that must be +allowed for.] + +[Footnote 81: "Island," ii. 5. I was going to say, "Look to the +context," but am fain to give it here; for the stanza, learned by heart, +ought to be our school-introduction to the literature of the world. + + "Such was this ditty of Tradition's days, + Which to the dead a lingering fame conveys + In song, where fame as yet hath left no sign + Beyond the sound whose charm is half divine; + Which leaves no record to the skeptic eye, + But yields young history all to harmony; + A boy Achilles, with the centaur's lyre + In hand, to teach him to surpass his sire. + For one long-cherish'd ballad's simple stave, + Rung from the rock, or mingled with the wave, + Or from the bubbling streamlet's grassy side, + Or gathering mountain echoes as they glide, + Hath greater power o'er each true heart and ear, + Than all the columns Conquest's minions rear; + Invites, when hieroglyphics are a theme + For sages' labors or the student's dream; + Attracts, when History's volumes are a toil-- + The first, the freshest bud of Feeling's soil, + Such was this rude rhyme--rhyme is of the rude, + But such inspired the Norseman's solitude, + Who came and conquer'd; such, wherever rise + Lands which no foes destroy or civilize, + Exist; and what can our accomplish'd art + Of verse do more than reach the awaken'd heart?"] + +[Footnote 82: "Shepherd's Calendar." "Coronatiön," loyal-pastoral for +Carnation; "sops in wine," jolly-pastoral for double pink; "paunce," +thoughtless pastoral for pansy; "chevisaunce," I don't know (not in +Gerarde); "flowre-delice"--pronounce dellice--half made up of "delicate" +and "delicious."] + +[Footnote 83: Herrick, "Dirge for Jephthah's Daughter."] + +[Footnote 84: "Passionate Pilgrim."] + +[Footnote 85: In this point compare the "Curse of Minerva" with the +"Tears of the Muses."] + +[Footnote 86: "He,"--Lucifer; ("Vision of Judgment," 24). It is +precisely because Byron was _not_ his servant, that he could see the +gloom. To the Devil's true servants, their Master's presence brings both +cheerfulness and prosperity; with a delightful sense of their own wisdom +and virtue; and of the "progress" of things in general:--in smooth sea +and fair weather,--and with no need either of helm touch, or oar toil: +as when once one is well within the edge of Maelstrom.] + +[Footnote 87: "Island," ii. 4; perfectly orthodox theology, you observe; +no denial of the fall,--nor substitution of Bacterian birth for it. Nay, +nearly Evangelical theology, in contempt for the human heart; but with +deeper than Evangelical humility, acknowledging also what is sordid in +its civilization.] + + + + +FICTION, FAIR AND FOUL. + +IV.[88] + + +79. I fear the editor of the _Nineteenth Century_ will get little thanks +from his readers for allowing so much space in closely successive +numbers to my talk of old-fashioned men and things. I have nevertheless +asked his indulgence, this time, for a note or two concerning yet older +fashions, in order to bring into sharper clearness the leading outlines +of literary fact, which I ventured only in my last paper to secure in +_silhouette_, obscurely asserting itself against the limelight of recent +moral creed, and fiction manufacture. + +The Bishop of Manchester, on the occasion of the great Wordsworthian +movement in that city for the enlargement, adornment, and sale of +Thirlmere, observed, in his advocacy of these operations, that very few +people, he supposed, had ever seen Tairlmere. His Lordship might have +supposed, with greater felicity, that very few people had ever read +Wordsworth. My own experience in that matter is that the amiable persons +who call themselves "Wordsworthian" have read--usually a long time +ago--"Lucy Gray," "The April Mornings," a picked sonnet or two, and the +"Ode on the Intimations," which last they seem generally to be under the +impression that nobody else has ever met with: and my further experience +of these sentimental students is, that they are seldom inclined to put +in practice a single syllable of the advice tendered them by their model +poet. + +Now, as I happen myself to have used Wordsworth as a daily text-book +from youth to age, and have lived, moreover, in all essential points +according to the tenor of his teaching, it was matter of some +mortification to me, when, at Oxford, I tried to get the memory of Mr. +Wilkinson's spade honored by some practical spadework at Ferry Hincksey, +to find that no other tutor in Oxford could see the slightest good or +meaning in what I was about; and that although my friend Professor +Rolleston occasionally sought the shades of our Rydalian laurels with +expressions of admiration, his professorial manner of "from pastoral +graves extracting thoughts divine" was to fill the Oxford Museum with +the scabbed skulls of plague-struck cretins. + +80. I therefore respectfully venture to intimate to my bucolic friends, +that I know, more vitally by far than they, what _is_ in Wordsworth, and +what is not. Any man who chooses to live by his precepts will thankfully +find in them a beauty and rightness, (_exquisite_ rightness I called it, +in "Sesame and Lilies,") which will preserve him alike from mean +pleasure, vain hope, and guilty deed: so that he will neither mourn at +the gate of the fields which with covetous spirit he sold, nor drink of +the waters which with yet more covetous spirit he stole, nor devour the +bread of the poor in secret, nor set on his guest-table the poor man's +lamb:--in all these homely virtues and assured justices let him be +Wordsworth's true disciple; and he will then be able with equanimity to +hear it said, when there is need to say so, that his excellent master +often wrote verses that were not musical, and sometimes expressed +opinions that were not profound. + +And the need to say so becomes imperative when the unfinished verse, and +uncorrected fancy, are advanced by the affection of his disciples into +places of authority where they give countenance to the popular national +prejudices from the infection of which, in most cases, they themselves +sprang. + +81. Take, for example, the following three and a half lines of the 38th +Ecclesiastical Sonnet:-- + + "Amazement strikes the crowd; while many turn + Their eyes away in sorrow, others burn + With scorn, invoking a vindictive ban + From outraged Nature." + +The first quite evident character of these lines is that they are +extremely bad iambics,--as ill-constructed as they are unmelodious; the +turning and burning being at the wrong ends of them, and the ends +themselves put just when the sentence is in its middle. + +But a graver fault of these three and a half lines is that the +amazement, the turning, the burning, and the banning, are all alike +fictitious; and foul-fictitious, calumniously conceived no less than +falsely. Not one of the spectators of the scene referred to was in +reality amazed--not one contemptuous, not one maledictory. It is only +our gentle minstrel of the meres who sits in the seat of the +scornful--only the hermit of Rydal Mount who invokes the malison of +Nature. + +What the scene verily was, and how witnessed, it will not take long to +tell; nor will the tale be useless: but I must first refer the reader to +a period preceding, by nearly a century, the great symbolic action under +the porch of St. Mark's. + +82. The Protestant ecclesiastic, and infidel historian, who delight to +prop their pride, or edge their malice, in unveiling the corruption +through which Christianity has passed, should study in every fragment of +authentic record which the fury of their age has left, the lives of the +three queens of the Priesthood, Theodora, Marozia, and Matilda, and the +foundation of the merciless power of the Popes, by the monk Hildebrand. +And if there be any of us who would satisfy with nobler food than the +catastrophes of the stage, the awe at what is marvelous in human sorrow +which makes sacred the fountain of tears in authentic tragedy, let them +follow, pace by pace, and pang by pang, the humiliation of the fourth +Henry at Canossa, and his death in the church he had built to the Virgin +at Spire. + +His antagonist, Hildebrand, died twenty years before him; captive to the +Normans in Salerno, having seen the Rome in which he had proclaimed his +princedom over all the earth, laid in her last ruin; and forever. Rome +herself, since her desolation by Guiscard, has been only a grave and a +wilderness[89]--what _we_ call Rome, is a mere colony of the stranger +in her "Field of Mars." This destruction of Rome by the Normans is +accurately and utterly the end of her Capitoline and wolf-suckled power; +and from that day her Leonine or Christian power takes its throne in the +Leonine city, sanctified in tradition by its prayer of safety for the +Saxon Borgo, in which the childhood of our own Alfred had been trained. + +And from this date forward, (recollected broadly as 1090, the year of +the birth of St. Bernard,) no longer oppressed by the remnants of Roman +death,--Christian faith, chivalry, and art possess the world, and +recreate it, through the space of four hundred years--the twelfth, +thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. + +And, necessarily, in the first of these centuries comes the main debate +between the powers of Monk and Knight which was reconciled in this scene +under the porch of St. Mark's. + +83. That debate was brought to its crisis and issue by the birth of the +new third elemental force of the State--the Citizen. Sismondi's +republican enthusiasm does not permit him to recognize the essential +character of this power. He speaks always of the Republics and the +liberties of Italy, as if a craftsman differed from a knight only in +political privileges, and as if his special virtue consisted in +rendering obedience to no master. But the strength of the great cities +of Italy was no more republican than that of her monasteries, or +fortresses. The Craftsman of Milan, Sailor of Pisa, and Merchant of +Venice are all of them essentially different persons from the soldier +and the anchorite:--but the city, under the banner of its _caroccio_, +and the command of its _podesta_, was disciplined far more strictly than +any wandering military squadron by its leader, or any lower order of +monks under their abbot. In the founding of civic constitutions, the +Lord of the city is usually its Bishop:--and it is curious to hear the +republican historian--who, however in judgment blind, is never in heart +uncandid, prepare to close his record of the ten years' war of Como with +Milan, with this summary of distress to the heroic mountaineers--that +"they had lost their Bishop Guido, who was their soul." + +84. I perceive for quite one of the most hopeless of the many +difficulties which Modernism finds, and will find, insuperable either by +steam or dynamite, that of either wedging or welding into its own +cast-iron head, any conception of a king, monk, or townsman of the +twelfth and two succeeding centuries. And yet no syllable of the +utterance, no fragment of the arts of the middle ages, far less any +motive of their deeds, can be read even in the letter--how much less +judged in spirit--unless, first of all, we can somewhat imagine all +these three Living souls. + +First, a king who was the best knight in his kingdom, and on whose own +swordstrokes hung the fate of Christendom. A king such as Henry the +Fowler, the first and third Edwards of England, the Bruce of Scotland, +and this Frederic the First of Germany. + +Secondly, a monk who had been trained from youth in greater hardship +than any soldier, and had learned at last to desire no other life than +one of hardship;--a man believing in his own and his fellows' +immortality, in the aiding powers of angels, and the eternal presence of +God; versed in all the science, graceful in all the literature, +cognizant of all the policy of his age; and fearless of any created +thing, on the earth or under it. + +And, lastly, a craftsman absolutely master of his craft, and taking such +pride in the exercise of it as all healthy souls take in putting forth +their personal powers: proud also of his city and his people; enriching, +year by year, their streets with loftier buildings, their treasuries +with rarer possession; and bequeathing his hereditary art to a line of +successive masters, by whose tact of race, and honor of effort, the +essential skills of metal-work in gold and steel, of pottery, +glass-painting, woodwork, and weaving, were carried to a perfectness +never to be surpassed; and of which our utmost modern hope is to produce +a not instantly detected imitation. + +These three kinds of persons, I repeat, we have to conceive before we +can understand any single event of the Middle Ages. For all that is +enduring in them was done by men such as these. History, indeed, records +twenty undoings for one deed, twenty desolations for one redemption; and +thinks the fool and villain potent as the wise and true. But Nature and +her laws recognize only the noble: generations of the cruel pass like +the darkness of locust plagues; while one loving and brave heart +establishes a nation. + +85. I give the character of Barbarossa in the words of Sismondi, a man +sparing in the praise of emperors:-- + +"The death of Frederic was mourned even by the cities which so long had +been the objects of his hostility, and the victims of his vengeance. All +the Lombards--even the Milanese--acknowledged his rare courage, his +constancy in misfortune--his generosity in conquest. + +"An intimate conviction of the justice of his cause had often rendered +him cruel, even to ferocity, against those who still resisted; but after +victory he took vengeance only on senseless walls; and irritated as he +had been by the people of Milan, Crema, and Tortona, and whatever blood +he had shed during battle, he never sullied his triumph by odious +punishments. In spite of the treason which he on one occasion used +against Alessandria, his promises were in general respected; and when, +after the peace of Constance, the towns which had been most inveterately +hostile to him received him within their walls, they had no need to +guard against any attempt on his part to suppress the privileges he had +once recognized." + +My own estimate of Frederic's character would be scarcely so favorable; +it is the only point of history on which I have doubted the authority +even of my own master, Carlyle. But I am concerned here only with the +actualities of his wars in Italy, with the people of her cities, and the +head of her religion. + +86. Frederic of Suabia, direct heir of the Ghibelline rights, while +nearly related by blood to the Guelph houses of Bavaria and Saxony, was +elected emperor almost in the exact middle of the twelfth century +(1152). He was called into Italy by the voices of Italians. The then +Pope, Eugenius III., invoked his aid against the Roman people under +Arnold of Brescia. The people of Lodi prayed his protection against the +tyrannies of Milan. + +Frederic entered the plain of Verona in 1154, by the valley of the +Adige,--ravaged the territory of Milan,--pillaged and burned Tortona, +Asti, and Chieri,--kept his Christmas at Novara; marched on +Rome,--delivered up Arnold to the Pope[90] (who, instantly killing him, +ended for that time Protestant reforms in Italy)--destroyed Spoleto; and +returned by Verona, having scorched his path through Italy like a level +thunderbolt along the ground. + +Three years afterwards, Adrian died; and, chiefly, by the love and will +of the Roman people, Roland of Siena was raised to the Papal throne, +under the name of Alexander III. The conclave of cardinals chose another +Pope, Victor III.; Frederic on his second invasion of Italy (1158) +summoned both elected heads of the Church to receive judgment of their +claims before _him_. + +The Cardinals' Pope, Victor, obeyed. The people's Alexander, refused; +answering that the successor of St. Peter submitted himself to the +judgment neither of emperors nor councils. + +The spirit of modern prelacy may perhaps have rendered it impossible for +an English churchman to conceive this answer as other than that of +insolence and hypocrisy. But a faithful Pope, and worthy of his throne, +could answer no otherwise. Frederic of course at once confirmed the +claims of his rival; the German bishops and Italian cardinals in council +at Pavia joined their powers to the Emperor's and Alexander, driven from +Rome, wandered--unsubdued in soul--from city to city, taking refuge at +last in France. + +87. Meantime, in 1159, Frederic took and destroyed Crema, having first +bound its hostages to his machines of war. In 1161, Milan submitted to +his mercy, and he decreed that her name should perish. Only a few +pillars of a Roman temple, and the church of St. Ambrose, remain to us +of the ancient city. Warned by her destruction, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, +Treviso, and Venice, joined in the vow--called of the Lombard League--to +reduce the Emperor's power within its just limits. And, in 1164, +Alexander, under the protection of Louis VII. of France and Henry II. of +England, returned to Rome, and was received at Ostia by its senate, +clergy, and people. + +Three years afterwards, Frederic again swept down on the Campagna; +attacked the Leonine city, where the basilica of the Vatican, changed +into a fortress, and held by the Pope's guard, resisted his assault +until, by the Emperor's order, fire was set to the Church of St. Mary of +Pity. + +The Leonine city was taken; the Pope retired to the Coliseum, whence, +uttering once again his fixed defiance of the Emperor, but fearing +treachery, he fled in disguise down the Tiber to the sea, and sought +asylum at Benevento. + +The German army encamped round Rome in August of 1166, with the sign +before their eyes of the ruins of the church of Our Lady of Pity. The +marsh-fever struck them--killed the Emperor's cousin, Frederic of +Rothenburg, the Duke of Bavaria, the Archbishop of Cologne, the Bishops +of Liége, Spire, Ratisbonne, and Verden, and two thousand knights; the +common dead were uncounted. The Emperor gathered the wreck of his army +together, retreated on Lombardy, quartered his soldiery at Pavia, and +escaped in secret over the Mont Cenis with thirty knights. + +88. No places of strength remained to him south of the Alps but Pavia +and Montferrat; and to hold these in check, and command the plains of +Piedmont, the Lombard League built the fortress city, which, from the +Pope who had maintained through all adversity the authority of his +throne and the cause of the Italian people, they named "Alessandria." + +Against this bulwark the Emperor, still indomitable, dashed with his +utmost regathered strength after eight years of pause, and in the temper +in which men set their souls on a single stake. All had been lost in +his last war, except his honor--in this, he lost his honor also. +Whatever may be the just estimate of the other elements of his +character, he is unquestionably, among the knights of his time, notable +in impiety. In the battle of Cassano, he broke through the Milanese +vanguard to their _caroccio_, and struck down with his own hand its +golden crucifix;--two years afterwards its cross and standard were bowed +before him--and in vain.[91] He fearlessly claims for himself right of +decision between contending popes, and camps against the rightful one on +the ashes of the Church of the Virgin. + +Foiled in his first assault on Alessandria, detained before it through +the inundations of the winter, and threatened by the army of the League +in the spring, he announced a truce to the besieged, that they might +keep Good Friday. Then violating alike the day's sanctity and his own +oath, he attacked the trusting city through a secretly completed mine. +And, for a second time, the verdict of God went forth against him. Every +man who had obtained entrance within the city was slain or cast from its +ramparts;--the Alessandrines threw all their gates open--fell, with the +broken fugitives, on the investing troops, scattered them in disorder, +and burned their towers of attack. The Emperor gathered their remains +into Pavia on Easter Sunday,--spared in his defeat by the army of the +League. + +89. And yet, once more, he brought his cause to combat-trial. +Temporizing at Lodi with the Pope's legates, he assembled, under the +Archbishops of Magdebourg and Cologne, and the chief prelates and +princes of Germany, a seventh army; brought it down to Como across the +Splügen, put himself there at its head, and in the early spring of 1176, +the fifteenth year since he had decreed the effacing of the name of +Milan, was met at Legnano by the specter of Milan. + +Risen from her grave, she led the Lombard League in this final battle. +Three hundred of her nobles guarded her _caroccio_; nine hundred of her +knights bound themselves--under the name of the Cohort of Death--to win +for her, or to die. + +The field of battle is in the midst of the plain, now covered with maize +and mulberry trees, from which the traveler, entering Italy by the Lago +Maggiore, sees first the unbroken snows of the Rosa behind him and the +white pinnacles of Milan Cathedral in the south. The Emperor, as was his +wont, himself led his charging chivalry. The Milanese knelt as it +came;--prayed aloud to God, St. Peter, and St. Ambrose--then advanced +round their _caroccio_ on foot. The Emperor's charge broke through their +ranks nearly up to their standard--then the Cohort of Death rode against +him. + +90. And all his battle changed before them into flight. For the first +time in stricken field, the imperial standard fell, and was taken. The +Milanese followed the broken host until their swords were weary; and the +Emperor, struck fighting from his horse, was left, lost among the dead. +The Empress, whose mercy to Milan he had forbidden, already wore +mourning for him in Pavia, when her husband came, solitary and +suppliant, to its gate. + +The lesson at last sufficed; and Barbarossa sent his heretic bishops to +ask forgiveness of the Pope, and peace from the Lombards. + +Pardon and peace were granted--without conditions. "Cæsar's successor" +had been the blight of Italy for a quarter of a century; he had ravaged +her harvests, burnt her cities, decimated her children with famine, her +young men with the sword; and, seven times over, in renewed invasion, +sought to establish dominion over her, from the Alps to the rock of +Scylla. + +She asked of him no restitution;--coveted no province--demanded no +fortress, of his land. Neither coward nor robber, she disdained alike +guard and gain upon her frontiers: she counted no compensation for her +sorrow; and set no price upon the souls of her dead. She stood in the +porch of her brightest temple--between the blue plains of her earth and +sea, and, in the person of her spiritual father, gave her enemy pardon. + +"Black demons hovering o'er his mitered head," think you, gentle +sonneteer of the daffodil-marsh? And have Barbarossa's race been taught +of better angels how to bear themselves to a conquered emperor,--or +England, by braver and more generous impulses, how to protect his exiled +son? + +The fall of Venice, since that day, was measured by Byron in a single +line: + + "An Emperor tramples where an emperor knelt." + +But what words shall measure the darker humiliation of the German +pillaging his helpless enemy and England leaving her ally under the +savage's spear? + +91. With the clews now given, and an hour or two's additional reading of +any standard historian he pleases, the reader may judge on secure +grounds whether the truce of Venice and peace of Constance were of the +Devil's making: whereof whatever he may ultimately feel or affirm, this +at least he will please note for positive, that Mr. Wordsworth, having +no shadow of doubt of the complete wisdom of every idea that comes into +his own head, writes down in dogmatic sonnet his first impression of +black instrumentality in the business; so that his innocent readers, +taking him for their sole master, far from caring to inquire into the +thing more deeply, may remain even unconscious that it is disputable, +and forever incapable of conceiving either a Catholic's feeling, or a +careful historian's hesitation, touching the centrally momentous crisis +of power in all the Middle Ages! Whereas Byron, knowing the history +thoroughly, and judging of Catholicism with an honest and open heart, +ventures to assert nothing that admits of debate, either concerning +human motives or angelic presences; but binds into one line of massive +melody the unerringly counted sum of Venetian majesty and shame. + +92. In a future paper, I propose examining his method of dealing with +the debate, itself on a higher issue: and will therefore close the +present one by trampling a few of the briers and thorns of popular +offense out of our way. + +The common counts against Byron are in the main, three. + +I. That he confessed--in some sort, even proclaimed defiantly (which is +a proud man's natural manner of confession)[92]--the naughtiness of his +life. + +The hypocrisy[93] even of Pall Mall and Petit Trianon does not, I +assume, and dares not, go so far as to condemn the naughtiness itself? +And that he _did_ confess it, is precisely the reason for reading him by +his own motto "Trust Byron." You always may; and the common +smooth-countenanced man of the world is guiltier in the precise measure +of your higher esteem for him. + +II. That he wrote about pretty things which ought never to be heard of. + +In the presence of the exact proprieties of modern Fiction, Art, and +Drama, I am shy of touching on the question of what should be mentioned, +and seen--and should not. All that I care to say, here, is that Byron +tells you of realities, and that their being pretty ones is, to my +mind,--at the first (literally) blush, of the matter, rather in his +favor. If however you have imagined that he means you to think Dudu as +pretty as Myrrha,[94] or even Haidee, whether in full dress or none, as +pretty as Marina, it is your fault, not his. + +93. III. That he blasphemed God and the King. + +Before replying to this count, I must ask the reader's patience in a +piece of very serious work, the ascertainment of the real and full +meaning of the word Blasphemy. It signifies simply "Harmful +speaking"--Male-diction--or shortly "Blame"; and may be committed as +much against a child or a dog, if you _desire_ to hurt them, as against +the Deity. And it is, in its original use, accurately opposed to another +Greek word, "Euphemy," which means a reverent and loving manner of +benediction--fallen entirely into disuse in modern sentiment and +language. + +Now the compass and character of essential Male-diction, so-called in +Latin, or Blasphemy, so-called in Greek, may, I think, be best explained +to the general reader by an instance in a very little thing, first +translating the short pieces of Plato which best show the meaning of the +word in codes of Greek morality. + + "These are the things then" (the true order of the Sun, Moon, and + Planets), "oh my friends, of which I desire that all our citizens + and youths should learn at least so much concerning the Gods of + Heaven, as not to blaspheme concerning them, but to eupheme + reverently, both in sacrificing, and in every prayer they + pray."--Laws, VII. Steph. 821. + + "And through the whole of life, beyond all other need for it, there + is need of Euphemy from a man to his parents, for there is no + heavier punishment than that of light and winged words," (to + _them_)? "for Nemesis, the angel of Divine Recompense, has been + throned Bishop over all men who sin in such manner."--IV. Steph. + 717. + +The word which I have translated "recompense" is more strictly that +"heavenly Justice"--the proper Light of the World, from which nothing +can be hidden, and by which all who will may walk securely; whence the +mystic answer of Ulysses to his son, as Athena, herself invisible, walks +with them, filling the chamber of the house with light, "This is the +justice of the Gods who possess Olympus." See the context in reference +to which Plato quotes the line.--Laws, X. Steph. 904. The little story +that I have to tell is significant chiefly in connection with the second +passage of Plato above quoted. + +94. I have elsewhere mentioned that I was a homebred boy, and that as my +mother diligently and scrupulously taught me my Bible and Latin Grammar, +so my father fondly and devotedly taught me my Scott, my Pope, and my +Byron.[95] The Latin grammar out of which my mother taught me was the +11th edition of Alexander Adam's--(Edinb.: Bell and Bradfute, +1823)--namely, that Alexander Adam, Rector of Edinburgh High School, +into whose upper class Scott passed in October 1782, and who--previous +masters having found nothing noticeable in the heavy-looking lad--_did_ +find sterling qualities in him, and "would constantly refer to him for +dates, and particulars of battles, and other remarkable events alluded +to in Horace, or _whatever other authors the boys were reading_; and +called him the historian of his class" (L. i. 126). _That_ Alex. Adam, +also, who, himself a loving historian, remembered the fate of every boy +at his school during the fifty years he had headed it, and whose last +words--"It grows dark, the boys may dismiss," gave to Scott's heart the +vision and the audit of the death of Elspeth of the Craigburn-foot. + +Strangely, in opening the old volume at this moment (I would not give it +for an illuminated missal) I find, in its article on Prosody, some +things extremely useful to me, which I have been hunting for in vain +through Zumpt and Matthiæ. In all rational respects I believe it to be +the best Latin Grammar that has yet been written. + +When my mother had carried me through it as far as the syntax, it was +thought desirable that I should be put under a master: and the master +chosen was a deeply and deservedly honored clergyman, the Rev. Thomas +Dale, mentioned in Mr. Holbeach's article, "The New Fiction," +(_Contemporary Review_ for February of this year), together with Mr. +Melville, who was our pastor after Mr. Dale went to St. Pancras. + +95. On the first day when I went to take my seat in Mr. Dale's +schoolroom, I carried my old grammar to him, in a modest pride, +expecting some encouragement and honor for the accuracy with which I +could repeat, on demand, some hundred and sixty close-printed pages of +it. + +But Mr. Dale threw it back to me with a fierce bang upon his desk, +saying (with accent and look of seven-times-heated scorn), "That's a +_Scotch_ thing." + +Now, my father being Scotch, and an Edinburgh High School boy, and my +mother having labored in that book with me since I could read, and all +my happiest holiday time having been spent on the North Inch of Perth, +these four words, with the action accompanying them, contained as much +insult, pain, and loosening of my respect for my parents, love of my +father's country, and honor for its worthies, as it was possible to +compress into four syllables and an ill-mannered gesture. Which were +therefore pure, double-edged and point-envenomed blasphemy. For to make +a boy despise his mother's care, is the straightest way to make him also +despise his Redeemer's voice; and to make him scorn his father and his +father's house, the straightest way to make him deny his God, and his +God's Heaven. + +96. I speak, observe, in this instance, only of the actual words and +their effect; not of the feeling in the speaker's mind, which was almost +playful, though his words, tainted with extremity of pride, were such +light ones as men shall give account of at the Day of Judgment. The real +sin of blasphemy is not in the saying, nor even in the thinking; but in +the wishing which is father to thought and word: and the nature of it is +simply in wishing evil to anything; for as the quality of Mercy is not +strained, so neither that of Blasphemy, the one distilling from the +clouds of Heaven, the other from the steam of the Pit. He that is unjust +in little is unjust in much, he that is malignant to the least is to the +greatest, he who hates the earth which is God's footstool, hates yet +more Heaven which is God's throne, and Him that sitteth thereon. +Finally, therefore, blasphemy is wishing ill to _any_ thing; and its +outcome is in Vanni Fucci's extreme "ill manners"--wishing ill to God. + +On the contrary, Euphemy is wishing well to everything, and its outcome +is in Burns' extreme "good manners," wishing well to-- + + "Ah! wad ye tak a thought, and men'!" + +That is the supreme of Euphemy. + +97. Fix then, first in your minds, that the sin of malediction, whether +Shimei's individual, or John Bull's national, is in the vulgar +malignity, not in the vulgar diction, and then note further that the +"phemy" or "fame" of the two words, blasphemy and euphemy, signifies +broadly the bearing of _false_ witness _against_ one's neighbor in the +one case, and of _true_ witness _for_ him in the other: so that while +the peculiar province of the blasphemer is to throw firelight on the +evil in good persons, the province of the euphuist (I must use the word +inaccurately for want of a better) is to throw sunlight on the good in +bad ones; such, for instance, as Bertram, Meg Merrilies, Rob Roy, Robin +Hood, and the general run of Corsairs, Giaours, Turks, Jews, Infidels, +and Heretics; nay, even sisters of Rahab, and daughters of Moab and +Ammon; and at last the whole spiritual race of him to whom it was said, +"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" + +98. And being thus brought back to our actual subject, I purpose, after +a few more summary notes on the luster of the electrotype language of +modern passion, to examine what facts or probabilities lie at the root +both of Goethe's and Byron's imagination of that contest between the +powers of Good and Evil, of which the Scriptural account appears to Mr. +Huxley so inconsistent with the recognized laws of political economy; +and has been, by the cowardice of our old translators, so maimed of its +vitality, that the frank Greek assertion of St. Michael's not daring to +blaspheme the devil,[96] is tenfold more mischievously deadened and +caricatured by their periphrasis of "durst not bring against him a +railing accusation," than by Byron's apparently--and only +apparently--less reverent description of the manner of angelic encounter +for an inferior ruler of the people. + + "Between His Darkness and His Brightness + There passed a mutual glance of great politeness." + + PARIS, _September 20, 1880._ + + +POSTSCRIPT. + +99. I am myself extremely grateful, nor doubt a like feeling in most of +my readers, both for the information contained in the first of the two +following letters; and the correction of references in the second, of +which, however, I have omitted some closing sentences which the writer +will, I think, see to have been unnecessary.[97] + + + NORTH STREET, WIRKSWORTH: + _August 2, 1880._ + +DEAR SIR,--When reading your interesting article in the June +number of the _Nineteenth Century_, and your quotation from Walter +Scott, I was struck with the great similarity between some of the Scotch +words and my native tongue (Norwegian). _Whigmaleerie_, as to the +derivation of which you seem to be in some perplexity, is in Norwegian +_Vægmaleri_. _Væg_, pronounced "Vegg," signifying wall, and Maleri +"picture," pronounced almost the same as in Scotch, and derived from _at +male_, to paint. Siccan is in Danish _sikken_, used more about something +comical than great, and scarcely belonging to the written language, in +which _slig_, such, and _slig en_, such a one, would be the equivalent. +I need not remark that as to the written language Danish and Norwegian +is the same, only the dialects differ. + +Having been told by some English friends that this explanation would +perhaps not be without interest to yourself, I take the liberty of +writing this letter. I remain yours respectfully, + + THEA BERG. + + + INNER TEMPLE: _September 9, 1880._ + +SIR,--In your last article on Fiction, Foul and Fair +(_Nineteenth Century_, September 1880) you have the following note: + +"Juan viii. 5" (it ought to be 9) "but by your Lordship's quotation, +Wordsworth says 'instrument' not 'daughter.'" + +Now in Murray's edition of Byron, 1837, octavo, his Lordship's quotation +is as follows:-- + + "But thy most dreaded instrument + In working out a pure intent + Is man arranged for mutual slaughter; + Yea, Carnage is thy daughter." + +And his Lordship refers you to "Wordsworth's Thanksgiving Ode." + +I have no early edition of Wordsworth. In Moxon's, 1844, no such lines +appear in the Thanksgiving Ode, but in the ode dated 1815, and printed +immediately before it, the following lines occur. + + "But man is thy most awful instrument + In working out a pure intent." + +It is hardly possible to avoid the conclusion that Wordsworth altered +the lines after "Don Juan" was written. I am, with great respect, your +obedient servant, + + RALPH THICKNESSE. + + JOHN RUSKIN, Esq. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 88: November, 1880.--ED.] + +[Footnote 89: "Childe Harold," iv. 79; compare "Adonais," and Sismondi, +vol. i. p. 148.] + +[Footnote 90: Adrian the Fourth. Eugenius died in the previous year.] + +[Footnote 91: "All the multitudes threw themselves on their knees, +praying mercy in the name of the crosses they bore: the Count of +Blandrata took a cross from the enemies with whom he had served, and +fell at the foot of the throne, praying for mercy to them. All the court +and the witnessing army were in tears--the Emperor alone showed no sign +of emotion. Distrusting his wife's sensibility, he had forbidden her +presence at the ceremony; the Milanese, unable to approach her, threw +towards her windows the crosses they carried, to plead for +them."--Sismondi (French edition), vol. i. p. 378.] + +[Footnote 92: The most noble and tender confession is in Allegra's +epitaph, "I shall go to her, but she shall not return to me."] + +[Footnote 93: Hypocrisy is too good a word for either Pall Mall or +Trianon, being justly applied (as always in the New Testament), only to +men whose false religion has become earnest, and a part of their being: +so that they compass heaven and earth to make a proselyte. There is no +relation between minds of this order and those of common rogues. Neither +Tartuffe nor Joseph Surface are hypocrites--they are simply impostors: +but many of the most earnest preachers in all existing churches are +hypocrites in the highest; and the Tartuffe-Squiredom and Joseph +Surface-Masterhood of our virtuous England which build churches and pay +priests to keep their peasants and hands peaceable, so that rents and +per cents may be spent, unnoticed, in the debaucheries of the +metropolis, are darker forms of imposture than either heaven or earth +have yet been compassed by; and what they are to end in, heaven and +earth only know. Compare again, "Island," ii. 4, "the prayers of Abel +linked to deeds of Cain," and "Juan," viii. 25, 26.] + +[Footnote 94: Perhaps some even of the attentive readers of Byron may +not have observed the choice of the three names--Myrrha (bitter +incense), Marina (sea lady), Angiolina (little angel)--in relation to +the plots of the three plays.] + +[Footnote 95: I shall have lost my wits very finally when I forget the +first time that I pleased my father with a couplet of English verse +(after many a year of trials); and the radiant joy on his face as he +declared, reading it aloud to my mother with emphasis half choked by +tears,--that "it was as fine as anything that Pope or Byron ever +wrote!"] + +[Footnote 96: Of our tingle-tangle-titmouse disputes in Parliament like +Robins in a bush, but not a Robin in all the house knowing his great A, +hear again Plato: "But they, for ever so little a quarrel, uttering much +voice, blaspheming, speak evil one of another,--and it is not becoming +that in a city of well-ordered persons, such things should be--no; +nothing of them nohow nowhere,--and let this be the one law for all--let +nobody speak mischief of anybody ([Greek: Mêdena kakêgoreitô +mêdeis])."--Laws, book ii. s. 935; and compare Book iv. 117.] + +[Footnote 97: A paragraph beginning "I find press corrections always +irksome work, and in my last paper trust the reader's kindness to make +some corrections in the preceding paper," is here omitted, and the +corrections made.--ED.] + + + + +FICTION, FAIR AND FOUL. + +V.[98] + +THE TWO SERVANTS. + + +100. I have assumed throughout these papers, that everybody knew what +Fiction meant; as Mr. Mill assumed in his Political Economy, that +everybody knew what wealth meant. The assumption was convenient to Mr. +Mill, and persisted in: but, for my own part, I am not in the habit of +talking, even so long as I have done in this instance, without making +sure that the reader knows what I am talking about; and it is high time +that we should be agreed upon the primary notion of what Fiction is. + +A feigned, fictitious, artificial, supernatural, +put-together-out-of-one's-head, thing. All this it must be, to begin +with. The best type of it being the most practically fictile--a Greek +vase. A thing which has two sides to be seen, two handles to be carried +by, and a bottom to stand on, and a top to be poured out of, this, every +right fiction _is_, whatever else it may be. Planned rigorously, rounded +smoothly, balanced symmetrically, handled handily, lipped softly for +pouring out oil and wine. Painted daintily at last with images of +eternal things-- + + Forever shalt thou love, and she be fair. + +101. Quite a different thing from a "cast,"--this work of clay in the +hands of the potter, as it seemed good to the potter to make it. Very +interesting, a cast from life may perhaps be; more interesting, to some +people perhaps, a cast from death;--most modern novels are like +specimens from Lyme Regis, impressions of skeletons in mud. + +"Planned rigorously"--I press the conditions again one by one--it must +be, as ever Memphian labyrinth or Norman fortress. Intricacy full of +delicate surprise; covered way in secrecy of accurate purposes, not a +stone useless, nor a word nor an incident thrown away. + +"Rounded smoothly"--the wheel of Fortune revolving with it in unfelt +swiftness; like the world, its story rising like the dawn, closing like +the sunset, with its own sweet light for every hour. + +"Balanced symmetrically"--having its two sides clearly separate, its war +of good and evil rightly divided. Its figures moving in majestic law of +light and shade. + +"Handled handily"--so that, being careful and gentle, you can take easy +grasp of it and all that it contains; a thing given into your hand +henceforth to have and to hold. Comprehensible, not a mass that both +your arms cannot get round; tenable, not a confused pebble heap of which +you can only lift one pebble at a time. + +"Lipped softly"--full of kindness and comfort: the Keats line indeed the +perpetual message of it--"For ever shalt thou love, and she be fair." +All beautiful fiction is of the Madonna, whether the Virgin of Athens or +of Judah--Pan-Athenaic always. + +And all foul fiction is _leze majesté_ to the Madonna and to womanhood. +For indeed the great fiction of every human life is the shaping of its +Love, with due prudence, due imagination, due persistence and perfection +from the beginning of its story to the end; for every human soul, its +Palladium. And it follows that all right imaginative work is beautiful, +which is a practical and brief law concerning it. All frightful things +are either foolish, or sick, visits of frenzy, or pollutions of plague. + +102. Taking thus the Greek vase at its best time, for the symbol of fair +fiction: of foul, you may find in the great entrance-room of the Louvre, +filled with the luxurious _orfèvrerie_ of the sixteenth century, types +perfect and innumerable: Satyrs carved in serpentine, Gorgons platted in +gold, Furies with eyes of ruby, Scyllas with scales of pearl; infinitely +worthless toil, infinitely witless wickedness; pleasure satiated into +idiocy, passion provoked into madness, no object of thought, or sight, +or fancy, but horror, mutilation, distortion, corruption, agony of war, +insolence of disgrace, and misery of Death. + +It is true that the ease with which a serpent, or something that will be +understood for one, can be chased or wrought in metal, and the small +workmanly skill required to image a satyr's hoof and horns, as compared +to that needed for a human foot or forehead, have greatly influenced the +choice of subject by incompetent smiths; and in like manner, the +prevalence of such vicious or ugly story in the mass of modern +literature is not so much a sign of the lasciviousness of the age, as of +its stupidity, though each react on the other, and the vapor of the +sulphurous pool becomes at last so diffused in the atmosphere of our +cities, that whom it cannot corrupt, it will at least stultify. + +103. Yesterday, the last of August, came to me from the Fine Art +Society, a series of twenty black and white scrabbles[99] of which I am +informed in an eloquent preface that the author was a Michael Angelo of +the glebe, and that his shepherds and his herdswomen are akin in dignity +and grandeur to the prophets and Sibyls of the Sistine. + +Glancing through the series of these stupendous productions, I find one +peculiarly characteristic and expressive of modern picture-making and +novel-writing,--called "Hauling" or more definitely "Paysan rentrant du +Fumier," which represents a man's back, or at least the back of his +waistcoat and trousers, and hat, in full light, and a small blot where +his face should be, with a small scratch where its nose should be, +elongated into one representing a chink of timber in the background. + +Examining the volume farther, in the hope of discovering some trace of +reasonable motive for the publication of these works by the Society, I +perceive that this Michael Angelo of the glebe had indeed natural +faculty of no mean order in him, and that the woeful history of his life +contains very curious lessons respecting the modern conditions of +Imagination and Art. + +104. I find in the first place, that he was a Breton peasant; his +grandmother's godson, baptized in good hope, and christened Jean, after +his father, and François after the Saint of Assisi, his godmother's +patron. It was under her care and guidance and those of his uncle, the +Abbé Charles, that he was reared; and the dignified and laborious +earnestness of these governors of his was a chief influence in his life, +and a distinguishing feature in his character. The Millet family led an +existence almost patriarchal in its unalterable simplicity and +diligence; and the boy grew up in an environment of toil, sincerity and +devoutness. He was fostered upon the Bible, and the great book of +nature.... When he woke, it was to the lowing of cattle and the song of +birds; he was at play all day, among "the sights and sounds of the open +landscape; and he slept with the murmur of the spinning-wheel in his +ears, and the memory of the evening prayer in his heart.... He learned +Latin from the parish priest, and from his uncle Charles; and he soon +came to be a student of Virgil, and while yet young in his teens began +to follow his father out into the fields, and thenceforward, as became +the eldest boy in a large family, worked hard at grafting and plowing, +sowing and reaping, scything and shearing and planting, and all the many +duties of husbandmen. Meanwhile, he had taken to drawing ... copied +everything he saw, and produced not only studies but compositions also; +until at last his father was moved to take him away from farming, and +have him taught painting." + +105. Now all this is related concerning the lad's early life by the +prefatory and commenting author, as if expecting the general reader to +admit that there had been some advantage for him in this manner of +education:--that simplicity and devoutness are wholesome states of mind; +that parish curés and uncle Abbés are not betrayers or devourers of +youthful innocence--that there is profitable reading in the Bible, and +something agreeably soothing--if not otherwise useful--in the sound of +evening prayer. I may observe also in passing, that his education, thus +far, is precisely what, for the last ten years, I have been describing +as the most desirable for all persons intending to lead an honest and +Christian life: (my recommendation that peasants should learn Latin +having been, some four or five years ago, the subject of much merriment +in the pages of _Judy_ and other such nurses of divine wisdom in the +public mind.) It however having been determined by the boy's father that +he should be a painter, and that art being unknown to the Abbé Charles +and the village Curé (in which manner of ignorance, if the infallible +Pope did but know it, he and his _now_ artless shepherds stand at a +fatal disadvantage in the world as compared with monks who could +illuminate with color as well as word)--the simple young soul is sent +for the exalting and finishing of its artistic faculties to Paris. + +106. "Wherein," observers my prefatory author, "the romantic movement +was in the full tide of prosperity." + +Hugo had written "Notre Dame," and Musset had published "Rolla" and the +"Nuits"; Balzac the "Lys dans la Vallée"; Gautier the "Comédie de la +Mort"; Georges Sand "Léone Léonie"; and a score of wild and eloquent +novels more; and under the instruction of these romantic authors, his +landlady, to whom he had intrusted the few francs he possessed, to dole +out to him as he needed, fell in love with him, and finding he could +not, or would not, respond to her advances, confiscated the whole +deposit, and left him penniless. The preface goes on to tell us how, not +feeling himself in harmony with these forms of Romanticism, he takes to +the study of the Infinite, and Michael Angelo; how he learned to paint +the Heroic Nude; how he mixed up for imitation the manners of Rubens, +Ribera, Mantegna, and Correggio; how he struggled all his life with +neglect, and endured with his family every agony of poverty; owed his +butcher and his grocer, was exposed to endless worry and annoyance from +writs and executions; and when first his grandmother died, and then his +mother, neither death-bed was able to raise the money that would have +carried him from Barbizon to Gruchy. + +The work now laid before the public by the Fine Art Society is to be +considered, therefore--whatever its merits or defects may be--as an +expression of the influence of the Infinite and Michael Angelo on a mind +innocently prepared for their reception. And in another place I may take +occasion to point out the peculiar adaptability of modern etching to the +expression of the Infinite, by the multitude of scratches it can put on +a surface without representing anything in particular; and to +illustration of the majesty of Michael Angelo by preference of the backs +and legs of people to their faces. + +107. But I refer to the book in this paper, partly indeed because my +mind is full of its sorrow, and I may not be able to find another +opportunity of saying so; but chiefly, because the author of the preface +has summed the principal authors of depraved Fiction in a single +sentence; and I want the reader to ask himself why, among all the forms +of the picturesque which were suggested by this body of literary +leaders, none were acceptable by, none helpful to, the mind of a youth +trained in purity and faith. + +He will find, if he reflect, that it is not in romantic, or any other +healthy aim, that the school detaches itself from those called sometimes +by recent writers "classical"; but first by Infidelity, and an absence +of the religious element so total that at last it passes into the hatred +of priesthood which has become characteristic of Republicanism; and +secondly, by the taint and leprosy of animal passion idealized as a +governing power of humanity, or at least used as the chief element of +interest in the conduct of its histories. It is with the _Sin_ of Master +Anthony that Georges Sand (who is the best of them) overshadows the +entire course of a novel meant to recommend simplicity of life--and by +the weakness of Consuelo that the same authoress thinks it natural to +set off the splendor of the most exalted musical genius. + +I am not able to judge of the degree of moral purpose, or conviction, +with which any of the novelists wrote. But I am able to say with +certainty that, whatever their purpose, their method is mistaken, and +that no good is ever done to society by the pictorial representation of +its diseases. + +108. All healthy and helpful literature sets simple bars between right +and wrong; assumes the possibility, in men and women, of having healthy +minds in healthy bodies, and loses no time in the diagnosis of fever or +dyspepsia in either; least of all in the particular kind of fever which +signifies the ungoverned excess of any appetite or passion. The +"dullness" which many modern readers inevitably feel, and some modern +blockheads think it creditable to allege, in Scott, consists not a +little in his absolute purity from every loathsome element or excitement +of the lower passions; so that people who live habitually in Satyric or +hircine conditions of thought find him as insipid as they would a +picture of Angelico's. The accurate and trenchant separation between him +and the common railroad-station novelist is that, in his total method of +conception, only lofty character is worth describing at all; and it +becomes interesting, not by its faults, but by the difficulties and +accidents of the fortune through which it passes, while, in the railway +novel, interest is obtained with the vulgar reader for the vilest +character, because the author describes carefully to his recognition the +blotches, burrs and pimples in which the paltry nature resembles his +own. The "Mill on the Floss" is perhaps the most striking instance +extant of this study of cutaneous disease. There is not a single person +in the book of the smallest importance to anybody in the world but +themselves, or whose qualities deserved so much as a line of printer's +type in their description. There is no girl alive, fairly clever, half +educated, and unluckily related, whose life has not at least as much in +it as Maggie's, to be described and to be pitied. Tom is a clumsy and +cruel lout, with the making of better things in him (and the same may be +said of nearly every Englishman at present smoking and elbowing his way +through the ugly world his blunders have contributed to the making of); +while the rest of the characters are simply the sweepings out of a +Pentonville omnibus.