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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36111-8.txt b/36111-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d505c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/36111-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4709 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prophets of Dissent, by Otto Heller + +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: Prophets of Dissent + Essays on Maeterlinck, Strindberg, Nietzsche and Tolstoy + +Author: Otto Heller + +Release Date: May 15, 2011 [EBook #36111] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROPHETS OF DISSENT *** + + + + +Produced by Jana Srna and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + [ Transcriber's Notes: + + Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully + as possible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation. + Some corrections of spelling have been made. They are listed at the + end of the text. + + Italic text has been marked with _underscores_. + ] + + + + + PROPHETS OF DISSENT + + + + + BOOKS BY OTTO HELLER + + HENRIK IBSEN: PLAYS AND PROBLEMS + + STUDIES IN MODERN GERMAN LITERATURE + + LESSING'S "MINNA VON BARNHELM" + in English + + + + + Prophets of Dissent: Essays + on Maeterlinck, Strindberg, + Nietzsche and Tolstoy + + by + Otto Heller + + Professor of Modern European Literature + in Washington University (St. Louis) + + + Is there a thing in this world that can be separated from + the inconceivable? + + Maeterlinck, "Our Eternity" + + + New York + Mcmxviii + Alfred A Knopf + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY + ALFRED A. KNOPF + + PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + + To + HELLEN SEARS + staunchest of friends + + + + +Preface + + +The collocation of authors so widely at variance in their moral and +artistic aims as are those assembled in this little book may be defended +by the safe and simple argument that all of these authors have exerted, +each in his own way, an influence of singular range and potency. By +fairly general consent they are the foremost literary expositors of +important modern tendencies. It is, therefore, of no consequence whether +or not their ways of thinking fit into our particular frame of mind; +what really matters is that in this small group of writers more clearly +perhaps than in any other similarly restricted group the basic issues of +the modern struggle for social transformation appear to be clearly and +sharply joined. That in viewing them as indicators of contrarious ideal +currents due allowance must be made for peculiarities of temperament, +both individual and racial, and, correspondingly, for the purely +"personal equation" in their spiritual attitudes, does not detract to +any material degree from their generic significance. + +In any case, there are those of us who in the vortical change of the +social order through which we are whirling, feel a desire to orient +ourselves through an objective interest in letters among the embattled +purposes and policies which are now gripped in a final test of strength. +In a crisis that makes the very foundations of civilization quake, and +at a moment when the salvation of human liberty seems to depend upon the +success of a united stand of all the modern forces of life against the +destructive impact of the most primitive and savage of all the +instincts, would it not be absurdly pedantic for a critical student of +literature to resort to any artificial selection and co-ordination of +his material in order to please the prudes and the pedagogues? And is it +not natural to seek that material among the largest literary apparitions +of the age? + +It is my opinion, then, that the four great authors discussed in the +following pages stand, respectively, for the determining strains in a +great upsetting movement, and that in the aggregate they bring to view +the composite mental and moral impulsion of the times. Through such +forceful articulations of current movements the more percipient class of +readers have for a long time been enabled to foresense, in a manner, the +colossal reconstruction of society which needs must follow this +monstrous, but presumably final, clash between the irreconcilable +elements in the contrasted principles of right and might, the masses and +the monarchs. + +However, the gathering together of Maeterlinck, Nietzsche, Strindberg, +and Tolstoy under the hospitality of a common book-cover permits of a +supplementary explanation on the ground of a certain fundamental +likeness far stronger than their only too obvious diversities. They are, +one and all, radicals in thought, and, with differing strength of +intention, reformers of society, inasmuch as their speculations and +aspirations are relevant to practical problems of living. And yet what +gives them such a durable hold on our attention is not their particular +apostolate, but the fact that their artistic impulses ascend from the +subliminal regions of the inner life, and that their work somehow brings +one into touch with the hidden springs of human action and human fate. +This means, in effect, that all of them are mystics by original cast of +mind and that notwithstanding any difference, however apparently +violent, of views and theories, they follow the same introspective path +towards the recognition and interpretation of the law of life. From +widely separated ethical premises they thus arrive at an essentially +uniform appraisal of personal happiness as a function of living. + +To those readers who are not disposed to grant the validity of the +explanations I have offered, perhaps equality of rank in artistic +importance may seem a sufficient criterion for the association of +authors, and, apart from all sociologic and philosophic considerations, +they may be willing to accept my somewhat arbitrary selection on this +single count. + + O. H. + +April, 1918. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I Maurice Maeterlinck: a study in Mysticism 3 + + II August Strindberg: a study in Eccentricity 71 + + III Friedrich Nietzsche: a study in Exaltation 109 + + IV Leo Tolstoy: a study in Revivalism 161 + + + + +I + +THE MYSTICISM OF MAURICE MAETERLINCK + + +Under the terrific atmospheric pressure that has been torturing the +civilization of the entire world since the outbreak of the greatest of +wars, contemporary literature of the major cast appears to have gone +into decline. Even the comparatively few writers recognized as +possessing talents of the first magnitude have given way to that +pressure and have shrunk to minor size, so that it may be seriously +questioned, to say the least, whether during the past forty months or so +a single literary work of outstanding and sustained grandeur has been +achieved anywhere. That the effect of the universal embattlement upon +the art of letters should be, in the main, extremely depressing, is +quite natural; but the conspicuous loss of breadth and poise in writers +of the first order seems less in accordance with necessity,--at least +one might expect a very superior author to rise above that necessity. In +any case it is very surprising that it should be a Belgian whose +literary personality is almost unique in having remained exempt from the +general abridgment of spiritual stature. + +It is true that Maurice Maeterlinck, the most eminent literary figure in +his sadly stricken country and of unsurpassed standing among the +contemporary masters of French letters, has, since the great +catastrophe, won no new laurels as a dramatist; and that in the other +field cultivated by him, that of the essay, his productiveness has been +anything but prolific. But in his case one is inclined to interpret +reticence as an eloquent proof of a singularly heroic firmness of +character at a time when on both sides of the great divide which now +separates the peoples, the cosmopolitan trend of human advance has come +to a temporary halt, and the nations have relapsed from their +laboriously attained degree of world-citizenship into the homelier, but +more immediately virtuous, state of traditional patriotism. + +It is a military necessity as well as a birthright of human nature that +at a time like the present the patriot is excused from any pharisaical +profession of loving his enemy. Before the war, Maeterlinck's writings +were animated by humanitarian sympathies of the broadest catholicity. He +even had a peculiar affection for the Germans, because doubtless he +perceived the existence of a strong kinship between certain essential +traits in his spiritual composition and the fundamental tendencies of +German philosophy and art. But when Belgium was lawlessly invaded, her +ancient towns heinously destroyed, her soil laid waste and drenched with +the blood of her people, Maeterlinck, as a son of Belgium, learned to +hate the Germans to the utmost of a wise and temperate man's capacity +for hatred, and in his war papers collected in _Les Débris de la +Guerre_, (1916),(1) which ring with the passionate impulse of the +patriot, his outraged sense of justice prevails over the disciplined +self-command of the stoic. + + (1) "The Wrack of the Storm," 1916. + +He refuses to acquiesce in the lenient discrimination between the guilty +Government of Germany and her innocent population: "It is not true that +in this gigantic crime there are innocent and guilty, or degrees of +guilt. They stand on one level, all those who have taken part in it.... +It is, very simply, the German, from one end of his country to the +other, who stands revealed as a beast of prey which the firm will of our +planet finally repudiates. We have here no wretched slaves dragged along +by a tyrant king who alone is responsible. Nations have the government +which they deserve, or rather, the government which they have is truly +no more than the magnified and public projection of the private morality +and mentality of the nation.... No nation can be deceived that does not +wish to be deceived; and it is not intelligence that Germany lacks.... +No nation permits herself to be coerced to the one crime that man cannot +pardon. It is of her own accord that she hastens towards it; her chief +has no need to persuade, it is she who urges him on."(2) + + (2) "The Wrack of the Storm," pp. 16-18. + +Such a condemnatory tirade against the despoilers of his fair homeland +was normally to be expected from a man of Maeterlinck's depth of +feeling. The unexpected thing that happened not long after was that the +impulsive promptings of justice and patriotism put themselves into +harmony with the guiding principles of his entire moral evolution. The +integrity of his philosophy of life, the sterling honesty of his +teachings, were thus loyally sealed with the very blood of his +heart.--"Before closing this book," he says in the Epilogue,(3) "I wish +to weigh for the last time in my conscience the words of hatred and +malediction which it has made me speak in spite of myself." And then, +true prophet that he is, he speaks forth as a voice from the future, +admonishing men to prepare for the time when the war is over. What saner +advice could at this critical time be given the stay-at-homes than that +they should follow the example of the men who return from the trenches? +"They detest the enemy," says he, "but they do not hate the man. They +recognize in him a brother in misfortune who, like themselves, is +submitting to duties and laws which, like themselves, he too believes +lofty and necessary." On the other hand, too, not many have sensed as +deeply as has Maeterlinck the grandeur to which humanity has risen +through the immeasurable pathos of the war. "Setting aside the +unpardonable aggression and the inexpiable violation of the treaties, +this war, despite its insanity, has come near to being a bloody but +magnificent proof of greatness, heroism, and the spirit of sacrifice." +And from his profound anguish over the fate of his beloved Belgium this +consolation is wrung: "If it be true, as I believe, that humanity is +worth just as much as the sum total of latent heroism which it contains, +then we may declare that humanity was never stronger nor more exemplary +than now and that it is at this moment reaching one of its highest +points and capable of braving everything and hoping everything. And it +is for this reason that, despite our present sadness, we are entitled to +congratulate ourselves and to rejoice." Altogether, Maeterlinck's +thoughts and actions throughout this yet unfinished mighty fate-drama of +history challenge the highest respect for the clarity of his intellect +and the profoundness of his humanity. + + (3) In the English translation this is the chapter preceding the last + one and is headed "When the War Is Over," p. 293 ff.; it is separately + published in _The Forum_ for July, 1916. + +The appalling disaster that has befallen the Belgian people is sure to +stamp their national character with indelible marks; so that it is safe +to predict that never again will the type of civilization which before +the war reigned in the basins of the Meuse and the Scheldt reëstablish +itself in its full peculiarity and distinctiveness which was the result +of a unique coagency of Germanic and Romanic ingredients of culture. Yet +in the amalgam of the two heterogeneous elements a certain competitive +antithesis had survived, and manifested itself, in the individual as in +the national life at large, in a number of unreconciled temperamental +contrasts, and in the fundamental unlikeness exhibited in the material +and the spiritual activities. Witness the contrast between the bustling +aggressiveness in the province of practical affairs and the metaphysical +drift of modern Flemish art. To any one familiar with the visible +materialism of the population in its external mode of living it may have +seemed strange to notice how sedulously a numerous set among the younger +artists of the land were facing away from their concrete environment, as +though to their over-sensitive nervous system it were irremediably +offensive. The vigorous solidity of Constantin Meunier, the great +plastic interpreter of the "Black Country" of Belgium, found but few +wholehearted imitators among the sculptors, while among the painters +that robust terrestrialism of which the work of a Rubens or Teniers and +their countless disciples was the artistic upshot, was almost totally +relinquished, and linear firmness and colorful vitality yielded the day +to pallid, discarnately decorative artistry even, in a measure, in the +"applied art" products of a Henri van de Velde. + +It is in the field of literature, naturally enough, that the contrast is +resolved and integrated into a characteristic unity. Very recently +Professor A. J. Carnoy has definitely pointed out(4) the striking +commixture of the realistic and imaginative elements in the work of the +Flemish symbolists. "The vision of the Flemings"--quoting from his own +_précis_ of his paper--"is very concrete, very exact in all details and +gives a durable, real, and almost corporeal presence to the creations of +the imagination. All these traits are exhibited in the reveries of the +Flemish mystics, ancient and modern. One finds them also no less plainly +in the poetic work of Belgian writers of the last generation: +Maeterlinck, Verhaeren, Rodenbach, Van Lerberghe, Le Roy, Elskamp, etc." + + (4) In a paper read by title before the Modern Language Association of + America at Yale University, December 29, 1917. + +If we take into account this composite attitude of the Flemish mind we +shall be less surprised at the remarkable evolution of a +poet-philosopher whose creations seem at first blush to bear no +resemblance to the outward complexion of his own age; who seems as far +removed temperamentally from his locality and time as were his lineal +spiritual ancestors: the Dutchman Ruysbroeck, the Scandinavian +Swedenborg, the German Novalis, and the American Emerson--and who in the +zenith of his career stands forth as an ardent advocate of practical +action while at the same time a firm believer in the transcendental. + +Maeterlinck's romantic antipathy towards the main drift of the age was a +phenomenon which at the dawn of our century could be observed in a great +number of superior intelligences. Those fugitives from the dun and +sordid materialism of the day were likely to choose between two avenues +of escape, according to their greater or lesser inner ruggedness. The +more aggressive type would engage in multiform warfare for the +reconstruction of life on sounder principles; whereas the more +meditative professed a real or affected indifference to practical things +and eschewed any participation in the world's struggle for progress. And +of the quiescent rather than the insurgent variety of the romantic +temper Maurice Maeterlinck was the foremost exponent. + +The "romantic longing" seems to have come into the world in the company +of the Christian religion with which it shares its partly outspoken, +partly implied repugnance for the battle of life. Romantic periods occur +in the history of civilization whenever a sufficiently influential set +of artistically minded persons have persuaded themselves that, in quite +a literal sense of the colloquial phrase, they "have no use" for the +world; a discovery which would still be true were it stated obversely. +The romantic world-view, thus fundamentally oriented by world-contempt, +entails, at least in theory, the repudiation of all earthly +joys--notably the joy of working--and the renouncement of all worldly +ambition; it scorns the cooperative, social disposition, invites the +soul to a progressive withdrawal into the inner ego, and ends in +complete surrender to one sole aspiration: the search of the higher +vision, the vision, that is, of things beyond their tangible reality. To +such mystical constructions of the inner eye a certain group of German +writers who flourished in the beginning of the nineteenth century and +were known as the Romantics, darkly groped their way out of the +confining realities of their own time. The most modern spell of +romanticism, the one through which our own generation was but yesterday +passing, measures its difference from any previous romantic era by the +difference between earlier states of culture and our own. Life with us +is conspicuously more assertive and aggressive in its social than in its +individual expressions, which was by no means always so, and unless the +romantic predisposition adapted itself to this important change it could +not relate itself at all intimately to our interests. Our study of +Maeterlinck should help us, therefore, to discover possibly in the new +romantic tendency some practical and vital bearings. + +We find that in the new romanticism esthetic and philosophical impulses +are inextricably mixed. Hence the new movement is also playing an +indispensable rôle in the modern re-foundation of art. For while acting +as a wholesome offset to the so-called naturalism, in its firm refusal +to limit inner life to the superficial realities, it at the same time +combines with naturalism into a complete recoiling, both of the +intellect and the emotions, from any commonplace, or pusillanimous, or +mechanical practices of artistry. This latter-day romanticism, moreover, +notwithstanding its sky-aspiring outstretch, is akin to naturalism in +that, after all, it keeps its roots firmly grounded in the earth; that +is to say, it seeks for its ulterior sanctions not in realms high beyond +the self; rather it looks within for the "blue flower" of contentedness. +Already to the romantics of old the mystic road to happiness was not +unknown. It is, for instance, pointed by Novalis: "Inward leads the +mysterious way. Within us or nowhere lies eternity with its worlds; +within us or nowhere are the past and the future." Viewed separately +from other elements of romanticism, this passion for retreating within +the central ego is commonly referred to as mysticism; it has a strong +hold on many among the moderns, and Maurice Maeterlinck to be properly +understood has to be understood as the poet _par excellence_ of modern +mysticism. By virtue of this special office he deals mainly in concepts +of the transcendental, which puzzles the ordinary person accustomed to +perceive only material and ephemeral realities. Maeterlinck holds that +nothing matters that is not eternal and that what keeps us from enjoying +the treasures of the universe is the hereditary resignation with which +we tarry in the gloomy prison of our senses. "In reality, we live only +from soul to soul, and we are gods who do not know each other."(5) It +follows from this metaphysical foundation of his art that instead of the +grosser terminology suitable to plain realities, Maeterlinck must depend +upon a code of subtle messages in order to establish between himself and +his audience a line of spiritual communication. This makes it somewhat +difficult for people of cruder endowment to appreciate his meaning, a +grievance from which in the beginning many of them sought redress in +facile scoffing. Obtuse minds are prone to claim a right to fathom the +profound meanings of genius with the same ease with which they expect to +catch the meaning of a bill of fare or the daily stock market report. + + (5) Maeterlinck, "On Emerson." + + * * * * * + +It must be confessed, however, that even those to whom Maeterlinck's +sphere of thought is not so utterly sealed, enter it with a sense of +mixed perplexity and apprehension. They feel themselves helplessly +conducted through a world situated beyond the confines of their normal +consciousness, and in this strange world everything that comes to pass +appears at first extremely impracticable and unreal. The action seems +"wholly dissevered from common sense and ordinary uses;" the figures +behave otherwise than humans; the dialogue is "poised on the edge of a +precipice of bathos." It is clear that works so far out of the common +have to be approached from the poet's own point of view. "Let the reader +move his standpoint one inch nearer the popular standpoint," thus we are +warned by Mr. G. K. Chesterton, "and his attitude towards the poet will +be harsh, hostile, unconquerable mirth." There are some works that can +be appreciated for their good story, even if we fail to realize the +author's moral attitude, let alone to grasp the deeper content of his +work. "But if we take a play by Maeterlinck we shall find that unless we +grasp the particular fairy thread of thought the poet rather lazily +flings to us, we cannot grasp anything whatever. Except from one extreme +poetic point of view, the thing is not a play; it is not a bad play, it +is a mass of clotted nonsense. One whole act describes the lovers going +to look for a ring in a distant cave when they both know they have +dropped it down the well. Seen from some secret window on some special +side of the soul's turret, this might convey a sense of faerie futility +in our human life. But it is quite obvious that unless it called forth +that one kind of sympathy, it would call forth nothing but laughter. In +the same play, the husband chases his wife with a drawn sword, the wife +remarking at intervals, 'I am not gay.' Now there may really be an idea +in this; the idea of human misfortune coming most cruelly upon the +opportunism of innocence; that the lonely human heart says, like a child +at a party, 'I am not enjoying myself as I thought I should.' But it is +plain that unless one thinks of this idea, and of this idea only, the +expression is not in the least unsuccessful pathos,--it is very broad +and highly successful farce!" + +And so the atmosphere of Maeterlinck's plays is impregnated throughout +with oppressive mysteries, and until the key of these mysteries is found +there is very little meaning to the plays. Moreover, these mysteries, be +they never so stern and awe-inspiring, are irresistibly alluring. The +reason is, they are our own mysteries that have somehow escaped our +grasp, and that we fain would recapture, because there dwells in every +human breast a vague assent to the immortal truth of Goethe's assertion: +"The thrill of awe is man's best heritage."(6) + + (6) "_Das Schaudern ist der Menschheit bestes Teil._" + +The imaginative equipment of Maeterlinck's dramaturgy is rather limited +and, on its face value, trite. In particular are his dramatis personae +creatures by no means calculated to overawe by some extraordinary +weirdness or power. And yet we feel ourselves touched by an elemental +dread and by an overwhelming sense of our human impotence in the +presence of these figures who, without seeming supernatural, are +certainly not of common flesh and blood; they impress us as surpassingly +strange mainly because somehow they are instinct with a life +fundamentally more real than the superficial reality we know. For they +are the mediums and oracles of the fateful powers that stir human beings +into action. + +The poet of mysticism, then, delves into the mystic sources of our +deeds, and makes us stand reverent with him before the unknowable forces +by which we are controlled. Naturally he is obliged to shape his visions +in dim outline. His aim is to shadow forth that which no naked eye can +see, and it may be said in passing that he attains this aim with a +mastery and completeness incomparably beyond the dubious skill displayed +more recently by the grotesque gropings of the so-called futurist +school. Perhaps one true secret of the perturbing strangeness of +Maeterlinck's figures lies in the fact that the basic principle of their +life, the one thoroughly vital element in them, if it does not sound too +paradoxical to say so, is the idea of death. Maeterlinck's mood and +temper are fully in keeping with the religious dogma that life is but a +short dream--with Goethe he believes that "all things transitory but as +symbols are sent," and apparently concurs in the creed voiced by one of +Arthur Schnitzler's characters,--that death is the only subject in life +worthy of being pondered by the serious mind. "From our death onwards," +so he puts it somewhere, "the adventure of the universe becomes our own +adventure." + + * * * * * + +It will be useful to have a bit of personal information concerning our +author. He started his active career as a barrister; not by any means +auspiciously, it seems, for already in his twenty-seventh year he laid +the toga aside. Experience had convinced him that in the forum there +were no laurels for him to pluck. The specific qualities that make for +success at the bar were conspicuously lacking in his make-up. Far from +being eloquent, he has at all times been noted for an unparalleled +proficiency in the art of self-defensive silence. He shuns banal +conversation and the sterile distractions of promiscuous social +intercourse, dreads the hubbub of the city, and has an intense dislike +for travel, to which he resorts only as a last means of escape from +interviewers, reporters, and admirers. Maeterlinck, it is seen, is +anything but _multorum vir hominum_. In order to preserve intact his +love of humanity, he finds it expedient to live for the most part by +himself, away from the throng "whose very plaudits give the heart a +pang;" his fame has always been a source of annoyance to him. The only +company he covets is that of the contemplative thinkers of bygone +days,--the mystics, gnostics, cabalists, neo-Platonists. Swedenborg and +Plotinus are perhaps his greatest favorites. That the war has produced a +mighty agitation in the habitual calm of the great Belgian +poet-philosopher goes without saying. His love of justice no less than +his love of his country aroused every red corpuscle in his virile +personality to violent resentment against the invader. Since the war +broke out, however, he has published nothing besides a number of +ringingly eloquent and singularly pathetic articles and appeals,--so +that the character portrait derived from the body of his work has not at +this time lost its application to his personality. + +In cast of mind, Maeterlinck is sombrously meditative, and he has been +wise in framing his outer existence so that it would accord with his +habitual detachment. The greater part of his time used to be divided +between his charming retreat at _Quatre Chemins_, near Grasse, and the +grand old abbey of St. Wandrille in Normandy, which he managed to snatch +in the very nick of time from the tightening clutch of a manufacturing +concern. With the temperament of a hermit, he has been, nevertheless, a +keen observer of life, though one preferring to watch the motley +spectacle from the aristocratic privacy of his box, sheltered, as it +were, from prying curiosity. Well on in middle age, he is still an +enthusiastic out-of-doors man,--gardener, naturalist, pedestrian, +wheelman, and motorist, and commands an extraordinary amount of special +knowledge in a variety of sports and sciences. In "The Double Garden" he +discusses the automobile with the authority of an expert watt-man and +mechanician. In one of his other books he evinces an extraordinary +erudition in all matters pertaining to the higher education of dogs; and +his work on "The Life of the Bee" passes him beyond question with high +rank among "thirty-third degree" apiculturists. + +One of the characteristics that seem to separate his books, especially +those of the earlier period, from the literary tendencies of his age, is +their surprising inattention to present social struggles. His +metaphysical bias makes him dwell almost exclusively, and with great +moral and logical consistency, on aspects of life that are slightly +considered by the majority of men yet which he regards as ulteriorly of +sole importance. + +When men like Maeterlinck are encountered in the world of practical +affairs, they are bound to impress us as odd, because of this inversion +of the ordinary policies of behavior. But before classing them as +"cranks," we might well ask ourselves whether their appraisal of the +component values of life does not, after all, correspond better to their +true relativity than does our own habitual evaluation. With the average +social being, the transcendental bearing of a proposition is synonymous +with its practical unimportance. But in his essay on "The Invisible +Goodness" Maeterlinck quite properly raises the question: "Is visible +life alone of consequence, and are we made up only of things that can be +grasped and handled like pebbles in the road?" + +Throughout his career Maeterlinck reveals himself in the double aspect +of poet and philosopher. In the first period his philosophy, as has +already been amply hinted, is characterized chiefly by aversion from the +externalities of life, and by that tense introversion of the mind which +forms the mystic's main avenue to the goal of knowledge. But if, in +order to find the key to his tragedies and puppet plays, we go to the +thirteen essays representing the earlier trend of his philosophy and +issued in 1896 under the collective title, "The Treasure of the Humble," +we discover easily that his cast of mysticism is very different from +that of his philosophic predecessors and teachers in the fourteenth and +nineteenth centuries, in particular from the devotional mysticism of the +"Admirable" John Ruysbroeck, and Friedrich von Hardenberg-Novalis. +Maeterlinck does not strive after the so-called "spiritual espousals," +expounded by the "doctor ecstaticus," Ruysbroeck, in his celebrated +treatise where Christ is symbolized as the divine groom and Human Nature +as the bride glowing with desire for union with God. Maeterlinck feels +too modernly to make use of that ancient sensuous imagery. The main +thesis of his mystical belief is that there are divine forces dormant in +human nature; how to arouse and release them, constitutes the paramount +problem of human life. His doctrine is that a life not thus energized by +its own latent divineness is, and must remain, humdrum and worthless. It +will at once be noticed that such a doctrine harmonizes thoroughly with +the romantic aspiration. Both mystic and romantic teach that, in the +last resort, the battlefield of our fate lies not out in the wide world +but that it is enclosed in the inner self, within the unknown quantity +which we designate as our soul. The visible life, according to this +modern prophet of mysticism, obeys the invisible; happiness and +unhappiness flow exclusively from the inner sources. + +Maeterlinck's speculations, despite their medieval provenience, have a +practical orientation. He firmly believes that it is within the ability +of mankind to raise some of the veils that cover life's central secret. +In unison with some other charitable students of society, he holds to +the faith that a more highly spiritualized era is dawning, and from the +observed indications he prognosticates a wider awakening of the +sleepbound soul of man. And certainly some of the social manifestations +that appeared with cumulative force during the constructive period +before the war were calculated to justify that faith. The revival of +interest in the metaphysical powers of man which expressed itself almost +epidemically through such widely divergent cults as Theosophy and +Christian Science, was indubitable proof of spiritual yearnings in the +broader masses of the people. And it had a practical counterpart in +civic tendencies and reforms that evidenced a great agitation of the +social conscience. And even to-day, when the great majority feel that +the universal embroilment has caused civilized man to fall from his +laboriously achieved level, this sage in his lofty solitude feels the +redeeming spiritual connotation of our great calamity. "Humanity was +ready to rise above itself, to surpass all that it had hitherto +accomplished. It has surpassed it.... Never before had nations been seen +that were able as a whole to understand that the happiness of each of +those who live in this time of trial is of no consequence compared with +the honor of those who live no more or the happiness of those who are +not yet alive. We stand on heights that had not been attained before." + +But even for those many who find themselves unable to build very large +hopes on the spiritual uplift of mankind through disaster, Maeterlinck's +philosophy is a wholesome tonic. In the essay on "The Life Profound" in +"The Treasure of the Humble," we are told: "Every man must find for +himself in the low and unavoidable reality of common life his special +possibility of a higher existence." The injunction, trite though it +sound, articulates a moral very far from philistine. For it urges the +pursuit of the transcendental self through those feelings which another +very great idealist, Friedrich Schiller, describes in magnificent +metaphor as + + ... "der dunklen Gefühle Gewalt, + die im Herzen wunderbar schliefen." + +In the labyrinth of the subliminal consciousness there lurks, however, a +great danger for the seeker after the hidden treasures: the paralyzing +effect of fatalism upon the normal energies. Maeterlinck was seriously +threatened by this danger during his earlier period. How he eventually +contrived his liberation from the clutch of fatalism is not made +entirely clear by the progress of his thought. At all events, an era of +greater intellectual freedom, which ultimately was to create him the +undisputed captain of his soul and master of his fate, was soon to +arrive for him. It is heralded by another book of essays: "Wisdom and +Destiny." But, as has been stated, we may in his case hardly hope to +trace the precise route traveled by the mind between the points of +departure and arrival. + + * * * * * + +So closely are the vital convictions in this truthful writer linked with +the artistic traits of his work that without some grasp of his +metaphysics even the technical peculiarities of his plays cannot be +fully appreciated. To the mystic temper of mind, all life is secretly +pregnant with great meaning, so that none of its phenomena can be deemed +inconsequential. Thus, while Maeterlinck is a poet greatly preoccupied +with spiritual matters yet nothing to him is more wonderful and worthy +of attention than the bare facts and processes of living. Real life, +just like the theatre which purports to represent it, manipulates a +multiform assortment of stage effects, now coarse and obvious and +claptrap, now refined and esoteric, to suit the diversified taste and +capacity of the patrons. To the cultured esthetic sense the tragical +tendency carries more meaning than the catastrophic finale; our author +accordingly scorns, and perhaps inordinately, whatsoever may appear as +merely adventitious in the action of plays. "What can be told," he +exclaims, "by beings who are possessed of a fixed idea and have no time +to live because they have to kill off a rival or a mistress?" The +internalized action in his plays is all of one piece with the profound +philosophical conviction that the inner life alone matters; that +consequently the small and unnoticed events are more worthy of attention +than the sensational, cataclysmic moments. "Why wait ye," he asks in +that wonderful rhapsody on "Silence"(7) "for Heaven to open at the +strike of the thunderbolt? Ye should attend upon the blessed hours when +it silently opens--and it is incessantly opening." + + (7) "The Treasure of the Humble." + +His purpose, then, is to reveal the working of hidden forces in their +intricate and inseparable connection with external events; and in order +that the _vie intérieure_ might have the right of way, drama in his +practice emancipates itself very far from the traditional realistic +methods. "Poetry," he maintains, "has no other purpose than to keep open +the great roads that lead from the visible to the invisible." To be +sure, this definition postulates, rather audaciously, a widespread +spiritual susceptibility. But in Maeterlinck's optimistic anthropology +no human being is spiritually so deadened as to be forever out of all +communication with the things that are divine and infinite. He fully +realizes, withal, that for the great mass of men there exists no +intellectual approach to the truly significant problems of life. It is +rather through our emotional capacity that our spiritual experience +brings us into touch with the final verities. Anyway, the poet of +mysticism appeals from the _impasse_ of pure reasoning to the voice of +the inner oracles. But how to detect in the deepest recesses of the soul +the echoes of universal life and give outward resonance to their faint +reverberations? That is the artistic, and largely technical, side of the +problem. + +Obvious it is that if the beholder's collaboration in the difficult +enterprise is to be secured, his imagination has to be stirred to a +super-normal degree. Once a dramatist has succeeded in stimulating the +imaginative activity, he can dispense with a mass of descriptive detail. +But he must comply with two irremissible technical demands. In the first +place, the "_vie intérieure_" calls forth a _dialogue intérieur_; an +esoteric language, I would say, contrived predominantly for the +"expressional" functions of speech, as differenced from its +"impressional" purposes. Under Swedenborg's fanciful theory of +"correspondences" the literal meaning of a word is merely a sort of +protective husk for its secret spiritual kernel. It is this inner, +essential meaning that Maeterlinck's dialogue attempts to set free. By a +fairly simple and consistent code of intimations the underlying meaning +of the colloquy is laid bare and a basis created for a more fundamental +understanding of the dramatic transactions. Maeterlinck going, at first, +to undue lengths in this endeavor, exposed the diction of his dramas to +much cheap ridicule. The extravagant use of repetition, in particular, +made him a mark for facile burlesque. The words of the Queen in +_Princesse Maleine_: "_Mais ne répetez pas toujours ce que l'on dit_," +were sarcastically turned against the poet himself. + +As a result of the extreme simplicity of his dialogue, Maeterlinck was +reproached with having invented the "monosyllabic theatre," the "theatre +without words," and with having perpetrated a surrogate sort of drama, a +hybrid between libretto and pantomime. + +The fact, however, is, his characters speak a language which, far from +being absurd, as it was at first thought to be by many of his readers, +is instinct with life and quite true to life--to life, that is, as made +articulate in the intense privacy of dreams, or hallucinations, or +moments of excessive emotional perturbation. + +The other principal requisite for the attainment of the inner dramatic +vitalness in drama is a pervasive atmospheric mood, a sustained +_Stimmung_. This, in the case of Maeterlinck, is brought about by the +combined employment of familiar and original artistic devices. + +The grave and melancholy mood that so deeply impregnates the work of +Maeterlinck is tinged in the earlier stage, as has been pointed out, +with the sombre coloring of fatalism. In the first few books, in +particular, there hovers a brooding sense of terror and an undefinable +feeling of desolation. Through _Serres Chaudes_ ("Hot Houses"), his +first published book, (1889), there runs a tenor of weariness, of ideal +yearnings overshadowed by the hopelessness of circumstances. Even in +this collection of poems, where so much less necessity exists for a +unity of mood than in the plays, Maeterlinck's predilection for scenic +effects suggestive of weirdness and superstitious fear became apparent +in the recurrent choice of sombre scenic motifs: oppressive nocturnal +silence,--a stagnant sheet of water,--moonlight filtered through green +windows, etc. The diction, too, through the incessant use of terms like +_morne_, _las_, _pâle_, _désire_, _ennui_, _tiède_, _indolent_, +_malade_, exhales as it were a lazy resignation. Temporarily, then, the +fatalistic strain is uppermost both in the philosophy and the poetry of +the rising young author; and to make matters worse, his is the fatalism +of pessimistic despair: Fate is forsworn against man. The objective +point of life is death. We constantly receive warnings from within, but +the voices are not unequivocal and emphatic enough to save us from +ourselves. + +Probing the abysses of his subliminal self, the mystic may sense, along +with the diviner promptings of the heart, the lurking demons that +undermine happiness,--"the malignant powers,"--again quoting +Schiller--"whom no man's craft can make familiar"--that element in human +nature which in truth makes man "his own worst enemy." It is a search +which at this stage of his development Maeterlinck, as a mystic, cannot +bring himself to relinquish, even though, pessimistically, he +anticipates that which he most dreads to find; in this way, fatalism and +pessimism act as insuperable barriers against his artistic +self-assertion. His fixed frame of mind confines him to the +representation of but one elemental instinct, namely, that of fear. The +rustic in the German fairy tale who sallied forth to learn how to +shudder,--_gruseln_,--would have mastered the art to his complete +satisfaction if favored with a performance or two of such plays as +"Princess Maleine," "The Intruder," or "The Sightless." Perhaps no other +dramatist has ever commanded a similarly well-equipped arsenal of +thrills and terrible foreshadowings. The commonest objects are fraught +with ominous forebodings: a white gown lying on a _prie-dieu_, a curtain +suddenly set swaying by a puff of air, the melancholy soughing of a +clump of trees,--the simplest articles of daily use are converted into +awful symbols that make us shiver by their whisperings of impending +doom. + +Nor in the earlier products of Maeterlinck are the cruder practices of +melodrama scorned or spared,--the crash and flash of thunder and +lightning, the clang of bells and clatter of chains, the livid light and +ghastly shadows, the howling hurricane, the ominous croaking of ravens +amid nocturnal solitude, trees illumined by the fiery eyes of owls, bats +whirring portentously through the gloom,--so many harbingers of dread +and death. And the prophetic import of these tokens and their sort is +reinforced by repeated assertions from the persons in the action that +never before has anything like this been known to occur. To such a +fearsome state are we wrought up by all this uncanny apparatus that at +the critical moment a well calculated knock at the door is sufficient to +make our flesh creep and our hair stand on end. + +Thus, the _vie intérieure_ would seem to prerequire for its +externalization a completely furnished chamber of horrors. And when it +is added that the scene of the action is by preference a lonely +churchyard or a haunted old mansion, a crypt, a cavern, a silent forest +or a solitary tower, it is easy to understand why plays like "Princess +Maleine" could be classed by superficial and unfriendly critics with the +gruesome ebullitions of that fantastic quasi-literary occupation to +which we owe a well known variety of "water-front" drama and, in +fiction, the "shilling shocker." Their immeasurably greater +psychological refinement could not save them later on from condemnation +at the hands of their own maker. And yet they are not without very great +artistic merits. Octave Mirbeau, in his habitual enthusiasm for the +out-of-the-ordinary, hailed Maeterlinck, on the strength of "Princess +Maleine," as the Belgian Shakespeare, evidently because Maeterlinck +derived some of his motifs from "Hamlet": mainly the churchyard scene, +and Prince Hjalmar's defiance of the queen, as well as his general want +of decision. As a matter of fact, Maeterlinck has profoundly studied, +not Shakespeare alone, but the minor Elizabethans as well. He has made +an admirable translation of "Macbeth." Early in his career he even +translated one of John Ford's Plays, "'Tis Pity She's a Whore," one of +the coarsest works ever written for the stage, but to which he was +attracted by the intrinsic human interest that far outweighs its +offensiveness. As for any real kinship of Maeterlinck with Shakespeare, +the resemblance between the two is slight. They differ philosophically +in the fundamental frame of mind, ethically in the outlook upon life, +dramaturgically in the value attached to external action, and +humanly,--much to the disadvantage of the Belgian,--in their sense of +humor. For unfortunately it has to be confessed that this supreme gift +of the gods has been very sparingly dispensed to Maeterlinck. +Altogether, whether or no he is to be counted among the disciples of +Shakespeare, his works show no great dependence on the master. With far +better reason might he be called a debtor to Germanic folklore, +especially in its fantastic elements. + +A German fairy world it is to which we are transported by Maeterlinck's +first dramatic attempt, "Princess Maleine," (1889), a play refashioned +after Grimm's tale of the Maid Maleen; only that in the play all the +principals come to a harrowing end and that in it an esoteric meaning +lies concealed underneath the primitive plot. The action, symbolically +interpreted, illustrates the fatalist's doctrine that man is nothing but +a toy in the hands of dark and dangerous powers. Practical wisdom does +not help us to discern the working of these powers until it is too late. +Neither can we divine their presence, for the prophetic apprehension of +the future resides not in the expert and proficient, but rather in the +helpless or decrepit,--the blind, the feeble-minded, and the stricken in +years, or again in young children and in dumb animals. Take the scene in +"Princess Maleine" where the murderers, having invaded the chamber, lie +there in wait, with bated breath. In the corridor outside, people are +unconcernedly passing to and fro, while the only creatures who, +intuitively, sense the danger, are the little Prince and a dog that +keeps anxiously scraping at the door. + +In _L'Intruse_ ("The Intruder"), (1890), a one-act play on a theme which +is collaterally developed later on in _Les Aveugles_ ("The Sightless"), +and in _L'Intérieur_ ("Home"), the arriving disaster that cannot be shut +out by bolts or bars announces itself only to the clairvoyant sense of a +blind old man. The household gathered around the table is placidly +waiting for the doctor. Only the blind grandfather is anxious and +heavy-laden because he alone knows that Death is entering the house, he +alone can feel his daughter's life withering away under the breath of +the King of Terror: the sightless have a keener sensitiveness than the +seeing for what is screened from the physical eye. + +It would hardly be possible to name within the whole range of dramatic +literature another work so thoroughly pervaded with the chilling horror +of approaching calamity. The talk at the table is of the most +commonplace,--that the door will not shut properly, and they must send +for the carpenter to-morrow. But from the mechanism of the environment +there comes cumulative and incremental warning that something +extraordinary and fatal is about to happen. The wind rises, the trees +shiver, the nightingales break off their singing, the fishes in the pond +grow restive, the dogs cower in fear,--an unseen Presence walks through +the garden. Then the clanging of a scythe is heard. A cold current of +air rushes into the room. Nearer and nearer come the steps. The +grandfather insists that a stranger has seated himself in the midst of +the family. The lamp goes out. The bell strikes midnight. The old man is +sure that somebody is rising from the table. Then suddenly the baby +whose voice has never been heard starts crying. Through an inner door +steps a deaconess silently crossing herself: the mother of the house is +dead. + +These incidents in themselves are not necessarily miraculous. There are +none of them but might be accounted for on perfectly natural grounds. In +fact, very plausible explanations do offer themselves for the weirdest +things that come to pass. So, especially, it was a real, ordinary mower +that chanced to whet his scythe; yet the apparition of the Old Reaper in +person could not cause the chilling consternation produced by this +trivial circumstance coming as it does as the climax of a succession of +commonplace happenings exaggerated and distorted by a fear-haunted +imagination. To produce an effect like that upon an audience whose +credulity refuses to be put to any undue strain is a victorious proof of +prime artistic ability. + +_Les Aveugles_ ("The Sightless"), (1891), is pitched in the same +psychological key. The atmosphere is surcharged with unearthly +apprehension. A dreary twilight--in the midst of a thick forest--on a +lonely island; twelve blind people fretting about the absence of their +guardian. He is gone to find a way out of the woods--what can have +become of him? From moment to moment the deserted, helpless band grows +more fearstricken. The slightest sound becomes the carrier of evil +forebodings: the rustling of the foliage, the flapping of a bird's +wings, the swelling roar of the nearby sea in its dash against the +shore. The bell strikes twelve--they wonder is it noon or night? Then +questions, eager and calamitous, pass in whispers among them: Has the +leader lost his way? Will he never come back? Has the dam burst apart +and will they all be swallowed by the ocean? The pathos is greatly +heightened by an extremely delicate yet sure individuation of the +figures, as when at the mention of Heaven those not sightless from birth +raise their countenance to the sky. And where in the meanwhile is the +lost leader? He is seated right in their midst, but smitten by death. +They learn it at last through the actions of the dog; besides whom--in +striking parallel to "Princess Maleine"--the only other creature able to +see is a little child. The horror-stricken unfortunates realize that +they can never get home, and that they must perish in the woods. + +In _Les Sept Princesses_ ("The Seven Princesses"), (1891), although it +is one of Maeterlinck's minor achievements, some of the qualities that +are common to all his work become peculiarly manifest. This is +particularly true of the skill shown in conveying the feeling of the +story by means of suitable scenic devices. Most of his plays depend to a +considerable degree for their dark and heavy nimbus of unreality upon a +studied combination of paraphernalia in themselves neither numerous nor +far-sought. In fact, the resulting scenic repertory, too, is markedly +limited: a weird forest, a deserted castle with marble staircase and +dreamy moonlit terrace, a tower with vaulted dungeons, a dismal corridor +flanked by impenetrable chambers, a lighted interior viewed from the +garden, a landscape bodefully crêped with twilight--the list nearly +exhausts his store of "sets." + +The works mentioned so far are hardly more than able exercises +preparatory for the ampler and more finished products which were to +succeed them. Yet they represent signal steps in the evolution of a new +dramatic style, designed, as has already been intimated, to give +palpable form to emotional data descried in moments anterior not only to +articulation but even to consciousness itself; and for this reason, the +plane of the dramatic action lies deep below the surface of life, down +in the inner tabernacle where the mystic looks for the hidden destinies. +In his style, Maeterlinck had gradually developed an unprecedented +capacity for bringing to light the secret agencies of fate. A portion of +the instructed public had already learned to listen in his writings for +the finer reverberations that swing in the wake of the uttered phrase, +to heed the slightest hints and allusions in the text, to overlook no +glance or gesture that might betray the mind of the acting characters. +It is true that art to be great must be plain, but that does not mean +that the sole test of great art is the response of the simple and +apathetic. + +In Maeterlinck's first masterpiece, _Pélléas et Mélisande_, (1892), the +motives again are drawn up from the lower regions of consciousness; once +more the plot is born of a gloomy fancy, and the darkling mood hovering +over scene and action attests the persistence of fatalism in the poet. +The theory of old King Arkel, the spokesman of the author's personal +philosophy, is that one should not seek to be active; one should ever +wait on the threshold of Fate. Even the younger people in the play are +infected by the morbid doctrine of an inevitable necessity for all +things that happen to them: "We do not go where we would go. We do not +do that which we would do." Perhaps, however, these beliefs are here +enounced for the last time with the author's assent or acquiescence. + +In artistic merit "Pélléas and Mélisande" marks a nearer approach to +mastery, once the integral peculiarities of the form and method have +been granted. Despite a noticeable lack of force, directness, and +plasticity in the characterization, the _vie intérieure_ is most +convincingly expressed. In one of the finest scenes of the play we see +the principals at night gazing out upon a measureless expanse of water +dotted with scattered lights. The atmosphere is permeated with a +reticent yearning of love. The two young creatures, gentle, shy, their +souls tinged with melancholy, are drawn towards one another by an +ineluctable mutual attraction. Yet, though their hearts are filled to +overflowing, not a word of affection is uttered. Their love reveals +itself to us even as to themselves, without a loud and jarring +declaration, through its very speechlessness, as it were. The situation +well bears out the _roi sage_ in _Alladine et Palomides_: "There is a +moment when souls touch one another and know everything without a need +of our opening the lips." There are still other scenes in this play so +tense with emotion that words would be intrusive and dissonant. There is +that lovely picture of Mélisande at the window; Pélléas cannot reach up +to her hand, but is satisfied to feel her loosened hair about his face. +It is a question whether even that immortal love duet in "Romeo and +Juliet" casts a poetic spell more enchanting than this. At another +moment in the drama, we behold the lovers in Maeterlinck's beloved +half-light, softly weeping as they stare with speechless rapture into +the flames. And not until the final parting does any word of love pass +their lips. In another part of the play Goland, Mélisande's aging +husband, who suspects his young stepbrother, Pélléas, of loving +Mélisande, conducts him to an underground chamber. We are not told why +he has brought him there, and why he has led him to the brink of the +pitfall from which there mounts a smell of death. If it be a heinous +deed he is brooding, why does he pause in its execution? His terrible +struggle does not reveal itself through speech, yet it is eloquently +expressed in the wildness of his looks, the trembling of his voice, and +the sudden anguished outcry: "Pélléas! Pélléas!" + +Evidently Maeterlinck completely achieves the very purpose to which the +so-called Futurists think they must sacrifice all traditional +conceptions of Art; and achieves it without any brutal stripping and +skinning of the poetic subject, without the hideous exhibition of its +_disjecta membra_, and above all, without that implied disqualification +for the higher artistic mission which alone could induce a man to limit +his service to the dishing-up of chunks and collops, "cubic" or +amorphous. + +In recognition of a certain tendency towards mannerism that lay in his +technique, Maeterlinck, in a spirit of self-persiflage, labeled the book +of one-act plays which he next published, (1894), _Trois Petits Drames +pour Marionettes_ ("Three Little Puppet Plays"). They are entitled, +severally: _Alladine et Palomides_, _Intérieur_, and _La Mort de +Tintagiles_. While in motifs and materials as well as in the principal +points of style these playlets present a sort of epitome of his artistic +progression up to date, they also display some new and significant +qualities. Of the three the first named is most replete with suggestive +symbolism and at the same time most remindful of the older plays, +especially of "Pélléas and Mélisande." King Ablamore is in character and +demeanor clearly a counterpart of King Arkel. To be sure he makes a +temporary stand against the might of Fate, but his resistance is meek +and futile, and his wisdom culminates in the same old fatalistic +formula: "_Je sais qu'on ne fait pas ce que l'on voudrait faire._" + +_L'Intérieur_ ("Home") handles a theme almost identical with that of +_L'Intruse_: Life and Death separated only by a thin pane of glass,--the +sudden advent of affliction from a cloudless sky. In this little tragedy +a family scene, enacted in "dumb show," is watched from the outside. The +play is without suspense in the customary use of the term, since after +the first whispered conversation between the bringers of the fateful +tidings the audience is fully aware of the whole story:--the daughter of +the house, for whose return the little group is waiting, has been found +dead in the river. The quiescent mood is sustained to the end; no great +outburst of lamentation; the curtain drops the instant the news has been +conveyed. But the poignancy of the tragic strain is only enhanced by the +repression of an exciting climax. + +"The Death of Tintagiles" repeats in a still more harrowing form the +fearful predicament of a helpless child treated with so much dramatic +tension in Maeterlinck's first tragedy. Again, as in "Princess Maleine," +the action of this dramolet attains its high point in a scene where +murderous treachery is about to spring the trap set for an innocent +young prince. Intuitively he senses the approach of death, and in vain +beats his little fists against the door that imprisons him. The +situation is rendered more piteous even than in the earlier treatment of +the motif, because the door which bars his escape also prevents his +faithful sister Ygraine from coming to the rescue. + +We have observed in all the plays so far a marked simplicity of +construction. _Aglavaine et Selysette_, (1896), denotes a still further +simplification. Here the scenic apparatus is reduced to the very +minimum, and the psychological premises are correspondingly plain. The +story presents a "triangular" love entanglement strangely free from the +sensual ingredient; two women dream of sharing, in all purity, one +lover--and the dream ends for one of them in heroic self-sacrifice +brought to secure the happiness of the rival. However, more noteworthy +than the structure of the plot is the fact that the philosophic current +flowing through it has perceptibly altered its habitual direction. The +spiritual tendency is felt to be turning in its course, and even though +fatalism still holds the rule, with slowly relaxing grip, yet a changed +ethical outlook is manifest. Also, this play for the first time +proclaims, though in no vociferous manner, the duty of the individual +toward himself, the duty so emphatically proclaimed by two of +Maeterlinck's greatest teachers, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henrik Ibsen. + + * * * * * + +The inner philosophic conflict was but of short duration. In 1898 _La +Sagesse et La Destinée_ ("Wisdom and Destiny") saw the light. The +metaphor might be taken in a meaning higher and more precise than the +customary, for, coming to this book from those that preceded is indeed +like emerging from some dark and dismal cave into the warm and cheering +light of the sun. "Wisdom and Destiny" is a collection of essays and +aphorisms which stands to this second phase of Maeterlinck's dramaturgy +in a relation closely analogous to that existing between "The Treasure +of the Humble" and the works heretofore surveyed. Without amounting to a +wholesale recantation of the idea that is central in the earlier set of +essays, the message of the newer set is of a very different kind. The +author of "Wisdom and Destiny" has not changed his view touching the +superiority of the intuitional function over the intellectual. The +significant difference between the old belief and the new consists +simply in this: the latent force of life is no longer imagined as an +antagonistic agency; rather it is conceived as a benign energy that +makes for a serene acceptance of the world that is. Of this turn in the +outlook, the philosophic affirmation of life and the consent of the will +to subserve the business of living are the salutary concomitants. +Wisdom, in expanding, has burst the prison of fatalism and given freedom +to vision. The world, beheld in the light of this emancipation, is not +to be shunned by the wise man. Let Fortune bring what she will, he can +strip his afflictions of their terrors by transmuting them into higher +knowledge. Therefore, pain and suffering need not be feared and shirked; +they may even be hailed with satisfaction, for, as is paradoxically +suggested in _Aglavaine et Selysette_, they help man "_être heureux en +devenant plus triste_,"--to be happy in becoming sadder. The poet, who +till now had clung to the conviction that there can be no happy fate, +that all our destinies are guided by unlucky stars, now on the contrary +persuades us to consider how even calamity may be refined in the medium +of wisdom in such fashion as to become an asset of life, and warns us +against recoiling in spirit from any reverse of our fortunes. He holds +that blows and sorrows cannot undo the sage. Fate has no weapons save +those we supply, and "wise is he for whom even the evil must feed the +pyre of love." In fine, Fate obeys him who dares to command it. After +all, then, man has a right to appoint himself the captain of his soul, +the master of his fate. + +Yet, for all that, the author of "Wisdom and Destiny" should not be +regarded as the partizan and apologist of sadness for the sake of +wisdom. If sorrow be a rich mine of satisfaction, joy is by far the +richer mine. This new outlook becomes more and more optimistic because +of the increasing faculty of such a philosophy to extract from the mixed +offerings of life a more near-at-hand happiness than sufferings can +possibly afford; not perchance that perpetual grinning merriment over +the comicality of the passing spectacle which with so many passes for a +"sense of humor," but rather a calm and serious realization of what is +lastingly beautiful, good, and true. A person's attainment of this +beatitude imposes on him the clear duty of helping others to rise to a +similar exalted level of existence. And this duty Maeterlinck seeks to +discharge by proclaiming in jubilant accents the concrete reality of +happiness. _L'Oiseau Bleu_ ("The Blue Bird"), above all other works, +illustrates the fact that human lives suffer not so much for the lack of +happiness as for the want of being clearly conscious of the happiness +they possess. It is seen that the seed of optimism in "The Treasure of +the Humble" has sprouted and spread out, and at last triumphantly shot +forth through the overlaying fatalism. The newly converted, hence all +the more thoroughgoing, optimist, believing that counsel and consolation +can come only from those who trust in the regenerative power of hope, +throws himself into a mental attitude akin to that of the Christian +Scientist, and confidently proceeds to cure the ills of human kind by a +categorical denial of their existence. Or perhaps it would be more just +to say of Maeterlinck's latter-day outlook, the serenity of which even +the frightful experience of the present time has failed to destroy, that +instead of peremptorily negating evil, he merely denies its supremacy. +All about him he perceives in the midst of the worst wrongs and evils +many fertile germs of righteousness; vice itself seems to distil its own +antitoxin. + +Together with Maeterlinck's optimistic strain, his individualism gains +an unexpected emphasis. "Before one exists for others, one must exist +for one's self. The egoism of a strong and clear-sighted soul is of a +more beneficent effect than all the devotion of a blind and feeble +soul." Here we have a promulgation identical in gist with Emerson's +unqualified declaration of moral independence when he says: "Whoso would +be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms +must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be +goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. +No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature."(8) + + (8) "Self-Reliance." + +His attitude of countenancing the positive joys of living causes +Maeterlinck in his later career to reverse his former judgment, and to +inveigh, much in the manner of Nietzsche, against the "parasitical +virtues." "Certain notions about resignation and self-sacrifice sap the +finest moral forces of mankind more thoroughly than do great vices and +even crimes. The alleged triumphs over the flesh are in most cases only +complete defeats of life." When to such rebellious sentiments is joined +an explicit warning against the seductions and intimidations held out by +the official religions--their sugar plums and dog whips, as Maeterlinck +puts it--one can only wonder how his writings escaped as long as they +did the attention of the authorities that swing the power of imprimatur +and anathema. + +Maeterlinck may not be classed unreservedly as a radical individualist. +For whereas a philosophy like that of Nietzsche takes no account of the +"much-too-many," who according to that great fantasist do not interest +anybody except the statistician and the devil, Maeterlinck realizes the +supreme importance of the great mass as the ordained transmitters of +civilization. The gulf between aristocratic subjectivism, devoted +single-mindedly to the ruthless enforcement of self-interest, and, on +the other hand, a self-forgetful social enthusiasm, is bridged in +Maeterlinck by an extremely strong instinct for justice and, moreover, +by his firm belief--at least for the time being--that the same strong +instinct exists universally as a specific trait of human nature. By such +a philosophy Justice, then, is discerned not as a supra-natural +function, but as a function of human nature as distinguished from nature +at large. The restriction is made necessary by our knowledge of the +observable operations of nature. In particular would the principle of +heredity seem to argue against the reign of justice in the +administration of human destinies, inasmuch as we find ourselves quite +unable to recognize in the apportionment of pleasure and pain anything +like a due ratio of merit. And yet Maeterlinck realizes that perhaps +nature measures life with a larger standard than the individual's short +span of existence, and warns us in his essay on "Justice" not to indulge +our self-conceit in a specious emulation of ways that are utterly beyond +our comprehension. After all, then, our poet-philosopher succeeds _foro +conscientiæ_ in reconciling his cult of self with devotion to the common +interest. Morality, in that essay, is defined as the co-ordination of +personal desire to the task assigned by nature to the race. And is it +not true that a contrary, that is, ascetic concept of morality reduces +itself to absurdity through its antagonism to that primal human instinct +that makes for the continuity of life? + + * * * * * + +From the compromise effected between two fairly opposite ethical +principles, there emerges in the works of this period something akin to +a socialistic tendency. It is organically related to the mystical +prepossession of the author's manner of thinking. Maeterlinck gratefully +acknowledges that by the search-light of science the uppermost layers of +darkness have been dispelled; but realizes also that the deep-seated +central enigma still remains in darkness: as much as ever are the +primordial causes sealed against a glimpse of finite knowledge. We have +changed the names, not the problems. Instead of God, Providence, or +Fate, we say Nature, Selection, and Heredity. But in reality do we know +more concerning Life than did our ancestors? + +What, then, questions the persevering pursuer of the final verities, +shall we do in order that we may press nearer to Truth? May we not +perchance steep our souls in light that flows from another source than +science? And what purer light is there to illumine us than the halo +surrounding a contented worker performing his task, not under coercion, +but from a voluntary, or it may be instinctive, submission to the law of +life? If such subordination of self constitutes the basis of rational +living, we shall do well to study its workings on a lowlier and less +complicated plane than the human; for instance, in the behavior of the +creature that is proverbial for its unflagging industry. For this +industry is not motivated by immediate or selfish wants; it springs from +instinctive self-dedication to the common cause. Some people expected +from _La Vie des Abeilles_ ("The Life of the Bee"), (1901), much +brand-new information about matters of apiculture. But in spite of his +twenty-five years' experience, Maeterlinck had no startling discoveries +to convey to his fellow-hivers. His book on bees is not primarily the +result of a specialist's investigations but a poetical record of the +observations made by a mind at once romantic and philosophical and +strongly attracted to the study of this particular form of community +life, because by its organization on a miniature scale it spreads before +the student of society a synoptic view of human affairs. + +Of the great change that had by now taken place in his conception of +life, Maeterlinck was fully cognizant, and made no concealment of it. In +the essay on "Justice" he says, with reference to his earlier dramas: +"The motive of these little plays was the fear of the Unknown by which +we are constantly surrounded," and passes on to describe his religious +temper as a sort of compound of the Christian idea of God with the +antique idea of Fate, immersed in the profound gloom of hopeless +mystery. "The Unknown took chiefly the aspect of a power, itself but +blindly groping in the dark, yet disposing with inexorable unfeelingness +of the fates of men." + +Evidently those same plays are passed once more in self-critical review +in _Ardiane et Barbe-Bleue_ ("Ardiane and Blue-Beard"), (1899), +notwithstanding the fact that the author disclaims any philosophic +purpose and presents his work as a mere libretto. We cannot regard it as +purely accidental that of Blue-Beard's terror-stricken wives, +four,--Selysette, Mélisande, Ygraine, Alladine,--bear the names of +earlier heroines, and, besides, that each of these retains with the name +also the character of her namesake. The symbolism is too transparent. +The child-wives of the cruel knight, forever in a state of trembling +fear, are too passive to extricate themselves from their fate, whereas +Ardiane succeeds instantly in breaking her captivity, because she has +the spirit and strength to shatter the window and let in the light and +air. The contrast between her resolute personality and those five inert +bundles of misery undoubtedly connotes the difference between the +author's paralyzing fatalism in the past and his present dynamic +optimism. + +A like contrast between dejection and resilience would be brought to +light by a comparison of the twelve lyric poems, _Douze Chansons_, +(1897), with the _Serres Chaudes_. The mood is still greatly subdued; +the new poetry is by no means free from sadness and a strain of +resignation. But the half-stifled despair that cries out from the older +book returns no dissonant echo in the new. + +Even his dramatic technique comes under the sway of Maeterlinck's +altered view of the world. The far freer use of exciting and eventful +action testifies to increased elasticity and force. This is a marked +feature of _Soeur Beatrice_ ("Sister Beatrice"), (1900), a miracle play +founded on the old story about the recreant nun who, broken from sin and +misery, returns to the cloister and finds that during the many years of +her absence her part and person have been carried out by the Holy Virgin +herself. + +Equally, the three other dramas of this epoch--_Aglavaine et Selysette_, +_Monna Vanna_, and _Joyzelle_--are highly available for scenic +enactment. Of the three, _Monna Vanna_, (1902), in particular is +conspicuous for a wholly unexpected aptitude of characterization, and +for the unsurpassed intensity of its situations, which in this isolated +case are not cast in a single mood as in the other plays, but are +individually distinct and full of dramatic progress, whereas everywhere +else the action moves rather sluggishly. + +"Monna Vanna" is one of the most brilliantly actable plays of modern +times, despite its improbability. A certain incongruity between the +realistic and the romantic aspects in the behavior of the principals is +saved from offensiveness by a disposition on the part of the spectator +to refer it, unhistorically, to the provenience of the story. But as a +matter of fact the actors are not fifteenth century Renaissance men and +women at all, but mystics, modern mystics at that, both in their +reasoning and their morality. It is under a cryptical soul-compulsion +that Giovanna goes forth to the unknown condottiere prepared to lay down +her honor for the salvation of her people, and that her husband at last +conquers his repugnance to her going. Prinzivalle, Guido, Marco, are +mystics even to a higher degree than Vanna. + +The poignant actualism of "Monna Vanna" lies, however, in the author's +frank sympathy with a distinctively modern zest for freedom. The +situation between husband and wife is reminiscent of "A Doll's House" in +the greedily possessive quality of Guido's affection, with which quality +his tyrannous unbelief in Prinzivalle's magnanimity fully accords. But +Maeterlinck here goes a step beyond Ibsen. In her married life with +Guido, Vanna was meekly contented, "at least as happy as one can be when +one has renounced the vague and extravagant dreams which seem beyond +human life." When the crisis arrives she realizes that "it is never too +late for one who has found a love that can fill a life." Her final +rebellion is sanctioned by the author, who unmistakably endorses the +venerable Marco's profession of faith that life is always in the right. + +"Joyzelle," (1903), inferior to "Monna Vanna" dramaturgically, and in +form the most distinctly fantastic of all Maeterlinck's productions, is +still farther removed from the fatalistic atmosphere. This play sounds, +as the author himself has stated, "the triumph of will and love over +destiny or fatality," as against the converse lesson of _Monna Vanna_. +The idea is symbolically expressed in the temptations of Lanceor and in +the liberation of Joyzelle and her lover from the power of Merlin and +his familiar, Arielle, who impersonates the secret forces of the heart. + +_Aglavaine et Selysette_, _Monna Vanna_, and _Joyzelle_ mark by still +another sign the advent of a new phase in Maeterlinck's evolution; +namely, by the characterization of the heroines. Previously, the women +in his plays were hardly individualized and none of them can be said to +possess a physiognomy strictly her own. Maeterlinck had returned with +great partiality again and again to the same type of woman: languid and +listless, without stamina and strength, yet at the same time full of +deep feeling, and capable of unending devotion--pathetic incorporeal +figures feeling their way along without the light of self-consciousness, +like some pre-raphaelite species of somnambulists. In the new plays, on +the contrary, women of a courageous and venturesome spirit and with a +self-possessive assurance are portrayed by preference and with +unmistakable approval. + +As the technique in the more recent creations of Maeterlinck, so the +diction, too, accommodates itself to altered tendencies. Whereas +formerly the colloquy was abrupt and fragmentary, it is now couched in +cadenced, flowing language, which, nevertheless, preserves the old-time +simplicity. The poet himself has criticized his former dialogue. He said +it made those figures seem like deaf people walking in their sleep, whom +somebody is endeavoring to arouse from a heavy dream. + + * * * * * + +For the limited purpose of this sketch it is not needful to enter into a +detailed discussion of Maeterlinck's latest productions, since such +lines as they add to his philosophical and artistic physiognomy have +been traced beforehand. His literary output for the last dozen years or +so is embodied in six or seven volumes: about two years to a book seems +to be his normal ratio of achievement, the same as was so regularly +observed by Henrik Ibsen, and one that seems rather suitable for an +author whose reserve, dictated by a profound artistic and moral +conscience, like his actual performance, calls for admiration and +gratitude. During the war he has written, or at least published, very +little. It is fairly safe to assume that the emotional experience of +this harrowing period will control his future philosophy as its most +potent factor; equally safe is it to predict, on the strength of his +published utterances, that his comprehensive humanity, that has been put +to such a severe test, will pass unscathed through the ordeal. + +Of the last group of Maeterlinck's works only two are dramas, namely, +"The Blue Bird," (1909), and "Mary Magdalene," (1910). The baffling +symbolism of "The Blue Bird" has not stood in the way of a tremendous +international stage success; the fact is due much less to the simple +line of thought that runs through the puzzle than to the exuberant fancy +that gave rise to it and its splendid scenical elaboration. Probably Mr. +Henry Rose is right, in his helpful analysis of "The Blue Bird," in +venturing the assertion that "by those who are familiar with +Swedenborg's teaching 'The Blue Bird' must be recognized as to a very +large extent written on lines which are in accordance with what is known +as the Science of Correspondences--a very important part of Swedenborg's +teachings." But the understanding of this symbolism in its fullness +offers very great difficulties. That a definite and consistent meaning +underlies all its features will be rather felt than comprehended by the +great majority who surely cannot be expected to go to the trouble first +of familiarizing themselves with Maeterlinck's alleged code of symbols +and then of applying it meticulously to the interpretation of his plays. + +"Mary Magdalene," judged from the dramatic point of view, is a quite +impressive tragedy, yet a full and sufficient treatment of the very +suggestive scriptural legend it is not. The converted courtezan is +characterized too abstractly. Instead of presenting herself as a woman +consumed with blazing sensuality but in whom the erotic fire is +transmuted into religious passion, she affects us like an enacted +commentary upon such a most extraordinary experience. + +Finally, there are several volumes of essays, to some of which reference +has already been made.(9) _Le Temple Enseveli_ ("The Buried Temple"), +(1902), consists of six disquisitions, all dealing with metaphysical +subjects: Justice, The Evolution of Mystery, The Reign of Matter, The +Past, Chance, The Future. _Le Double Jardin_ ("The Double Garden"), +(1904), is much more miscellaneous in its makeup. These are its +heterogeneous subjects: The Death of a Little Dog, Monte Carlo, A Ride +in a Motor Car, Dueling, The Angry Temper of the Bees, Universal +Suffrage, The Modern Drama, The Sources of Spring, Death and the Crown +(a discussion upon the fatal illness of Edward VII), a View of Rome, +Field Flowers, Chrysanthemums, Old-fashioned Flowers, Sincerity, The +Portrait of Woman, and Olive Branches (a survey of certain now, alas, +obsolete ethical movements of that day). _L'Intelligence des Fleurs_ (in +the translation it is named "Life and Flowers," in an enlarged issue +"The Measure of the Hours," both 1907), takes up, besides the theme of +the general caption, the manufacture of perfumes, the various +instruments for measuring time, the psychology of accident, social duty, +war, prize-fighting, and "King Lear." In 1912, three essays on Emerson, +Novalis, and Ruysbroeck appeared collectively, in English, under the +title "On Emerson and Other Essays." These originally prefaced certain +works of those writers translated by Maeterlinck in his earlier years. + + (9) Considerable liberty has been taken by Maeterlinck in the grouping + and naming of his essay upon their republication in the several + collections. The confusion caused thereby is greatly increased by the + deviation of some of the translated editions from the original volumes + as to the sequence of articles, the individual and collective titles, + and even the contents themselves. + +Maeterlinck's most recent publications are _La Mort_ (published in +English in a considerably extended collection under the title "Our +Eternity"), (1913), "The Unknown Guest," (1914), and _Les Débris de la +Guerre_ ("The Wrack of the Storm"), (1916).(10) The two first named, +having for their central subject Death and the great concomitant problem +of the life beyond, show that the author has become greatly interested +in psychical research; he even goes so far as to affirm his belief in +precognition. In these essays, Theosophy and Spiritism and kindred +occult theories are carefully analyzed, yet ingenious as are the +author's speculations, they leave anything like a solution of the +perplexing riddles far afield. On the whole he inclines to a telepathic +explanation of the psychical phenomena, yet thinks they may be due to +the strivings of the cosmic intelligence after fresh outlets, and +believes that a careful and persistent investigation of these phenomena +may open up hitherto undreamt of realms of reality. In general, we find +him on many points less assertive than he was in the beginning and +inclined to a general retrenchment of the dogmatic element in his +philosophic attitude. A significant passage in "The Buried Treasure" +teaches us not to deplore the loss of fixed beliefs. "One should never +look back with regret to those hours when a great belief abandons us. A +faith that becomes extinct, a means that fails, a dominant idea that no +longer dominates us because we think it is our turn to dominate +it--these things prove that we are living, that we are progressing, that +we are using up a great many things because we are not standing still." +Of the gloomy fatalism of his literary beginnings hardly a trace is to +be found in the Maeterlinck of to-day. His war-book, "The Wrack of the +Storm," breathes a calm optimism in the face of untold disaster. The +will of man is put above the power of fate. "Is it possible that +fatality--by which I mean what perhaps for a moment was the +unacknowledged desire of the planet--shall not regain the upper hand? At +the stage which man has reached, I hope and believe so.... Everything +seems to tell us that man is approaching the day whereon, seizing the +most glorious opportunity that has ever presented itself since he +acquired a consciousness, he will at last learn that he is able, when he +pleases, to control his whole fate in this world."(11) His faith in +humanity is built on the heroic virtues displayed in this war. "To-day, +not only do we know that these virtues exist: we have taught the world +that they are always triumphant, that nothing is lost while faith is +left, while honor is intact, while love continues, while the soul does +not surrender." ... Death itself is now threatened with extinction by +our heroic race: "The more it exercises its ravages, the more it +increases the intensity of that which it cannot touch; the more it +pursues its phantom victories, the better does it prove to us that man +will end by conquering death." + + (10) "The Light Beyond" (1917) is not a new work at all, but merely a + combination of parts from "Our Eternity" and "The Wrack of the Storm." + + (11) "The Wrack of the Storm," p. 144 f. + +In the concluding chapter of "Our Eternity," the romantic modification +of Maeterlinck's mysticism is made patent in his confession regarding +the problem of Knowledge: "I have added nothing to what was already +known. I have simply tried to separate what may be true from that which +is assuredly not true.... Perhaps through our quest for that +undiscoverable Truth we shall have accustomed our eyes to pierce the +terror of the last hour by looking it full in the face.... We need have +no hope that any one will utter on this earth the word that shall put an +end to our uncertainties. It is very probable, on the contrary, that no +one in this world, nor perhaps in the next, will discover the great +secret of the universe. And ... it is most fortunate that it should be +so. We have not only to resign ourselves to living in the +incomprehensible, but to rejoice that we cannot get out of it. If there +were no more insoluble questions ... infinity would not be infinite; and +then we should have forever to curse the fate that placed us in a +universe proportionate to our intelligence. The unknown and the +unknowable are necessary and will perhaps always be necessary to our +happiness. In any case, I would not wish my worst enemy, were his +understanding a thousandfold loftier and a thousandfold mightier than +mine, to be condemned eternally to inhabit a world of which he had +surprised an essential secret...."(12) + + (12) Quoted from the excellent translation by A. T. de Mattos. + +So the final word of Maeterlinck's philosophy, after a lifetime of +ardent search, clears up none of the tantalizing secrets of our +existence. And yet somehow it bears a message that is full of +consolation. The value of human life lies in the perpetual movement +towards a receding goal. Whoever can identify himself with such a +philosophy and accept its great practical lesson, that we shall never +reach Knowledge but acquire wisdom in the pursuit, should be able to +envisage the veiled countenance of Truth without despair, and even to +face with some courage the eternal problem of our being, its reason and +its destination. + + + + +II + +THE ECCENTRICITY OF AUGUST STRINDBERG + + +One cannot speak of August Strindberg with much _gusto_. The most +broadminded critic will find himself under necessity to disapprove of +him as a man and to condemn so many features of his production that +almost one might question his fitness as a subject of literary +discussion. Nevertheless, his importance is beyond dispute and quite +above the consideration of personal like or dislike, whether we view him +in his creative capacity,--as an intellectual and ethical spokesman of +his time,--or in his human character,--as a typical case of certain +mental and moral maladies which somehow during his time were more or +less epidemic throughout the lettered world. We have it on excellent +authority that at his début in the literary theatre he made the stage +quake with the elemental power of his personality. Gigantic rebels like +Ibsen, Bjoernson, Nietzsche, and Tolstoy, we are told, dwindled to +normal proportions beside his titanic stature. He aimed to conquer and +convert the whole world by his fanatical protest against the rotten +civilization of his time. The attempt proved an utter failure. He never +could grow into a world-figure, because he lacked the courage as well as +the cosmopolitan adaptability needed for intellectual expatriation. +Hence, in great contrast to Ibsen, he remained to Europe at large the +uncouth Scandinavian, while in the eyes of Scandinavia he was +specifically the Swede; and his country-men, even though they +acknowledged him their premier poet, treated him, because of his +eccentricity, as a national gazing-stock rather than as a genuine +national asset. Yet for all that, he ranks as the foremost writer of his +country and one of the representative men of the age. His poetic genius +is admitted by practically all the critics, while the greatest among +them, George Brandes, pronounces him in addition an unsurpassed master +in the command of his mother tongue. But his position as a writer is by +no means limited to his own little country. For his works have been +translated into all civilized languages, and if the circulation of +literary products is a safe indication of their influence, then several +of Strindberg's books at least must be credited with having done +something toward shaping the thought of our time upon some of its +leading issues. In any case, the large and durable interest shown his +productions marks Strindberg as a literary phenomenon of sufficient +consequence to deserve some study. + +Readers of Strindberg who seek to discover the reason why criticism +should have devoted so much attention to an author regarded almost +universally with strong disapproval and aversion, will find that reason +most probably in the extreme subjectiveness that dominates everything he +has written; personal confession, novels, stories, and plays alike share +this equality, and even in his historical dramas the figures, despite +the minute accuracy of their delineation, are moved by the author's +passion, not their own. Rarely, if ever, has a writer of eminence +demonstrated a similar incapacity to reproduce the thoughts and feelings +of other people. It has been rightly declared that all his leading +characters are merely the outward projections of his own sentiments and +ideas,--that at bottom he, August Strindberg, is the sole protagonist in +all his dramaturgy and fiction. + +Strindberg was a man with an omnivorous intellectual curiosity, and he +commanded a vast store of knowledge in the fields of history, science, +and languages. His "History of the Swedish People" is recognized by +competent judges as a very brilliant and scholarly performance. Before +he was launched in his literary career, and while still obscurely +employed as minor assistant at a library, he earned distinction as a +student of the Chinese language, and one product of his research work in +that field was even deemed worthy of being read before the _Académie des +Inscriptions et Belles Lettres_. In Geology, Chemistry, Botany, he was +equally productive. But the taint of eccentricity in his mental fibre +prevented his imposing scientific accomplishments from maintaining him +in a state of intellectual equilibrium. He laid as much store by things +of which he had a mere smattering as by those on which he was an +authority, and his resultant unsteadiness caused him to oscillate +between opposite scientific enthusiasms even as his self-contradictory +personal character involved him in abrupt changes of position, and made +him jump from one extreme of behavior to the other. + + * * * * * + +Strindberg first attracted public notice by the appearance in 1879 of a +novel named "The Red Room." Its effect upon a country characterized by +so keen an observer as George Brandes as perhaps the most conservative +in Europe resembled the excitement caused by Schiller's "The Robbers" +almost precisely one hundred years before. It stirred up enough dust to +change, though not to cleanse, the musty atmosphere of Philistia. For +here was instantly recognized the challenge of a radical spirit uprisen +in full and ruthless rebellion against each and every time-hallowed +usage and tradition. The recollection of that hot-spur agitator bent +with every particle of his strength to rouse the world up from its +lethargy by his stentorian "J'accuse" and to pass sentence upon it by +sheer tremendous vociferation, is almost entirely obliterated to-day by +the remembrance of quite another Strindberg:--the erstwhile stormy +idealist changed into a leering cynic; a repulsive embodiment of +negation, a grimacing Mephistopheles who denies life and light or +anything that he cannot comprehend, and to whom the face of the earth +appears forever covered with darkness and filth and death and +corruption. Indeed this final depictment of August Strindberg, whether +or no it be accurately true to life, is a terrible example of what life +can make of a man, or a man of his life, if he is neither light enough +to be borne by the current of his time, nor strong enough to set his +face against the tide and breast it. + +The question is, naturally, was Strindberg sincere in the fanatical +insurgency of his earlier period, or was his attitude merely a +theatrical pose and his social enthusiasm a ranting declamation? In +either case, there opens up this other question: Have we reason to doubt +the sincerity of the mental changes that were yet to follow,--the +genuineness of his pessimism, occultism, and, in the final stage, of his +religious conversion? His unexampled hardihood in reversing his opinions +and going dead against his convictions could be illustrated in nearly +every sphere of thought. At one time a glowing admirer of Rousseau and +loudly professing his gospel of nature, he forsook this allegiance, and +chose as his new idol Rousseau's very antipode, Voltaire. For many years +he was a democrat of the purest water, identified himself with the +proletarian cause, and acted as the fiery champion of the poor +labor-driven masses against their oppressors; but one fine day, no +matter whether it came about directly through his contact with Nietzsche +or otherwise, he repudiated socialism, scornfully denouncing it as a +tattered remnant of his cast-off Christianity, and arrayed himself on +the side of the elect, or self-elect, against the "common herd," the +"much-too-many." License for the best to govern the rest, became +temporarily his battle-cry; and his political ideal suggested nothing +less completely absurd than a republic presided over by an oligarchy of +autocrats. His unsurpassed reputation as an anti-feminist would hardly +prepare us to find his earlier works fairly aglow with sympathy for the +woman cause. He held at one time, as did Tolstoy, that art and poetry +have a detrimental effect upon the natural character; for which reason +the peasant is a more normal being than the lettered man. Especially was +he set against the drama, on the ground that it throws the public mind +into confusion by its failure to differentiate sharply between the +author's own opinions and those of the characters. Literature, he held, +should pattern itself after a serious newspaper: it should seek to +influence, not entertain. Not only did he drop this pedantic restriction +of literature in the end, but in his own practice he had always defied +it, because, despite his fierce campaign against art, he could not +overcome the force of his artistic impulses. And so in other provinces +of thought, too, he reversed his judgment with a temerity and swiftness +that greatly offended the feelings and perplexed the intelligence of his +followers for the time being and justified the question whether +Strindberg had any principles at all. In politics he was by quick turns +Anarchist and Socialist, Radical and Conservative, Republican and +Aristocrat, Communist and Egoist; in religion, Pietist, Protestant, +Deist, Atheist, Occultist, and Roman Catholic. And yet unquestionably he +was honest. To blame him merely because he changed his views, and be it +never so radically, would be blaming a man for exercising his right to +develop. In any man of influence, an unalterable permanency of opinion +would be even more objectionable than a frequent shift of his point of +view. In recent times the presumable length of a person's intellectual +usefulness has been a live subject of discussion which has resulted in +some legislation of very questionable wisdom, for instance the setting +of an arbitrary age limit for the active service of high-grade teachers. +In actual experience men are too old to teach, or through any other +function to move the minds of younger people in a forward direction, +whenever they have lost the ability to change their own mind. Yet at all +events, an eminent author's right of self-reversal must not be exercised +at random; he should refrain from the propagation of new opinions that +have not ripened within himself. Which is the same as saying that he +should stick to his old opinions until he finds himself inwardly +compelled to abandon them. But as a matter of fact, a man like +Strindberg, propelled by an unbridled imagination, alert with romantic +tendencies, nervously overstrung, kept constantly under a strain by his +morbidly sensitive temperament,--and whose brain is consequently a +seething chaos of conflicting ideas, is never put to the necessity of +changing his mind; his mind keeps changing itself. + +It must be as difficult for the literary historian to do Strindberg full +justice as it was for the great eccentric himself; when in taking stock, +as it were, of his mental equipment, during one of his protracted +periods of despondency, he summed himself up in the following +picturesque simile: "A monstrous conglomeration, changing its forms +according to the observer's point of view and possessing no more reality +than the rainbow that is visible to the eyes and yet does not exist." +His evolution may be tracked, however, in the detailed autobiography in +which he undertook, by a rigorous application of Hippolyte Taine's +well-known theory and method, to account for his temperamental +peculiarities on the basis of heredity and the milieu and to describe +the gradual transformation of his character through education and the +external pressure of contemporary intellectual movements. This +remarkable work is like a picture book of ideals undermined, hollowed, +and shattered; a perverse compound of cynicism and passion, it is +unspeakably loathsome to the sense of beauty and yet, in the last +artistic reckoning, not without great beauty of its own. It divides the +story of Strindberg's life into these consecutive parts: The Son of the +Servant; The Author; The Evolution of a Soul; The Confession of a Fool; +Inferno; Legends; The Rupture; Alone. The very titles signalize the +brutal frankness, or, shall we say, terrible sincerity of a tale that +rummages without piety among the most sacred privacies, and drags forth +from intimate nooks and corners sorrow and squalor and shame enough to +have wrecked a dozen average existences. There is no mistaking or +evading the challenge hurled by this story: See me as I am, stripped of +conventional lies and pretensions! Look upon my naked soul, covered with +scars and open sores. Behold me in my spasms of love and hate, now in +demoniacal transports, now prostrate with anguish! And if you want to +know how I came to be what I am, consider my ancestry, my bringing up, +my social environment, and be sure also to pocket your own due share of +the blame for my destruction!--Certainly Strindberg's autobiography is +not to be recommended as a graduation gift for convent-bred young +ladies, or as a soothing diversion for convalescents, but if accepted in +a proper sense, it will be found absorbing, informative, and even +helpful. + +Strindberg never forgave his father for having married below his +station. He felt that the good blood of the Strindbergs,--respectable +merchants and ministers and country gentlemen,--was worsened by the +proletarian strain imported into it through a working girl named +Eleonore Ulrike Norling, the mother of August Strindberg and his eleven +brothers and sisters. During August's childhood the family lived in +extremely straitened circumstances. When a dozen people live cooped up +in three rooms, some of them are more than likely to have the joy of +youth crushed out of them and crowded from the premises. Here was the +first evil that darkened Strindberg's life: he simply was cheated out of +his childhood. + +School was no happier place for him than home. His inordinate pride, +only sharpened by the consciousness of his parents' poverty which +bordered on pauperism, threw him into a state of perpetual rebellion +against comrades and teachers. And all this time his inner life was +tossed hither and thither by a general intellectual and emotional +restlessness due to an insatiable craving for knowledge. At fifteen +years of age he had reached a full conviction on the irredeemable +evilness of life; and concluded, in a moment of religious exaltation, to +dedicate his own earthly existence to the vicarious expiation of +universal sin through the mortification of the flesh. Then, of a sudden, +he became a voracious reader of rationalistic literature, and turned +atheist with almost inconceivable dispatch, but soon was forced back by +remorse into the pietistic frame of mind,--only to pass through another +reaction immediately after. At this time he claims that earthly life is +a punishment or a probation; but that it lies in man's power to make it +endurable by freeing himself from the social restraints. He has become a +convert to the fantastic doctrine of Jean Jacques Rousseau, that man is +good by nature but has been depraved by civilization. Now in his +earliest twenties, he embraces communism with all its implications,--free +love, state parenthood, public ownership of utilities, equal +division of the fruits of labor, and so forth,--as the sole +and sure means of salvation for humanity. + +In the "Swiss Stories," subtitled "Utopias in Reality,"(13) Strindberg +demonstrated to his own satisfaction the smooth and practical workings +of that doctrine. It was difficult for him to understand why the major +part of the world seemed so hesitant about adopting so tempting and +equitable a scheme of living. Yet, for his own person, too, he soon +disavowed socialism, because under a socialistic régime the individual +would be liable to have his ideas put into uniform, and the remotest +threat of interference with his freedom of thought was something this +fanatical apostle of liberty could not brook. + + (13) The stories deal among other things with the harmonious communal + life in Godin's _Phalanstère_. Strindberg wrote two descriptions of + it, one before, the other after visiting the colony. + +In the preface to the "Utopias," he had referred to himself as "a +convinced socialist, like all sensible people"; whereas now he writes: +"Idealism and Socialism are two maladies born of laziness." Having thus +scientifically diagnosed the disease and prescribed the one true +specific for it, namely--how simple!--the total abolition of the +industries, he resumes the preaching of Rousseauism in its simon-pure +form, orders every man to be his maid-of-all-work and jack-of-all-trades, +puts the world on a vegetarian diet, and then wonders why +the socialists denounce and revile him as a turncoat and an +apostate. + + * * * * * + +The biography throws an especially vivid light on Strindberg's relation +to one of the most important factors of socialism, to wit, the question +of woman's rights. His position on this issue is merely a phase of that +extreme and practically isolated position in regard to woman in general +that has more than any other single element determined the feeling of +the public towards him and by consequence fixed his place in +contemporary literature. That this should be so is hardly unfair, +because no other element has entered so deeply into the structure and +fibre of his thought and feeling. + +Strindberg, as has been stated, was not from the outset, or perchance +constitutionally, an anti-feminist. In "The Red Room" he preaches +equality of the sexes even in marriage. The thesis of the book is that +man and woman are not antagonistic phenomena of life, rather they are +modifications of the same phenomenon, made for mutual completion; hence, +they can only fulfill their natural destiny through close coöperative +comradeship. But there were two facts that prevented Strindberg from +proceeding farther along this line of thought. One was his incorrigible +propensity to contradiction, the other his excessive subjectiveness +which kept him busy building up theories on the basis of personal +experience. The prodigious feminist movement launched in Scandinavia by +Ibsen and Bjoernson was very repugnant to him, because he felt, not +without some just reason, that the movement was for a great many people +little more than a fad. So long as art and literature are influenced by +fashion, so long there will be and should be revolts against the vogue. +Moreover, Strindberg felt that the movement was being carried too far. +He was prepared to accompany Ibsen some distance on the way of reform, +but refused to subscribe to his verdict that the whole blame for our +crying social maladjustments rests with the unwillingness of men to +allot any rights whatsoever to women. + +Strindberg's play, "Sir Bengt's Wife," printed in 1882, but of much +earlier origin, is interpreted by Brandes as a symbolical portrayal of +feminine life in Scandinavia during the author's early manhood. The +leading feminine figure, a creature wholly incapable of understanding or +appreciating the nobler traits in man, is nevertheless treated with +sympathy, on the whole. She is represented,--like Selma Bratsberg in +Ibsen's "The League of Youth," and Nora Helmer, in "A Doll's House,"--as +the typical and normal victim of a partial and unfair training. Her +faults of judgment and errors of temper are due to the fact so +forcefully descanted upon by Selma, that women are not permitted to +share the interests and anxieties of their husbands. We are expressly +informed by Strindberg that this drama was intended, in the first place, +as an attack upon the romantic proclivities of feminine education; in +the second, as an illustration of the power of love to subdue the will; +in the third, as a defense of the thesis that woman's love is of a +higher quality than man's; and lastly, as a vindication of the right of +woman to be her own master. Again, in "Married" he answers the query, +Shall women vote? distinctly in the affirmative, although here the fixed +idea about the congenital discordance between the sexes, and the +identification of love with a struggle for supremacy, has already seized +hold of him. + +To repeat, there was at first nothing absolutely preposterous about +Strindberg's position in regard to the woman movement. On the contrary, +his view might have been endorsed as a not altogether unwholesome +corrective for the ruling fashion of dealing with the issue by the +advocacy of extremes. But by force of his supervening personal grievance +against the sex, Strindberg's anti-feminism became in the long run the +fixed pole about which gravitated his entire system of social and +ethical thought. His campaign against feminism, which otherwise could +have served a good purpose by curbing wild militancy, was defeated by +its own exaggerations. Granting that feminists had gone too far in the +denunciation of male brutality and despotism, Strindberg went still +farther in the opposite direction, when he deliberately set out to lay +bare the character of woman by dissecting some of her most diabolical +incarnations. As has already been said, he was utterly incapable of +objective thinking, and under the sting of his miseries in love and +marriage, dislike of woman turned into hatred and hatred into frenzy. +Henceforth, the entire spectacle of life presented itself to his +distorted vision as a perpetual state of war between the sexes: on the +one side he saw the male, strong of mind and heart, but in the +generosity of strength guileless and over-trustful; on the other side, +the female, weak of body and intellect, but shrewd enough to exploit her +frailness by linking iniquity to impotence and contriving by her +treacherous cunning to enslave her natural superior:--it is the story of +Samson and Delilah made universal in its application. Love is shown up +as the trap in which man is caught to be shorn of his power. The case +against woman is classically drawn up in "The Father," one of the +strangest and at the same time most powerful tragedies of Strindberg. +The principals of the plot stand for the typical character difference +between the sexes as Strindberg sees it; the man being kind-hearted, +good-natured, and aspiring, whereas the woman, setting an example for +all his succeeding portraits of women, is cunning, though unintelligent +and coarse-grained, soulless, yet insanely ambitious and covetous of +power. In glaring contrast to the situation made so familiar by Ibsen, +we here see the man struggling away from the clutches of a woman who +declares frankly that she has never looked at a man without feeling +conscious of her superiority over him. In this play the man, a person of +ideals and real ability, who is none other than Strindberg himself in +one of his matrimonial predicaments, fails to extricate himself from the +snare, and ends--both literally and figuratively--by being put into the +straitjacket. + +Without classing Strindberg as one of the great world dramatists, it +would be narrow-minded, after experiencing the gripping effect of some +of his plays, to deny them due recognition, for indeed they would be +remarkable for their perspicacity and penetration, even if they were +devoid of any value besides. They contain the keenest analyses ever made +of the vicious side of feminine character, obtained by specializing, as +it were, on the more particularly feminine traits of human depravity. +Assuredly the procedure is onesided, but the delineation of a single +side of life is beyond peradventure a legitimate artistic enterprise as +long as it is not palmed upon us as an accurate and complete picture. +Unfortunately, Strindberg's abnormal vision falsifies the things he +looks at, and, being steeped in his insuperable prejudice, his pictures +of life, in spite of the partial veracity they possess, never rise above +the level of caricatures. + +He was incompetent to pass judgment upon an individual woman separately; +to him all women were alike, and that means, all unmitigatedly bad! To +the objection raised by one of the characters in "The Father": "Oh, +there are so many kinds of women," the author's mouthpiece makes this +clinching answer: "Modern investigation has pronounced that there is +only one kind." + +The autobiography of Strindberg is largely inspired by his unreasoning +hatred of women; the result, in the main, of his three unfortunate +ventures into the uncongenial field of matrimony. In its first part, the +account of his life is not without some traces of healthy humor, but as +the story progresses, his entire philosophy of life becomes more and +more aberrant under the increasing pressure of that obsession. He gets +beside himself at the mere mention of anything feminine, and blindly +hits away, let his bludgeon land where it will; logic, common sense, and +common decency go to the floor before his vehement and brutal assault. +Every woman is a born liar and traitor. Her sole aim in life is to +thrive parasitically upon the revenue of her favors. Since marriage and +prostitution cannot provide a living for all, the oversupply now clamor +for admission to the work-mart; but they are incompetent and lazy, and +inveterate shirkers of responsibility. With triumphant malice he points +to the perfidious readiness of woman to perform her tasks by proxy, that +is, to delegate them to hired substitutes: her children are tended and +taught by governesses and teachers; her garments are made by dressmakers +and seamstresses; the duties of her household she unloads on +servants,--and from selfish considerations of vanity, comfort, and love +of pleasure, she withdraws even from the primary maternal obligation and +lets her young be nourished at the breast of a stranger. Strindberg in +his rage never stops to think that the deputies in these cases,--cooks +and housemaids and nurses and so forth,--themselves belong to the female +sex, by which fact the impeachment is in large part invalidated. + +The play bearing the satirical title "Comrades" makes a special +application of the theory about the pre-established antagonism of the +sexes. In a situation similar to that in "The Father," husband and wife +are shown in a yet sharper antithesis of character: a man of sterling +character and ability foiled by a woman in all respects his inferior, +yet imperiously determined to dominate him. At first she seems to +succeed in her ambition, and in the same measure as she assumes a more +and more mannish demeanor, the husband's behavior grows more and more +effeminate. But the contest leads to results opposite to those in "The +Father." Here, the man, once he is brought to a full realization of his +plight, arouses himself from his apathy, reasserts his manhood, and, in +the ensuing fight for supremacy, routs the usurper and comes into his +own. The steps by which he passes through revolt from subjection to +self-liberation, are cleverly signaled by his outward transformation, as +he abandons the womanish style of dressing imposed on him by his wife's +whim and indignantly flings into a corner the feminine costume which she +would make him wear at the ball. + + * * * * * + +Leaving aside, then, all question as to their artistic value, +Strindberg's dramas are deserving of attention as experiments in a +fairly unexplored field of analytic psychology. They are the first +literary creations of any great importance begotten by such bitter +hatred of woman. The anti-feminism of Strindberg's predecessors, not +excepting that arch-misogynist, Arthur Schopenhauer himself, sprang from +contempt, not from abhorrence and abject fear. In Strindberg, misogyny +turns into downright gynophobia. To him, woman is not an object of +disdain, but the cruel and merciless persecutor of man. In order to +disclose the most dangerous traits of the feminine soul, Strindberg +dissects it by a method that corresponds closely to Ibsen's astonishing +demonstration of masculine viciousness. The wide-spread dislike for +Strindberg's dramas is due, in equal parts, to the detestableness of his +male characters, and to the optimistic disbelief of the general public +in the reality of womanhood as he represents it. Strindberg's +portraiture of the sex appears as a monstrous slander, principally +because no other painter has ever placed the model into the same +disadvantageous light, and the authenticity of his pictures is rendered +suspicious by their abnormal family resemblance. He was obsessed with +the petrifying vision of a uniform cruel selfishness staring out of +every woman's face: countess, courtezan, or kitchen maid, all are cast +in the same gorgon mold. + +Strindberg's aversion towards women was probably kindled into action, as +has already been intimated, by his disgust at the sudden irruption of +woman worship into literature; but, as has also been made clear, only +the disillusionments and grievances of his private experience hardened +that aversion into implacable hatred. At first he simply declined to +ally himself with the feminist cult, because the women he knew seemed +unworthy of being worshipped,--little vain dolls, frivolous coquettes, +and pedants given to domestic tyranny, of such the bulk was made up. +Under the maddening spur of his personal misfortunes, his feeling passed +from weariness to detestation, from detestation to a bitter mixture of +fear and furious hate. He conceived it as his supreme mission and +central purpose in life to unmask the demon with the angel's face, to +tear the