[100] + +109. And it is very necessary that we should distinguish this +essentially Cockney literature, developed only in the London suburbs, +and feeding the demand of the rows of similar brick houses, which branch +in devouring cancer round every manufacturing town,--from the really +romantic literature of France. Georges Sand is often immoral; but she is +always beautiful, and in the characteristic novel I have named, "Le +Péché de Mons. Antoine," the five principal characters, the old Cavalier +Marquis,--the Carpenter,--M. de Chateaubrun,--Gilberte,--and the really +passionate and generous lover, are all as heroic and radiantly ideal as +Scott's Colonel Mannering, Catherine Seyton, and Roland Graeme; while +the landscape is rich and true with the emotion of years of life passed +in glens of Norman granite and beside bays of Italian sea. But in the +English Cockney school, which consummates itself in George Eliot, the +personages are picked up from behind the counter and out of the gutter; +and the landscape, by excursion train to Gravesend, with return ticket +for the City-road. + +110. But the second reason for the dullness of Scott to the uneducated +or miseducated reader lies far deeper; and its analysis is related to +the most subtle questions in the Arts of Design. + +The mixed gayety and gloom in the plan of any modern novel fairly clever +in the make of it, may be likened, almost with precision, to the +patchwork of a Harlequin's dress, well spangled; a pretty thing enough, +if the human form beneath it be graceful and active. Few personages on +the stage are more delightful to me than a good Harlequin; also, if I +chance to have nothing better to do, I can still read my Georges Sand or +Alfred de Musset with much contentment, if only the story end well. + +But we must not dress Cordelia or Rosalind in robes of triangular +patches, covered with spangles, by way of making the _coup d'oeil_ of +them less dull; and so the story-telling of Scott is like the robe of +the Sistine Zipporah--embroidered only on the edges with gold and blue, +and the embroidery involving a legend written in mystic letters. + +And the interest and joy which he intends his reader to find in his +tale, are in taking up the golden thread here and there in its intended +recurrence--and following, as it rises again and again, his melody +through the disciplined and unaccented march of the fugue. + +111. Thus the entire charm and meaning of the story of the Monastery +depend on the degree of sympathy with which we compare the first and +last incidents of the appearance of a character, whom perhaps not one in +twenty readers would remember as belonging to the dramatis +personæ--Stawarth Bolton. + +Childless, he assures safety in the first scene of the opening tale to +the widow of Glendinning and her two children--the elder boy challenging +him at the moment, "I will war on thee to the death, when I can draw my +father's sword." In virtually the last scene, the grown youth, now in +command of a small company of spearmen in the Regent Murray's service, +is on foot, in the first pause after the battle at Kennaquhair, beside +the dead bodies of Julian Avenel and Christie, and the dying +Catherine.[101] + +Glendinning forgot for a moment his own situation and duties, and was +first recalled to them by a trampling of horse, and the cry of St. +George for England, which the English soldiers still continued to use. +His handful of men, for most of the stragglers had waited for Murray's +coming up, remained on horseback, holding their lances upright, having +no command either to submit or resist. + +"There stands our captain," said one of them, as a strong party of +English came up, the vanguard of Foster's troop. + +"Your captain! with his sword sheathed, and on foot in the presence of +his enemy? a raw soldier, I warrant him," said the English leader. "So! +ho! young man, is your dream out, and will you now answer me if you will +fight or fly?" + +"Neither," answered Halbert Glendinning, with great tranquillity. + +"Then throw down thy sword and yield thee," answered the Englishman. + +"Not till I can help myself no otherwise," said Halbert, with the same +moderation of tone and manner. + +"Art thou for thine own hand, friend, or to whom dost thou owe service?" +demanded the English captain. + +"To the noble Earl of Murray." + +"Then thou servest," said the Southron, "the most disloyal nobleman who +breathes--false both to England and Scotland." + +"Thou liest," said Glendinning, regardless of all consequences. + +"Ha! art thou so hot now, and wert so cold but a minute since? I lie, do +I? Wilt thou do battle with me on that quarrel?" + +"With one to one, one to two, or two to five, as you list," said Halbert +Glendinning; "grant me but a fair field." + +"That thou shalt have. Stand back, my mates," said the brave +Englishman. "If I fall, give him fair play, and let him go off free with +his people." + +"Long life to the noble captain!" cried the soldiers, as impatient to +see the duel as if it had been a bull. + +"He will have a short life of it, though," said the sergeant, "if he, an +old man of sixty, is to fight for any reason, or for no reason, with +every man he meets, and especially the young fellows he might be father +to. And here comes the warden, besides, to see the sword-play." + +In fact, Sir John Foster came up with a considerable body of his +horsemen, just as his captain, whose age rendered him unequal to the +combat with so strong and active a youth as Glendinning, lost his +sword.[102] + +"Take it up for shame, old Stawarth Bolton," said the English warden; +"and thou, young man, get you gone to your own friends, and loiter not +here." + +Notwithstanding this peremptory order, Halbert Glendinning could not +help stopping to cast a look upon the unfortunate Catherine, who lay +insensible of the danger and of the trampling of so many horses around +her--insensible, as the second glance assured him, of all and forever. +Glendinning almost rejoiced when he saw that the last misery of life was +over, and that the hoofs of the war-horses, amongst which he was +compelled to leave her, could only injure and deface a senseless corpse. +He caught the infant from her arms, half ashamed of the shout of +laughter which rose on all sides, at seeing an armed man in such a +situation assume such an unwonted and inconvenient burden. + +"Shoulder your infant!" cried a harquebusier. + +"Port your infant!" said a pikeman. + +"Peace, ye brutes!" said Stawarth Bolton, "and respect humanity in +others, if you have none yourselves. I pardon the lad having done some +discredit to my gray hairs, when I see him take care of that helpless +creature, which ye would have trampled upon as if ye had been littered +of bitch-wolves, not born of women." + +The infant thus saved is the heir of Avenel, and the intricacy and +fateful bearing of every incident and word in the scene, knitting into +one central moment all the clews to the plot of two romances, as the +rich boss of a Gothic vault gathers the shaft moldings of it, can only +be felt by an entirely attentive reader; just as (to follow out the +likeness on Scott's own ground) the willow-wreaths changed to stone of +Melrose tracery can only be caught in their plighting by the keenest +eyes. The meshes are again gathered by the master's own hand when the +child now in Halbert's arms, twenty years hence, stoops over him to +unlace his helmet, as the fallen knight lies senseless on the field of +Carberry Hill.[103] + +112. But there is another, and a still more hidden method in Scott's +designing of story, in which, taking extreme pains, he counts on much +sympathy from the reader, and can assuredly find none in a modern +student. The moral purpose of the whole, which he asserted in the +preface to the first edition of Waverley, was involved always with the +minutest study of the effects of true and false religion on the +conduct;--which subject being always touched with his utmost lightness +of hand and stealthiness of art, and founded on a knowledge of the +Scotch character and the human heart, such as no other living man +possessed, his purpose often escapes first observation as completely as +the inner feelings of living people do; and I am myself amazed, as I +take any single piece of his work up for examination, to find how many +of its points I had before missed or disregarded. + +113. The groups of personages whose conduct in the Scott romance is +definitely affected by religious conviction, may be arranged broadly, as +those of the actual world, under these following heads: + +1. The lowest group consists of persons who, believing in the general +truths of Evangelical religion, accommodate them to their passions, and +are capable, by gradual increase in depravity, of any crime or violence. +I am not going to include these in our present study. Trumbull ("Red +Gauntlet"), Trusty Tomkyns ("Woodstock"), Burley ("Old Mortality"), are +three of the principal types. + +2. The next rank above these consists of men who believe firmly and +truly enough to be restrained from any conduct which they clearly +recognize as criminal, but whose natural selfishness renders them +incapable of understanding the morality of the Bible above a certain +point; and whose imperfect powers of thought leave them liable in many +directions to the warping of self-interest or of small temptations. + +Fairservice. Blattergowl. Kettledrummle. Gifted Gilfillan. + +3. The third order consists of men naturally just and honest, but with +little sympathy and much pride, in whom their religion, while in the +depth of it supporting their best virtues, brings out on the surface all +their worst faults, and makes them censorious, tiresome, and often +fearfully mischievous. + +Richie Moniplies. Davie Deans. Mause Hedrigg. + +4. The enthusiastic type, leading to missionary effort, often to +martyrdom. + +Warden, in "Monastery." Colonel Gardiner. Ephraim Macbriar. Joshua +Geddes. + +5. Highest type, fulfilling daily duty; always gentle, entirely firm, +the comfort and strength of all around them; merciful to every human +fault, and submissive without anger to every human oppression. + +Rachel Geddes. Jeanie Deans. Bessie Maclure, in "Old Mortality"--the +Queen of all. + +114. In the present paper, I ask the reader's patience only with my +fulfillment of a promise long since made, to mark the opposition of the +effects of an entirely similar religious faith in two men of inferior +position, representing in perfectness the commonest types in Scotland +of the second and third order of religionists here distinguished, Andrew +Fairservice ("Rob Roy"), and Richie Moniplies ("Nigel"). + +The names of both the men imply deceitfulness of one kind or +another--Fairservice, as serving fairly only in pretense; Moniplies, as +having many windings, turns, and ways of escape. Scott's names are +themselves so Moniplied that they need as much following out as +Shakespeare's; and as their roots are pure Scotch, and few people have a +good Scottish glossary beside them, or would use it if they had, the +novels are usually read without any turning of the first keys to them. I +did not myself know till very lately the root of Dandie Dinmont's +name--"Dinmont," a two-year-old sheep; still less that of Moniplies, +which I had been always content to take Master George Heriot's rendering +of: "This fellow is not ill-named--he has more plies than one in his +cloak." ("Nigel," i. 72.) In its first sense, it is the Scotch word for +tripe, Moniplies being a butcher's son. + +115. Cunning, then, they both are, in a high degree--but Fairservice +only for himself, Moniplies for himself and his friend; or, in grave +business, even for his friend first. But it is one of Scott's first +principles of moral law that cunning never shall succeed, unless +definitely employed _against an enemy_ by a person whose essential +character is wholly frank and true; as by Roland against Lady Lochleven, +or Mysie Happer against Dan of the Howlet-hirst; but consistent cunning +in the character always fails: Scott allows no Ulyssean hero. + +Therefore the cunning of Fairservice fails always, and totally; but that +of Moniplies precisely according to the degree of its selfishness: +wholly, in the affair of the petition--("I am sure I had a' the right +and a' the risk," i. 73)--partially, in that of the carcanet. This he +himself at last recognizes with complacency:-- + +"I think you might have left me," says Nigel in their parting scene (i. +286), "to act according to my own judgment." + +"Mickle better not," answered Richie; "mickle better not. We are a' +frail creatures, and can judge better for ilk ither than in our own +cases. And for me--even myself--I have always observed myself to be much +more prudential in what I have done in your lordship's behalf, than even +in what I have been able to transact for my own interest--whilk last, I +have, indeed, always postponed, as in duty I ought." + +"I do believe thou hast," answered Lord Nigel, "having ever found thee +true and faithful." + +And his final success is entirely owing to his courage and fidelity, not +to his cunning. + +To this subtlety both the men join considerable power of penetration +into the weaknesses of character; but Fairservice only sees the +surface-failings, and has no respect for any kind of nobleness; while +Richie watches the gradual lowering of his master's character and +reputation with earnest sorrow. + + "My lord," said Richie, "to be round with you, the grace of God is + better than gold pieces, and, if they were my last words," he said, + raising his voice, "I would say you are misled, and are forsaking + the paths your honorable father trode in; and what is more, you are + going--still under correction--to the devil with a dishclout, for + ye are laughed at by them that lead you into these disordered + bypaths" (i. 282). + +116. In the third place, note that the penetration of +Moniplies,--though, as aforesaid, more into faults than virtues,--being +yet founded on the truth of his own nature, is undeceivable. No rogue +can escape him for an instant; and he sees through all the machinations +of Lord Glenvarloch's enemies from the first; while Fairservice, shrewd +enough in detecting the follies of good people, is quite helpless before +knaves, and is deceived three times over by his own chosen +friends--first by the lawyer's clerk, Touthope (ii. 21), then by the +hypocrite MacVittie, and finally by his true blue Presbyterian friend +Laurie. + +In these first elements of character the men are thus broadly +distinguished; but in the next, requiring analysis, the differences are +much more subtle. Both of them have, in nearly equal degree, the +peculiar love of doing or saying what is provoking, by an exact +contrariety to the wishes of the person they are dealing with, which is +a fault inherent in the rough side of uneducated Scottish character; but +in Andrew, the habit is checked by his self-interest, so that it is only +behind his master's back that we hear his opinion of him; and only when +he has lost his temper that the inherent provocativeness comes out--(see +the dark ride into Scotland). + +On the contrary, Moniplies never speaks but in praise of his _absent_ +master; but exults in mortifying him in direct colloquy: yet never +indulges this amiable disposition except with a really kind purpose, and +entirely knowing what he is about. Fairservice, on the other hand, +gradually falls into an unconscious fatality of varied blunder and +provocation; and at last causes the entire catastrophe of the story by +bringing in the candles when he has been ordered to stay downstairs. + +117. We have next to remember that with Scott, Truth and Courage are +one. He somewhat overvalued _animal_ courage--holding it the basis of +all other virtue--in his own words, "Without courage there can be no +truth, and without truth no virtue." He would, however, sometimes allow +his villains to possess the basis, without the super-structure, and thus +Rashleigh, Dalgarno, Balfour, Varney, and other men of that stamp are to +be carefully distinguished from his erring _heroes_, Marmion, Bertram, +Christie of the Clinthill, or Nanty Ewart, in whom loyalty is always the +real strength of the character, and the faults of life are owing to +temporary passion or evil fate. Scott differs in this standard of +heroism materially from Byron,[104] in whose eyes mere courage, with +strong affections, are enough for admiration: while Bertram, and even +Marmion, though loyal to his country, are meant only to be pitied--not +honored. But neither Scott nor Byron will ever allow any grain of mercy +to a coward; and the final difference, therefore, between Fairservice +and Moniplies, which decides their fate in Scott's hands, is that +between their courage and cowardice. Fairservice is driven out at the +kitchen door, never to be heard of more, while Richie rises into Sir +Richie of Castle-Collop--the reader may perhaps at the moment think by +too careless grace on the King's part; which, indeed, Scott in some +measure meant;--but the grotesqueness and often evasiveness of Richie's +common manner make us forget how surely his bitter word is backed by his +ready blow, when need is. His first introduction to us (i. 33), is +because his quick temper overcomes his caution,-- + + "I thought to mysel', 'Ye are owre mony for me to mell with; but + let me catch ye in Barford's Park, or at the fit of the vennel, I + could gar some of ye sing another sang.' Sae, ae auld hirpling + deevil of a potter behoved just to step in my way and offer me a + pig, as he said, just to pit my Scotch ointment in, and _I gave him + a push, as but natural_, and the tottering deevil couped owre amang + his ain pigs, and damaged a score of them. And then the + reird[105] raise"-- + +while in the close of the events (ii. 365), he wins his wife by a piece +of hand-to-hand fighting, of the value of which his cool and stern +estimate, in answer to the gay Templar, is one of the great sentences +marking Scott's undercurrent of two feelings about war, in spite of his +love of its heroism. + +"Bravo, Richie," cried Lowestoffe, "why, man, there lies Sin struck down +like an ox, and Iniquity's throat cut like a calf." + +"I know not why you should upbraid me with my upbringing, Master +Lowestoffe," answered Richie, with great composure; "but I can tell you, +the shambles is not a bad place for training one to this work." + + +118. These then being the radical conditions of native character in the +two men, wholly irrespective of their religious persuasion, we have to +note what form their Presbyterian faith takes in each, and what effect +it has on their consciences. + +In Richie, it has little to do; his conscience being, in the deep of it, +frank and clear. His religion commands him nothing which he is not at +once ready to do, or has not habitually done; and it forbids him nothing +which he is unwilling to forego. He pleads no pardon from it for known +faults; he seeks no evasions in the letter of it for violations of its +spirit. We are scarcely therefore aware of its vital power in him, +unless at moments of very grave feeling and its necessary expression. + + "Wherefore, as the letter will not avail you with him to whom it is + directed, you may believe that Heaven hath sent it to _me_, who + have a special regard for the writer--have besides, as much mercy + and honesty within me as man can weel mak' his bread with, and am + willing to aid any distressed creature, that is my friend's + friend." + +So, again, in the deep feeling which rebukes his master's careless ruin +of the poor apprentice-- + + "I say, then, as I am a true man, when I saw that puir creature + come through the ha' at that ordinary, whilk is accurst (Heaven + forgive me for swearing) of God and man, with his teeth set, and + his hands clenched, and his bonnet drawn over his brows...." He + stopped a moment, and looked fixedly in his master's face. + +--and again in saving the poor lad himself when he takes the street to +his last destruction "with burning heart and bloodshot eye": + + "Why do you stop my way?" he said fiercely. + + "Because it is a bad one, Master Jenkin," said Richie. + + "Nay, never start about it, man; you see you are known. + Alack-a-day! that an honest man's son should live to start at + hearing himself called by his own name." + + "I pray you in good fashion to let me go," said Jenkin. "I am in + the humor to be dangerous to myself, or to anyone." + + "I will abide the risk," said the Scot, "if you will but come with + me. You are the very lad in the world whom I most wish to + meet."[106] + + "And you," answered Vincent, "or any of your beggarly countrymen, + are the last sight I should ever wish to see. You Scots are ever + fair and false." + + "As to our poverty, friend," replied Richie, "that is as Heaven + pleases; but touching our falsity, I'll prove to you that a + Scotsman bears as leal and true a heart to his friend as ever beat + in an English doublet." + +119. In these, and other such passages, it will be felt that I have done +Richie some injustice in classing him among the religionists who have +little sympathy! For all real distress, his compassion is instant; but +his doctrinal religion becomes immediately to him a cause of failure in +charity. + + "Yon divine has another air from powerful Master Rollock, and Mess + David Black of North Leith, and sic like. Alack-a-day, wha can ken, + if it please your lordship, whether sic prayers as the Southrons + read out of their auld blethering black mess-book there, may not be + as powerful to invite fiends, as a right red-het prayer warm from + the heart may be powerful to drive them away; even as the evil + spirit was driven by the smell of the fish's liver from the bridal + chamber of Sara, the daughter of Raguel!" + +The scene in which this speech occurs is one of Scott's most finished +pieces, showing with supreme art how far the weakness of Richie's +superstitious formality is increased by his being at the time partially +drunk! + +It is on the other hand to be noted to his credit, for an earnest and +searching Bible-reader, that he quotes the Apocrypha. Not so gifted +Gilfillan,-- + + "But if your honor wad consider the case of Tobit--!" + + "Tobit!" exclaimed Gilfillan with great heat; "Tobit and his dog + baith are altogether heathenish and apocryphal, and none but a + prelatist or a papist would draw them into question. I doubt I hae + been mista'en in you, friend." + +Gilfillan and Fairservice are exactly alike, and both are distinguished +from Moniplies in their scornfully exclusive dogmatism, which is indeed +the distinctive plague-spot of the lower evangelical sect everywhere, +and the worst blight of the narrow natures, capable of its zealous +profession. In Blattergowl, on the contrary, as his name implies, the +_doctrinal_ teaching has become mere Blather, Blatter, or patter--a +string of commonplaces spoken habitually in performance of his clerical +function, but with no personal or sectarian interest in them on his +part. + +"He said fine things on the duty o' resignation to the will of God--that +did he"; but his own mind is fixed under ordinary circumstances only on +the income and privilege of his position. Scott however indicates this +without severity as one of the weaknesses of an established church, to +the general principle of which, as to all other established and +monarchic law, he is wholly submissive, and usually affectionate (see +the description of Colonel Mannering's Edinburgh Sunday), so that +Blattergowl, _out of the pulpit_, does not fail in his serious pastoral +duty, but gives real comfort by his presence and exhortation in the +cottage of the Mucklebackits. + +On the other hand, to all kinds of Independents and Nonconformists +(unless of Roderick Dhu type) Scott is adverse with all his powers; and +accordingly, Andrew and Gilfillan are much more sternly and scornfully +drawn than Blattergowl. + +120. In all the three, however, the reader must not for an instant +suspect what is commonly called "hypocrisy." Their religion is no +assumed mask or advanced pretense. It is in all a confirmed and intimate +faith, mischievous by its error, in proportion to its sincerity (compare +"Ariadne Florentina," paragraph 87), and although by his cowardice, +petty larceny,[107] and low cunning, Fairservice is absolutely separated +into a different class of men from Moniplies--in his fixed religious +principle and primary conception of moral conduct, he is exactly like +him. Thus when, in an agony of terror, he speaks for once to his master +with entire sincerity, one might for a moment think it was a lecture by +Moniplies to Nigel. + + "O, Maister Frank, a' your uncle's follies and your cousin's + fliskies, were nothing to this! Drink clean cap-out, like Sir + Hildebrand; begin the blessed morning with brandy-taps like Squire + Percy; rin wud among the lasses like Squire John; gamble like + Richard; win souls to the Pope and the deevil, like Rashleigh; + rive, rant, _break the Sabbath_, and do the Pope's bidding, like + them a' put thegither--but merciful Providence! tak' care o' your + young bluid, and gang na near Rob Roy." + +I said, one might for a moment think it was a Moniplies' lecture to +Nigel. But not for two moments, if we indeed can think at all. We could +not find a passage more concentrated in expression of Andrew's total +character; nor more characteristic of Scott in the calculated precision +and deliberate appliance of every word. + +121. Observe first, Richie's rebuke, quoted above, fastens Nigel's mind +instantly on the _nobleness_ of his father. But Andrew's to Frank +fastens as instantly on the _follies_ of his uncle and cousins. + +Secondly, the sum of Andrew's lesson is--"do anything that is rascally, +if only you save your skin." But Richie's is summed in "the grace of God +is better than gold pieces." + +Thirdly, Richie takes little note of creeds, except when he is drunk, +but looks to conduct always; while Andrew clinches his catalogue of +wrong with "doing the Pope's bidding" and Sabbath-breaking; these +definitions of the unpardonable being the worst absurdity of all Scotch +wickedness to this hour--everything being forgiven to people who go to +church on Sunday, and curse the Pope. Scott never loses sight of this +marvelous plague-spot of Presbyterian religion, and the last words of +Andrew Fairservice are:-- + + "The villain Laurie! to betray an auld friend that sang aff the + same psalm-book wi' him _every Sabbath_ for twenty years," + +and the tragedy of these last words of his, and of his expulsion from +his former happy home--"a jargonelle pear-tree at one end of the +cottage, a rivulet and flower plot of a rood in extent in front, a +kitchen garden behind, and a paddock for a cow" (viii. 6, of the 1830 +edition) can only be understood by the reading of the chapter he quotes +on that last Sabbath evening he passes in it--the 5th of Nehemiah. + +122. For--and I must again and again point out this to the modern +reader, who, living in a world of affectation, suspects "hypocrisy" in +every creature he sees--the very plague of this lower evangelical piety +is that it is _not_ hypocrisy; that Andrew and Laurie _do_ both expect +to get the grace of God by singing psalms on Sunday, whatever rascality +they practice during the week. In the modern popular drama of +"School,"[108] the only religious figure is a dirty and malicious usher +who appears first reading Hervey's "Meditations," and throws away the +book as soon as he is out of sight of the company. But when Andrew is +found by Frank "perched up like a statue by a range of beehives in an +attitude of devout contemplation, with one eye watching the motions of +the little irritable citizens, and the other fixed on a book of +devotion," you will please observe, suspicious reader, that the devout +gardener has no expectation whatever of Frank's approach, nor has he any +design upon him, nor is he reading or attitudinizing for effect of any +kind on any person. He is following his own ordinary customs, and his +book of devotion has been already so well used that "much attrition had +deprived it of its corners, and worn it into an oval shape"; its +attractiveness to Andrew being twofold--the first, that it contains +doctrine to his mind; the second, that such sound doctrine is set forth +under figures properly belonging to his craft. "I was e'en taking a +spell o' worthy Mess John Quackleben's 'Flower of a Sweet Savour sown on +the Middenstead of this World'" (note in passing Scott's easy, instant, +exquisite invention of the name of author and title of book); and it is +a question of very curious interest how far these sweet "spells" in +Quackleben, and the like religious exercises of a nature compatible with +worldly business (compare Luckie Macleary, "with eyes employed on +Boston's 'Crook in the Lot,' while her ideas were engaged in summing up +the reckoning"--Waverley, i. 112)--do indeed modify in Scotland the +national character for the better or the worse; or, not materially +altering, do at least solemnize and confirm it in what good it may be +capable of. My own Scottish nurse described in "Fors Clavigera" for +April, 1873, would, I doubt not, have been as faithful and affectionate +without her little library of Puritan theology; nor were her minor +faults, so far as I could see, abated by its exhortations; but I cannot +but believe that her uncomplaining endurance of most painful disease, +and steadiness of temper under not unfrequent misapprehension by those +whom she best loved and served, were in great degree aided by so much of +Christian faith and hope as she had succeeded in obtaining, with little +talk about it. + +123. I knew however in my earlier days a right old Covenanter in my +Scottish aunt's house, of whom, with Mause Hedrigg and David Deans, I +may be able perhaps to speak further in my next paper.[109] But I can +only now write carefully of what bears on my immediate work: and must +ask the reader's indulgence for the hasty throwing together of materials +intended, before my illness last spring, to have been far more +thoroughly handled. The friends who are fearful for my reputation as an +"écrivain" will perhaps kindly recollect that a sentence of "Modern +Painters" was often written four or five times over in my own hand, and +tried in every word for perhaps an hour--perhaps a forenoon--before it +was passed for the printer. I rarely now fix my mind on a sentence, or a +thought, for five minutes in the quiet of morning, but a telegram comes +announcing that somebody or other will do themselves the pleasure of +calling at eleven o'clock, and that there's two shillings to pay. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 98: October 1881.] + +[Footnote 99: "Jean François Millet." Twenty Etching's and Woodcuts +reproduced in Facsimile, and Biographical Notice by William Ernest +Henley. London, 1881.] + +[Footnote 100: I am sorry to find that my former allusion to the boating +expedition in this novel has been misconstrued by a young authoress of +promise into disparagement of her own work; not supposing it possible +that I could only have been forced to look at George Eliot's by a +friend's imperfect account of it.] + +[Footnote 101: I am ashamed to exemplify the miserable work of "review" +by mangling and mumbling this noble closing chapter of the "Monastery," +but I cannot show the web of work without unweaving it.] + +[Footnote 102: With ludicrously fatal retouch in the later edition "was +deprived of" his sword.] + +[Footnote 103: Again I am obliged, by review necessity, to omit half the +points of the scene.] + +[Footnote 104: I must deeply and earnestly express my thanks to my +friend Mr. Hale White for his vindication of Goethe's real opinion of +Byron from the mangled representation of it by Mr. Matthew Arnold +(_Contemporary Review_, August, 1881).] + +[Footnote 105: "Reirde, rerde, Anglo-Saxon reord, lingua, sermo, clamor, +shouting" (Douglas glossary). No Scottish sentence in the Scott novels +should be passed without examining every word in it, his dialect, as +already noticed, being always pure and classic in the highest degree, +and his meaning always the fuller, the further it is traced.] + +[Footnote 106: The reader must observe that in quoting Scott for +illustration of particular points I am obliged sometimes to alter the +succession and omit much of the context of the pieces I want, for Scott +never lets you see his hand, nor get at his points without remembering +and comparing far-away pieces carefully. To collect the evidence of any +one phase of character, is like pulling up the detached roots of a +creeper.] + +[Footnote 107: Note the "wee business of my ain," i. 213.] + +[Footnote 108: Its "hero" is a tall youth with handsome calves to his +legs, who shoots a bull with a fowling-piece, eats a large lunch, thinks +it witty to call Othello a "nigger," and, having nothing to live on, and +being capable of doing nothing for his living, establishes himself in +lunches and cigars forever, by marrying a girl with a fortune. The +heroine is an amiable governess, who, for the general encouragement of +virtue in governesses, is rewarded by marrying a lord.] + +[Footnote 109: The present paper was, however, the last.--ED.] + + + + +FAIRY STORIES.[110] + + +124. Long since, longer ago than the opening of some fairy tales, I was +asked by the publisher who has been rash enough, at my request, to +reprint these my favorite old stories in their earliest English form, to +set down for him my reasons for preferring them to the more polished +legends, moral and satiric, which are now, with rich adornment of every +page by very admirable art, presented to the acceptance of the Nursery. + +But it seemed to me to matter so little to the majestic independence of +the child-public, who, beside themselves, liked, or who disliked, what +they pronounced entertaining, that it is only on strict claims of a +promise unwarily given that I venture on the impertinence of eulogy; and +my reluctance is the greater, because there is in fact nothing very +notable in these tales, unless it be their freedom from faults which for +some time have been held to be quite the reverse of faults by the +majority of readers. + +125. In the best stories recently written for the young, there is a +taint which it is not easy to define, but which inevitably follows on +the author's addressing himself to children bred in schoolrooms and +drawing-rooms, instead of fields and woods--children whose favorite +amusements are premature imitations of the vanities of elder people, and +whose conceptions of beauty are dependent partly on costliness of dress. +The fairies who interfere in the fortunes of these little ones are apt +to be resplendent chiefly in millinery and satin slippers, and appalling +more by their airs than their enchantments. + +The fine satire which, gleaming through every playful word, renders some +of these recent stories as attractive to the old as to the young, seems +to me no less to unfit them for their proper function. Children should +laugh, but not mock; and when they laugh, it should not be at the +weaknesses and the faults of others. They should be taught, as far as +they are permitted to concern themselves with the characters of those +around them, to seek faithfully for good, not to lie in wait maliciously +to make themselves merry with evil: they should be too painfully +sensitive to wrong to smile at it; and too modest to constitute +themselves its judges. + +126. With these minor errors a far graver one is involved. As the +simplicity of the sense of beauty has been lost in recent tales for +children, so also the simplicity of their conception of love. That word +which, in the heart of a child, should represent the most constant and +vital part of its being; which ought to be the sign of the most solemn +thoughts that inform its awakening soul and, in one wide mystery of pure +sunrise, should flood the zenith of its heaven, and gleam on the dew at +its feet; this word, which should be consecrated on its lips, together +with the Name which it may not take in vain, and whose meaning should +soften and animate every emotion through which the inferior things and +the feeble creatures, set beneath it in its narrow world, are revealed +to its curiosity or companionship; this word, in modern child-story, is +too often restrained and darkened into the hieroglyph of an evil +mystery, troubling the sweet peace of youth with premature gleams of +uncomprehended passion, and flitting shadows of unrecognized sin. + +These great faults in the spirit of recent child-fiction are connected +with a parallel folly of purpose. Parents who are too indolent and +self-indulgent to form their children's characters by wholesome +discipline, or in their own habits and principles of life are conscious +of setting before them no faultless example, vainly endeavor to +substitute the persuasive influence of moral precept, intruded in the +guise of amusement, for the strength of moral habit compelled by +righteous authority:--vainly think to inform the heart of infancy with +deliberative wisdom, while they abdicate the guardianship of its +unquestioning innocence; and warp into the agonies of an immature +philosophy of conscience the once fearless strength of its unsullied and +unhesitating virtue. + +127. A child should not need to choose between right and wrong. It +should not be capable of wrong; it should not conceive of wrong. +Obedient, as bark to helm, not by sudden strain or effort, but in the +freedom of its bright course of constant life; true, with an +undistinguished, praiseless, unboastful truth, in a crystalline +household world of truth; gentle, through daily entreatings of +gentleness, and honorable trusts, and pretty prides of child-fellowship +in offices of good; strong, not in bitter and doubtful contest with +temptation, but in peace of heart, and armor of habitual right, from +which temptation falls like thawing hail; self-commanding, not in sick +restraint of mean appetites and covetous thoughts, but in vital joy of +unluxurious life, and contentment in narrow possession, wisely esteemed. + +Children so trained have no need of moral fairy tales; but they will +find in the apparently vain and fitful courses of any tradition of old +time, honestly delivered to them, a teaching for which no other can be +substituted, and of which the power cannot be measured; animating for +them the material world with inextinguishable life, fortifying them +against the glacial cold of selfish science, and preparing them +submissively, and with no bitterness of astonishment, to behold, in +later years, the mystery--divinely appointed to remain such to all human +thought--of the fates that happen alike to the evil and the good. + +128. And the effect of the endeavor to make stories moral upon the +literary merit of the work itself, is as harmful as the motive of the +effort is false. For every fairy tale worth recording at all is the +remnant of a tradition possessing true historical value;--historical, at +least in so far as it has naturally arisen out of the mind of a people +under special circumstances, and risen not without meaning, nor removed +altogether from their sphere of religious faith. It sustains afterwards +natural changes from the sincere action of the fear or fancy of +successive generations; it takes new color from their manner of life, +and new form from their changing moral tempers. As long as these changes +are natural and effortless, accidental and inevitable, the story remains +essentially true, altering its form, indeed, like a flying cloud, but +remaining a sign of the sky; a shadowy image, as truly a part of the +great firmament of the human mind as the light of reason which it seems +to interrupt. But the fair deceit and innocent error of it cannot be +interpreted nor restrained by a willful purpose, and all additions to it +by act do but defile, as the shepherd disturbs the flakes of morning +mist with smoke from his fire of dead leaves. + +129. There is also a deeper collateral mischief in this indulgence of +licentious change and retouching of stories to suit particular tastes, +or inculcate favorite doctrines. It directly destroys the child's power +of rendering any such belief as it would otherwise have been in his +nature to give to an imaginative vision. How far it is expedient to +occupy his mind with ideal forms at all may be questionable to many, +though not to me; but it is quite beyond question that if we do allow of +the fictitious representation, that representation should be calm and +complete, possessed to the full, and read down its utmost depth. The +little reader's attention should never be confused or disturbed, whether +he is possessing himself of fairy tale or history. Let him know his +fairy tale accurately, and have perfect joy or awe in the conception of +it as if it were real; thus he will always be exercising his power of +grasping realities: but a confused, careless, or discrediting tenure of +the fiction will lead to as confused and careless reading of fact. Let +the circumstances of both be strictly perceived and long dwelt upon, and +let the child's own mind develop fruit of thought from both. It is of +the greatest importance early to secure this habit of contemplation, and +therefore it is a grave error, either to multiply unnecessarily, or to +illustrate with extravagant richness, the incidents presented to the +imagination. It should multiply and illustrate them for itself; and, if +the intellect is of any real value, there will be a mystery and +wonderfulness in its own dreams which would only be thwarted by external +illustration. Yet I do not bring forward the text or the etchings in +this volume as examples of what either ought to be in works of the kind: +they are in many respects common, imperfect, vulgar; but their vulgarity +is of a wholesome and harmless kind. It is not, for instance, graceful +English, to say that a thought "popped into Catherine's head"; but it +nevertheless is far better, as an initiation into literary style, that a +child should be told this than that "a subject attracted Catherine's +attention." And in genuine forms of minor tradition, a rude and more or +less illiterate tone will always be discernible; for all the best fairy +tales have owed their birth, and the greater part of their power, to +narrowness of social circumstances; they belonged properly to districts +in which walled cities are surrounded by bright and unblemished country, +and in which a healthy and bustling town life, not highly refined, is +relieved by, and contrasted with, the calm enchantment of pastoral and +woodland scenery, either under humble cultivation by peasant masters, or +left in its natural solitude. Under conditions of this kind the +imagination is enough excited to invent instinctively (and rejoice in +the invention of) spiritual forms of wildness and beauty, while yet it +is restrained and made cheerful by the familiar accidents and relations +of town life, mingling always in its fancy humorous and vulgar +circumstances with pathetic ones, and never so much impressed with its +supernatural fantasies as to be in danger of retaining them as any part +of its religious faith. The good spirit descends gradually from an +angel into a fairy, and the demon shrinks into a playful grotesque of +diminutive malevolence, while yet both keep an accredited and vital +influence upon the character and mind. But the language in which such +ideas will be usually clothed, must necessarily partake of their +narrowness; and art is systematically incognizant of them, having only +strength under the conditions which awake them to express itself in an +irregular and gross grotesque, fit only for external architectural +decoration. + +130. The illustrations of this volume are almost the only exceptions I +know to the general rule. They are of quite sterling and admirable art, +in a class precisely parallel in elevation to the character of the tales +which they illustrate; and the original etchings, as I have before said +in the Appendix to my "Elements of Drawing," were quite unrivaled in +masterfulness of touch since Rembrandt (in some qualities of delineation +unrivaled even by him). These copies have been so carefully executed, +that at first I was deceived by them, and supposed them to be late +impressions from the plates (and what is more, I believe the master +himself was deceived by them, and supposed them to be his own); and +although on careful comparison with the first proofs they will be found +no exception to the terrible law that literal repetition of entirely +fine work shall be, even to the hand that produced it,--much more to any +other,--forever impossible, they still represent, with sufficient +fidelity to be in the highest degree instructive, the harmonious light +and shade, the manly simplicity of execution, and the easy, unincumbered +fancy, of designs which belonged to the best period of Cruikshank's +genius. To make somewhat enlarged copies of them, looking at them +through a magnifying glass, and never putting two lines where Cruikshank +has put only one, would be an exercise in decision and severe drawing +which would leave afterwards little to be learnt in schools, I would +gladly also say much in their praise as imaginative designs; but the +power of genuine imaginative work, and its difference from that which is +compounded and patched together from borrowed sources, is of all +qualities of art the most difficult to explain; and I must be content +with the simple assertions of it. + +And so I trust the good old book, and the honest work that adorns it, to +such favor as they may find with children of open hearts and lowly +lives. + + DENMARK HILL, _Easter_, 1868. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 110: This paper forms the introduction to a volume entitled +"German Popular Stories, with Illustrations after the original designs +of George Cruikshank, edited by Edgar Taylor, with Introduction by John +Ruskin, M.A." London: Chatto and Windus, 1868. The book is a reprint of +Mr. Edgar Taylor's original (1823) selections of the "Hausmärchen," or +"German Popular Stories" of the Brothers Grimm. The original selections +were in two octavo volumes; the reprint in one of smaller size, it being +(the publisher states in his preface) "Mr. Ruskin's wish that the new +edition should appeal to young readers rather than to adults."--ED.] + + + * * * * * + + +ECONOMY. + + +HOME, AND ITS ECONOMIES. + +(_Contemporary Review, May_ 1873.) + + +USURY. A REPLY AND A REJOINDER. + +(_Contemporary Review, February_ 1880.) + + +USURY. A PREFACE. + +(_Pamphlet_, 1885.) + + + * * * * * + + +HOME, AND ITS ECONOMIES.[111] + + +131. In the March number of the _Contemporary Review_ appeared two +papers,[112] by writers of reputation, which I cannot but hope their +authors will perceive upon reflection to have involved errors only the +more grave in that they have become, of late, in the minds of nearly all +public men, facile and familiar. I have, therefore, requested the +editor's permission to offer some reply to both of these essays, their +subjects being intimately connected. + +The first of which I speak was Mr. Herbert Spencer's, which appeared +under the title of "The Bias of Patriotism." But the real subject of the +paper (discussed in its special extent, with singular care and equity) +was only the bias of National vanity; and the debate was opened by this +very curious sentence,--"Patriotism is nationally, that which Egoism is +individually." + +Mr. Spencer would not, I think, himself accept this statement, if put +into the clear form, "What is Egoism in one man, is Patriotism in two or +more, and the vice of an individual, the virtue of a multitude."[113] +But it is strange,--however strictly Mr. Spencer may of late have +confined his attention to metaphysical or scientific subjects, +disregarding the language of historical or imaginative literature--it +is strange, I repeat, that so careful a student should be unaware that +the term "patriotism" cannot, in classical usage, be extended to the +action of a multitude. No writer of authority ever speaks of a nation as +having felt, or acted, patriotically. Patriotism is, by definition, a +virtue of individuals; and so far from being in those individuals a mode +of egoism, it is precisely in the sacrifice of their egoism that it +consists. It is the temper of mind which determines them to defer their +own interests to those of their country. + +132. Supposing it possible for any parallel sentiment to animate a +nation as one body, it could have reference only to the position it held +among other families of the world. The name of the emotion would then be +properly "Cosmism," and would signify the resolution of such a people to +sacrifice its own special interests to those of Mankind. Cosmism +hitherto has indeed generally asserted itself only in the desire of the +Cosmic nation that all others should adopt its theological opinions, and +permit it to adopt their personal property; but Patriotism has truly +existed, and even as a dominant feeling, in the minds of many persons +who have been greatly influential on the fates of their races, and that +one of our leading philosophers should be unconscious of the nature of +this sentiment, and ignorant of its political power, is to be noted as +painfully characteristic of the present state of England itself. + +It does not indeed follow that a feeling of which we are unaware is +necessarily extinguished in us; and the faculties of perception and +analysis are always so paralyzed by the lingual ingenuities of logic +that it is impossible to say, of any professed logician, whether he may +not yet be acting under the real force of ideas of which he has lost +both the consciousness and conception. No man who has once entangled +himself in what Mr. Spencer defines, farther on, as the "science of the +relations implied by the conclusions, exclusions, and overlappings of +classes," can be expected during the rest of his life to perceive more +of any one thing than that it is included, excluded, or overlapped by +something else; which is in itself a sufficiently confused state of +mind, and especially harmful in that it permits us to avoid considering +whether our intellectual linen is itself clean, while we concern +ourselves only to ascertain whether it is included, excluded, or +overlapped by our coat collar. But it is a grave phenomenon of the time +that patriotism--of all others--should be the sentiment which an English +logician is not only unable to define, but attempts to define as its +precise contrary. In every epoch of decline, men even of high +intellectual energy have been swept down in the diluvium of public life, +and the crystalline edges of their minds worn away by friction with +blunted ones; but I had not believed that the whole weight of the +depraved mob of modern England, though they have become incapable alike +of fidelity to their own country, and alliance with any other, could so +far have perplexed one of our exactest students as to make him confuse +heroism with conceit, and the loves of country and of home with the +iniquities of selfishness. Can it be only a quarter of a century since +the Last Minstrel died--and have we already answered his "Lives there a +man?" with the calm assertion that there live no other than such; and +that the "wretch concentered all in self "is the "Patriot" of our +generation? + +133. Be it so. Let it even be admitted that egoism is the only power +conceivable by a modern metaphysician to be the spring of mental energy; +just as chemical excitement may be the only power traceable by the +modern physician as the source of muscular energy. And still Mr. +Spencer's subsequent analysis is inaccurate, and unscholarly. For egoism +does not necessarily imply either misapprehension or mismeasurement. +There are modes of the love of our country which are definitely selfish, +as a cat's of the hearthrug, yet entirely balanced and calm in judicial +faculty; passions which determine conduct, but have no influence on +opinion. For instance, I have bought for my own exclusive gratification, +the cottage in which I am writing, near the lake-beach on which I used +to play when I was seven years old. Were I a public-spirited scientific +person, or a benevolently pious one, I should doubtless, instead, be +surveying the geographical relations of the Mountains of the Moon, or +translating the Athanasian Creed into Tartar-Chinese. But I hate the +very name of the public, and labor under no oppressive anxiety either +for the advancement of science, or the salvation of mankind. I therefore +prefer amusing myself with the lake-pebbles, of which I know nothing but +that they are pretty; and conversing with people whom I can understand +without pains, and who, so far from needing to be converted, seem to me +on the whole better than myself. This is moral egoism, but it is not +intellectual error. I never form, much less express, any opinion as to +the relative beauties of Yewdale crag and the Mountains of the Moon; nor +do I please myself by contemplating, in any exaggerated light, the +spiritual advantages which I possess in my familiarity with the +Thirty-nine Articles. I know the height of my neighboring mountains to a +foot; and the extent of my real possessions, theological and material, +to an article. Patriotic egoism attaches me to the one; personal egoism +satisfies me in the other; and the calm selfishness with which Nature +has blessed all her unphilosophical creatures, blinds me to the +attractions--as to the faults--of things with which I have no concern, +and saves me at once from the folly of contempt, and the discomfort of +envy. I might have written, as accurately, "The discomfort of contempt"; +for indeed the forms of petulant rivalry and self-assertion which Mr. +Spencer assumes to be developments of egoism, are merely its diseases; +(taking the word "disease" in its most literal meaning). A man of sense +is more an egoist in modesty than a blockhead is in boasting; and it is +neither pride nor self-respect, but only ignorance and ill-breeding, +that either disguise the facts of life, or violate its courtesies. + +134. It will not, I trust, be thought violation of courtesy to a writer +of Mr. Spencer's extending influence, if I urge on his attention the +danger under which metaphysicians are always placed of supposing that +the investigation of the processes of thought will enable them to +distinguish its forms. 'As well might the chemist, who had exhaustively +examined the conditions of vitreous fusion, imagine himself therefore +qualified to number or class the vases bent by the breath of Venice. Mr. +Spencer has determined, I believe, to the satisfaction of his readers, +in what manner thoughts and feelings are constructed; it is time for him +now to observe the results of the construction, whether native to his +own mind, or discoverable in other intellectual territories. Patriotism +is, however, perhaps the last emotion he can now conveniently study in +England, for the temper which crowns the joy of life with the sweetness +and decorum of death can scarcely be manifested clearly in a country +which is fast rendering herself one whose peace is pollution, and whose +battle, crime; within whose confines it is loathsome to live, and in +whose cause it is disgraceful to die. + +135. The chief causes of her degradation were defended, with delicate +apology, in the second paper to which I have above referred; the +modification by Mr. W. R. Greg of a letter which he had addressed, on +the subject of luxurious expenditure and its economical results, to the +_Pall Mall Gazette_; and which Mr. Greg states to have given rise in +that journal to a controversy in which four or five combatants took +part, the looseness of whose notions induced him to express his own more +coherent ones in the _Contemporary Review_.[114] + +I am sorry to find that Mr. Greg looked upon my own poor part in that +correspondence as controversial. I merely asked him a question which he +declared to be insidious and irrelevant (not considering that if it were +the one, it could not be the other), and I stated a few facts respecting +which no controversy was possible, and which Mr. Greg, in his own terms, +"sedulously abstained" from noticing. + +But Mr. Greg felt my question to be insidious because it made him partly +conscious that he had only examined one half of the subject he was +discussing, and even that half without precision. + +Mr. Goldwin Smith had spoken of a rich man as consuming the means of +living of the poor. Mr. Greg, in reply, pointed out how beneficially the +rich man spent what he had got. Upon which I ventured to inquire "how he +got it"; which is indeed precisely the first of all questions to be +asked when the economical relations of any man with his neighbor are to +be examined. + +Dick Turpin is blamed--suppose--by some plain-minded person for +consuming the means of other people's living. "Nay," says Dick to the +plain-minded person, "observe how beneficently and pleasantly I spend +whatever I get!" + +"Yes, Dick," persists the plain-minded person; "but how do you get it?" + +"The question," says Dick, "is insidious and irrelevant." + +Do not let it be supposed that I mean to assert any irregularity or +impropriety in Dick's profession--I merely assert the necessity for Mr. +Greg's examination, if he would be master of his subject, of the manner +of Gain in every case, as well as the manner of Expenditure. Such +accounts must always be accurately rendered in a well-regulated society. + + 136. "Le lieutenant adressa la parole au capitaine, et lui dit + qu'il venait d'enlever ces mannequins, remplis de sucre, de + cannelle, d'amandes, et de raisins sees, à un épicier de Bénavente. + Après qu'il eut rendu compte de son expédition au bureau, les + dépouilles de l'épicier furent portées dans l'office. Alors il ne + fut plus question que de se réjouir; je débutai par le buffet, que + je parai de plusieurs bouteilles de ce bon vin que le Seigneur + Rolando m'avoit vanté." + +Mr. Greg strictly confines himself to an examination of the benefits +conferred on the public by this so agreeable festivity; but he must not +be surprised or indignant that some inquiry should be made as to the +resulting condition of the épicier de Bénavente. + +And it is all the more necessary that such inquiry be instituted when +the captain of the expedition is a minion, not of the moon, but of the +sun; and dazzling, therefore, to all beholders. "It is heaven which +dictates what I ought to do upon this occasion,"[115] says Henry of +Navarre; "my retreat out of this city,[116] before I have made myself +master of it, will be the retreat of my soul out of my body." +"Accordingly all the quarter which still held out, we forced," says M. +de Rosny, "after which the inhabitants, finding themselves no longer +able to resist, laid down their arms, and the city was given up to +plunder. My good fortune threw a small iron chest in my way, in which I +found about four thousand gold crowns." + +I cannot doubt that the Baron's expenditure of this sum would be in the +highest degree advantageous to France and to the Protestant religion. +But complete economical science must study the effect of its abstraction +on the immediate prosperity of the town of Cahors; and even beyond +this--the mode of its former acquisition by the town itself, which +perhaps, in the economies of the nether world, may have delegated some +of its citizens to the seventh circle.[117] + +137. And the most curious points in the partiality of modern economical +science are that while it always waives this question of ways and means +with respect to rich persons, it studiously pushes it in the case of +poor ones; and while it asserts the consumption of such an article of +luxury as wine (to take that which Mr. Greg himself instances) to be +economically expedient, when the wine is drunk by persons who are not +thirsty, it asserts the same consumption to be altogether inexpedient, +when the privilege is extended to those who are. Thus Mr. Greg +dismisses, in one place, with compassionate disdain, the extremely +vulgar notion "that a man who drinks a bottle of champagne worth five +shillings, while his neighbor is in want of actual food, is in some way +wronging his neighbor"; and yet Mr. Greg himself, elsewhere,[118] +evidently remains under the equally vulgar impression that the +twenty-four millions of such thirstier persons who spend fifteen per +cent of their incomes in drink and tobacco, are wronging their neighbors +by that expenditure. + +138. It cannot, surely, be the difference in degree of refinement +between malt liquor and champagne which causes Mr. Greg's undefined +sensation of moral delinquency and economical error in the one case, and +of none in the other; if that be all, I can relieve him from his +embarrassment by putting the cases in more parallel form. A clergyman +writes to me, in distress of mind, because the able-bodied laborers who +come begging to him in winter, drink port wine out of buckets in summer. +Of course Mr. Greg's logical mind will at once admit (as a consequence +of his own very just _argumentum ad hominem_ in a previous page[119]) +that the consumption of port wine out of buckets must be as much a +benefit to society in general as the consumption of champagne out of +bottles; and yet, curiously enough, I am certain he will feel my +question, "Where does the drinker get the means for his drinking?" more +relevant in the case of the imbibers of port than in that of the +imbibers of champagne. And although Mr. Greg proceeds, with that lofty +contempt for the dictates of nature and Christianity which radical +economists cannot but feel, to observe that "while the natural man and +the Christian would have the champagne drinker forego his bottle, and +give the value of it to the famishing wretch beside him, the radical +economist would condemn such behavior as distinctly criminal and +pernicious," he would scarcely, I think, carry out with the same +triumphant confidence the conclusions of the unnatural man and the +anti-christian, with respect to the laborer as well as the idler; and +declare that while the extremely simple persons who still believe in the +laws of nature, and the mercy of God, would have the port-drinker forego +his bucket, and give the value of it to the famishing wife and child +beside him, "the radical economist would condemn such behavior as +distinctly criminal and pernicious." + +Mr. Greg has it indeed in his power to reply that it is proper to +economize for the sake of one's own wife and children, but not for the +sake of anybody else's. But since, according to another exponent of the +principles of Radical Economy, in the _Cornhill Magazine_,[120] a +well-conducted agricultural laborer must not marry till he is +forty-five, his economies, if any, in early life, must be as offensive +to Mr. Greg on the score of their abstract humanity, as those of the +richest bachelor about town. + +139. There is another short sentence in this same page, of which it is +difficult to overrate the accidental significance. + +"The superficial observer," says Mr. Greg, "recollects a text which he +heard in his youth, but of which he never considered the precise +applicability--'He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath +none.'" + +The assumptions that no educated Englishman can ever have heard that +text except in his youth, and that those who are old enough to remember +having heard it, "never considered its precise applicability," are +surely rash, in the treatment of a scientific subject. I can assure Mr. +Greg that a few gray-headed votaries of the creed of Christendom still +read--though perhaps under their breath--the words which early +associations have made precious to them; and that in the bygone days, +when that Sermon on the Mount was still listened to with respect by many +not illiterate persons, its meaning was not only considered, but very +deliberately acted upon. Even the readers of the _Contemporary Review_ +may perhaps have some pleasure in retreating from the sunshine of +contemporary science, for a few quiet moments, into the shadows of that +of the past, and hearing in the following extracts from two letters of +Scott's (the first describing the manner of life of his mother, whose +death it announces to a friend, the second, anticipating the verdict of +the future on the management of his estate by a Scottish nobleman) what +relations between rich and poor were possible, when philosophers had not +yet even lisped in the sweet numbers of Radical Sociology. + + * * * * * + +140. "She was a strict economist, which she said, enabled her to be +liberal; out of her little income of about £300 a year she bestowed at +least a third in well-chosen charities, and with the rest, lived like a +gentlewoman, and even with hospitality more general than seemed to suit +her age; yet I could never prevail on her to accept of any assistance. +You cannot conceive how affecting it was to me to see the little +preparations of presents which she had assorted for the New Year, for +she was a great observer of the old fashions of her period--and to think +that the kind heart was cold which delighted in all these arts of kindly +affection." + +141. "The Duke is one of those retired and high-spirited men who will +never be known until the world asks what became of the huge oak that +grew on the brow of the hill, and sheltered such an extent of ground. +During the late distress, though his own immense rents remained in +arrears, and though I know he was pinched for money, as all men were, +but more especially the possessors of entailed estates, he absented +himself from London in order to pay, with ease to himself, the laborers +employed on his various estates. These amounted (for I have often seen +the roll and helped to check it) to nine hundred and fifty men, working +at day wages, each of whom on a moderate average might maintain three +persons, since the single men have mothers, sisters, and aged or very +young relations to protect and assist. Indeed it is wonderful how much +even a small sum, comparatively, will do in supporting the Scottish +laborer, who in his natural state is perhaps one of the best, most +intelligent, and kind-hearted of human beings; and in truth I have +limited my other habits of expense very much since I fell into the habit +of employing mine honest people. I wish you could have seen about a +hundred children, being almost entirely supported by their fathers' or +brothers' labor, come down yesterday to dance to the pipes, and get a +piece of cake and bannock, and pence apiece (no very deadly largess) in +honor of hogmanay. I declare to you, my dear friend, that when I thought +the poor fellows, who kept these children so neat, and well taught, and +well behaved, were slaving the whole day for eighteen pence or twenty +pence at most, I was ashamed of their gratitude, and of their becks and +bows. But after all, one does what one can, and it is better twenty +families should be comfortable according to their wishes and habits, +than that half that number should be raised above their situation." + + * * * * * + +142. I must pray Mr. Greg farther to observe, if he has condescended to +glance at these remains of almost prehistoric thought, that although the +modern philosopher will never have reason to blush for any man's +gratitude, and has totally abandoned the romantic idea of making even so +much as one family comfortable according to their wishes and habits, the +alternative suggested by Scott, that half "the number should be raised +above their situation" may become a very inconvenient one if the +doctrines of Modern Equality and competition should render the other +half desirous of parallel promotion. + +143. It is now just sixteen years since Mr. Greg's present philosophy of +Expenditure was expressed with great precision by the Common Councilmen +of New York, in their report on the commercial crisis of 1857, in the +following terms:--[121] + + "Another erroneous idea is that luxurious living, extravagant + dressing, splendid turn-outs and fine houses, are the cause of + distress to a nation, No more erroneous impression could exist. + Every extravagance that the man of 100.000 or 1,000,000 dollars + indulges in, adds to the means, the support, the wealth of ten or a + hundred who had little or nothing else but their labor, their + intellect, or their taste. If a man of 1,000,000 dollars spends + principal and interest in ten years, and finds himself beggared at + the end of that time, he has actually made a hundred who have + catered to his extravagance, employers or employed, so much richer + by the division of his wealth. He may be ruined, but the nation is + better off and richer, for one hundred minds and hands, with 10,000 + dollars apiece, are far more productive than one with the whole." + +Now that is precisely the view also taken of the matter by a large +number of Radical Economists in England as well as America; only they +feel that the time, however short, which the rich gentleman takes to +divide his property among them in his own way, is practically wasted; +and even worse, because the methods which the gentleman himself is +likely to adopt for the depression of his fortune will not, in all +probability, be conducive to the elevation of his character. It appears, +therefore, on moral as well as economical grounds, desirable that the +division and distribution should at once be summarily effected; and the +only point still open to discussion in the views of the Common +Councilmen is to what degree of minuteness they would think it advisable +to carry the subsequent subdivision. + +144. I do not suppose, however, that this is the conclusion which Mr. +Greg is desirous that the general Anti-Christian public should adopt; +and in that case, as I see by his paper in the last number of the +_Contemporary_,[122] that he considers the Christian life itself +virtually impossible, may I recommend his examination of the manners of +the Pre-Christian? For I can certify him that this important subject, +of which he has only himself imperfectly investigated one side, had been +thoroughly investigated on all sides, at least seven hundred years +before Christ; and from that day to this, all men of wit, sense, and +feeling have held precisely the same views on the subjects of economy +and charity, in all nations under the sun. It is of no consequence +whether Mr. Greg chooses the experience of Boeotia, Lombardy, or +Yorkshire, nor whether he studies the relation of work to-day or under +Hesiod, Virgil, or Sydney Smith. But it is desirable that at least he +should acquaint himself with the opinions of some such persons, as well +as with those of the Common Councilmen of New York; for though a man of +superior sagacity may be pardoned for thinking, with the friends of Job, +that Wisdom will die with him, it can only be through neglect of the +existing opportunities of general culture that he remains distinctly +under the impression that she was born with him. + +145. It may perhaps be well that in conclusion, I should state briefly +the causes and terms of the economical crisis of our own day, which has +been the subject of the debate between Mr. Goldwin Smith and Mr. Greg. + +No man ever became, or can become, largely rich merely by labor and +economy.[123] All large fortunes (putting treasure-trove and gambling +out of consideration) are founded either on occupation of land, usury, +or taxation of labor. Whether openly or occultly, the landlord, +money-lender, and capitalist employer, gather into their possession a +certain quantity of the means of existence which other people produce by +the labor of their hands. The effect of this impost upon the condition +of life of the tenant, borrower, and workman, is the first point to be +studied;--the results, that is to say, of the mode in which Captain +Roland fills his purse. + +Secondly, we have to study the effects of the mode in which Captain +Roland empties his purse. The landlord, usurer, or labor-master, does +not, and cannot, himself consume all the means of life he collects. He +gives them to other persons, whom he employs for his own behoof--growers +of champagne, jockeys, footmen, jewelers, builders, painters, musicians, +and the like. The division of the labor of these persons from the +production of food to the production of articles of luxury is very +frequently, and at the present day, very grievously the cause of famine. +But when the luxuries are produced, it becomes a quite separate question +who is to have them, and whether the landlord and capitalist are +entirely to monopolize the music, the painting, the architecture, the +hand-service, the horse-service, and the sparkling champagne of the +world. + +146. And it is gradually, in these days, becoming manifest to the +tenants, borrowers, and laborers, that instead of paying these large +sums into the hands of the landlords, lenders, and employers, for them +to purchase music, painting, etc., with, the tenants, borrowers, and +workers had better buy a little music and painting for themselves. That, +for instance, instead of the capitalist-employer paying three hundred +pounds for a full-length portrait of himself, in the attitude of +investing his capital, the united workmen had better themselves pay the +three hundred pounds into the hands of the ingenious artist, for a +painting in the antiquated manner of Leonardo or Raphael, of some +subject more religiously or historically interesting to them; and placed +where they can always see it. And again instead of paying three hundred +pounds to the obliging landlord, for him to buy a box at the opera with, +whence to study the refinements of music and dancing, the tenants are +beginning to think that they may as well keep their rents to themselves, +and therewith pay some Wandering Willie to fiddle at their own doors, or +bid some gray-haired minstrel + + "Tune, to please a peasant's ear, + The harp a king had loved to hear." + +And similarly the dwellers in the hut of the field and garret of the +city are beginning to think that instead of paying half a crown for the +loan of half a fire-place, they had better keep their half-crown in +their pockets till they can buy for themselves a whole one. + +147. These are the views which are gaining ground among the poor; and it +is entirely vain to endeavor to repress them by equivocations. They are +founded on eternal laws; and although their recognition will long be +refused, and their promulgation, resisted as it will be, partly by +force, partly by falsehood, can only be through incalculable confusion +and misery, recognized they must be eventually; and with these three +ultimate results:--that the usurer's trade will be abolished +utterly,--that the employer will be paid justly for his superintendence +of labor, but not for his capital, and the landlord paid for his +superintendence of the cultivation of land, when he is able to direct it +wisely: that both he, and the employer of mechanical labor, will be +recognized as beloved masters, if they deserve love, and as noble guides +when they are capable of giving discreet guidance; but neither will be +permitted to establish themselves any more as senseless conduits through +which the strength and riches of their native land are to be poured into +the cup of the fornication of its capital. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 111: _Contemporary Review_, May 1873.] + +[Footnote 112: These were, first, Mr. Herbert Spencer's "Bias of +Patriotism," being the ninth chapter of his "Study of Sociology," first +published in the _Contemporary Review_; and, secondly, Mr. W. R. Greg's +"What is culpable luxury?" See below, p. 303, § 135.--ED.] + +[Footnote 113: I take due note that Mr. Spencer partly means by his +adverbial sentence that Patriotism is individual Egoism, expecting its +own central benefit through the Nation's circumferent benefit, as +through a funnel: but, throughout, Mr. Spencer confuses this sentiment, +which he calls "reflex egoism," with the action of "corporate +conscience."] + +[Footnote 114: See the letters on "How the Rich Spend their Money" +(reprinted from the _Pall Mall_) in "Arrows of the Chace," vol. ii., +where the origin of the discussion is explained.--ED.] + +[Footnote 115: I use the current English of Mrs. Lennox's translation, +but Henry's real saying was (see the first--green leaf--edition of +Sully), "It is written above what is to happen to me on every occasion." +"Toute occasion" becomes "cette occasion" in the subsequent editions, +and finally "what is to happen to me" (ce que doit être fait de moi) +becomes "what I ought to do" in the English.] + +[Footnote 116: Cahors. See the "Memoirs of the Duke of Sully," Book 1. +(Bohn's 1856 Edition, vol. i., pp. 118-9.)--ED.] + +[Footnote 117: Where violence and brutality are punished. See Dante's +"Inferno," Canto xii.--ED.] + +[Footnote 118: See the _Contemporary Review_ at pp. 618 and +624.--ED.] + +[Footnote 119: Viz.:--That if the expenditure of an income of £30,000 a +year upon luxuries is to rob the poor, so _pro tanto_ is the expenditure +of so much of an income of £300 as is spent on anything beyond "the +simplest necessaries of life."--ED.] + +[Footnote 120: Referring to two anonymous articles on "The Agricultural +Laborer," in the _Cornhill Magazine_, vol. 27, Jan. and June 1873, pp. +215 and 307.--ED.] + +[Footnote 121: See the Times of November 23rd of that year.] + +[Footnote 122: "Is a Christian life feasible in these +days?"--ED.] + +[Footnote 123: See _Munera Pulveris_, § 139: "No man can become largely +rich by his personal will.... It is only by the discovery of some method +of taxing the labor of others that he can become opulent." And see also +_Time and Tide_, § 81.--ED.] + + + + +USURY.[124] + +A REPLY AND A REJOINDER. + + +148. I have been honored by the receipt of a letter from the Bishop of +Manchester, which, with his Lordship's permission, I have requested the +editor of the _Contemporary Review_ to place before the large circle of +his readers, with a brief accompanying statement of the circumstances by +which the letter has been called forth, and such imperfect reply as it +is in my power without delay to render. + + J. RUSKIN. + + MANCHESTER, _December_ 8, 1879. + +DEAR SIR,--In a letter from yourself to the Rev. F. A. +Malleson,[125] published in the _Contemporary Review_ of the current +month, I observe the following passage:--"I have never yet heard so much +as _one_ (preacher) heartily proclaiming against all those 'deceivers +with vain words,' that no 'covetous person, which is an idolater, hath +_any_ inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God;' and on myself +personally and publicly challenging the Bishops of England generally, +and by name the Bishop of Manchester, to say whether usury was, or was +not, according to the will of God, I have received no answer from any +one of them." I confess, for myself, that until I saw this passage in +print a few days ago, I was unaware of the existence of such challenge, +and therefore I could not answer it. It appears to have been delivered +(A) in No. 82 of a series of letters which, under the title of _Fors +Clavigera_, you have for some time been addressing to the working +classes of England, but which, from the peculiar mode of their +publication, are not easily accessible to the general reader and which I +have only caught a glimpse of, on the library-table of the Athenæum +Club, on the rare occasions when I am able to use my privileges as a +member of that Society. I have no idea why I had the honor of being +specially mentioned by name (B); but I beg to assure you that my silence +did not arise from any discourtesy towards my challenger, nor from that +discretion which, some people may think, is usually the better part of +episcopal valor, and which consists in ignoring inconvenient questions +from a sense of inability to answer them; but simply from the fact that +I was not conscious that your lance had touched my shield. + +149. The question you have asked is just one of those to which +Aristotle's wise caution applies: "We must distinguish and define such +words, if we would know how far, and in what sense, the opposite views +are true" (_Eth. Nic._, ix, c. viii. § 3). What do you mean by "usury"? +(C) Do you comprehend under it _any_ payment of money as interest for +the use of borrowed capital? or only exorbitant, inequitable, grinding +interest, such as the money-lender, Fufidius, extorted? + + Quinas hic capiti mercedes exsecat, atque + Quanto perditior quisque est, tanto acrius urget: + Nomina sectatur modo sumta veste virili + Sub patribus duris tironum. Maxime, quis non, + Jupiter, exclamat, simul atque audivit? + + --_Hor. Sat._ i. 2, 14-18. + +Usury, in itself, is a purely neutral word, carrying with it, in its +primary meaning, neither praise nor blame; and a "usurer" is defined in +our dictionaries as "a person accustomed to lend money and take interest +for it"--which is the ordinary function of a banker, without whose +help great commercial undertakings could not be carried out; though it +is obvious how easily the word may pass into a term of reproach, so that +to have been "called a usurer" was one of the bitter memories that +rankled most in Shylock's catalogue of his wrongs. + +150. I do not believe that anything has done more harm to the practical +efficacy of religions sanctions than the extravagant attempts that are +frequently made to impose them in cases which they never originally +contemplated, or to read into "ordinances," evidently "imposed for a +time"--[Greek: dikaiômata mechri kairou] (Heb. ix. 10)--a law of +eternal and immutable obligation. Just as we are told (D) not to expect +to find in the Bible a scheme of physical science, so I do not expect to +find there a scheme of political economy. What I do expect to find, in +relation to my duty to my neighbor, are those unalterable principles of +equity, fairness, truthfulness, honesty (E), which are the indispensable +bases of civil society. I am sure I have no need to remind you that, +while a Jew was forbidden by his law to take usury--_i.e._, interest for +the loan of money--from his brother, if he were waxen poor and fallen +into decay with him, and this generous provision was extended even to +strangers and sojourners in the land (Lev. xxv. 35-38), and the +interesting story in Nehemiah (v. 1-13), tells us how this principle was +recognized in the latest days of the commonwealth--still in that old law +there is no denunciation of usury in general, and it was expressly +permitted in the case of ordinary strangers[126] (Deut. xxiii. 20). + +It seems to me plain also that our Blessed Lord's precept about +"lending, hoping for nothing again" (Luke vi. 35), has the same, or a +similar, class of circumstances in view, and was intended simply to +govern a Christian man's conduct to the poor and needy, and "such as +have no helper," and cannot, without a violent twist (F), be construed +into a general law determining forever and in all cases the legitimate +use of capital. Indeed, on another occasion, and in a very memorable +parable, the great Founder of Christianity recognizes, and impliedly +sanctions, the practice of lending money at interest. "Thou oughtest," +says the master, addressing his unprofitable servant, "thou +oughtest"--[Greek: edei se]--"to have put my money to the exchangers; +and then, at my coming, I should have received mine own _with usury_." + +151. "St. Paul, no doubt, denounces the covetous." (G) But who is the +[Greek: pleonektês]? Not the man who may happen to have money out on +loan at a fair rate of interest; but, as Liddell and Scott give the +meaning of the word, "one who has or claims _more than his share_; +hence, greedy, grasping, selfish." Of such men, whose affections are +wholly set on things of the earth, and who are not very scrupulous how +they gratify them, it may, perhaps, not improperly be said (H) that they +"have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." But here, +again, it would be a manifest "wresting" of the words to make them apply +to a case which we have no proof that the Apostle had in contemplation +when he uttered them. Rapacity, greed of gain, harsh and oppressive +dealing, taking unfair advantage of our own superior knowledge and +another's ignorance, shutting up the bowels of compassion towards a +brother who we see has need--all these and the like things are forbidden +by the very spirit of Christianity, and are manifestly "_not_ according +to the will of God," for they are all of them forms of injustice or +wrong. But money may be lent at interest without one of these bad +passions being brought in to play, and in these cases I confess my +inability to see where, either in terms or in spirit, such use of money +is condemned either by the Christian code of charity, or by that natural +law of conscience which we are told (I) is written on the hearts of men. + +152. Let me take two or three simple instances by way of illustration. +The following has happened to myself. All my life through--from the time +when my income was not a tenth part of what it is now--I have felt it a +duty, while endeavoring to discharge all proper claims, to live within +that income, so to adjust my expenditure to it that there should be a +margin on the right side. This margin, of course, accumulated, and +reached in time, say, £1000. Just then, say, the London and +North-Western Railway Company proposed to issue Debenture Stock, +bearing four per cent. interest, for the purpose of extending the +communications, and so increasing the wealth, of the country. Whom in +the world am I injuring--what conceivable wrong am I doing--where or how +am I thwarting "the Will of God"--if I let the Company have my £1000, +and have been receiving from them £40 a year for the use of it ever +since? Unless the money had been forthcoming from some quarter or other, +a work which was absolutely necessary for the prosperity of the nation, +and which finds remunerative employment (K) for an immense number of +Englishmen, enabling them to bring up their families in respectability +and comfort, would never have been accomplished. Will you tell me that +this method of carrying out great commercial enterprises, sanctioned by +experience (L) as the most, if not the only, practicable one, is "not +according to the Will of God"? + +153. Take another instance. In Lancashire a large number of cotton mills +have been erected on the joint-stock principle with limited liability. +The thing has been pushed too far probably, and at one time there was a +good deal of unwholesome speculation in floating companies. But that is +not the question before us; and the enterprises gave working men an +opportunity of investing their savings, which was a great stimulus to +thrift, and, so far, an advantage to the country. In a mill, which it +would perhaps cost £50,000 to build and fit with machinery, the +subscribed capital, which would be entitled to a division of profits +after all other demands had been satisfied, would not amount probably to +more than £20,000. The rest would be borrowed at rates of interest +varying according to the conditions of the market. You surely would not +maintain that those who lent their money for such a purpose, and were +content with 5 or 6 per cent, for the use of it, thus enabling, in good +times, the shareholders to realize 20 or 25 per cent, on their +subscribed capital, were doing wrong either to the shareholders or +anyone else, or could in any sense be charged with acting "not according +to the will of God"? + +154. Take yet one case more. A farmer asks his landlord to drain his +land. "Gladly," says his squire, "if you will pay me five per cent on +the outlay." In other words, "if you will let me share the increased +profits to this extent." The bargain is agreeable to both sides; the +productiveness of the land is largely increased; who is wronged? Surely +such a transaction could not fairly be described as "not according to +the will of God"; surely, unless the commerce and productive industries +of the country are to be destroyed, and, with the destruction, its +population is to be reduced to what it was in the days of Elizabeth, +these and similar transactions--which can be kept entirely clear of the +sin of covetousness, and rest upon the well-understood basis of mutual +advantage, each and all being gainers by them--are not only legitimate, +but inevitable (M). And now that I have taken up your challenge, and, so +far as my ability goes, answered it, may I, without staying to inquire +how far your charge against the clergy can be substantiated, that they +"generally patronize and encourage all the iniquity of the world by +steadily preaching away the penalties of it" (N), be at least allowed to +demur to your wholesale denunciation of the great cities of the earth, +which you say "have become loathsome centers of fornication and +covetousness, the smoke of their sin going up into the face of Heaven, +like the furnace of Sodom, and the pollution of it rotting and raging +through the bones and souls of the peasant people round them, as if they +were each a volcano, whose ashes brake out in blains upon man and +beast."[127] Surely, Sir, your righteous indignation at evil has caused +you to overcharge your language. No one can have lived in a great city, +as I have for the last ten years, without being aware of its sins and +its pollutions. But unless you can prevent the aggregation of human +beings into great cities, these are evils which must necessarily exist; +at any rate, which always have existed. The great cities of to-day are +not worse than great cities always have been (O). In one capital +respect, I believe they are better. There is an increasing number of +their citizens who are aware of these evils, and who are trying their +best, with the help of God, to remedy them. In Sodom there was but one +righteous man who "vexed his soul" at the unlawful deeds that he +witnessed day by day, on every side; and he, apparently, did no more +than vex his soul. In Manchester, the men and women, of all ranks and +persuasions, who are actively engaging in some Christian or +philanthropic work, to battle against these gigantic evils, are to be +reckoned by hundreds. Nowhere have I seen more conspicuous instances of +Christian effort, and of single-hearted devotion to the highest +interests of mankind. And though, no doubt, if these efforts were better +organized, more might be achieved, and elements, which one could wish +absent, sometimes mingle with and mar the work, still a great city, even +"with the smoke of its sin going up into the face of Heaven," is the +noblest field of the noblest virtues, because it gives the amplest scope +for the most varied exercise of them. + +If you will teach us clergy how better to discharge our office as +ministers of a Kingdom of Truth and Righteousness, we shall all owe you +a deep debt of gratitude; which no one will be more forward to +acknowledge than, my dear Sir, yours faithfully and with much respect, + + J. MANCHESTER. + + JOHN RUSKIN, Esq. + +155. The foregoing letter, to which I would fain have given my undivided +and unwearied attention, reached my hands, as will be seen by its date, +only in the close of the year, when my general correspondence always far +overpasses my powers of dealing with it, and my strength--such as now is +left me--had been spent, nearly to lowest ebb, in totally unexpected +business arising out of the threatened mischief at Venice. But I am +content that such fragmentary reply as, under this pressure, has been +possible to me, should close the debate as far as I am myself concerned. +The question at issue is not one of private interpretation; and the +interests concerned are too vast to allow its decision to be long +delayed. + +The Bishop will, I trust, not attribute to disrespect the mode of reply +in the form of notes attached to special passages, indicated by +inserted letters, which was adopted in _Fors Clavigera_ in all cases of +important correspondence, as more clearly defining the several points +under debate. + +156. (A) "The challenge appears to have been delivered." May I +respectfully express my regret that your lordship should not have read +the letter you have honored me by answering. The number of _Fors_ +referred to does not deliver--it only reiterates--the challenge given in +the _Fors_ for January 1st, 1875, with reference to the prayer "Have +mercy upon all Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics, and so fetch them +home, blessed Lord, to Thy flock, that they may be saved among the +remnant of the true Israelites," in these following terms: "Who _are_ +the true Israelites, my Lord of Manchester, on your Exchange? Do they +stretch their cloth, like other people?--have they any underhand +dealings with the liable-to-be-damned false Israelites--Rothschilds and +the like? or are they duly solicitous about those wanderers' souls? and +how often, on the average, do your Manchester clergy preach from the +delicious parable, savoriest of all Scripture to rogues (at least since +the eleventh century, when I find it to have been specially headed with +golden title in my best Greek MS.) of the Pharisee and Publican,--and +how often, on the average, from those objectionable First and Fifteenth +Psalms?" + +(B) "I have no idea why I had the honor of being specially mentioned by +name." By diocese, my Lord; not name, please observe; and for this very +simple reason: that I have already fairly accurate knowledge of the +divinity of the old schools of Canterbury, York, and Oxford; but I +looked to your Lordship as the authoritative exponent of the more +advanced divinity of the school of Manchester, with which I am not yet +familiar. + +157. (C) "What do you mean by usury?" What _I_ mean by that word, my +Lord, is surely of no consequence to anyone but my few readers, and +fewer disciples. What David and his Son meant by it I have prayed your +Lordship to tell your flock, in the name of the Church which dictates +daily to them the songs of the one, and professes to interpret to them +the commands of the other. + +And although I can easily conceive that a Bishop at the court of the +Third Richard might have paused in reply to a too curious layman's +question of what was meant by "Murder"; and can also conceive a Bishop +at the court of the Second Charles hesitating as to the significance of +the word "Adultery"; and farther, in the present climacteric of the +British Constitution, an elder of the Church of Glasgow debating within +himself whether the Commandment which was severely prohibitory of Theft +might not be mildly permissive of Misappropriation;--at no time, nor +under any conditions, can I conceive any question existing as to the +meaning of the words [Greek: tokos], _foenus_; _usura_, or usury: and +I trust that your Lordship will at once acquit me of wishing to attach +any other significance to the word than that which it was to the full +intended to convey on every occasion of its use by Moses, by David, by +Christ, and by the Doctors of the Christian Church, down to the +seventeenth century. + +Nor, even since that date, although the commercial phrase "interest" has +been adopted in order to distinguish an open and unoppressive rate of +usury from a surreptitious and tyrannical one, has the debate of +lawfulness or unlawfulness ever turned seriously on that distinction. It +is neither justified by its defenders only in its mildness, nor +condemned by its accusers only in its severity. Usury in any degree is +asserted by the Doctors of the early Church to be sinful, just as theft +and adultery are asserted to be sinful, though neither may have been +accompanied with violence; and although the theft may have been on the +most splendid scale, and the fornication of the most courtly refinement. + +So also, in modern days, though the voice of the Bank of England in +Parliament declares a loan without interest to be a monster,[128] and a +loan made below the current rate of interest, a monster in its degree, +the increase of dividends above that current rate is not, as far as I +am aware, shunned by shareholders with an equally religious horror. + +158. But--this strange question being asked--I give its simple and broad +answer in the words of Christ: "The taking up that thou layedst not +down;"--or, in explained and literal terms, usury is any money paid, or +other advantage given, for the loan of anything which is restored to its +possessor uninjured and undiminished. For simplest instance, taking a +cabman the other day on a long drive, I lent him a shilling to get his +dinner. If I had kept thirteen pence out of his fare, the odd penny +would have been usury. + +Or again. I lent one of my servants, a few years ago, eleven hundred +pounds, to build a house with, and stock its ground. After some years he +paid me the eleven hundred pounds back. If I had taken eleven hundred +pounds and a penny, the extra penny would have been usury. + +I do not know whether by the phrase, presently after used by your +Lordship, "religious sanctions," I am to understand the Law of God which +David loved, and Christ fulfilled, or whether the splendor, the +commercial prosperity, and the familiar acquaintance with all the +secrets of science and treasures of art, which we admire in the City of +Manchester, must in your Lordship's view be considered as "cases" which +the intelligence of the Divine Lawgiver could not have originally +contemplated. Without attempting to disguise the narrowness of the +horizon grasped by the glance of the Lord from Sinai, nor the +inconvenience of the commandments which Christ has directed those who +love Him to keep, am I too troublesome or too exigent in asking from one +of those whom the Holy Ghost has made our overseers, at least a distinct +chart of the Old World as contemplated by the Almighty; and a clear +definition of even the inappropriate tenor of the orders of Christ: if +only that the modern scientific Churchman may triumph more securely in +the circumference of his heavenly vision, and accept more gratefully the +glorious liberty of the free-thinking children of God? + +159. To take a definite, and not impertinent, instance, I observe in +the continuing portion of your letter that your Lordship recognizes in +Christ Himself, as doubtless all other human perfections, so also the +perfection of an usurer; and that, confidently expecting one day to hear +from His lips the convicting sentence, "Thou knewest that I was an +austere man," your Lordship prepares for yourself, by the disposition of +your capital no less than of your talents, a better answer than the +barren, "Behold, there thou hast that is thine!" I would only observe in +reply, that although the conception of the Good Shepherd, which in your +Lordship's language is "implied" in this parable, may indeed be less +that of one who lays down his life for his sheep, than of one who takes +up his money for them, the passages of our Master's instruction, of +which the meaning is not implicit, but explicit, are perhaps those which +His simpler disciples will be safer in following. Of which I find, early +in His teaching, this, almost, as it were, in words of one syllable: +"Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee +turn not thou away." + +There is nothing more "implied" in this sentence than the probable +disposition to turn away, which might be the first impulse in the mind +of a Christian asked to lend for nothing, as distinguished from the +disciple of the Manchester school, whose principal care is rather to +find, than to avoid, the enthusiastic and enterprising "him that would +borrow of thee." We of the older tradition, my Lord, think that +prudence, no less than charity, forbids the provocation or temptation of +others into the state of debt, which some time or other we might be +called upon, not only to allow the payment of without usury, but even +altogether to forgive. + +160. (D) "Just as we are told." Where, my Lord, and by whom? It is +possible that some of the schemers in physical science, of whom, only a +few days since, I heard one of the leading doctors explain to a pleased +audience that serpents once had legs, and had dropped them off in the +process of development, may have advised the modern disciple of progress +of a new meaning in the simple phrase, "upon thy belly shalt thou go"; +and that the wisdom of the serpent may henceforth consist, for true +believers of the scientific Gospel, in the providing of meats for that +spiritual organ of motion. It is doubtless also true that we shall look +vainly among the sayings of Solomon for any expression of the opinions +of Mr. John Stuart Mill; but at least this much of Natural science, +enough for our highest need, we may find in the Scriptures--that by the +Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the +breath of His mouth;--and this much of Political, that the Blessing of +the Lord, _it_ maketh rich--and He addeth no sorrow with it. + +(E) "What I do expect to find." Has your Lordship _no_ expectations +loftier than these, from severer scrutiny of the Gospel? As for +instance, of some ordinance of Love, built on the foundation of Honesty? + +161. (F) "Cannot without a violent twist." I have never myself found any +person sincerely desirous of obeying the Word of the Lord, who had the +least wish, or occasion, to twist it; nay, even those who study it only +that they may discover methods of pardonable disobedience, recognize the +unturnable edge of its sword--and in the worst extremity of their need, +strive not to avert, but to evade. The utmost deceivableness of +unrighteousness cannot deceive itself into satisfactory +misinterpretation; it is reduced always to a tremulous omission of the +texts it is resolved to disobey. But a little while since, I heard an +entirely well-meaning clergyman, taken by surprise in the course of +family worship in the house of a wealthy friend, and finding himself +under the painful necessity of reading the fifteenth Psalm, omit the +first sentence of the closing verse. I chanced afterwards to have an +opportunity of asking him why he had done so, and received for answer, +that the lowliness of Christian attainment was not yet "up" to that +verse. The harmonies of iniquity are thus curiously perfect:--the +economies of spiritual nourishment approve the same methods of +adulteration which are found profitable in the carnal; until the prudent +pastor follows the example of the well-instructed dairyman; and +provides for his new-born babes the _in_sincere Milk of the Word, that +they may _not_ grow thereby. + +162. (G) "St. Paul, no doubt, denounces the covetous." Am I to +understand your Lordship as considering this undeniable denunciation an +original and peculiar view taken by the least of the Apostles--perhaps, +in this particular opinion, not worthy to be called an Apostle? The +traditions of my earlier days were wont to refer me to an earlier source +of the idea; which does not, however, appear to have occurred to your +Lordship's mind--else the reference to the authority of Liddell and +Scott, for the significance of the noun [Greek: pleonektês], ought to +have been made also for that of the verb [Greek: epithumeô] And your +Lordship's frankness in referring me to the instances of your own +practice in the disposal of your income, must plead my excuse for what +might have otherwise seemed impertinent--in noting that the +blamelessness of episcopal character, even by that least of the +Apostles, required in his first Epistle to Timothy, consists not merely +in contentment with an episcopal share of Church property, but in being +in no respect either [Greek: aischrokordês]--a taker of gain in a base +or vulgar manner, or [Greek: philarguros]--a "lover of silver," this +latter word being the common and proper word for covetous, in the +Gospels and Epistles; as of the Pharisees in Luke xvi. 14; and +associated with the other characters of men in perilous times, 2 Timothy +iii. 2, and its relative noun [Greek: philarguria, given in sum for the +root of _all_ evil in 2 Timothy vi. 10, while even the authority of +Liddell and Scott in the interpretation of [Greek: pleonexia] itself as +only the desire of getting more than our share, may perhaps be bettered +by the authority of the teacher, who, declining the appeal made to him +as an equitable [Greek: meristês] (Luke xii. 14-46), tells his disciples +to beware of coveteousness, simply as the desire of getting more than we +have got. "For a man's life consisteth not in the _abundance_ of the +things which he possesseth." + +163. Believe me, my Lord, it is not without some difficulty that I check +my natural impulse to follow you, as a scholar, into the interesting +analysis of the distinctions which may be drawn between Rapacity and +Acquisitiveness; between the Avarice, or the prudent care, of +possession; between the greed, and the modest expectation, of gain; +between the love of money, which is the root of all evil; and the +commercial spirit, which is in England held to be the fountain of all +good. These delicate adjustments of the balance, by which we strive to +weigh to a grain the relative quantities of devotion which we may render +in the service of Mammon and of God, are wholly of recent invention and +application; nor have they the slightest bearing, either on the +spiritual purport of the final commandment of the Decalogue, or on the +distinctness of the subsequent prohibition of practical usury. + +It must be remembered, also, how difficult it has become to define the +term "filthy" with precision, in the present state, moral and physical, +of the English atmosphere; and still more so, to judge how far, in that +healthy element, a moderate and delicately sanctified appetite for gold +may be developed into livelier qualms of hunger for righteousness. It +may be matter of private opinion how far the lucre derived by your +Lordship from commission on the fares and refreshments of the passengers +by the North-Western may be odoriferous or precious, in the same sense +as the ointment on the head of Aaron; or how far that received by the +Primate of England in royalties on the circulation of improving +literature[129] may enrich--as with perfumes out of broken +alabaster--the empyreal air of Addington. But the higher class of +laborers in the Lord's vineyard might surely, with true grace, receive, +from the last unto the first, the reflected instruction so often given +by the first unto the last, "Be content with your wages." + +(H) "It may, perhaps, not improperly be said," The Bible Society will +doubtless in future gratefully prefix this guarantee to their +publications. + +(I) "Which we are told." Can we then no more find for ourselves this +writing on our hearts--or has it ceased to be legible? + +164. (K) "Remunerative employment." I cannot easily express the +astonishment with which I find a man of your Lordship's intelligence +taking up the common phrase of "giving employment," as if, indeed, labor +were the best gift which the rich could bestow on the poor. Of course, +every idle vagabond, be he rich or poor, "gives employment" to some +otherwise enough burdened wretch, to provide his dinner and clothes for +him; and every vicious vagabond, in the destructive power of his vice, +gives sorrowful occupation to the energies of resisting and renovating +virtue. The idle child who litters its nursery and tears its frock, +gives employment to the housemaid and seamstress; the idle woman, who +litters her drawing-room with trinkets, and is ashamed to be seen twice +in the same dress, is, in your Lordship's view, the enlightened +supporter of the arts and manufactures of her country. At the close of +your letter, my Lord, you, though in measured terms, indignantly dissent +from my statement of the power of great cities for evil, and indeed I +have perhaps been led, by my prolonged study of the causes of the Fall +of Venice, into clearer recognition of some of these urban influences +than may have been possible to your Lordship in the center of the +virtues and proprieties which have been blessed by Providence in the +rise of Manchester. But the Scriptural symbol of the power of temptation +in the hand of the spiritual Babylon--"all kings have been drunk with +the wine of her Fornication"--is perfectly literal in its exposition of +the special influence of cities over a vicious, that is to say, a +declining, people. They are the foci of its fornication, and the +practical meaning is that the lords of the soil take the food and labor +of the peasants, who are their slaves, and spend them especially in +forms of luxury perfected by the definitely so-called "women of the +_town_" who, whether East-cheap Doll, or West--much the reverse of +cheap--Nell, are, both in the color which they give to the Arts, and in +the tone which they give to the Manners, of the State, a literal plague, +pestilence and burden to it, quite otherwise malignant and maleficent +than the poor country lassie who loses her snood among the heather. And +when, at last, _real_ political economy shall exhibit the exact sources +and consequences of the expenditure of the great capitals of +civilization on their own indulgences, your Lordship will be furnished, +in the statistics of their most splendid and most impious pleasure, with +record of precisely the largest existing source of "remunerative +employment"--(if _that_ were all the poor had to ask for), next after +the preparation and practice of war. I believe it is, indeed, probable +that "facility of intercourse" gives the next largest quantity of +occupation; and, as your Lordship rightly observes, to most respectable +persons. And if the entire population of Manchester lost the use of its +legs, your Lordship would similarly have the satisfaction of observing, +and might share in the profits of providing, the needful machinery of +porterage and stretchers. But observe, my Lord--and observe as a final +and inevitable truth--that whether you lend your money to provide an +invalided population with crutches, stretchers, hearses, or the railroad +accommodation which is so often synonymous with the three, the _tax on +the use_ of these, which constitutes the shareholder's dividend, is a +permanent burden upon them, exacted by avarice, and by no means an aid +granted by benevolence. + +165. (L) "Sanctioned by experience." The experience of twenty-three +years, my Lord, and with the following result:-- + +"We have now had an opportunity of practically testing the theory. Not +more than seventeen" (now twenty-three--I quote from a letter dated +1875) "years have passed since" (by the final abolition of the Usury +laws) "all restraint was removed from the growth of what Lord Coke calls +'this pestilent weed,'" and we see Bacon's words verified--"the rich +becoming richer, and the poor poorer, throughout the civilized world." +Letter from Mr. R. Sillar, quoted in _Fors Clavigera_, No. 43. + +(M) "Inevitable." Neither "impossible" nor "inevitable" were words of +old Christian Faith. But see the closing paragraph of my letter. + +(N) Before you call on me to substantiate this charge, my Lord, I +should like to insert after the words, "steadily preaching," the phrase, +"and politely explaining"--with the Pauline qualification, "whether by +word, or our epistle." + +166. (O) "The great cities of to-day are not worse than great cities +always have been," I do not remember having said that they were, my +Lord; I have never anticipated for Manchester a worse fate than that of +Sardis or Sodom; nor have I yet observed any so mighty works shown forth +in her by her ministers, as to make her impenitence less pardonable than +that of Sidon or Tyre. But I used the particular expression which your +Lordship supposes me to have overcharged in righteous indignation, "a +boil breaking forth with blains on man and beast," because that +particular plague was the one which Moses was ordered, in the Eternal +Wisdom, to connect with the ashes of the Furnace--literally, no less +than spiritually, when he brought the Israelites forth out of Egypt, +_from the midst of the Furnace of Iron_. How literally, no less than in +faith and hope, the smoke of "the great city, which spiritually is +called Sodom and Egypt," has poisoned the earth, the waters, and the +living creatures, flocks and herds, and the babes that know not their +right hand from their left--neither Memphis, Gomorrah, nor Cahors are +themselves likely to recognize: but, as I pause in front of the +infinitude of the evil that I cannot find so much as thought to +follow--how much less words to speak!--a letter is brought to me which +gives what perhaps may be more impressive in its single and historical +example, than all the general evidence gathered already in the pages of +_Fors Clavigera_. + + * * * * * + +167. "I could never understand formerly what you meant about usury, and +about its being wrong to take interest. I said, truly, then that I +'trusted you,' meaning I knew that in such matters you did not +'opine'--and that innumerable things were within your horizon which had +no place within mine. + +"But as I did not understand I could only watch and ponder. Gradually I +came to see a little--as when I read current facts about India--about +almost every country, and about our own trade, etc. Then (one of several +circumstances that could be seen more closely) among my mother's kindred +in the north, I watched the ruin of two lives. They began married life +together, with good prospects and sufficient means, in a lovely little +nest among the hills, beyond the Rochdale smoke. Soon this became too +narrow. 'A splendid trade,' more mills, frequent changes into even finer +dwellings, luxurious living, ostentation, extravagance, increasing year +by year, all, as now appears, made possible by usury--borrowed capital. +The wife was laid in her grave lately, and her friends are _thankful_. +The husband, with ruin threatening his affairs, is in a worse, and +living, grave of evil habits." + + "These are some of the loopholes through which light has fallen + upon your words, giving them a new meaning, and making me wonder + how I could have missed seeing it from the first. Once alive to it, + I recognize the evil on all sides, and how we are entangled by it; + and though I am still puzzled at one or two points, I am very clear + about the principle--that usury is a deadly thing," + +Yes; and deadly always with the vilest forms of destruction both to soul +and body. + +168. It happens strangely, my Lord, that although throughout the seven +volumes of _Fors Clavigera_, I never have set down a sentence without +chastising it first into terms which could be _literally_ as well as in +their widest bearing justified against all controversy, you could +perhaps not have found in the whole book, had your Lordship read it for +the purpose, any saying quite so literally and terrifically demonstrable +as this which you have chanced to select for attack. For, in the first +place, of all the calamities which in their apparently merciless +infliction paralyzed the wavering faith of mediæval Christendom, the +"boil breaking forth into blains," in the black plagues of Florence and +London, was the fatalest messenger of the fiends: and, in the second +place, the broad result of the Missionary labors of the cities of +Madrid, Paris, and London, for the salvation of the wild tribes of the +New World, since the vaunted discovery of it, may be summed in the stem +sentence--Death, by drunkenness and smallpox. + +The beneficent influence of recent commercial enterprise in the +communication of such divine grace, and divine blessing (not to speak of +other more dreadful and shameful conditions of disease), may be studied +to best advantage in the history of the two great French and English +Companies, who have enjoyed the monopoly of clothing the nakedness of +the Old World with coats of skins from the New. + +The charter of the English one, obtained from the Crown in 1670, was in +the language of modern Liberalism--" wonderfully liberal,"[130] +comprising not only the grant of the exclusive trade, but also of full +territorial possession, to all perpetuity, of the vast lands within the +watershed of Hudson's Bay. The Company at once established some forts +along the shores of the great inland sea from which it derived its name, +and opened a very lucrative trade with the Indians, _so that it never +ceased paying rich dividends_ to the fortunate shareholders, until +towards the close of the last century. + +Up to this time, with the exception of the voyage of discovery which +Herne (1770-71) made under its auspices to the mouth of the Coppermine +River, it had done but little for the promotion of geographical +discovery in its vast territory. + +169. Meanwhile, the Canadian (French) fur traders had become so hateful +to the Indians, that these savages formed a conspiracy for their total +extirpation. _Fortunately for the white men_, the smallpox broke out +about this time among the redskins, and swept them away as the fire +consumes the parched grass of the prairies. Their unburied corpses were +torn by the wolves and wild dogs, and the survivors were too weak and +dispirited to be able to undertake anything against the foreign +intruders. The Canadian fur traders now also saw the necessity of +combining their efforts for their mutual benefit, instead of ruining +each other by an insane competition; and consequently formed in 1783 a +society which, under the name of the North-West Company of Canada, +ruled over the whole continent from the Canadian lakes to the Rocky +Mountains, and in 1806 it even crossed the barrier and established its +forts on the northern tributaries of the Columbia river. To the north it +likewise extended its operations, encroaching more and more upon the +privileges of the Hudson's Bay Company, which, roused to energy, now +also pushed on its posts further and further into the interior, and +established, in 1812, a colony on the Red River to the south of Winnipeg +Lake, thus driving, as it were, a sharp thorn into the side of its +rival. But a power like the North-West Company, which had no less than +50 agents, 70 interpreters, and 1120 "voyageurs" in its pay, and whose +chief managers used to appear at their annual meetings at Fort William, +on the banks of Lake Superior, with all the pomp and pride of feudal +barons, was not inclined to tolerate this encroachment; and thus, after +many quarrels, a regular war broke out between the two parties, which, +after two years' duration, led to the expulsion of the Red River +colonists, and the murder of their governor Semple. This event took +place in the year 1816, and is but one episode of the bloody feuds which +continued to reign between the two rival Companies until 1821. + +170. The dissension's of the fur traders had most deplorable +consequences for the redskins; for both Companies, to swell the number +of their adherents, lavishly distributed spirituous liquors--a +temptation which no Indian can resist. The whole of the meeting-grounds +of the Saskatchewan and Athabasca were but one scene of revelry and +bloodshed. Already decimated by the smallpox, the Indians now became the +victims of drunkenness and discord, and it was to be feared that if the +war and its consequent demoralization continued, the most important +tribes would soon be utterly swept away. + +At length wisdom prevailed over passion, and the enemies came to a +resolution which, if taken from the very beginning, would have saved +them both a great deal of treasure and many crimes. Instead of +continuing to swing the tomahawk, they now smoked the calumet, and +amalgamated in 1821, under the name of "Hudson's Bay Company," and +under the wing of the Charter. + +The British Government, as a dowry to the impoverished couple, presented +them with a license of exclusive trade throughout the whole of that +territory which, under the name of the "Hudson's Bay and North-West +territories," extends from Labrador to the Pacific, and from the Red +River to the Polar Ocean. + +171. Such, my Lord, have been the triumphs of the modern Evangel of +Usury, Competition, and Private Enterprise, in a perfectly clear +instance of their action, chosen I hope with sufficient candor, since +"History," says Professor Hind, "does not furnish another example of an +association of private individuals exerting a powerful influence over so +large an extent of the earth's surface and administering their affairs +with such consummate skill, and unwavering devotion to the original +objects of their incorporation." + +That original object being, of course, that poor naked America, having +yet in a manner two coats, might be induced by these Christian merchants +to give to him that had none? + +In like manner, may any Christian householder, who has two houses or +perchance two parks, ever be induced to give to him that hath none? My +temper and my courtesy scarcely serve me, my Lord, to reply to your +assertion of the "inevitableness" that, while half of Great Britain is +laid out in hunting-grounds for sport more savage than the Indians, the +poor of our cities must be swept into incestuous heaps; or into dens and +caves which are only tombs disquieted, so changing the whiteness of +Jewish sepulchers into the blackness of Christian ones, in which the +hearts of the rich and the homes of the poor are alike as graves that +appear not;--only their murmur, that sayeth "it is not enough," sounds +deeper beneath us every hour; nay, the whole earth, and not only the +cities of it, sends forth that ghastly cry; and her fruitful plains have +become slime-pits, and her fair estuaries, gulfs of death; for _us_, the +Mountain of the Lord has become only Golgotha, and the sound of the new +song before the Throne is drowned in the rolling death-rattle of the +nations, "Oh Christ; where is thy victory?" + +These are thy glorious works, Mammon parent of Good,--and this the true +debate, my Lord of Manchester, between the two Angels of your +Church,--whether the "Dreamland" of its souls be now, or +hereafter,--now, the firelight in the cave, or hereafter, the sunlight +of Heaven. + +172. How, my Lord, am I to receive, or reply to, the narrow concessions +of your closing sentence? The Spirit of Truth was breathed even from the +Athenian Acropolis, and the Law of Justice thundered even from the +Cretan Sinai; but for _us_, He who said, "I am the Truth," said also, "I +am the Way, and the Life;" and for _us_, He who reasoned of +Righteousness, reasoned also of Temperance and Judgment to come. Is this +the sincere milk of the Word, which takes the hope from the Person of +Christ, and the fear from the charge of His apostle, and forbids to +English heroism the perilous vision of Immortality? God be with you, my +Lord, and exalt your teaching to that quality of Mercy which, distilling +as the rain from Heaven--not strained as through channels from a sullen +reservoir-may soften the hearts of your people to receive the New +Commandment, that they Love one another. So, round the cathedral of your +city, shall the merchant's law be just, and his weights true; the table +of the money-changer not overthrown, and the bench of the money-lender +unbroken. + +And to as many as walk according to this rule, Peace shall be on them, +and Mercy, and upon the Israel of God. + + * * * * * + +173. With the preceding letter must assuredly end--for the present, if +not forever--my own notes on a subject of which my strength no longer +serves me to endure the stress and sorrow; but I may possibly be able to +collect, eventually, into more close form, the already manifold and +sufficient references scattered through _Fors Clavigera_: and perhaps to +reprint for the St. George's Guild the admirable compendium of British +ecclesiastical and lay authority on the subject, collected by John +Blaxton, preacher of God's Word at Osmington in Dorsetshire, printed by +John Norton under the title of "The English Usurer," and sold by Francis +Bowman, in Oxford, 1631. A still more precious record of the fierce +struggle of usury into life among Christians, and of the resistance to +it by Venice and her "Anthony,"[131] will be found in the dialogue +"della Usura," of Messer Speron Sperone (Aldus, in Vinegia, MDXIII.), +followed by the dialogue "del Cathaio," between "Portia, sola, e +fanciulla, fame, e cibo, vita, e morte, di ciascuno che la conosce," and +her lover Moresini, which is the source of all that is loveliest in the +_Merchant of Venice_. Readers who seek more modern and more scientific +instruction may consult the able abstract of the triumph of usury, drawn +up by Dr. Andrew Dickson White, President of Cornell University ("The +Warfare of Science," H. S. King & Co., 1877), in which the victory of +the great modern scientific principle, that two and two make five, is +traced exultingly to the final overthrow of St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome, +St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, Luther, and Bossuet, by "the +establishment of the Torlonia family in Rome." A better collection of +the most crushing evidence cannot be found than this, furnished by an +adversary; a less petulant and pompous, but more earnest voice from +America, "Usury the Giant Sin of the Age," by Edward Palmer (Perth +Amboys, 1865), should be read together with it. In the meantime, the +substance of the teaching of the _former_ Church of England, in the +great sermon against usury of Bishop Jewell, may perhaps not uselessly +occupy one additional page of the _Contemporary Review_:-- + +174. "Usury is a kind of lending of money, or corne, or oyle, or wine, +or of any other thing, wherein, upon covenant and bargaine, we receive +againe the whole principall which we delivered, and somewhat more, for +the use and occupying of the same; as if I lend 100 pound, and for it +covenant to receive 105 pound, or any other summe, greater then was the +summe which I did lend: this is that which we call usury: such a kind of +bargaining as no good man, or godly man ever used. Such a kind of +bargaining as all men that ever feared God's judgments have alwaies +abhorred and condemned. It is filthy gaines, and a worke of darkenesse, +it is a monster in nature: the overthrow of mighty kingdoms, the +destruction of flourishing States, the decay of wealthy cities, the +plagues of the world, and the misery of the people: it is theft, it is +the murthering of our brethren, its the curse of God, and the curse of +the people. This is Usury. By these signes and tokens you may know it. +For wheresoever it raigneth all those mischiefes ensue. + +"Whence springeth usury? Soone shewed. Even thence whence theft, murder, +adultery, the plagues, and destruction of the people doe spring. All +these are the workes of the divell, and the workes of the flesh. Christ +telleth the Pharisees, You are of your father the divell, and the lusts +of your father you will doe. Even so may it truely be sayd to the +usurer, Thou art of thy father the divell, and the lusts of thy father +thou wilt doe, and therefore thou hast pleasure in his workes. The +divell entered into the heart of Judas, and put in him this greedinesse, +and covetousnesse of game, for which he was content to sell his master. +Judas's heart was the shop, the divell was the foreman to worke in it. +They that will be rich fall into tentation and snares, and into many +foolish and noysome lusts, which drowne men in perdition and +destruction. For the desire of money is the roote of all evil. And St. +John saith, Whosoever committeth sinne is of the Divell, 1 Joh. 3-8. +Thus we see that the divell is the planter, and the father of usury. + +"What are the fruits of usury? A. 1. It dissolveth the knot and +fellowship of mankind. 2. It hardeneth man's heart. 3. It maketh men +unnaturall, and bereaveth them of charity, and love to their dearest +friends. 4. It breedeth misery and provoketh the wrath of God from +heaven. 5. It consumeth rich men, it eateth up the poore, it maketh +bankrupts, and undoeth many householders. 6. The poore occupiers are +driven to flee, their wives are left alone, their children are +hopelesse, and driven to beg their bread, through the unmercifull +dealing of the covetous usurer. + +175. "He that is an usurer, wisheth that all others may lacke and come +to him and borrow of him; that all others may lose, so that he may have +gaine. Therefore our old forefathers so much abhorred this trade, that +they thought an usurer unworthy to live in the company of Christian men. +They suffered not an usurer to be witnesse in matters of Law. They +suffer him not to make a Testament, and to bestow his goods by will. +When an usurer dyed, they would not suffer him to be buried in places +appointed for the buriall of Christians. So highly did they mislike this +unmercifull spoyling and deceiving our brethren. + +"But what speak I of the ancient Fathers of the Church? There was never +any religion, nor sect, nor state, nor degree, nor profession of men, +but they have disliked it. Philosophers, Greekes, Latins, lawyers, +divines, Catholikes, heretics; all tongues and nations have ever thought +an usurer as dangerous as a theefe. The very sense of nature proves it +to be so. If the stones could speak they would say as much. But some +will say all kindes of usury are not forbidden. There may be cases where +usury may stand with reason and equity, and herein they say so much as +by wit may be devised to paint out a foule and ugly idoll, and to shadow +themselves in manifest and open wickednesse. Whatsoever God sayeth, yet +this or this kind of usury, say they, which is done in this or this +sort, is not forbidden. It proffiteth the Commonwealth, it relieveth +great numbers, the poore should otherwise perish, none would lend them. +By like good reason, there are some that defend theft and murder; they +say, there may be some case where it is lawful to kill or to steale; +for God willed the Hebrews to rob the Ægyptians, and Abraham to kill his +owne sonne Isaac. In these cases the robbery and the killing of his +sonne were lawfull. So say they. Even so by the like reason doe some of +our countrymen maintayne concubines, curtizans, and brothel-houses, and +stand in defence of open stewes. They are (say they) for the benefit of +the country, they keepe men from more dangerous inconveniences; take +them away, it will be worse. Although God say, there shall be no whore +of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a whorekeeper of the +sonnes of Israel: yet these men say all manner of whoredom is not +forbidden. In these and these cases it is not amisse to alow it." + + "As Samuel sayd to Saul, so may we say to the usurer, Thou hast + devised cases and colours to hide thy shame, but what regard hath + God to thy cases? What careth He for thy reasons? the Lord would + have more pleasure, if when thou heareth His voyce thou wouldest + obey Him. For what is thy device against the counsell, and + ordinance of God? What bold presumption is it for a mortall man to + controule the commandments of immortall God? And to weigh his + heavenly wisdome in the ballance of humane foolishnesse? When God + sayth, Thou shalt not take usury, what creature of God art thou + which canst take usury? When God maketh it unlawfull, what art + thou, oh man, that sayst, it is lawfull? This is a token of a + desperate mind. It is found true in thee, that Paul sayd, the love + of money is the root of all ill. Thou art so given over unto the + wicked Mammon, that thou carest not to doe the will of God." + +Thus far, the theology of Old England. Let it close with the calm law, +spoken four hundred years before Christ, [Greek: a mê katethou, mê anelê]. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 124: _Contemporary Review_, February 1880.] + +[Footnote 125: See below (p. 393, § 236), in the eighth letter on the +Lord's Prayer.--ED.] + +[Footnote 126: In Proverbs xxviii. 8, "usury" is coupled with "unjust +gain," and a pitiless spirit towards the poor, which shows in what sense +the word is to be understood there, and in such other passages as Ps. +xv. 5 and Ezek. xviii. 8, 9.] + +[Footnote 127: See post, p. 394, § 237.--ED.] + +[Footnote 128: Speech of Mr. J. C. Hubbard, M.P. for London, reported in +_Standard_ of 26th July, 1879.] + +[Footnote 129: See the Articles of Association of the East Surrey Hall, +Museum, and Library Company. (_Fors Clavigera_, Letter lxx.)] + +[Footnote 130: "The Polar World," p. 342, Longmans, 1874.] + +[Footnote 131: + + "The dearest friend to me, the kindest man, + The best conditioned and unwearied spirit, + In doing courtesies; and one in whom + _The ancient Roman honor more appears, + Than any that draws breath in Italy._" + +This is the Shakespearian description of that Anthony, whom the modern +British public, with its new critical lights, calls a "sentimentalist +and speculator!"--holding Shylock to be the real hero, and innocent +victim of the drama.] + + + + +USURY.[132] + +A PREFACE. + + +176. In the wise, practical, and affectionate sermon, given from St. +Mary's pulpit last autumn to the youth of Oxford, by the good Bishop of +Carlisle, his Lordship took occasion to warn his eagerly attentive +audience, with deep earnestness, against the crime of debt; dwelling +with powerful invective on the cruelty and selfishness with which, too +often, the son wasted in his follies the fruits of his father's labor, +or the means of his family's subsistence; and involved himself in +embarrassments which, said the Bishop, "I have again and again known to +cause the misery of all subsequent life." + +The sin was charged, the appeal pressed, only on the preacher's +undergraduate hearers. Beneath the gallery, the Heads of Houses sate, +remorseless; nor from the pulpit was a single hint permitted that any +measures could be rationally taken for the protection, no less than the +warning, of the youth under their care. No such suggestion would have +been received, if even understood, by any English congregation of this +time;--a strange and perilous time, in which the greatest commercial +people of the world have been brought to think Usury the most honorable +and fruitful branch, or rather perennial stem, of commercial industry. + +177. But whose the fault that English congregations are in this temper, +and this ignorance? The saying of mine,[133] which the author of this +book quotes in the close of his introduction, was written by me with a +meaning altogether opposite, and far more forcible, than that which it +might seem to bear to a careless interpreter.[134] In the present state +of popular revolt against all conception and manner of authority, but +more especially spiritual authority, the sentence reads as if it were +written by an adversary of the Church,--a hater of its Prelacy,--an +advocate of universal liberty of thought and license of crime: whereas +the sentence is really written in the conviction (I might say knowledge, +if I spoke without deference to the reader's incredulity) that the +Pastoral Office must forever be the highest, for good or evil, in every +Christian land; and that when _it_ fails in vigilance, faith, or +courage, the sheep _must_ be scattered, and neither King nor law avail +any more to protect them against the fury of their own passions, nor any +human sagacity against the deception of their own hearts. + +178. Since, however, these things are instantly so, and the Bishops of +England have now with one accord consented to become merely the highly +salaried vergers of her Cathedrals, taking care that the choristers do +not play at leapfrog in the Churchyard, that the Precincts are elegantly +iron-railed from the profane parts of the town, and that the doors of +the building be duly locked, so that nobody may pray in it at +improper times,--these things being so, may we not turn to the +"every-man-his-own-Bishop" party, with its Bible Society, Missionary +zeal, and right of infallible private interpretation, to ask at least +for some small exposition to the inhabitants of their own country, of +those Scriptures which they are so fain to put in the possession of +others; and this the rather, because the popular familiar version of the +New Testament among us, unwritten, seems to be now the exact contrary of +that which we were once taught to be of Divine authority. + +179. I place, side by side, the ancient and modern versions of the seven +verses of the New Testament which were the beginning, and are indeed the +heads, of all the teaching of Christ:-- + + _Ancient._ + + Blessed are the Poor in + Spirit, for their's is the + kingdom of Heaven. + + Blessed are they that mourn, + for they shall be comforted. + + Blessed are the meek, for + they shall inherit the + earth. + + Blessed are they which do + hunger for righteousness, + for they shall be filled. + + Blessed are the merciful, for + they shall obtain mercy. + + Blessed are the pure in heart, + for they shall see God. + + Blessed are the Peacemakers, + for they shall be called the + children of God. + + + _Modern._ + + Blessed are the Rich in + Flesh, for their's is the + kingdom of Earth. + + Blessed are they that are + merry, and laugh the last. + + Blessed are the proud, in that + they _have_ inherited the + earth. + + Blessed are they which hunger + for unrighteousness, in + that they shall divide its + mammon. + + Blessed are the merciless, for + they shall obtain money. + + Blessed are the foul in heart, + for they shall see no God. + + Blessed are the War-makers, + for they shall be adored by + the children of men. + +180. Who are the true "Makers of War," the promoters and supports of it, +I showed long since in the note to the brief sentence of "Unto this +last." "It is entirely capitalists' (_i.e._, Usurers') wealth[135] which +supports unjust Wars." But to what extent the adoration of the Usurer, +and the slavery consequent upon it, has perverted the soul or bound the +hands of every man in Europe, I will let the reader hear, from authority +he will less doubt than mine:-- + +"Financiers are the mischievous feudalism of the 19th century. A handful +of men have invented distant, seductive loans, have introduced national +debts in countries happily ignorant of them, have advanced money to +unsophisticated Powers on ruinous terms, and then, by appealing to small +investors all over the world, got rid of the bonds. Furthermore, with +the difference between the advances and the sale of bonds, they caused a +fall in the securities which they had issued, and, having sold at 80, +they bought back at 10, taking advantage of the public panic. Again, +with the money thus obtained, they bought up consciences, where +consciences are marketable, and under the pretense of providing the +country thus traded upon with new means of communication, they passed +money into their own coffers. They have had pupils, imitators, and +plagiarists; and at the present moment, under different names, the +financiers rule the world, are a sore of society, and form one of the +chief causes of modern crises. + +"Unlike the Nile, wherever they pass they render the soil dry and +barren. The treasures of the world flow into their cellars, and there +remain. They spend one-tenth of their revenues; the remaining +nine-tenths they hoard and divert from circulation. They distribute +favors, and are great political leaders. They have not assumed the place +of the old nobility, but have taken the latter into their service. +Princes are their chamberlains, dukes open their doors, and marquises +act as their equerries when they deign to ride. + +"These new grandees canter on their splendid Arabs along Rotten Ron, the +Bois de Boulogne, the Prospect, the Prater, or Unter den Linden. The +shopkeepers, and all who save money, bow low to these men, who represent +their savings, which they will never again see under any other form. +Proof against sarcasms, sure of the respect of the Continental Press, +protecting each other with a sort of freemasonry, the financiers dictate +laws, determine the fate of nations, and render the cleverest political +combinations abortive. They are everywhere received and listened to, and +all the Cabinets feel their influence. Governments watch them with +uneasiness, and even the Iron Chancellor has his gilded Egeria, who +reports to him the wishes of this the sole modern Autocrat"--_Letter +from Paris Correspondent_, "_Times_," _30th January_, 1885. + + * * * * * + +181. But to this statement, I must add the one made to § 149 (see note) +of "Munera Pulveris," that if we could trace the innermost of all causes +of modern war, they would be found, not in the avarice or ambition, but +the idleness of the upper classes. "They have nothing to do but to teach +the peasantry to kill each other"--while that the peasantry are thus +teachable, is further again dependent on their not having been educated +primarily in the common law of justice. See again "Munera Pulveris," +Appendix I.: "Precisely according to the number of just men in a nation +is their power of avoiding either intestine or foreign war." + +I rejoice to see my old friend Mr. Sillar gathering finally together the +evidence he has so industriously collected on the guilt of usury, and +supporting it by the always impressive language of symbolical art;[136] +for indeed I had myself no idea, till I read the connected statement +which these pictures illustrate, how steadily the system of +money-lending had gained on the nation, and how fatally every hand and +foot was now entangled by it. Yet in commending the study of this book +to every virtuous and patriotic Englishman, I must firmly remind the +reader, that all these sins and errors are only the branches from one +root of bitterness--mortal Pride. For this we gather, for this we war, +for this we die--here and hereafter; while all the while the Wisdom +which is from above stands vainly teaching us the way to Earthly Riches +and to Heavenly Peace, "What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but +to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk _humbly_ with thy God?" + + BRANTWOOD, _7th March_, 1885. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 132: Introduction to a pamphlet entitled "Usury and the +English Bishops," or more fully, "Usury, its pernicious effects on +English agriculture and commerce: An allegory dedicated without +permission to the Bishops of Manchester, Peterborough and Rochester" +(London: A. Southey, 146, Fenchurch Street, 1885). By R. J. Sillar. (See +_Fors Clavigera_, vol. v. Letter 56.)--ED.] + +[Footnote 133: "Everything evil in Europe is primarily the fault of her +Bishops."] + +[Footnote 134: "I knew, in using it, perfectly well what you meant." +(Note by Mr. Sillar.)] + +[Footnote 135: "Cash," I should have said, in accuracy--not "wealth."] + +[Footnote 136: Mr. Sillar's pamphlet consists of a collection of +paragraphs, all condemnatory of usury, from the writings of the English +bishops, from the sixteenth century down to the present time; and is +illustrated by five emblematic woodcuts representing an oak tree +(English commerce) gradually overgrown and destroyed by an ivy-plant +(usury).--ED.] + + + * * * * * + + +THEOLOGY. + + +NOTES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHEEPFOLDS. + +(Pamphlet, 1851.) + + +THE LORD'S PRAYER AND THE CHURCH. + +(_Letters and Epilogue_, 1879-1881.) + + +THE NATURE AND AUTHORITY OF MIRACLE. + +(_Contemporary Review, March_ 1873.) + + + * * * * * + + +NOTES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHEEPFOLDS.[137] + + +PREFACE (CALLED "ADVERTISEMENT") TO THE FIRST EDITION. + +_Many persons will probably find fault with me for publishing opinions +which are not new: but I shall bear this blame contentedly, believing +that opinions on this subject could hardly be just if they were not 1800 +years old. Others will blame me for making proposals which are +altogether new: to whom I would answer, that things in these days seem +not so far right but that they may be mended. And others will simply +call the opinions false and the proposals foolish--to whose goodwill, if +they take it in hand to contradict me, I must leave what I have +written--having no purpose of being drawn, at present, into religious +controversy. If, however, any should admit the truth, but regret the +tone of what I have said, lean only pray them to consider how much less +harm is done in the world by ungraceful boldness, than by untimely +fear._ + + DENMARK HILL, + + _February, 1851._ + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND (1851) EDITION. + +_Since the publication of these Notes, I have received many letters upon +the affairs of the Church, from persons of nearly every denomination of +Christians; for all these letters I am grateful, and in many of them I +have found valuable information, or suggestion: but I have not leisure +at present to follow out the subject farther; and no reason has been +shown me for modifying or altering any part of the text as it stands. It +is republished, therefore, without change or addition_. + +_I must, however, especially thank one of my correspondents for sending +me a pamphlet, called "Sectarianism, the Bane of Religion and the +Church,"[138] which I would recommend, in the strongest terms, to the +reading of all who regard the cause of Christ; and, for help in reading +the Scriptures, I would name also the short and admirable arrangement of +parallel passages relating to the offices of the clergy, called "The +Testimony of Scripture concerning the Christian Ministry."_[139] + + +PREFACE TO THIRD (CALLED SECOND) EDITION. + +_I have only to add to this first preface, that the boldness of the +pamphlet,--ungraceful enough, it must be admitted,--has done no one any +harm, that I know of; but on the contrary, some definite good, as far as +I can judge; and that I republish the whole now, letter for letter, as +originally printed, believing it likely to be still serviceable, and, on +the ground it takes for argument, (Scriptural authority,) +incontrovertible as far as it reaches; though it amazes me to find on +re-reading it, that, so late as 1851, I had only got the length of +perceiving the schism between sects of Protestants to be criminal, and +ridiculous, while I still supposed the schism between Protestants and +Catholics to be virtuous and sublime._ + +_The most valuable part of the whole is the analysis of governments, §§ +213-15; the passages on Church discipline, §§ 204-5, being also +anticipatory of much that I have to say in Fors, where I hope to +re-assert the substance of this pamphlet on wider grounds, and with more +modesty._ + + BRANTWOOD, + + _3rd August, 1875._ + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 137: This pamphlet was originally published in 1851, under the +title of "Notes on the Construction of Sheepfolds," by John Ruskin, +M.A., author of the "Seven Lamps of Architecture," etc. (Smith, Elder, & +Co.). A second edition, with an additional preface, followed in the same +year, after which the pamphlet remained out of print till 1875, when it +was reprinted in a third, erroneously called a second, edition (George +Allen, Sunnyside, Orpington, Kent).--ED.] + +[Footnote 138: London: 1846. Nisbet & Co., Berners Street.] + +[Footnote 139: London: 1847. T. K. Campbell, 1, Warwick Square.] + + + + +NOTES, + +ETC., ETC. + + +182. The following remarks were intended to form part of the appendix to +an essay on Architecture: but it seemed to me, when I had put them into +order, that they might be useful to persons who would not care to +possess the work to which I proposed to attach them: I publish them, +therefore, in a separate form; but I have not time to give them more +consistency than they would have had in the subordinate position +originally intended for them. I do not profess to teach Divinity, and I +pray the reader to understand this, and to pardon the slightness and +insufficiency of notes set down with no more intention of connected +treatment of their subject than might regulate an accidental +conversation. Some of them are simply copied from my private diary; +others are detached statements of facts, which seem to me significative +or valuable, without comment; all are written in haste, and in the +intervals of occupation with an entirely different subject. It may be +asked of me, whether I hold it right to speak thus hastily and +insufficiently respecting the matter in question? Yes. I hold it right +to _speak_ hastily; not to _think_ hastily. I have not thought hastily +of these things; and, besides, the haste of speech is confessed, that +the reader may think of me only as talking to him, and saying, as +shortly and simply as I can, things which, if he esteem them foolish or +idle, he is welcome to cast aside; but which, in very truth, I cannot +help saying at this time. + +183. The passages in the essay which required notes, described the +repression of the political power of the Venetian Clergy by the Venetian +Senate; and it became necessary for me--in supporting an assertion made +in the course of the inquiry, that the idea of separation of Church and +State was both vain and impious--to limit the sense in which it seemed +to me that the word "Church" should be understood, and to note one or +two consequences which would result from the acceptance of such +limitation. This I may as well do in a separate paper, readable by any +person interested in the subject; for it is high time that _some_ +definition of the word should be agreed upon. I do not mean a definition +involving the doctrine of this or that division of Christians, but +limiting, in a manner understood by all of them, the sense in which the +_word_ should thenceforward be used. There is grievous inconvenience in +the present state of things. For instance, in a sermon lately published +at Oxford, by an anti-Tractarian divine, I find this sentence,--"It is +clearly within the province of the State to establish a national +_church_, or _external institution of certain forms of worship_." Now +suppose one were to take this interpretation of the word "Church," given +by an Oxford divine, and substitute it for the simple word in some Bible +texts, as, for instance, "Unto the angel of the external institution of +certain forms of worship of Ephesus, write," etc. Or, "Salute the +brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the external +institution of certain forms of worship which is in his house,"--what +awkward results we should have, here and there! Now I do not say it is +possible for men to agree with each other in their religious _opinions_, +but it is certainly possible for them to agree with each other upon +their religious _expressions_; and when a word occurs in the Bible a +hundred and fourteen times, it is surely not asking too much of +contending divines to let it stand in the sense in which it there +occurs; and when they want an expression of something for which it does +_not_ stand in the Bible, to use some other word. There is no compromise +of religious opinion in this; it is simply proper respect for the +Queen's English. + +184. The word occurs in the New Testament, as I said, a hundred and +fourteen times.[140] In every one of those occurrences, it bears one +and the same grand sense: that of a congregation or assembly of men. But +it bears this sense under four different modifications, giving four +separate meanings to the word. These are-- + +I. The entire Multitude of the Elect; otherwise called the Body of +Christ; and sometimes the Bride, the Lamb's Wife; including the Faithful +in all ages;--Adam, and the children of Adam yet unborn. + +In this sense it is used in Ephesians v. 25, 27, 32; Colossians i. 18; +and several other passages. + +II. The entire multitude of professing believers in Christ, existing on +earth at a given moment; including false brethren, wolves in sheep's +clothing, goats and tares, as well as sheep and wheat, and other forms +of bad fish with good in the net. + +In this sense it is used in 1 Cor. x. 32, xv. 9; Galatians i. 13; 1 Tim. +iii. 5, etc. + +III. The multitude of professed believers, living in a certain city, +place, or house. This is the most frequent sense in which the word +occurs, as in Acts vii. 38, xiii. 1; 1 Cor. i. 2, xvi. 19, etc. + +IV. Any assembly of men: as in Acts xix. 32, 41. + +185. That in a hundred and twelve out of the hundred and fourteen texts, +the word bears some one of these four meanings, is indisputable.[141] +But there are two texts in which, if the word had alone occurred, its +meaning might have been doubtful. These are Matt. xvi. 18, and xviii. +17. + +The absurdity of founding any doctrine upon the inexpressibly minute +possibility that, in these two texts, the word might have been used with +a different meaning from that which it bore in all the others, coupled +with the assumption that the meaning was this or that, is self-evident: +it is not so much a religious error as a philological solecism; +unparalleled, so far as I know, in any other science but that of +divinity. + +Nor is it ever, I think, committed with open front by Protestants. No +English divine, asked in a straightforward manner for a Scriptural +definition of "the Church," would, I suppose, be bold enough to answer +"the Clergy." Nor is there any harm in the common use of the word, so +only that it be distinctly understood to be not the Scriptural one; and +therefore to be unfit for substitution in a Scriptural text. There is no +harm in a man's talking of his son's "going into the Church; "meaning +that he is going to take orders: but there is much harm in his supposing +this a Scriptural use of the word, and therefore, that when Christ said, +"Tell it to the Church," He might possibly have meant, "Tell it to the +Clergy." + +186. It is time to put an end to the chance of such misunderstanding. +Let it but be declared plainly by all men, when they begin to state +their opinions on matters ecclesiastical, that they will use the word +"Church" in one sense or the other;--that they will accept the sense in +which it is used by the Apostles, or that they deny this sense, and +propose a new definition of their own. We shall then know what we are +about with them--we may perhaps grant them their new use of the term, +and argue with them on that understanding; so only that they will not +pretend to make use of Scriptural authority, while they refuse to employ +Scriptural language. This, however, it is not my purpose to do at +present. I desire only to address those who are willing to accept the +Apostolic sense of the word Church; and with them, I would endeavor +shortly to ascertain what consequences must follow from an acceptance of +that Apostolic sense, and what must be our first and most necessary +conclusions from the common language of Scripture[142] respecting these +following points:-- + + (1) The distinctive characters of the Church, + (2) The Authority of the Church. + (3) The Authority of the Clergy over the Church. + (4) The Connection of the Church with the State. + +187. These are four separate subjects of question; but we shall not have +to put these questions in succession with each of the four Scriptural +meanings of the word Church, for evidently its second and third meaning +may be considered together, as merely expressing the general or +particular conditions of the Visible Church, and the fourth +signification is entirely independent of all questions of a religious +kind. So that we shall only put the above inquiries successively +respecting the Invisible and Visible Church; and as the two last--of +authority of Clergy, and connection with State--can evidently only have +reference to the Visible Church, we shall have, in all, these six +questions to consider:-- + + (1) The distinctive characters of the Invisible Church. + (2) The distinctive characters of the Visible Church. + (3) The Authority of the Invisible Church. + (4) The Authority of the Visible Church, + (5) The Authority of Clergy over the Visible Church. + (6) The Connection of the Visible Church with the State. + +188. (1) What are the distinctive characters of the Invisible Church? +That is to say, What is it which makes a person a member of this Church, +and how is he to be known for such? Wide question--if we had to take +cognizance of all that has been written respecting it, remarkable as it +has been always for quantity rather than carefulness, and full of +confusion between Visible and Invisible: even the Article of the Church +of England being ambiguous in its first clause: "The _Visible_ Church is +a congregation of Faithful men." As if ever it had been possible, except +for God, to see Faith, or to know a Faithful man by sight! And there is +little else written on this question, without some such quick confusion +of the Visible and Invisible Church;--needless and unaccountable +confusion. For evidently, the Church which is composed of Faithful men +is the one true, indivisible, and indiscernible Church, built on the +foundation of Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the +chief corner-stone. It includes all who have ever fallen asleep in +Christ, and all yet unborn, who are to be saved in Him: its Body is as +yet imperfect; it will not be perfected till the last saved human spirit +is gathered to its God. + +A man becomes a member of this Church only by believing in Christ with +all his heart; nor is he positively recognizable for a member of it, +when he has become so, by any one but God, not even by himself. +Nevertheless, there are certain signs by which Christ's sheep may be +guessed at. Not by their being in any definite Fold--for many are lost +sheep at times; but by their sheeplike behavior; and a great many are +indeed sheep, which, on the far mountain side, in their peacefulness, we +take for stones. To themselves, the best proof of their being Christ's +sheep is to find themselves on Christ's shoulders; and, between them, +there are certain sympathies (expressed in the Apostles' Creed by the +term "communion of Saints"), by which they may in a sort recognize each +other, and so become verily visible to each other for mutual comfort. + +189. (2) The Limits of the Visible Church, or of the Church in the +Second Scriptural Sense, are not so easy to define: they are awkward +questions, these, of stake-nets. It has been ingeniously and plausibly +endeavored to make Baptism a sign of admission into the Visible Church: +but absurdly enough; for we know that half the baptized people in the +world are very visible rogues, believing neither in God nor devil; and +it is flat blasphemy to call these Visible Christians; we also know that +the Holy Ghost was sometimes given before Baptism,[143] and it would be +absurdity to call a man, on whom the Holy Ghost had fallen, an Invisible +Christian. The only rational distinction is that which practically, +though not professedly, we always assume. If we hear a man profess +himself a believer in God and in Christ, and detect him in no glaring +and willful violation of God's law, we speak of him as a Christian; and, +on the other hand, if we hear him or see him denying Christ, either in +his words or conduct, we tacitly assume him not to be a Christian. A +mawkish charity prevents us from outspeaking in this matter, and from +earnestly endeavoring to discern who are Christians and who are not; and +this I hold[144] to be one of the chief sins of the Church in the +present day; for thus wicked men are put to no shame; and better men are +encouraged in their failings, or caused to hesitate in their virtues, by +the example of those whom, in false charity, they choose to call +Christians. Now, it being granted that it is impossible to know, +determinedly, who are Christians indeed, that is no reason for utter +negligence in separating the nominal, apparent, or possible Christian, +from the professed Pagan or enemy of God. We spend much time in arguing +about efficacy of sacraments and such other mysteries; but we do not act +upon the very certain tests which are clear and visible. We know that +Christ's people are not thieves--not liars--not busybodies--not +dishonest--not avaricious--not wasteful--not cruel. Let us then get +ourselves well clear of thieves--liars--wasteful people--avaricious +people--cheating people--people who do not pay their debts. Let us +assure them that they, at least, do not belong to the Visible Church; +and having thus got that Church into decent shape and cohesion, it will +be time to think of drawing the stake-nets closer. + +I hold it for a law, palpable to common sense, and which nothing but the +cowardice and faithlessness of the Church prevents it from putting in +practice, that the conviction of any dishonorable conduct or willful +crime, of any fraud, falsehood, cruelty, or violence, should be ground +for the excommunication of any man:--for his publicly declared +separation from the acknowledged body of the Visible Church: and that he +should not be received again therein without public confession of his +crime and declaration of his repentance. If this were vigorously +enforced, we should soon have greater purity of life in the world, and +fewer discussions about high and low churches. But before we can obtain +any idea of the manner in which such law could be enforced, we have to +consider the second respecting the Authority of the Church. Now +authority is twofold: to declare doctrine, and to enforce discipline; +and we have to inquire, therefore, in each kind,-- + +190. (3) What is the authority of the Invisible Church? Evidently, in +matters of doctrine, all members of the Invisible Church must have been, +and must ever be, at the time of their deaths, right in the points +essential to Salvation. But, (A), we cannot tell who _are_ members of +the Invisible Church. + +(B) We cannot collect evidence from death-beds in a clearly stated form. + +(C) We can collect evidence, in any form, only from some one or two out +of every sealed thousand of the Invisible Church. Elijah thought he was +alone in Israel; and yet there were seven thousand invisible ones around +him. Grant that we had Elijah's intelligence; and we could only +calculate on collecting one seven-thousandth part of the evidence or +opinions of the part of the Invisible Church living on earth at a given +moment: that is to say, the seven-millionth or trillionth of its +collective evidence. It is very clear, therefore, we cannot hope to get +rid of the contradictory opinions, and keep the consistent ones, by a +general equation. But, it has been said, these are no contradictory +opinions; the Church is infallible. There was some talk about the +infallibility of the Church, if I recollect right, in that letter of Mr. +Bennett's to the Bishop of London. If any Church is infallible, it is +assuredly the Invisible Church, or Body of Christ: and infallible in the +main sense it must of course be by its definition. An Elect person must +be saved, and therefore cannot eventually be deceived on essential +points: so that Christ says of the deception of such, "If it were +_possible_" implying it to be impossible. Therefore, as we said, if one +could get rid of the variable opinions of the members of the Invisible +Church, the constant opinions would assuredly be authoritative: but, for +the three reasons above stated, we cannot get at their constant +opinions: and as for the feelings and thoughts which they daily +experience or express, the question of Infallibility -which is practical +only in this bearing--is soon settled. Observe, St. Paul, and the rest +of the Apostles, write nearly all their epistles to the Invisible +Church:--those epistles are headed,--Romans, "To the beloved of God, +called to be saints; "1 Corinthians, "To them that are sanctified in +Christ Jesus; "2 Corinthians, "To the saints in all Achaia;" Ephesians, +"To the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ +Jesus; "Philippians, "To all the saints which are at Philippi; +"Colossians, "To the saints and faithful brethren which are at Colosse;" +1 and 2 Thessalonians, "To the Church of the Thessalonians, which is +in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus; "1 and 2 Timothy, "To his own son +in the faith; "Titus, to the same; 1 Peter, "To the Strangers, Elect +according to the foreknowledge of God;" 2 Peter, "To them that have +obtained like precious faith with us; " 2 John, "To the Elect lady; " +Jude, " To them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in +Jesus Christ, and called." + +191. There are thus fifteen epistles, expressly directed to the members +of the Invisible Church. Philemon and Hebrews, and 1 and 3 John, are +evidently also so written, though not so expressly inscribed. That of +James, and that to the Galatians, are as evidently to the Visible +Church: the one being general, and the other to persons "removed from +Him that called them." Missing out, therefore, these two epistles, but +including Christ's words to His disciples, we find in the Scriptural +addresses to members of the Invisible Church, fourteen, if not more, +direct injunctions "not to be deceived."[145] So much for the +"Infallibility of the Church." + +Now, one could put up with Puseyism more patiently, if its fallacies +arose merely from peculiar temperaments yielding to peculiar +temptations. But its bold refusals to read plain English; its elaborate +adjustments of tight bandages over its own eyes, as wholesome +preparation for a walk among traps and pitfalls; its daring trustfulness +in its own clairvoyance all the time, and declarations that every pit it +falls into is a seventh heaven; and that it is pleasant and profitable +to break its legs;--with all this it is difficult to have patience. One +thinks of the highwayman with his eyes shut in the "Arabian Nights"; and +wonders whether any kind of scourging would prevail upon the Anglican +highwayman to open "first one and then the other." + +192. (4) So much, then, I repeat, for the infallibility of the +_In_visible Church, and for its consequent authority. Now, if we want to +ascertain what infallibility and authority there is in the Visible +Church, we have to alloy the small wisdom and the light weight of +Invisible Christians, with the large percentage of the false wisdom and +contrary weight of Undetected Anti-Christians. Which alloy makes up the +current coin of opinions in the Visible Church, having such value as we +may choose--its nature being properly assayed--to attach to it. + +There is, therefore, in matters of doctrine, _no such thing_ as the +Authority of the Church. We might as well talk of the authority of a +morning cloud. There may be light _in_ it, but the light is not of it; +and it diminishes the light that it gets; and lets less of it through +than it receives, Christ being its sun. Or, we might as well talk of the +authority of a flock of sheep--for the Church is a body to be taught and +fed, not to teach and feed: and of all sheep that are fed on the earth, +Christ's Sheep are the most simple, (the children of this generation are +wiser): always losing themselves; doing little else in this world _but_ +lose themselves;--never finding themselves; always found by Some One +else; getting perpetually into sloughs, and snows, and bramble thickets, +like to die there, but for their Shepherd, who is forever finding them +and bearing them back, with torn fleeces and eyes full of fear. + +193. This, then, being the No-Authority of the Church in matter of +Doctrine, what Authority has it in matters of Discipline? + +Much, every way. The sheep have natural and wholesome power (however far +scattered they may be from their proper fold) of getting together in +orderly knots; following each other on trodden sheepwalks, and holding +their heads all one way when they see strange dogs coming; as well as of +casting out of their company any whom they see reason to suspect of not +being right sheep, and being among them for no good. All which things +must be done as the time and place require, and by common consent. A +path may be good at one time of day which is bad at another, or after a +change of wind; and a position may be very good for sudden defense, +which would be very stiff and awkward for feeding in. And common consent +must often be of such and such a company on this or that hillside, in +this or that particular danger,--not of all the sheep in the world: and +the consent may either be literally common, and expressed in assembly, +or it may be to appoint officers over the rest, with such and such +trusts of the common authority, to be used for the common advantage. +Conviction of crimes, and excommunication, for instance, could neither +be effected except before, or by means of, officers of some appointed +authority. + +194. (5) This then brings us to our fifth question. What is the +Authority of the Clergy over the Church? + +The first clause of the question must evidently be,--Who _are_ the +Clergy? And it is not easy to answer this without begging the rest of +the question. + +For instance, I think I can hear certain people answering, that the +Clergy are folk of three kinds;--Bishops, who overlook the Church; +Priests, who sacrifice for the Church; Deacons, who minister to the +Church: thus assuming in their answer, that the Church is to be +sacrificed _for_, and that the people cannot overlook and minister to +her at the same time;--which is going much too fast. I think, however, +if we define the Clergy to be the "Spiritual Officers of the +Church,"--meaning, by Officers, merely People in office,--we shall have +a title safe enough and general enough to begin with, and corresponding +too, pretty well, with St. Paul's general expression [Greek: +proistamenoi], in Rom. xii. 8, and 1 Thess. v. 13. + +Now, respecting these Spiritual Officers, or office-bearers, we have to +inquire, first, What their Office or Authority is, or should be? +secondly, Who gave, or should give, them that Authority? That is to say, +first, What is, or should be, the _nature_ of their office? and +secondly, What the _extent_, or force, of their authority in it? for +this last depends mainly on its derivation. + +195. First, then, What should be the offices, and of what kind should be +the authority, of the Clergy? + +I have hitherto referred to the Bible for an answer to every question. I +do so again; and, behold, the Bible gives me no answer. I defy you to +answer me from the Bible. You can only guess, and dimly conjecture, what +the offices of the Clergy _were_ in the first century. You cannot show +me a single command as to what they shall be. Strange, this; the Bible +gives no answer to so apparently important a question! God surely would +not have left His word without an answer to anything His children ought +to ask. Surely it must be a ridiculous question--a question we ought +never to have put, or thought of putting. Let us think of it again a +little. To be sure,--It _is_ a ridiculous question, and we should be +ashamed of ourselves for having put it:--What should be the offices of +the Clergy? That is to say, What are the possible spiritual necessities +which at any time may arise in the Church, and by what means and men are +they to be supplied?--evidently an infinite question. Different kinds of +necessities must be met by different authorities, constituted as the +necessities arise. Robinson Crusoe, in his island, wants no Bishop, and +makes a thunderstorm do for an Evangelist. The University of Oxford +would be ill off without its Bishop; but wants an Evangelist besides; +and that forthwith. The authority which the Vaudois shepherds need is of +Barnabas, the Son of Consolation; the authority which the city of London +needs is of James, the Son of Thunder. Let us then alter the form of our +question, and put it to the Bible thus: What are the necessities most +likely to arise in the Church? and may they be best met by different +men, or in great part by the same men acting in different capacities? +and are the names attached to their offices of any consequence? Ah, the +Bible answers now, and that loudly. The Church is built on the +Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the +corner-stone. Well; we cannot have two foundations, so we can have no +more Apostles nor Prophets:--then, as for the other needs of the Church +in its edifying upon this foundation, there are all manner of things to +be done daily;--rebukes to be given; comfort to be brought; Scripture to +be explained; warning to be enforced; threatenings to be executed; +charities to be administered; and the men who do these things are +called, and call themselves, with absolute indifference, Deacons, +Bishops, Elders, Evangelists, according to what they are doing at the +time of speaking. St. Paul almost always calls himself a deacon, St. +Peter calls himself an elder, 1 Peter v. 1; and Timothy, generally +understood to be addressed as a bishop, is called a deacon in 1 Tim. iv. +6--forbidden to rebuke an elder, in v. 1, and exhorted to do the work of +an evangelist, in 2 Tim. iv. 5. But there is one thing which, as +officers, or as separate from the rest of the flock, they _never_ call +themselves,--which it would have been impossible, as so separate, they +ever _should_ have called themselves; that is--_Priests_. + +196. It would have been just as possible for the Clergy of the early +Church to call themselves Levites, as to call themselves (ex-officio) +Priests. The whole function of Priesthood was, on Christmas morning, at +once and forever gathered into His Person who was born at Bethlehem; and +thenceforward, all who are united with Him, and who with Him make +sacrifice of themselves; that is to say, all members of the Invisible +Church become, at the instant of their conversion, Priests; and are so +called in 1 Peter ii. 5, and Rev. i. 6, and xx. 6, where, observe, there +is no possibility of limiting the expression to the Clergy; the +conditions of Priesthood being simply having been loved by Christ, and +washed in His blood. The blasphemous claim on the part of the Clergy of +being _more_ Priests than the godly laity--that is to say, of having a +higher Holiness than the Holiness of being one with Christ,--is +altogether a Romanist heresy, dragging after it, or having its origin +in, the other heresies respecting the sacrificial power of the Church +officer, and his repeating the oblation of Christ, and so having power +to absolve from sin:--with all the other endless and miserable +falsehoods of the Papal hierarchy; falsehoods for which, that there +might be no shadow of excuse, it has been ordained by the Holy Spirit +that no Christian minister shall once call himself a Priest from one end +of the New Testament to the other, except together with his flock; and +so far from the idea of any peculiar sanctification, belonging to the +Clergy, ever entering the Apostles' minds, we actually find St. Paul +defending himself against the possible imputation of inferiority: "If +any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think +this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's" (2 Cor. x. +7). As for the unhappy retention of the term Priest in our English +Prayer-book, so long as it was understood to mean nothing but an upper +order of Church officer, licensed to tell the congregation from the +reading-desk, what (for the rest) they might, one would think, have +known without being told,--that "God pardoneth all them that truly +repent,"--there was little harm in it; but, now that this order of +Clergy begins to presume upon a title which, if it mean anything at all, +is simply short for Presbyter, and has no more to do with the word +Hiereus than with the word Levite, it is time that some order should be +taken both with the book and the Clergy. For instance, in that dangerous +compound of halting poetry with hollow Divinity, called the "Lyra +Apostolica," we find much versification on the sin of Korah and his +company: with suggested parallel between the Christian and Levitical +Churches, and threatening that there are "Judgment Fires, for +high-voiced Korahs in their day." There are indeed such fires. But when +Moses said, "a Prophet shall the Lord raise up unto you, like unto me," +did he mean the writer who signs [Greek: g] in the "Lyra Apostolica"? +The office of the Lawgiver and Priest is now forever gathered into One +Mediator between God and man; and THEY are guilty of the sin of Korah +who blasphemously would associate themselves in His Mediatorship. + +197. As for the passages in the "Ordering of Priests" and "Visitation of +the Sick" respecting Absolution, they are evidently pure Romanism, and +might as well not be there, for any practical effect which they have on +the consciences of the Laity; and had much better not be there, as +regards their effect on the minds of the Clergy. It is indeed true that +Christ promised absolving powers to His Apostles: He also promised to +those who believed, that they should take up serpents; and if they drank +any deadly thing, it should not hurt them. His words were fulfilled +literally; but those who would extend their force to beyond the +Apostolic times, must extend both promises or neither. + +Although, however, the Protestant laity do not often admit the absolving +power of their clergy, they are but too apt to yield, in some sort, to +the impression of their greater sanctification; and from this instantly +results the unhappy consequence that the sacred character of the Layman +himself is forgotten, and his own Ministerial duty is neglected. Men +not in office in the Church suppose themselves, on that ground, in a +sort unholy; and that, therefore, they may sin with more excuse, and be +idle or impious with less danger, than the Clergy: especially they +consider themselves relieved from all ministerial function, and as +permitted to devote their whole time and energy to the business of this +world. No mistake can possibly be greater. Every member of the Church is +equally bound to the service of the Head of the Church; and that service +is pre-eminently the saving of souls. There is not a moment of a man's +active life in which he may not be indirectly preaching; and throughout +a great part of his life he ought to be _directly_ preaching, and +teaching both strangers and friends; his children, his servants, and all +who in any way are put under him, being given to him as special objects +of his ministration. So that the only difference between a Church +officer and a lay member is either a wider degree of authority given to +the former, as apparently a wiser and better man, or a special +appointment to some office more easily discharged by one person than by +many: as, for instance, the serving of tables by the deacons; the +authority or appointment being, in either case, commonly signified by a +marked separation from the rest of the Church, and the privilege or +power[146] of being maintained by the rest of the Church, without being +forced to labor with his hands, or incumber himself with any temporal +concerns. + +198. Now, putting out of the question the serving of tables, and other +such duties, respecting which there is no debate, we shall find the +offices of the Clergy, whatever names we may choose to give to those who +discharge them, falling mainly into two great heads:--Teaching; +including doctrine, warning, and comfort: Discipline; including reproof +and direct administration of punishment. Either of which functions would +naturally become vested in single persons, to the exclusion of others, +as a mere matter of convenience: whether those persons were wiser and +better than others or not; and respecting each of which, and the +authority required for its fitting discharge, a short inquiry must be +separately made. + +199. I. Teaching.--It appears natural and wise that certain men should +be set apart from the rest of the Church that they may make Theology the +study of their lives: and that they should be thereto instructed +specially in the Hebrew and Greek tongues; and have entire leisure +granted them for the study of the Scriptures, and for obtaining general +knowledge of the grounds of Faith, and best modes of its defense against +all heretics: and it seems evidently right, also, that with this +Scholastic duty should be joined the Pastoral duty of constant +visitation and exhortation to the people; for, clearly, the Bible, and +the truths of Divinity in general, can only be understood rightly in +their practical application; and clearly, also, a man spending his time +constantly in spiritual ministrations, must be better able, on any given +occasion, to deal powerfully with the human heart than one unpracticed +in such matters. The unity of Knowledge and Love, both devoted +altogether to the service of Christ and His Church, marks the true +Christian Minister; who, I believe, whenever he has existed, has never +failed to receive due and fitting reverence from all men,--of whatever +character or opinion; and I believe that if all those who profess to be +such were such indeed, there would never be question of their authority +more. + +200. But, whatever influence they may have over the Church, their +authority never supersedes that of either the intellect or the +conscience of the simplest of its lay members. They can assist those +members in the search for truth, or comfort their over-worn and doubtful +minds; they can even assure them that they are in the way of truth, or +that pardon is within their reach: but they can neither manifest the +truth, nor grant the pardon. Truth is to be discovered, and Pardon to be +won, for every man by himself. This is evident from innumerable texts of +Scripture, but chiefly from those which exhort every man to seek after +Truth, and which connect knowing with doing. We are to seek after +knowledge as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures; therefore, +from every man she must be naturally hid, and the discovery of her is +to be the reward only of personal search. The kingdom of God is as +treasure hid in a field; and of those who profess to help us to seek for +it, we are not to put confidence in those who say,--Here is the +treasure, we have found it, and have it, and will give you some of it; +but in those who say,--We think that is a good place to dig, and you +will dig most easily in such and such a way. + +201. Farther, it has been promised that if such earnest search be made, +Truth shall be discovered: as much truth, that is, as is necessary for +the person seeking. These, therefore, I hold, for two fundamental +principles of religion,--that, without seeking, truth cannot be known at +all; and that, by seeking, it may be discovered by the simplest. I say, +without seeking it cannot be known at all. It can neither be declared +from pulpits, nor set down in Articles, nor in anywise "prepared and +sold" in packages, ready for use. Truth must be ground for every man by +himself out of its husk, with such help as he can get, indeed, but not +without stern labor of his own. In what science is knowledge to be had +cheap? or truth to be told over a velvet cushion, in half an hour's talk +every seventh day? Can you learn chemistry so?--zoology?--anatomy? and +do you expect to penetrate the secret of all secrets, and to know that +whose price is above rubies; and of which the depth saith,--It is not in +me,--in so easy fashion? There are doubts in this matter which evil +spirits darken with their wings, and that is true of all such doubts +which we were told long ago--they can "be ended by action alone."[147] + +202. As surely as we live, this truth of truths can only so be +discerned: to those who act on what they know, more shall be revealed; +and thus, if any man will do His will, he shall know the doctrine +whether it be of God. Any man,--not the man who has most means of +knowing, who has the subtlest brains, or sits under the most orthodox +preacher, or has his library fullest of most orthodox books,--but the +man who strives to know, who takes God at His word, and sets himself to +dig up the heavenly mystery, roots and all, before sunset, and the night +come, when no man can work. Beside such a man, God stands in more and +more visible presence as he toils, and teaches him that which no +preacher can teach--no earthly authority gainsay. By such a man, the +preacher must himself be judged. + +203. Doubt you this? There is nothing more certain nor clear throughout +the Bible: the Apostles themselves appeal constantly to their flocks, +and actually _claim_ judgment from them, as deserving it, and having a +right to it, rather than discouraging it. But, first notice the way in +which the discovery of truth is spoken of in the Old Testament: "Evil +men understand not judgment; but they that seek the Lord understand all +things," Proverbs xxviii. 5. God overthroweth, not merely the +transgressor or the wicked, but even "the words of the transgressor," +Proverbs xxii. 12, and "the counsel of the wicked," Job v. 13, xxi. 16; +observe again, in Proverbs xxiv. 14, "My son, eat thou honey, because it +is good--so shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul, when thou +hast _found it_, there shall be a reward;" and again, "What man is he +that feareth the Lord? him shall He teach in the way that He shall +choose;" so Job xxxii. 8, and multitudes of places more; and then, with +all these places, which express the definite and personal operation of +the Spirit of God on every one of His people, compare the place in +Isaiah, which speaks of the contrary of this human teaching: a passage +which seems as if it had been written for this very day and hour. +"Because their fear towards me is taught by the _precept of men_; +therefore, behold, the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the +understanding of their prudent men shall be hid" (xxix. 13,14). Then +take the New Testament, and observe how St. Paul himself speaks of the +Romans, even as hardly needing his epistle, but able to admonish one +another: "_Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto +you in some sort, as putting you in mind_" (xv. 15). Anyone, we should +have thought, might have done as much as this, and yet St. Paul +increases the modesty of it as he goes on; for he claims the right of +doing as much as this, only "because of the grace given to me of God, +that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles." Then +compare 2 Cor. v. 11, where he appeals to the consciences of the people +for the manifestation of his having done his duty; and observe in verse +21 of that, and I of the next chapter, the "pray" and "beseech," not +"command"; and again in chapter vi. verse 4, "approving ourselves as the +ministers of God." But the most remarkable passage of all is 2 Cor. iii. +1, whence it appears that the churches were actually in the habit of +giving letters of recommendation to their ministers; and St. Paul +dispenses with such letters, not by virtue of his Apostolic authority, +but because the power of his preaching was enough manifested in the +Corinthians themselves. And these passages are all the more forcible, +because if in any of them St. Paul had claimed absolute authority over +the Church as a teacher, it was no more than we should have expected him +to claim, nor could his doing so have in anywise justified a successor +in the same claim. But now that he has not claimed it,--who, +following him, shall dare to claim it? And the consideration of the +necessity of joining expressions of the most exemplary humility, which +were to be the example of succeeding ministers, with such assertion of +Divine authority as should secure acceptance for the epistle itself in +the sacred canon, sufficiently accounts for the apparent inconsistencies +which occur in 2 Thess. iii. 14, and other such texts. + +204. So much, then, for the authority of the Clergy in matters of +Doctrine. Next, what is their authority in matters of Discipline? It +must evidently be very great, even if it were derived from the people +alone, and merely vested in the clerical officers as the executors of +their ecclesiastical judgments, and general overseers of all the Church. +But granting, as we must presently, the minister to hold office directly +from God, his authority of discipline becomes very great indeed; how +great, it seems to me most difficult to determine, because I do not +understand what St. Paul means by "delivering a man to Satan for the +destruction of the flesh." Leaving this question, however, as much too +hard for casual examination, it seems indisputable that the authority of +the Ministers or court of Ministers should extend to the pronouncing a +man Excommunicate for certain crimes against the Church, as well as for +all crimes punishable by ordinary law. There ought, I think, to be an +ecclesiastical code of laws; and a man ought to have jury trial, +according to this code, before an ecclesiastical judge; in which, if he +were found guilty, as of lying, or dishonesty, or cruelty, much more of +any actually committed violent crime, he should be pronounced +excommunicate; refused the Sacrament; and have his name written in some +public place as an excommunicate person until he had publicly confessed +his sin and besought pardon of God for it. The jury should always be of +the laity, and no penalty should be enforced in an ecclesiastical court +except this of excommunication. + +205. This proposal may seem strange to many persons; but assuredly this, +if not much more than this, is commanded in Scripture, first in the +(much-abused) text, "Tell it unto the Church;" and most clearly in 1 +Cor. v. 11-13; 2 Thess. iii. 6 and 14; 1 Tim. v. 8 and 20; and Titus +iii. 10; from which passages we also know the two proper degrees of the +penalty. For Christ says, Let him who refuses to hear the Church, "be +unto thee as an heathen man and a publican," But Christ ministered to +the heathen, and sat at meat with the publican; only always with +declared or implied expression of their inferiority; here, therefore, is +one degree of excommunication for persons who "offend" their brethren, +committing some minor fault against them; and who, having been +pronounced in error by the body of the Church, refuse to confess their +fault or repair it; who are then to be no longer considered members of +the Church; and their recovery to the body of it is to be sought exactly +as it would be in the case of an heathen. But covetous persons, railers, +extortioners, idolaters, and those guilty of other gross crimes, are to +be entirely cut off from the company of the believers; and we are not so +much as to eat with them. This last penalty, however, would require to +be strictly guarded, that it might not be abused in the infliction of +it, as it has been by the Romanists. We are not, indeed, to eat with +them, but we may exercise all Christian charity towards them, and give +them to eat, if we see them in hunger, as we ought to all our enemies; +only we are to consider them distinctly as our _enemies_: that is to +say, enemies of our Master, Christ; and servants of Satan. + +206. As for the rank or name of the officers in whom the authorities, +either of teaching or discipline, are to be vested, they are left +undetermined by Scripture. I have heard it said by men who know their +Bible far better than I, that careful examination may detect evidence of +the existence of three orders of Clergy in the Church. This may be; but +one thing is very clear, without any laborious examination, that +"bishop" and "elder" sometimes mean the same thing; as, indisputably, in +Titus i. 5 and 7, and I Peter v. I and 2, and that the office of the +bishop or overseer was one of considerably less importance than it is +with us. This is palpably evident from I Timothy iii., for what divine +among us, writing of episcopal proprieties, would think of saying that +bishops "must not be given to wine," must be "no strikers," and must not +be "novices"? We are not in the habit of making bishops of novices in +these days; and it would be much better that, like the early Church, we +sometimes ran the risk of doing so; for the fact is we have not bishops +enough--by some hundreds. The idea of overseership has been practically +lost sight of, its fulfillment having gradually become physically +impossible, for want of more bishops. The duty of a bishop is, without +doubt, to be accessible to the humblest clergymen of his diocese, and to +desire very earnestly that all of them should be in the habit of +referring to him in all cases of difficulty; if they do not do this of +their own accord, it is evidently his duty to visit them, live with them +sometimes, and join in their ministrations to their flocks, so as to +know exactly the capacities and habits of life of each; and if any of +them complained of this or that difficulty with their congregations, the +bishop should be ready to go down to help them, preach for them, write +general epistles to their people, and so on: besides this, he should of +course be watchful of their errors--ready to hear complaints from their +congregations of inefficiency or aught else; besides having general +superintendence of all the charitable institutions and schools in his +diocese, and good knowledge of whatever was going on in theological +matters, both all over the kingdom and on the Continent. This is the +work of a right overseer; and I leave the reader to calculate how many +additional bishops--and those hard-working men, too--we should need +to have it done, even decently. Then our present bishops might all +become archbishops with advantage, and have general authority over the +rest.