drapings from the idol and expose to view the hideous ogress +that feeds on the souls of men. Woman, in Strindberg's works, is a bogy, +constructed out of the vilest ingredients that enter into the +composition of human nature, with a kind of convulsive life infused by a +remnant of great artistic power. And this grewsome fabric of a diseased +imagination, like Frankenstein's monster, wreaks vengeance on its maker. +His own mordant desire for her is the lash that drives him irresistibly +to his destruction. + +It requires no profound psychologic insight to divine in this odious +chimera the deplorable abortion of a fine ideal. The distortion of truth +emanates in Strindberg's work, as it does in any significant satire or +caricature, from indignation over the contrast between a lofty +conception and a disappointing reality. What, after all, can be the +mission of this hard-featured gallery of females,--peevish, sullen, +impudent, grasping, violent, lecherous, malignant, and vindictive,--if +it is not to mark pravity and debasement with a stigma in the name of a +pure and noble womanhood? + + * * * * * + +It should not be left unmentioned that we owe to August Strindberg some +works of great perfection fairly free from the black obsession and with +a constructive and consistently idealistic tendency: splendid +descriptions of a quaint people and their habitat, tinged with a fine +sense of humor, as in "The Hemsoe-Dwellers"; charming studies of +landscape and of floral and animal life, in the "Portraits of Flowers +and Animals"; the colossal work on the Swedish People, once before +referred to, a history conceived and executed in a thoroughly modern +scientific spirit; two volumes of "Swedish Fortunes and Adventures"; +most of his historic dramas also are of superior order. But these works +lie outside the scope of the more specific discussion of Strindberg as a +mystic and an eccentric to which this sketch is devoted. We may conclude +by briefly considering the final phases of Strindberg's checkered +intellectual career, and by summing up his general significance for the +age. + +It will be recalled that during the middle period of his life, (in +1888), Strindberg came into personal touch with Nietzsche. The effect of +the latter's sensational philosophy is clearly perceptible in the works +of that period, notably in "Tschandala" and "By the Open Sea." +Evidently, Nietzsche, at first, was very congenial to him. For both men +were extremely aristocratic in their instincts. For a while, Strindberg +endorsed unqualifiedly the heterodox ethics of the towering paranoiac. +For one thing, that philosophy supplied fresh food and fuel to his +burning rage against womankind, and that was enough to bribe him into +swallowing, for the time being, the entire substance of Nietzsche's +fantastic doctrine. He took the same ground as Nietzsche, that the race +had deteriorated in consequence of its sentimentality, namely through +the systematic protection of physical and mental inferiority and +unchecked procreation of weaklings. He seconded Nietzsche's motion that +society should exterminate its parasites, instead of pampering them. +Mankind can only be reinvigorated if the strong and healthy are helped +to come into their own. The dreams of the pacifists are fatal to the +pragmatic virtues and to the virility of the race. The greatest need is +an aggressive campaign for the moral and intellectual sanitation of the +world. So let the brain rule over the heart,--and so forth in the same +strain. + +Very soon, however, Strindberg passed out of the sphere of Nietzsche's +influence. The alienation was due as much to his general instability as +to the disparity between his pessimistic temper and the joyous +exaltation of Zarathustra-ism. His striking reversion to orthodoxy was +by no means illogical. Between pessimism and faith there exists a +relation that is not very far to seek. When a person has forfeited his +peace of soul and cannot find grace before his own conscience, he might +clutch as a last hope the promise of vicarious redemption. Extending the +significance of his own personal experience to everything within his +horizon, and erecting a dogmatic system upon this tenuous +generalisation, Strindberg reached the conviction that the purpose of +living is to suffer, a conviction that threw his philosophy well into +line with the religious and ethical ideas of the middle age. Yet even at +this juncture his cynicism did not desert him, as witness this comment +of his: "Religion must be a punishment, because nobody gets religion who +does not have a bad conscience." This avowal preceded his saltatory +approach to Roman Catholicism. + +In the later volumes of his autobiography he minutely describes the +successive crises through which he passed in his agonizing search for +certitude and salvation before his spirit found rest in the idea of +Destiny which formerly to him was synonymous with Fate and now became +synonymous with Providence. "Inferno" pictures his existence as a +protracted and unbroken nightmare. He turned determinist, then fatalist, +then mystic. The most trifling incidents of his daily life were spelt +out according to Swedenborg's "Science of Correspondences" and thereby +assumed a deep and terrifying significance. In the most trivial events, +such as the opening or shutting of a door, or the curve etched by a +raindrop on a dusty pane of glass, he perceived intimations from the +occult power that directed his life. Into the most ordinary occurrence +of the day he read a divine order, or threat, or chastisement. He was +tormented by terrible dreams and visions; in the guise of ferocious +beasts, his own sins agonized his flesh. And in the midst of all these +tortures he studied and practised the occult arts: magic, astrology, +necromancy, alchemy; he concocted gold by hermetical science! To all +appearances utterly deranged, he was still lucid enough at intervals to +carry on chemical, botanical, and physiological experiments of +legitimate worth. Then his reason cleared up once again and put a sudden +end to an episode which he has described in these words: "To go in quest +of God and to find the devil,--that is what happened to me." + +He took leave of Swedenborg as he had taken leave of Nietzsche, yet +retained much gratitude for him; the great Scandinavian seer had brought +him back to God, so he averred, even though the conversion was effected +by picturings of horror. + +"Legends," the further continuation of his self-history, shows him +vividly at his closest contact with the Catholic Church. But the most +satisfactory portion of the autobiography from a human point of view, +and from a literary point perhaps altogether the best thing Strindberg +has done, is the closing book of the series, entitled "Alone." He wrote +it at the age of fifty, during a period of comparative tranquillity of +mind, and that fact is manifested by the composure and moderation of its +style. Now at last his storm-tossed soul seems to have found a haven. He +accepts his destiny, and resigns himself to believing, since knowledge +is barred. + +But even this state of serenity harbored no permanent peace; it +signified merely a temporary suspension of those terrific internal +combats. + +In Strindberg's case, religious conversion is not an edifying, but on +the contrary a morbid and saddening spectacle; it is equal to a +declaration of complete spiritual bankruptcy. He turns to the church +after finding all other pathways to God blocked. His type of +Christianity does not hang together with the labors and struggles of his +secular life. A break with his past can be denied to no man; least of +all to a leader of men. Only, if he has deserted the old road, he should +be able to lead in the new; he must have a new message if he sees fit to +cancel the old. Strindberg, however, has nothing to offer at the end. He +stands before us timorous and shrinking, the accuser of his fellows +turned self-accuser, a beggar stretching forth empty, trembling hands +imploring forgiveness of his sins and the salvation of his soul through +gracious mediation. His moral asseverations are either blank truisms, or +intellectual aberrations. Strindberg has added nothing to the stock of +human understanding. A preacher, of course, is not in duty bound to +generate original thought. Indeed if such were to be exacted, our +pulpits would soon be as sparsely peopled as already are the pews. +Ministers who are wondering hard why so many people stay away from +church might well stop to consider whether the reason is not that a +large portion of mankind has already secured, theoretically, a religious +or ethical basis of life more or less identical with the one which +churches content themselves with offering. The greatest religious +teacher of modern times, Leo Tolstoy, was not by any means a bringer of +new truths. The true secret of the tremendous power which nevertheless +he wielded over the souls of men was that he extended the practical +application of what he believed. If, therefore, we look for a lesson in +Strindberg's life as recited by himself, we shall not find it in his +religious conversion. + + * * * * * + +Taken in its entirety, his voluminous yet fragmentary life history is +one of the most painful human documents on record. One can hardly peruse +it without asking: Was Strindberg insane? It is a question which he +often put to himself when remorse and self-reproach gnawed at his +conscience and when he fancied himself scorned and persecuted by all his +former friends. "Why are you so hated?" he asks himself in one of his +dialogues, and this is his answer: "I could not endure to see mankind +suffer, and so I said and wrote: 'Free yourselves, I shall help.' And so +I said to the poor: 'Do not let the rich suck your blood.' And to woman: +'Do not let man oppress you.' And to the children: 'Do not obey your +parents if they are unjust.' The consequences,--well, they are quite +incomprehensible; for of a sudden I had both sides against me, rich and +poor, men and women, parents and children; add to that sickness and +poverty, disgraceful pauperism, my divorce, lawsuits, exile, loneliness, +and now, to top the climax,--do you believe that I am insane?" From his +ultra-subjective point of view, the explanation here given of the total +collapse of his fortunes is fairly accurate, at least in the essential +aspects. Still, many great men have been pursued by a similar conflux of +calamities. Overwhelming misfortunes are the surest test of manhood. How +high a person bears up his head under the blows of fate is the best gage +of his stature. But Strindberg, in spite of his colossal physique, was +not cast in the heroic mold. The breakdown of his fortunes caused him to +turn traitor to himself, to recant and destroy his intellectual past. + +Whether he was actually insane is a question for psychiaters to settle; +normal he certainly was not. In medical opinion his modes of reacting to +the obstructions and difficulties of the daily life were conclusively +symptomatic of neurasthenia. Certain obsessive ideas and idiosyncracies +of his, closely bordering upon phobia, would seem to indicate grave +psychic disorder. His temper and his world-view were indicative of +hypochondria: he perceived only the hostile, never the friendly, aspects +of events, people, and phenomena. Dejectedly he declares: "There is +falseness even in the calm air and the sunshine, and I feel that +happiness has no place in my lot." + +Destiny had assembled within him all the doubts and pangs of the modern +soul, but had neglected to counterpoise them with positive and +constructive convictions; so that when his small store of hopes and +prospects was exhausted, he broke down from sheer hollowness of heart. +He died a recluse, a penitent, and a renegade to all his past ideas and +persuasions. + +Evidently, with his large assortment of defects both of character and of +intellect, Strindberg could not be classed as one of the great +constructive minds of our period. Viewed in his social importance, he +will interest future students of morals chiefly as an agitator, a +polemist, and in a fashion, too, as a prophet; by his uniquely +aggressive veracity, he rendered a measure of valuable service to his +time. + +But viewed as a creative writer, both of drama and fiction, he has an +incontestable claim to our lasting attention. His work shows artistic +ability, even though it rarely attains to greatness and is frequently +marred by the bizarre qualities of his style. Presumably his will be a +permanent place in the history of literature, principally because of the +extraordinary subjective animation of his work. And perhaps in times +less depressed than ours its gloominess may act as a valuable antidote +upon the popular prejudice against being serious. His artistic +profession of faith certainly should save him from wholesale +condemnation. He says in one of his prefaces: "Some people have accused +my tragedy of being too sad, as though one desired a merry tragedy. +People clamor for Enjoyment as though Enjoyment consisted in being +foolish. I find enjoyment in the powerful and terrible struggles of +life; and the capability of experiencing something, of learning +something, gives me pleasure." + +The keynote to his literary productions is the cry of the agony of +being. Every line of his works is written in the shadow of the sorrow of +living. In them, all that is most dismal and terrifying and therefore +most tragical, becomes articulate. They are propelled by an abysmal +pessimism, and because of this fact, since pessimism is one of the +mightiest inspiring forces in literature, August Strindberg, its +foremost spokesman, deserves to be read and understood. + + + + +III + +THE EXALTATION OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE + + +In these embattled times it is perfectly natural to expect from any +discourse on Nietzsche's philosophy first of all a statement concerning +the relation of that troublesome genius to the origins of the war; and +this demand prompts a few candid words on that aspect of the subject at +the start. + +For more than three years the public has been persistently taught by the +press to think of Friedrich Nietzsche mainly as the powerful promoter of +a systematic national movement of the German people for the conquest of +the world. But there is strong and definite internal evidence in the +writings of Nietzsche against the assumption that he intentionally +aroused a spirit of war or aimed in any way at the world-wide +preponderance of Germany's type of civilization. Nietzsche had a +temperamental loathing for everything that is brutal, a loathing which +was greatly intensified by his personal contact with the horrors of war +while serving as a military nurse in the campaign of 1870. If there were +still any one senseless enough to plead the erstwhile popular cause of +Pan-Germanism, he would be likely to find more support for his argument +in the writings of the de-gallicized Frenchman, Count Joseph Arthur +Gobineau, or of the germanized Englishman, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, +than in those of the "hermit of Maria-Sils," who does not even suggest, +let alone advocate, German world-predominance in a single line of all +his writings. To couple Friedrich Nietzsche with Heinrich von Treitschke +as the latter's fellow herald of German ascendancy is truly +preposterous. Treitschke himself was bitterly and irreconcilably set +against the creator of Zarathustra,(14) in whom ever since +"Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen" he had divined "the good European,"--which +to the author of the _Deutsche Geschichte_ meant the bad Prussian, and +by consequence the bad German. + + (14) As is convincingly pointed out in a footnote of J. A. Cramb's + "Germany and England." + +As a consummate individualist and by the same token a cosmopolite to the +full, Nietzsche was the last remove from national, or strictly speaking +even from racial, jingoism. Even the imputation of ordinary patriotic +sentiments would have been resented by him as an insult, for such +sentiments were to him a sure symptom of that gregarious disposition +which was so utterly abhorrent to his feelings. In his German +citizenhood he took no pride whatsoever. On every occasion that offered +he vented in mordant terms his contempt for the country of his birth, +boastfully proclaiming his own derivation from alien stock. He bemoaned +his fate of having to write for Germans; averring that people who drank +beer and smoked pipes were hopelessly incapable of understanding him. Of +this extravagance in denouncing his countrymen the following account by +one of his keenest American interpreters gives a fair idea. "No epithet +was too outrageous, no charge was too farfetched, no manipulation or +interpretation of evidence was too daring to enter into his ferocious +indictment. He accused the Germans of stupidity, superstitiousness, and +silliness; of a chronic weakness of dodging issues, a fatuous +'barn-yard' and 'green-pasture' contentment, of yielding supinely to the +commands and exactions of a clumsy and unintelligent government; of +degrading education to the low level of mere cramming and examination +passing; of a congenital inability to understand and absorb the culture +of other peoples, and particularly the culture of the French; of a +boorish bumptiousness, and an ignorant, ostrichlike complacency; of a +systematic hostility to men of genius, whether in art, science, or +philosophy; of a slavish devotion to the two great European narcotics, +alcohol and Christianity; of a profound beeriness, a spiritual +dyspepsia, a puerile mysticism, an old-womanish pettiness, and an +ineradicable liking for the obscure, evolving, crepuscular, damp, and +shrouded."(15) It certainly requires a violent twist of logic to hold +this catalogue of invectives responsible for the transformation of a +sluggish and indolent bourgeoisie into a "Volk in Waffen" unified by an +indomitable and truculent rapacity. + + (15) H. L. Mencken, "The Mailed Fist and Its Prophet." _Atlantic + Monthly_, November, 1914. + +Neither should Nietzsche's general condemnation of mild and tender +forbearance--on the ground that it blocks the purpose of nature--be +interpreted as a call to universal militancy. By his ruling it is only +supermen that are privileged to carry their will through. But undeniably +he does teach that the world belongs to the strong. They may grab it at +any temporary loss to the common run of humanity and, if need be, with +sanguinary force, since their will is, ulteriorly, identical with the +cosmic purpose. + +Of course this is preaching war of some sort, but Nietzsche was not in +favor of war on ethnic or ethical grounds, like that fanatical +militarist, General von Bernhardi, whom the great mass of his countrymen +in the time before the war would have bluntly rejected as their +spokesman. Anyway, Nietzsche did not mean to encourage Germany to +subjugate the rest of the world. He even deprecated her victory in the +bloody contest of 1870, because he thought that it had brought on a form +of material prosperity of which internal decay and the collapse of +intellectual and spiritual ideals were the unfortunate concomitants. At +the same time, the universal decrepitude prevented the despiser of his +own people from conceiving a decided preference for some other country. +He held that all European nations were progressing in the wrong +direction,--the deadweight of exaggerated and misshapen materialism +dragged them back and down. English life he deemed almost irredeemably +clogged by utilitarianism. Even France, the only modern commonwealth +credited by Nietzsche with an indigenous culture, was governed by what +he stigmatizes as the life philosophy of the shopkeeper. Nietzsche is +destitute of national ideals. In fact he never thinks in terms of +politics. He aims to be "a good European, not a good German." In his +aversion to the extant order of society he never for a moment advocates, +like Rousseau or Tolstoy, a breach with civilization. Cataclysmic +changes through anarchy, revolution, and war were repugnant to his +ideals of culture. For two thousand years the races of Europe had toiled +to humanize themselves, school their character, equip their minds, +refine their tastes. Could any sane reformer have calmly contemplated +the possible engulfment in another Saturnian age of the gains purchased +by that enormous expenditure of human labor? According to Nietzsche's +conviction, the new dispensation could not be entered in a book of blank +pages. A higher civilization could only be reared upon a lower. So it +seems that he is quite wrongly accused of having been an "accessory +before the deed," in any literal or legal sense, to the stupendous +international struggle witnessed to-day. And we may pass on to consider +in what other way he was a vital factor of modern social development. +For whatever we may think of the political value of his teachings, it is +impossible to deny their arousing and inspiriting effect upon the +intellectual, moral, and artistic faculties of his epoch and ours. + + * * * * * + +It should be clearly understood that the significance of Nietzsche for +our age is not to be explained by any weighty discovery in the realm of +knowledge. Nietzsche's merit consists not in any unriddling of the +universe by a metaphysical key to its secrets, but rather in the +diffusion of a new intellectual light elucidating human consciousness in +regard to the purpose and the end of existence. Nietzsche has no +objective truths to teach, indeed he acknowledges no truth other than +subjective. Nor does he put any faith in bare logic, but on the contrary +pronounces it one of mankind's greatest misfortunes. His argumentation +is not sustained and progressive, but desultory, impressionistic, and +freely repetitional; slashing aphorism is its most effective tool. And +so, in the sense of the schools, he is not a philosopher at all; quite +the contrary, an implacable enemy of the _métier_. And yet the formative +and directive influence of his vaticinations, enunciated with tremendous +spiritual heat and lofty gesture, has been very great. His conception of +life has acted upon the generation as a moral intoxicant of truly +incalculable strength. + +Withal his published work, amounting to eighteen volumes, though +flagrantly irrational, yet does contain a perfectly coherent doctrine. +Only, it is a doctrine to whose core mere peripheric groping will never +negotiate the approach. Its essence must be caught by flashlike seizure +and cannot be conveyed except to minds of more than the average +imaginative sensibility. For its central ideas relate to the remotest +ultimates, and its dominant prepossession, the _Overman_, is, in the +final reckoning, the creature of a Utopian fancy. To be more precise, +Nietzsche extorts from the Darwinian theory of selection a set of +amazing connotations by means of the simultaneous shift from the +biological to the poetic sphere of thought and from the averagely +socialized to an uncompromisingly self-centred attitude of mind. This +doubly eccentric position is rendered feasible for him by a whole-souled +indifference to exact science and an intense contempt for the practical +adjustments of life. He is, first and last, an imaginative schemer, +whose visions are engendered by inner exuberance; the propelling power +of his philosophy being an intense temperamental enthusiasm at one and +the same time lyrically sensitive and dramatically impassioned. It is +these qualities of soul that made his utterance ring with the force of a +high moral challenge. All the same, he was not any more original in his +ethics than in his theory of knowledge. In this field also his receptive +mind threw itself wide open to the flow of older influences which it +encountered. The religion of personal advantage had had many a prophet +before Nietzsche. Among the older writers, Machiavelli was its +weightiest champion. In Germany, Nietzsche's immediate predecessor was +"Max Stirner,"(16) and as regards foreign thinkers, Nietzsche declared +as late as 1888 that to no other writer of his own century did he feel +himself so closely allied by the ties of congeniality as to Ralph Waldo +Emerson. + + (16) His real name was Kaspar Schmidt; he lived from 1806-1856. + +The most superficial acquaintance with these writers shows that +Nietzsche is held responsible for certain revolutionary notions of which +he by no means was the originator. Of the connection of his doctrine +with the maxims of "The Prince" and of "The Ego and His Own" (_Der +Einzige und sein Eigentum_)(17) nothing further need be said than that +to them Nietzsche owes, directly or indirectly, the principle of +"non-morality." However, he does not employ the same strictly +intellectual methods. They were logicians rather than moralists, and +their ruler-man is in the main a construction of cold reasoning, while +the ruler-man of Nietzsche is the vision of a genius whose eye looks +down a much longer perspective than is accorded to ordinary mortals. +That a far greater affinity of temper should have existed between +Nietzsche and Emerson than between him and the two classic +non-moralists, must bring surprise to the many who have never recognized +the Concord Sage as an exponent of unfettered individualism. Yet in fact +Emerson goes to such an extreme of individualism that the only thing +that has saved his memory from anathema is that he has not many readers +in his after-times, and these few do not always venture to understand +him. And Emerson, though in a different way from Nietzsche's, was also a +rhapsodist. In his poetry, where he articulates his meaning with far +greater unrestraint than in his prose, we find without any difficulty +full corroboration of his spiritual kinship with Nietzsche. For +instance, where may we turn in the works of the latter for a stronger +statement of the case of Power versus Pity than is contained in "The +World Soul"? + + "He serveth the servant, + The brave he loves amain, + He kills the cripple and the sick, + And straight begins again; + For gods delight in gods, + And thrust the weak aside,-- + To him who scorns their charities + Their arms fly open wide." + +From such a world-view what moral could proceed more logically than that +of Zarathustra: "And him whom ye do not teach to fly, teach--how to fall +quicker"? + + (17) By Machiavelli and Stirner, respectively. + +But after all, the intellectual origin of Nietzsche's ideas matters but +little. Wheresoever they were derived from, he made them strikingly his +own by raising them to the splendid elevation of his thought. And if +nevertheless he has failed to take high rank and standing among the +sages of the schools, this shortage in his professional prestige is more +than counterbalanced by the wide reach of his influence among the laity. +What might the re-classification, or perchance even the +re-interpretation, of known facts about life have signified beside +Nietzsche's lofty apprehension of the sacredness of life itself? For +whatever may be the social menace of his reasoning, his commanding +proclamation to an expectant age of the doctrine that Progress means +infinite growth towards ideals of perfection has resulted in a singular +reanimation of the individual sense of dignity, served as a potent +remedy of social dry-rot, and furthered our gradual emergence from the +impenetrable darkness of ancestral traditions. + +In seeking an adequate explanation of his power over modern minds we +readily surmise that his philosophy draws much of its vitality from the +system of science that underlies it. And yet while it is true enough +that Nietzsche's fundamental thesis is an offshoot of the Darwinian +theory, the violent individualism which is the driving principle of his +entire philosophy is rather opposed to the general orientation of +Darwinism, since that is social. Not to the author of the "Descent of +Man" directly is the modern ethical glorification of egoism indebted for +its measure of scientific sanction, but to one of his heterodox +disciples, namely to the bio-philosopher W. H. Rolph, who in a volume +named "Biologic Problems," with the subtitle, "An Essay in Rational +Ethics,"(18) deals definitely with the problem of evolution in its +dynamical bearings. The question is raised, Why do the extant types of +life ascend toward higher goals, and, on reaching them, progress toward +still higher goals, to the end of time? Under the reason as explained by +Darwin, should not evolution stop at a definite stage, namely, when the +object of the competitive struggle for existence has been fully +attained? Self-preservation naturally ceases to act as an incentive to +further progress, so soon as the weaker contestants are beaten off the +field and the survival of the fittest is abundantly secured. From there +on we have to look farther for an adequate causation of the ascent of +species. Unless we assume the existence of an absolutistic teleological +tendency to perfection, we are logically bound to connect upward +development with favorable external conditions. By substituting for the +Darwinian "struggle for existence" a new formula: "struggle for +surplus," Rolph advances a new fruitful hypothesis. In all creatures the +acquisitive cravings exceed the limit of actual necessity. Under +Darwin's interpretation of nature, the struggle between individuals of +the same species would give way to pacific equilibrium as soon as the +bare subsistence were no longer in question. Yet we know that the +struggle is unending. The creature appetites are not appeased by a +normal sufficiency; on the contrary, "_l'appetit vient en mangeant_"; +the possessive instinct, if not quite insatiable, is at least +coextensive with its opportunities for gratification. Whether or not it +be true--as Carlyle claims--that, after all, the fundamental question +between any two human beings is, "Can I kill thee, or canst thou kill +me?"--at any rate in civilized human society the contest is not waged +merely for the naked existence, but mainly for life's increments in the +form of comforts, pleasures, luxuries, and the accumulation of power and +influence; and the excess of acquisition over immediate need goes as a +residuum into the structure of civilization. In plain words, then, +social progress is pushed on by individual greed and ambition. At this +point Rolph rests the case, without entering into the moral implicates +of the subject, which would seem to obtrude themselves upon the +attention. + + (18) _Biologische Probleme, zugleich als Versuch einer rationellen + Ethik._ Leipzig, 1882. + +Now to a believer in progressive evolution with a strong ethical bent +such a theory brings home man's ulterior responsibility for the +betterment of life, and therefore acts as a call to his supreme duty of +preparing the ground for the arrival of a higher order of beings. The +argument seems simple and clinching. Living nature through a long file +of species and genera has at last worked up to the _homo sapiens_ who as +yet does not even approach the perfection of his own type. Is it a +legitimate ambition of the race to mark time on the stand which it has +reached and to entrench itself impregnably in its present mediocrity? +Nietzsche did not shrink from any of the inferential conclusions +logically to be drawn from the biologic argument. If growth is in the +purpose of nature, then once we have accepted our chief office in life, +it becomes our task to pave the way for a higher genus of man. And the +only force that makes with directness for that object is the Will to +Power. To foreshadow the resultant human type, Nietzsche resurrected +from Goethe's vocabulary the convenient word _Übermensch_--"Overman." + + * * * * * + +Any one regarding existence in the light of a stern and perpetual combat +is of necessity driven at last to the alternative between making the +best of life and making an end of it; he must either seek lasting +deliverance from the evil of living or endeavor to wrest from the world +by any means at his command the greatest sum of its gratifications. It +is serviceable to describe the two frames of mind respectively as the +optimistic and the pessimistic. But it would perhaps be hasty to +conclude that the first of these attitudes necessarily betokens the +greater strength of character. + +Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy sprang from pessimism, yet issued in an +optimism of unheard-of exaltation; carrying, however, to the end its +plainly visible birthmarks. He started out as an enthusiastic disciple +of Arthur Schopenhauer; unquestionably the adherence was fixed by his +own deep-seated contempt for the complacency of the plebs. But he was +bound soon to part company with the grandmaster of pessimism, because he +discovered the root of the philosophy of renunciation in that same +detestable debility of the will which he deemed responsible for the +bovine lassitude of the masses; both pessimism and philistinism came +from a lack of vitality, and were symptoms of racial degeneracy. But +before Nietzsche finally rejected Schopenhauer and gave his shocking +counterblast to the undermining action of pessimism, he succumbed +temporarily to the spell of another gigantic personality. We are not +concerned with Richard Wagner's musical influence upon Nietzsche, who +was himself a musician of no mean ability; what is to the point here is +the prime principle of Wagner's art theory. The key to the Wagnerian +theory is found, also, in Schopenhauer's philosophy. Wagner starts from +the pessimistic thesis that at the bottom of the well of life lies +nothing but suffering,--hence living is utterly undesirable. In one of +his letters to Franz Liszt he names as the duplex root of his creative +genius the longing for love and the yearning for death. On another +occasion, he confesses his own emotional nihilism in the following +summary of _Tristan und Isolde_: "_Sehnsucht, Sehnsucht, unstillbares, +ewig neu sich gebärendes Verlangen--Schmachten und Dursten; einzige +Erlösung: Tod, Sterben, Untergehen,--Nichtmehrerwachen._"(19) But from +the boundless ocean of sorrow there is a refuge. It was Wagner's +fundamental dogma that through the illusions of art the individual is +enabled to rise above the hopelessness of the realities into a new +cosmos replete with supreme satisfactions. Man's mundane salvation +therefore depends upon the ministrations of art and his own artistic +sensitiveness. The glorification of genius is a natural corollary of +such a belief. + + (19) "Longing, longing, unquenchable desire, reproducing itself + forever anew--thirst and drought; sole deliverance: death, + dissolution, extinction,--and no awaking." + +Nietzsche in one of his earliest works examines Wagner's theory and +amplifies it by a rather casuistic interpretation of the evolution of +art. After raising the question, How did the Greeks contrive to dignify +and ennoble their national existence? he points, by way of an +illustrative answer, not perchance to the Periclean era, but to a far +more primitive epoch of Hellenic culture, when a total oblivion of the +actual world and a transport into the realm of imagination was +universally possible. He explains the trance as the effect of +intoxication,--primarily in the current literal sense of the word. Such +was the significance of the cult of Dionysos. "Through singing and +dancing," claims Nietzsche, "man manifests himself as member of a higher +community. Walking and talking he has unlearned, and is in a fair way to +dance up into the air." That this supposititious Dionysiac phase of +Hellenic culture was in turn succeeded by more rational stages, in which +the impulsive flow of life was curbed and dammed in by operations of the +intellect, is not permitted by Nietzsche to invalidate the argument. By +his arbitrary reading of ancient history he was, at first, disposed to +look to the forthcoming _Universal-Kunstwerk_(20) as the complete +expression of a new religious spirit and as the adequate lever of a +general uplift of mankind to a state of bliss. But the typical disparity +between Wagner and Nietzsche was bound to alienate them. Wagner, despite +all appearance to the contrary, is inherently democratic in his +convictions,--his earlier political vicissitudes amply confirm this +view,--and fastens his hope for the elevation of humanity through art +upon the sort of genius in whom latent popular forces might combine to a +new summit. Nietzsche on the other hand represents the extreme +aristocratic type, both in respect of thought and of sentiment. "I do +not wish to be confounded with and mistaken for these preachers of +equality," says he. "For within _me_ justice saith: men are not equal." +His ideal is a hero of coercive personality, dwelling aloft in solitude, +despotically bending the gregarious instincts of the common crowd to his +own higher purposes by the dominating force of his Will to Might. + + (20) Work of all arts. + +The concept of the Overman rests, as has been shown, upon a fairly solid +substructure of plausibility, since at the bottom of the author's +reasoning lies the notion that mankind is destined to outgrow its +current status; the thought of a humanity risen to new and wondrous +heights of power over nature is not necessarily unscientific for being +supremely imaginative. The Overman, however, cannot be produced ready +made, by any instantaneous process; he must be slowly and persistently +willed into being, through love of the new ideal which he is to embody: +"All great Love," speaketh Zarathustra, "seeketh to create what it +loveth. _Myself_ I sacrifice into my love, and _my neighbor_ as myself, +thus runneth the speech of all creators." Only the fixed conjoint +purpose of many generations of aspiring men will be able to create the +Overman. "Could you create a God?--Then be silent concerning all gods! +But ye could very well create Beyond-man. Not yourselves perhaps, my +brethren! But ye could create yourselves into fathers and fore-fathers +of Beyond-man; and let this be your best creating. But all creators are +hard." + +Nietzsche's startlingly heterodox code of ethics coheres organically +with the Overman hypothesis, and so understood is certain to lose some +of its aspect of absurdity. The racial will, as we have seen, must be +taught to aim at the Overman. But the volitional faculty of the +generation, according to Nietzsche, is so debilitated as to be utterly +inadequate to its office. Hence, advisedly to stimulate and strengthen +the enfeebled will power of his fellow men is the most imperative and +immediate task of the radical reformer. Once the power of willing, as +such, shall have been,--regardless of the worthiness of its +object,--brought back to active life, it will be feasible to give the +Will to Might a direction towards objects of the highest moral grandeur. + +Unfortunately for the race as a whole, the throng is ineligible for +partnership in the auspicious scheme of co-operative procreation: which +fact necessitates a segregative method of breeding. The Overman can only +be evolved by an ancestry of master-men, who must be secured to the race +by a rigid application of eugenic standards, particularly in the matter +of mating. Of marriage, Nietzsche has this definition: "Marriage, so +call I the will of two to create one who is more than they who created +him." For the bracing of the weakened will-force of the human breed it +is absolutely essential that master-men, the potential progenitors of +the superman, be left unhampered to the impulse of "living themselves +out" (_sich auszuleben_),--an opportunity of which under the regnant +code of morals they are inconsiderately deprived. Since, then, existing +dictates and conventions are a serious hindrance to the requisite +autonomy of the master-man, their abolishment might be well. Yet on the +other hand, it is convenient that the _Vielzuviele_, the +"much-too-many," i. e. the despised generality of people, should +continue to be governed and controlled by strict rules and regulations, +so that the will of the master-folk might the more expeditiously be +wrought. Would it not, then, be an efficacious compromise to keep the +canon of morality in force for the general run, but suspend it for the +special benefit of master-men, prospective or full-fledged? From the +history of the race Nietzsche draws a warrant for the distinction. His +contention is that masters and slaves have never lived up to a single +code of conduct. Have not civilizations risen and fallen according as +they were shaped by this or that class of nations? History also teaches +what disastrous consequences follow the loss of caste. In the case of +the Jewish people, the domineering type or morals gave way to the +servile as a result of the Babylonian captivity. So long as the Jews +were strong, they extolled all manifestations of strength and energy. +The collapse of their own strength turned them into apologists of the +so-called "virtues" of humility, long-suffering, forgiveness,--until, +according to the Judæo-Christian code of ethics, being good came to mean +being weak. So races may justly be classified into masters and slaves, +and history proves that to the strong goes the empire. The ambitions of +a nation are a sure criterion of its worth. + + "I walk through these folk and keep mine eyes open. They have become + _smaller_ and are becoming ever smaller. _And the reason of that is + their doctrine of happiness and virtue._ + + For they are modest even in their virtue; for they are desirous of + ease. But with ease only modest virtue is compatible. + + True, in their fashion they learn how to stride and to stride + forward. That I call their _hobbling_. Thereby they become an + offense unto every one who is in a hurry. + + And many a one strideth on and in doing so looketh backward, with a + stiffened neck. I rejoice to run against the stomachs of such. + + Foot and eyes shall not lie, nor reproach each other for lying. But + there is much lying among small folk. + + Some of them _will_, but most of them _are willed_ merely. Some of + them are genuine, but most of them are bad actors. + + There are unconscious actors among them, and involuntary actors. The + genuine are always rare, especially genuine actors. + + Here is little of man; therefore women try to make themselves manly. + For only he who is enough of a man will save the woman in woman. + + And this hypocrisy I found to be worst among them, that even those + who command feign the virtues of those who serve. + + 'I serve, thou servest, we serve.' Thus the hypocrisy of the rulers + prayeth. And, alas, if the highest lord be merely the highest + servant! + + Alas! the curiosity of mine eye strayed even unto their hypocrisies, + and well I divined all their fly-happiness and their humming round + window panes in the sunshine. + + So much kindness, so much weakness see I. So much justice and + sympathy, so much weakness. + + Round, honest, and kind are they towards each other, as grains of + sand are round, honest, and kind unto grains of sand. + + Modestly to embrace a small happiness--they call 'submission'! And + therewith they modestly look sideways after a new small happiness. + + At bottom they desire plainly one thing most of all: to be hurt by + nobody. Thus they oblige all and do well unto them. + + But this is _cowardice_; although it be called 'virtue.' + + And if once they speak harshly, these small folk,--I hear therein + merely their hoarseness. For every draught of air maketh them + hoarse. + + Prudent are they; their virtues have prudent fingers. But they are + lacking in clenched fists; their fingers know not how to hide + themselves behind fists. + + For them virtue is what maketh modest and tame. Thereby they have + made the wolf a dog and man himself man's best domestic animal. + + 'We put our chair in the midst'--thus saith their simpering unto + me--'exactly as far from dying gladiators as from happy swine.' + + This is mediocrity; although it be called moderation."(21) + + (21) "Thus Spake Zarathustra," pp. 243-245. + +The only law acknowledged by him who would be a master is the bidding of +his own will. He makes short work of every other law. Whatever clogs the +flight of his indomitable ambition must be ruthlessly swept aside. +Obviously, the enactment of this law that would render the individual +supreme and absolute would strike the death-knell for all established +forms and institutions of the social body. But such is quite within +Nietzsche's intention. They are noxious agencies, ingeniously devised +for the enslavement of the will, and the most pernicious among them is +the Christian religion, because of the alleged divine sanction conferred +by it upon subserviency. Christianity would thwart the supreme will of +nature by curbing that lust for domination which the laws of nature as +revealed by science sanction, nay prescribe. Nietzsche's ideas on this +subject are loudly and over-loudly voiced in _Der Antichrist_ ("The +Anti-Christ"), written in September 1888 as the first part of a planned +treatise in four instalments, entitled _Der Wille zur Macht. Versuch +einer Umwertung aller Werte_. ("The Will to Power. An Attempted +Transvaluation of All Values".) + + * * * * * + +The master-man's will, then, is his only law. That is the essence of +_Herrenmoral_. And so the question arises, Whence shall the conscience +of the ruler-man derive its distinctions between the Right and the +Wrong? The arch-iconoclast brusquely stifles this naïve query beforehand +by assuring us that such distinctions in their accepted sense do not +exist for personages of that grander stamp. Heedless of the +time-hallowed concepts that all men share in common, he enjoins +mastermen to take their position uncompromisingly outside the confining +area of conventions, in the moral independence that dwells "beyond good +and evil." Good and Evil are mere denotations, devoid of any real +significance. Right and Wrong are not ideals immutable through the ages, +nor even the same at any time in all states of society. They are vague +and general notions, varying more or less with the practical exigencies +under which they were conceived. What was right for my great-grandfather +is not _ipso facto_ right for myself. Hence, the older and better +established a law, the more inapposite is it apt to be to the living +demands. Why should the ruler-man bow down to outworn statutes or +stultify his self-dependent moral sense before the artificial and +stupidly uniform moral relics of the dead past? Good is whatever +conduces to the increase of my power,--evil is whatever tends to +diminish it! Only the weakling and the hypocrite will disagree. + +Unmistakably this is a straightout application of the "pragmatic" +criterion of truth. Nietzsche's unconfessed and cautious imitators, who +call themselves pragmatists, are not bold enough to follow their own +logic from the cognitive sphere to the moral. They stop short of the +natural conclusion to which their own premises lead. Morality is +necessarily predicated upon specific notions of truth. So if Truth is an +alterable and shifting concept, must not morality likewise be variable? +The pragmatist might just as well come out at once into the broad light +and frankly say: "Laws do not interest me in the abstract, or for the +sake of their general beneficence; they interest me only in so far as +they affect me. Therefore I will make, interpret, and abolish them to +suit myself." + +To Nietzsche the "quest of truth" is a palpable evasion. Truth is merely +a means for the enhancement of my subjective satisfaction. It makes not +a whit of difference whether an opinion or a judgment satisfies this or +that scholastic definition. I call true and good that which furthers my +welfare and intensifies my joy in living; and,--to vindicate my +self-gratification as a form, indeed the highest, of "social +service,"--the desirable thing is that which matters for the improvement +of the human stock and thereby speeds the advent of the Superman. "Oh," +exclaims Zarathustra, "that ye would understand my word: Be sure to do +whatever ye like,--but first of all be such as _can will_! Be sure to +love your neighbor as yourself,--but first of all be such as _love +themselves_,--as love themselves with great love, with contempt. Thus +speaketh Zarathustra, the ungodly." + +By way of throwing some light upon this phase of Nietzsche's moral +philosophy, it may be added that ever since 1876 he was an assiduous +student of Herbert Spencer, with whose theory of social evolution he was +first made acquainted by his friend, Paul Rée, who in two works of his +own, "Psychologic Observations," (1875), and "On the Origin of Moral +Sentiments," (1877), had elaborated upon the Spencerian theory about the +genealogy of morals. + +The best known among all of Nietzsche's works, _Also Sprach Zarathustra_ +("Thus Spake Zarathustra"), is the Magna Charta of the new moral +emancipation. It was composed during a sojourn in southern climes +between 1883 and 1885, during the convalescence from a nervous collapse, +when after a long and critical depression his spirit was recovering its +accustomed resilience. Nietzsche wrote his _magnum opus_ in solitude, in +the mountains and by the sea. His mind always was at its best in +settings of vast proportions, and in this particular work there breathes +an exaltation that has scarcely its equal in the world's literature. +Style and diction in their supreme elation suit the lofty fervor of the +sentiment. From the feelings, as a fact, this great rhapsody flows, and +to the feelings it makes its appeal; its extreme fascination must be +lost upon those who only know how to "listen to reason." The wondrous +plastic beauty of the language, along with the high emotional pitch of +its message, render "Zarathustra" a priceless poetic monument; indeed +its practical effect in chastening and rejuvenating German literary +diction can hardly be overestimated. Its value as a philosophic document +is much slighter. It is not even organized on severely logical lines. On +the contrary, the four component parts are but brilliant variations upon +a single generic theme, each in a different clef, but harmoniously +united by the incremental ecstasy of the movement. The composition is +free from monotony, for down to each separate aphorism every part of it +has its special lyric nuance. The whole purports to convey in the form +of discourse the prophetic message of Zarathustra, the hermit sage, an +idealized self-portrayal of the author. + +In the first book the tone is calm and temperate. Zarathustra exhorts +and instructs his disciples, rails at his adversaries, and discloses his +superiority over them. In the soliloquies and dialogues of the second +book he reveals himself more fully and freely as the Superman. The third +book contains the meditations and rhapsodies of Zarathustra now dwelling +wholly apart from men, his mind solely occupied with thought about the +Eternal Return of the Present. In the fourth book he is found in the +company of a few chosen spirits whom he seeks to imbue with his +perfected doctrine. In this final section of the work the deep lyric +current is already on the ebb; it is largely supplanted by irony, +satire, sarcasm, even buffoonery, all of which are resorted to for the +pitiless excoriation of our type of humanity, deemed decrepit by the +Sage. The author's intention to present in a concluding fifth division +the dying Zarathustra pronouncing his benedictions upon life in the act +of quitting it was not to bear fruit. + +"Zarathustra"--Nietzsche's terrific assault upon the fortifications of +our social structure--is too easily mistaken by facile cavilers for the +ravings of an unsound and desperate mind. To a narrow and superficial +reading, it exhibits itself as a wholesale repudiation of all moral +responsibility and a maniacal attempt to subvert human civilization for +the exclusive benefit of the "glorious blonde brute, rampant with greed +for victory and spoil." Yet those who care to look more deeply will +detect beneath this chimerical contempt of conventional regulations no +want of a highminded philanthropic purpose, provided they have the +vision necessary to comprehend a love of man oriented by such extremely +distant perspectives. At all events they will discover that in this +rebellious propaganda an advancing line of life is firmly traced out. +The indolent and thoughtless may indeed be horrified by the appalling +dangers of the gospel according to Zarathustra. But in reality there is +no great cause for alarm. Society may amply rely upon its agencies, even +in these stupendous times of universal war, for protection from any +disastrous organic dislocations incited by the teachings of Zarathustra, +at least so far as the immediate future is concerned--in which alone +society appears to be interested. Moreover, our apprehensions are +appeased by the sober reflection that by its plain unfeasibleness the +whole supersocial scheme of Nietzsche is reduced to colossal absurdity. +Its limitless audacity defeats any formulation of its "war aims." For +what compels an ambitious imagination to arrest itself at the goal of +the superman? Why should it not run on beyond that first terminal? In +one of Mr. G. K. Chesterton's labored extravaganzas a grotesque sort of +super-overman _in spe_ succeeds in going beyond unreason when he +contrives this lucid self-definition: "I have gone where God has never +dared to go. I am above the silly supermen as they are above mere men. +Where I walk in the Heavens, no man has walked before me, and I am alone +in a garden." It is enough to make one gasp and then perhaps luckily +recall Goethe's consoling thought that under the care of Providence the +trees will not grow into the heavens. ("_Es ist dafür gesorgt, dass die +Bäume nicht in den Himmel wachsen._") As matter of fact, the ideas +promulgated in _Also Sprach Zarathustra_ need inspire no fear of their +winning the human race from its venerable idols, despite the fact that +the pull of natural laws and of elemental appetites seems to be on their +side. The only effect to be expected of such a philosophy is that it +will act as an antidote for moral inertia which inevitably goes with the +flock-instinct and the lazy reliance on the accustomed order of things. + +Nietzsche's ethics are not easy to valuate, since none of their +standards are derived from the orthodox canon. His being a truly +personalized form of morality, his principles are strictly cognate to +his temperament. To his professed ideals there attaches a definite +theory of society. And since his philosophy is consistent in its +sincerity, its message is withheld from the man-in-the-street, deemed +unworthy of notice, and delivered only to the _élite_ that shall beget +the superman. To Nietzsche the good of the greatest number is no valid +consideration. The great stupid mass exists only for the sake of an +oligarchy by whom it is duly exploited under nature's decree that the +strong shall prey upon the weak. Let, then, this favored set further the +design of nature by systematically encouraging the elevation of their +own type. + + * * * * * + +We have sought to dispel the fiction about the shaping influence of +Nietzsche upon the thought and conduct of his nation, and have accounted +for the miscarriage of his ethics by their fantastic impracticability. +Yet it has been shown also that he fostered in an unmistakable fashion +the class-consciousness of the aristocrat, born or self-appointed. To +that extent his influence was certainly malign. Yet doubtless he did +perform a service to our age. The specific nature of this service, +stated in the fewest words, is that to his great divinatory gift are we +indebted for an unprecedented strengthening of our hold upon reality. In +order to make this point clear we have to revert once more to +Nietzsche's transient intellectual relation to pessimism. + +We have seen that the illusionism of Schopenhauer and more particularly +of Wagner exerted a strong attraction on his high-strung artistic +temperament. + +Nevertheless a certain realistic counter-drift to the ultra-romantic +tendency of Wagner's theory caused him in the long run to reject the +faith in the power of Art to save man from evil. Almost abruptly, his +personal affection for the "Master," to whom in his eventual mental +eclipse he still referred tenderly at lucid moments, changed to bitter +hostility. Henceforth he classes the glorification of Art as one of the +three most despicable attitudes of life: Philistinism, Pietism, and +Estheticism, all of which have their origin in _cowardice_, represent +three branches of the ignominious road of escape from the terrors of +living. In three extended diatribes Nietzsche denounces Wagner as the +archetype of modern decadence; the most violent attack of all is +delivered against the point of juncture in which Wagner's art gospel and +the Christian religion culminate: the promise of redemption through +pity. To Nietzsche's way of thinking pity is merely the coward's +acknowledgment of his weakness. For only insomuch as a man is devoid of +fortitude in bearing his own sufferings is he unable to contemplate with +equanimity the sufferings of his fellow creatures. Since religion +enjoins compassion with all forms of human misery, we should make war +upon religion. And for the reason that Wagner's crowning achievement, +his _Parsifal_, is a veritable sublimation of Mercy, there can be no +truce between its creator and the giver of the counsel: "Be hard!" +Perhaps this notorious advice is after all not as ominous as it sounds. +It merely expresses rather abruptly Nietzsche's confidence in the value +of self-control as a means of discipline. If you have learned calmly to +see others suffer, you are yourself able to endure distress with manful +composure. "Therefore I wash the hand which helped the sufferer; +therefore I even wipe my soul." But, unfortunately, such is the frailty +of human nature that it is only one step from indifference about the +sufferings of others to an inclination to exploit them or even to +inflict pain upon one's neighbors for the sake of personal gain of one +sort or another. + + Why so hard? said once the charcoal unto the diamond, are we not + near relations? + + Why so soft? O my brethren, thus I ask you. Are ye not my brethren? + + Why so soft, so unresisting, and yielding? Why is there so much + disavowal and abnegation in your hearts? Why is there so little fate + in your looks? + + And if ye are not willing to be fates, and inexorable, how could ye + conquer with me someday? + + And if your hardness would not glance, and cut, and chip into + pieces--how could ye create with me some day? + + For all creators are hard. And it must seem blessedness unto you to + press your hand upon millenniums as upon wax,-- + + Blessedness to write upon the will of millenniums as upon + brass,--harder than brass, nobler than brass. The noblest only is + perfectly hard. + + This new table, O my brethren, I put over you: Become hard!(22) + + (22) "Thus Spake Zarathustra," p. 399, sec. 29. + +The repudiation of Wagner leaves a tremendous void in Nietzsche's soul +by depriving his enthusiasm of its foremost concrete object. He loses +his faith in idealism. When illusions can bring a man like Wagner to +such an odious outlook upon life, they must be obnoxious in themselves; +and so, after being subjected to pitiless analysis, they are disowned +and turned into ridicule. And now, the pendulum of his zeal having swung +from one emotional extreme to the other, the great rhapsodist finds +himself temporarily destitute of an adequate theme. However, his fervor +does not long remain in abeyance, and soon it is absorbed in a new +object. Great as is the move it is logical enough. Since illusions are +only a hindrance to the fuller grasp of life which behooves all free +spirits, Nietzsche energetically turns from self-deception to its +opposite, self-realization. In this new spiritual endeavor he relies far +more on intuition than on scientific and metaphysical speculation. From +his own stand he is certainly justified in doing this. Experimentation +and ratiocination at the best are apt to disassociate individual +realities from their complex setting and then proceed to palm them off +as illustrations of life, when in truth they are lifeless, artificially +preserved specimens. + + "Encheiresin naturae nennt's die Chemie, + Spottet ihrer selbst und weiss nicht wie."(23) + +Nietzsche's realism, by contrast, goes to the very quick of nature, +grasps all the gifts of life, and from the continuous flood of phenomena +extracts a rich, full-flavored essence. It is from a sense of gratitude +for this boon that he becomes an idolatrous worshiper of experience, +"_der grosse Jasager_,"--the great sayer of Yes,--and the most +stimulating optimist of all ages. To Nietzsche reality is alive as +perhaps never to man before. He plunges down to the very heart of +things, absorbs their vital qualities and meanings, and having himself +learned to draw supreme satisfaction from the most ordinary facts and +events, he makes the common marvelous to others, which, as was said by +James Russell Lowell, is a true test of genius. No wonder that +deification of reality becomes the dominant _motif_ in his philosophy. +But again that onesided aristocratic strain perverts his ethics. To +drain the intoxicating cup at the feast of life, such is the divine +privilege not of the common run of mortals but only of the elect. They +must not let this or that petty and artificial convention, nor yet this +or that moral command or prohibition, restrain them from the exercise of +that higher sense of living, but must fully abandon themselves to its +joys. "Since man came into existence he hath had too little joy. That +alone, my brethren, is our original sin."(24) The "much-too-many" are +doomed to inanity by their lack of appetite at the banquet of life: + + Such folk sit down unto dinner and bring nothing with them, not even + a good hunger. And now they backbite: "All is vanity!" + + But to eat well and drink well, O my brethren, is, verily, no vain + art! Break, break the tables of those who are never joyful!(25) + + (23) Goethe's _Faust_, II, ll. 1940-1. Bayard Taylor translates: + _Encheiresin naturae_, this Chemistry names, nor knows how herself she + banters and blames! + + (24) "Thus Spake Zarathustra," p. 120. + + (25) _Ibid._, p. 296, sec. 13. + +The Will to Live holds man's one chance of this-worldly bliss, and +supersedes any care for the remote felicities of any problematic future +state. Yet the Nietzschean cult of life is not to be understood by any +means as a banal devotion to the pleasurable side of life alone. The +true disciple finds in every event, be it happy or adverse, exalting or +crushing, the factors of supreme spiritual satisfaction: joy and pain +are equally implied in experience, the Will to Live encompasses jointly +the capacity to enjoy and to suffer. It may even be paradoxically said +that since man owes some of his greatest and most beautiful achievements +to sorrow, it must be a joy and a blessing to suffer. The unmistakable +sign of heroism is _amor fati_, a fierce delight in one's destiny, hold +what it may. + +Consequently, the precursor of the superman will be possessed, along +with his great sensibility to pleasure, of a capacious aptitude for +suffering. "Ye would perchance abolish suffering," exclaims Nietzsche, +"and we,--it seems that we would rather have it even greater and worse +than it has ever been. The discipline of suffering,--tragical +suffering,--know ye not that only this discipline has heretofore brought +about every elevation of man?" "Spirit is that life which cutteth into +life. By one's own pain one's own knowledge increaseth;--knew ye that +before? And the happiness of the spirit is this: to be anointed and +consecrated by tears as a sacrificial animal;--knew ye that before?" And +if, then, the tragical pain inherent in life be no argument against +Joyfulness, the zest of living can be obscured by nothing save the fear +of total extinction. To the disciple of Nietzsche, by whom every moment +of his existence is realized as a priceless gift, the thought of his +irrevocable separation from all things is unbearable. "'Was this life?' +I shall say to Death. 'Well, then, once more!'" And--to paraphrase +Nietzsche's own simile--the insatiable witness of the great +tragi-comedy, spectator and participant at once, being loath to leave +the theatre, and eager for a repetition of the performance, shouts his +endless _encore_, praying fervently that in the constant repetition of +the performance not a single detail of the action be omitted. The +yearning for the endlessness not of life at large, not of life on any +terms, but of _this my life_ with its ineffable wealth of rapturous +moments, works up the extreme optimism of Nietzsche to its stupendous _a +priori_ notion of infinity, expressed in the name _die ewige Wiederkehr_ +("Eternal Recurrence"). It is a staggeringly imaginative concept, formed +apart from any evidential grounds, and yet fortified with a fair amount +of logical armament. The universe is imagined as endless in time, +although its material contents are not equally conceived as limitless. +Since, consequently, there must be a limit to the possible variety in +the arrangement and sequence of the sum total of data, even as in the +case of a kaleidoscope, the possibility of variegations is not infinite. +The particular co-ordination of things in the universe, say at this +particular moment, is bound to recur again and again in the passing of +the eons. But under the nexus of cause and effect the resurgence of the +past from the ocean of time is not accidental nor is the configuration +of things haphazard, as is true in the case of the kaleidoscope; rather, +history, in the most inclusive acceptation of the term, is predestined +to repeat itself; this happens through the perpetual progressive +resurrection of its particles. It is then to be assumed that any aspect +which the world has ever presented must have existed innumerable +millions of times before, and must recur with eternal periodicity. That +the deterministic strain in this tremendous _Vorstellung_ of a cyclic +rhythm throbbing in the universe entangles its author's fanatical belief +in evolution in a rather serious self-contradiction, does not detract +from its spiritual lure, nor from its wide suggestiveness, however +incapable it may be of scientific demonstration. + +From unfathomed depths of feeling wells up the pæan of the prophet of +the life intense. + + O Mensch! Gib Acht! + Was spricht die tiefe Mitternacht? + Ich schlief, ich schlief--, + Aus tiefem Traum bin ich erwacht:-- + Die Welt ist tief, + Und tiefer als der Tag gedacht. + Tief ist ihr Weh--, + Lust--tiefer noch als Herzeleid: + Weh spricht: Vergeh! + Doch alle Lust will Ewigkeit-- + Will tiefe, tiefe Ewigkeit!(26) + + (26) + + O man! Lose not sight! + What saith the deep midnight? + "I lay in sleep, in sleep; + From deep dream I woke to light. + The world is deep, + And deeper than ever day though! it might. + Deep is its woe,-- + And deeper still than woe--delight." + Saith woe: "Pass, go! + Eternity's sought by all delight,-- + Eternity deep--by all delight. + + "Thus Spake Zarathustra," The Drunken Song, p. 174.--The translation + but faintly suggests the poetic appeal of the original. + +A timid heart may indeed recoil from the iron necessity of reliving _ad +infinitum_ its woeful terrestrial fate. But the prospect can hold no +terror for the heroic soul by whose fiat all items of experience have +assumed important meanings and values. He who has cast in his lot with +Destiny in spontaneous submission to all its designs, cannot but revere +and cherish his own fate as an integral part of the grand unalterable +fatality of things. + + * * * * * + +If this crude presentment of Friedrich Nietzsche's doctrine has not +entirely failed of its purpose, the _leitmotifs_ of that doctrine will +have been readily referred by the reader to their origin; they can be +subsumed under that temperamental category which is more or less +accurately defined as the _romantic_. Glorification of violent +passion,--quest of innermost mysteries,--boundless expansion of +self-consciousness,--visions of a future of transcendent magnificence, +and notwithstanding an ardent worship of reality a quixotically +impracticable detachment from the concrete basis of civic life,--these +outstanding characteristics of the Nietzschean philosophy give +unmistakable proof of a central, driving, romantic inspiration: +Nietzsche shifts the essence and principle of being to a new center of +gravity, by substituting the Future for the Present and relying on the +untrammeled expansion of spontaneous forces which upon closer +examination are found to be without definite aim or practical goal. + +For this reason, critically to animadvert upon Nietzsche as a social +reformer would be utterly out of place; he is simply too much of a poet +to be taken seriously as a statesman or politician. The weakness of his +philosophy before the forum of Logic has been referred to before. +Nothing can be easier than to prove the incompatibility of some of his +theorems. How, for instance, can the absolute determinism of the belief +in Cyclic Recurrence be reconciled with the power vested in superman to +deflect by his autonomous will the straight course of history? Or, to +touch upon a more practical social aspect of his teaching,--if in the +order of nature all men are unequal, how can we ever bring about the +right selection of leaders, how indeed can we expect to secure the due +ascendancy of character and intellect over the gregarious grossness of +the demos? + +Again, it is easy enough to controvert Nietzsche almost at any pass by +demonstrating his unphilosophic onesidedness. Were Nietzsche not +stubbornly onesided, he would surely have conceded--as any sane-minded +person must concede in these times of suffering and sacrifice--that +charity, self-abnegation, and self-immolation might be viewed, not as +conclusive proofs of degeneracy, but on the contrary as signs of growth +towards perfection. Besides, philosophers of the _métier_ are sure to +object to the haziness of Nietzsche's idea of Vitality which in truth is +oriented, as is his philosophy in general, less by thought than by +sentiment. + +Notwithstanding his obvious connection with significant contemporaneous +currents, the author of "Zarathustra" is altogether too much _sui +generis_ to be amenable to any crude and rigid classification. He may +plausibly be labelled an anarchist, yet no definition of anarchism will +wholly take him in. Anarchism stands for the demolition of the extant +social apparatus of restraint. Its battle is for the free determination +of personal happiness. Nietzsche's prime concern, contrarily, is with +internal self-liberation from the obsessive desire for personal +happiness in any accepted connotation of the term; such happiness to him +does not constitute the chief object of life. + +The cardinal point of Nietzsche's doctrine is missed by those who, +arguing retrospectively, expound the gist of his philosophy as an +incitation to barbarism. Nothing can be more remote from his intentions +than the transformation of society into a horde of ferocious brutes. His +impeachment of mercy, notwithstanding an appearance of reckless impiety, +is in the last analysis no more and no less than an expedient in the +truly romantic pursuit of a new ideal of Love. Compassion, in his +opinion, hampers the progress towards forms of living that shall be +pregnant with a new and superior type of perfection. And in justice to +Nietzsche it should be borne in mind that among the various +manifestations of that human failing there is none he scorns so deeply +as cowardly and petty commiseration of self. It also deserves to be +emphasized that he nowhere endorses selfishness when exercised for small +or sordid objects. "I love the brave. But it is not enough to be a +swordsman, one must also know against whom to use the sword. And often +there is more bravery in one's keeping quiet and going past, in order to +spare one's self for a worthier enemy: Ye shall have only enemies who +are to be hated, but not enemies who are to be despised."(27) Despotism +must justify itself by great and worthy ends. And no man must be +permitted to be hard towards others who lacks the strength of being even +harder towards himself. + + (27) "Thus Spake Zarathustra," p. 304. + +At all events it must serve a better purpose to appraise the practical +importance of Nietzsche's speculations than blankly to denounce their +immoralism. Nietzsche, it has to be repeated, was not on the whole a +creator of new ideas. His extraordinary influence in the recent past is +not due to any supreme originality or fertility of mind; it is +predominantly due to his eagle-winged imagination. In him the emotional +urge of utterance was, accordingly, incomparably more potent than the +purely intellectual force of opinion: in fact the texture of his +philosophy is woven of sensations rather than of ideas, hence its +decidedly ethical trend. + +The latent value of Nietzsche's ethics in their application to specific +social problems it would be extremely difficult to determine. Their +successful application to general world problems, if it were possible, +would mean the ruin of the only form of civilization that signifies to +us. His philosophy, if swallowed in the whole, poisons; in large +potations, intoxicates; but in reasonable doses, strengthens and +stimulates. Such danger as it harbors has no relation to grossness. His +call to the Joy of Living and Doing is no encouragement of vulgar +hedonism, but a challenge to persevering effort. He urges the supreme +importance of vigor of body and mind and force of will. "O my brethren, +I consecrate you to be, and show unto you the way unto a new nobility. +Ye shall become procreators and breeders and sowers of the future.--Not +whence ye come be your honor in future, but whither ye go! Your will, +and your foot that longeth to get beyond yourselves, be that your new +honor!"(28) + + (28) "Thus Spake Zarathustra," p. 294. + +It would be a withering mistake to advocate the translation of +Nietzsche's poetic dreams into the prose of reality. Unquestionably his +Utopia if it were to be carried into practice would doom to utter +extinction the world it is devised to regenerate. But it is generally +acknowledged that "prophets have a right to be unreasonable," and so, if +we would square ourselves with Friedrich Nietzsche in a spirit of +fairness, we ought not to forget that the daring champion of reckless +unrestraint is likewise the inspired apostle of action, power, +enthusiasm, and aspiration, in fine, a prophet of Vitality and a +messenger of Hope. + + + + +IV + +THE REVIVALISM OF LEO TOLSTOY + + +In the intellectual record of our times it is one of the oddest events +that the most impressive preacher who has taken the ear of civilized +mankind in this generation raised up his voice in a region which in +respect of its political, religious, and economic status was until +recently, by fairly common consent, ruled off the map of Europe. The +greatest humanitarian of his century sprang up in a land chiefly +characterized in the general judgment of the outside world by the +reactionism of its government and the stolid ignorance of its populace. +A country still teeming with analphabeticians and proverbial for its +dense medievalism gave to the world a writer who by the great quality of +his art and the lofty spiritualism of his teaching was able not only to +obtain a wide hearing throughout all civilized countries, but to become +a distinct factor in the moral evolution of the age. The stupefying +events that have recently revolutionized the Russian state have given +the world an inkling of the secrets of the Slavic type of temperament, +so mystifying in its commixture of simplicity and strength on the one +hand with grossness and stupidity, and on the other hand with the +highest spirituality and idealism. For such people as in these +infuriated times still keep up some objective and judicious interest in +products of the literary art, the volcanic upheaval in the social life +of Russia has probably thrown some of Tolstoy's less palpable figures +into a greater plastic relief. Tolstoy's own character, too, has become +more tangible in its curious composition. The close analogy between his +personal theories and the dominant impulses of his race has now been +made patent. We are better able to understand the people of whom he +wrote because we have come to know better the people for whom he wrote. + +The emphasis of Tolstoy's popular appeal was unquestionably enhanced by +certain eccentricities of his doctrine, and still more by his +picturesque efforts to conform his mode of life, by way of necessary +example, to his professed theory of social elevation. The personality of +Tolstoy, like the character of the Russian people, is many-sided, and +since its aspects are not marked off by convenient lines of division, +but are, rather, commingled in the great and varied mass of his literary +achievements, it is not easy to make a definitive forecast of his +historic position. Tentatively, however, the current critical estimate +may be summed up in this: as a creative writer, in particular of novels +and short stories, he stood matchless among the realists, and the +verdict pronounced at one time by William Dean Howells when he referred +to Tolstoy as "the only living writer of perfect fiction" is not likely +to be overruled by posterity. Nor will competent judges gainsay his +supreme importance as a critic and moral revivalist of society, even +though they may be seriously disposed to question whether his principles +of conduct constitute in their aggregate a canon of much practical worth +for the needs of the western world. As a philosopher or an original +thinker, however, he will hardly maintain the place accorded him by the +less discerning among his multitudinous followers, for in his persistent +attempt to find a new way of understanding life he must be said to have +signally failed. Wisdom in him was hampered by Utopian fancies; his +dogmas derive from idiosyncrasies and lead into absurdities. Then, too, +most of his tenets are easily traced to their sources: in his vagaries +as well as in his noblest and soundest aspirations he was merely +continuing work which others had prepared. + + * * * * * + +An objective survey of Tolstoy's work in realistic fiction, in which he +ranked supreme, should start with the admission that he was by no means +the first arrival among the Russians in that field. Nicholas Gogol, +Fedor Dostoievsky, and Ivan Turgenieff had the priority by a small +margin. Of these three powerful novelists, Dostoievsky (1821-1881) has +probably had an even stronger influence upon modern letters than has +Tolstoy himself. He was one of the earliest writers of romance to show +the younger generation how to found fiction upon deeper psychologic +knowledge. His greatest proficiency lay, as is apt to be the case with +writers of a realistic bent, in dealing with the darkest side of life. +The wretched and outcast portion of humanity yielded to his skill its +most congenial material. His novels--"Poor Folk," (1846), "Memoirs from +a Dead House," (1862), "Raskolnikoff," (1866), "The Idiot," (1868), "The +Karamasoffs," (1879)--take the reader into company such as had +heretofore not gained open entrance to polite literature: criminals, +defectives, paupers, and prostitutes. Yet he did not dwell upon the +wretchedness of that submerged section of humanity from any perverse +delight in what is hideous or for the satisfaction of readers afflicted +with morbid curiosity, but from a compelling sense of pity and brotherly +love. His works are an appeal to charity. In them, the imperdible grace +of the soul shines through the ugliest outward disguise to win a glance +from the habitual indifference of fortune's _enfants gâtés_. Dostoievsky +preceded Tolstoy in frankly enlisting his talents in the service of his +outcast brethren. With the same ideal of the writer's mission held in +steady view, Tolstoy turned his attention from the start, and then more +and more as his work advanced, to the pitiable condition of the lower +orders of society. It must not be forgotten in this connection that his +career was synchronous with the growth of a social revolution which, +having reached its full force in these days, is making Russia over for +better or for worse, and whose wellsprings Tolstoy helps us to fathom. + + * * * * * + +For the general grouping of his writings it is convenient to follow +Tolstoy's own division of his life. His dreamy poetical childhood was +succeeded by three clearly distinct stages: first, a score of years +filled up with self-indulgent worldliness; next, a nearly equal length +of time devoted to artistic ambition, earnest meditation, and helpful +social work; last, by a more gradual transition, the ascetic period, +covering a long stretch of years given up to religious illumination and +to the strenuous advocacy of the Simple Life. + +The remarkable spiritual evolution of this great man was apparently +governed far more by inborn tendencies than by the workings of +experience. Of Tolstoy in his childhood, youth, middle age, and +senescence we gain trustworthy impressions from numerous +autobiographical documents, but here we shall have to forego anything +more than a passing reference to the essential facts of his career. He +was descended from an aristocratic family of German stock but domiciled +in Russia since the fourteenth century. The year of his birth was 1828, +the same as Ibsen's. In youth he was bashful, eccentric, and amazingly +ill-favored. The last-named of these handicaps he outgrew but late in +life, still later did he get over his bashfulness, and his eccentricity +never left him. His penchant for the infraction of custom nearly put a +premature stop to his career when in his urchin days he once threw +himself from a window in an improvised experiment in aerial navigation. +At the age of fourteen he was much taken up with subtile speculations +about the most ancient and vexing of human problems: the future life, +and the immortality of the soul. Entering the university at fifteen, he +devoted himself in the beginning to the study of oriental languages, but +later on his interest shifted to the law. At sixteen he was already +imbued with the doctrines of Jean Jacques Rousseau that were to play +such an important rôle in guiding his conduct. In 1846 he passed out of +the university without a degree, carrying away nothing but a lasting +regret over his wasted time. He went directly to his ancestral estates, +with the idealistic intention to make the most of the opportunity +afforded him by the patriarchal relationship that existed in Russia +between the landholder and the _adscripti glebae_ and to improve the +condition of his seven hundred dependents. His efforts, however, were +foredoomed to failure, partly through his lack of experience, partly +also through a certain want of sincerity or tenacity of purpose. The +experiment in social education having abruptly come to its end, the +disillusionized reformer threw himself headlong into the diversions and +dissipations of the capital city. In his "Confession" he refers to that +chapter of his existence as made up wholly of sensuality and +worldliness. He was inordinately proud of his noble birth,--at college +his inchoate apostleship of the universal brotherhood of man did not +shield him from a general dislike on account of his arrogance,--and he +cultivated the most exclusive social circles of Moscow. He freely +indulged the love of sports that was to cling through life and keep him +strong and supple even in very old age. (Up to a short time before his +death he still rode horseback and perhaps none of the renunciations +exacted by his principles came so hard as that of giving up his favorite +pastime of hunting.) But he also fell into the evil ways of gilded +youth, soon achieving notoriety as a toper, gambler, and _courreur des +femmes_. After a while his brother, who was a person of steadier habits +and who had great influence over him, persuaded him to quit his +profligate mode of living and to join him at his military post. Under +the bracing effect of the change, the young man's moral energies quickly +revived. In the wilds of the Caucasus he at once grew freer and cleaner; +his deep affection for the half-civilized land endeared him both to the +Cossack natives and the Russian soldiers. He entered the army at +twenty-three, and from November, 1853, up to the fall of Sebastopol in +the summer of 1855, served in the Crimean campaign. He entered the +famous fortress in November, 1854, and was among the last of its +defenders. The indelible impressions made upon his mind by the heroism +of his comrades, the awful scenes and the appalling suffering he had to +witness, were responsible then and later for descriptions as harrowing +and as stirring as any that the war literature of our own day has +produced. + +In the Crimea he made his début as a writer. Among the tales of his +martial period the most popular and perhaps the most excellent is the +one called "The Cossacks." Turgenieff pronounced it the best short story +ever written in Russian, and it is surely no undue exaggeration to say +of Tolstoy's novelettes in general that in point of technical mastery +they are unsurpassed. + +Sick at heart over the unending bloodshed in the Caucasus the young +officer made his way back to Petrograd, and here, lionized in the salons +doubly, fur his feats at arms and in letters, he seems to have returned, +within more temperate limits, to his former style of living. At any +rate, in his own judgment the ensuing three years were utterly wasted. +The mental inanity and moral corruption all about him swelled his sense +of superiority and self-righteousness. The glaring humbug and hypocrisy +that permeated his social environment was, however, more than he could +long endure. + +Having resigned his officer's commission he went abroad in 1857, to +Switzerland, Germany, and France. The studies and observations made in +these travels sealed his resolution to settle down for good on his +domain and to consecrate his life to the welfare of his peasants. But a +survey of the situation found upon his return made him realize that +nothing could be done for the "muzhik" without systematic education: +therefore, in order to prepare himself for efficacious work as a +teacher, he spent some further time abroad for special study, in 1859. +After that, the educational labor was taken up in full earnest. The lord +of the land became the schoolmaster of his subjects, reenforcing the +effect of _viva voce_ teaching by means of a periodical published +expressly for their moral uplift. This work he continued for about three +years, his hopes of success now rising, now falling, when in a fit of +despondency he again abandoned his philanthropic efforts. About this +time, 1862, he married Sophia Andreyevna Behrs, the daughter of a Moscow +physician. With characteristic honesty he forced his private diary on +his fiancée, who was only eighteen, so that she might know the full +truth about his pre-conjugal course of living. + +About the Countess Tolstoy much has been said in praise and blame. Let +her record speak for itself. Of her union with the great novelist +thirteen children were born, of whom nine reached an adult age. The +mother nursed and tended them all, with her own hands made their +clothes, and until they grew to the age of ten supplied to them the +place of a schoolmistress. It must not be inferred from this that her +horizon did not extend beyond nursery and kitchen, for during the +earlier years she acted also as her husband's invaluable amanuensis. +Before the days of the typewriter his voluminous manuscripts were all +copied by her hand, and recopied and revised--in the case of "War and +Peace" this happened no less than seven times, and the novel runs to +sixteen hundred close-printed pages!--and under her supervision his +numerous works were not only printed but also published and circulated. +Moreover, she managed his properties, landed, personal, and literary, to +the incalculable advantage of the family fortune. This end, to be sure, +she accomplished by conservative and reliable methods of business; for +while of his literary genius she was the greatest admirer, she never was +in full accord with his communistic notions. And the highest proof of +all her extraordinary _Tüchtigkeit_ and devotion is that by her common +sense and tact she was enabled to function for a lifetime as a sort of +buffer between her husband's world-removed dreamland existence and the +rigid and frigid reality of facts. + +Thus Tolstoy's energies were left to go undivided into literary +production; its amount, as a result, was enormous. If all his writings +were to be collected, including the unpublished manuscripts now reposing +in the Rumyantzoff Museum, which are said to be about equal in quantity +to the published works, and if to this collection were added his +innumerable letters, most of which are of very great interest, the +complete set of Tolstoy's works would run to considerably more than one +hundred volumes. To discuss all of Tolstoy's writings, or even to +mention all, is here quite out of the question. All those, however, that +seem vital for the purpose of a just estimate and characterization will +be touched upon. + + * * * * * + +The literary fame of Tolstoy was abundantly secured already in the +earlier part of his life by his numerous short stories and sketches. The +three remarkable pen pictures of the siege of Sebastopol, and tales such +as "The Cossacks," "Two Hussars," "Polikushka," "The Snow-Storm," "The +Encounter," "The Invasion," "The Captive in the Caucasus," "Lucerne," +"Albert," and many others, revealed together with an exceptional depth +of insight an extraordinary plastic ability and skill of motivation; in +fact they deserve to be set as permanent examples before the eyes of +every aspiring author. In their characters and their setting they +present true and racy pictures of a portentous epoch, intimate studies +of the human soul that are full of charm and fascination, +notwithstanding their tragic sadness of outlook. Manifestly this author +was a prose poet of such marvelous power that he could abstain +consistently from the use of sweeping color, overwrought sentiment, and +high rhetorical invective. + +At this season Tolstoy, while he refrained from following any of the +approved literary models, was paying much attention to the artistic +refinement of his style. There was to be a time when he would abjure all +considerations of artistry on the ground that by them the ethical issue +in a narration is beclouded. But it would be truer to say conversely +that in his own later works, since "Anna Karenina," the clarity of the +artistic design was dimmed by the obtrusive didactic purpose. +Fortunately the artistic interest was not yet wholly subordinated to the +religious urge while the three great novels were in course of +composition: "War and Peace," (1864-69), "Anna Karenina," (first part, +1873; published complete in 1877), and "Resurrection," (1899). To the +first of these is usually accorded the highest place among all of +Tolstoy's works; it is by this work that he takes his position as the +chief epic poet of modern times. "War and Peace" is indeed an epic +rather than a novel in the ordinary meaning. Playing against the +background of tremendous historical transactions, the narrative sustains +the epic character not only in the hugeness of its dimensions, but +equally in the qualities of its technique. There is very little comment +by the author upon the events, and merely a touch of subjective irony +here and there. The story is straightforwardly told as it was lived out +by its characters. Tolstoy has not the self-complacency to thrust in the +odds and ends of his personal philosophy, as is done so annoyingly even +by a writer of George Meredith's consequence, nor does he ever treat his +readers with the almost simian impertinence so successfully affected by +a Bernard Shaw. If "War and Peace" has any faults, they are the faults +of its virtues, and spring mainly from an unmeasured prodigality of the +creative gift. As a result of Tolstoy's excessive range of vision, the +orderly progress of events in that great novel is broken up somewhat by +the profusion of shapes that monopolize the attention one at a time much +as individual spots in a landscape do under the sweeping glare of the +search-light. Yet although in the externalization of this crowding +multitude of figures no necessary detail is lacking, the grand movement +as a whole is not swamped by the details. The entire story is governed +by the conception of events as an emanation of the cosmic will, not +merely as the consequence of impulses proceeding from a few puissant +geniuses of the Napoleonic order. + +It is quite in accord with such a view of history that the machinery of +this voluminous epopee is not set in motion by a single conspicuous +protagonist. As a matter of fact, it is somewhat baffling to try to name +the principals in the story, since in artistic importance all the +figures are on an equal footing before their maker; possibly the fact +that Tolstoy's ethical theory embodied the most persistent protest ever +raised against the inequality of social estates proved not insignificant +for his manner of characterization. Ethical justice, however, is carried +to an artistic fault, for the feelings and reactions of human nature in +so many diverse individuals lead to an intricacy and subtlety of +motivation which obscures the organic causes through overzeal in making +them patent. Anyway, Tolstoy authenticates himself in this novel as a +past master of realism, particularly in his utterly convincing +depictment of Russian soldier life. And as a painter of the battlefield +he ranks, allowing for the difference of the medium, with Vasili +Verestschagin at his best. It may be said in passing that these two +Russian pacifists, by their gruesome exposition of the horrors of war, +aroused more sentiment against warfare than did all the spectacular and +expensive peace conferences inaugurated by the crowned but hollow head +of their nation, and the splendid declamations of the possessors of, or +aspirants for, the late Mr. Nobel's forty-thousand dollar prize. + +Like all true realists, Tolstoy took great pains to inform himself even +about the minutiæ of his subjects, but he never failed, as did in large +measure Zola in _La Débâcle_, to infuse emotional meaning into the +static monotony of facts and figures. In his strong attachment for his +own human creatures he is more nearly akin to the idealizing or +sentimentalizing type of realists, like Daudet, Kipling, Hauptmann, than +to the downright matter-of-fact naturalists such as Zola or Gorki. But +to classify him at all would be wrong and futile, since he was never +leagued with literary creeds and cliques and always stood aloof from the +heated theoretical controversies of his time even after he had hurled +his great inclusive challenge to art. + +"War and Peace" was written in Tolstoy's happiest epoch, at a time, +comparatively speaking, of spiritual calm. He had now reached some +satisfying convictions in his religious speculations, and felt that his +personal life was moving up in the right direction. His moral change is +made plain in the contrast between two figures of the story, Prince +Andrey and Peter Bezukhoff: the ambitious worldling and the honest +seeker after the right way. + +In his second great novel, "Anna Karenina," the undercurrent of the +author's own moral experience has a distinctly greater carrying power. +It is through the earnest idealist, Levine, that Tolstoy has recorded +his own aspirations. Characteristically, he does not make Levine the +central figure. + +"Anna Karenina" is undoubtedly far from "pleasant" reading, since it is +the tragical recital of an adulterous love. But the situation, with its +appalling consequence of sorrow, is seized in its fullest psychological +depth and by this means saved from being in any way offensive. The +relation between the principals is viewed as by no means an ordinary +liaison. Anna and Vronsky are serious-minded, honorable persons, who +have struggled conscientiously against their mutual enchantment, but are +swept out of their own moral orbits by the resistless force of Fate. +This fatalistic element in the tragedy is variously emphasized; so at +the beginning of the story, where Anna, in her emotional confusion still +half-ignorant of her infatuation, suddenly realizes her love for +Vronsky; or in the scene at the horse races where he meets with an +accident. Throughout the narrative the psychological argumentation is +beyond criticism. Witness the description of Anna's husband, a sort of +cousin-in-kind of Ibsen's Thorvald Helmer, reflecting on his future +course after his wife's confession of her unfaithfulness. Or that other +episode, perhaps the greatest of them all, when Anna, at the point of +death, joins together the hands of her husband and her lover. Or, +finally, the picture of Anna as she deserts her home leaving her son +behind in voluntary expiation of her wrong-doing, an act, by the way, +that betrays a nicety of conscience far too subtle for the Rhadamantine +inquisitors who demand to know why, if Anna would atone to Karenin, does +she go with Vronsky? How perfectly true to life, subsequently, is the +rapid _dégringolade_ of this passion under the gnawing curse of the +homeless, workless, purposeless existence which little by little +disunites the lovers! Only the end may be somewhat open to doubt, with +its metastasis of the heroine's character,--unless indeed we consider +the sweeping change accounted for by the theory of duplex personality. +She herself believes that there are two quite different women alive in +her, the one steadfastly loyal to her obligations, the other blindly +driven into sin by the demon of her uncontrollable temperament. + +In the power of analysis, "Anna Karenina" is beyond doubt Tolstoy's +masterpiece, and yet in its many discursive passages it already +foreshadows the disintegration of his art, or more precisely, its +ultimate capitulation to moral propagandism. For it was while at work +upon this great novel that the old perplexities returned to bewilder his +soul. In the tumultuous agitation of his conscience, the crucial and +fundamental questions, Why Do We Live? and How Should We Live? could +nevermore be silenced. Now a definitive attitude toward life is forming; +to it all the later works bear a vital relation. And so, in regard to +their moral outlook, Tolstoy's books may fitly be divided into those +written before and those written since his "conversion." "Anna Karenina" +happens to be on the dividing line. + +He was a man well past fifty, of enviable social position, in prosperous +circumstances, widely celebrated for his art, highly respected for his +character, and in his domestic life blessed with every reason for +contentment. Yet all the gifts of fortune sank into insignificance +before that vexing, unanswered Why? In the face of a paralyzing +universal aimlessness, there could be to him no abiding sense of life in +his personal enjoyments and desires. The burden of life became still +less endurable face to face with the existence of evil and with the +wretchedness of our social arrangements. With so much toil and trouble, +squalor, ignorance, crime, and every conceivable kind of bodily and +mental suffering all about me, why should I be privileged to live in +luxury and idleness? This ever recurring question would not permit him +to enjoy his possessions without self-reproach. To think of thousands of +fellowmen lacking the very necessaries, made affluence and its +concomitant ways of living odious to him. We know that in 1884, or +thereabouts, he radically changed his views and modes of life so as to +bring them into conformity with the laws of the Gospel. But before this +conversion, in the despairing anguish that attacked him after the +completion of "Anna Karenina," he was frequently tempted to suicide. +Although the thought of death was very terrible to him then and at all +times, still he would rather perish than live on in a world made heinous +and hateful by the iniquity of men. Then it was that he searched for a +reason why the vast proportion of humanity endure life, nay enjoy it, +and why self-destruction is condemned by the general opinion, and this +in spite of the fact that for most mortals existence is even harder than +it could have been for him, since he at least was shielded from material +want and lived amid loving souls. The answer he found in the end seemed +to lead by a straight road out of the wilderness of doubt and despair. +The great majority, so he ascertained, are able to bear the burden of +life because they heed the ancient injunction: "_ora et labora_"; they +_work_ and they _believe_. Might he not sweeten his lot after the same +prescription? Being of a delicate spiritual sensibility, he had long +realized that people of the idle class were for the most part inwardly +indifferent to religion and in their actions defiant of its spirit. In +the upper strata of society religious thought, where it exists, is +largely adulterated or weakened; sophisticated by education, doctored by +science, thinned out with worldly ambitions and with practical needs and +considerations. The faith that supports life is found only among simple +folk. For faith, to deserve the name, must be absolute, uncritical, +unreasoning. Starting from these convictions as a basis, Tolstoy +resolutely undertook _to learn to believe_; a determination which led +him, as it has led other ardent religionists, so far astray from +ecclesiastical paths that in due course of time he was unavoidably +excommunicated from his church. His convictions made him a vehement +antagonist of churchdom because of its stiffness of creed and laxness of +practice. For his own part he soon arrived at a full and absolute +acceptance of the Christian faith in what he considered to be its +primitive and essential form. In "Walk Ye in the Light," (1893), the +reversion of a confirmed worldling to this original conception of +Christianity gives the story of the writer's own change of heart. + +To the period under discussion belongs Tolstoy's drama, "The Power of +Darkness," (1886).(29) It is a piece of matchless realism, probably the +first unmixedly naturalistic play ever wrought out. It is brutally, +terribly true to life, and that to life at its worst, both in respect of +the plot and the actors, who are individualized down to the minutest +characteristics of utterance and gesture. Withal it is a species of +modern morality, replete with a reformatory purpose that reflects deeply +the author's tensely didactic state of mind. His instructional zeal is +heightened by intimate knowledge of the Russian peasant, on his good +side as well as on his bad. Some of his short stories are crass pictures +of the muzhik's bestial degradation, veritable pattern cards of human +and inhuman vices. In other stories, again, the deep-seated piety of the +muzhik, and his patriarchal simplicity of heart are portrayed. As +instance, the story of "Two Old Men," (1885), who are pledged to attain +the Holy Land: the one performs his vow to the letter, the other, much +the godlier of the two, is kept from his goal by a work of practical +charity. In another story a muzhik is falsely accused of murder and +accepts his undeserved punishment in a devout spirit of non-resistance. +In a third, a poor cobbler who intuitively walks in the light is deemed +worthy of a visit from Christ. + + (29) The only tragedy brought out during his life time. + +In "The Power of Darkness," the darkest traits of peasant life prevail, +yet the frightful picture is somehow Christianized, as it were, so that +even the miscreant Nikita, in spite of his monstrous crimes, is sure of +our profound compassion. We are gripped at the very heartstrings by that +great confession scene where he stutters out his budget of malefactions, +forced by his awakened conscience and urged on by his old father: "Speak +out, my child, speak it off your soul, then you will feel easier." + +"The Power of Darkness" was given its counterpart in the satirical +comedy, "Fruits of Culture," (1889). The wickedness of refined society +is more mercilessly excoriated than low-lived infamy. But artistically +considered the peasant tragedy is far superior to the "society play." + + * * * * * + +Tolstoy was a pessimist both by temperament and philosophical +persuasion. This is made manifest among other things by the prominent +place which the idea of Death occupies in his writings. His feelings are +expressed with striking simplicity by one of the principal characters in +"War and Peace": "One must often think of death, so that it may lose its +terrors for us, cease to be an enemy, and become on the contrary a +friend that delivers us from this life of miseries." Still, in Tolstoy's +stories, death, as a rule, is a haunting spectre. This conception comes +to the fore even long after his conversion in a story like "Master and +Man." Throughout his literary activity it has an obsessive hold on his +mind. Even the shadowing of the animal mind by the ubiquitous spectre +gives rise to a story: "Cholstomjer, The Story of a Horse," (1861), and +in one of the earlier tales even the death of a tree is pictured. Death +is most terrifying when, denuded of its heroic embellishments in battle +pieces such as "The Death of a Soldier" ("Sebastopol") or the +description of Prince Andrey's death in "War and Peace," it is exposed +in all its bare and grim loathsomeness. Such happens in the short novel +published in 1886 under the name of "The Death of Ivan Ilyitch,"--in +point of literary merit one of Tolstoy's greatest performances. It is a +plain tale about a middle-aged man of the official class, happy in an +unreflecting sort of way in the jog-trot of his work and domestic +arrangements. Suddenly his fate is turned,--by a trite mishap resulting +in a long, hopeless sickness. His people at first give him the most +anxious care, but as the illness drags on their devotion gradually +abates, the patient is neglected, and soon almost no thought is given to +him. In the monotonous agony of his prostration, the sufferer slowly +comes to realize that he is dying, while his household has gone back to +its habitual ways mindless of him, as though he were already dead, or +had never lived. All through this lengthened crucifixion he still clings +to life, and it is only when the family, gathering about him shortly +before the release, can but ill conceal their impatience for the end, +that Ivan at last accepts his fate: "I will no longer let them suffer--I +will die; I will deliver them and myself." So he dies, and the world +pursues its course unaltered,--in which consists the after-sting of this +poignant tragedy. + + * * * * * + +Between the years 1879 and 1886 Tolstoy published the main portion of +what may be regarded as his spiritual autobiography, namely, "The +Confession," (1879, with a supplement in 1882), "The Union and +Translation of the Four Gospels," (1881-2), "What Do I Believe?" (also +translated under the title "My Religion," 1884) and "What Then Must We +Do?" (1886). He was now well on the way to the logical ultimates of his +ethical ideas, and in the revulsion from artistic ambitions so plainly +foreshown in a treatise in 1887: "What is True Art?" he repudiated +unequivocally all his earlier work so far as it sprang from any motives +other than those of moral teaching. Without a clear appreciation of +these facts a just estimate of "The Kreutzer Sonata" (1889) is +impossible. + +The central character of the book is a commonplace, rather well-meaning +fellow who has been tried for the murder of his wife, slain by him in a +fit of insensate jealousy, and has been acquitted because of the +extenuating circumstances in the case. The object of the story is to lay +bare the causes of his crime. Tolstoy's ascetic proclivity had long +since set him thinking about sex problems in general and in particular +upon the ethics of marriage. And by this time he had arrived at the +conclusion that the demoralized state of our society is chiefly due to +polygamy and polyandrism; corroboration of his uncompromising views on +the need of social purity he finds in the evangelist Matthew, v:27-28, +where the difference between the old command and its new, far more +rigorous, interpretation is bluntly stated: "Ye have heard that it was +said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto +you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed +adultery with her already in his heart." + +Now Tolstoy thinks that society, far from concurring in the scriptural +condemnation of lewdness, caters systematically to the appetites of the +voluptuary. If Tolstoy is right in his diagnosis, then the euphemistic +term "social evil" has far wider reaches of meaning than those to which +it is customarily applied. With the head person in "The Kreutzer +Sonata," Tolstoy regards society as no better than a _maison de +tolérance_ conducted on a very comprehensive scale. Women are reared +with the main object of alluring men through charms and accomplishments; +the arts of the hairdresser, the dressmaker, and milliner, as well as +the exertions of governesses, music masters, and linguists all converge +toward the same aim: to impart the power of attracting men. Between the +woman of the world and the professional courtezan the main difference in +the light of this view lies in the length of the service. Pozdnicheff +accordingly divides femininity into long term and short term +prostitutes, which rather fantastic classification Tolstoy follows up +intrepidly to its last logical consequence. + +The main idea of "The Kreutzer Sonata," as stated in the postscript, is +that sexless life is best. A recommendation of celibacy as mankind's +highest ideal to be logical should involve a wish for the disappearance +of human life from the globe. A world-view of such pessimistic sort +prevents itself from the forfeiture of all bonds with humanity only by +its concomitant reasoning that a race for whom it were better not to be +is the very one that will struggle desperately against its _summum +bonum_. Since race suicide, then, is a hopeless desideratum, the +reformer must turn to more practicable methods if he would at least +alleviate the worst of our social maladjustments. Idleness is the mother +of all mischief, because it superinduces sensual self-indulgence. +Therefore we must suppress anything that makes for leisure and pleasure. +At this point we grasp the meaning of Tolstoy's vehement recoil from +art. It is, to a great extent, the strong-willed resistance of a highly +impressionable puritan against the enticements of beauty,--their +distracting and disquieting effect, and principally their power of +sensuous suggestion. + +The last extensive work published by Tolstoy was "Resurrection," (1889). +In artistic merit it is not on a level with "War and Peace" and "Anna +Karenina," nor can this be wondered at, considering the opinion about +the value of art that had meanwhile ripened in the author. + +"Resurrection" was written primarily for a constructive moral purpose, +yet the subject matter was such as to secrete, unintendedly, a corrosive +criticism of social and religious cant. The satirical connotation of the +novel could not have been more grimly brought home than through this +fact, that the hero by his unswerving allegiance to Christian principles +of conduct greatly shocks, at first, our sense of the proprieties, +instead of eliciting our enthusiastic admiration. In spite of our +highest moral notions Prince Nekhludoff, like that humbler follower of +the voice of conscience in Gerhart Hauptmann's novel, impresses us as a +"Fool in Christ." The story, itself, leads by degrees from the +under-world of crime and punishment to a great spiritual elevation. +Maslowa, a drunken street-walker, having been tried on a charge of +murder, is wrongfully sentenced to transportation for life, because--the +jury is tired out and the judge in a hurry to visit his mistress. Prince +Nekhludoff, sitting on that jury, recognizes in the victim of justice a +girl whose downfall he himself had caused. He is seized by penitence and +resolves to follow the convict to Siberia, share her sufferings, +dedicate his life to her redemption. She has sunk so low that his hope +of reforming her falters, yet true to his resolution he offers to marry +her. Although the offer is rejected, yet the suggestion of a new life +which it brings begins to work a change in the woman. In the progress of +the story her better nature gradually gains sway until a thorough moral +revolution is completed. + +"Resurrection" derives its special value from its clear demonstration of +those rules of conduct to which the author was straining with every +moral fiber to conform his own life. From his ethical speculations and +social experiments are projected figures like that of Maria Paulovna, a +rich and beautiful woman who prefers to live like a common workingwoman +and is drawn by her social conscience into the revolutionary vortex. In +this figure, and more definitely still in the political convict +Simonson, banished because of his educational work among the common +people, Tolstoy studies for the first time the so-called "intellectual" +type of revolutionist. His view of the "intellectuals" is sympathetic, +on the whole. They believe that evil springs from ignorance. Their +agitation issues from the highest principles, and they are capable of +any self-sacrifice for the general weal. Still Tolstoy, as a thoroughly +anti-political reformer, deprecates their organized movement. + +Altogether, he repudiated the systems of social reconstruction that go +by the name of socialism, because he relied for the regeneration of +society wholly and solely upon individual self-elevation. In an +essential respect he was nevertheless a socialist, inasmuch as he strove +for the ideal of universal equality. His social philosophy, bound up +inseparably with his personal religious evolution, is laid down in a +vast number of essays, letters, sketches, tracts, didactic tales, and +perhaps most comprehensively in those autobiographical documents already +mentioned. Sociologically the most important of these is a book on the +problem of property, entitled, "What Then Must We Do?" (1886), which +expounds the passage in Luke iii:10, 11: "And the people asked him, +saying, What shall we do then? He answered and saith unto them, He that +hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath +meat, let him do likewise." Not long before that, he had thought of +devoting himself entirely to charitable work, but practical experiments +at Moscow demonstrated to him the futility of almsgiving. Speaking on +that point to his English biographer, Aylmer Maude,(30) he remarked: +"All such activity, if people attribute importance to it, is worthless." +When his interviewer insisted that the destitute have to be provided for +somehow and that the Count himself was in the habit of giving money to +beggars, the latter replied: "Yes, but I do not imagine that I am doing +good! I only do it for myself, because I know that I have no right to be +well off while they are in misery." It is worth mention in passing that +during the famine of 1891-2 this determined opponent of organized +charity, in noble inconsistency with his theories, led in the +dispensation of relief to the starving population of Middle Russia. + + (30) "The Life of Tolstoy," Later Years, p. 643 f. + +But in "What Then Must We Do?" he treats the usual organized dabbling in +charity as utterly preposterous: "Give away all you have or else you can +do no good." ... "If I give away a hundred thousand and still withhold +five hundred thousand, I am far from acting in the spirit of charity, +and remain a factor of social injustice and evil. At the sight of the +freezing and hungering I must still feel responsible for their plight, +and feel that since we should live in conditions where that evil can be +abstained from, it is impossible for me in the position in which I +deliberately place myself to be anything other than a source of general +evil." + +It was chiefly due to the influence of two peasants, named Sutayeff and +Bondareff, that Tolstoy decided by a path of religious reasoning to +abandon "parasitical existence,"--that is, to sacrifice all prerogatives +of his wealth and station and to share the life of the lowly. He +reasoned as follows: "Since I am to blame for the existence of social +wrong, I can lessen my blame only by making myself like unto those that +labor and are heavy-laden." Economically, Tolstoy reasons from this +fallacy: If all men do not participate equitably in the menial work that +has to be performed in the world, it follows that a disproportionate +burden of work falls upon the shoulders of the more defenseless portion +of humanity. Whether this undue amount of labor be exacted in the form +of chattel slavery, or, which is scarcely less objectionable, in the +form of the virtual slavery imposed by modern industrial conditions, +makes no material difference. The evil conditions are bound to continue +so long as the instincts that make for idleness prevail over the +co-operative impulses. The only remedy lies in the simplification of +life in the upper strata of the social body, overwork in the laboring +classes being the direct result of the excessive demands for the +pleasures and luxuries of life in the upper classes. + +To Bondareff in particular Tolstoy confessedly owes the conviction that +the best preventive for immorality is physical labor, for which reason +the lower classes are less widely removed from grace than the upper. +Bondareff maintained on scriptural grounds that everybody should employ +at least a part of his time in working the land. This view Tolstoy +shared definitely after 1884. Not only did he devote a regular part of +his day to agricultural labor; he learned, in addition, shoemaking and +carpentry, meaning to demonstrate by his example that it is feasible to +return to those patriarchal conditions under which the necessities of +life were produced by the consumer himself. From this time forth he +modelled his habits more and more upon those of the common rustic. He +adopted peasant apparel and became extremely frugal in his diet. +Although by natural taste he was no scorner of the pleasures of the +table, he now eliminated one luxury after another. About this time he +also turned strict vegetarian, then gave up the use of wine and spirits, +and ultimately even tobacco, of which he had been very fond, was made to +go the way of flesh. He practiced this self-abnegation in obedience to +the Law of Life which he interpreted as a stringent renunciation of +physical satisfactions and personal happiness. Nor did he shirk the +ultimate conclusion to which his premises led: if the Law of Life +imposes the suppression of all natural desires and appetites and +commands the voluntary sacrifice of every form of property and power, it +must be clear that life itself is devoid of sense and utterly +undesirable. And so it is expressly stated in his "Thoughts."