[148] + +207. As to the mode in which the officers of the Church should be +elected or appointed, I do not feel it my business to say anything at +present, nor much respecting the extent of their authority, either over +each other or over the congregation, this being a most difficult +question, the right solution of which evidently lies between two most +dangerous extremes--insubordination and radicalism on one hand, and +ecclesiastical tyranny and heresy on the other: of the two, +insubordination is far the least to be dreaded--for this reason, that +nearly all real Christians are more on the watch against their pride +than their indolence, and would sooner obey their clergyman, if +possible, than contend with him; while the very pride they suppose +conquered often returns masked, and causes them to make a merit of their +humility and their abstract obedience, however unreasonable: but they +cannot so easily persuade themselves there is a merit in abstract +_dis_obedience. + +208. Ecclesiastical tyranny has, for the most part, founded itself on +the idea of Vicarianism, one of the most pestilent of the Romanist +theories, and most plainly denounced in Scripture. Of this I have a word +or two to say to the modern "Vicarian." All powers that be are +unquestionably ordained of God; so that they that resist the Power, +resist the ordinance of God. Therefore, say some in these offices, We, +being ordained of God, and having our credentials, and being in the +English Bible called ambassadors for God, do, in a sort, represent God. +We are Vicars of Christ, and stand on earth in place of Christ. I have +heard this said by Protestant clergymen. + +209. Now the word ambassador has a peculiar ambiguity about it, owing to +its use in modern political affairs; and these clergymen assume that the +word, as used by St. Paul, means an Ambassador Plenipotentiary; +representative of his King, and capable of acting for his King. What +right have they to assume that St. Paul meant this? St. Paul never uses +the word ambassador at all. He says, simply, "We are in embassage from +Christ; and Christ beseeches you through us." Most true. And let it +further be granted, that every word that the clergyman speaks is +literally dictated to him by Christ; that he can make no mistake in +delivering his message; and that, therefore, it is indeed Christ +Himself who speaks to us the word of life through the messenger's lips. +Does, therefore, the messenger represent Christ? Does the channel which +conveys the waters of the Fountain represent the Fountain itself? +Suppose, when we went to draw water at a cistern, that all at once the +Leaden Spout should become animated, and open its mouth and say to us, +See, I am Vicarious for the Fountain. Whatever respect you show to the +Fountain, show some part of it to me. Should we not answer the Spout, +and say, Spout, you were set there for our service, and may be taken +away and thrown aside[149] if anything goes wrong with you? But the +Fountain will flow forever. + +210. Observe, I do not deny a most solemn authority vested in every +Christian messenger from God to men. I am prepared to grant this to the +uttermost; and all that George Herbert says, in the end of "The +Church-porch," I would enforce, at another time than this, to the +uttermost. But the Authority is simply that of a King's _Messenger_; not +of a King's _Representative_. There is a wide difference; all the +difference between humble service and blasphemous usurpation. + +Well, the congregation might ask, grant him a King's messenger in cases +of doctrine,--in cases of discipline, an officer bearing the King's +Commission. How far are we to obey him? How far is it lawful to dispute +his commands? + +For, in granting, above, that the Messenger always gave his message +faithfully, I granted too much to my adversaries, in order that their +argument might have all the weight it possibly could. The Messengers +rarely deliver their message faithfully; and sometimes have declared, as +from the King, messages of their own invention. How far are we, knowing +them for King's messengers, to believe or obey them? + +211. Suppose, for instance, in our English army, on the eve of some +great battle, one of the colonels were to give his order to his +regiment: "My men, tie your belts over your eyes, throw down your +muskets, and follow me as steadily as you can, through this marsh, into +the middle of the enemy's line," (this being precisely the order issued +by our Puseyite Church officers). It might be questioned, in the real +battle, whether it would be better that a regiment should show an +example of insubordination, or be cut to pieces. But happily in the +Church there is no such difficulty; for the King is always with His +army: not only with His army, but at the right hand of every soldier of +it. Therefore, if any of their colonels give them a strange command, all +they have to do is to ask the King; and never yet any Christian asked +guidance of his King, in any difficulty whatsoever, without mental +reservation or secret resolution, but he had it forthwith. We conclude +then, finally, that the authority of the Clergy is, in matters of +discipline, large (being executive, first, of the written laws of God, +and secondly, of those determined and agreed upon by the body of the +Church), in matters of doctrine, dependent on their recommending +themselves to every man's conscience, both as messengers of God, and as +themselves men of God, perfect, and instructed to good works.[150] + +212. (6) The last subject which we had to investigate was, it will be +remembered, what is usually called the connection of "Church and State." +But, by our definition of the term Church, throughout the whole of +Christendom, the Church (or society of professing Christians) _is_ the +State, and our subject is therefore, properly speaking, the connection +of lay and clerical officers of the Church; that is to say, the degrees +in which the civil and ecclesiastical governments ought to interfere +with or influence each other. + +It would of course be vain to attempt a formal inquiry into this +intricate subject;--I have only a few detached points to notice +respecting it. + +213. There are three degrees or kinds of civil government. The first and +lowest, executive merely; the government in this sense being simply the +National Hand, and composed of individuals who administer the laws of +the nation, and execute its established purposes. + +The second kind of government is deliberative; but in its deliberation, +representative only of the thoughts and will of the people or nation, +and liable to be deposed the instant it ceases to express those thoughts +and that will. This, whatever its form, whether centered in a king or in +any number of men, is properly to be called Democratic. The third and +highest kind of government is deliberative, not as representative of the +people, but as chosen to take separate counsel for them, and having +power committed to it, to enforce upon them whatever resolution it may +adopt, whether consistent with their will or not. This government is +properly to be called Monarchical, whatever its form. + +214. I see that politicians and writers of history continually run into +hopeless error, because they confuse the Form of a Government with its +Nature. A Government may be nominally vested in an individual; and yet +if that individual be in such fear of those beneath him, that he does +nothing but what he supposes will be agreeable to them, the Government +is Democratic; on the other hand, the Government may be vested in a +deliberative assembly of a thousand men, all having equal authority, and +all chosen from the lowest ranks of the people; and yet if that assembly +act independently of the will of the people, and have no fear of them, +and enforce its determinations upon them, the Government is Monarchical; +that is to say, the Assembly, acting as One, has power over the Many, +while in the case of the weak king, the Many have power over the One. + +A Monarchical Government, acting for its own interest, instead of the +people's, is a tyranny. I said the Executive Government was the hand of +the nation:--the Republican Government is in like manner its tongue. +The Monarchical Government is its head. + +All true and right government is Monarchical, and of the head. What is +its best form, is a totally different question; but unless it act _for_ +the people, and not as representative of the people, it is no government +at all; and one of the grossest blockheadisms of the English in the +present day, is their idea of sending men to Parliament to "represent +_their_ opinions." Whereas their only true business is to find out the +wisest men among them, and send them to Parliament to represent their +_own_ opinions, and act upon them. Of all puppet-shows in the Satanic +Carnival of the earth, the most contemptible puppet-show is a Parliament +with a mob pulling the strings. + +215. Now, of these three states of Government, it is clear that the +merely executive can have no proper influence over ecclesiastical +affairs. But of the other two, the first, being the voice of the people, +or voice of the Church, must have such influence over the Clergy as is +properly vested in the body of the Church. The second, which stands in +the same relation to the people as a father does to his family, will +have such farther influence over ecclesiastical matters, as a father has +over the consciences of his adult children. No absolute authority, +therefore, to enforce their attendance at any particular place of +worship, or subscription to any particular Creed. But indisputable +authority to procure for them such religious instruction as he deems +fittest,[151] and to recommend it to them by every means in his power; +he not only has authority, but is under obligation to do this, as well +as to establish such disciplines and forms of worship in his house as he +deems most convenient for his family: with which they are indeed at +liberty to refuse compliance, if such disciplines appear to them clearly +opposed to the law of God; but not without most solemn conviction of +their being so, nor without deep sorrow to be compelled to such a +course. + +216. But it may be said, the Government of a people never does stand to +them in the relation of a father to his family. If it do not, it is no +Government. However grossly it may fail in its duty, and however little +it may be fitted for its place, if it be a Government at all, it has +paternal office and relation to the people. I find it written on the one +hand,--"Honor thy Father; "on the other,--"Honor the King:" on the one +hand,--"Whoso smiteth his Father, shall be put to death;"[152] on the +other,--"They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." Well, +but, it may be farther argued, the Clergy are in a still more solemn +sense the Fathers of the People, and the People are their beloved Sons; +why should not, therefore, the Clergy have the power to govern the civil +officers? + +217. For two very clear reasons. + +In all human institutions certain evils are granted, as of necessity; +and, in organizing such institutions, we must allow for the consequences +of such evils, and make arrangements such as may best keep them in +check. Now, in both the civil and ecclesiastical governments there will +of necessity be a certain number of bad men. The wicked civilian has +comparatively little interest in overthrowing ecclesiastical authority; +it is often a useful help to him, and presents in itself little which +seems covetable. But the wicked ecclesiastical officer has much interest +in overthrowing the civilian, and getting the political power into his +own hands. As far as wicked men are concerned, therefore, it is better +that the State should have power over the Clergy, than the Clergy over +the State. + +Secondly, supposing both the Civil and Ecclesiastical officers to be +Christians; there is no fear that the civil officer should underrate the +dignity or shorten the serviceableness of the minister; but there is +considerable danger that the religious enthusiasm of the minister might +diminish the serviceableness of the civilian. (The History of Religious +Enthusiasm should be written by someone who had a life to give to its +investigation; it is one of the most melancholy pages in human records, +and one of the most necessary to be studied.) Therefore, as far as good +men are concerned, it is better the State should have power over the +Clergy than the Clergy over the State. + +218. This we might, it seems to me, conclude by unassisted reason. But +surely the whole question is, without any need of human reason, decided +by the history of Israel. If ever a body of Clergy should have received +independent authority, the Levitical Priesthood should; for they were +indeed a Priesthood, and more holy than the rest of the nation. But +Aaron is always subject to Moses. All solemn revelation is made to +Moses, the civil magistrate, and he actually commands Aaron as to the +fulfillment of his priestly office, and that in a necessity of life and +death: "Go, and make an atonement for the people." Nor is anything more +remarkable throughout the whole of the Jewish history than the perfect +subjection of the Priestly to the Kingly Authority. Thus Solomon thrusts +out Abiathar from being priest, I Kings ii. 27; and Jehoahaz administers +the funds of the Lord's House, 2 Kings xii. 4, though that money was +actually the Atonement Money, the Hansom for Souls (Exod. xxx. 12). + +219. We have, however, also the beautiful instance of Samuel uniting in +himself the offices of Priest, Prophet, and Judge; nor do I insist on +any special manner of subjection of Clergy to civil officers, or _vice +versâ_; but only on the necessity of their perfect unity and influence +upon each other in every Christian kingdom. Those who endeavor to effect +the utter separation of ecclesiastical and civil officers, are striving, +on the one hand, to expose the Clergy to the most grievous and most +subtle of temptations from their own spiritual enthusiasm and spiritual +pride; on the other, to deprive the civil officer of all sense of +religious responsibility, and to introduce the fearful, godless, +conscienceless, and soulless policy of the Radical and the (so-called) +Socialist. Whereas, the ideal of all government is the perfect unity of +the two bodies of officers, each supporting and correcting the other; +the Clergy having due weight in all the national councils; the civil +officers having a solemn reverence for God in all their acts; the Clergy +hallowing all worldly policy by their influence; and the magistracy +repressing all religious enthusiasm by their practical wisdom. To +separate the two is to endeavor to separate the daily life of the nation +from God, and to map out the dominion of the soul into two +provinces--one of Atheism, the other of Enthusiasm. These, then, were +the reasons which caused me to speak of the idea of separation of Church +and State as Fatuity; for what Fatuity can be so great as the not having +God in our thoughts; and, in any act or office of life, saying in our +hearts, "There is no God"? + +220. Much more I would fain say of these things, but not now: this only +I must emphatically assert, in conclusion:--That the schism between the +so-called Evangelical and High Church Parties in Britain, is enough to +shake many men's faith in the truth or existence of Religion at all. It +seems to me one of the most disgraceful scenes in Ecclesiastical +history, that Protestantism should be paralyzed at its very heart by +jealousies, based on little else than mere difference between high and +low breeding. For the essential differences in the religious opinions of +the two parties are sufficiently marked in two men whom we may take as +the highest representatives of each--George Herbert and John Milton; and +I do not think there would have been much difficulty in atoning those +two, if one could have got them together. But the real difficulty, +nowadays, lies in the sin and folly of both parties; in the +superciliousness of the one, and the rudeness of the other. Evidently, +however, the sin lies most at the High Church door, for the Evangelicals +are much more ready to act with Churchmen than they with the +Evangelicals; and I believe that this state of things cannot continue +much longer; and that if the Church of England does not forthwith unite +with herself the entire Evangelical body, both of England and Scotland, +and take her stand with them against the Papacy, her hour has struck. +She cannot any longer serve two masters; nor make courtesies alternately +to Christ and Antichrist. That she _has_ done this is visible enough by +the state of Europe at this instant. Three centuries since Luther--three +hundred years of Protestant knowledge--and the Papacy not yet +overthrown! Christ's truth still restrained, in narrow dawn, to the +white cliffs of England and white crests of the Alps;--the morning star +paused in its course in heaven;--the sun and moon stayed, with Satan +for their Joshua. + +221. But how to unite the two great sects of paralyzed Protestants? By +keeping simply to Scripture. The members of the Scottish Church have not +a shadow of excuse for refusing Episcopacy; it has indeed been abused +among them, grievously abused; but it is in the Bible; and that is all +they have a right to ask. + +They have also no shadow of excuse for refusing to employ a written form +of prayer. It may not be to their taste--it may not be the way in which +they like to pray; but it is no question, at present, of likes or +dislikes, but of duties; and the acceptance of such a form on their part +would go half-way to reconcile them with their brethren. Let them allege +such objections as they can reasonably advance against the English form, +and let these be carefully and humbly weighed by the pastors of both +churches: some of them ought to be at once forestalled. For the English +Church, on the other hand, _must_ cut the term Priest entirely out of +her Prayer-book, and substitute for it that of Minister or Elder; the +passages respecting Absolution must be thrown out also, except the +doubtful one in the Morning Service, in which there is no harm; and then +there would be only the Baptismal question left, which is one of words +rather than of things, and might easily be settled in Synod, turning the +refractory Clergy out of their offices, to go to Rome if they chose. +Then, when the Articles of Faith and form of worship had been agreed +upon between the English and Scottish Churches, the written forms and +articles should be carefully translated into the European languages, and +offered to the acceptance of the Protestant churches on the Continent, +with earnest entreaty that they would receive them, and due +entertainment of all such objections as they could reasonably allege; +and thus the whole body of Protestants, united in one great Fold, would +indeed go in and out, and find pasture; and the work appointed for them +would be done quickly, and Antichrist overthrown. + +222. Impossible: a thousand times impossible!--I hear it exclaimed +against me. No--not impossible. Christ does not order impossibilities, +and He _has_ ordered us to be at peace one with another. Nay, it is +answered--He came not to send peace, but a sword. Yes, verily: to send a +sword upon earth, but not within His Church; for to His Church He said, +"My Peace I leave with you." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 140: I may, perhaps, have missed count of one or two +occurrences of the word; but not, I think, in any important passages.] + +[Footnote 141: The expression "House of God," in 1 Tim. iii. 15, is +shown to be used of the congregation by 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. + +I have not noticed the word [Greek: kyriakê (oikia)] from which the +German "Kirche," the English "Church," and the Scotch "Kirk" are +derived, as it is not used with that signification in the New +Testament.] + +[Footnote 142: Any reference _except_ to Scripture, in notes of this +kind would, of course, be useless: the argument from, or with, the +Fathers is not to be compressed into fifty pages. I have something to +say about Hooker; but I reserve that for another time, not wishing to +say it hastily, or to leave it without support.] + +[Footnote 143: Acts x. 44.] + +[Footnote 144: Let not the reader be displeased with me for these short +and apparently insolent statements of opinion. I am not writing +insolently, but as shortly and clearly as I can; and when I seriously +believe a thing, I say so in a few words, leaving the reader to +determine what my belief is worth. But I do not choose to temper down +every expression of personal opinion into courteous generalities, and so +lose space, and time, and intelligibility at once. We are utterly +oppressed in these days by our courtesies, and considerations, and +compliances, and proprieties. Forgive me them, this once, or rather let +us all forgive them to each other, and learn to speak plainly first, +and, if it may be, gracefully afterwards; and not only to speak, but to +stand by what we have spoken. One of my Oxford friends heard, the other +day, that I was employed on these notes, and forthwith wrote to me, in a +panic, not to put my name to them, for fear I should "compromise +myself." I think we are most of us compromised to some extent already, +when England has sent a Roman Catholic minister to the second city in +Italy, and remains herself for a week without any government, because +her chief men cannot agree upon the position which a Popish cardinal is +to have leave to occupy in London.] + +[Footnote 145: Matt. xxiv. 4; Mark xiii. 5; Luke xxi. 8; 1 Cor. iii. 18, +vi. 9, xv. 33; Eph. iv. 14, v. 6; Col. ii. 8; 2 Thess. ii. 3; Heb. iii. +13; 1 John i. 8, iii. 7; 2 John 7, 8.] + +[Footnote 146: [Greek: exousia] in 1 Cor. ix. 12. 2 Thess, iii. 9.] + +[Footnote 147: (Carlyle, "Past and Present," chapter xi.) Can anything +be more striking than the repeated warnings of St. Paul against strife +of words; and his distinct setting forth of Action as the only true +means of attaining knowledge of the truth, and the only sign of men's +possessing the true faith? Compare 1 Timothy vi. 4, 20, (the latter +verse especially, in connection with the previous three,) and 2 Timothy +ii. 14, 19, 22, 23, tracing the connection here also; add Titus i. 10, +14, 16, noting "_in works_ they deny him," and Titus iii. 8, 9, "affirm +constantly that they be careful to maintain good works; but avoid +foolish questions;" and finally, 1 Timothy i. 4-7: a passage which seems +to have been especially written for these times.] + +[Footnote 148: I leave, in the main text, the abstract question of the +fitness of Episcopacy unapproached, not feeling any call to speak of it +at length at present; all that I feel necessary to be said is, that +bishops being granted, it is clear that we have too few to do their +work. But the argument from the practice of the Primitive Church appears +to me to be of enormous weight,--nor have I ever heard any rational +plea alleged against Episcopacy, except that, like other things, it is +capable of abuse, and has sometimes been abused; and as, altogether +clearly and indisputably, there is described in the Bible an episcopal +office, distinct from the merely ministerial one; and, apparently, also +an episcopal officer attached to each church, and distinguished in the +Revelation as an Angel, I hold the resistance of the Scotch Presbyterian +Church to Episcopacy to be unscriptural, futile, and schismatic.] + +[Footnote 149: "By just judgment be deposed," Art. 26.] + +[Footnote 150: The difference between the authority of doctrine and +discipline is beautifully marked in 2 Timothy ii. 25, and Titus ii. +12-15. In the first passage, the servant of God, teaching divine +doctrine, must not strive, but must "in _meekness_ instruct those that +oppose themselves;" in the second passage, teaching us "that denying +ungodliness and worldly lusts he _is to live soberly, righteously, and +godly_ in this _present world_," the minister is to speak, exhort, and +rebuke with ALL AUTHORITY--both functions being expressed as united in 2 +Timothy iv. 3.] + +[Footnote 151: Observe, this and the following conclusions depend +entirely on the supposition that the Government is part of the Body of +the Church, and that some pains have been taken to compose it of +religious and wise men. If we choose, knowingly and deliberately, to +compose our Parliament, in great part, of infidels and Papists, gamblers +and debtors, we may well regret its power over the Clerical officer; but +that we should, at any time, so compose our Parliament, is a sign that +the Clergy themselves have failed in their duty, and the Church in its +watchfulness;--thus the evil accumulates in reaction. Whatever I say of +the responsibility or authority of Government, is therefore to be +understood only as sequent on what I have said previously of the +necessity of closely circumscribing the Church, and then composing the +Civil Government out of the circumscribed Body. Thus, all Papists would +at once be rendered incapable of share in it being subjected to the +second or most severe degree of excommunication--first, as idolaters, by +1 Cor. v. 10; then as covetous and extortioners (selling absolution,) by +the same text; and, finally, as heretics and maintainers of falsehoods, +by Titus iii. 10, and 1 Tim. iv. 1. + +I do not write this hastily, nor without earnest consideration both, of +the difficulty and the consequences of such Church Discipline. But +either the Bible is a superannuated book, and is only to be read as a +record of past days; or these things follow from it, clearly and +inevitably. That we live in days when the Bible has become +impracticable, is (if it be so) the very thing I desire to be +considered. I am not setting down these plans or schemes as at present +possible. I do not know how far they are possible; but it seems to me +that God has plainly commanded them, and that, therefore, their +impracticability is a thing to be meditated on.] + +[Footnote 152: Exod. xxi. 15.] + + + + +THE LORD'S PRAYER AND THE CHURCH.[153] + +LETTERS. + + +I.[154] + + BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, + _20th June, 1879._ + +223. DEAR MR. MALLESON,--I could not at once answer your +important letter; for, though I felt at once the impossibility of my +venturing to address such an audience as you proposed, I am unwilling to +fail in answering to any call relating to matters respecting which my +feelings have been long in earnest, if in any wise it may be possible +for me to be of service therein. My health--or want of it--now utterly +forbids my engagement in any duty involving excitement or acute +intellectual effort; but I think, before the first Tuesday in August, I +might be able to write one or two letters to yourself, referring to, +and more or less completing, some passages already printed in _Fors_ and +elsewhere, which might, on your reading any portions you thought +available, become matter of discussion during the meeting at some +leisure time, after its own main purposes had been answered. + +At all events, I will think over what I should like, and be able, to +represent to such a meeting, and only beg you not to think me insensible +of the honor done me by your wish, and of the gravity of the trust +reposed in me. + + Ever most faithfully yours, + J. RUSKIN. + + THE REV. F. A. MALLESON. + + +II. + + BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, _23rd June, 1879._ + +224. DEAR MR. MALLESON,--Walking, and talking, are now alike +impossible to me;[155] my strength is gone for both; nor do I believe +talking on such matters to be of the least use except to promote, +between sensible people, kindly feeling and knowledge of each other's +personal characters. I have every trust in _your_ kindness and truth; +nor do I fear being myself misunderstood by you; what I may be able to +put into written form, so as to admit of being laid before your friends +in council, must be set down without any question of personal +feeling--as simply as a mathematical question or demonstration. + +225. The first exact question which it seems to me such an assembly may +be earnestly called upon by laymen to solve, is surely axiomatic: the +definition of themselves as a body, and of their business as such. + +Namely: as clergymen of the Church of England, do they consider +themselves to be so called merely as the attached servants of a +particular state? Do they, in their quality of guides, hold a position +similar to that of the guides of Chamouni or Grindelwald, who, being a +numbered body of examined and trustworthy persons belonging to those +several villages, have nevertheless no Chamounist or Grindelwaldist +opinions on the subject of Alpine geography or glacier walking; but are +prepared to put into practice a common and universal science of Locality +and Athletics, founded on sure survey and successful practice? Are the +clergymen of the Ecclesia of England thus simply the attached and +salaried guides of England and the English, in the way, known of all +good men, that leadeth unto life?--or are they, on the contrary, a body +of men holding, or in any legal manner required, or compelled to hold, +opinions on the subject--say, of the height of the Celestial Mountains, +the crevasses which go down quickest to the pit, and other cognate +points of science--differing from, or even contrary to, the tenets of +the guides of the Church of France, the Church of Italy, and other +Christian countries? + +Is not this the first of all questions which a Clerical Council has to +answer in open terms? + + Ever affectionately yours, + J. RUSKIN. + + +III. + + BRANTWOOD, _6th July._ + +226. My first letter contained a Layman's plea for a clear answer to the +question, "What is a clergyman of the Church of England?" Supposing the +answer to this first to be, that the clergy of the Church of England are +teachers, not of the Gospel to England, but of the Gospel to all +nations; and not of the Gospel of Luther, nor of the Gospel of +Augustine, but of the Gospel of Christ,--then the Layman's second +question would be: + +Can this Gospel of Christ be put into such plain words and short terms +as that a plain man may understand it?--and, if so, would it not be, in +a quite primal sense, desirable that it should be so, rather than left +to be gathered out of Thirty-nine Articles, written by no means in +clear English, and referring, for further explanation of exactly the +most important point in the whole tenor of their teaching,[156] to a +"Homily of Justification,"[157] which is not generally in the +possession, or even probably within the comprehension, of simple +persons? + + Ever faithfully yours, + J. RUSKIN. + + +IV. + + BRANTWOOD, _8th July._ + +227. I am so very glad that you approve of the letter plan, as it +enables me to build up what I would fain try to say, of little stones, +without lifting too much for my strength at once; and the sense of +addressing a friend who understands me and sympathizes with me prevents +my being brought to a stand by continual need for apology, or fear of +giving offense. + +But yet I do not quite see why you should feel my asking for a simple +and comprehensible statement of the Christian Gospel at starting. Are +you not bid to go into _all_ the world and preach it to every creature? +(I should myself think the clergyman most likely to do good who accepted +the [Greek: pasê thê ktisei] so literally as at least to sympathize with +St. Francis' sermon to the birds, and to feel that feeding either sheep +or fowls, or unmuzzling the ox, or keeping the wrens alive in the snow, +would be received by their Heavenly Feeder as the _perfect_ fulfillment +of His "Feed my sheep" in the higher sense.)[158] + +228. That's all a parenthesis; for although I should think that your +good company would all agree that kindness to animals was a kind of +preaching to them, and that hunting and vivisection were a kind of +blasphemy to them, I want only to put the sterner question before your +council, _how_ this Gospel is to be preached either [Greek: pantachou]" +or to "[Greek: panta ta ethnê] if first its preachers have not +determined quite clearly what it _is_? And might not such definition, +acceptable to the entire body of the Church of Christ, be arrived at by +merely explaining, in their completeness and life, the terms of the +Lord's Prayer--the first words taught to children all over the Christian +world? + +I will try to explain what I mean of its several articles, in following +letters; and in answer to the question with which you close your last, I +can only say that you are at perfect liberty to use any, or all, or any +parts of them, as you think good. Usually, when I am asked if letters of +mine may be printed, I say: "Assuredly, provided only that you print them +entire." But in your hands, I withdraw even this condition, and trust +gladly to your judgment, remaining always + + Faithfully and affectionately yours, + J. RUSKIN. + + THE REV. F. A. MALLESON. + + +V. + + [Greek: pater hêmon ho en tois ouranois] + + _Pater noster qui es in cælis._ + + BRANTWOOD, _10th July._ + +229. My meaning, in saying that the Lord's Prayer might be made a +foundation of Gospel-teaching, was not that it contained all that +Christian ministers have to teach; but that it contains what all +Christians are agreed upon as first to be taught; and that no good +parish-working pastor in any district of the world but would be glad to +take his part in making it clear and living to his congregation. + +And the first clause of it, of course rightly explained, gives us the +ground of what is surely a mighty part of the Gospel--its "first and +great commandment," namely, that we have a Father whom we _can_ love, +and are required to love, and to desire to be with Him in Heaven, +wherever that may be. + +And to declare that we have such a loving Father, whose mercy is over +_all_ His works, and whose will and law is so lovely and lovable that it +is sweeter than honey, and more precious than gold, to those who can +"taste" and "see" that the Lord is Good--this, surely, is a most +pleasant and glorious good message and _spell_ to bring to men--as +distinguished from the evil message and accursed spell that Satan has +brought to the nations of the world instead of it, that they have no +Father, but only "a consuming fire" ready to devour them, unless they +are delivered from its raging flame by some scheme of pardon for all, +for which they are to be thankful, not to the Father, but to the Son. + +Supposing this first article of the true Gospel agreed to, how would the +blessing that closes the epistles of that Gospel become intelligible and +living, instead of dark and dead: "The grace of Christ, and the _love_ +of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost,"--the most _tender_ word +being that used of the Father? + + +VI. + + [Greek: hagiasthêtô to onoma sou] + + _Sanctificetur nomen tuum._ + + BRANTWOOD, _12th July, 1879._ + +230. I wonder how many, even of those who honestly and attentively join +in our Church services, attach any distinct idea to the second clause of +the Lord's Prayer, the _first petition_ of it, the first thing that they +are ordered by Christ to seek of their Father? + +Am I unjust in thinking that most of them have little more notion on the +matter than that God has forbidden "bad language," and wishes them to +pray that everybody may be respectful to Him? + +Is it any otherwise with the Third Commandment? Do not most look on it +merely in the light of the statute of swearing? and read the words "will +not hold him guiltless" merely as a passionless intimation that however +carelessly a man may let out a round oath, there really _is_ something +wrong in it? + +On the other hand, can anything be more tremendous than the words +themselves--double-negatived: + + [Greek: "ou gar mê katharisê ... kurios"] + +For _other_ sins there is washing;--for this, none! the seventh verse, +Ex. xx., in the Septuagint, marking the real power rather than the +English, which (I suppose) is literal to the Hebrew. + +To my layman's mind, of practical needs in the present state of the +Church, nothing is so immediate as that of explaining to the +congregation the meaning of being gathered in His name, and having Him +in the midst of them; as, on the other hand, of being gathered in +blasphemy of His name, and having the devil in the midst of +them--presiding over the prayers which have become an abomination. + +231. For the entire body of the texts in the Gospel against hypocrisy +are one and all nothing but the expansion of the threatening that closes +the Third Commandment. For as "the name whereby He shall be called is +THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,"--so the taking that name in vain +is the sum of "the deceivableness of _un_righteousness in them that +perish." + +Without dwelling on the possibility--which I do not myself, however, for +a moment doubt--of an honest clergyman's being able actually to prevent +the entrance among his congregation of persons leading openly wicked +lives, could any subject be more vital to the purposes of your meetings +than the difference between the present and the probable state of the +Christian Church which would result, were it more the effort of zealous +parish priests, instead of getting wicked _poor_ people to _come_ to +church, to get wicked rich ones to stay out of it? + +Lest, in any discussion of such question, it might be, as it too often +is, alleged that "the Lord looketh upon the heart," etc., let me be +permitted to say--with as much positiveness as may express my deepest +conviction--that, while indeed it is the Lord's business to look upon +the heart, it is the pastor's to look upon the hands and the lips; and +that the foulest oaths of the thief and the street-walker are, in the +ears of God, sinless as the hawk's cry, or the gnat's murmur, compared +to the responses in the Church service, on the lips of the usurer and +the adulterer, who have destroyed, not their own souls only, but those +of the outcast ones whom they have made their victims. + +It is for the meeting of clergymen themselves--not for a layman +addressing them--to ask further, how much the name of God may be taken +in vain, and profaned instead of hallowed--_in_ the pulpit, as well as +under it. + + Ever affectionately yours, + J. RUSKIN. + + +VII + + [Greek: elthetô ê basilheia sou] + + _Adveniat regnum tuum._ + + BRANTWOOD, _14th July, 1879._ + +232. DEAR MR. MALLESON,--Sincere thanks for both your letters +and the proofs[159] sent. Your comment and conducting link, when needed, +will be of the greatest help and value, I am well assured, suggesting +what you know will be the probable feeling of your hearers, and the +point that will come into question. + +Yes, certainly, that "His" in the fourth line was meant to imply that +eternal presence of Christ; as in another passage,[160] referring to +the Creation, "when His right hand strewed the snow on Lebanon, and +smoothed the slopes of Calvary," but in so far as we dwell on that +truth, "Hast thou seen _Me_, Philip, and not the Father?"[161] we are +not teaching the people what is specially the Gospel of _Christ_ as +having a distinct function--namely, to _serve_ the Father, and do the +Father's will. And in all His human relations to us, and commands to us, +it is as the Son of Man, not as the "power of God and wisdom of God," +that He acts and speaks. Not as the Power; for _He_ must pray, like one +of us. Not as the Wisdom; for He must not know "if it be possible" His +prayer should be heard. + +233. And in what I want to say of the third clause of His prayer (_His_, +not merely as His ordering, but His using), it is especially this +comparison between _His_ kingdom, and His Father's, that I want to see +the disciples guarded against. I believe very few, even of the most +earnest, using that petition, realize that it is the Father's--not the +Son's--kingdom, that they pray may come,--although the whole prayer is +foundational on that fact: "_For_ Thine is the kingdom, the power, and +the glory." And I fancy that the mind of the most faithful Christian is +quite led away from its proper hope, by dwelling on the reign--or the +coming again--of Christ; which, indeed, they are to look for, and +_watch_ for, but not to pray for. Their prayer is to be for the greater +kingdom to which He, risen and having all His enemies under His feet, is +to surrender _His_, "that God may be All in All." + +And, though the greatest, it is that everlasting kingdom which the +poorest of us can advance. We cannot hasten Christ's coming. "Of the day +and hour, knoweth none." But the kingdom of God is as a grain of mustard +seed:--we can sow of it; it is as a foam-globe of leaven:--we can mingle +it; and its glory and its joy are that even the birds of the air can +lodge in the branches thereof. + +Forgive me for getting back to my sparrows; but truly, in the present +state of England, the fowls of the air are the only creatures, tormented +and murdered as they are, that yet have here and there nests, and peace, +and joy in the Holy Ghost. And it would be well if many of us, in +reading that text, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink," had even +got so far as to the understanding that it was at least _as much_, and +that until we had fed the hungry, there was no power in us to inspire +the unhappy. + + Ever affectionately yours, + J. RUSKIN. + +I will write my feeling about the pieces of the Life of Christ you have +sent me, in a private letter. I may say at once that I am sure it will +do much good, and will be upright and intelligible, which how few +religious writings are! + + +VIII. + + [Greek: genêthêtô to thelêma sou hôs en ouranô, kaì epì gês.] + + _Fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra._ + + BRANTWOOD, _9th August, 1879._ + +234. I was reading the second chapter of Malachi this morning by chance, +and wondering how many clergymen ever read it, and took to heart the +"commandment for _them_." + +For they are always ready enough to call themselves priests (though they +know themselves to be nothing of the sort) whenever there is any dignity +to be got out of the title; but, whenever there is any good, hot +scolding or unpleasant advice given them by the prophets, in that +self-assumed character of theirs, they are as ready to quit it as ever +Dionysus his lion-skin, when he finds the character of Herakles +inconvenient. "Ye have wearied the Lord with your words" (yes, and some +of His people, too, in your time): "yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied +Him? When ye say, Everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the +Lord, and He delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?" + +How many, again and again I wonder, of the lively young ecclesiastics +supplied to the increasing demand of our west-ends of flourishing Cities +of the Plain, ever consider what sort of sin it is for which God (unless +they lay it to heart) will "curse their blessings, and spread dung upon +their faces," or have understood, even in the dimmest manner, what part +_they_ had taken, and were taking, in "corrupting the covenant of the +Lord with Levi, and causing many to stumble at the Law"? + +235. Perhaps the most subtle and unconscious way which the religious +teachers upon whom the ends of the world are come, have done this, is in +never telling their people the meaning of the clause in the Lord's +Prayer, which, of all others, their most earnest hearers have oftenest +on their lips: "Thy will be done." They allow their people to use it as +if their Father's will were always to kill their babies, or do +something unpleasant to them, instead of explaining to them that the +first and intensest article of their Father's will was their own +sanctification, and following comfort and wealth; and that the one only +path to national prosperity and to domestic peace was to understand what +the will of the Lord was, and to do all they could to get it done. +Whereas one would think, by the tone of the eagerest preachers nowadays, +that they held their blessed office to be that, not of showing men how +to do their Father's will on earth, but how to get to heaven without +doing any of it either here or there! + +236. I say, especially, the most eager preachers; for nearly the whole +Missionary body (with the hottest Evangelistic sect of the English +Church) is at this moment composed of men who think the Gospel they are +to carry to mend the world with, forsooth, is that, "If any man sin, he +hath an Advocate with the Father;" while I have never yet, in my own +experience, met either with a Missionary or a Town Bishop who so much as +professed himself "to understand what the will of the Lord" was, far +less to teach anybody else to do it; and for fifty preachers, yes, and +fifty hundreds whom I have heard proclaiming the Mediator of the New +Testament, that "they which were called might receive the promise of +eternal inheritance," I have never yet heard so much as _one_ heartily +proclaiming against all those "deceivers with vain words" (Eph. v. 6), +that "no covetous person which is an idolater hath _any_ inheritance in +the kingdom of Christ, or of God;" and on myself personally and publicly +challenging the Bishops of England generally, and by name the Bishop of +Manchester, to say whether usury was, or was not, according to the will +of God, I have received no answer from any one of them.