(31) + + (31) No. 434. + + * * * * * + +To what extent Tolstoy was a true Christian believer may best be +gathered from his own writings, "What Do I Believe?" (1884), "On Life," +(1887), and "The Kingdom of God is within You," (1893). Although at the +age of seventeen he had ceased to be orthodox, there can be no question +whatever that throughout his whole life religion remained the deepest +source of his inspiration. By the early eighties he had emerged from +that acute scepticism that well-nigh cost him life and reason, and had, +outwardly at least, made his peace with the church, attending services +regularly, and observing the feasts and the fasts; here again in +imitating the muzhik in his religious practices he strove apparently to +attain also to the muzhik's actual gift of credulity. But in this +endeavor his superior culture proved an impediment to him, and his +widening doctrinal divergence from the established church finally drew +upon his head, in 1891, the official curse of the Holy Synod. And yet a +leading religious journal was right, shortly after his death, in this +comment upon the religious meaning of his life: "If Christians +everywhere should put their religious beliefs into practice with the +simplicity and sincerity of Tolstoy, the entire religious, moral, and +social life of the world would be revolutionized in a month." The +orthodox church expelled him from its communion because of his +radicalism; but in his case radicalism meant indeed the going to the +roots of Christian religion, to the original foundations of its +doctrines. In the teachings of the _primitive_ church there presented +itself to Tolstoy a dumfoundingly simple code for the attainment of +moral perfection. Hence arose his opposition to the _established_ church +which seemed to have strayed so widely from its own fundamentals. + +Since Tolstoy's life aimed at the progressive exercise of +self-sacrifice, his religious belief could be no gospel of joy. In fact, +his is a sad, gray, ascetic religion, wholly devoid of poetry and +emotional uplift. He did not learn to believe in the divinity of Christ +nor in the existence of a God in any definite sense personal, and it is +not even clear whether he believed in an after-life. And yet he did not +wrongfully call himself a Christian, for the mainspring of his faith and +his labor was the message of Christ delivered to his disciples in the +Sermon on the Mount. This, for Tolstoy, contained all the philosophy and +the theology of which the modern world stands in need, since in the +precept of non-resistance is joined forever the issue between the Law +and the Gospel: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an +eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not +evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the +other also." + +And farther on: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love +thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you. Love your +enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and +pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you." ... + +In this commandment Tolstoy found warrant for unswerving forbearance +toward every species of private and corporate aggression. Offenders +against individuals or the commonwealth deserve nothing but pity. +Prisons should be abolished and criminals never punished. Tolstoy went +so far as to declare that even if he saw his own wife or daughters being +assaulted, he would abstain from using force in their defense. The +infliction of the death penalty was to him the most odious of crimes. No +life, either human or animal, should be wilfully destroyed. + +The doctrine of non-resistance removes every conceivable excuse for war +between the nations. A people is as much bound as is an individual by +the injunction: "Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to +him the other also." War is not to be justified on patriotic grounds, +for patriotism, far from being a virtue, is an enlarged and unduly +glorified form of selfishness. Consistently with his convictions, +Tolstoy put forth his strength not for the glory of his nation but for +the solidarity of mankind. + +The cornerstones of Tolstoy's religion, then, were these three articles +of faith. First, True Faith gives Life. Second, Man must live by labor. +Third, Evil must never be resisted by means of evil. + + * * * * * + +Outside of the sphere of religious thought it is inaccurate to speak of +a specific Tolstoyan philosophy, and it is impossible for the student to +subscribe unconditionally to the hackneyed formula of the books that +Tolstoy "will be remembered as perhaps the most profound influence of +his day on human thought." Yet the statement might be made measurably +true if it were modified in accordance with the important reservation +made earlier in this sketch. In the field of thought he was not an +original explorer. He was great only as the promulgator, not as the +inventor, of ideas. His work has not enriched the wisdom of man by a +single new thought, nor was he a systematizer and expounder of thought +or a philosopher. In fact he possessed slight familiarity with +philosophical literature. Among the older metaphysicians his principal +guide was Spinoza, and in more modern speculative science he did not +advance beyond Schopenhauer. To the latter he was not altogether unlike +in his mental temper. At least he showed himself indubitably a pessimist +in his works by placing in fullest relief the bad side of the social +state. We perceive the pessimistic disposition also through his personal +behavior, seeing how he desponded under the discords of life, how easily +he lost courage whenever he undertook to cope with practical problems, +and how sedulously he avoided the contact with temptations. It was only +by an almost total withdrawal from the world, and by that entire relief +from its daily and ordinary affairs which he owed to the devotion of his +wife that Tolstoy was enabled during his later years to look upon the +world less despairingly. + +Like his theology, so, too, his civic and economic creed was marked by +the utmost and altogether too primitive simplicity. Political questions +were of slight interest to him, unless they touched upon his vital +principles. If, therefore, we turn from his very definite position in +matters of individual conduct to his political views, we shall find that +he was wanting in a program of practical changes. His only positive +contribution to economic discussion was a persistent advocacy of +agrarian reform. Under the influence of Henry George he became an +eloquent pleader for the single tax and the nationalization of the land. +This question he discussed in numerous places, with especial force and +clearness in a long article entitled "A Great Iniquity."(32) He takes +the view that the mission of the State, if it have any at all, can only +consist in guaranteeing the rights of every one of its denizens, but +that in actual fact the State protects only the rights of the +propertied. Intelligent and right-minded citizens must not conspire with +the State to ride rough-shod over the helpless majority. Keenly alive to +the unalterable tendency of organized power to abridge the rights of +individuals and to dominate both their material and spiritual existence, +Tolstoy fell into the opposite extreme and would have abolished with a +clean sweep all factors of social control, including the right of +property and the powers of government, and transformed society into a +community of equals and brothers, relying for its peace and well-being +upon a universal love of liberty and justice. + + (32) Printed in the (London) _Times_ of September 10, 1905. + +By his disbelief in authority, the rejection of the socialists' schemes +of reconstruction, his mistrust of fixed institutions and reliance on +individual right-mindedness for the maintenance of the common good, +Tolstoy in the sphere of civic thought separated himself from the +political socialists by the whole diameter of initial principle: he +might not unjustly be classified, therefore, as an anarchist, if this +definition were neither too narrow nor too wide. The Christian +Socialists might claim him, because he aspires ardently to ideals +essentially Christian in their nature, and there is surely truth in the +thesis that "every thinker who understands and earnestly accepts the +teaching of the Master is at heart a socialist." At the same time, +Christianity and Socialism do not travel the whole way together. For a +religion that enjoins patience and submission can hardly be conducive to +the full flowering of Socialism. And Tolstoy's attitude towards the +church differs radically from that of the Christian Socialists. On the +whole one had best abstain from classifying men of genius. + +The base of Tolstoy's social creed was the non-recognition of private +property. The effect of the present system is to maintain the inequality +of men and thereby to excite envy and stir up hatred among them. Eager +to set a personal example and precedent, Tolstoy rendered himself +nominally penniless by making all his property, real and personal, over +to his wife and children. Likewise he abdicated his copyrights. Thus he +reduced himself to legal pauperism with a completeness of success that +cannot but stir with envy the bosom of any philanthropist who shares Mr. +Andrew Carnegie's conviction that to die rich is to die disgraced. + +Tolstoy's detractors have cast a plausible suspicion upon his sincerity. +They pointed out among other things that his relinquishment of pecuniary +profit in his books was apparent, not real. Since Russia has no +copyright conventions with other countries, it was merely making a +virtue of necessity to authorize freely the translation of his works +into foreign languages. As for the Russian editions of his writings, it +is said that in so far as the heavy hand of the censor did not prevent, +the Countess, as her husband's financial agent, managed quite skilfully +to exploit them. + + * * * * * + +Altogether, did Tolstoy practice what he professed? Inconsistency +between principles and conduct is a not uncommon frailty of genius, as +is notoriously illustrated by Tolstoy's real spiritual progenitor, Jean +Jacques Rousseau. + +Now there are many discreditable stories in circulation about the muzhik +lord of Yasnaya Polyana. He urged upon others the gospel commands: "Lay +not up for yourselves treasures upon earth" and: "Take what ye have and +give to the poor," and for his own part lived, according to report, in +sumptuous surroundings. He went ostentatiously on pilgrimages to holy +places, barefooted but with an expert pedicure attending him. He dressed +in a coarse peasant blouse, but underneath it wore fine silk and linen. +He was a vegetarian of the strictest observance, yet so much of an +epicure that his taste for unseasonable dainties strained the domestic +resources. He preached simplicity, and according to rumor dined off +priceless plate; taught the equality of men, and was served by lackies +in livery. He abstained from alcohol and tobacco, but consumed six cups +of strong coffee at a sitting. Finally, he extolled the sexless life and +was the father of thirteen children. It was even murmured that +notwithstanding his professed affection for the muzhik and his incessant +proclamation of universal equality, the peasantry of Yasnaya Polyana was +the most wretchedly-treated to be found in the whole province and that +the extortionate landlordism of the Tolstoys was notorious throughout +the empire. + +Much of this, to be sure, is idle gossip, unworthy of serious attention. +Nevertheless, there is evidence enough to show that Tolstoy's insistence +upon a literal acceptance of earlier Christian doctrines led him into +unavoidable inconsistencies and shamed him into a tragical sense of +dishonesty. + +Unquestionably Tolstoy lived very simply and laboriously for a man of +great rank, means, and fame, but his life was neither hard nor cramped. +Having had no personal experience of garret and hovel, he could have no +first-hand practical knowledge of the sting of poverty, nor could he +obtain hardship artificially by imposing upon himself a mild imitation +of physical discomfort. For the true test of penury is not the suffering +of to-day but the oppressive dread of to-morrow. His ostensible muzhik +existence, wanting in none of the essentials of civilization, was a +romance that bore to the real squalid pauperism of rural Russia about +the same relation that the bucolic make-belief of Boucher's or Watteau's +swains and shepherdesses bore to the unperfumed truth of a sheep-farm or +a hog-sty. As time passed, and the sage turned his thoughts to a more +rigid enforcement of his renunciations, it was no easy task for a +devoted wife to provide comfort for him without shaking him too rudely +out of his fond illusion that he was enduring privations. + +After all, then, his practice did not tally with his theory; and this +consciousness of living contrary to his own teachings was a constant +source of unhappiness which no moral quibbles of his friends could +still. + +Yet no man could be farther from being a hypocrite. If at last he broke +down under a burden of conscience, it was a burden imposed by the +reality of human nature which makes it impossible for any man to live up +to intentions of such rigor as Tolstoy's. From the start he realized +that he did not conform his practice entirely to his teachings, and as +he grew old he was resolved that having failed to harmonize his life +with his beliefs he would at least corroborate his sincerity by his +manner of dying. Even in this, however, he was to be thwarted. In his +dramatic ending, still plainly remembered, we feel a grim consistency +with the lifelong defeat of his will to suffer. + +Early in 1910 a student by the name of Manzos addressed a rebuke to +Tolstoy for simulating the habits of the poor, denouncing his mode of +life as a form of mummery. He challenged the sage to forsake his +comforts and the affections of his family, and to go forth and beg his +way from place to place. "Do this," entreated the young fanatic, "and +you will be the first true man after Christ." With his typical +large-heartedness, Tolstoy accepted the reproof and said in the course +of his long reply:(33) ... "The fact that I am living with wife and +daughter in terrible and shameful conditions of luxury when poverty +surrounds me on all sides, torments me ever more and more, and there is +not a day when I am not thinking of following your advice. I thank you +very, very much for your letter." As a matter of fact, he had more than +once before made ready to put his convictions to a fiery proof by a +final sacrifice,--leaving his home and spending his remaining days in +utter solitude. But when he finally proceeded to carry out this ascetic +intention and actually set out on a journey to some vague and lonely +destination, he was foiled in his purpose. If ever Tolstoy's behavior +irresistibly provoked misrepresentation of his motives it was by this +somewhat theatrical hegira. The fugitive left Yasnaya Polyana, not +alone, but with his two favorite companions, his daughter Alexandra and +a young Hungarian physician who for some time had occupied the post of +private secretary to him. After paying a farewell visit to his sister, a +nun cloistered in Shamardin, he made a start for the Trans-Caucasus. His +idea was to go somewhere near the Tolstoy colony at the Black Sea. But +in an early stage of the journey, a part of which was made in an +ordinary third-class railway compartment, the old man was overcome by +illness and fatigue. He was moved to a trackman's hut at the station of +Astopovo, not farther than eighty miles from his home, and +here,--surrounded by his hastily summoned family and tenderly nursed for +five days,--he expired. Thus he was denied the summit of martyrdom to +which he had aspired,--a lonely death, unminded of men. + + (33) February 17, 1910. + + * * * * * + +Even a summary review like this of Tolstoy's life and labors cannot be +concluded without some consideration of his final attitude toward the +esthetic embodiment of civilization. The development of his philosophy +of self-abnegation had led irresistibly, as we have seen, to the +condemnation of all self-regarding instincts. Among these, Art appeared +to him as one of the most insidious. He warned against the cultivation +of the beautiful on the ground that it results in the suppression and +destruction of the moral sense. Already in 1883 it was known that he had +made up his mind to abandon his artistic aspirations out of loyalty to +his moral theory, and would henceforth dedicate his talents exclusively +to the propagation of humanitarian views. In vain did the dean of +Russian letters, Turgenieff, appeal to him with a death-bed message: "My +friend, great writer of the Russians, return to literary work! Heed my +prayer." Tolstoy stood firm in his determination. Nevertheless, his +genius refused to be throttled by his conscience; he could not paralyze +his artistic powers; he could merely bend them to his moral aims. + +As a logical corollary to his opposition to art for art's sake, Tolstoy +cast from him all his own writings antedating "Confession,"--and +denounced all of them as empty manifestations of worldly conceit. His +authorship of that immortal novel, "War and Peace," filled him with +shame and remorse. His views on Art are plainly and forcibly expounded +in the famous treatise on "What is Art?" and in the one on +"Shakespeare." In both he maintains that Art, no matter of what sort, +should serve the sole purpose of bringing men nearer to each other in +the common purpose of right living. Hence, no art work is legitimate +without a pervasive moral design. The only true touchstone of an art +work is the uplifting strength that proceeds from it. Therefore, a +painting like the "Angelus," or a poem like "The Man with the Hoe" would +transcend in worth the creations of a Michael Angelo or a Heinrich Heine +even as the merits of Sophocles, Shakespeare, and Goethe are outmatched +in Tolstoy's judgment by those of Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, and +George Eliot. By the force of this naïve reasoning and his theoretical +antipathy toward true art, he was led to see in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" the +veritable acme of literary perfection, for the reason that this book +wielded such an enormous and noble influence upon the most vital +question of its day. He strongly discountenanced the literary practice +of revamping ancient themes, believing with Ibsen that modern writers +should impart their ideas through the medium of modern life. Yet at the +same time he was up in arms against the self-styled "moderns"! They took +their incentives from science, and this Tolstoy decried, because science +did not fulfill its mission of teaching people how rightly to live. In +this whole matter he reasoned doggedly from fixed ideas, no matter to +what ultimates the argument would carry him. For instance, he did not +stick at branding Shakespeare as an utter barbarian, and to explain the +reverence for such "disgusting" plays as "King Lear" as a crass +demonstration of imitative hypocrisy. + +Art in general is a practice aiming at the production of the beautiful. +But what is "beautiful"? asked Tolstoy. The current definitions he +pronounced wrong because they were formulated from the standpoint of the +pleasure-seeker. Such at least has been the case since the Renaissance. +From that time forward, Art, like all cults of pleasure, has been evil. +To the pleasure-seeker, the beautiful is that which is enjoyable; hence +he appraises works of art according to their ability to procure +enjoyment. In Tolstoy's opinion this is no less absurd than if we were +to estimate the nutritive value of food-stuffs by the pleasure +accompanying their consumption. So he baldly declares that we must +abolish beauty as a criterion of art, or conversely, must establish +truth as the single standard of beauty. "The heroine of my stories whom +I strive to represent in all her beauty, who was ever beautiful, is so, +and will remain so, is Truth." + +His views on art have a certain analogy with two modern schools,--much +against his will, since he strenuously disavows and deprecates +everything modern; they make us think on the one hand of the +"naturalists," inasmuch as like them Tolstoy eschews all intentional +graces of style and diction: and on the other hand of the +"impressionists," with whom he seems united by his fundamental +definition of art, namely that it is the expression of a dominant +emotion calculated to reproduce itself in the reader or beholder. +Lacking, however, a deep and catholic understanding for art, Tolstoy, in +contrast with the modern impressionists, would restrict artists to the +expression of a single type of sentiments, those that reside in the +sphere of religious consciousness. To him art, as properly conceived and +practiced, must be ancillary to religion, and its proper gauge is the +measure of its agreement with accepted moral teachings. Remembering, +then, the primitive form of belief to which Tolstoy contrived to attain, +we find ourselves face to face with a theory of art which sets up as the +final arbiter the man "unspoiled by culture," and he, in Tolstoy's +judgment, is the Russian muzhik. + + * * * * * + +This course of reasoning on art is in itself sufficient to show the +impossibility for any modern mind of giving sweeping assent to Tolstoy's +teachings. And a like difficulty would be experienced if we tried to +follow him in his meditations on any other major interest of life. +Seeking with a tremendous earnestness of conscience to reduce the +bewildering tangle of human affairs to elementary simplicity, he +enmeshed himself in a new network of contradictions. The effect was +disastrous for the best part of his teaching; his own extremism stamped +as a hopeless fantast a man incontestably gifted by nature, as few men +have been in history, with the cardinal virtues of a sage, a reformer, +and a missionary of social justice. Because of this extremism, his voice +was doomed to remain that of one crying in the wilderness. + +The world could not do better than to accept Tolstoy's fundamental +prescriptions: simplicity of living, application to work, and +concentration upon moral culture. But to apply his radical scheme to +existing conditions would amount to a self-stultification of the race, +for it would entail the unpardonably sinful sacrifice of some of the +finest and most hard-won achievements of human progress. For our +quotidian difficulties his example promises no solution. The great mass +of us are not privileged to test our individual schemes of redemption in +the leisured security of an ideal experiment station; not for every man +is there a Yasnaya Polyana, and the Sophia Andreyevnas are thinly sown +in the matrimonial market. + +But even though Tolstoyism will not serve as a means of solving the +great social problems, it supplies a helpful method of social criticism. +And its value goes far beyond that: the force of his influence was too +great not to have strengthened enormously the moral conscience of the +world; he has played, and will continue to play, a leading part in the +establishing and safeguarding of democracy. After all, we do not have to +separate meticulously what is true in Tolstoy's teaching from what is +false in order to acknowledge him as a Voice of his epoch. For as Lord +Morley puts the matter in the case of Jean Jacques Rousseau: "There are +some teachers whose distinction is neither correct thought, nor an eye +for the exigencies of practical organization, but simply depth and +fervor of the moral sentiment, bringing with it the indefinable gift of +touching many hearts with love of virtue and the things of the spirit." + + + + + [ Transcriber's Note: + + The following is a list of corrections made to the original. + The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one. + + sublimal regions of the inner life, and that their work somehow brings + subliminal regions of the inner life, and that their work somehow brings + + in the writings of the de-gallisized Frenchman, Count Joseph Arthur + in the writings of the de-gallicized Frenchman, Count Joseph Arthur + + the same time, the universal decreptitude prevented the despiser of his + the same time, the universal decrepitude prevented the despiser of his + + artistic design was dimmed by the obstrusive didactic purpose. + artistic design was dimmed by the obtrusive didactic purpose. + + ] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prophets of Dissent, by Otto Heller + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROPHETS OF DISSENT *** + +***** This file should be named 36111-8.txt or 36111-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/1/36111/ + +Produced by Jana Srna and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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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+} +</style> +<![endif]--> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prophets of Dissent, by Otto Heller + +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: Prophets of Dissent + Essays on Maeterlinck, Strindberg, Nietzsche and Tolstoy + +Author: Otto Heller + +Release Date: May 15, 2011 [EBook #36111] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROPHETS OF DISSENT *** + + + + +Produced by Jana Srna and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div id="tnote"> +<p class="center"><b>Transcriber's Notes:</b></p> + +<p class="no-indent">Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as +possible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation.</p> + +<p>Some corrections of spelling have been made. +<span class="screen">They are marked <ins title="transcriber's note">like +this</ins> in the text. The original text appears when hovering the cursor +over the marked text.</span> A <a href="#tn-bottom">list of amendments</a> is +at the end of the text.</p> +</div> + +<p class="center page-break" style="font-size: large;">PROPHETS OF DISSENT</p> + +<div id="books"> +<p class="center">BOOKS BY OTTO HELLER</p> + +<hr/> + +<p>HENRIK IBSEN: PLAYS AND PROBLEMS</p> + +<p>STUDIES IN MODERN GERMAN LITERATURE</p> + +<p>LESSING'S “MINNA VON BARNHELM”<br/> +in English</p> +</div> + +<h1>Prophets of Dissent: Essays<br/> +on Maeterlinck, Strindberg,<br/> +Nietzsche and Tolstoy</h1> + +<p class="center" style="line-height: 1.5em;">by<br/> +<big>Otto Heller</big></p> + +<p class="center italic">Professor of Modern European Literature<br/> +in Washington University (St. Louis)</p> + +<div class="italic" style="margin: 3em auto 5em auto; max-width: 26em;"> +<p class="no-indent">Is there a thing in this world that can be separated from +the inconceivable?</p> + +<p class="right">Maeterlinck, “Our Eternity”</p> +</div> + +<p class="center">New York <img src="images/emblem.png" width="120" height="56" alt="" style="margin: 0 0.5em;"/> Mcmxviii<br/> +<big style="font-size: 1.5em; letter-spacing: 0.4em; padding-left: 0.4em;">Alfred A Knopf</big></p> + +<p class="center page-break">COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY<br/> +ALFRED A. KNOPF</p> + +<p class="center" style="margin-top: 4em; font-size: smaller;">PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p> + +<p class="center page-break italic" style="line-height: 1.4em;">To<br/> +HELLEN SEARS<br/> +staunchest of friends</p> + +<h2><a class="pagenum" name="Page_vii" title="vii"> </a>Preface</h2> + +<p><span class="small-caps">The</span> collocation of authors so widely at variance +in their moral and artistic aims as are those assembled +in this little book may be defended by +the safe and simple argument that all of these +authors have exerted, each in his own way, an +influence of singular range and potency. By fairly +general consent they are the foremost literary +expositors of important modern tendencies. It +is, therefore, of no consequence whether or not +their ways of thinking fit into our particular +frame of mind; what really matters is that in this +small group of writers more clearly perhaps than +in any other similarly restricted group the basic +issues of the modern struggle for social transformation +appear to be clearly and sharply joined. +That in viewing them as indicators of contrarious +ideal currents due allowance must be made +for peculiarities of temperament, both individual +and racial, and, correspondingly, for the purely +“personal equation” in their spiritual attitudes, +does not detract to any material degree from their +generic significance.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="Page_viii" title="viii"> </a>In any case, there are those of us who in the +vortical change of the social order through which +we are whirling, feel a desire to orient ourselves +through an objective interest in letters among the +embattled purposes and policies which are now +gripped in a final test of strength. In a crisis +that makes the very foundations of civilization +quake, and at a moment when the salvation of +human liberty seems to depend upon the success +of a united stand of all the modern forces of life +against the destructive impact of the most primitive +and savage of all the instincts, would it not +be absurdly pedantic for a critical student of literature +to resort to any artificial selection and co-ordination +of his material in order to please the +prudes and the pedagogues? And is it not natural +to seek that material among the largest literary +apparitions of the age?</p> + +<p>It is my opinion, then, that the four great authors +discussed in the following pages stand, respectively, +for the determining strains in a great +upsetting movement, and that in the aggregate +they bring to view the composite mental and moral +impulsion of the times. Through such forceful +articulations of current movements the more percipient +class of readers have for a long time been +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_ix" title="ix"> </a> +enabled to foresense, in a manner, the colossal reconstruction +of society which needs must follow +this monstrous, but presumably final, clash between +the irreconcilable elements in the contrasted +principles of right and might, the masses and the +monarchs.</p> + +<p>However, the gathering together of Maeterlinck, +Nietzsche, Strindberg, and Tolstoy under +the hospitality of a common book-cover permits +of a supplementary explanation on the ground of +a certain fundamental likeness far stronger than +their only too obvious diversities. They are, one +and all, radicals in thought, and, with differing +strength of intention, reformers of society, inasmuch +as their speculations and aspirations are +relevant to practical problems of living. And yet +what gives them such a durable hold on our attention +is not their particular apostolate, but the +fact that their artistic impulses ascend from the +<ins title="sublimal">subliminal</ins> regions of the inner life, and that their +work somehow brings one into touch with the hidden +springs of human action and human fate. +This means, in effect, that all of them are mystics +by original cast of mind and that notwithstanding +any difference, however apparently violent, of +views and theories, they follow the same introspective +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_x" title="x"> </a> +path towards the recognition and interpretation +of the law of life. From widely separated +ethical premises they thus arrive at an essentially +uniform appraisal of personal happiness as a function +of living.</p> + +<p>To those readers who are not disposed to grant +the validity of the explanations I have offered, +perhaps equality of rank in artistic importance +may seem a sufficient criterion for the association +of authors, and, apart from all sociologic and +philosophic considerations, they may be willing to +accept my somewhat arbitrary selection on this +single count.</p> + +<div class="right"> +<p>O. H.</p> +</div> + +<p class="no-indent">April, 1918.</p> + +<h2><a class="pagenum" name="Page_xi" title="xi"> </a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table id="toc" summary="Contents"> +<tr> + <td colspan="3" class="right" style="font-size: smaller; padding: 0.2em;">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="chapter">I</td> + <td>Maurice Maeterlinck: a study in Mysticism</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="chapter">II</td> + <td>August Strindberg: a study in Eccentricity</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="chapter">III</td> + <td>Friedrich Nietzsche: a study in Exaltation</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="chapter">IV</td> + <td>Leo Tolstoy: a study in Revivalism</td> + <td class="right"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<p class="chapter-page"><a class="pagenum" name="Page_1" title="1"> </a>MAURICE MAETERLINCK</p> + +<h2><a class="pagenum" name="Page_3" title="3"> </a>I<br/> +<small>THE MYSTICISM OF MAURICE MAETERLINCK</small></h2> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">Under</span> the terrific atmospheric pressure +that has been torturing the civilization of +the entire world since the outbreak of the +greatest of wars, contemporary literature of the +major cast appears to have gone into decline. +Even the comparatively few writers recognized +as possessing talents of the first magnitude have +given way to that pressure and have shrunk to +minor size, so that it may be seriously questioned, +to say the least, whether during the past forty +months or so a single literary work of outstanding +and sustained grandeur has been achieved anywhere. +That the effect of the universal embattlement +upon the art of letters should be, in the +main, extremely depressing, is quite natural; but +the conspicuous loss of breadth and poise in writers +of the first order seems less in accordance +with necessity,—at least one might expect a very +superior author to rise above that necessity. In +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_4" title="4"> </a> +any case it is very surprising that it should be a +Belgian whose literary personality is almost +unique in having remained exempt from the general +abridgment of spiritual stature.</p> + +<p>It is true that Maurice Maeterlinck, the most +eminent literary figure in his sadly stricken country +and of unsurpassed standing among the contemporary +masters of French letters, has, since +the great catastrophe, won no new laurels as a +dramatist; and that in the other field cultivated +by him, that of the essay, his productiveness has +been anything but prolific. But in his case one is +inclined to interpret reticence as an eloquent proof +of a singularly heroic firmness of character at a +time when on both sides of the great divide which +now separates the peoples, the cosmopolitan trend +of human advance has come to a temporary halt, +and the nations have relapsed from their laboriously +attained degree of world-citizenship into +the homelier, but more immediately virtuous, state +of traditional patriotism.</p> + +<p>It is a military necessity as well as a birthright +of human nature that at a time like the +present the patriot is excused from any pharisaical +profession of loving his enemy. Before the war, +Maeterlinck's writings were animated by humanitarian +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_5" title="5"> </a> +sympathies of the broadest catholicity. He +even had a peculiar affection for the Germans, because +doubtless he perceived the existence of a +strong kinship between certain essential traits in +his spiritual composition and the fundamental tendencies +of German philosophy and art. But when +Belgium was lawlessly invaded, her ancient towns +heinously destroyed, her soil laid waste and +drenched with the blood of her people, Maeterlinck, +as a son of Belgium, learned to hate the +Germans to the utmost of a wise and temperate +man's capacity for hatred, and in his war papers +collected in <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Débris de la Guerre</i>, (1916),<a name="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">(1)</a> +which ring with the passionate impulse of the patriot, +his outraged sense of justice prevails over +the disciplined self-command of the stoic.</p> + +<p>He refuses to acquiesce in the lenient discrimination +between the guilty Government of Germany +and her innocent population: “It is not true that +in this gigantic crime there are innocent and guilty, +or degrees of guilt. They stand on one level, all +those who have taken part in it…. It is, very +simply, the German, from one end of his country +to the other, who stands revealed as a beast of +prey which the firm will of our planet finally repudiates. +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_6" title="6"> </a> +We have here no wretched slaves +dragged along by a tyrant king who alone is responsible. +Nations have the government which +they deserve, or rather, the government which +they have is truly no more than the magnified and +public projection of the private morality and mentality +of the nation…. No nation can be deceived +that does not wish to be deceived; and it +is not intelligence that Germany lacks…. No +nation permits herself to be coerced to the one +crime that man cannot pardon. It is of her own +accord that she hastens towards it; her chief has +no need to persuade, it is she who urges him on.”<a name="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">(2)</a></p> + +<p>Such a condemnatory tirade against the despoilers +of his fair homeland was normally to be expected +from a man of Maeterlinck's depth of feeling. +The unexpected thing that happened not +long after was that the impulsive promptings of +justice and patriotism put themselves into harmony +with the guiding principles of his entire moral +evolution. The integrity of his philosophy of life, +the sterling honesty of his teachings, were thus +loyally sealed with the very blood of his heart.—“Before +closing this book,” he says in the Epilogue,<a name="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">(3)</a> +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_7" title="7"> </a> +“I wish to weigh for the last time in my +conscience the words of hatred and malediction +which it has made me speak in spite of myself.” +And then, true prophet that he is, he speaks forth +as a voice from the future, admonishing men to +prepare for the time when the war is over. What +saner advice could at this critical time be given +the stay-at-homes than that they should follow +the example of the men who return from the +trenches? “They detest the enemy,” says he, “but +they do not hate the man. They recognize in him +a brother in misfortune who, like themselves, is +submitting to duties and laws which, like themselves, +he too believes lofty and necessary.” On +the other hand, too, not many have sensed as +deeply as has Maeterlinck the grandeur to which +humanity has risen through the immeasurable +pathos of the war. “Setting aside the unpardonable +aggression and the inexpiable violation of the +treaties, this war, despite its insanity, has come +near to being a bloody but magnificent proof of +greatness, heroism, and the spirit of sacrifice.” +And from his profound anguish over the fate of +his beloved Belgium this consolation is wrung: +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_8" title="8"> </a> +“If it be true, as I believe, that humanity is worth +just as much as the sum total of latent heroism +which it contains, then we may declare that humanity +was never stronger nor more exemplary +than now and that it is at this moment reaching +one of its highest points and capable of braving +everything and hoping everything. And it is for +this reason that, despite our present sadness, we +are entitled to congratulate ourselves and to rejoice.” +Altogether, Maeterlinck's thoughts and +actions throughout this yet unfinished mighty fate-drama +of history challenge the highest respect for +the clarity of his intellect and the profoundness of +his humanity.</p> + +<p>The appalling disaster that has befallen the +Belgian people is sure to stamp their national character +with indelible marks; so that it is safe to +predict that never again will the type of civilization +which before the war reigned in the basins +of the Meuse and the Scheldt reëstablish itself in +its full peculiarity and distinctiveness which was +the result of a unique coagency of Germanic and +Romanic ingredients of culture. Yet in the amalgam +of the two heterogeneous elements a certain +competitive antithesis had survived, and manifested +itself, in the individual as in the national +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_9" title="9"> </a> +life at large, in a number of unreconciled temperamental +contrasts, and in the fundamental unlikeness +exhibited in the material and the spiritual activities. +Witness the contrast between the bustling +aggressiveness in the province of practical affairs +and the metaphysical drift of modern Flemish art. +To any one familiar with the visible materialism +of the population in its external mode of living +it may have seemed strange to notice how sedulously +a numerous set among the younger artists +of the land were facing away from their concrete +environment, as though to their over-sensitive +nervous system it were irremediably offensive. +The vigorous solidity of Constantin Meunier, the +great plastic interpreter of the “Black Country” +of Belgium, found but few wholehearted imitators +among the sculptors, while among the painters +that robust terrestrialism of which the work of a +Rubens or Teniers and their countless disciples +was the artistic upshot, was almost totally relinquished, +and linear firmness and colorful vitality +yielded the day to pallid, discarnately decorative +artistry even, in a measure, in the “applied art” +products of a Henri van de Velde.</p> + +<p>It is in the field of literature, naturally enough, +that the contrast is resolved and integrated into +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_10" title="10"> </a> +a characteristic unity. Very recently Professor +A. J. Carnoy has definitely pointed out<a name="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">(4)</a> the +striking commixture of the realistic and imaginative +elements in the work of the Flemish symbolists. +“The vision of the Flemings”—quoting from +his own <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">précis</i> of his paper—“is very concrete, +very exact in all details and gives a durable, real, +and almost corporeal presence to the creations of +the imagination. All these traits are exhibited in +the reveries of the Flemish mystics, ancient and +modern. One finds them also no less plainly in +the poetic work of Belgian writers of the last +generation: Maeterlinck, Verhaeren, Rodenbach, +Van Lerberghe, Le Roy, Elskamp, etc.”</p> + +<p>If we take into account this composite attitude +of the Flemish mind we shall be less surprised at +the remarkable evolution of a poet-philosopher +whose creations seem at first blush to bear no resemblance +to the outward complexion of his own +age; who seems as far removed temperamentally +from his locality and time as were his lineal spiritual +ancestors: the Dutchman Ruysbroeck, the +Scandinavian Swedenborg, the German Novalis, +and the American Emerson—and who in the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_11" title="11"> </a> +zenith of his career stands forth as an ardent advocate +of practical action while at the same time a +firm believer in the transcendental.</p> + +<p>Maeterlinck's romantic antipathy towards the +main drift of the age was a phenomenon which at +the dawn of our century could be observed in a +great number of superior intelligences. Those +fugitives from the dun and sordid materialism of +the day were likely to choose between two avenues +of escape, according to their greater or lesser +inner ruggedness. The more aggressive type +would engage in multiform warfare for the reconstruction +of life on sounder principles; whereas +the more meditative professed a real or affected +indifference to practical things and eschewed any +participation in the world's struggle for progress. +And of the quiescent rather than the insurgent +variety of the romantic temper Maurice Maeterlinck +was the foremost exponent.</p> + +<p>The “romantic longing” seems to have come +into the world in the company of the Christian religion +with which it shares its partly outspoken, +partly implied repugnance for the battle of life. +Romantic periods occur in the history of civilization +whenever a sufficiently influential set of artistically +minded persons have persuaded themselves +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_12" title="12"> </a> +that, in quite a literal sense of the colloquial +phrase, they “have no use” for the world; a discovery +which would still be true were it stated +obversely. The romantic world-view, thus fundamentally +oriented by world-contempt, entails, at +least in theory, the repudiation of all earthly +joys—notably the joy of working—and the renouncement +of all worldly ambition; it scorns the +cooperative, social disposition, invites the soul to +a progressive withdrawal into the inner ego, and +ends in complete surrender to one sole aspiration: +the search of the higher vision, the vision, that is, +of things beyond their tangible reality. To such +mystical constructions of the inner eye a certain +group of German writers who flourished in the +beginning of the nineteenth century and were +known as the Romantics, darkly groped their way +out of the confining realities of their own time. +The most modern spell of romanticism, the one +through which our own generation was but yesterday +passing, measures its difference from any previous +romantic era by the difference between +earlier states of culture and our own. Life with +us is conspicuously more assertive and aggressive +in its social than in its individual expressions, which +was by no means always so, and unless the romantic +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_13" title="13"> </a> +predisposition adapted itself to this important +change it could not relate itself at all intimately +to our interests. Our study of Maeterlinck +should help us, therefore, to discover possibly in +the new romantic tendency some practical and +vital bearings.</p> + +<p>We find that in the new romanticism esthetic +and philosophical impulses are inextricably mixed. +Hence the new movement is also playing an indispensable +rôle in the modern re-foundation of art. +For while acting as a wholesome offset to the so-called +naturalism, in its firm refusal to limit inner +life to the superficial realities, it at the same time +combines with naturalism into a complete recoiling, +both of the intellect and the emotions, from +any commonplace, or pusillanimous, or mechanical +practices of artistry. This latter-day romanticism, +moreover, notwithstanding its sky-aspiring +outstretch, is akin to naturalism in that, after all, +it keeps its roots firmly grounded in the earth; +that is to say, it seeks for its ulterior sanctions not +in realms high beyond the self; rather it looks +within for the “blue flower” of contentedness. Already +to the romantics of old the mystic road to +happiness was not unknown. It is, for instance, +pointed by Novalis: “Inward leads the mysterious +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_14" title="14"> </a> +way. Within us or nowhere lies eternity with +its worlds; within us or nowhere are the past and +the future.” Viewed separately from other elements +of romanticism, this passion for retreating +within the central ego is commonly referred to as +mysticism; it has a strong hold on many among the +moderns, and Maurice Maeterlinck to be properly +understood has to be understood as the poet <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">par +excellence</i> of modern mysticism. By virtue of this +special office he deals mainly in concepts of the +transcendental, which puzzles the ordinary person +accustomed to perceive only material and ephemeral +realities. Maeterlinck holds that nothing +matters that is not eternal and that what keeps us +from enjoying the treasures of the universe is the +hereditary resignation with which we tarry in the +gloomy prison of our senses. “In reality, we +live only from soul to soul, and we are gods who +do not know each other.”<a name="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">(5)</a> It follows from this +metaphysical foundation of his art that instead of +the grosser terminology suitable to plain realities, +Maeterlinck must depend upon a code of subtle +messages in order to establish between himself +and his audience a line of spiritual communication. +This makes it somewhat difficult for people of +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_15" title="15"> </a> +cruder endowment to appreciate his meaning, a +grievance from which in the beginning many of +them sought redress in facile scoffing. Obtuse +minds are prone to claim a right to fathom the +profound meanings of genius with the same ease +with which they expect to catch the meaning of +a bill of fare or the daily stock market report.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>It must be confessed, however, that even those +to whom Maeterlinck's sphere of thought is not +so utterly sealed, enter it with a sense of mixed +perplexity and apprehension. They feel themselves +helplessly conducted through a world situated +beyond the confines of their normal consciousness, +and in this strange world everything that +comes to pass appears at first extremely impracticable +and unreal. The action seems “wholly dissevered +from common sense and ordinary uses;” +the figures behave otherwise than humans; the +dialogue is “poised on the edge of a precipice of +bathos.” It is clear that works so far out of the +common have to be approached from the poet's +own point of view. “Let the reader move his +standpoint one inch nearer the popular standpoint,” +thus we are warned by Mr. G. K. Chesterton, +“and his attitude towards the poet will be +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_16" title="16"> </a> +harsh, hostile, unconquerable mirth.” There are +some works that can be appreciated for their +good story, even if we fail to realize the author's +moral attitude, let alone to grasp the deeper content +of his work. “But if we take a play by Maeterlinck +we shall find that unless we grasp the particular +fairy thread of thought the poet rather +lazily flings to us, we cannot grasp anything whatever. +Except from one extreme poetic point of +view, the thing is not a play; it is not a bad play, +it is a mass of clotted nonsense. One whole act +describes the lovers going to look for a ring in a +distant cave when they both know they have +dropped it down the well. Seen from some secret +window on some special side of the soul's turret, +this might convey a sense of faerie futility in our +human life. But it is quite obvious that unless it +called forth that one kind of sympathy, it would +call forth nothing but laughter. In the same play, +the husband chases his wife with a drawn sword, +the wife remarking at intervals, ‘I am not gay.’ +Now there may really be an idea in this; the idea +of human misfortune coming most cruelly upon the +opportunism of innocence; that the lonely human +heart says, like a child at a party, ‘I am not enjoying +myself as I thought I should.’ But it is +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_17" title="17"> </a> +plain that unless one thinks of this idea, and of +this idea only, the expression is not in the least +unsuccessful pathos,—it is very broad and highly +successful farce!”</p> + +<p>And so the atmosphere of Maeterlinck's plays +is impregnated throughout with oppressive mysteries, +and until the key of these mysteries is found +there is very little meaning to the plays. Moreover, +these mysteries, be they never so stern and +awe-inspiring, are irresistibly alluring. The reason +is, they are our own mysteries that have somehow +escaped our grasp, and that we fain would +recapture, because there dwells in every human +breast a vague assent to the immortal truth of +Goethe's assertion: “The thrill of awe is man's +best heritage.”<a name="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">(6)</a></p> + +<p>The imaginative equipment of Maeterlinck's +dramaturgy is rather limited and, on its face value, +trite. In particular are his dramatis personae +creatures by no means calculated to overawe by +some extraordinary weirdness or power. And yet +we feel ourselves touched by an elemental dread +and by an overwhelming sense of our human impotence +in the presence of these figures who, without +seeming supernatural, are certainly not of common +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_18" title="18"> </a> +flesh and blood; they impress us as surpassingly +strange mainly because somehow they are instinct +with a life fundamentally more real than the superficial +reality we know. For they are the mediums +and oracles of the fateful powers that stir human +beings into action.</p> + +<p>The poet of mysticism, then, delves into the +mystic sources of our deeds, and makes us stand +reverent with him before the unknowable forces +by which we are controlled. Naturally he is +obliged to shape his visions in dim outline. His +aim is to shadow forth that which no naked eye +can see, and it may be said in passing that he attains +this aim with a mastery and completeness +incomparably beyond the dubious skill displayed +more recently by the grotesque gropings of the so-called +futurist school. Perhaps one true secret of +the perturbing strangeness of Maeterlinck's figures +lies in the fact that the basic principle of their life, +the one thoroughly vital element in them, if it does +not sound too paradoxical to say so, is the idea of +death. Maeterlinck's mood and temper are fully +in keeping with the religious dogma that life is but +a short dream—with Goethe he believes that “all +things transitory but as symbols are sent,” and +apparently concurs in the creed voiced by one of +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_19" title="19"> </a> +Arthur Schnitzler's characters,—that death is the +only subject in life worthy of being pondered by +the serious mind. “From our death onwards,” +so he puts it somewhere, “the adventure of the +universe becomes our own adventure.”</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>It will be useful to have a bit of personal information +concerning our author. He started his +active career as a barrister; not by any means auspiciously, +it seems, for already in his twenty-seventh +year he laid the toga aside. Experience +had convinced him that in the forum there were +no laurels for him to pluck. The specific qualities +that make for success at the bar were conspicuously +lacking in his make-up. Far from being eloquent, +he has at all times been noted for an unparalleled +proficiency in the art of self-defensive +silence. He shuns banal conversation and the +sterile distractions of promiscuous social intercourse, +dreads the hubbub of the city, and has an +intense dislike for travel, to which he resorts only +as a last means of escape from interviewers, reporters, +and admirers. Maeterlinck, it is seen, is +anything but <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">multorum vir hominum</i>. In order to +preserve intact his love of humanity, he finds it +expedient to live for the most part by himself, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_20" title="20"> </a> +away from the throng “whose very plaudits give +the heart a pang;” his fame has always been a +source of annoyance to him. The only company +he covets is that of the contemplative thinkers of +bygone days,—the mystics, gnostics, cabalists, neo-Platonists. +Swedenborg and Plotinus are perhaps +his greatest favorites. That the war has produced +a mighty agitation in the habitual calm of +the great Belgian poet-philosopher goes without +saying. His love of justice no less than his love of +his country aroused every red corpuscle in his +virile personality to violent resentment against the +invader. Since the war broke out, however, he +has published nothing besides a number of ringingly +eloquent and singularly pathetic articles and +appeals,—so that the character portrait derived +from the body of his work has not at this time +lost its application to his personality.</p> + +<p>In cast of mind, Maeterlinck is sombrously +meditative, and he has been wise in framing his +outer existence so that it would accord with his +habitual detachment. The greater part of his +time used to be divided between his charming retreat +at <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Quatre Chemins</i>, near Grasse, and the +grand old abbey of St. Wandrille in Normandy, +which he managed to snatch in the very nick of +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_21" title="21"> </a> +time from the tightening clutch of a manufacturing +concern. With the temperament of a hermit, he +has been, nevertheless, a keen observer of life, +though one preferring to watch the motley spectacle +from the aristocratic privacy of his box, +sheltered, as it were, from prying curiosity. Well +on in middle age, he is still an enthusiastic out-of-doors +man,—gardener, naturalist, pedestrian, +wheelman, and motorist, and commands an extraordinary +amount of special knowledge in a variety +of sports and sciences. In “The Double Garden” +he discusses the automobile with the authority +of an expert watt-man and mechanician. In +one of his other books he evinces an extraordinary +erudition in all matters pertaining to the higher +education of dogs; and his work on “The Life of +the Bee” passes him beyond question with high +rank among “thirty-third degree” apiculturists.</p> + +<p>One of the characteristics that seem to separate +his books, especially those of the earlier period, +from the literary tendencies of his age, is their +surprising inattention to present social struggles. +His metaphysical bias makes him dwell almost exclusively, +and with great moral and logical consistency, +on aspects of life that are slightly considered +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_22" title="22"> </a> +by the majority of men yet which he regards +as ulteriorly of sole importance.</p> + +<p>When men like Maeterlinck are encountered in +the world of practical affairs, they are bound to +impress us as odd, because of this inversion of the +ordinary policies of behavior. But before classing +them as “cranks,” we might well ask ourselves +whether their appraisal of the component values +of life does not, after all, correspond better to +their true relativity than does our own habitual +evaluation. With the average social being, the +transcendental bearing of a proposition is synonymous +with its practical unimportance. But in his +essay on “The Invisible Goodness” Maeterlinck +quite properly raises the question: “Is visible life +alone of consequence, and are we made up only of +things that can be grasped and handled like pebbles +in the road?”</p> + +<p>Throughout his career Maeterlinck reveals himself +in the double aspect of poet and philosopher. +In the first period his philosophy, as has already +been amply hinted, is characterized chiefly by aversion +from the externalities of life, and by that +tense introversion of the mind which forms the +mystic's main avenue to the goal of knowledge. +But if, in order to find the key to his tragedies and +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_23" title="23"> </a> +puppet plays, we go to the thirteen essays representing +the earlier trend of his philosophy and issued +in 1896 under the collective title, “The +Treasure of the Humble,” we discover easily that +his cast of mysticism is very different from that of +his philosophic predecessors and teachers in the +fourteenth and nineteenth centuries, in particular +from the devotional mysticism of the “Admirable” +John Ruysbroeck, and Friedrich von Hardenberg-Novalis. +Maeterlinck does not strive after the so-called +“spiritual espousals,” expounded by the +“doctor ecstaticus,” Ruysbroeck, in his celebrated +treatise where Christ is symbolized as the divine +groom and Human Nature as the bride glowing +with desire for union with God. Maeterlinck +feels too modernly to make use of that ancient +sensuous imagery. The main thesis of his mystical +belief is that there are divine forces dormant +in human nature; how to arouse and release them, +constitutes the paramount problem of human life. +His doctrine is that a life not thus energized by its +own latent divineness is, and must remain, humdrum +and worthless. It will at once be noticed +that such a doctrine harmonizes thoroughly with +the romantic aspiration. Both mystic and romantic +teach that, in the last resort, the battlefield +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_24" title="24"> </a> +of our fate lies not out in the wide world but that +it is enclosed in the inner self, within the unknown +quantity which we designate as our soul. The visible +life, according to this modern prophet of mysticism, +obeys the invisible; happiness and unhappiness +flow exclusively from the inner sources.</p> + +<p>Maeterlinck's speculations, despite their medieval +provenience, have a practical orientation. He +firmly believes that it is within the ability of mankind +to raise some of the veils that cover life's central +secret. In unison with some other charitable +students of society, he holds to the faith that a +more highly spiritualized era is dawning, and from +the observed indications he prognosticates a wider +awakening of the sleepbound soul of man. And +certainly some of the social manifestations that +appeared with cumulative force during the constructive +period before the war were calculated to +justify that faith. The revival of interest in the +metaphysical powers of man which expressed itself +almost epidemically through such widely divergent +cults as Theosophy and Christian Science, +was indubitable proof of spiritual yearnings in the +broader masses of the people. And it had a practical +counterpart in civic tendencies and reforms +that evidenced a great agitation of the social conscience. +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_25" title="25"> </a> +And even to-day, when the great majority +feel that the universal embroilment has caused +civilized man to fall from his laboriously achieved +level, this sage in his lofty solitude feels the redeeming +spiritual connotation of our great calamity. +“Humanity was ready to rise above itself, +to surpass all that it had hitherto accomplished. +It has surpassed it…. Never before had nations +been seen that were able as a whole to understand +that the happiness of each of those who live +in this time of trial is of no consequence compared +with the honor of those who live no more or the +happiness of those who are not yet alive. We stand +on heights that had not been attained before.”</p> + +<p>But even for those many who find themselves +unable to build very large hopes on the spiritual +uplift of mankind through disaster, Maeterlinck's +philosophy is a wholesome tonic. In the +essay on “The Life Profound” in “The Treasure +of the Humble,” we are told: “Every man must +find for himself in the low and unavoidable reality +of common life his special possibility of a higher +existence.” The injunction, trite though it sound, +articulates a moral very far from philistine. For +it urges the pursuit of the transcendental self +through those feelings which another very great +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_26" title="26"> </a> +idealist, Friedrich Schiller, describes in magnificent +metaphor as</p> + +<div class="poetry italic width18" lang="de" xml:lang="de"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">… “der dunklen Gefühle Gewalt,<br/></div> +<div class="line">die im Herzen wunderbar schliefen.”<br/></div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="no-indent">In the labyrinth of the subliminal consciousness +there lurks, however, a great danger for the seeker +after the hidden treasures: the paralyzing effect +of fatalism upon the normal energies. Maeterlinck +was seriously threatened by this danger +during his earlier period. How he eventually +contrived his liberation from the clutch of fatalism +is not made entirely clear by the progress of +his thought. At all events, an era of greater intellectual +freedom, which ultimately was to create +him the undisputed captain of his soul and +master of his fate, was soon to arrive for him. It +is heralded by another book of essays: “Wisdom +and Destiny.” But, as has been stated, we may +in his case hardly hope to trace the precise route +traveled by the mind between the points of departure +and arrival.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>So closely are the vital convictions in this truthful +writer linked with the artistic traits of his work +that without some grasp of his metaphysics even +the technical peculiarities of his plays cannot be +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_27" title="27"> </a> +fully appreciated. To the mystic temper of mind, +all life is secretly pregnant with great meaning, +so that none of its phenomena can be deemed inconsequential. +Thus, while Maeterlinck is a poet +greatly preoccupied with spiritual matters yet +nothing to him is more wonderful and worthy of +attention than the bare facts and processes of +living. Real life, just like the theatre which +purports to represent it, manipulates a multiform +assortment of stage effects, now coarse and obvious +and claptrap, now refined and esoteric, to suit +the diversified taste and capacity of the patrons. +To the cultured esthetic sense the tragical tendency +carries more meaning than the catastrophic finale; +our author accordingly scorns, and perhaps inordinately, +whatsoever may appear as merely adventitious +in the action of plays. “What can be told,” +he exclaims, “by beings who are possessed of a +fixed idea and have no time to live because they +have to kill off a rival or a mistress?” The internalized +action in his plays is all of one piece with +the profound philosophical conviction that the +inner life alone matters; that consequently the +small and unnoticed events are more worthy of attention +than the sensational, cataclysmic moments. +“Why wait ye,” he asks in that wonderful rhapsody +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_28" title="28"> </a> +on “Silence”<a name="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">(7)</a> “for Heaven to open at the +strike of the thunderbolt? Ye should attend upon +the blessed hours when it silently opens—and it is +incessantly opening.”</p> + +<p>His purpose, then, is to reveal the working of +hidden forces in their intricate and inseparable +connection with external events; and in order that +the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vie intérieure</i> might have the right of way, +drama in his practice emancipates itself very far +from the traditional realistic methods. “Poetry,” +he maintains, “has no other purpose than to keep +open the great roads that lead from the visible +to the invisible.” To be sure, this definition postulates, +rather audaciously, a widespread spiritual +susceptibility. But in Maeterlinck's optimistic +anthropology no human being is spiritually so +deadened as to be forever out of all communication +with the things that are divine and infinite. +He fully realizes, withal, that for the great mass +of men there exists no intellectual approach to +the truly significant problems of life. It is rather +through our emotional capacity that our spiritual +experience brings us into touch with the final verities. +Anyway, the poet of mysticism appeals from +the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">impasse</i> of pure reasoning to the voice of the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_29" title="29"> </a> +inner oracles. But how to detect in the deepest +recesses of the soul the echoes of universal life +and give outward resonance to their faint reverberations? +That is the artistic, and largely technical, +side of the problem.</p> + +<p>Obvious it is that if the beholder's collaboration +in the difficult enterprise is to be secured, his +imagination has to be stirred to a super-normal +degree. Once a dramatist has succeeded in stimulating +the imaginative activity, he can dispense +with a mass of descriptive detail. But he must +comply with two irremissible technical demands. +In the first place, the “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vie intérieure</i>” calls forth +a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">dialogue intérieur</i>; an esoteric language, I would +say, contrived predominantly for the “expressional” +functions of speech, as differenced from its +“impressional” purposes. Under Swedenborg's +fanciful theory of “correspondences” the literal +meaning of a word is merely a sort of protective +husk for its secret spiritual kernel. It is this inner, +essential meaning that Maeterlinck's dialogue +attempts to set free. By a fairly simple and consistent +code of intimations the underlying meaning +of the colloquy is laid bare and a basis created +for a more fundamental understanding of the +dramatic transactions. Maeterlinck going, at first, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_30" title="30"> </a> +to undue lengths in this endeavor, exposed the diction +of his dramas to much cheap ridicule. The +extravagant use of repetition, in particular, made +him a mark for facile burlesque. The words of +the Queen in <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Princesse Maleine</i>: “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Mais ne répetez +pas toujours ce que l'on dit</i>,” were sarcastically +turned against the poet himself.</p> + +<p>As a result of the extreme simplicity of his dialogue, +Maeterlinck was reproached with having +invented the “monosyllabic theatre,” the “theatre +without words,” and with having perpetrated +a surrogate sort of drama, a hybrid between +libretto and pantomime.</p> + +<p>The fact, however, is, his characters speak a +language which, far from being absurd, as it was +at first thought to be by many of his readers, is +instinct with life and quite true to life—to life, +that is, as made articulate in the intense privacy of +dreams, or hallucinations, or moments of excessive +emotional perturbation.</p> + +<p>The other principal requisite for the attainment +of the inner dramatic vitalness in drama is a pervasive +atmospheric mood, a sustained <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Stimmung</i>. +This, in the case of Maeterlinck, is brought about +by the combined employment of familiar and +original artistic devices.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="Page_31" title="31"> </a>The grave and melancholy mood that so deeply +impregnates the work of Maeterlinck is tinged in +the earlier stage, as has been pointed out, with the +sombre coloring of fatalism. In the first few +books, in particular, there hovers a brooding sense +of terror and an undefinable feeling of desolation. +Through <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Serres Chaudes</i> (“Hot Houses”), his +first published book, (1889), there runs a tenor +of weariness, of ideal yearnings overshadowed by +the hopelessness of circumstances. Even in this +collection of poems, where so much less necessity +exists for a unity of mood than in the plays, Maeterlinck's +predilection for scenic effects suggestive +of weirdness and superstitious fear became apparent +in the recurrent choice of sombre scenic motifs: +oppressive nocturnal silence,—a stagnant sheet of +water,—moonlight filtered through green windows, +etc. The diction, too, through the incessant +use of terms like <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">morne</i>, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">las</i>, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pâle</i>, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">désire</i>, +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">ennui</i>, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">tiède</i>, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">indolent</i>, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">malade</i>, exhales as it were a +lazy resignation. Temporarily, then, the fatalistic +strain is uppermost both in the philosophy +and the poetry of the rising young author; and +to make matters worse, his is the fatalism of pessimistic +despair: Fate is forsworn against man. +The objective point of life is death. We constantly +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_32" title="32"> </a> +receive warnings from within, but the +voices are not unequivocal and emphatic enough to +save us from ourselves.</p> + +<p>Probing the abysses of his subliminal self, the +mystic may sense, along with the diviner promptings +of the heart, the lurking demons that undermine +happiness,—“the malignant powers,”—again +quoting Schiller—“whom no man's craft can make +familiar”—that element in human nature which +in truth makes man “his own worst enemy.” It +is a search which at this stage of his development +Maeterlinck, as a mystic, cannot bring himself to +relinquish, even though, pessimistically, he anticipates +that which he most dreads to find; in this +way, fatalism and pessimism act as insuperable +barriers against his artistic self-assertion. His +fixed frame of mind confines him to the representation +of but one elemental instinct, namely, that of +fear. The rustic in the German fairy tale who +sallied forth to learn how to shudder,—<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">gruseln</i>,—would +have mastered the art to his complete satisfaction +if favored with a performance or two of +such plays as “Princess Maleine,” “The Intruder,” +or “The Sightless.” Perhaps no other dramatist +has ever commanded a similarly well-equipped arsenal +of thrills and terrible foreshadowings. The +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_33" title="33"> </a> +commonest objects are fraught with ominous forebodings: +a white gown lying on a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">prie-dieu</i>, a curtain +suddenly set swaying by a puff of air, the melancholy +soughing of a clump of trees,—the simplest +articles of daily use are converted into awful +symbols that make us shiver by their whisperings +of impending doom.</p> + +<p>Nor in the earlier products of Maeterlinck are +the cruder practices of melodrama scorned or +spared,—the crash and flash of thunder and lightning, +the clang of bells and clatter of chains, the +livid light and ghastly shadows, the howling hurricane, +the ominous croaking of ravens amid nocturnal +solitude, trees illumined by the fiery eyes of +owls, bats whirring portentously through the +gloom,—so many harbingers of dread and death. +And the prophetic import of these tokens and their +sort is reinforced by repeated assertions from the +persons in the action that never before has anything +like this been known to occur. To such a +fearsome state are we wrought up by all this uncanny +apparatus that at the critical moment a well +calculated knock at the door is sufficient to make +our flesh creep and our hair stand on end.</p> + +<p>Thus, the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vie intérieure</i> would seem to prerequire +for its externalization a completely furnished +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_34" title="34"> </a> +chamber of horrors. And when it is added that +the scene of the action is by preference a lonely +churchyard or a haunted old mansion, a crypt, a +cavern, a silent forest or a solitary tower, it is +easy to understand why plays like “Princess Maleine” +could be classed by superficial and unfriendly +critics with the gruesome ebullitions of that +fantastic quasi-literary occupation to which we +owe a well known variety of “water-front” drama +and, in fiction, the “shilling shocker.” Their immeasurably +greater psychological refinement could +not save them later on from condemnation at the +hands of their own maker. And yet they are not +without very great artistic merits. Octave Mirbeau, +in his habitual enthusiasm for the out-of-the-ordinary, +hailed Maeterlinck, on the strength of +“Princess Maleine,” as the Belgian Shakespeare, +evidently because Maeterlinck derived some of his +motifs from “Hamlet”: mainly the churchyard +scene, and Prince Hjalmar's defiance of the queen, +as well as his general want of decision. As a matter +of fact, Maeterlinck has profoundly studied, +not Shakespeare alone, but the minor Elizabethans +as well. He has made an admirable translation +of “Macbeth.” Early in his career he even +translated one of John Ford's Plays, “'Tis Pity +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_35" title="35"> </a> +She's a Whore,” one of the coarsest works ever +written for the stage, but to which he was attracted +by the intrinsic human interest that far outweighs +its offensiveness. As for any real kinship +of Maeterlinck with Shakespeare, the resemblance +between the two is slight. They differ philosophically +in the fundamental frame of mind, ethically +in the outlook upon life, dramaturgically in the +value attached to external action, and humanly,—much +to the disadvantage of the Belgian,—in their +sense of humor. For unfortunately it has to be +confessed that this supreme gift of the gods has +been very sparingly dispensed to Maeterlinck. Altogether, +whether or no he is to be counted among +the disciples of Shakespeare, his works show no +great dependence on the master. With far better +reason might he be called a debtor to Germanic +folklore, especially in its fantastic elements.</p> + +<p>A German fairy world it is to which we are +transported by Maeterlinck's first dramatic attempt, +“Princess Maleine,” (1889), a play refashioned +after Grimm's tale of the Maid Maleen; +only that in the play all the principals come to a +harrowing end and that in it an esoteric meaning +lies concealed underneath the primitive plot. The +action, symbolically interpreted, illustrates the fatalist's +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_36" title="36"> </a> +doctrine that man is nothing but a toy in +the hands of dark and dangerous powers. Practical +wisdom does not help us to discern the working +of these powers until it is too late. Neither +can we divine their presence, for the prophetic apprehension +of the future resides not in the expert +and proficient, but rather in the helpless or decrepit,—the +blind, the feeble-minded, and the +stricken in years, or again in young children and in +dumb animals. Take the scene in “Princess Maleine” +where the murderers, having invaded the +chamber, lie there in wait, with bated breath. In +the corridor outside, people are unconcernedly +passing to and fro, while the only creatures who, +intuitively, sense the danger, are the little Prince +and a dog that keeps anxiously scraping at the +door.</p> + +<p>In <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L'Intruse</i> (“The Intruder”), (1890), a one-act +play on a theme which is collaterally developed +later on in <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Aveugles</i> (“The Sightless”), and +in <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L'Intérieur</i> (“Home”), the arriving disaster +that cannot be shut out by bolts or bars announces +itself only to the clairvoyant sense of a blind old +man. The household gathered around the table is +placidly waiting for the doctor. Only the blind +grandfather is anxious and heavy-laden because he +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_37" title="37"> </a> +alone knows that Death is entering the house, he +alone can feel his daughter's life withering away +under the breath of the King of Terror: the sightless +have a keener sensitiveness than the seeing +for what is screened from the physical eye.</p> + +<p>It would hardly be possible to name within the +whole range of dramatic literature another work +so thoroughly pervaded with the chilling horror +of approaching calamity. The talk at the table is +of the most commonplace,—that the door will not +shut properly, and they must send for the carpenter +to-morrow. But from the mechanism of +the environment there comes cumulative and incremental +warning that something extraordinary and +fatal is about to happen. The wind rises, the +trees shiver, the nightingales break off their singing, +the fishes in the pond grow restive, the dogs +cower in fear,—an unseen Presence walks through +the garden. Then the clanging of a scythe is +heard. A cold current of air rushes into the room. +Nearer and nearer come the steps. The grandfather +insists that a stranger has seated himself +in the midst of the family. The lamp goes out. +The bell strikes midnight. The old man is sure +that somebody is rising from the table. Then +suddenly the baby whose voice has never been +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_38" title="38"> </a> +heard starts crying. Through an inner door steps +a deaconess silently crossing herself: the mother +of the house is dead.</p> + +<p>These incidents in themselves are not necessarily +miraculous. There are none of them but +might be accounted for on perfectly natural +grounds. In fact, very plausible explanations do +offer themselves for the weirdest things that come +to pass. So, especially, it was a real, ordinary +mower that chanced to whet his scythe; yet the +apparition of the Old Reaper in person could not +cause the chilling consternation produced by this +trivial circumstance coming as it does as the climax +of a succession of commonplace happenings exaggerated +and distorted by a fear-haunted imagination. +To produce an effect like that upon +an audience whose credulity refuses to be put to +any undue strain is a victorious proof of prime +artistic ability.</p> + +<p><i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Aveugles</i> (“The Sightless”), (1891), is +pitched in the same psychological key. The atmosphere +is surcharged with unearthly apprehension. +A dreary twilight—in the midst of a +thick forest—on a lonely island; twelve blind +people fretting about the absence of their guardian. +He is gone to find a way out of the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_39" title="39"> </a> +woods—what can have become of him? From +moment to moment the deserted, helpless band +grows more fearstricken. The slightest sound becomes +the carrier of evil forebodings: the rustling +of the foliage, the flapping of a bird's wings, +the swelling roar of the nearby sea in its dash +against the shore. The bell strikes twelve—they +wonder is it noon or night? Then questions, eager +and calamitous, pass in whispers among them: +Has the leader lost his way? Will he never come +back? Has the dam burst apart and will they all +be swallowed by the ocean? The pathos is greatly +heightened by an extremely delicate yet sure individuation +of the figures, as when at the mention of +Heaven those not sightless from birth raise their +countenance to the sky. And where in the meanwhile +is the lost leader? He is seated right in their +midst, but smitten by death. They learn it at last +through the actions of the dog; besides whom—in +striking parallel to “Princess Maleine”—the only +other creature able to see is a little child. The horror-stricken +unfortunates realize that they can +never get home, and that they must perish in the +woods.</p> + +<p>In <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Sept Princesses</i> (“The Seven Princesses”), +(1891), although it is one of Maeterlinck's +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_40" title="40"> </a> +minor achievements, some of the qualities +that are common to all his work become peculiarly +manifest. This is particularly true of the skill +shown in conveying the feeling of the story by +means of suitable scenic devices. Most of his +plays depend to a considerable degree for their +dark and heavy nimbus of unreality upon a studied +combination of paraphernalia in themselves +neither numerous nor far-sought. In fact, the resulting +scenic repertory, too, is markedly limited: +a weird forest, a deserted castle with marble staircase +and dreamy moonlit terrace, a tower with +vaulted dungeons, a dismal corridor flanked by impenetrable +chambers, a lighted interior viewed +from the garden, a landscape bodefully crêped +with twilight—the list nearly exhausts his store +of “sets.”</p> + +<p>The works mentioned so far are hardly more +than able exercises preparatory for the ampler +and more finished products which were to succeed +them. Yet they represent signal steps in the evolution +of a new dramatic style, designed, as has +already been intimated, to give palpable form to +emotional data descried in moments anterior not +only to articulation but even to consciousness itself; +and for this reason, the plane of the dramatic +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_41" title="41"> </a> +action lies deep below the surface of life, down in +the inner tabernacle where the mystic looks for the +hidden destinies. In his style, Maeterlinck had +gradually developed an unprecedented capacity for +bringing to light the secret agencies of fate. A +portion of the instructed public had already +learned to listen in his writings for the finer reverberations +that swing in the wake of the uttered +phrase, to heed the slightest hints and allusions in +the text, to overlook no glance or gesture that +might betray the mind of the acting characters. +It is true that art to be great must be plain, but +that does not mean that the sole test of great art +is the response of the simple and apathetic.</p> + +<p>In Maeterlinck's first masterpiece, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Pélléas et +Mélisande</i>, (1892), the motives again are drawn +up from the lower regions of consciousness; once +more the plot is born of a gloomy fancy, and the +darkling mood hovering over scene and action +attests the persistence of fatalism in the poet. The +theory of old King Arkel, the spokesman of the +author's personal philosophy, is that one should +not seek to be active; one should ever wait on +the threshold of Fate. Even the younger people +in the play are infected by the morbid doctrine of +an inevitable necessity for all things that happen +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_42" title="42"> </a> +to them: “We do not go where we would go. +We do not do that which we would do.” Perhaps, +however, these beliefs are here enounced for the +last time with the author's assent or acquiescence.</p> + +<p>In artistic merit “Pélléas and Mélisande” marks +a nearer approach to mastery, once the integral +peculiarities of the form and method have been +granted. Despite a noticeable lack of force, directness, +and plasticity in the characterization, the +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">vie intérieure</i> is most convincingly expressed. In +one of the finest scenes of the play we see the principals +at night gazing out upon a measureless expanse +of water dotted with scattered lights. The +atmosphere is permeated with a reticent yearning +of love. The two young creatures, gentle, shy, +their souls tinged with melancholy, are drawn towards +one another by an ineluctable mutual attraction. +Yet, though their hearts are filled to +overflowing, not a word of affection is uttered. +Their love reveals itself to us even as to themselves, +without a loud and jarring declaration, +through its very speechlessness, as it were. The +situation well bears out the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">roi sage</i> in <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Alladine +et Palomides</i>: “There is a moment when souls +touch one another and know everything without +a need of our opening the lips.” There are still +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_43" title="43"> </a> +other scenes in this play so tense with emotion that +words would be intrusive and dissonant. There is +that lovely picture of Mélisande at the window; +Pélléas cannot reach up to her hand, but is satisfied +to feel her loosened hair about his face. It +is a question whether even that immortal love duet +in “Romeo and Juliet” casts a poetic spell more +enchanting than this. At another moment in the +drama, we behold the lovers in Maeterlinck's beloved +half-light, softly weeping as they stare with +speechless rapture into the flames. And not until +the final parting does any word of love pass their +lips. In another part of the play Goland, Mélisande's +aging husband, who suspects his young +stepbrother, Pélléas, of loving Mélisande, conducts +him to an underground chamber. We are +not told why he has brought him there, and why +he has led him to the brink of the pitfall from +which there mounts a smell of death. If it be a +heinous deed he is brooding, why does he pause in +its execution? His terrible struggle does not reveal +itself through speech, yet it is eloquently expressed +in the wildness of his looks, the trembling of his +voice, and the sudden anguished outcry: “Pélléas! +Pélléas!”</p> + +<p>Evidently Maeterlinck completely achieves the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_44" title="44"> </a> +very purpose to which the so-called Futurists think +they must sacrifice all traditional conceptions of +Art; and achieves it without any brutal stripping +and skinning of the poetic subject, without the +hideous exhibition of its <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">disjecta membra</i>, and +above all, without that implied disqualification for +the higher artistic mission which alone could induce +a man to limit his service to the dishing-up of +chunks and collops, “cubic” or amorphous.</p> + +<p>In recognition of a certain tendency towards +mannerism that lay in his technique, Maeterlinck, +in a spirit of self-persiflage, labeled the book of +one-act plays which he next published, (1894), +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Trois Petits Drames pour Marionettes</i> (“Three +Little Puppet Plays”). They are entitled, severally: +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Alladine et Palomides</i>, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Intérieur</i>, and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">La +Mort de Tintagiles</i>. While in motifs and materials +as well as in the principal points of style +these playlets present a sort of epitome of his artistic +progression up to date, they also display some +new and significant qualities. Of the three the +first named is most replete with suggestive symbolism +and at the same time most remindful of +the older plays, especially of “Pélléas and Mélisande.” +King Ablamore is in character and demeanor +clearly a counterpart of King Arkel. To +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_45" title="45"> </a> +be sure he makes a temporary stand against the +might of Fate, but his resistance is meek and futile, +and his wisdom culminates in the same old +fatalistic formula: “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Je sais qu'on ne fait pas ce +que l'on voudrait faire.</i>”</p> + +<p><i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L'Intérieur</i> (“Home”) handles a theme almost +identical with that of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L'Intruse</i>: Life and Death +separated only by a thin pane of glass,—the sudden +advent of affliction from a cloudless sky. In +this little tragedy a family scene, enacted in “dumb +show,” is watched from the outside. The play is +without suspense in the customary use of the term, +since after the first whispered conversation between +the bringers of the fateful tidings the audience +is fully aware of the whole story:—the +daughter of the house, for whose return the little +group is waiting, has been found dead in the river. +The quiescent mood is sustained to the end; no +great outburst of lamentation; the curtain drops +the instant the news has been conveyed. But the +poignancy of the tragic strain is only enhanced +by the repression of an exciting climax.</p> + +<p>“The Death of Tintagiles” repeats in a still +more harrowing form the fearful predicament of +a helpless child treated with so much dramatic +tension in Maeterlinck's first tragedy. Again, as +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_46" title="46"> </a> +in “Princess Maleine,” the action of this dramolet +attains its high point in a scene where murderous +treachery is about to spring the trap set for +an innocent young prince. Intuitively he senses +the approach of death, and in vain beats his little +fists against the door that imprisons him. The +situation is rendered more piteous even than in +the earlier treatment of the motif, because the +door which bars his escape also prevents his faithful +sister Ygraine from coming to the rescue.</p> + +<p>We have observed in all the plays so far a +marked simplicity of construction. <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Aglavaine et +Selysette</i>, (1896), denotes a still further simplification. +Here the scenic apparatus is reduced to the +very minimum, and the psychological premises are +correspondingly plain. The story presents a “triangular” +love entanglement strangely free from +the sensual ingredient; two women dream of sharing, +in all purity, one lover—and the dream ends +for one of them in heroic self-sacrifice brought to +secure the happiness of the rival. However, more +noteworthy than the structure of the plot is the +fact that the philosophic current flowing through it +has perceptibly altered its habitual direction. The +spiritual tendency is felt to be turning in its course, +and even though fatalism still holds the rule, with +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_47" title="47"> </a> +slowly relaxing grip, yet a changed ethical outlook +is manifest. Also, this play for the first time +proclaims, though in no vociferous manner, the +duty of the individual toward himself, the duty so +emphatically proclaimed by two of Maeterlinck's +greatest teachers, Ralph Waldo Emerson and +Henrik Ibsen.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>The inner philosophic conflict was but of short +duration. In 1898 <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">La Sagesse et La Destinée</i> +(“Wisdom and Destiny”) saw the light. The +metaphor might be taken in a meaning higher and +more precise than the customary, for, coming to +this book from those that preceded is indeed like +emerging from some dark and dismal cave into +the warm and cheering light of the sun. “Wisdom +and Destiny” is a collection of essays and aphorisms +which stands to this second phase of Maeterlinck's +dramaturgy in a relation closely analogous +to that existing between “The Treasure of the +Humble” and the works heretofore surveyed. +Without amounting to a wholesale recantation of +the idea that is central in the earlier set of essays, +the message of the newer set is of a very different +kind. The author of “Wisdom and Destiny” has +not changed his view touching the superiority of +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_48" title="48"> </a> +the intuitional function over the intellectual. The +significant difference between the old belief and +the new consists simply in this: the latent force of +life is no longer imagined as an antagonistic +agency; rather it is conceived as a benign energy +that makes for a serene acceptance of the world +that is. Of this turn in the outlook, the philosophic +affirmation of life and the consent of the +will to subserve the business of living are the salutary +concomitants. Wisdom, in expanding, has +burst the prison of fatalism and given freedom to +vision. The world, beheld in the light of this +emancipation, is not to be shunned by the wise +man. Let Fortune bring what she will, he can +strip his afflictions of their terrors by transmuting +them into higher knowledge. Therefore, pain +and suffering need not be feared and shirked; they +may even be hailed with satisfaction, for, as is +paradoxically suggested in <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Aglavaine et Selysette</i>, +they help man “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">être heureux en devenant plus +triste</i>,”—to be happy in becoming sadder. The +poet, who till now had clung to the conviction that +there can be no happy fate, that all our destinies +are guided by unlucky stars, now on the contrary +persuades us to consider how even calamity may +be refined in the medium of wisdom in such fashion +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_49" title="49"> </a> +as to become an asset of life, and warns us +against recoiling in spirit from any reverse of +our fortunes. He holds that blows and sorrows +cannot undo the sage. Fate has no weapons save +those we supply, and “wise is he for whom even +the evil must feed the pyre of love.” In fine, Fate +obeys him who dares to command it. After all, +then, man has a right to appoint himself the captain +of his soul, the master of his fate.</p> + +<p>Yet, for all that, the author of “Wisdom and +Destiny” should not be regarded as the partizan +and apologist of sadness for the sake of wisdom. +If sorrow be a rich mine of satisfaction, joy is by +far the richer mine. This new outlook becomes +more and more optimistic because of the increasing +faculty of such a philosophy to extract from +the mixed offerings of life a more near-at-hand +happiness than sufferings can possibly afford; not +perchance that perpetual grinning merriment over +the comicality of the passing spectacle which with +so many passes for a “sense of humor,” but rather +a calm and serious realization of what is lastingly +beautiful, good, and true. A person's attainment +of this beatitude imposes on him the clear duty of +helping others to rise to a similar exalted level of +existence. And this duty Maeterlinck seeks to discharge +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_50" title="50"> </a> +by proclaiming in jubilant accents the concrete +reality of happiness. <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L'Oiseau Bleu</i> (“The +Blue Bird”), above all other works, illustrates the +fact that human lives suffer not so much for the +lack of happiness as for the want of being clearly +conscious of the happiness they possess. It is seen +that the seed of optimism in “The Treasure of +the Humble” has sprouted and spread out, and at +last triumphantly shot forth through the overlaying +fatalism. The newly converted, hence all the +more thoroughgoing, optimist, believing that counsel +and consolation can come only from those who +trust in the regenerative power of hope, throws +himself into a mental attitude akin to that of the +Christian Scientist, and confidently proceeds to +cure the ills of human kind by a categorical denial +of their existence. Or perhaps it would be more +just to say of Maeterlinck's latter-day outlook, the +serenity of which even the frightful experience of +the present time has failed to destroy, that instead +of peremptorily negating evil, he merely denies +its supremacy. All about him he perceives in +the midst of the worst wrongs and evils many +fertile germs of righteousness; vice itself seems to +distil its own antitoxin.</p> + +<p>Together with Maeterlinck's optimistic strain, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_51" title="51"> </a> +his individualism gains an unexpected emphasis. +“Before one exists for others, one must exist for +one's self. The egoism of a strong and clear-sighted +soul is of a more beneficent effect than all +the devotion of a blind and feeble soul.” Here we +have a promulgation identical in gist with Emerson's +unqualified declaration of moral independence +when he says: “Whoso would be a man must +be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal +palms must not be hindered by the name of +goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. +Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your +own mind. No law can be sacred to me but that +of my nature.”<a name="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">(8)</a></p> + +<p>His attitude of countenancing the positive joys +of living causes Maeterlinck in his later career to +reverse his former judgment, and to inveigh, much +in the manner of Nietzsche, against the “parasitical +virtues.” “Certain notions about resignation +and self-sacrifice sap the finest moral forces of +mankind more thoroughly than do great vices and +even crimes. The alleged triumphs over the flesh +are in most cases only complete defeats of life.” +When to such rebellious sentiments is joined an explicit +warning against the seductions and intimidations +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_52" title="52"> </a> +held out by the official religions—their sugar +plums and dog whips, as Maeterlinck puts it—one +can only wonder how his writings escaped as long +as they did the attention of the authorities that +swing the power of imprimatur and anathema.</p> + +<p>Maeterlinck may not be classed unreservedly +as a radical individualist. For whereas a philosophy +like that of Nietzsche takes no account of the +“much-too-many,” who according to that great +fantasist do not interest anybody except the statistician +and the devil, Maeterlinck realizes the +supreme importance of the great mass as the ordained +transmitters of civilization. The gulf between +aristocratic subjectivism, devoted single-mindedly +to the ruthless enforcement of self-interest, +and, on the other hand, a self-forgetful social +enthusiasm, is bridged in Maeterlinck by an +extremely strong instinct for justice and, moreover, +by his firm belief—at least for the time being—that +the same strong instinct exists universally +as a specific trait of human nature. By such a +philosophy Justice, then, is discerned not as a +supra-natural function, but as a function of human +nature as distinguished from nature at large. The +restriction is made necessary by our knowledge of +the observable operations of nature. In particular +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_53" title="53"> </a> +would the principle of heredity seem to argue +against the reign of justice in the administration +of human destinies, inasmuch as we find ourselves +quite unable to recognize in the apportionment of +pleasure and pain anything like a due ratio of +merit. And yet Maeterlinck realizes that perhaps +nature measures life with a larger standard +than the individual's short span of existence, and +warns us in his essay on “Justice” not to indulge +our self-conceit in a specious emulation of ways +that are utterly beyond our comprehension. After +all, then, our poet-philosopher succeeds <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">foro conscientiæ</i> +in reconciling his cult of self with devotion +to the common interest. Morality, in that +essay, is defined as the co-ordination of personal +desire to the task assigned by nature to the race. +And is it not true that a contrary, that is, ascetic +concept of morality reduces itself to absurdity +through its antagonism to that primal human instinct +that makes for the continuity of life?</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>From the compromise effected between two +fairly opposite ethical principles, there emerges +in the works of this period something akin to a +socialistic tendency. It is organically related to +the mystical prepossession of the author's manner +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_54" title="54"> </a> +of thinking. Maeterlinck gratefully acknowledges +that by the search-light of science the uppermost +layers of darkness have been dispelled; but realizes +also that the deep-seated central enigma still +remains in darkness: as much as ever are the primordial +causes sealed against a glimpse of finite +knowledge. We have changed the names, not the +problems. Instead of God, Providence, or Fate, +we say Nature, Selection, and Heredity. But in +reality do we know more concerning Life than did +our ancestors?</p> + +<p>What, then, questions the persevering pursuer +of the final verities, shall we do in order that we +may press nearer to Truth? May we not perchance +steep our souls in light that flows from +another source than science? And what purer +light is there to illumine us than the halo surrounding +a contented worker performing his task, +not under coercion, but from a voluntary, or it +may be instinctive, submission to the law of life? +If such subordination of self constitutes the basis +of rational living, we shall do well to study its +workings on a lowlier and less complicated plane +than the human; for instance, in the behavior of +the creature that is proverbial for its unflagging +industry. For this industry is not motivated by +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_55" title="55"> </a> +immediate or selfish wants; it springs from instinctive +self-dedication to the common cause. +Some people expected from <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">La Vie des Abeilles</i> +(“The Life of the Bee”), (1901), much brand-new +information about matters of apiculture. But +in spite of his twenty-five years' experience, Maeterlinck +had no startling discoveries to convey to +his fellow-hivers. His book on bees is not primarily +the result of a specialist's investigations but +a poetical record of the observations made by a +mind at once romantic and philosophical and +strongly attracted to the study of this particular +form of community life, because by its organization +on a miniature scale it spreads before the +student of society a synoptic view of human affairs.</p> + +<p>Of the great change that had by now taken +place in his conception of life, Maeterlinck was +fully cognizant, and made no concealment of it. +In the essay on “Justice” he says, with reference +to his earlier dramas: “The motive of these little +plays was the fear of the Unknown by which we +are constantly surrounded,” and passes on to describe +his religious temper as a sort of compound +of the Christian idea of God with the antique idea +of Fate, immersed in the profound gloom of hopeless +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_56" title="56"> </a> +mystery. “The Unknown took chiefly the +aspect of a power, itself but blindly groping in +the dark, yet disposing with inexorable unfeelingness +of the fates of men.”</p> + +<p>Evidently those same plays are passed once +more in self-critical review in <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ardiane et Barbe-Bleue</i> +(“Ardiane and Blue-Beard”), (1899), notwithstanding +the fact that the author disclaims +any philosophic purpose and presents his work as +a mere libretto. We cannot regard it as purely +accidental that of Blue-Beard's terror-stricken +wives, four,—Selysette, Mélisande, Ygraine, Alladine,—bear +the names of earlier heroines, and, +besides, that each of these retains with the name +also the character of her namesake. The symbolism +is too transparent. The child-wives of the cruel +knight, forever in a state of trembling fear, are +too passive to extricate themselves from their fate, +whereas Ardiane succeeds instantly in breaking +her captivity, because she has the spirit and +strength to shatter the window and let in the light +and air. The contrast between her resolute personality +and those five inert bundles of misery undoubtedly +connotes the difference between the author's +paralyzing fatalism in the past and his present +dynamic optimism.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="Page_57" title="57"> </a>A like contrast between dejection and resilience +would be brought to light by a comparison of the +twelve lyric poems, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Douze Chansons</i>, (1897), +with the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Serres Chaudes</i>. The mood is still greatly +subdued; the new poetry is by no means free +from sadness and a strain of resignation. But the +half-stifled despair that cries out from the older +book returns no dissonant echo in the new.</p> + +<p>Even his dramatic technique comes under the +sway of Maeterlinck's altered view of the world. +The far freer use of exciting and eventful action +testifies to increased elasticity and force. This is +a marked feature of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Sœur Beatrice</i> (“Sister +Beatrice”), (1900), a miracle play founded on +the old story about the recreant nun who, broken +from sin and misery, returns to the cloister and +finds that during the many years of her absence +her part and person have been carried out by +the Holy Virgin herself.</p> + +<p>Equally, the three other dramas of this epoch—<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Aglavaine +et Selysette</i>, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Monna Vanna</i>, and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Joyzelle</i>—are +highly available for scenic enactment. +Of the three, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Monna Vanna</i>, (1902), in particular +is conspicuous for a wholly unexpected aptitude +of characterization, and for the unsurpassed +intensity of its situations, which in this isolated +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_58" title="58"> </a> +case are not cast in a single mood as in the other +plays, but are individually distinct and full of +dramatic progress, whereas everywhere else the +action moves rather sluggishly.</p> + +<p>“Monna Vanna” is one of the most brilliantly +actable plays of modern times, despite its improbability. +A certain incongruity between the +realistic and the romantic aspects in the behavior +of the principals is saved from offensiveness by +a disposition on the part of the spectator to refer +it, unhistorically, to the provenience of the story. +But as a matter of fact the actors are not fifteenth +century Renaissance men and women at all, but +mystics, modern mystics at that, both in their reasoning +and their morality. It is under a cryptical +soul-compulsion that Giovanna goes forth to the +unknown condottiere prepared to lay down her +honor for the salvation of her people, and that +her husband at last conquers his repugnance to her +going. Prinzivalle, Guido, Marco, are mystics +even to a higher degree than Vanna.</p> + +<p>The poignant actualism of “Monna Vanna” +lies, however, in the author's frank sympathy with +a distinctively modern zest for freedom. The +situation between husband and wife is reminiscent +of “A Doll's House” in the greedily possessive +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_59" title="59"> </a> +quality of Guido's affection, with which quality +his tyrannous unbelief in Prinzivalle's magnanimity +fully accords. But Maeterlinck here goes +a step beyond Ibsen. In her married life with +Guido, Vanna was meekly contented, “at least as +happy as one can be when one has renounced the +vague and extravagant dreams which seem beyond +human life.” When the crisis arrives she +realizes that “it is never too late for one who has +found a love that can fill a life.” Her final rebellion +is sanctioned by the author, who unmistakably +endorses the venerable Marco's profession +of faith that life is always in the right.</p> + +<p>“Joyzelle,” (1903), inferior to “Monna Vanna” +dramaturgically, and in form the most distinctly +fantastic of all Maeterlinck's productions, +is still farther removed from the fatalistic atmosphere. +This play sounds, as the author himself +has stated, “the triumph of will and love over +destiny or fatality,” as against the converse lesson +of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Monna Vanna</i>. The idea is symbolically +expressed in the temptations of Lanceor and in +the liberation of Joyzelle and her lover from the +power of Merlin and his familiar, Arielle, who +impersonates the secret forces of the heart.</p> + +<p><i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Aglavaine et Selysette</i>, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Monna Vanna</i>, and +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_60" title="60"> </a> +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Joyzelle</i> mark by still another sign the advent of +a new phase in Maeterlinck's evolution; namely, +by the characterization of the heroines. Previously, +the women in his plays were hardly individualized +and none of them can be said to +possess a physiognomy strictly her own. Maeterlinck +had returned with great partiality again +and again to the same type of woman: languid and +listless, without stamina and strength, yet at the +same time full of deep feeling, and capable of +unending devotion—pathetic incorporeal figures +feeling their way along without the light of self-consciousness, +like some pre-raphaelite species of +somnambulists. In the new plays, on the contrary, +women of a courageous and venturesome +spirit and with a self-possessive assurance are portrayed +by preference and with unmistakable approval.</p> + +<p>As the technique in the more recent creations +of Maeterlinck, so the diction, too, accommodates +itself to altered tendencies. Whereas formerly +the colloquy was abrupt and fragmentary, it is +now couched in cadenced, flowing language, which, +nevertheless, preserves the old-time simplicity. +The poet himself has criticized his former dialogue. +He said it made those figures seem like +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_61" title="61"> </a> +deaf people walking in their sleep, whom somebody +is endeavoring to arouse from a heavy +dream.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>For the limited purpose of this sketch it is not +needful to enter into a detailed discussion of Maeterlinck's +latest productions, since such lines as +they add to his philosophical and artistic physiognomy +have been traced beforehand. His literary +output for the last dozen years or so is embodied +in six or seven volumes: about two years to a +book seems to be his normal ratio of achievement, +the same as was so regularly observed by +Henrik Ibsen, and one that seems rather suitable +for an author whose reserve, dictated by a profound +artistic and moral conscience, like his actual +performance, calls for admiration and gratitude. +During the war he has written, or at least +published, very little. It is fairly safe to assume +that the emotional experience of this harrowing +period will control his future philosophy as its +most potent factor; equally safe is it to predict, +on the strength of his published utterances, that +his comprehensive humanity, that has been put +to such a severe test, will pass unscathed through +the ordeal.