[162] + + _13th August._ + +237. I have allowed myself, in the beginning of this letter, to dwell on +the equivocal use of the word "Priest" in the English Church (see +Christopher Harvey, Grosart's edition, p. 38), because the assumption of +the mediatorial, in defect of the pastoral, office by the clergy fulfill +itself, naturally and always, in their pretending to absolve the sinner +from his punishment, instead of purging him from his sin; and +practically, in their general patronage and encouragement of all the +iniquity of the world, by steadily preaching away the penalties of it. +So that the great cities of the earth, which ought to be the places set +on its hills, with the temple of the Lord in the midst of them, to which +the tribes should go up,[163]--centers to the Kingdoms and Provinces of +Honor, Virtue, and the Knowledge of the law of God,--have become, +instead, loathsome centers of fornication and covetousness--the smoke of +their sin going up into the face of Heaven like the furnace of Sodom, +and the pollution of it rotting and raging through the bones and the +souls of the peasant people round them, as if they were each a volcano +whose ashes broke out in blains upon man and upon beast.[164] + +And in the midst of them, their freshly-set-tip steeples ring the crowd +to a weekly prayer that the rest of their lives may be pure and holy, +while they have not the slightest intention of purifying, sanctifying, +or changing their lives in any the smallest particular; and their clergy +gather, each into himself, the curious dual power, and Janus-faced +majesty in mischief, of the prophet that prophesies falsely, and the +priest that bears rule by his means. + +And the people love to have it so. + + + BRANTWOOD, _12th August._ + +I am very glad of your little note from Brighton. I thought it needless +to send the two letters there, which you will find at home; and they +pretty nearly end all _I_ want to say; for the remaining clauses of the +prayer touch on things too high for me. But I will send you one +concluding letter about them. + + +IX. + + [Greek: ton arton êmôn ton epiousion dos hêmin sêmeron.] + + _Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie._ + + BRANTWOOD, _19th August._ + +238. I retained the foregoing letter by me till now, lest you should +think it written in any haste or petulance; but it is every word of it +deliberate, though expressing the bitterness of twenty years of vain +sorrow and pleading concerning these things. Nor am I able to write, +otherwise, anything of the next following clause of the prayer;--for no +words could be burning enough to tell the evils which have come on the +world from men's using it thoughtlessly and blasphemously, praying God +to give them what they are deliberately resolved to steal. For all true +Christianity is known--as its Master was--in breaking of bread, and all +false Christianity in stealing it. + +Let the clergyman only apply--with impartial and level sweep--to his +congregation the great pastoral order: "The man that will not work, +neither should he eat;" and be resolute in requiring each member of his +flock to tell him _what_--day by day--they do to earn their +dinners;--and he will find an entirely new view of life and its +sacraments open upon him and them. + +239. For the man who is not--day by day--doing work which will earn his +dinner, must be stealing his dinner;[165] and the actual fact is that +the great mass of men, calling themselves Christians, do actually live +by robbing the poor of their bread, and by no other trade whatsoever: +and the simple examination of the mode of the produce and consumption of +European food--who digs for it, and who eats it--will prove that to any +honest human soul. + +Nor is it possible for any Christian Church to exist but in pollutions +and hypocrisies beyond all words, until the virtues of a life moderate +in its self-indulgence, and wide in its offices of temporal ministry to +the poor, are insisted on as the normal conditions in which, only, the +prayer to God for the harvest of the earth is other than blasphemy. + +In the second place. Since in the parable in Luke, the bread asked for +is shown to be also, and chiefly, the Holy Spirit (Luke xi. 13), and the +prayer, "Give us each day our daily bread," is, in its fullness, the +disciples', "Lord, evermore give us _this_ bread,"--the clergyman's +question to his whole flock, primarily literal: "Children, have ye here +any meat?" must ultimately be always the greater spiritual one: +"Children, have ye here any Holy Spirit?" or, "Have ye not heard yet +whether there _be_ any? and, instead of a Holy Ghost the Lord and Giver +of Life, do you only believe in an unholy mammon, Lord and Giver of +Death?" + +The opposition between the two Lords has been, and will be as long as +the world lasts, absolute, irreconcilable, mortal; and the clergyman's +first message to his people of this day is--if he be faithful--"Choose +ye this day whom ye will serve." + + Ever faithfully yours, + J. RUSKIN. + + +X. + + [Greek: kai aphes hêmin ta opheilêmata hêmôn, ôs kai hêmeis aphiemen + tois opheiletais hêmôn.] + + _Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus + nostris._ + + BRANTWOOD, _3rd September._ + +240. DEAR MR. MALLESON,--I have been very long before trying to +say so much as a word about the sixth clause of the Pater; for whenever +I began thinking of it, I was stopped by the sorrowful sense of the +hopeless task you poor clergymen had, nowadays, in recommending and +teaching people to love their enemies, when their whole energies were +already devoted to swindling their friends. + +But, in any days, past or now, the clause is one of such difficulty, +that, to understand it, means almost to know the love of God which +passeth knowledge. + +But, at all events, it is surely the pastor's duty to prevent his flock +from _mis_understanding it; and above all things to keep them from +supposing that God's forgiveness is to be had simply for the asking, by +those who "willfully sin after they have received the knowledge of the +truth." + +241. There is one very simple lesson also, needed especially by people +in circumstances of happy life, which I have never heard fully enforced +from the pulpit, and which is usually the more lost sight of, because +the fine and inaccurate word "trespasses" is so often used instead of +the single and accurate one "debts." Among people well educated and +happily circumstanced it may easily chance that long periods of their +lives pass without any such conscious sin as could, on any discovery or +memory of it, make them cry out, in truth and in pain,--"I have sinned +against the Lord." But scarcely an hour of their happy days can pass +over them without leaving--were their hearts open--some evidence written +there that they have "left undone the things that they ought to have +done," and giving them bitterer and heavier cause to cry, and cry +again--forever, in the pure words of their Master's prayer, "Dimitte +nobis _debita_ nostra." + +In connection with the more accurate translation of "debts" rather than +"trespasses,"[166] it would surely be well to keep constantly in the +mind of complacent and inoffensive congregations that in Christ's own +prophecy of the manner of the last judgment, the condemnation is +pronounced only on the sins of omission: "I was hungry, and ye gave Me +no meat." + +242. But, whatever the manner of sin, by offense or defect, which the +preacher fears in his people, surely he has of late been wholly remiss +in compelling their definite recognition of it, in its several and +personal particulars. Nothing in the various inconsistency of human +nature is more grotesque than its willingness to be taxed with any +quantity of sins in the gross, and its resentment at the insinuation of +having committed the smallest parcel of them in detail. And the English +Liturgy, evidently drawn up with the amiable intention of making +religion as pleasant as possible, to a people desirous of saving their +souls with no great degree of personal inconvenience, is perhaps in no +point more unwholesomely lenient than in its concession to the popular +conviction that we may obtain the present advantage, and escape the +future punishment, of any sort of iniquity, by dexterously concealing +the manner of it from man, and triumphantly confessing the quantity of +it to God. + +243. Finally, whatever the advantages and decencies of a form of prayer, +and how wide soever the scope given to its collected passages, it cannot +be at one and the same time fitted for the use of a body of well-taught +and experienced Christians, such as should join the services of a Church +nineteen centuries old,--and adapted to the needs of the timid sinner +who has that day first entered its porch, or of the remorseful publican +who has only recently become sensible of his call to a pew. + +And surely our clergy need not be surprised at the daily increasing +distrust in the public mind of the efficacy of Prayer, after having so +long insisted on their offering supplication, _at least_ every Sunday +morning at eleven o'clock, that the rest of their lives hereafter might +be pure and holy, leaving them conscious all the while that they would +be similarly required to inform the Lord next week, at the same hour, +that "there was no health in them!" + +Among, the much-rebuked follies and abuses of so-called "Ritualism," +none that I have heard of are indeed so dangerously and darkly "Ritual" +as this piece of authorized mockery of the most solemn act of human +life, and only entrance of eternal life--Repentance. + +Believe me, dear Mr. Malleson, + + Ever faithfully and respectfully yours, + J. RUSKIN. + + +XI. + +[Greek: kai mê eisenenkês hêmas eis peirasmon, alla rhysai hêmas apo tou +ponêrou; hoti sou estin hê basileia, kai hê dynamis, kai hê doxa, eis +tous aiônas. Amên.] + +_Et ne nos inducas in tentationem; sed libera nos a malo; quia tuum est +regnum, potentia, et gloria in sceeula sceculorum. Amen._ + + BRANTWOOD, _14th September, 1879._ + +244. DEAR MR. MALLESON,--The gentle words in your last letter +referring to the difference between yourself and me in the degree of +hope with which you could regard what could not but appear to the +general mind Utopian in designs for the action of the Christian Church, +surely might best be answered by appeal to the consistent tone of the +prayer we have been examining. + +Is not every one of its petitions for a perfect state? and is not this +last clause of it, of which we are to think to-day--if fully +understood--a petition not only for the restoration of Paradise, but of +Paradise in which there shall be no deadly fruit, or, at least, no +tempter to praise it? And may we not admit that it is probably only for +want of the earnest use of this last petition that not only the +preceding ones have become formal with us, but that the private and +simply restricted prayer for the little things we each severally desire, +has become by some Christians dreaded and unused, and by others used +faithlessly, and therefore with disappointment? + +245. And is it not for want of this special directness and simplicity of +petition, and of the sense of its acceptance, that the whole nature of +prayer has been doubted in our hearts, and disgraced by our lips; that +we are afraid to ask God's blessing on the earth, when the scientific +people tell us He has made previous arrangements to curse it; and that, +instead of obeying, without fear or debate, the plain order, "Ask, and +ye shall receive, that your joy may be full," we sorrowfully sink back +into the apology for prayer, that "it is a wholesome exercise, even when +fruitless," and that we ought piously always to suppose that the text +really means no more than "Ask, and ye shall _not_ receive, that your +joy may be _empty_"? + +Supposing we were first all of us quite sure that we _had_ prayed, +honestly, the prayer against temptation, and that we would thankfully be +refused anything we had set our hearts upon, if indeed God saw that it +would lead us into evil, might we not have confidence afterwards that He +in whose hand the king's heart is, as the rivers of water, would turn +our tiny little hearts also in the way that they should go, and that +_then_ the special prayer for the joys He taught them to seek would be +answered to the last syllable, and to overflowing? + +246. It is surely scarcely necessary to say, farther, what the holy +teachers of all nations have invariably concurred in showing,--that +faithful prayer implies always correlative exertion; and that no man can +ask honestly or hopefully to be delivered from temptation, unless he has +himself honestly and firmly determined to do the best he can to keep out +of it. But, in modern days, the first aim of all Christian parents is to +place their children in circumstances where the temptations (which they +are apt to call "opportunities") may be as great and as many as +possible; where the sight and promise of "all these things" in Satan's +gift may be brilliantly near; and where the act of "falling down to +worship me" may be partly concealed by the shelter, and partly excused, +as involuntary, by the pressure, of the concurrent crowd. + +In what respect the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of _them_, +differ from the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, which are God's +forever, is seldom, as far as I have heard, intelligibly explained from +the pulpit; and still less the irreconcilable hostility between the two +royalties and realms asserted in its sternness of decision. + +Whether it be, indeed, Utopian to believe that the kingdom we are taught +to pray for _may_ come--verily come--for the asking, it is surely not +for man to judge; but it is at least at his choice to resolve that he +will no longer render obedience, nor ascribe glory and power, to the +Devil. If he cannot find strength in himself to advance towards Heaven, +he may at least say to the power of Hell, "Get thee behind me;" and +staying himself on the testimony of Him who saith, "Surely I come +quickly," ratify his happy prayer with the faithful "Amen, even so, +come, Lord Jesus." + + Ever, my dear friend, + Believe me affectionately and gratefully yours, + J. RUSKIN. + +NOTE.--The following further letters from Mr. Ruskin to Mr. +Malleson were printed in "Letters to the Clergy." + + _Sept. 13th._ + +247. DEAR MR. MALLESON,--I am so very grateful for your +proposal to edit the letters without any further reference to me. I +think that will be exactly the right way; and I believe I can put you at +real ease in the doing of it, by explaining, as I can in very few words, +the kind of _carte blanche_ I should rejoicingly give you. + +Interrupted to-day! more to-morrow with, I hope, the last letter. + + J. RUSKIN. + + _14th Sept._ + +I've nearly done the last letter, but will keep it till to-morrow, +rather than finish hurriedly, for the first post. Your nice little note +has just come; and I can only say that you cannot please me better than +by acting with perfect freedom in all ways; and that I only want to see, +or reply to, what you wish me for the matter's sake. And surely there is +no occasion for any thought or waste of type about _me_ personally, +except only to express your knowledge of my real desire for the health +and power of the Church, More than this praise you must not give me; for +I have learned almost everything, I may say, that I know, by my errors. + + I am affectionately yours, + J. RUSKIN. + + _17th Oct._ + +248. I am thankful to see that the letters read clearly and easily, and +contain all that was in my mind to get said; and nothing can possibly be +more right in every way than the printing and binding,[167] nor more +courteous and firm than your preface. + +Yes, there _will_ be a chasm to cross--a _tauriformis +Aufidus_[168]--greater than Rubicon, and the roar of it for many a year +has been heard in the distance, through the gathering fog on the earth, +more loudly. + +The River of spiritual Death to this world, and entrance to Purgatory in +the other, come down to us. + +When will the feet of the Priests be dipped in the still brim of the +water? Jordan overflows his banks already. + + * * * * * + +When you have put your large edition, with its correspondence, into +press, I should like to read the sheets as they are issued; and put +merely letters of reference to be taken up in a short "Epilogue." But I +don't want to do or say anything more till you have all in perfect +readiness for publication. I should merely add my reference letters in +the margin, and the shortest possible notes at the end. + + J. RUSKIN. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 153: These letters were written by Mr. Ruskin to the Rev. F. +A. Malleson, Vicar of Broughton-in-Furness, by whom they were read, +after a few introductory remarks, before the Furness Clerical Society. +They originated, as may be gathered from the first of them, in a request +by Mr. Malleson that Mr. Ruskin would address the society on the +subject. They have been printed in three forms:--(1) in a small pamphlet +(October 1879) "for private circulation only," among the members of the +Furness and one or two other clerical societies; (2) in the +_Contemporary Review_ of December 1879; (3) in a volume (Strahan & Co., +1880) entitled "The Lord's Prayer and the Church," and containing also +various replies to Mr, Ruskin's letters, and an epilogue by way of +rejoinder by Mr. Ruskin himself. This volume was edited by Mr. Malleson, +with whose concurrence Mr. Ruskin's contributions to it are reprinted +here.--ED.] + +[Footnote 154: Called Letter II. in the Furness pamphlet,--where a note +is added to the effect that there was a previous unpublished +letter.--ED.] + +[Footnote 155: In answer to the proposal of discussing the subject +during a mountain walk.--F. A. M.] + +[Footnote 156: Art, xi.] + +[Footnote 157: Homily xi. of the Second Table.] + +[Footnote 158: "_Arrows of the Chace._"] + +[Footnote 159: See postscript to this letter.--ED.] + +[Footnote 160: Referring to the closing sentence of the third paragraph +of the fifth 'ter, which _seemed_ to express what I felt could not be +Mr. Ruskin's full meaning, I pointed out to him the following sentence +in "Modern Painters:"-- + +"When, in the desert, Jesus was girding Himself for the work of life, +angels of life came and ministered unto Him; now, in the fair world, +when He is girding Himself for the work of death, the ministrants come +to Him from the grave; but from the grave conquered. One from the tomb +under Abarim, which _His_ own hand had sealed long ago; the other from +the rest which He had entered without seeing corruption." + +On this I made a remark somewhat to the following effect: that I felt +sure Mr. Ruskin regarded the loving work of the Father and of the Son to +be _equal_ in the forgiveness of sins and redemption of mankind; that +what is done by the Father is in reality done also by the Son; and that +it is by a mere accommodation to human infirmity of understanding that +the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed to us in language, inadequate +indeed to convey divine truths, but still the only language possible; +and I asked whether some such feeling was not present in his mind when +he used the pronoun "His," in the above passage from "Modern Painters," +of the Son, where it would be usually understood of the Father; and as a +corollary, whether, in the letter, he does not himself fully recognize +the fact of the redemption of the world by the loving self-sacrifice of +the Son in entire concurrence with the equally loving will of the +Father. This, as well as I can recollect, is the origin of the passage +in the second paragraph in the seventh letter.--F. A. M.] + +[Footnote 161: The "Letters to the Clergy" adds note: "Yet hast thou not +known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John xiv. +9).--ED.] + +[Footnote 162: _Fors Clavigera_, Letter lxxxii. (See _ante_, § +148.--ED.)] + +[Footnote 163: "Bibliotheca Pastorum," Vol. i. "The Economist of +Xenophon," Pref., p. xii--ED.] + +[Footnote 164: See _ante_, p. 319, § 154; p. 330, § 166.--ED.] + +[Footnote 165: "_Arrows of the Chace._"] + +[Footnote 166: "_Arrows of the Chace._"] + +[Footnote 167: Referring to the first edition, printed for private +circulation.--F. A. M.] + +[Footnote 168: + + "Sic tauriformis volvitur Aufidus, + Qua regna Dauni praefluit Appuli + Quum saevit, horrendamque cultis + Diluviem meditatur agris." + + --HOR., _Carm._, iv. 14.] + + + + +EPILOGUE. + + + BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, _June 1880._ + +249. MY DEAR MALLESON,--I have glanced at the proofs you send; +and _can_ do no more than glance, even if it seemed to me desirable that +I should do more,--which, after said glance, it does in no wise. Let me +remind you of what it is absolutely necessary that the readers of the +book should clearly understand--that I wrote these Letters at your +request, to be read and discussed at the meeting of a private society of +clergymen. I declined then to be present at the discussion, and I +decline still. You afterwards asked leave to print the Letters, to which +I replied that they were yours, for whatever use you saw good to make of +them: afterwards your plans expanded, while my own notion remained +precisely what it had been--that the discussion should have been +private, and kept within the limits of the society, and that its +conclusions, if any, should have been announced in a few pages of clear +print, for the parishioners' exclusive reading. + +I am, of course, flattered by the wider course you have obtained for the +Letters, but am not in the slightest degree interested by the debate +upon them, nor by any religious debates whatever, undertaken without +serious conviction that there is a jot wrong in matters as they are, or +serious resolution to make them a tittle better. Which, so far as I can +read the minds of your correspondents, appears to me the substantial +state of them.[169] + +250. One thing I cannot pass without protest--the quantity of talk about +the writer of the Letters. What I am, or am not, is of no moment +whatever to the matters in hand. I observe with comfort, or at least +with complacency, that on the strength of a couple of hours' talk, at a +time when I was thinking chiefly of the weatherings of slate you were +good enough to show me above Goat's Water, you would have ventured to +baptize me in the little lake--as not a goat, but a sheep. The best I +can be sure of, myself, is that I am no wolf, and have never aspired to +the dignity even of a Dog of the Lord. + +You told me, if I remember rightly, that one of the members of the +original meeting denounced me as an arch-heretic[170]--meaning, +doubtless, an arch-pagan; for a heretic, or sect-maker, is of all terms +of reproach the last that can be used of me. And I think he should have +been answered that it was precisely as an arch-pagan that I ventured to +request a more intelligible and more unanimous account of the Christian +Gospel from its preachers. + +251. If anything in the Letters offended those of you who hold me a +brother, surely it had been best to tell me between ourselves, or to +tell it to the Church, or to let me be Anathema Maranatha in peace,--in +any case, I must at present so abide, correcting only the mistakes about +myself which have led to graver ones about the things I wanted to speak +of.[171] + +The most singular one, perhaps, in all the Letters is that of Mr. +Wanstall's, that I do not attach enough weight to antiquity. I have only +come upon the sentence to-day (29th May), but my reply to it is partly +written already, with reference to the wishes of some other of your +correspondents to know more of my reasons for finding fault with the +English Liturgy. + +252. If people are taught to use the Liturgy rightly and reverently, it +will bring them all good; and for some thirty years of my life I used to +read it always through to my servant and myself, if we had no Protestant +church to go to, in Alpine or Italian villages. One can always tacitly +pray of it what one wants, and let the rest pass. But, as I have grown +older, and watched the decline in the Christian faith of all nations, I +have got more and more suspicious of the effect of this particular form +of words on the truthfulness of the English mind (now fast becoming a +salt which has lost his savor, and is fit only to be trodden underfoot +of men). And during the last ten years, in which my position at Oxford +has compelled me to examine what authority there was for the code of +prayer, of which the University is now so ashamed that it no more dares +compel its youths so much as to hear, much less to utter it, I got +necessarily into the habit of always looking to the original forms of +the prayers of the fully developed Christian Church. Nor did I think it +a mere chance which placed in my own possession a manuscript of the +perfect Church service of the thirteenth century, written by the monks +of the Sainte Chapelle for St. Louis; together with one of the same +date, written in England, probably for the Diocese of Lincoln; adding +some of the Collects, in which it corresponds with St. Louis's, and the +Latin hymns so much beloved by Dante, with the appointed music for them. + +253. And my wonder has been greater every hour, since I examined closely +the text of these and other early books, that in any state of declining, +or captive, energy, the Church of England should have contented itself +with a service which cast out, from beginning to end, all these +intensely spiritual and passionate utterances of chanted prayer (the +whole body, that is to say, of the authentic _Christian_ Psalms), and in +adopting what it timidly preserved of the Collects, mangled or blunted +them down to the exact degree which would make them either +unintelligible or inoffensive--so vague that everybody might use them, +or so pointless that nobody could be offended by them. For a special +instance: The prayer for "our bishops and curates, and all congregations +committed to their charge," is, in the Lincoln Service-book, "for our +bishop, and all congregations committed to _his_ charge." The change +from singular to plural seems a slight one. But it suffices to take the +eyes of the people off their own bishop into infinite space; to change a +prayer which was intended to be uttered in personal anxiety and +affection, into one for the general good of the Church, of which nobody +could judge, and for which nobody would particularly care; and, finally, +to change a prayer to which the answer, if given, would be visible, into +one of which nobody could tell whether it were answered or not. + +254. In the Collects, the change, though verbally slight, is thus +tremendous in issue. But in the Litany--word and thought go all wild +together. The first prayer of the Litany in the Lincoln Service-book is +for the Pope and all ranks beneath him, implying a very noteworthy piece +of theology--that the Pope might err in religious matters, and that the +prayer of the humblest servant of God would be useful to him:--"Ut +Dompnum Apostolicum, et omnes gradus ecclesie in sancta religione +conservare digneris." Meaning that whatever errors particular persons +might, and must, fall into, they prayed God to keep the Pope right, and +the collective testimony and conduct of the ranks below him. Then +follows the prayer for their own bishop and _his_ flock--then for the +king and the princes (chief lords), that they (not all nations) might be +kept in concord--and then for _our_ bishops and abbots,--the Church of +England proper; every one of these petitions being direct, limited, and +personally heartfelt;--and then this lovely one for themselves:-- + +"Ut obsequium servitutis nostre rationabile facias."--"That Thou wouldst +make the obedience of our service reasonable" ("which is your reasonable +service"). + +This glorious prayer is, I believe, accurately an "early English" one. +It is not in the St. Louis Litany, nor in a later elaborate French +fourteenth century one; but I find it softened in an Italian MS. of the +fifteenth century into "ut nosmet ipsos in tuo sancto servitio +confortare et conservare digneris,"--"that Thou wouldst deign to keep +and comfort us ourselves in Thy sacred service" (the comfort, observe, +being here asked for whether reasonable or not!); and in the best and +fullest French service-book I have, printed at Rouen in 1520, it +becomes, "ut congregationes omnium sanctorum in tuo sancto servitio +conservare digneris;" while victory as well as concord is asked for the +king and the princes,--thus leading the way to that for our own Queen's +victory over all her enemies, a prayer which might now be advisedly +altered into one that she--and in her, the monarchy of England--might +find more fidelity in their friends. + +255. I give one more example of the corruption of our Prayer-Book, with +reference to the objections taken by some of your correspondents to the +distinction implied in my Letters between the Persons of the Father and +the Christ. + +The "Memoria de Sancta Trinitate," in the St. Louis service-book, runs +thus:-- + +"Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui dedisti famulis tuis in confessione +vere fidei eterne Trinitatis gloriam agnoscere, et in potentia +majestatis adorare unitatem, quesumus ut ejus fidei firmitate ab omnibus +semper muniemur adversis. Qui vivis et regnas Deus, per omnia secula +seculorum. Amen." + +"Almighty and everlasting God, who has given to Thy servants, in +confession of true faith to recognize the glory of the Eternal Trinity, +and in the power of Majesty to pray to the Unity; we ask that by the +firmness of that faith we may be always defended from all adverse +things, who livest and reignest God through all ages. Amen." + +256. Turning to our Collect, we find we have first slipped in the word +"us" before "Thy servants," and by that little insertion have slipped in +the squire and his jockey, and the public-house landlord--and anyone +else who may chance to have been coaxed, swept, or threatened into +Church on Trinity Sunday, and required the entire company of them to +profess themselves servants of God, and believers in the mystery of the +Trinity. And we think we have done God a service! + +"Grace." Not a word about grace in the original. You don't believe by +having grace, but by having wit. + +"To acknowledge." "Agnosco" is to recognize, not to acknowledge. To +_see_ that there are three lights in a chandelier is a great deal more +than to acknowledge that they are there. + +"To worship." "Adorare" is to pray to, not to worship. You may worship a +mere magistrate; but you _pray_ to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. + +The last sentence in the English is too horribly mutilated to be dealt +with in any patience. The meaning of the great old collect is that by +the shield of that faith we may quench all the fiery darts of the devil. +The English prayer means, if it means anything, "Please keep us in our +faith without our taking any trouble; and, besides, please don't let us +lose our money, nor catch cold." + +"Who livest and reignest." Right; but how many of any extant or instant +congregations understand what the two words mean? That God is a living +God, not a dead Law; and that He is a reigning God, putting wrong things +to rights, and that, sooner or later, with a strong hand and a rod of +iron; and not at all with a soft sponge and warm water, washing +everybody as clean as a baby every Sunday morning, whatever dirty work +they may have been about all the week. + +257. On which latter supposition your modern Liturgy, in so far as it +has supplemented instead of corrected the old one, has entirely modeled +itself,--producing in its first address to the congregation before the +Almighty precisely the faultfulest and foolishest piece of English +language that I know in the whole compass of English or American +literature. In the seventeen lines of it (as printed in my +old-fashioned, large-print Prayer-Book), there are seven times over two +words for one idea. + + 1. Acknowledge and confess. + + 2. Sins and wickedness. + + 3. Dissemble nor cloke. + + 4. Goodness and mercy. + + 5. Assemble and meet. + + 6. Requisite and necessary. + + 7. Pray and beseech. + +There is, indeed, a shade of difference in some of these ideas for a +good scholar, none for a general congregation;[172] and what difference +they can guess at merely muddles their heads: to acknowledge sin is +indeed different from confessing it, but it cannot be done at a minute's +notice; and goodness is a different thing from mercy, but it is by no +means God's infinite goodness that forgives our badness, but that judges +it. + +258. "The faultfulest," I said, "and the foolishest." After using +fourteen words where seven would have done, what is it that the whole +speech gets said with its much speaking? This Morning Service of all +England begins with the assertion that the Scripture moveth us in sundry +places to confess our sins before God. _Does_ it so? Have your +congregations ever been referred to those sundry places? Or do they take +the assertion on trust, or remain under the impression that, unless with +the advantage of their own candor, God must remain ill-informed on the +subject of their sins? + +"That we should not dissemble nor cloke them." _Can_ we then? Are these +grown-up congregations of the enlightened English Church in the +nineteenth century still so young in their nurseries that the "Thou, +God, seest me" is still not believed by them if they get under the bed? + +259. Let us look up the sundry moving passages referred to. + +(I suppose myself a simple lamb of the flock, and only able to use my +English Bible.) + +I find in my concordance (confess and confession together) forty-two +occurrences of the word. Sixteen of these, including John's confession +that he was not the Christ, and the confession of the faithful fathers +that they were pilgrims on the earth, do indeed move us strongly to +confess Christ before men. Have you ever taught your congregations what +that confession means? They are ready enough to confess Him in church, +that is to say, in their own private synagogue. Will they in +Parliament? Will they in a ballroom? Will they in a shop? Sixteen of the +texts are to enforce their doing _that_. + +The most important one (1 Tim. vi. 13) refers to Christ's own good +confession, which I suppose was not of His sins, but of His obedience. +How many of your congregations can make any such kind of confession, or +wish to make it? + +The eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth (1 Kings viii. 33, 2 Chron. +vi. 26, Heb. xiii. 15) speak of confessing thankfully that God is God +(and not a putrid plasma nor a theory of development), and the +twenty-first (Job xl. 14) speaks of God's own confession, that no doubt +we are the people, and that wisdom shall die with us, and on what +conditions He will make it. + +260. There remains twenty-one texts which do speak of the confession of +our sins--very moving ones indeed--and Heaven grant that some day the +British public may be moved by them. + +(1.) The first is Lev. v. 5, "He shall confess that he hath sinned _in +that thing_." And if you can get any soul of your congregation to say he +has sinned in _any_thing, he may do it in two words for one if he likes, +and it will yet be good liturgy. + +(2.) The second is indeed general--Lev. xvi. 21: the command that the +whole nation should afflict its soul on the great day of atonement once +a year. The Church of England, I believe, enjoins no such unpleasant +ceremony. Her festivals are passed by her people often indeed in the +extinction of their souls, but by no means in their intentional +affliction. + +(3, 4, 5.) The third, fourth, and fifth (Lev. xxvi. 40, Numb. v. 7, +Nehem. i. 6) refer all to national humiliation for definite idolatry, +accompanied with an entire abandonment of that idolatry, and of +idolatrous persons. How soon _that_ form of confession is likely to find +a place in the English congregations the defenses of their main idol, +mammon, in the vilest and cruelest shape of it--usury--with which this +book has been defiled, show very sufficiently. + +261. (6.) The sixth is Psalm xxxii. 5--virtually the whole of that +psalm, which does, indeed, entirely refer to the greater confession, +once for all opening the heart to God, which can be by no means done +fifty-two times a year, and which, once done, puts men into a state in +which they will never again say there is no health in them; nor that +their hearts are desperately wicked; but will obey forever the instantly +following order, "Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and shout for joy, +all ye that are true of heart." + +(7.) The seventh (Acts xxiv. 14) is the one confession in which I can +myself share:--"After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the +Lord God of my fathers." + +(8.) The eighth (James v. 16) tells us to confess our faults--not to +God, but "one to another"--a practice not favored by English +catechumens--(by the way, what _do_ you all mean by "auricular" +confession--confession that can be heard? and is the Protestant +pleasanter form one that can't be?) + +(9.) The ninth is that passage of St. John (i. 9), the favorite +evangelical text, which is read and preached by thousands of false +preachers every day, without once going on to read its great companion, +"Beloved, if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and +knoweth all things; but if our heart condemn us _not_, then have we +confidence toward God." Make your people understand the second text, and +they will understand the first. At present you leave them understanding +neither. + +262. And the entire body of the remaining texts is summed in Joshua vii. +19 and Ezra x. 11, in which, whether it be Achan, with his Babylonish +garment, or the people of Israel, with their Babylonish lusts, the +meaning of confession is simply what it is to every brave boy, girl, +man, and woman, who knows the meaning of the word "honor" before God or +man--namely, to say what they have done wrong, and to take the +punishment of it (not to get it blanched over by any means), and to do +it no more--which is so far from being a tone of mind generally enforced +either by the English, or any other extant Liturgy, that, though all my +maids are exceedingly pious, and insist on the privilege of going to +church as a quite inviolable one, I think it a scarcely to be hoped for +crown and consummation of virtue in them that they should tell me when +they have broken a plate; and I should expect to be met only with looks +of indignation and astonishment if I ventured to ask one of them how she +had spent her Sunday afternoon. + +"Without courage," said Sir Walter Scott, "there is no truth; and +without truth there is no virtue." The sentence would have been itself +more true if Sir Walter had written "candor" for "truth," for it is +possible to be true in insolence, or true in cruelty. But in looking +back from the ridges of the Hill Difficulty in my own past life, and in +all the vision that has been given me of the wanderings in the ways of +others--this, of all principles, has become to me surest--that the first +virtue to be required of man is frankness of heart and lip: and I +believe that every youth of sense and honor, putting himself to faithful +question, would feel that he had the devil for confessor, if he had not +his father or his friend. + +263. That a clergyman should ever be so truly the friend of his +parishioners as to deserve their confidence from childhood upwards, may +be flouted as a sentimental ideal; but he is assuredly only their enemy +in showing his Lutheran detestation of the sale of indulgences by +broadcasting these gratis from his pulpit. + +The inconvenience and unpleasantness of a catechism concerning itself +with the personal practice as well as the general theory of duty, are +indeed perfectly conceivable by me: yet I am not convinced that such +manner of catechism would therefore be less medicinal; and during the +past ten years it has often been matter of amazed thought with me, while +our President at Corpus read prayers to the chapel benches, what might +by this time have been the effect on the learning as well as the creed +of the University, if, forty years ago, our stern old Dean Gaisford, of +the House of Christ, instead of sending us to chapel as to the house of +correction, when we missed a lecture, had inquired, before he allowed us +to come to chapel at all, whether we were gamblers, harlot-mongers, or +in concealed and selfish debt. + +264. I observe with extreme surprise in the preceding letters the +unconsciousness of some of your correspondents, that there ever was such +a thing as discipline in the Christian Church. Indeed, the last +wholesome instance of it I can remember was when my own great-great +uncle Maitland lifted Lady ---- from his altar-rails, and led her back to +her seat before the congregation, when she offered to take the +Sacrament, being at enmity with her son.[173] But I believe a few hours +honestly spent by any clergyman on his Church history would show him +that the Church's confidence in her prayer has been always exactly +proportionate to the strictness of her discipline; that her present +fright at being caught praying by a chemist or an electrician, results +mainly from her having allowed her twos and threes gathered in the name +of Christ to become sixes and sevens gathered in the name of Belial; and +that therefore her now needfulest duty is to explain to her stammering +votaries, extremely doubtful as they are of the effect of their +supplications either on politics or the weather, that although Elijah +was a man subject to like passions as we are, he had them better under +command; and that while the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man +availeth much, the formal and lukewarm one of an iniquitous man +availeth--much the other way. + +Such an instruction, coupled with due explanation of the nature of +righteousness and iniquity, directed mainly to those who have the power +of both in their own hands, being makers of law, and holders of +property, would, without any further debate, bring about a very singular +change in the position and respectability of English clergymen. + +265. How far they may at present be considered as merely the Squire's +left hand, bound to know nothing of what he is doing with his right, it +is for their own consciences to determine. + +For instance, a friend wrote to me the other day, "Will you not come +here? You will see a noble duke destroying a village as old as the +Conquest, and driving out dozens of families whose names are in Domesday +Book, because, owing to the neglect of his ancestors and rackrenting for +a hundred years, the place has fallen out of repair, and the people are +poor, and may become paupers. A local paper ventured to tell the truth. +The duke's agent called on the editor, and threatened him with +destruction if he did not hold his tongue." The noble duke, doubtless, +has proper Protestant horror of auricular confession. But suppose, +instead of the local editor, the local parson had ventured to tell the +truth from his pulpit, and even to intimate to his Grace that he might +no longer receive the Body and Blood of the Lord at the altar of that +parish! The parson would scarcely--in these days--have been therefore +made bonfire of, and had a pretty martyr's memorial by Mr. Scott's +pupils; but he would have lighted a goodly light, nevertheless, in this +England of ours, whose pettifogging piety has now neither the courage to +deny a duke's grace in its church, nor to declare Christ's in its +Parliament. + +266. Lastly. Several of your contributors, I observe, have rashly dipped +their feet in the brim of the water of that raging question of Usury; +and I cannot but express my extreme regret that you should yourself have +yielded to the temptation of expressing opinions which you have had no +leisure either to sound or to test. My assertion, however, that the +rich lived mainly by robbing the poor, referred not to Usury, but to +Rent; and the facts respecting both these methods of extortion are +perfectly and indubitably ascertainable by any person who himself wishes +to ascertain them, and is able to take the necessary time and pains. I +see no sign, throughout the whole of these letters, of any wish +whatever, on the part of one of their writers, to ascertain the facts, +but only to defend practices which they hold to be convenient in the +world, and are afraid to blame in their congregations. Of the +presumption with which several of the writers utter their notions on the +subject, I do not think it would be right to speak farther, in an +epilogue to which there is no reply, in the terms which otherwise would +have been deserved. In their bearing on other topics, let me earnestly +thank you (so far as my own feelings may be permitted voice in the +matter) for the attention with which you have examined, and the courage +with which you have ratified, or at least endured, letters which +could not but bear at first the aspect of being written in a +hostile--sometimes even in a mocking spirit. That aspect is untrue, nor +am I answerable for it: the things of which I had to speak could not be +shortly described but in terms which might sound satirical; for all +error, if frankly shown, is precisely most ridiculous when it is most +dangerous, and I have written no word which is not chosen as the +exactest for its occasion, whether it move sigh or smile. In my earlier +days I wrote much with the desire to please, and the hope of influencing +the reader. As I grow older and older, I recognize the truth of the +Preacher's saying, "Desire shall fail, and the mourners go about the +streets;" and I content myself with saying, to whoso it may concern, +that the thing is verily thus, whether they will hear or whether they +will forbear. No man more than I has ever loved the places where God's +honor dwells, or yielded truer allegiance to the teaching of His evident +servants. No man at this time grieves more for the danger of the Church +which supposes him her enemy, while she whispers procrastinating _pax +vobiscum_ in answer to the spurious kiss of those who would fain toll +curfew over the last fires of English faith, and watch the sparrow find +nest where she may lay her young, around the altars of the Lord. + + Ever affectionately yours, + J. RUSKIN. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 169: The following extracts from letters of Mr. Ruskin to Mr. +Malleson were printed in the "Letters to the Clergy":-- + +"_14th May_, 1880.--My dear Malleson, ... I had never seen _yours_ at +all when I wrote last. I fell first on ----, whom I read with some +attention, and commented on with little favor; went on to the next, and +remained content with that taste till I had done my Scott (_Nineteenth +Century_). + +"I have this morning been reading your own, on which I very earnestly +congratulate you. God knows it is not because they are friendly or +complimentary, but because you _do_ see what I mean; and people hardly +ever do; and I think it needs very considerable power and feeling to +forgive and understand as you do. You have said everything I want to +say, and much more, except on the one point of excommunication, which +will be the chief, almost the only, subject of my final note." + +"_16th May._--Yes, the omission of the 'Mr.' meant much change in all my +feelings towards you and estimates of you; for which change, believe me, +I am more glad and thankful than I can well tell you. + +"J. RUSKIN."] + +[Footnote 170: Only a heretic!--F. A. M.] + +[Footnote 171: I may perhaps be pardoned for vindicating-at least my +arithmetic, which, with Bishop Colenso, I rather pride myself upon. One +of your correspondents greatly doubts my having heard five thousand +asserters of evangelical principles (Catholic-absolvent or +Protestant-detergent are virtually the same). I am now sixty years old, +and for forty-five of them was in church at least once on the +Sunday,--say once a month also in afternoons,--and you have above three +thousand church services. When I am abroad I am often in half-a-dozen +churches in the course of a single day, and never lose a chance of +listening to anything that is going on. Add the conversations pursued, +not unearnestly, with every sort of reverend person I can get to talk to +me--from the Bishop of Strasburg (as good a specimen of a town bishop as +I have known), with whom I was studying ecstatic paintings in the year +1850--down to the simplest traveling tinker inclined Gospelwards, whom I +perceive to be sincere, and your correspondent will perceive that my +rapid numerical expression must be far beneath the truth. He subjoins +his more rational doubt of my acquaintance with many town missionaries; +to which I can only answer, that as I do not live in town, nor set up +for a missionary myself, my spiritual advantages have certainly not been +great in that direction. I simply assert that of the few I have +known,--beginning with Mr. Spurgeon, under whom I sat with much +edification for a year or two,--I have not known any such teaching as I +speak of.] + +[Footnote 172: The only explanation ever offered for this exuberant +wordiness is that if worshipers did not understand one term they would +the other, and in some cases, in the Exhortation and elsewhere, one word +is of Latin and the other of Saxon derivation.