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="Page_62" title="62"> </a>Of the last group of Maeterlinck's works only +two are dramas, namely, “The Blue Bird,” +(1909), and “Mary Magdalene,” (1910). The +baffling symbolism of “The Blue Bird” has not +stood in the way of a tremendous international +stage success; the fact is due much less to the +simple line of thought that runs through the +puzzle than to the exuberant fancy that gave rise +to it and its splendid scenical elaboration. Probably +Mr. Henry Rose is right, in his helpful analysis +of “The Blue Bird,” in venturing the assertion +that “by those who are familiar with Swedenborg's +teaching ‘The Blue Bird’ must be recognized +as to a very large extent written on lines +which are in accordance with what is known as +the Science of Correspondences—a very important +part of Swedenborg's teachings.” But the understanding +of this symbolism in its fullness offers +very great difficulties. That a definite and consistent +meaning underlies all its features will be +rather felt than comprehended by the great majority +who surely cannot be expected to go to the +trouble first of familiarizing themselves with Maeterlinck's +alleged code of symbols and then of +applying it meticulously to the interpretation of +his plays.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="Page_63" title="63"> </a>“Mary Magdalene,” judged from the dramatic +point of view, is a quite impressive tragedy, yet +a full and sufficient treatment of the very suggestive +scriptural legend it is not. The converted +courtezan is characterized too abstractly. Instead +of presenting herself as a woman consumed with +blazing sensuality but in whom the erotic fire is +transmuted into religious passion, she affects us +like an enacted commentary upon such a most +extraordinary experience.</p> + +<p>Finally, there are several volumes of essays, to +some of which reference has already been made.<a name="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">(9)</a> +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Temple Enseveli</i> (“The Buried Temple”), +(1902), consists of six disquisitions, all dealing +with metaphysical subjects: Justice, The Evolution +of Mystery, The Reign of Matter, The Past, +Chance, The Future. <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le Double Jardin</i> (“The +Double Garden”), (1904), is much more miscellaneous +in its makeup. These are its heterogeneous +subjects: The Death of a Little Dog, Monte +Carlo, A Ride in a Motor Car, Dueling, The +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_64" title="64"> </a> +Angry Temper of the Bees, Universal Suffrage, +The Modern Drama, The Sources of Spring, +Death and the Crown (a discussion upon the fatal +illness of Edward VII), a View of Rome, Field +Flowers, Chrysanthemums, Old-fashioned Flowers, +Sincerity, The Portrait of Woman, and Olive +Branches (a survey of certain now, alas, obsolete +ethical movements of that day). <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L'Intelligence +des Fleurs</i> (in the translation it is named “Life +and Flowers,” in an enlarged issue “The Measure +of the Hours,” both 1907), takes up, besides the +theme of the general caption, the manufacture of +perfumes, the various instruments for measuring +time, the psychology of accident, social duty, war, +prize-fighting, and “King Lear.” In 1912, three +essays on Emerson, Novalis, and Ruysbroeck appeared +collectively, in English, under the title “On +Emerson and Other Essays.” These originally +prefaced certain works of those writers translated +by Maeterlinck in his earlier years.</p> + +<p>Maeterlinck's most recent publications are <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">La +Mort</i> (published in English in a considerably extended +collection under the title “Our Eternity”), +(1913), “The Unknown Guest,” (1914), and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les +Débris de la Guerre</i> (“The Wrack of the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_65" title="65"> </a> +Storm”), (1916).<a name="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">(10)</a> The two first named, having +for their central subject Death and the great concomitant +problem of the life beyond, show that the +author has become greatly interested in psychical +research; he even goes so far as to affirm his belief +in precognition. In these essays, Theosophy and +Spiritism and kindred occult theories are carefully +analyzed, yet ingenious as are the author's +speculations, they leave anything like a solution +of the perplexing riddles far afield. On the whole +he inclines to a telepathic explanation of the psychical +phenomena, yet thinks they may be due to the +strivings of the cosmic intelligence after fresh +outlets, and believes that a careful and persistent +investigation of these phenomena may open up +hitherto undreamt of realms of reality. In general, +we find him on many points less assertive +than he was in the beginning and inclined to a +general retrenchment of the dogmatic element in +his philosophic attitude. A significant passage in +“The Buried Treasure” teaches us not to deplore +the loss of fixed beliefs. “One should never look +back with regret to those hours when a great belief +abandons us. A faith that becomes extinct, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_66" title="66"> </a> +a means that fails, a dominant idea that no longer +dominates us because we think it is our turn to +dominate it—these things prove that we are living, +that we are progressing, that we are using up a +great many things because we are not standing +still.” Of the gloomy fatalism of his literary beginnings +hardly a trace is to be found in the Maeterlinck +of to-day. His war-book, “The Wrack +of the Storm,” breathes a calm optimism in the +face of untold disaster. The will of man is put +above the power of fate. “Is it possible that fatality—by +which I mean what perhaps for a moment +was the unacknowledged desire of the planet—shall +not regain the upper hand? At the stage +which man has reached, I hope and believe so…. +Everything seems to tell us that man is approaching +the day whereon, seizing the most glorious +opportunity that has ever presented itself +since he acquired a consciousness, he will at last +learn that he is able, when he pleases, to control +his whole fate in this world.”<a name="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">(11)</a> His faith in humanity +is built on the heroic virtues displayed in +this war. “To-day, not only do we know that +these virtues exist: we have taught the world that +they are always triumphant, that nothing is lost +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_67" title="67"> </a> +while faith is left, while honor is intact, while love +continues, while the soul does not surrender.” … +Death itself is now threatened with extinction by +our heroic race: “The more it exercises its ravages, +the more it increases the intensity of that +which it cannot touch; the more it pursues its +phantom victories, the better does it prove to us +that man will end by conquering death.”</p> + +<p>In the concluding chapter of “Our Eternity,” +the romantic modification of Maeterlinck's mysticism +is made patent in his confession regarding the +problem of Knowledge: “I have added nothing +to what was already known. I have simply tried +to separate what may be true from that which is +assuredly not true…. Perhaps through our +quest for that undiscoverable Truth we shall have +accustomed our eyes to pierce the terror of the +last hour by looking it full in the face…. We +need have no hope that any one will utter on this +earth the word that shall put an end to our uncertainties. +It is very probable, on the contrary, +that no one in this world, nor perhaps in the next, +will discover the great secret of the universe. +And … it is most fortunate that it should be so. +We have not only to resign ourselves to living in +the incomprehensible, but to rejoice that we cannot +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_68" title="68"> </a> +get out of it. If there were no more insoluble +questions … infinity would not be infinite; and +then we should have forever to curse the fate +that placed us in a universe proportionate to our +intelligence. The unknown and the unknowable +are necessary and will perhaps always be necessary +to our happiness. In any case, I would not +wish my worst enemy, were his understanding a +thousandfold loftier and a thousandfold mightier +than mine, to be condemned eternally to inhabit +a world of which he had surprised an essential +secret….”<a name="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">(12)</a></p> + +<p>So the final word of Maeterlinck's philosophy, +after a lifetime of ardent search, clears up none +of the tantalizing secrets of our existence. And +yet somehow it bears a message that is full of consolation. +The value of human life lies in the perpetual +movement towards a receding goal. Whoever +can identify himself with such a philosophy +and accept its great practical lesson, that we shall +never reach Knowledge but acquire wisdom in the +pursuit, should be able to envisage the veiled countenance +of Truth without despair, and even to face +with some courage the eternal problem of our +being, its reason and its destination. +</p> +<p class="chapter-page"><a class="pagenum" name="Page_69" title="69"> </a>AUGUST STRINDBERG</p> + +<h2><a class="pagenum" name="Page_71" title="71"> </a>II<br/> +<small>THE ECCENTRICITY OF AUGUST STRINDBERG</small></h2> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">One</span> cannot speak of August Strindberg +with much <i lang="it" xml:lang="it">gusto</i>. The most broadminded +critic will find himself under necessity +to disapprove of him as a man and to condemn +so many features of his production that almost +one might question his fitness as a subject of literary +discussion. Nevertheless, his importance is +beyond dispute and quite above the consideration +of personal like or dislike, whether we view him +in his creative capacity,—as an intellectual and +ethical spokesman of his time,—or in his human +character,—as a typical case of certain mental +and moral maladies which somehow during his +time were more or less epidemic throughout the +lettered world. We have it on excellent authority +that at his début in the literary theatre he made +the stage quake with the elemental power of his +personality. Gigantic rebels like Ibsen, Bjoernson, +Nietzsche, and Tolstoy, we are told, dwindled +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_72" title="72"> </a> +to normal proportions beside his titanic stature. +He aimed to conquer and convert the whole world +by his fanatical protest against the rotten civilization +of his time. The attempt proved an utter +failure. He never could grow into a world-figure, +because he lacked the courage as well as the cosmopolitan +adaptability needed for intellectual expatriation. +Hence, in great contrast to Ibsen, he +remained to Europe at large the uncouth Scandinavian, +while in the eyes of Scandinavia he was +specifically the Swede; and his country-men, even +though they acknowledged him their premier poet, +treated him, because of his eccentricity, as a national +gazing-stock rather than as a genuine national +asset. Yet for all that, he ranks as the +foremost writer of his country and one of the +representative men of the age. His poetic genius +is admitted by practically all the critics, while the +greatest among them, George Brandes, pronounces +him in addition an unsurpassed master in the +command of his mother tongue. But his position +as a writer is by no means limited to his own little +country. For his works have been translated +into all civilized languages, and if the circulation +of literary products is a safe indication of their +influence, then several of Strindberg's books at +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_73" title="73"> </a> +least must be credited with having done something +toward shaping the thought of our time upon some +of its leading issues. In any case, the large and +durable interest shown his productions marks +Strindberg as a literary phenomenon of sufficient +consequence to deserve some study.</p> + +<p>Readers of Strindberg who seek to discover the +reason why criticism should have devoted so much +attention to an author regarded almost universally +with strong disapproval and aversion, will find +that reason most probably in the extreme subjectiveness +that dominates everything he has written; +personal confession, novels, stories, and plays +alike share this equality, and even in his historical +dramas the figures, despite the minute accuracy of +their delineation, are moved by the author's passion, +not their own. Rarely, if ever, has a writer +of eminence demonstrated a similar incapacity to +reproduce the thoughts and feelings of other people. +It has been rightly declared that all his leading +characters are merely the outward projections +of his own sentiments and ideas,—that at bottom +he, August Strindberg, is the sole protagonist in +all his dramaturgy and fiction.</p> + +<p>Strindberg was a man with an omnivorous intellectual +curiosity, and he commanded a vast store +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_74" title="74"> </a> +of knowledge in the fields of history, science, and +languages. His “History of the Swedish People” +is recognized by competent judges as a very brilliant +and scholarly performance. Before he was +launched in his literary career, and while still obscurely +employed as minor assistant at a library, +he earned distinction as a student of the Chinese +language, and one product of his research work in +that field was even deemed worthy of being read +before the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Académie des Inscriptions et Belles +Lettres</i>. In Geology, Chemistry, Botany, he was +equally productive. But the taint of eccentricity +in his mental fibre prevented his imposing scientific +accomplishments from maintaining him in a state +of intellectual equilibrium. He laid as much store +by things of which he had a mere smattering as +by those on which he was an authority, and his +resultant unsteadiness caused him to oscillate between +opposite scientific enthusiasms even as his +self-contradictory personal character involved him +in abrupt changes of position, and made him jump +from one extreme of behavior to the other.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>Strindberg first attracted public notice by the +appearance in 1879 of a novel named “The Red +Room.” Its effect upon a country characterized +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_75" title="75"> </a> +by so keen an observer as George Brandes as perhaps +the most conservative in Europe resembled +the excitement caused by Schiller's “The Robbers” +almost precisely one hundred years before. It +stirred up enough dust to change, though not to +cleanse, the musty atmosphere of Philistia. For +here was instantly recognized the challenge of a +radical spirit uprisen in full and ruthless rebellion +against each and every time-hallowed usage and +tradition. The recollection of that hot-spur agitator +bent with every particle of his strength to +rouse the world up from its lethargy by his stentorian +“J'accuse” and to pass sentence upon it by +sheer tremendous vociferation, is almost entirely +obliterated to-day by the remembrance of quite +another Strindberg:—the erstwhile stormy idealist +changed into a leering cynic; a repulsive embodiment +of negation, a grimacing Mephistopheles +who denies life and light or anything that he cannot +comprehend, and to whom the face of the +earth appears forever covered with darkness and +filth and death and corruption. Indeed this final +depictment of August Strindberg, whether or no +it be accurately true to life, is a terrible example +of what life can make of a man, or a man of his +life, if he is neither light enough to be borne by +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_76" title="76"> </a> +the current of his time, nor strong enough to set +his face against the tide and breast it.</p> + +<p>The question is, naturally, was Strindberg sincere +in the fanatical insurgency of his earlier +period, or was his attitude merely a theatrical pose +and his social enthusiasm a ranting declamation? +In either case, there opens up this other question: +Have we reason to doubt the sincerity of the mental +changes that were yet to follow,—the genuineness +of his pessimism, occultism, and, in the final +stage, of his religious conversion? His unexampled +hardihood in reversing his opinions and +going dead against his convictions could be illustrated +in nearly every sphere of thought. At one +time a glowing admirer of Rousseau and loudly +professing his gospel of nature, he forsook this +allegiance, and chose as his new idol Rousseau's +very antipode, Voltaire. For many years he was +a democrat of the purest water, identified himself +with the proletarian cause, and acted as the fiery +champion of the poor labor-driven masses against +their oppressors; but one fine day, no matter +whether it came about directly through his contact +with Nietzsche or otherwise, he repudiated socialism, +scornfully denouncing it as a tattered remnant +of his cast-off Christianity, and arrayed himself +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_77" title="77"> </a> +on the side of the elect, or self-elect, against the +“common herd,” the “much-too-many.” License +for the best to govern the rest, became temporarily +his battle-cry; and his political ideal suggested +nothing less completely absurd than a republic presided +over by an oligarchy of autocrats. His unsurpassed +reputation as an anti-feminist would +hardly prepare us to find his earlier works fairly +aglow with sympathy for the woman cause. He +held at one time, as did Tolstoy, that art and +poetry have a detrimental effect upon the natural +character; for which reason the peasant is a more +normal being than the lettered man. Especially +was he set against the drama, on the ground that +it throws the public mind into confusion by its +failure to differentiate sharply between the author's +own opinions and those of the characters. +Literature, he held, should pattern itself after a +serious newspaper: it should seek to influence, +not entertain. Not only did he drop this pedantic +restriction of literature in the end, but in his own +practice he had always defied it, because, despite +his fierce campaign against art, he could not overcome +the force of his artistic impulses. And so in +other provinces of thought, too, he reversed his +judgment with a temerity and swiftness that greatly +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_78" title="78"> </a> +offended the feelings and perplexed the intelligence +of his followers for the time being and justified +the question whether Strindberg had any principles +at all. In politics he was by quick turns +Anarchist and Socialist, Radical and Conservative, +Republican and Aristocrat, Communist and Egoist; +in religion, Pietist, Protestant, Deist, Atheist, +Occultist, and Roman Catholic. And yet unquestionably +he was honest. To blame him merely +because he changed his views, and be it never so +radically, would be blaming a man for exercising +his right to develop. In any man of influence, an +unalterable permanency of opinion would be even +more objectionable than a frequent shift of his +point of view. In recent times the presumable +length of a person's intellectual usefulness has +been a live subject of discussion which has resulted +in some legislation of very questionable +wisdom, for instance the setting of an arbitrary +age limit for the active service of high-grade teachers. +In actual experience men are too old to teach, +or through any other function to move the minds +of younger people in a forward direction, whenever +they have lost the ability to change their own +mind. Yet at all events, an eminent author's right +of self-reversal must not be exercised at random; +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_79" title="79"> </a> +he should refrain from the propagation of new +opinions that have not ripened within himself. +Which is the same as saying that he should stick +to his old opinions until he finds himself inwardly +compelled to abandon them. But as a matter of +fact, a man like Strindberg, propelled by an unbridled +imagination, alert with romantic tendencies, +nervously overstrung, kept constantly under a +strain by his morbidly sensitive temperament,—and +whose brain is consequently a seething chaos +of conflicting ideas, is never put to the necessity +of changing his mind; his mind keeps changing itself.</p> + +<p>It must be as difficult for the literary historian +to do Strindberg full justice as it was for the great +eccentric himself; when in taking stock, as it were, +of his mental equipment, during one of his protracted +periods of despondency, he summed himself +up in the following picturesque simile: “A +monstrous conglomeration, changing its forms according +to the observer's point of view and possessing +no more reality than the rainbow that is +visible to the eyes and yet does not exist.” His +evolution may be tracked, however, in the detailed +autobiography in which he undertook, by a rigorous +application of Hippolyte Taine's well-known +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_80" title="80"> </a> +theory and method, to account for his temperamental +peculiarities on the basis of heredity and +the milieu and to describe the gradual transformation +of his character through education and the +external pressure of contemporary intellectual +movements. This remarkable work is like a picture +book of ideals undermined, hollowed, and +shattered; a perverse compound of cynicism and +passion, it is unspeakably loathsome to the sense +of beauty and yet, in the last artistic reckoning, +not without great beauty of its own. It divides +the story of Strindberg's life into these consecutive +parts: The Son of the Servant; The Author; +The Evolution of a Soul; The Confession of a +Fool; Inferno; Legends; The Rupture; Alone. +The very titles signalize the brutal frankness, or, +shall we say, terrible sincerity of a tale that rummages +without piety among the most sacred privacies, +and drags forth from intimate nooks and corners +sorrow and squalor and shame enough to +have wrecked a dozen average existences. There +is no mistaking or evading the challenge hurled +by this story: See me as I am, stripped of conventional +lies and pretensions! Look upon my +naked soul, covered with scars and open sores. +Behold me in my spasms of love and hate, now in +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_81" title="81"> </a> +demoniacal transports, now prostrate with anguish! +And if you want to know how I came to +be what I am, consider my ancestry, my bringing +up, my social environment, and be sure also to +pocket your own due share of the blame for my destruction!—Certainly +Strindberg's autobiography +is not to be recommended as a graduation gift for +convent-bred young ladies, or as a soothing diversion +for convalescents, but if accepted in a proper +sense, it will be found absorbing, informative, and +even helpful.</p> + +<p>Strindberg never forgave his father for having +married below his station. He felt that the good +blood of the Strindbergs,—respectable merchants +and ministers and country gentlemen,—was +worsened by the proletarian strain imported into +it through a working girl named Eleonore Ulrike +Norling, the mother of August Strindberg and his +eleven brothers and sisters. During August's +childhood the family lived in extremely straitened +circumstances. When a dozen people live cooped +up in three rooms, some of them are more than +likely to have the joy of youth crushed out of +them and crowded from the premises. Here was +the first evil that darkened Strindberg's life: he +simply was cheated out of his childhood.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="Page_82" title="82"> </a>School was no happier place for him than home. +His inordinate pride, only sharpened by the consciousness +of his parents' poverty which bordered +on pauperism, threw him into a state of perpetual +rebellion against comrades and teachers. And all +this time his inner life was tossed hither and +thither by a general intellectual and emotional +restlessness due to an insatiable craving for knowledge. +At fifteen years of age he had reached a full +conviction on the irredeemable evilness of life; +and concluded, in a moment of religious exaltation, +to dedicate his own earthly existence to the +vicarious expiation of universal sin through the +mortification of the flesh. Then, of a sudden, he +became a voracious reader of rationalistic literature, +and turned atheist with almost inconceivable +dispatch, but soon was forced back by remorse +into the pietistic frame of mind,—only to pass +through another reaction immediately after. At +this time he claims that earthly life is a punishment +or a probation; but that it lies in man's power +to make it endurable by freeing himself from the +social restraints. He has become a convert to +the fantastic doctrine of Jean Jacques Rousseau, +that man is good by nature but has been depraved +by civilization. Now in his earliest twenties, he +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_83" title="83"> </a> +embraces communism with all its implications,—free +love, state parenthood, public ownership of +utilities, equal division of the fruits of labor, and +so forth,—as the sole and sure means of salvation +for humanity.</p> + +<p>In the “Swiss Stories,” subtitled “Utopias in +Reality,”<a name="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">(13)</a> Strindberg demonstrated to his own +satisfaction the smooth and practical workings +of that doctrine. It was difficult for him to understand +why the major part of the world seemed so +hesitant about adopting so tempting and equitable +a scheme of living. Yet, for his own person, too, +he soon disavowed socialism, because under a +socialistic régime the individual would be liable to +have his ideas put into uniform, and the remotest +threat of interference with his freedom of thought +was something this fanatical apostle of liberty +could not brook.</p> + +<p>In the preface to the “Utopias,” he had referred +to himself as “a convinced socialist, like all +sensible people”; whereas now he writes: “Idealism +and Socialism are two maladies born of laziness.” +Having thus scientifically diagnosed the +disease and prescribed the one true specific for it, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_84" title="84"> </a> +namely—how simple!—the total abolition of the +industries, he resumes the preaching of Rousseauism +in its simon-pure form, orders every man to +be his maid-of-all-work and jack-of-all-trades, +puts the world on a vegetarian diet, and then wonders +why the socialists denounce and revile him as +a turncoat and an apostate.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>The biography throws an especially vivid light +on Strindberg's relation to one of the most important +factors of socialism, to wit, the question +of woman's rights. His position on this issue is +merely a phase of that extreme and practically +isolated position in regard to woman in general +that has more than any other single element determined +the feeling of the public towards him +and by consequence fixed his place in contemporary +literature. That this should be so is hardly +unfair, because no other element has entered so +deeply into the structure and fibre of his thought +and feeling.</p> + +<p>Strindberg, as has been stated, was not from +the outset, or perchance constitutionally, an anti-feminist. +In “The Red Room” he preaches equality +of the sexes even in marriage. The thesis of +the book is that man and woman are not antagonistic +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_85" title="85"> </a> +phenomena of life, rather they are modifications +of the same phenomenon, made for mutual +completion; hence, they can only fulfill their natural +destiny through close coöperative comradeship. +But there were two facts that prevented +Strindberg from proceeding farther along this +line of thought. One was his incorrigible propensity +to contradiction, the other his excessive +subjectiveness which kept him busy building up +theories on the basis of personal experience. The +prodigious feminist movement launched in Scandinavia +by Ibsen and Bjoernson was very repugnant +to him, because he felt, not without some just reason, +that the movement was for a great many +people little more than a fad. So long as art and +literature are influenced by fashion, so long there +will be and should be revolts against the vogue. +Moreover, Strindberg felt that the movement was +being carried too far. He was prepared to accompany +Ibsen some distance on the way of reform, +but refused to subscribe to his verdict that +the whole blame for our crying social maladjustments +rests with the unwillingness of men to allot +any rights whatsoever to women.</p> + +<p>Strindberg's play, “Sir Bengt's Wife,” printed +in 1882, but of much earlier origin, is interpreted +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_86" title="86"> </a> +by Brandes as a symbolical portrayal of feminine +life in Scandinavia during the author's early manhood. +The leading feminine figure, a creature +wholly incapable of understanding or appreciating +the nobler traits in man, is nevertheless treated +with sympathy, on the whole. She is represented,—like +Selma Bratsberg in Ibsen's “The League +of Youth,” and Nora Helmer, in “A Doll's +House,”—as the typical and normal victim of a +partial and unfair training. Her faults of judgment +and errors of temper are due to the fact so +forcefully descanted upon by Selma, that women +are not permitted to share the interests and anxieties +of their husbands. We are expressly informed +by Strindberg that this drama was intended, +in the first place, as an attack upon the romantic +proclivities of feminine education; in the +second, as an illustration of the power of love to +subdue the will; in the third, as a defense of the +thesis that woman's love is of a higher quality than +man's; and lastly, as a vindication of the right of +woman to be her own master. Again, in “Married” +he answers the query, Shall women vote? +distinctly in the affirmative, although here the +fixed idea about the congenital discordance between +the sexes, and the identification of love with +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_87" title="87"> </a> +a struggle for supremacy, has already seized hold +of him.</p> + +<p>To repeat, there was at first nothing absolutely +preposterous about Strindberg's position in regard +to the woman movement. On the contrary, his +view might have been endorsed as a not altogether +unwholesome corrective for the ruling fashion of +dealing with the issue by the advocacy of extremes. +But by force of his supervening personal grievance +against the sex, Strindberg's anti-feminism became +in the long run the fixed pole about which gravitated +his entire system of social and ethical +thought. His campaign against feminism, which +otherwise could have served a good purpose by +curbing wild militancy, was defeated by its own +exaggerations. Granting that feminists had gone +too far in the denunciation of male brutality and +despotism, Strindberg went still farther in the opposite +direction, when he deliberately set out to +lay bare the character of woman by dissecting +some of her most diabolical incarnations. As has +already been said, he was utterly incapable of +objective thinking, and under the sting of his +miseries in love and marriage, dislike of woman +turned into hatred and hatred into frenzy. Henceforth, +the entire spectacle of life presented itself +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_88" title="88"> </a> +to his distorted vision as a perpetual state of war +between the sexes: on the one side he saw the +male, strong of mind and heart, but in the generosity +of strength guileless and over-trustful; on the +other side, the female, weak of body and intellect, +but shrewd enough to exploit her frailness by linking +iniquity to impotence and contriving by her +treacherous cunning to enslave her natural superior:—it +is the story of Samson and Delilah +made universal in its application. Love is shown +up as the trap in which man is caught to be shorn +of his power. The case against woman is classically +drawn up in “The Father,” one of the +strangest and at the same time most powerful +tragedies of Strindberg. The principals of the +plot stand for the typical character difference between +the sexes as Strindberg sees it; the man being +kind-hearted, good-natured, and aspiring, whereas +the woman, setting an example for all his succeeding +portraits of women, is cunning, though unintelligent +and coarse-grained, soulless, yet insanely +ambitious and covetous of power. In glaring contrast +to the situation made so familiar by Ibsen, +we here see the man struggling away from the +clutches of a woman who declares frankly that +she has never looked at a man without feeling +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_89" title="89"> </a> +conscious of her superiority over him. In this +play the man, a person of ideals and real ability, +who is none other than Strindberg himself in one +of his matrimonial predicaments, fails to extricate +himself from the snare, and ends—both literally +and figuratively—by being put into the straitjacket.</p> + +<p>Without classing Strindberg as one of the great +world dramatists, it would be narrow-minded, +after experiencing the gripping effect of some of +his plays, to deny them due recognition, for indeed +they would be remarkable for their perspicacity +and penetration, even if they were devoid +of any value besides. They contain the keenest +analyses ever made of the vicious side of feminine +character, obtained by specializing, as it were, +on the more particularly feminine traits of human +depravity. Assuredly the procedure is onesided, +but the delineation of a single side of life is beyond +peradventure a legitimate artistic enterprise +as long as it is not palmed upon us as an accurate +and complete picture. Unfortunately, Strindberg's +abnormal vision falsifies the things he looks at, +and, being steeped in his insuperable prejudice, his +pictures of life, in spite of the partial veracity they +possess, never rise above the level of caricatures.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="Page_90" title="90"> </a>He was incompetent to pass judgment upon an +individual woman separately; to him all women +were alike, and that means, all unmitigatedly bad! +To the objection raised by one of the characters +in “The Father”: “Oh, there are so many kinds +of women,” the author's mouthpiece makes this +clinching answer: “Modern investigation has pronounced +that there is only one kind.”</p> + +<p>The autobiography of Strindberg is largely inspired +by his unreasoning hatred of women; the +result, in the main, of his three unfortunate ventures +into the uncongenial field of matrimony. In +its first part, the account of his life is not without +some traces of healthy humor, but as the story +progresses, his entire philosophy of life becomes +more and more aberrant under the increasing pressure +of that obsession. He gets beside himself +at the mere mention of anything feminine, and +blindly hits away, let his bludgeon land where it +will; logic, common sense, and common decency +go to the floor before his vehement and brutal +assault. Every woman is a born liar and traitor. +Her sole aim in life is to thrive parasitically upon +the revenue of her favors. Since marriage and +prostitution cannot provide a living for all, the +oversupply now clamor for admission to the work-mart; +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_91" title="91"> </a> +but they are incompetent and lazy, and inveterate +shirkers of responsibility. With triumphant +malice he points to the perfidious readiness of +woman to perform her tasks by proxy, that is, to +delegate them to hired substitutes: her children are +tended and taught by governesses and teachers; +her garments are made by dressmakers and seamstresses; +the duties of her household she unloads +on servants,—and from selfish considerations of +vanity, comfort, and love of pleasure, she withdraws +even from the primary maternal obligation +and lets her young be nourished at the breast of a +stranger. Strindberg in his rage never stops to +think that the deputies in these cases,—cooks and +housemaids and nurses and so forth,—themselves +belong to the female sex, by which fact the impeachment +is in large part invalidated.</p> + +<p>The play bearing the satirical title “Comrades” +makes a special application of the theory about +the pre-established antagonism of the sexes. In +a situation similar to that in “The Father,” husband +and wife are shown in a yet sharper antithesis +of character: a man of sterling character +and ability foiled by a woman in all respects his +inferior, yet imperiously determined to dominate +him. At first she seems to succeed in her ambition, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_92" title="92"> </a> +and in the same measure as she assumes a +more and more mannish demeanor, the husband's +behavior grows more and more effeminate. But +the contest leads to results opposite to those in +“The Father.” Here, the man, once he is brought +to a full realization of his plight, arouses himself +from his apathy, reasserts his manhood, and, in +the ensuing fight for supremacy, routs the usurper +and comes into his own. The steps by which he +passes through revolt from subjection to self-liberation, +are cleverly signaled by his outward +transformation, as he abandons the womanish +style of dressing imposed on him by his wife's +whim and indignantly flings into a corner the feminine +costume which she would make him wear at +the ball.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>Leaving aside, then, all question as to their artistic +value, Strindberg's dramas are deserving of +attention as experiments in a fairly unexplored +field of analytic psychology. They are the first +literary creations of any great importance begotten +by such bitter hatred of woman. The anti-feminism +of Strindberg's predecessors, not excepting +that arch-misogynist, Arthur Schopenhauer +himself, sprang from contempt, not from abhorrence +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_93" title="93"> </a> +and abject fear. In Strindberg, misogyny +turns into downright gynophobia. To him, woman +is not an object of disdain, but the cruel and merciless +persecutor of man. In order to disclose the +most dangerous traits of the feminine soul, Strindberg +dissects it by a method that corresponds +closely to Ibsen's astonishing demonstration of +masculine viciousness. The wide-spread dislike +for Strindberg's dramas is due, in equal parts, to +the detestableness of his male characters, and to +the optimistic disbelief of the general public in the +reality of womanhood as he represents it. Strindberg's +portraiture of the sex appears as a monstrous +slander, principally because no other painter +has ever placed the model into the same disadvantageous +light, and the authenticity of his pictures +is rendered suspicious by their abnormal family +resemblance. He was obsessed with the petrifying +vision of a uniform cruel selfishness staring +out of every woman's face: countess, courtezan, +or kitchen maid, all are cast in the same gorgon +mold.</p> + +<p>Strindberg's aversion towards women was probably +kindled into action, as has already been intimated, +by his disgust at the sudden irruption of +woman worship into literature; but, as has also +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_94" title="94"> </a> +been made clear, only the disillusionments and +grievances of his private experience hardened that +aversion into implacable hatred. At first he simply +declined to ally himself with the feminist cult, because +the women he knew seemed unworthy of +being worshipped,—little vain dolls, frivolous coquettes, +and pedants given to domestic tyranny, +of such the bulk was made up. Under the maddening +spur of his personal misfortunes, his feeling +passed from weariness to detestation, from +detestation to a bitter mixture of fear and furious +hate. He conceived it as his supreme mission +and central purpose in life to unmask the demon +with the angel's face, to tear the drapings from +the idol and expose to view the hideous ogress that +feeds on the souls of men. Woman, in Strindberg's +works, is a bogy, constructed out of the +vilest ingredients that enter into the composition +of human nature, with a kind of convulsive life +infused by a remnant of great artistic power. And +this grewsome fabric of a diseased imagination, +like Frankenstein's monster, wreaks vengeance on +its maker. His own mordant desire for her is the +lash that drives him irresistibly to his destruction.</p> + +<p>It requires no profound psychologic insight to +divine in this odious chimera the deplorable abortion +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_95" title="95"> </a> +of a fine ideal. The distortion of truth emanates +in Strindberg's work, as it does in any significant +satire or caricature, from indignation over +the contrast between a lofty conception and a +disappointing reality. What, after all, can be the +mission of this hard-featured gallery of females,—peevish, +sullen, impudent, grasping, violent, lecherous, +malignant, and vindictive,—if it is not to mark +pravity and debasement with a stigma in the name +of a pure and noble womanhood?</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>It should not be left unmentioned that we owe +to August Strindberg some works of great perfection +fairly free from the black obsession and with +a constructive and consistently idealistic tendency: +splendid descriptions of a quaint people and their +habitat, tinged with a fine sense of humor, as in +“The Hemsoe-Dwellers”; charming studies of +landscape and of floral and animal life, in the +“Portraits of Flowers and Animals”; the colossal +work on the Swedish People, once before referred +to, a history conceived and executed in a thoroughly +modern scientific spirit; two volumes of “Swedish +Fortunes and Adventures”; most of his historic +dramas also are of superior order. But +these works lie outside the scope of the more specific +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_96" title="96"> </a> +discussion of Strindberg as a mystic and an +eccentric to which this sketch is devoted. We may +conclude by briefly considering the final phases of +Strindberg's checkered intellectual career, and by +summing up his general significance for the age.</p> + +<p>It will be recalled that during the middle period +of his life, (in 1888), Strindberg came into personal +touch with Nietzsche. The effect of the latter's +sensational philosophy is clearly perceptible +in the works of that period, notably in “Tschandala” +and “By the Open Sea.” Evidently, Nietzsche, +at first, was very congenial to him. For +both men were extremely aristocratic in their instincts. +For a while, Strindberg endorsed unqualifiedly +the heterodox ethics of the towering +paranoiac. For one thing, that philosophy supplied +fresh food and fuel to his burning rage against +womankind, and that was enough to bribe him into +swallowing, for the time being, the entire substance +of Nietzsche's fantastic doctrine. He took +the same ground as Nietzsche, that the race had +deteriorated in consequence of its sentimentality, +namely through the systematic protection of physical +and mental inferiority and unchecked procreation +of weaklings. He seconded Nietzsche's motion +that society should exterminate its parasites, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_97" title="97"> </a> +instead of pampering them. Mankind can only +be reinvigorated if the strong and healthy are +helped to come into their own. The dreams of the +pacifists are fatal to the pragmatic virtues and to +the virility of the race. The greatest need is an +aggressive campaign for the moral and intellectual +sanitation of the world. So let the brain rule over +the heart,—and so forth in the same strain.</p> + +<p>Very soon, however, Strindberg passed out of +the sphere of Nietzsche's influence. The alienation +was due as much to his general instability as +to the disparity between his pessimistic temper and +the joyous exaltation of Zarathustra-ism. His +striking reversion to orthodoxy was by no means +illogical. Between pessimism and faith there exists +a relation that is not very far to seek. When +a person has forfeited his peace of soul and cannot +find grace before his own conscience, he might +clutch as a last hope the promise of vicarious redemption. +Extending the significance of his own +personal experience to everything within his horizon, +and erecting a dogmatic system upon this +tenuous generalisation, Strindberg reached the +conviction that the purpose of living is to suffer, +a conviction that threw his philosophy well into +line with the religious and ethical ideas of the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_98" title="98"> </a> +middle age. Yet even at this juncture his cynicism +did not desert him, as witness this comment of his: +“Religion must be a punishment, because nobody +gets religion who does not have a bad conscience.” +This avowal preceded his saltatory approach to +Roman Catholicism.</p> + +<p>In the later volumes of his autobiography he +minutely describes the successive crises through +which he passed in his agonizing search for certitude +and salvation before his spirit found rest in +the idea of Destiny which formerly to him was +synonymous with Fate and now became synonymous +with Providence. “Inferno” pictures his existence +as a protracted and unbroken nightmare. +He turned determinist, then fatalist, then mystic. +The most trifling incidents of his daily life were +spelt out according to Swedenborg's “Science of +Correspondences” and thereby assumed a deep +and terrifying significance. In the most trivial +events, such as the opening or shutting of a door, +or the curve etched by a raindrop on a dusty pane +of glass, he perceived intimations from the occult +power that directed his life. Into the most ordinary +occurrence of the day he read a divine order, +or threat, or chastisement. He was tormented +by terrible dreams and visions; in the guise of +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_99" title="99"> </a> +ferocious beasts, his own sins agonized his flesh. +And in the midst of all these tortures he studied +and practised the occult arts: magic, astrology, +necromancy, alchemy; he concocted gold by hermetical +science! To all appearances utterly deranged, +he was still lucid enough at intervals to +carry on chemical, botanical, and physiological experiments +of legitimate worth. Then his reason +cleared up once again and put a sudden end to an +episode which he has described in these words: +“To go in quest of God and to find the devil,—that +is what happened to me.”</p> + +<p>He took leave of Swedenborg as he had taken +leave of Nietzsche, yet retained much gratitude +for him; the great Scandinavian seer had brought +him back to God, so he averred, even though the +conversion was effected by picturings of horror.</p> + +<p>“Legends,” the further continuation of his self-history, +shows him vividly at his closest contact +with the Catholic Church. But the most satisfactory +portion of the autobiography from a human +point of view, and from a literary point perhaps +altogether the best thing Strindberg has done, is +the closing book of the series, entitled “Alone.” +He wrote it at the age of fifty, during a period of +comparative tranquillity of mind, and that fact is +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_100" title="100"> </a> +manifested by the composure and moderation of +its style. Now at last his storm-tossed soul seems +to have found a haven. He accepts his destiny, +and resigns himself to believing, since knowledge +is barred.</p> + +<p>But even this state of serenity harbored no permanent +peace; it signified merely a temporary suspension +of those terrific internal combats.</p> + +<p>In Strindberg's case, religious conversion is not +an edifying, but on the contrary a morbid and saddening +spectacle; it is equal to a declaration of +complete spiritual bankruptcy. He turns to the +church after finding all other pathways to God +blocked. His type of Christianity does not hang +together with the labors and struggles of his +secular life. A break with his past can be denied +to no man; least of all to a leader of men. Only, +if he has deserted the old road, he should be able +to lead in the new; he must have a new message +if he sees fit to cancel the old. Strindberg, however, +has nothing to offer at the end. He stands +before us timorous and shrinking, the accuser of +his fellows turned self-accuser, a beggar stretching +forth empty, trembling hands imploring forgiveness +of his sins and the salvation of his soul +through gracious mediation. His moral asseverations +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_101" title="101"> </a> +are either blank truisms, or intellectual aberrations. +Strindberg has added nothing to the stock +of human understanding. A preacher, of course, +is not in duty bound to generate original thought. +Indeed if such were to be exacted, our pulpits +would soon be as sparsely peopled as already are +the pews. Ministers who are wondering hard +why so many people stay away from church might +well stop to consider whether the reason is not +that a large portion of mankind has already secured, +theoretically, a religious or ethical basis of +life more or less identical with the one which +churches content themselves with offering. The +greatest religious teacher of modern times, Leo +Tolstoy, was not by any means a bringer of new +truths. The true secret of the tremendous power +which nevertheless he wielded over the souls of +men was that he extended the practical application +of what he believed. If, therefore, we look +for a lesson in Strindberg's life as recited by himself, +we shall not find it in his religious conversion.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>Taken in its entirety, his voluminous yet fragmentary +life history is one of the most painful +human documents on record. One can hardly +peruse it without asking: Was Strindberg insane? +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_102" title="102"> </a> +It is a question which he often put to himself +when remorse and self-reproach gnawed at his +conscience and when he fancied himself scorned +and persecuted by all his former friends. “Why +are you so hated?” he asks himself in one of his +dialogues, and this is his answer: “I could not +endure to see mankind suffer, and so I said and +wrote: ‘Free yourselves, I shall help.’ And so I +said to the poor: ‘Do not let the rich suck your +blood.’ And to woman: ‘Do not let man oppress +you.’ And to the children: ‘Do not obey your +parents if they are unjust.’ The consequences,—well, +they are quite incomprehensible; for of a +sudden I had both sides against me, rich and poor, +men and women, parents and children; add to +that sickness and poverty, disgraceful pauperism, +my divorce, lawsuits, exile, loneliness, and now, to +top the climax,—do you believe that I am insane?” +From his ultra-subjective point of view, the explanation +here given of the total collapse of his +fortunes is fairly accurate, at least in the essential +aspects. Still, many great men have been pursued +by a similar conflux of calamities. Overwhelming +misfortunes are the surest test of manhood. +How high a person bears up his head under +the blows of fate is the best gage of his stature. +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_103" title="103"> </a> +But Strindberg, in spite of his colossal physique, +was not cast in the heroic mold. The breakdown +of his fortunes caused him to turn traitor to himself, +to recant and destroy his intellectual past.</p> + +<p>Whether he was actually insane is a question for +psychiaters to settle; normal he certainly was not. +In medical opinion his modes of reacting to the +obstructions and difficulties of the daily life were +conclusively symptomatic of neurasthenia. Certain +obsessive ideas and idiosyncracies of his, +closely bordering upon phobia, would seem to indicate +grave psychic disorder. His temper and +his world-view were indicative of hypochondria: +he perceived only the hostile, never the friendly, +aspects of events, people, and phenomena. Dejectedly +he declares: “There is falseness even in +the calm air and the sunshine, and I feel that happiness +has no place in my lot.”</p> + +<p>Destiny had assembled within him all the doubts +and pangs of the modern soul, but had neglected +to counterpoise them with positive and constructive +convictions; so that when his small store of hopes +and prospects was exhausted, he broke down from +sheer hollowness of heart. He died a recluse, a +penitent, and a renegade to all his past ideas and +persuasions.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="Page_104" title="104"> </a>Evidently, with his large assortment of defects +both of character and of intellect, Strindberg +could not be classed as one of the great constructive +minds of our period. Viewed in his social +importance, he will interest future students of +morals chiefly as an agitator, a polemist, and in +a fashion, too, as a prophet; by his uniquely aggressive +veracity, he rendered a measure of valuable +service to his time.</p> + +<p>But viewed as a creative writer, both of drama +and fiction, he has an incontestable claim to our +lasting attention. His work shows artistic ability, +even though it rarely attains to greatness and is +frequently marred by the bizarre qualities of his +style. Presumably his will be a permanent place +in the history of literature, principally because of +the extraordinary subjective animation of his work. +And perhaps in times less depressed than ours +its gloominess may act as a valuable antidote upon +the popular prejudice against being serious. His +artistic profession of faith certainly should save +him from wholesale condemnation. He says in +one of his prefaces: “Some people have accused +my tragedy of being too sad, as though one desired +a merry tragedy. People clamor for Enjoyment +as though Enjoyment consisted in being +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_105" title="105"> </a> +foolish. I find enjoyment in the powerful and +terrible struggles of life; and the capability of +experiencing something, of learning something, +gives me pleasure.”</p> + +<p>The keynote to his literary productions is the +cry of the agony of being. Every line of his +works is written in the shadow of the sorrow of +living. In them, all that is most dismal and terrifying +and therefore most tragical, becomes articulate. +They are propelled by an abysmal pessimism, +and because of this fact, since pessimism is +one of the mightiest inspiring forces in literature, +August Strindberg, its foremost spokesman, deserves +to be read and understood. +</p> +<p class="chapter-page"><a class="pagenum" name="Page_107" title="107"> </a>FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE</p> + +<h2><a class="pagenum" name="Page_109" title="109"> </a>III<br/> +<small>THE EXALTATION OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE</small></h2> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">In</span> these embattled times it is perfectly natural +to expect from any discourse on Nietzsche's +philosophy first of all a statement concerning +the relation of that troublesome genius to the +origins of the war; and this demand prompts a few +candid words on that aspect of the subject at the +start.</p> + +<p>For more than three years the public has been +persistently taught by the press to think of Friedrich +Nietzsche mainly as the powerful promoter +of a systematic national movement of the German +people for the conquest of the world. But there +is strong and definite internal evidence in the writings +of Nietzsche against the assumption that he +intentionally aroused a spirit of war or aimed in +any way at the world-wide preponderance of Germany's +type of civilization. Nietzsche had a temperamental +loathing for everything that is brutal, +a loathing which was greatly intensified by his +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_110" title="110"> </a> +personal contact with the horrors of war while +serving as a military nurse in the campaign of +1870. If there were still any one senseless enough +to plead the erstwhile popular cause of Pan-Germanism, +he would be likely to find more support +for his argument in the writings of the de-<ins title="gallisized">gallicized</ins> +Frenchman, Count Joseph Arthur Gobineau, +or of the germanized Englishman, Houston +Stewart Chamberlain, than in those of the “hermit +of Maria-Sils,” who does not even suggest, let +alone advocate, German world-predominance in +a single line of all his writings. To couple Friedrich +Nietzsche with Heinrich von Treitschke as +the latter's fellow herald of German ascendancy +is truly preposterous. Treitschke himself was bitterly +and irreconcilably set against the creator of +Zarathustra,<a name="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">(14)</a> in whom ever since “Unzeitgemässe +Betrachtungen” he had divined “the good European,”—which +to the author of the <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Deutsche +Geschichte</i> meant the bad Prussian, and by consequence +the bad German.