[1] But this is surely a +very feeble excuse for bad composition. Of a very different kind is that +beautiful climax which is reached in the three admirably chosen pairs of +words in the Prayer for the Parliament, "peace and happiness, truth and +justice, religion and piety."--F. A. M. + +(Note 1: The repetition of synonymous terms is of very frequent +occurrence in sixteenth century writing, as "for ever and aye," "Time +and the hour run through the roughest day" (_Macbeth_, i. 3).)] + +[Footnote 173: In some of the country districts of Scotland the right of +the Church to interfere with the lives of private individuals is still +exercised. Only two years ago, a wealthy gentleman farmer was rebuked by +the "Kirk Session" of the Dissenting Church to which he belonged, for +infidelity to his wife. + +At the Scottish half-yearly Communion the ceremony of "fencing the +tables" used to be observed; that is, turning away all those whose lives +were supposed to have made them unfit to receive the Sacrament.] + + + + +THE NATURE AND AUTHORITY OF MIRACLE.[174] + + +267. Every age of the world has its own special sins, and special +simplicities; and among our own most particular humors in both kinds +must be reckoned the tendency to parade our discoveries of the laws of +Nature, as if nobody had ever heard of a law of Nature before. + +The most curious result of this extremely absurd condition of mind is +perhaps the alarm of religious persons on subjects of which one would +have fancied most of the palpable difficulties had been settled before +the nineteenth century. The theory of prayer, for instance, and of +Miracles. I noticed a lengthy discussion in the newspapers a month or +two ago, on the propriety of praying for, or against rain. It had +suddenly, it seems, occurred to the public mind, and to that of the +gentlemen who write the theology of the breakfast-table, that rain was +owing to natural causes; and that it must be unreasonable to expect God +to supply on our immediate demand what could not be provided but by +previous evaporation. I noticed farther that this alarming difficulty +was at least softened to some of our Metropolitan congregations by the +assurances of their ministers, that, although, since the last lecture by +Professor Tyndall at the Royal Institution, it had become impossible to +think of asking God for any temporal blessing, they might still hope +their applications for spiritual advantages would occasionally be +successful;--thus implying that though material processes were +necessarily slow, and the laws of Heaven respecting matter, inviolable, +mental processes might be instantaneous, and mental laws at any moment +disregarded by their Institutor: so that the spirit of a man might be +brought to maturity in a moment, though the resources of Omnipotence +would be overtaxed, or its consistency abandoned, in the endeavor to +produce the same result On a greengage. + +More logically, though not more wisely, other divines have asserted that +prayer is medicinally beneficial to ourselves, whether we obtain what we +ask for or not; and that our moral state is gradually elevated by the +habit of praying daily that the Kingdom of God may come,--though nothing +would more astonish us than its coming. + +268. With these doubts respecting the possibility or propriety of +miracle, a more immediate difficulty occurs as to its actual nature or +definition. What is the quality of any event which may be properly +called "miraculous"? What are the degrees of wonderfulness?--what the +surpassing degree of it, which changes the wonder into the sign, or may +be positively recognized by human intelligence as an interruption, +instead of a new operation, of those laws of Nature with which, of late, +we have become so exhaustively acquainted? For my own part, I can only +say that I am so haunted by doubt of the security of our best knowledge, +and by discontent in the range of it, that it seems to me contrary to +modesty, whether in a religious or scientific point of view, to regard +_any_thing as miraculous. I know so little, and this little I know is so +inexplicable, that I dare not say anything is wonderful because it is +strange to me, or not wonderful because it is familiar. I have not the +slightest idea how I compel my hand to write these words, or my lips to +read them: and the question which was the thesis of Mr. Ward's very +interesting paper, "Can Experience prove the Uniformity of Nature?"[175] +is, in my mind, so assuredly answerable with the negative which the +writer appeared to desire, that, precisely on that ground, the +performance of any so-called miracle whatever would be morally +unimpressive to me. If a second Joshua to-morrow commanded the sun to +stand still, and it obeyed him; and he therefore claimed deference as a +miracle-worker, I am afraid I should answer, "What! a miracle that the +sun stands still?--not at all. I was always expecting it would. The only +wonder, to me, was its going on." + +269. But even assuming the demonstrable uniformity of the laws or +customs of Nature which are known to us, it remains a difficult question +what manner of interference with such law or custom we might logically +hold miraculous, and what, on the contrary, we should treat only as +proof of the existence of some other law, hitherto undiscovered. + +For instance, there is a case authenticated by the signatures of several +leading physicists in Paris, in which a peasant girl, under certain +conditions of morbid excitement, was able to move objects at some +distance from her without touching them. Taking the evidence for what it +may be worth, the discovery of such a faculty would only, I suppose, +justify us in concluding that some new vital energy was developing +itself under the conditions of modern bodily health; and not that any +interference with the laws of Nature had taken place. Yet the generally +obstinate refusal of men of science to receive any verbal witness of +such facts is a proof that they believe them contrary to a code of law +which is more or less complete in their experience, and altogether +complete in their conception; and I think it is therefore their province +to lay down for us the true principle by which we may distinguish the +miraculous violation of a known law from the sudden manifestation of an +unknown one. + +270. In the meantime, supposing ourselves ever so incapable of defining +law, or discerning its interruption, we need not therefore lose our +conception of the one, nor our faith in the other. Some of us may no +more be able to know a genuine miracle, when we see it, than others to +know a genuine picture; but the ordinary impulse to regard, therefore, +all claim to miraculous power as imposture, or self-deception, reminds +me always of the speech of a French lady to me, whose husband's +collection of old pictures had brought unexpectedly low prices in the +auction-room,--"How can you be so senseless," she said, "as to attach +yourself to the study of an art in which you see that all excellence is +a mere matter of opinion?" Some of us have thus come to imagine that +the laws of Nature, as well as those of Art, may be matters of opinion; +and I recollect an ingenious paper by Mr. Frederic Harrison, some two +years ago, on the "Subjective Synthesis,"--which, after proving, what +does not seem to stand in need of so elaborate proof, that we can only +know, of the universe, what we can see and understand, went on to state +that the laws of Nature "were not objective realities, any more than +they were absolute truths."[176] Which decision, it seems to me, is as +if some modest and rational gnat, who had submitted to the humiliating +conviction that it could know no more of the world than might be +traversed by flight, or tasted by puncture, yet, in the course of an +experiment on a philosopher with its proboscis, hearing him speak of the +Institutes of Justinian, should observe, on its return to the society of +gnats, that the Institutes of Justinian were not objective realities, +any more than they were absolute truths. And, indeed, the careless use +of the word "Truth" itself, often misleads even the most accurate +thinkers. A law cannot be spoken of as a truth, either absolute or +concrete. It is a law of nature, that is to say, of my own particular +nature, that I fall asleep after dinner, and my confession of this fact +is a truth; but the bad habit is no more a truth than the statement of +it is a bad habit. + +271. Nevertheless, in spite of the treachery of our conceptions and +language, and in just conclusion even from our narrow experience, the +conviction is fastened in our hearts that the habits or laws of Nature +are more constant than our own and sustained by a firmer Intelligence: +so that, without in the least claiming the faculty of recognition of +miracle, we may securely define its essence. The phenomena of the +universe with which we are acquainted are assumed to be, under general +conditions, constant, but to be maintained in that constancy by a +supreme personal Mind; and it is farther supposed that, under +particular conditions, this ruling Person interrupts the constancy of +these phenomena, in order to establish a particular relation with +inferior creatures. + +272. It is, indeed, singular how ready the inferior creatures are to +imagine such a relation, without any very decisive evidence of its +establishment. The entire question of miracle is involved with that of +the special providences which are supposed, in some theories of +religion, sometimes to confound the enemies, and always to protect the +darlings of God: and in the minds of amiable persons, the natural and +very justifiable sense of their own importance to the well-being of the +world may often encourage the pleasant supposition that the Deity, +however improvident for others, will be provident for _them_. I +recollect a paper on this subject by Dr. Guthrie, published not long ago +in some religious periodical, in which the writer mentioned, as a +strikingly Providential circumstance, the catching of his foot on a +ledge of rock which averted what might otherwise have been a fatal fall. +Under the sense of the loss to the cause of religion and the society of +Edinburgh, which might have been the consequence of the accident, it is +natural that Dr. Guthrie should refer to it with strongly excited +devotional feelings: yet, perhaps, with better reason, a junior member +of the Alpine Club, less secure of the value of his life, would have +been likely on the same occasion rather to be provoked by his own +awkwardness, than impressed by the providential structure of the rock. +At the root of every error on these subjects we may trace either an +imperfect conception of the universality of Deity, or an exaggerated +sense of individual importance: and yet it is no less certain that every +train of thought likely to lead us in a right direction must be founded +on the acknowledgment that the personality of a Deity who has commanded +the doing of Justice and the showing of Mercy can be no otherwise +manifested than in the signal support of causes which are just, and +favor of persons who are kind. The beautiful tradition of the deaths of +Cleobis and Bito, indeed, expresses the sense proper to the wisest men, +that we are unable either to discern or decide for ourselves in what +the favor of God consists: but the promises of the Christian religion +imply that its true disciples will be enabled to ask with prudence what +is to be infallibly granted. + +273. And, indeed, the relations between God and His creatures which it +is the function of miracle to establish, depend far more on the +correspondence of events with human volition than on the marvelous +character of the events themselves. These relations are, in the main, +twofold. Miracles are either to convince, or to assist. We are apt to +think of them as meant only to establish faith, but many are for mere +convenience of life. Elisha's making the ax-head swim, and the poisoned +soup wholesome, were not to convince anybody, but merely to give help in +the quickest way. Conviction is, indeed, in many of the most interesting +miracles, quite a secondary end, and often an unattained one. The hungry +multitude are fed, the ship in danger relieved by sudden calm. The +disciples disregard the multiplying of the loaves, yet are strongly +affected by the change in the weather. + +But whether for conviction, aid (or aid in the terrific form of +punishment), the essence of miracle is as the manifestation of a Power +which can direct or modify the otherwise constant phenomena of Nature; +and it is, I think, by attaching too great importance to what may be +termed the missionary work of miracle, instead of what may in +distinction be called its pastoral work, that many pious persons, no +less than infidels, are apt to despise, and therefore to deny, +miraculous power altogether. + +274. "We do not need to be convinced," they say, "of the existence of +God by the capricious exertion of His power. We are satisfied in the +normal exertion of it; and it is contrary to the idea of His Excellent +Majesty that there should be any other." + +But all arguments and feelings must be distrusted which are founded on +our own ideas of what it is proper for Deity to do. Nor can I, even +according to our human modes of judgment, find any impropriety in the +thought that an energy may be natural without being normal, and Divine +without being constant. The wise missionary may indeed require no +miracle to confirm his authority; but the despised pastor may need +miracle to enforce it, or the compassionate governor to make it +beneficial. And it is quite possible to conceive of Pastoral Miracle as +resulting from a power as natural as any other, though not as perpetual. +The wind bloweth where it listeth, and some of the energies granted to +men born of the Spirit may be manifested only on certain conditions and +on rare occasions; and therefore be always wonderful or miraculous, +though neither disorderly nor unnatural. + +Thus St. Paul's argument to Agrippa, "Why should it be thought with you +a thing impossible that God should raise the dead?" would be suicidal, +if he meant to appeal to the miracle as a proof of the authority of his +mission. But, claiming no authority, he announces as a probable and +acceptable fact the opening of a dispensation in which it was as natural +for the dead to be raised as for the Gospel to be preached to the poor, +though both the one and the other were miraculous signs that the Master +of Nature had come down to be Emmanuel among men, and that no prophet +was in future to look for another. + +We have indeed fallen into a careless habit of using the words +supernatural and superhuman, as if equivalent. A human act may be +super-doggish, and a Divine act superhuman, yet all three acts +absolutely Natural. It is, perhaps, as much the virtue of a Spirit to be +inconstant as of a poison to be sure, and therefore always impossible to +weigh the elements of moral force in the balance of an apothecary. + +275. It is true that, in any abstract reflection on these things, one is +instantly brought to pause by questions of the reasonableness, the +necessity, or the expedient degree of miracle. Christ walks on the +water, overcoming gravity to that extent. Why not have flown, and +overcome it altogether? He feeds the multitude by breaking existent +loaves; why not have commanded the stones into bread? Or, instead of +miraculously feeding either an assembly or a nation, why not enable +them, like Himself, miraculously to fast, for the needful time? And in +generally admitting the theories of pastoral miracle the instant +question submits itself,--Supposing a nation wisely obedient to divinely +appointed ministers of a sensible Theocracy, how much would its +government be miraculously assisted, and how many of its affairs brought +to miraculous prosperity of issue? Would its enemies be destroyed by +angels, and its food poured down upon it from the skies, or would the +supernatural aid be limited to diminishing the numbers of its slain in +battle,[177] or to conducting its merchant ships safely, or +instantaneously, to the land whither they would go? + +But no progress can be made, and much may be prevented, in the +examination of any really difficult human problem, by thus approaching +it on the hypothetical side. Such approach is easy to the foolish, +pleasant to the proud, and convenient to the malicious, but absolutely +fruitless of practical result. Our modesty and wisdom consist alike in +the simple registry of the facts cognizable by us, and our duty, in +making active use of them for the present, without concerning ourselves +as to the possibilities of the future. And the two main facts we have to +deal with are that the historical record of miracle is always of +inconstant power, and that our own actual energies are inconstant almost +in exact proportion to their worthiness. + +276. First, I say, the history of miracle is of inconstant power. St. +Paul raises Eutychus from death, and his garments effect miraculous +cure; yet he leaves Trophimus sick at Miletum, recognizes only the mercy +of God in the recovery of Epaphroditus, and, like any uninspired +physician, recommends Timothy wine for his infirmities. And in the +second place, our own energies are inconstant almost in proportion to +their nobleness. We breathe with regularity, and can calculate upon the +strength necessary for common tasks. But the record of our best work, +and of our happiest moments, is always one of success which we did not +expect, and of enthusiasm which we could not prolong. + +277. And therefore we can only look for an imperfect and interrupted, +but may surely insist on an occasional, manifestation of miraculous +credentials by every minister of religion. There is no practical +difficulty in the discernment of marvel properly to be held superhuman. +It is indeed frequently alleged by the admirers of scientific discovery +that many things which were wonderful fifty years ago, have ceased to be +so now; and I am perfectly ready to concede to them that what they now +themselves imagine to be admirable, will not in the future be admired. +But the petty sign, said to have been wrought by the augur Attus before +Tarquin, would be as impressive at this instant as it was then; while +the utmost achievements of recent scientific miracle have scarcely yet +achieved the feeding of Lazarus their beggar, still less the +resurrection of Lazarus their friend. Our Christian faith, at all +events, stands or falls by this test. "These signs shall follow them +that believe," are words which admit neither of qualification nor +misunderstanding; and it is far less arrogant in any man to look for +such Divine attestation of his authority as a teacher, than to claim, +without it, any authority to teach. And assuredly it is no proof of any +unfitness or unwisdom in such expectations, that, for the last thousand +years, miraculous powers seem to have been withdrawn from, or at least +indemonstrably possessed, by a Church which, having been again and again +warned by its Master that Riches were deadly to Religion, and Love +essential to it, has nevertheless made wealth the reward of Theological +learning, and controversy its occupation. There are states of moral +death no less amazing than physical resurrection; and a church which +permits its clergy to preach what they have ceased to believe, and its +people to trust what they refuse to obey, is perhaps more truly +miraculous in impotence, than it would be miraculous in power, if it +could move the fatal rocks of California to the Pole, and plant the +sycamore and the vine between the ridges of the sea. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 174: _Contemporary Review_, March, 1873.] + +[Footnote 175: Read at the November meeting of the Metaphysical +Society.] + +[Footnote 176: I quote from memory but am sure of the purport of the +sentence, though not of its expression.] + + +[Footnote 177: "And be it death proclaimëd through our host to boast of +this."--_Henry V._] + + + * * * * * + + +AN OXFORD LECTURE. + +(_Nineteenth Century, January 1878._) + + + * * * * * + + +AN OXFORD LECTURE.[178] + + +278. I am sure that all in this audience who were present yesterday at +Dr. Acland's earnest and impressive lecture must have felt how deeply I +should be moved by his closing reference to the friendship begun in our +undergraduate days;--of which I will but say that, if it alone were all +I owed to Oxford, the most gracious kindness of the Alma Mater would in +that gift have been fulfilled to me. + +But his affectionate words, in their very modesty, as if even standing +on the defense of his profession, the noblest of human occupations! and +of his science--the most wonderful and awful of human intelligences! +showed me that I had yet not wholly made clear to you the exactly +limited measure in which I have ventured to dispute the fitness of +method of study now assigned to you in this University. + +279. Of the dignity of physical science, and of the happiness of those +who are devoted to it for the healing and the help of mankind, I never +have meant to utter, and I do not think I _have_ uttered, one irreverent +word. But against the curiosity of science, leading us to call virtually +nothing gained but what is new discovery, and to despise every use of +our knowledge in its acquisition; of the insolence of science, in +claiming for itself a separate function of that human mind which in its +perfection is one and indivisible, in the image of its Creator; and of +the perversion of science, in hoping to discover by the analysis of +death, what can only be discovered by the worship of life,--of these I +have spoken, not only with sorrow, but with a fear which every day I +perceive to be more surely grounded, that such labor, in effacing from +within you the sense of the presence of God in the garden of the earth, +may awaken within you the prevailing echo of the first voice of its +Destroyer, "_Ye_ shall be as gods." + +280. To-day I have little enough time to conclude,--none to review--what +I have endeavored thus to say; but one instance, given me directly in +conversation after lecture, by one of yourselves, will enable me to +explain to you precisely what I _mean_. + +After last lecture, in which you remember I challenged our physiologists +to tell me how a bird flies, one of you, whose pardon, if he thinks it +needful, I ask for this use of his most timely and illustrative +statement, came to me, saying, "You know the way in which we are shown +how a bird flies, is, that any one, a dove for instance, is given to us, +plucked, and partly skinned, and incised at the insertion of the wing +bone; and then, with a steel point, the ligament of the muscle at the +shoulder is pulled up, and out, and made distinct from other ligaments, +and we are told 'that is the way a bird flies,' and on that matter it is +thought we have been told enough." + +I say that this instance given me was timely; I will say more--in the +choice of this particular bird, providential. Let me take, in their +order, the two subjects of inquiry and instruction, which are indeed +offered to us in the aspect and form of that one living creature. + +281. Of the splendor of your own true life, you are told, in the words +which, to-day, let me call, as your Fathers did, words of +inspiration--"Yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove, that is covered +with silver wings and her feathers with gold." Of the manifold iris of +color in the dove's plumage, watched carefully in sunshine as the bird +moves, I cannot hope to give you any conception by words; but that it is +the most exquisite, in the modesty of its light, and in the myriad +mingling of its hue, of all plumage, I may partly prove to you in this +one fact, that out of all studies of color, the one which I would +desire most to place within your reach in these schools, is Turner's +drawing of a dove, done when he was in happy youth at Farnley. But of +the causes of this color, and of the peculiar subtlety in its +iridescence, nothing is told you in any scientific book I have ever seen +on ornithology. + +282. Of the power of flight in these wings, and the tender purpose of +their flight, you hear also in your Fathers' book. To the Church, flying +from her enemies into desolate wilderness, there were indeed given two +wings as of a great eagle. But the weary saint of God, looking forward +to his home in calm of eternal peace, prays rather--"Oh that I had wings +like a dove, for then should I flee away, and be at rest." And of these +wings, and this mind of hers, this is what reverent science should teach +you: first, with what parting of plume, and what soft pressure and +rhythmic beating of divided air, she reaches that miraculous swiftness +of undubious motion, compared with which the tempest is slow, and the +arrow uncertain; and secondly, what clew there is, visible, or +conceivable to thought of man, by which, to her living conscience and +errorless pointing of magnetic soul, her distant home is felt afar +beyond the horizon, and the straight path, through concealing clouds, +and over trackless lands, made plain to her desire, and her duty, by the +finger of God. + +283. And lastly, since in the tradition of the Old Covenant she was made +the messenger of forgiveness to those eight souls saved through the +baptism unto death, and in the Gospel of the New Covenant, under her +image, was manifested the well-pleasing of God, in the fulfillment of +all righteousness by His Son in the Baptism unto life,--surely alike all +Christian people, old and young, should be taught to be gladdened by her +sweet presence; and in every city and village in Christendom she should +have such home as in Venice she has had for ages, and be, among the +sculptured marbles of the temple, the sweetest sculpture; and, +fluttering at your children's feet, their never-angered friend. And +surely also, therefore, of the thousand evidences which any carefully +thoughtful person may see, not only of the ministration of good, but of +the deceiving and deadly power of the evil angels, there is no one more +distinct in its gratuitous, and unreconcilable sin, than that this--of +all the living creatures between earth and sky--should be the one chosen +to amuse the apathy of our murderous idleness, with skill-less, +effortless, merciless slaughter. + +284. I pass to the direct subject on which I have to speak finally +to-day;--the reality of that ministration of the good angels, and of +that real adversity of the principalities and powers of Satan, in which, +without exception, all earnest Christians have believed, and the +appearance of which, to the imagination of the greatest and holiest of +them, has been the root, without exception, of all the greatest art +produced by the human mind or hand in this world. + +That you have at present no art properly so called in England at +all--whether of painting, sculpture, or architecture[179]--I, for one, +do not care. In midst of Scottish Lothians, in the days of Scott, there +was, by how much less art, by so much purer life, than in the midst of +Italy in the days of Raphael. But that you should have lost, not only +the skill of Art, but the simplicity of Faith and life, all in one, and +not only here deface your ancient streets by the Ford of the waters of +sacred learning, but also deface your ancient hills with guilt of +mercenary desolation, driving their ancient shepherd life into exile, +and diverting the waves of their streamlets into the cities which are +the very centers of pollution, of avarice, and impiety: for this I _do_ +care,--for this you have blamed me for caring, instead of merely trying +to teach you drawing. I have nevertheless yet done my best to show you +what real drawing is; and must yet again bear your blame for trying to +show you, through that, somewhat more. + +285. I was asked, as we came out of chapel this morning, by one of the +Fellows of my college, to say a word to the Undergraduates, about +Thirlmere. His request, being that of a faithful friend, came to enforce +on me the connection between this form of spoliation of our native land +of its running waters, and the gaining disbelief in the power of prayer +over the distribution of the elements of our bread and water, in rain, +and sunshine,--seedtime, and harvest. Respecting which, I must ask you +to think with me to-day what is the meaning of the myth, if you call it +so, of the great prophet of the Old Testament, who is to be again sent +before the coming of the day of the Lord. For truly, you will find that +if any part of your ancient faith be true, it is needful for every soul +which is to take up its cross, with Christ, to be also first +transfigured in the light of Christ,--talking with Moses and with Elias. + +The contest of Moses is with the temporal servitude,--of Elijah, with +the spiritual servitude, of the people; and the war of Elijah is with +their servitude essentially to two Gods, Baal, or the Sun God, in whose +hand they thought was their life, and Baalzebub--the Fly God,--of +Corruption, in whose hand they thought was the arbitration of death. + +The entire contest is summed in the first assertion by Elijah, of his +authority as the Servant of God, over those elemental powers by which +the heart of Man, whether Jew or heathen, was filled with food and +gladness. + +And Elijah the Tishbite; who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto +Ahab, "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there +shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word." + +286. Your modern philosophers have explained to you the absurdity of all +that: you think? Of all the shallow follies of this age, that +proclamation of the vanity of prayer for the sunshine and rain; and the +cowardly equivocations, to meet it, of the clergy who never in their +lives really prayed for anything, I think, excel. Do these modern +scientific gentlemen fancy that nobody, before they were born, knew the +laws of cloud and storm, or that the mighty human souls of former ages, +who every one of them lived and died by prayer, and in it, did not know +that in every petition framed on their lips they were asking for what +was not only fore-ordained, but just as probably fore-_done_? or that +the mother pausing to pray before she opens the letter from Alma or +Balaclava, does not know that already he is saved for whom she prays, or +already lies festering in his shroud? The whole confidence and glory of +prayer is in its appeal to a Father who knows our necessities before we +ask, who knows our thoughts before they rise in our hearts, and whose +decrees, as unalterable in the eternal future as in the eternal past, +yet in the close verity of visible fact, bend, like reeds, before the +fore-ordained and faithful prayers of His children. + +287. Of Elijah's contest on Carmel with that Sun-power in which, +literally, you again now are seeking your life, you know the story, +however little you believe it. But of his contest with the Death-power, +on the Hill of Samaria, you read less frequently, and more doubtfully. + +"Oh, thou Man of God, the King hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered +and said, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from Heaven, and +consume thee, and thy fifty." + +How monstrous, how revolting, cries your modern religionist, that a +prophet of the Lord should invoke death on fifty men. And he sits +himself, enjoying his muffin and _Times_, and contentedly allows the +slaughter of fifty thousand men, so it be in the interests of England, +and of his own stock on Exchange. + +But note Elijah's message. "Because thou hast sent to inquire of +Baalzebub the God of Ekron, therefore, thou shalt not go down from the +bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." + +"Because thou hast sent to inquire:" he had not sent to _pray_ to the +God of Ekron, only to _ask_ of him. The priests of Baal _prayed_ to +Baal, but Ahaziah only _questions_ the fly-god. + +He does not pray "Let me recover," but he asks "_Shall_ I recover of +this disease?" + +The scientific mind again, you perceive,--Sanitary investigation; by +oracle of the God of Death. Whatever can be produced of disease, by +flies, by aphides, by lice, by communication of corruption, shall not we +moderns also wisely inquire, and so recover of our diseases? + +All which may, for aught I know, be well; and when I hear of the vine +disease or potato disease being stayed, I will hope also that plague may +be, or diphtheria, or aught else of human plague, by due sanitary +measures. + +288. In the meantime, I see that the common cleanliness of the earth and +its water is despised, as if _it_ were a plague; and after myself +laboring for three years to purify and protect the source of the +loveliest stream in the English midlands, the Wandel, I am finally +beaten, because the road commissioners insist on carrying the road +washings into it, at its source. But that's nothing. Two years ago, I +went, for the first time since early youth, to see Scott's country by +the shores of Yarrow, Teviot, and Gala waters. I will read you once +again, though you will remember it, his description of one of those +pools which you are about sanitarily to draw off into your +engine-boilers, and then I will tell you what I saw myself in that +sacred country. + + Oft in my mind such thoughts awake, + By lone Saint Mary's silent lake; + Thou know'st it well,--nor fen, nor sedge, + Pollute the pure lake's crystal edge; + Abrupt and sheer, the mountains sink + At once upon the level brink; + And just a trace of silver sand + Marks where the water meets the land. + + Far in the mirror, bright and blue, + Each hill's huge outline you may view; + Shaggy with heath, but lonely, bare, + Nor tree, nor bush, nor brake, is there, + Save where, of land, yon slender line + Bears thwart the lake the scatter'd pine. + + * * * * * + + And silence aids--though the steep hills + Send to the lake a thousand rills + In summer tide, so soft they weep, + The sound but lulls the ear asleep; + Your horse's hoof-tread sounds too rude, + So stilly is the solitude. + + Nought living meets the eye or ear, + But well I ween the dead are near; + For though, in feudal strife, a foe + Hath laid Our Lady's chapel low, + Yet still beneath the hallow'd soil, + The peasant rests him from his toil, + And, dying, bids his bones be laid, + Where erst his simple fathers pray'd. + +289. What I saw myself, in that fair country, of which the sight remains +with me, I will next tell you. I saw the Teviot oozing, not flowing, +between its wooded banks, a mere sluggish injection, among the filthy +stones, of poisonous pools of scum-covered ink; and in front of Jedburgh +Abbey, where the foaming river used to dash round the sweet ruins as if +the rod of Moses had freshly cleft the rock for it, bare and foul +nakedness of its bed, the whole stream carried to work in the mills, the +dry stones and crags of it festering unseemly in the evening sun, and +the carcass of a sheep, brought down in the last flood, lying there in +the midst of the children at their play, literal and ghastly symbol, in +the sweetest pastoral country in the world, of the lost sheep of the +house of Israel. + +That is your symbol to-day, of the Lamb as it had been slain; and that +the work of your prayerless science;--the issues, these, of your +enlightened teaching, and of all the toils and the deaths of the +Covenanters on those barren hills, of the prophetic martyrs here in your +crossing streets, and of the highest, sincerest, simplest patriot of +Catholic England, Sir Thomas More, within the walls of England's central +Tower. So is ended, with prayer for the bread of this life, also the +hope of the life that is to come. Yet I will take leave to show you the +light of that hope, as it shone on, and guided, the children of the ages +of faith. + +290. Of that legend of St. Ursula which I read to you so lately, you +remember, I doubt not, that the one great meaning is the victory of her +faith over all fears of death. It is the laying down of all the joy, of +all the hope, nay of all the Love, of this life, in the eager +apprehension of the rejoicing and the love of Eternity. What truth there +was in such faith I dare not say that I know; but what manner of human +souls it made, you may for yourselves _see_. Here are enough brought to +you, of the thoughts of a believing people.[180] This maid in her purity +is no fable; this is a Venetian maid, as she was seen in the earthly +dawn, and breathed on by the breeze of her native sea. And here she is +in her womanhood, in her courage and perfect peace, waiting for her +death. + +I have sent for this drawing for you, from Sheffield, where it is to +stay, they needing it more than you. It is the best of all that my +friend did with me at Venice, for St. George, and with St. George's help +and St. Ursula's. It shows you only a piece of the great picture of the +martyrdom--nearly all have fallen around the maid, and she kneels with +her two servant princesses, waiting for her own death. Faithful behind +their mistress, they wait with her,--not feebler, but less raised in +thought, as less conceiving their immortal destiny; the one, a gentle +girl, conceiving not in her quiet heart any horror of death, bows her +fair head towards the earth, almost with a smile; the other, fearful +lest her faith should for an instant fail, bursts into passion of prayer +through burning tears. St. Ursula kneels, as daily she knelt, before the +altar, giving herself up to God forever. + +And so you see her, here in the days of childhood, and here in her +sacred youth, and here in her perfect womanhood, and here borne to her +grave. + +Such creatures as these _have_ lived--do live yet, thank God, in the +faith of Christ. + +291. You hear it openly said that this, their faith, was a foolish +dream. Do you choose to find out whether it was or not? You may if you +will, but you can find it out in one way only. + +Take the dilemma in perfect simplicity. Either Christianity is true or +not. Let us suppose it first one, then the other, and see what follows. + +Let it first be supposed untrue. Then rational investigation will in all +probability discover that untruth; while, on the other hand, irrational +submission to what we are told may lead us into any form of absurdity or +insanity; and, as we read history, we shall find that this insanity has +perverted, as in the Crusades, half the strength of Europe to its ruin, +and been the source of manifold dissension and misery to society. + +Start with the supposition that Christianity is untrue, much more with +the desire that it should be, and that is the conclusion at which you +will certainly arrive. + +But, on the other hand, let us suppose that it is, or may be, true. +Then, in order to find out whether it is or not, we must attend to what +it says of itself. And its first saying is an order to adopt a certain +line of conduct. _Do_ that first, and you shall know more. Its promise +is of blessing and of teaching, more than tongue can utter, or mind +conceive, if you choose to do this; and it refuses to teach or help you +on any other terms than these. + +292. You may think it strange that such a trial is required of you. +Surely the evidences of our future state might have been granted on +other terms--nay, a plain account might have been given, with all +mystery explained away in the clearest language. _Then_, we should have +believed at once. + +Yes, but, as you see and hear, that, if it be our way, is not God's. He +has chosen to grant knowledge of His truth to us on one condition and no +other. If we refuse that condition, the rational evidence around us is +all in proof of our death, and that proof is true, for God also tells +us that in such refusal we shall die. + +You see, therefore, that in either case, be Christianity true or false, +death is demonstrably certain to us in refusing it. As philosophers, we +can expect only death, and as unbelievers, we are condemned to it. + +There is but one chance of life--in admitting so far the possibility of +the Christian verity as to try it on its own terms. There is not the +slightest possibility of finding out whether it be true, or not, first. + +"Show me a sign first and I will come," you say. "No," answers God. +"Come first, then you shall see a sign." + +Hard, you think? You will find it is not so, on thinking more. For this, +which you are commanded, is not a thing unreasonable in itself. So far +from that, it is merely the wisest thing you could do for your own and +for others' happiness, if there were no eternal truth to be discovered. + +You are called simply to be the servant of Christ, and of other men for +His sake; that is to say, to hold your life and all its faculties as a +means of service to your fellows. All you have to do is to be sure it +_is_ the service you are doing them, and not the service you do +yourself, which is uppermost in your minds. + +293. Now you continually hear appeals to you made in a vague way, which +you don't know how far you can follow. You shall not say that, to-day; I +both can and will tell you what Christianity requires of you in simplest +terms. + +Read your Bible as you would any other book--with strictest criticism, +frankly determining what you think beautiful, and what you think false +or foolish. But be sure that you try accurately to understand it, and +transfer its teaching to modern need by putting other names for those +which have become superseded by time. For instance, in such a passage as +that which follows and supports the "Lie not one to another" of +Colossians iii.--"seeing that ye have put on the new man, which is +renewed in knowledge after the spirit of Him that created him, where" +(meaning in that great creation where) "there is neither Greek nor Jew, +circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free." In +applying that verse to the conduct and speech of modern policy, it falls +nearly dead, because we suffer ourselves to remain under a vague +impression--vague, but practically paralyzing,--that though it was very +necessary to speak the truth in the countries of Scythians and Jews, +there is no objection to any quantity of lying in managing the affairs +of Christendom. But now merely substitute modern for ancient names, and +see what a difference it will make in the force and appeal of the +passage, "Lie not one to another, brethren, seeing that ye have put off +the old man, with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is +renewed to knowledge," [Greek: eis epignôsin], according to the +knowledge of Him that created him, in that great creation where there is +neither Englishman nor German, baptism nor want of baptism, Turk nor +Russian, slave nor free, but Christ is all, and in all. + +294. Read your Bible, then, making it the first morning business of your +life to understand some piece of it clearly, and your daily business to +obey of it all that you understand, beginning first with the most human +and most dear obedience--to your father and mother. Doing all things as +they would have you do, for the present: if they want you to be +lawyers--be lawyers; if soldiers--soldiers; if to get on in the +world--even to get money--do as they wish, and that cheerfully, after +distinctly explaining to them in what points you wish otherwise. Theirs +is for the present the voice of God to you. + +But, at the same time, be quite clear about your own purpose, and the +carrying out of that so far as under the conditions of your life you +can. And any of you who are happy enough to have wise parents will find +them contented in seeing you do as I now tell you. + +295. First cultivate all your personal powers, not competitively, but +patiently and usefully. You have no business to read in the long +vacation. Come _here_ to make scholars of yourselves, and go to the +mountains or the sea to make men of yourselves. Give at least a month in +each year to rough sailor's work and sea fishing. Don't lounge and +flirt on the beach, but make yourselves good seamen. Then, on the +mountains, go and help the shepherd at his work, the wood-men at theirs, +and learn to know the hills by night and day. If you are staying in +level country, learn to plow, and whatever else you can that is useful. +Then here in Oxford, read to the utmost of your power, and practice +singing, fencing, wrestling, and riding. No rifle practice, and no +racing--boat or other. Leave the river quiet for the naturalist, the +angler, and the weary student like me. + +You may think all these matters of no consequence to your studies of art +and divinity; and that I am merely crotchety and absurd. Well, that is +the way the devil deceives you. It is not the sins which we _feel_ +sinful, by which he catches us; but the apparently healthy ones,--those +which nevertheless waste the time, harden the heart, concentrate the +passions on mean objects, and prevent the course of gentle and fruitful +thought. + +296. Having thus cultivated, in the time of your studentship, your +powers truly to the utmost, then, in your manhood, be resolved they +shall be spent in the true service of men--not in being ministered unto, +but in ministering. Begin with the simplest of all ministries--breaking +of bread to the poor. Think first of that, not of your own pride, +learning, comfort, prospects in life: nay, not now, once come to +manhood, may even the obedience to parents check your own conscience of +what is your Master's work. "Whoso loveth father and mother more than me +is not worthy of me." Take the perfectly simple words of the Judgment, +"Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these, ye did it unto +me:" but you must _do_ it, not preach it. And you must not be resolved +that it shall be done only in a gentlemanly manner. Your pride must be +laid down, as your avarice, and your fear. Whether as fishermen on the +sea, plowmen on the earth, laborers at the forge, or merchants at the +shop-counter, you must break and distribute bread to the poor, set down +in companies--for that also is literally told you--upon the green +grass, not crushed in heaps under the pavement of cities. Take Christ at +His literal word, and, so sure as His word is true, He will be known of +you in breaking of bread. Refuse that servant's duty because it is +plain,--seek either to serve God, or know Him, in any other way: your +service will become mockery of Him, and your knowledge darkness. Every +day your virtues will be used by the evil spirits to conceal, or to make +respectable, national crime; every day your felicities will become baits +for the iniquity of others; your heroisms, wreckers' beacons, betraying +them to destruction; and before your own deceived eyes and wandering +hearts every false meteor of knowledge will flash, and every perishing +pleasure glow, to lure you into the gulf of your grave. + +297. But obey the word in its simplicity, in wholeness of purpose and +with serenity of sacrifice, like this of the Venetian maids', and truly +you shall receive sevenfold into your bosom in this present life, as in +the world to come, life everlasting. All your knowledge will become to +you clear and sure, all your footsteps safe; in the present brightness +of domestic life you will foretaste the joy of Paradise, and to your +children's children bequeath, not only noble fame, but endless virtue. +"He shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways; +and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your +hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 178: Left, at the Editor's request, with only some absolutely +needful clearing of unintelligible sentences, as it was written for free +delivery. It was the last of a course of twelve given this +autumn;--refers partly to things already said, partly to drawings on the +walls; and needs the reader's pardon throughout, for faults and +abruptness incurable but by re-writing the whole as an essay instead of +a lecture.--(_Nineteenth Century_, January, 1878.)] + +[Footnote 179: Of course, this statement is merely a generalization of +many made in the preceding lectures, the tenor of which any readers +acquainted with my recent writings may easily conceive.] + +[Footnote 180: The references were to the series of drawings lately +made, in Venice, for the Oxford and Sheffield schools, from the works of +Carpaccio, by Mr. Fairfax Murray.] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's On the Old Road, Vol. 2 (of 2), by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE OLD ROAD, VOL. 2 (OF 2) *** + +***** This file should be named 21263-8.txt or 21263-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/2/6/21263/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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