</p> + +<p>As a consummate individualist and by the same +token a cosmopolite to the full, Nietzsche was the +last remove from national, or strictly speaking +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_111" title="111"> </a> +even from racial, jingoism. Even the imputation +of ordinary patriotic sentiments would have been +resented by him as an insult, for such sentiments +were to him a sure symptom of that gregarious +disposition which was so utterly abhorrent to his +feelings. In his German citizenhood he took no +pride whatsoever. On every occasion that offered +he vented in mordant terms his contempt for the +country of his birth, boastfully proclaiming his own +derivation from alien stock. He bemoaned his +fate of having to write for Germans; averring +that people who drank beer and smoked pipes +were hopelessly incapable of understanding him. +Of this extravagance in denouncing his countrymen +the following account by one of his keenest American +interpreters gives a fair idea. “No epithet +was too outrageous, no charge was too farfetched, +no manipulation or interpretation of evidence was +too daring to enter into his ferocious indictment. +He accused the Germans of stupidity, superstitiousness, +and silliness; of a chronic weakness of +dodging issues, a fatuous ‘barn-yard’ and ‘green-pasture’ +contentment, of yielding supinely to the +commands and exactions of a clumsy and unintelligent +government; of degrading education to the +low level of mere cramming and examination passing; +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_112" title="112"> </a> +of a congenital inability to understand and absorb +the culture of other peoples, and particularly +the culture of the French; of a boorish bumptiousness, +and an ignorant, ostrichlike complacency; of +a systematic hostility to men of genius, whether +in art, science, or philosophy; of a slavish devotion +to the two great European narcotics, alcohol +and Christianity; of a profound beeriness, a spiritual +dyspepsia, a puerile mysticism, an old-womanish +pettiness, and an ineradicable liking for the +obscure, evolving, crepuscular, damp, and shrouded.”<a name="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">(15)</a> +It certainly requires a violent twist of logic +to hold this catalogue of invectives responsible for +the transformation of a sluggish and indolent +bourgeoisie into a “Volk in Waffen” unified by an +indomitable and truculent rapacity.</p> + +<p>Neither should Nietzsche's general condemnation +of mild and tender forbearance—on the +ground that it blocks the purpose of nature—be interpreted +as a call to universal militancy. By his +ruling it is only supermen that are privileged to +carry their will through. But undeniably he +does teach that the world belongs to the strong. +They may grab it at any temporary loss to the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_113" title="113"> </a> +common run of humanity and, if need be, with +sanguinary force, since their will is, ulteriorly, +identical with the cosmic purpose.</p> + +<p>Of course this is preaching war of some sort, +but Nietzsche was not in favor of war on ethnic +or ethical grounds, like that fanatical militarist, +General von Bernhardi, whom the great mass of +his countrymen in the time before the war would +have bluntly rejected as their spokesman. Anyway, +Nietzsche did not mean to encourage Germany +to subjugate the rest of the world. He even +deprecated her victory in the bloody contest of +1870, because he thought that it had brought on +a form of material prosperity of which internal +decay and the collapse of intellectual and spiritual +ideals were the unfortunate concomitants. At the +same time, the universal <ins title="decreptitude">decrepitude</ins> prevented +the despiser of his own people from conceiving a +decided preference for some other country. He +held that all European nations were progressing +in the wrong direction,—the deadweight of exaggerated +and misshapen materialism dragged them +back and down. English life he deemed almost +irredeemably clogged by utilitarianism. Even +France, the only modern commonwealth credited +by Nietzsche with an indigenous culture, was governed +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_114" title="114"> </a> +by what he stigmatizes as the life philosophy +of the shopkeeper. Nietzsche is destitute of national +ideals. In fact he never thinks in terms of +politics. He aims to be “a good European, not a +good German.” In his aversion to the extant +order of society he never for a moment advocates, +like Rousseau or Tolstoy, a breach with civilization. +Cataclysmic changes through anarchy, revolution, +and war were repugnant to his ideals of +culture. For two thousand years the races of +Europe had toiled to humanize themselves, school +their character, equip their minds, refine their +tastes. Could any sane reformer have calmly contemplated +the possible engulfment in another +Saturnian age of the gains purchased by that +enormous expenditure of human labor? According +to Nietzsche's conviction, the new dispensation +could not be entered in a book of blank pages. A +higher civilization could only be reared upon a +lower. So it seems that he is quite wrongly accused +of having been an “accessory before the +deed,” in any literal or legal sense, to the stupendous +international struggle witnessed to-day. And +we may pass on to consider in what other way he +was a vital factor of modern social development. +For whatever we may think of the political value +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_115" title="115"> </a> +of his teachings, it is impossible to deny their +arousing and inspiriting effect upon the intellectual, +moral, and artistic faculties of his epoch and ours.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>It should be clearly understood that the significance +of Nietzsche for our age is not to be explained +by any weighty discovery in the realm of +knowledge. Nietzsche's merit consists not in any +unriddling of the universe by a metaphysical key +to its secrets, but rather in the diffusion of a new +intellectual light elucidating human consciousness +in regard to the purpose and the end of existence. +Nietzsche has no objective truths to teach, indeed +he acknowledges no truth other than subjective. +Nor does he put any faith in bare logic, but on +the contrary pronounces it one of mankind's greatest +misfortunes. His argumentation is not sustained +and progressive, but desultory, impressionistic, +and freely repetitional; slashing aphorism +is its most effective tool. And so, in the sense of +the schools, he is not a philosopher at all; quite +the contrary, an implacable enemy of the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">métier</i>. +And yet the formative and directive influence of +his vaticinations, enunciated with tremendous +spiritual heat and lofty gesture, has been very +great. His conception of life has acted upon the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_116" title="116"> </a> +generation as a moral intoxicant of truly incalculable +strength.</p> + +<p>Withal his published work, amounting to eighteen +volumes, though flagrantly irrational, yet +does contain a perfectly coherent doctrine. Only, +it is a doctrine to whose core mere peripheric +groping will never negotiate the approach. Its essence +must be caught by flashlike seizure and cannot +be conveyed except to minds of more than the +average imaginative sensibility. For its central +ideas relate to the remotest ultimates, and its +dominant prepossession, the <em>Overman</em>, is, in the +final reckoning, the creature of a Utopian fancy. +To be more precise, Nietzsche extorts from the +Darwinian theory of selection a set of amazing +connotations by means of the simultaneous shift +from the biological to the poetic sphere of thought +and from the averagely socialized to an uncompromisingly +self-centred attitude of mind. This +doubly eccentric position is rendered feasible for +him by a whole-souled indifference to exact science +and an intense contempt for the practical adjustments +of life. He is, first and last, an imaginative +schemer, whose visions are engendered by inner +exuberance; the propelling power of his philosophy +being an intense temperamental enthusiasm +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_117" title="117"> </a> +at one and the same time lyrically sensitive and +dramatically impassioned. It is these qualities of +soul that made his utterance ring with the force of +a high moral challenge. All the same, he was not +any more original in his ethics than in his theory +of knowledge. In this field also his receptive +mind threw itself wide open to the flow of older +influences which it encountered. The religion of +personal advantage had had many a prophet before +Nietzsche. Among the older writers, Machiavelli +was its weightiest champion. In Germany, +Nietzsche's immediate predecessor was +“Max Stirner,”<a name="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">(16)</a> and as regards foreign thinkers, +Nietzsche declared as late as 1888 that to no +other writer of his own century did he feel himself +so closely allied by the ties of congeniality as to +Ralph Waldo Emerson.</p> + +<p>The most superficial acquaintance with these +writers shows that Nietzsche is held responsible +for certain revolutionary notions of which he +by no means was the originator. Of the connection +of his doctrine with the maxims of “The +Prince” and of “The Ego and His Own” (<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Der +Einzige und sein Eigentum</i>)<a name="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">(17)</a> nothing further need +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_118" title="118"> </a> +be said than that to them Nietzsche owes, directly +or indirectly, the principle of “non-morality.” +However, he does not employ the same strictly intellectual +methods. They were logicians rather +than moralists, and their ruler-man is in the main a +construction of cold reasoning, while the ruler-man +of Nietzsche is the vision of a genius whose +eye looks down a much longer perspective than +is accorded to ordinary mortals. That a far +greater affinity of temper should have existed between +Nietzsche and Emerson than between him +and the two classic non-moralists, must bring surprise +to the many who have never recognized the +Concord Sage as an exponent of unfettered individualism. +Yet in fact Emerson goes to such an +extreme of individualism that the only thing that +has saved his memory from anathema is that he +has not many readers in his after-times, and these +few do not always venture to understand him. And +Emerson, though in a different way from Nietzsche's, +was also a rhapsodist. In his poetry, where +he articulates his meaning with far greater unrestraint +than in his prose, we find without any difficulty +full corroboration of his spiritual kinship +with Nietzsche. For instance, where may we turn +in the works of the latter for a stronger statement +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_119" title="119"> </a> +of the case of Power versus Pity than is contained +in “The World Soul”?</p> + +<div class="poetry width17"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">“He serveth the servant,<br/></div> +<div class="line indent1">The brave he loves amain,<br/></div> +<div class="line indent1">He kills the cripple and the sick,<br/></div> +<div class="line indent1">And straight begins again;<br/></div> +<div class="line indent1">For gods delight in gods,<br/></div> +<div class="line indent1">And thrust the weak aside,—<br/></div> +<div class="line indent1">To him who scorns their charities<br/></div> +<div class="line indent1">Their arms fly open wide.”<br/></div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="no-indent">From such a world-view what moral could proceed +more logically than that of Zarathustra: +“And him whom ye do not teach to fly, teach—how +to fall quicker”?</p> + +<p>But after all, the intellectual origin of Nietzsche's +ideas matters but little. Wheresoever they +were derived from, he made them strikingly his +own by raising them to the splendid elevation of +his thought. And if nevertheless he has failed to +take high rank and standing among the sages of +the schools, this shortage in his professional prestige +is more than counterbalanced by the wide +reach of his influence among the laity. What +might the re-classification, or perchance even the +re-interpretation, of known facts about life have +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_120" title="120"> </a> +signified beside Nietzsche's lofty apprehension of +the sacredness of life itself? For whatever may +be the social menace of his reasoning, his commanding +proclamation to an expectant age of the +doctrine that Progress means infinite growth towards +ideals of perfection has resulted in a singular +reanimation of the individual sense of dignity, +served as a potent remedy of social dry-rot, and +furthered our gradual emergence from the impenetrable +darkness of ancestral traditions.</p> + +<p>In seeking an adequate explanation of his power +over modern minds we readily surmise that his +philosophy draws much of its vitality from the +system of science that underlies it. And yet while +it is true enough that Nietzsche's fundamental +thesis is an offshoot of the Darwinian theory, the +violent individualism which is the driving principle +of his entire philosophy is rather opposed to +the general orientation of Darwinism, since that +is social. Not to the author of the “Descent of +Man” directly is the modern ethical glorification +of egoism indebted for its measure of scientific +sanction, but to one of his heterodox disciples, +namely to the bio-philosopher W. H. Rolph, who +in a volume named “Biologic Problems,” with the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_121" title="121"> </a> +subtitle, “An Essay in Rational Ethics,”<a name="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">(18)</a> deals +definitely with the problem of evolution in its +dynamical bearings. The question is raised, Why +do the extant types of life ascend toward higher +goals, and, on reaching them, progress toward still +higher goals, to the end of time? Under the reason +as explained by Darwin, should not evolution +stop at a definite stage, namely, when the object of +the competitive struggle for existence has been +fully attained? Self-preservation naturally ceases +to act as an incentive to further progress, so soon +as the weaker contestants are beaten off the field +and the survival of the fittest is abundantly secured. +From there on we have to look farther for +an adequate causation of the ascent of species. +Unless we assume the existence of an absolutistic +teleological tendency to perfection, we are logically +bound to connect upward development with favorable +external conditions. By substituting for +the Darwinian “struggle for existence” a new formula: +“struggle for surplus,” Rolph advances a +new fruitful hypothesis. In all creatures the acquisitive +cravings exceed the limit of actual necessity. +Under Darwin's interpretation of nature, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_122" title="122"> </a> +the struggle between individuals of the same species +would give way to pacific equilibrium as soon +as the bare subsistence were no longer in question. +Yet we know that the struggle is unending. The +creature appetites are not appeased by a normal +sufficiency; on the contrary, “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">l'appetit vient en +mangeant</i>”; the possessive instinct, if not quite insatiable, +is at least coextensive with its opportunities +for gratification. Whether or not it be true—as +Carlyle claims—that, after all, the fundamental +question between any two human beings is, +“Can I kill thee, or canst thou kill me?”—at any +rate in civilized human society the contest is not +waged merely for the naked existence, but mainly +for life's increments in the form of comforts, +pleasures, luxuries, and the accumulation of power +and influence; and the excess of acquisition over +immediate need goes as a residuum into the structure +of civilization. In plain words, then, social +progress is pushed on by individual greed and +ambition. At this point Rolph rests the case, without +entering into the moral implicates of the subject, +which would seem to obtrude themselves upon +the attention.</p> + +<p>Now to a believer in progressive evolution with +a strong ethical bent such a theory brings home +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_123" title="123"> </a> +man's ulterior responsibility for the betterment of +life, and therefore acts as a call to his supreme +duty of preparing the ground for the arrival of +a higher order of beings. The argument seems +simple and clinching. Living nature through a +long file of species and genera has at last worked +up to the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">homo sapiens</i> who as yet does not even +approach the perfection of his own type. Is it a +legitimate ambition of the race to mark time on +the stand which it has reached and to entrench +itself impregnably in its present mediocrity? +Nietzsche did not shrink from any of the inferential +conclusions logically to be drawn from the +biologic argument. If growth is in the purpose of +nature, then once we have accepted our chief office +in life, it becomes our task to pave the way for a +higher genus of man. And the only force that +makes with directness for that object is the Will +to Power. To foreshadow the resultant human +type, Nietzsche resurrected from Goethe's vocabulary +the convenient word <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Ãœbermensch</i>—“Overman.”</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>Any one regarding existence in the light of a +stern and perpetual combat is of necessity driven +at last to the alternative between making the best +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_124" title="124"> </a> +of life and making an end of it; he must either +seek lasting deliverance from the evil of living or +endeavor to wrest from the world by any means +at his command the greatest sum of its gratifications. +It is serviceable to describe the two frames +of mind respectively as the optimistic and the +pessimistic. But it would perhaps be hasty to conclude +that the first of these attitudes necessarily +betokens the greater strength of character.</p> + +<p>Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy sprang from +pessimism, yet issued in an optimism of unheard-of +exaltation; carrying, however, to the end its +plainly visible birthmarks. He started out as an +enthusiastic disciple of Arthur Schopenhauer; unquestionably +the adherence was fixed by his own +deep-seated contempt for the complacency of the +plebs. But he was bound soon to part company +with the grandmaster of pessimism, because he +discovered the root of the philosophy of renunciation +in that same detestable debility of the will +which he deemed responsible for the bovine lassitude +of the masses; both pessimism and philistinism +came from a lack of vitality, and were symptoms +of racial degeneracy. But before Nietzsche +finally rejected Schopenhauer and gave his shocking +counterblast to the undermining action of pessimism, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_125" title="125"> </a> +he succumbed temporarily to the spell of +another gigantic personality. We are not concerned +with Richard Wagner's musical influence +upon Nietzsche, who was himself a musician of no +mean ability; what is to the point here is the +prime principle of Wagner's art theory. The key +to the Wagnerian theory is found, also, in Schopenhauer's +philosophy. Wagner starts from the +pessimistic thesis that at the bottom of the well of +life lies nothing but suffering,—hence living is utterly +undesirable. In one of his letters to Franz +Liszt he names as the duplex root of his creative +genius the longing for love and the yearning for +death. On another occasion, he confesses his own +emotional nihilism in the following summary of +<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Tristan und Isolde</i>: “<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Sehnsucht, Sehnsucht, unstillbares, +ewig neu sich gebärendes Verlangen—Schmachten +und Dursten; einzige Erlösung: Tod, +Sterben, Untergehen,—Nichtmehrerwachen.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">(19)</a> +But from the boundless ocean of sorrow there is +a refuge. It was Wagner's fundamental dogma +that through the illusions of art the individual is +enabled to rise above the hopelessness of the realities +into a new cosmos replete with supreme satisfactions. +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_126" title="126"> </a> +Man's mundane salvation therefore depends +upon the ministrations of art and his own +artistic sensitiveness. The glorification of genius +is a natural corollary of such a belief.</p> + +<p>Nietzsche in one of his earliest works examines +Wagner's theory and amplifies it by a rather casuistic +interpretation of the evolution of art. After +raising the question, How did the Greeks contrive +to dignify and ennoble their national existence? +he points, by way of an illustrative answer, not +perchance to the Periclean era, but to a far more +primitive epoch of Hellenic culture, when a total +oblivion of the actual world and a transport into +the realm of imagination was universally possible. +He explains the trance as the effect of intoxication,—primarily +in the current literal sense of +the word. Such was the significance of the cult of +Dionysos. “Through singing and dancing,” claims +Nietzsche, “man manifests himself as member of +a higher community. Walking and talking he has +unlearned, and is in a fair way to dance up into +the air.” That this supposititious Dionysiac phase +of Hellenic culture was in turn succeeded by more +rational stages, in which the impulsive flow of life +was curbed and dammed in by operations of the +intellect, is not permitted by Nietzsche to invalidate +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_127" title="127"> </a> +the argument. By his arbitrary reading of +ancient history he was, at first, disposed to look to +the forthcoming <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Universal-Kunstwerk</i><a name="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">(20)</a> as the +complete expression of a new religious spirit and +as the adequate lever of a general uplift of mankind +to a state of bliss. But the typical disparity +between Wagner and Nietzsche was bound to +alienate them. Wagner, despite all appearance to +the contrary, is inherently democratic in his convictions,—his +earlier political vicissitudes amply +confirm this view,—and fastens his hope for the +elevation of humanity through art upon the sort +of genius in whom latent popular forces might +combine to a new summit. Nietzsche on the other +hand represents the extreme aristocratic type, both +in respect of thought and of sentiment. “I do not +wish to be confounded with and mistaken for these +preachers of equality,” says he. “For within <em>me</em> +justice saith: men are not equal.” His ideal is +a hero of coercive personality, dwelling aloft in +solitude, despotically bending the gregarious instincts +of the common crowd to his own higher +purposes by the dominating force of his Will to +Might.</p> + +<p>The concept of the Overman rests, as has been +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_128" title="128"> </a> +shown, upon a fairly solid substructure of plausibility, +since at the bottom of the author's reasoning +lies the notion that mankind is destined to outgrow +its current status; the thought of a humanity +risen to new and wondrous heights of power over +nature is not necessarily unscientific for being supremely +imaginative. The Overman, however, +cannot be produced ready made, by any instantaneous +process; he must be slowly and persistently +willed into being, through love of the new ideal +which he is to embody: “All great Love,” speaketh +Zarathustra, “seeketh to create what it loveth. +<em>Myself</em> I sacrifice into my love, and <em>my neighbor</em> +as myself, thus runneth the speech of all creators.” +Only the fixed conjoint purpose of many generations +of aspiring men will be able to create the +Overman. “Could you create a God?—Then be +silent concerning all gods! But ye could very well +create Beyond-man. Not yourselves perhaps, my +brethren! But ye could create yourselves into +fathers and fore-fathers of Beyond-man; and let +this be your best creating. But all creators are +hard.”</p> + +<p>Nietzsche's startlingly heterodox code of ethics +coheres organically with the Overman hypothesis, +and so understood is certain to lose some of its +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_129" title="129"> </a> +aspect of absurdity. The racial will, as we have +seen, must be taught to aim at the Overman. But +the volitional faculty of the generation, according +to Nietzsche, is so debilitated as to be utterly inadequate +to its office. Hence, advisedly to stimulate +and strengthen the enfeebled will power of his +fellow men is the most imperative and immediate +task of the radical reformer. Once the power of +willing, as such, shall have been,—regardless of +the worthiness of its object,—brought back to active +life, it will be feasible to give the Will to +Might a direction towards objects of the highest +moral grandeur.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately for the race as a whole, the +throng is ineligible for partnership in the auspicious +scheme of co-operative procreation: which +fact necessitates a segregative method of breeding. +The Overman can only be evolved by an ancestry +of master-men, who must be secured to the race +by a rigid application of eugenic standards, particularly +in the matter of mating. Of marriage, +Nietzsche has this definition: “Marriage, so call +I the will of two to create one who is more than +they who created him.” For the bracing of the +weakened will-force of the human breed it is absolutely +essential that master-men, the potential progenitors +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_130" title="130"> </a> +of the superman, be left unhampered to +the impulse of “living themselves out” (<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">sich auszuleben</i>),—an +opportunity of which under the regnant +code of morals they are inconsiderately deprived. +Since, then, existing dictates and conventions +are a serious hindrance to the requisite autonomy +of the master-man, their abolishment +might be well. Yet on the other hand, it is convenient +that the <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Vielzuviele</i>, the “much-too-many,” +i. e. the despised generality of people, +should continue to be governed and controlled by +strict rules and regulations, so that the will of the +master-folk might the more expeditiously be +wrought. Would it not, then, be an efficacious +compromise to keep the canon of morality in force +for the general run, but suspend it for the special +benefit of master-men, prospective or full-fledged? +From the history of the race Nietzsche draws a +warrant for the distinction. His contention is that +masters and slaves have never lived up to a single +code of conduct. Have not civilizations risen and +fallen according as they were shaped by this +or that class of nations? History also teaches +what disastrous consequences follow the loss of +caste. In the case of the Jewish people, the +domineering type or morals gave way to the servile +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_131" title="131"> </a> +as a result of the Babylonian captivity. So long +as the Jews were strong, they extolled all manifestations +of strength and energy. The collapse +of their own strength turned them into apologists +of the so-called “virtues” of humility, long-suffering, +forgiveness,—until, according to the Judæo-Christian +code of ethics, being good came to mean +being weak. So races may justly be classified into +masters and slaves, and history proves that to the +strong goes the empire. The ambitions of a nation +are a sure criterion of its worth.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>“I walk through these folk and keep mine eyes open. +They have become <em>smaller</em> and are becoming ever smaller. +<em>And the reason of that is their doctrine of happiness and +virtue.</em></p> + +<p>For they are modest even in their virtue; for they are +desirous of ease. But with ease only modest virtue is +compatible.</p> + +<p>True, in their fashion they learn how to stride and to +stride forward. That I call their <em>hobbling</em>. Thereby +they become an offense unto every one who is in a hurry.</p> + +<p>And many a one strideth on and in doing so looketh +backward, with a stiffened neck. I rejoice to run against +the stomachs of such.</p> + +<p>Foot and eyes shall not lie, nor reproach each other +for lying. But there is much lying among small folk.</p> + +<p>Some of them <em>will</em>, but most of them <em>are willed</em> merely. +Some of them are genuine, but most of them are bad +actors.</p> + +<p>There are unconscious actors among them, and involuntary +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_132" title="132"> </a>actors. The genuine are always rare, especially +genuine actors.</p> + +<p>Here is little of man; therefore women try to make +themselves manly. For only he who is enough of a man +will save the woman in woman.</p> + +<p>And this hypocrisy I found to be worst among them, +that even those who command feign the virtues of those +who serve.</p> + +<p>‘I serve, thou servest, we serve.’ Thus the hypocrisy +of the rulers prayeth. And, alas, if the highest lord be +merely the highest servant!</p> + +<p>Alas! the curiosity of mine eye strayed even unto their +hypocrisies, and well I divined all their fly-happiness and +their humming round window panes in the sunshine.</p> + +<p>So much kindness, so much weakness see I. So much +justice and sympathy, so much weakness.</p> + +<p>Round, honest, and kind are they towards each other, +as grains of sand are round, honest, and kind unto grains +of sand.</p> + +<p>Modestly to embrace a small happiness—they call ‘submission’! +And therewith they modestly look sideways +after a new small happiness.</p> + +<p>At bottom they desire plainly one thing most of all: +to be hurt by nobody. Thus they oblige all and do well +unto them.</p> + +<p>But this is <em>cowardice</em>; although it be called ‘virtue.’</p> + +<p>And if once they speak harshly, these small folk,—I +hear therein merely their hoarseness. For every draught +of air maketh them hoarse.</p> + +<p>Prudent are they; their virtues have prudent fingers. +But they are lacking in clenched fists; their fingers know +not how to hide themselves behind fists.</p> + +<p>For them virtue is what maketh modest and tame. +Thereby they have made the wolf a dog and man himself +man's best domestic animal.</p> + +<p>‘We put our chair in the midst’—thus saith their +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_133" title="133"> </a>simpering unto me—‘exactly as far from dying gladiators +as from happy swine.’</p> + +<p>This is mediocrity; although it be called moderation.”<a name="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">(21)</a></p> +</blockquote> + +<p>The only law acknowledged by him who would +be a master is the bidding of his own will. He +makes short work of every other law. Whatever +clogs the flight of his indomitable ambition must +be ruthlessly swept aside. Obviously, the enactment +of this law that would render the individual +supreme and absolute would strike the death-knell +for all established forms and institutions of the +social body. But such is quite within Nietzsche's +intention. They are noxious agencies, ingeniously +devised for the enslavement of the will, and the +most pernicious among them is the Christian religion, +because of the alleged divine sanction conferred +by it upon subserviency. Christianity +would thwart the supreme will of nature by curbing +that lust for domination which the laws of +nature as revealed by science sanction, nay prescribe. +Nietzsche's ideas on this subject are loudly +and over-loudly voiced in <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Der Antichrist</i> (“The +Anti-Christ”), written in September 1888 as the +first part of a planned treatise in four instalments, +entitled <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Der Wille zur Macht. Versuch einer +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_134" title="134"> </a> +Umwertung aller Werte</i>. (“The Will to Power. +An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values”.)</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>The master-man's will, then, is his only law. +That is the essence of <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Herrenmoral</i>. And so the +question arises, Whence shall the conscience of the +ruler-man derive its distinctions between the Right +and the Wrong? The arch-iconoclast brusquely +stifles this naïve query beforehand by assuring us +that such distinctions in their accepted sense do +not exist for personages of that grander stamp. +Heedless of the time-hallowed concepts that all +men share in common, he enjoins mastermen to +take their position uncompromisingly outside the +confining area of conventions, in the moral independence +that dwells “beyond good and evil.” +Good and Evil are mere denotations, devoid of +any real significance. Right and Wrong are not +ideals immutable through the ages, nor even the +same at any time in all states of society. They +are vague and general notions, varying more or +less with the practical exigencies under which they +were conceived. What was right for my great-grandfather +is not <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ipso facto</i> right for myself. +Hence, the older and better established a law, the +more inapposite is it apt to be to the living demands. +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_135" title="135"> </a> +Why should the ruler-man bow down to +outworn statutes or stultify his self-dependent +moral sense before the artificial and stupidly uniform +moral relics of the dead past? Good is +whatever conduces to the increase of my power,—evil +is whatever tends to diminish it! Only the +weakling and the hypocrite will disagree.</p> + +<p>Unmistakably this is a straightout application +of the “pragmatic” criterion of truth. Nietzsche's +unconfessed and cautious imitators, who +call themselves pragmatists, are not bold enough +to follow their own logic from the cognitive sphere +to the moral. They stop short of the natural +conclusion to which their own premises lead. Morality +is necessarily predicated upon specific notions +of truth. So if Truth is an alterable and +shifting concept, must not morality likewise be +variable? The pragmatist might just as well come +out at once into the broad light and frankly say: +“Laws do not interest me in the abstract, or for +the sake of their general beneficence; they interest +me only in so far as they affect me. Therefore I +will make, interpret, and abolish them to suit myself.”</p> + +<p>To Nietzsche the “quest of truth” is a palpable +evasion. Truth is merely a means for the enhancement +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_136" title="136"> </a> +of my subjective satisfaction. It makes +not a whit of difference whether an opinion or a +judgment satisfies this or that scholastic definition. +I call true and good that which furthers +my welfare and intensifies my joy in living; and,—to +vindicate my self-gratification as a form, indeed +the highest, of “social service,”—the desirable +thing is that which matters for the improvement +of the human stock and thereby speeds the advent +of the Superman. “Oh,” exclaims Zarathustra, +“that ye would understand my word: Be sure to +do whatever ye like,—but first of all be such as +<em>can will</em>! Be sure to love your neighbor as yourself,—but +first of all be such as <em>love themselves</em>,—as +love themselves with great love, with contempt. +Thus speaketh Zarathustra, the ungodly.”</p> + +<p>By way of throwing some light upon this phase +of Nietzsche's moral philosophy, it may be added +that ever since 1876 he was an assiduous student +of Herbert Spencer, with whose theory of social +evolution he was first made acquainted by his +friend, Paul Rée, who in two works of his own, +“Psychologic Observations,” (1875), and “On +the Origin of Moral Sentiments,” (1877), had +elaborated upon the Spencerian theory about the +genealogy of morals.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="Page_137" title="137"> </a>The best known among all of Nietzsche's works, +<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Also Sprach Zarathustra</i> (“Thus Spake Zarathustra”), +is the Magna Charta of the new moral +emancipation. It was composed during a sojourn +in southern climes between 1883 and 1885, during +the convalescence from a nervous collapse, when +after a long and critical depression his spirit was +recovering its accustomed resilience. Nietzsche +wrote his <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">magnum opus</i> in solitude, in the mountains +and by the sea. His mind always was at its +best in settings of vast proportions, and in this +particular work there breathes an exaltation that +has scarcely its equal in the world's literature. +Style and diction in their supreme elation suit the +lofty fervor of the sentiment. From the feelings, +as a fact, this great rhapsody flows, and to the +feelings it makes its appeal; its extreme fascination +must be lost upon those who only know how to +“listen to reason.” The wondrous plastic beauty +of the language, along with the high emotional +pitch of its message, render “Zarathustra” a priceless +poetic monument; indeed its practical effect +in chastening and rejuvenating German literary +diction can hardly be overestimated. Its value as +a philosophic document is much slighter. It is +not even organized on severely logical lines. On +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_138" title="138"> </a> +the contrary, the four component parts are but +brilliant variations upon a single generic theme, +each in a different clef, but harmoniously united +by the incremental ecstasy of the movement. The +composition is free from monotony, for down to +each separate aphorism every part of it has its +special lyric nuance. The whole purports to +convey in the form of discourse the prophetic +message of Zarathustra, the hermit sage, an idealized +self-portrayal of the author.</p> + +<p>In the first book the tone is calm and temperate. +Zarathustra exhorts and instructs his disciples, +rails at his adversaries, and discloses his +superiority over them. In the soliloquies and dialogues +of the second book he reveals himself more +fully and freely as the Superman. The third book +contains the meditations and rhapsodies of Zarathustra +now dwelling wholly apart from men, his +mind solely occupied with thought about the +Eternal Return of the Present. In the fourth book +he is found in the company of a few chosen spirits +whom he seeks to imbue with his perfected doctrine. +In this final section of the work the deep +lyric current is already on the ebb; it is largely +supplanted by irony, satire, sarcasm, even buffoonery, +all of which are resorted to for the pitiless +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_139" title="139"> </a> +excoriation of our type of humanity, deemed decrepit +by the Sage. The author's intention to +present in a concluding fifth division the dying +Zarathustra pronouncing his benedictions upon +life in the act of quitting it was not to bear fruit.</p> + +<p>“Zarathustra”—Nietzsche's terrific assault +upon the fortifications of our social structure—is +too easily mistaken by facile cavilers for the ravings +of an unsound and desperate mind. To a narrow +and superficial reading, it exhibits itself as a +wholesale repudiation of all moral responsibility +and a maniacal attempt to subvert human civilization +for the exclusive benefit of the “glorious +blonde brute, rampant with greed for victory and +spoil.” Yet those who care to look more deeply +will detect beneath this chimerical contempt of +conventional regulations no want of a highminded +philanthropic purpose, provided they have the vision +necessary to comprehend a love of man oriented +by such extremely distant perspectives. At all +events they will discover that in this rebellious +propaganda an advancing line of life is firmly +traced out. The indolent and thoughtless may indeed +be horrified by the appalling dangers of the +gospel according to Zarathustra. But in reality +there is no great cause for alarm. Society may +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_140" title="140"> </a> +amply rely upon its agencies, even in these stupendous +times of universal war, for protection +from any disastrous organic dislocations incited +by the teachings of Zarathustra, at least so far as +the immediate future is concerned—in which alone +society appears to be interested. Moreover, our +apprehensions are appeased by the sober reflection +that by its plain unfeasibleness the whole supersocial +scheme of Nietzsche is reduced to colossal +absurdity. Its limitless audacity defeats any formulation +of its “war aims.” For what compels +an ambitious imagination to arrest itself at the +goal of the superman? Why should it not run on +beyond that first terminal? In one of Mr. G. K. +Chesterton's labored extravaganzas a grotesque +sort of super-overman <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">in spe</i> succeeds in going beyond +unreason when he contrives this lucid self-definition: +“I have gone where God has never +dared to go. I am above the silly supermen as +they are above mere men. Where I walk in the +Heavens, no man has walked before me, and I +am alone in a garden.” It is enough to make one +gasp and then perhaps luckily recall Goethe's consoling +thought that under the care of Providence +the trees will not grow into the heavens. (“<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Es ist +dafür gesorgt, dass die Bäume nicht in den Himmel +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_141" title="141"> </a> +wachsen.</i>”) As matter of fact, the ideas promulgated +in <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Also Sprach Zarathustra</i> need inspire +no fear of their winning the human race from its +venerable idols, despite the fact that the pull of +natural laws and of elemental appetites seems to +be on their side. The only effect to be expected +of such a philosophy is that it will act as an antidote +for moral inertia which inevitably goes with +the flock-instinct and the lazy reliance on the accustomed +order of things.</p> + +<p>Nietzsche's ethics are not easy to valuate, since +none of their standards are derived from the orthodox +canon. His being a truly personalized +form of morality, his principles are strictly cognate +to his temperament. To his professed ideals +there attaches a definite theory of society. And +since his philosophy is consistent in its sincerity, +its message is withheld from the man-in-the-street, +deemed unworthy of notice, and delivered only to +the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">élite</i> that shall beget the superman. To +Nietzsche the good of the greatest number is no +valid consideration. The great stupid mass exists +only for the sake of an oligarchy by whom it is +duly exploited under nature's decree that the +strong shall prey upon the weak. Let, then, this +favored set further the design of nature by systematically +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_142" title="142"> </a> +encouraging the elevation of their own +type.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>We have sought to dispel the fiction about the +shaping influence of Nietzsche upon the thought +and conduct of his nation, and have accounted for +the miscarriage of his ethics by their fantastic +impracticability. Yet it has been shown also that +he fostered in an unmistakable fashion the class-consciousness +of the aristocrat, born or self-appointed. +To that extent his influence was certainly +malign. Yet doubtless he did perform a +service to our age. The specific nature of this +service, stated in the fewest words, is that to his +great divinatory gift are we indebted for an unprecedented +strengthening of our hold upon reality. +In order to make this point clear we have to +revert once more to Nietzsche's transient intellectual +relation to pessimism.</p> + +<p>We have seen that the illusionism of Schopenhauer +and more particularly of Wagner exerted a +strong attraction on his high-strung artistic temperament.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless a certain realistic counter-drift to +the ultra-romantic tendency of Wagner's theory +caused him in the long run to reject the faith in +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_143" title="143"> </a> +the power of Art to save man from evil. Almost +abruptly, his personal affection for the “Master,” +to whom in his eventual mental eclipse he still +referred tenderly at lucid moments, changed to +bitter hostility. Henceforth he classes the glorification +of Art as one of the three most despicable +attitudes of life: Philistinism, Pietism, and Estheticism, +all of which have their origin in <em>cowardice</em>, +represent three branches of the ignominious +road of escape from the terrors of living. In +three extended diatribes Nietzsche denounces +Wagner as the archetype of modern decadence; +the most violent attack of all is delivered against +the point of juncture in which Wagner's art gospel +and the Christian religion culminate: the promise +of redemption through pity. To Nietzsche's way +of thinking pity is merely the coward's acknowledgment +of his weakness. For only insomuch as a +man is devoid of fortitude in bearing his own sufferings +is he unable to contemplate with equanimity +the sufferings of his fellow creatures. Since +religion enjoins compassion with all forms of human +misery, we should make war upon religion. +And for the reason that Wagner's crowning +achievement, his <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Parsifal</i>, is a veritable sublimation +of Mercy, there can be no truce between its +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_144" title="144"> </a> +creator and the giver of the counsel: “Be hard!” +Perhaps this notorious advice is after all not as +ominous as it sounds. It merely expresses rather +abruptly Nietzsche's confidence in the value of self-control +as a means of discipline. If you have +learned calmly to see others suffer, you are yourself +able to endure distress with manful composure. +“Therefore I wash the hand which helped +the sufferer; therefore I even wipe my soul.” But, +unfortunately, such is the frailty of human nature +that it is only one step from indifference about the +sufferings of others to an inclination to exploit +them or even to inflict pain upon one's neighbors +for the sake of personal gain of one sort or another.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Why so hard? said once the charcoal unto the diamond, +are we not near relations?</p> + +<p>Why so soft? O my brethren, thus I ask you. Are +ye not my brethren?</p> + +<p>Why so soft, so unresisting, and yielding? Why is +there so much disavowal and abnegation in your hearts? +Why is there so little fate in your looks?</p> + +<p>And if ye are not willing to be fates, and inexorable, +how could ye conquer with me someday?</p> + +<p>And if your hardness would not glance, and cut, and +chip into pieces—how could ye create with me some +day?</p> + +<p>For all creators are hard. And it must seem blessedness +unto you to press your hand upon millenniums as +upon wax,—</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="Page_145" title="145"> </a>Blessedness to write upon the will of millenniums as +upon brass,—harder than brass, nobler than brass. The +noblest only is perfectly hard.</p> + +<p>This new table, O my brethren, I put over you: Become +hard!<a name="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">(22)</a></p> +</blockquote> + +<p>The repudiation of Wagner leaves a tremendous +void in Nietzsche's soul by depriving his enthusiasm +of its foremost concrete object. He loses +his faith in idealism. When illusions can bring a +man like Wagner to such an odious outlook upon +life, they must be obnoxious in themselves; and +so, after being subjected to pitiless analysis, they +are disowned and turned into ridicule. And now, +the pendulum of his zeal having swung from one +emotional extreme to the other, the great rhapsodist +finds himself temporarily destitute of an +adequate theme. However, his fervor does not +long remain in abeyance, and soon it is absorbed +in a new object. Great as is the move it is logical +enough. Since illusions are only a hindrance to +the fuller grasp of life which behooves all free +spirits, Nietzsche energetically turns from self-deception +to its opposite, self-realization. In this +new spiritual endeavor he relies far more on intuition +than on scientific and metaphysical speculation. +From his own stand he is certainly justified +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_146" title="146"> </a> +in doing this. Experimentation and ratiocination +at the best are apt to disassociate individual realities +from their complex setting and then proceed +to palm them off as illustrations of life, when in +truth they are lifeless, artificially preserved specimens.</p> + +<div class="poetry italic width22" lang="de" xml:lang="de"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">“Encheiresin naturae nennt's die Chemie,<br/></div> +<div class="line indent1">Spottet ihrer selbst und weiss nicht wie.”<a name="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">(23)</a><br/></div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="no-indent">Nietzsche's realism, by contrast, goes to the very +quick of nature, grasps all the gifts of life, and +from the continuous flood of phenomena extracts +a rich, full-flavored essence. It is from a sense of +gratitude for this boon that he becomes an idolatrous +worshiper of experience, “<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">der grosse Jasager</i>,”—the +great sayer of Yes,—and the most +stimulating optimist of all ages. To Nietzsche +reality is alive as perhaps never to man before. +He plunges down to the very heart of things, absorbs +their vital qualities and meanings, and having +himself learned to draw supreme satisfaction +from the most ordinary facts and events, he makes +the common marvelous to others, which, as was +said by James Russell Lowell, is a true test of +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_147" title="147"> </a> +genius. No wonder that deification of reality +becomes the dominant <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">motif</i> in his philosophy. +But again that onesided aristocratic strain perverts +his ethics. To drain the intoxicating cup +at the feast of life, such is the divine privilege not +of the common run of mortals but only of the elect. +They must not let this or that petty and artificial +convention, nor yet this or that moral command +or prohibition, restrain them from the exercise +of that higher sense of living, but must fully abandon +themselves to its joys. “Since man came into +existence he hath had too little joy. That alone, +my brethren, is our original sin.”<a name="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">(24)</a> The “much-too-many” +are doomed to inanity by their lack of +appetite at the banquet of life:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Such folk sit down unto dinner and bring nothing with +them, not even a good hunger. And now they backbite: +“All is vanity!”</p> + +<p>But to eat well and drink well, O my brethren, is, +verily, no vain art! Break, break the tables of those who +are never joyful!<a name="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">(25)</a></p> +</blockquote> + +<p>The Will to Live holds man's one chance of +this-worldly bliss, and supersedes any care for the +remote felicities of any problematic future state. +Yet the Nietzschean cult of life is not to be understood +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_148" title="148"> </a> +by any means as a banal devotion to the +pleasurable side of life alone. The true disciple +finds in every event, be it happy or adverse, exalting +or crushing, the factors of supreme spiritual +satisfaction: joy and pain are equally implied in +experience, the Will to Live encompasses jointly +the capacity to enjoy and to suffer. It may even +be paradoxically said that since man owes some +of his greatest and most beautiful achievements +to sorrow, it must be a joy and a blessing to suffer. +The unmistakable sign of heroism is <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">amor +fati</i>, a fierce delight in one's destiny, hold what it +may.</p> + +<p>Consequently, the precursor of the superman +will be possessed, along with his great sensibility +to pleasure, of a capacious aptitude for suffering. +“Ye would perchance abolish suffering,” exclaims +Nietzsche, “and we,—it seems that we would +rather have it even greater and worse than it has +ever been. The discipline of suffering,—tragical +suffering,—know ye not that only this discipline +has heretofore brought about every elevation of +man?” “Spirit is that life which cutteth into life. +By one's own pain one's own knowledge increaseth;—knew +ye that before? And the happiness +of the spirit is this: to be anointed and consecrated +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_149" title="149"> </a> +by tears as a sacrificial animal;—knew +ye that before?” And if, then, the tragical pain +inherent in life be no argument against Joyfulness, +the zest of living can be obscured by nothing save +the fear of total extinction. To the disciple of +Nietzsche, by whom every moment of his existence +is realized as a priceless gift, the thought of +his irrevocable separation from all things is unbearable. +“‘Was this life?’ I shall say to Death. +‘Well, then, once more!’” And—to paraphrase +Nietzsche's own simile—the insatiable witness of +the great tragi-comedy, spectator and participant +at once, being loath to leave the theatre, and +eager for a repetition of the performance, shouts +his endless <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">encore</i>, praying fervently that in the +constant repetition of the performance not a single +detail of the action be omitted. The yearning +for the endlessness not of life at large, not of life +on any terms, but of <em>this my life</em> with its ineffable +wealth of rapturous moments, works up the extreme +optimism of Nietzsche to its stupendous +<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">a priori</i> notion of infinity, expressed in the name +<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">die ewige Wiederkehr</i> (“Eternal Recurrence”). +It is a staggeringly imaginative concept, formed +apart from any evidential grounds, and yet fortified +with a fair amount of logical armament. The +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_150" title="150"> </a> +universe is imagined as endless in time, although +its material contents are not equally conceived as +limitless. Since, consequently, there must be a +limit to the possible variety in the arrangement +and sequence of the sum total of data, even as in +the case of a kaleidoscope, the possibility of variegations +is not infinite. The particular co-ordination +of things in the universe, say at this particular +moment, is bound to recur again and again in the +passing of the eons. But under the nexus of cause +and effect the resurgence of the past from the +ocean of time is not accidental nor is the configuration +of things haphazard, as is true in the case of +the kaleidoscope; rather, history, in the most inclusive +acceptation of the term, is predestined to +repeat itself; this happens through the perpetual +progressive resurrection of its particles. It is then +to be assumed that any aspect which the world has +ever presented must have existed innumerable millions +of times before, and must recur with eternal +periodicity. That the deterministic strain in this +tremendous <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Vorstellung</i> of a cyclic rhythm throbbing +in the universe entangles its author's fanatical +belief in evolution in a rather serious self-contradiction, +does not detract from its spiritual lure, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_151" title="151"> </a> +nor from its wide suggestiveness, however incapable +it may be of scientific demonstration.</p> + +<p>From unfathomed depths of feeling wells up +the pæan of the prophet of the life intense.</p> + +<div class="poetry width175"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">O Mensch! Gib Acht!<br/></div> +<div class="line">Was spricht die tiefe Mitternacht?<br/></div> +<div class="line">Ich schlief, ich schlief—,<br/></div> +<div class="line">Aus tiefem Traum bin ich erwacht:—<br/></div> +<div class="line">Die Welt ist tief,<br/></div> +<div class="line">Und tiefer als der Tag gedacht.<br/></div> +<div class="line">Tief ist ihr Weh—,<br/></div> +<div class="line">Lust—tiefer noch als Herzeleid:<br/></div> +<div class="line">Weh spricht: Vergeh!<br/></div> +<div class="line">Doch alle Lust will Ewigkeit—<br/></div> +<div class="line">Will tiefe, tiefe Ewigkeit!<a name="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">(26)</a><br/></div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>A timid heart may indeed recoil from the iron +necessity of reliving <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ad infinitum</i> its woeful terrestrial +fate. But the prospect can hold no terror +for the heroic soul by whose fiat all items of experience +have assumed important meanings and +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_152" title="152"> </a> +values. He who has cast in his lot with Destiny +in spontaneous submission to all its designs, cannot +but revere and cherish his own fate as an integral +part of the grand unalterable fatality of +things.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>If this crude presentment of Friedrich Nietzsche's +doctrine has not entirely failed of its purpose, +the <i>leitmotifs</i> of that doctrine will have been +readily referred by the reader to their origin; they +can be subsumed under that temperamental category +which is more or less accurately defined as +the <em>romantic</em>. Glorification of violent passion,—quest +of innermost mysteries,—boundless expansion +of self-consciousness,—visions of a future of +transcendent magnificence, and notwithstanding +an ardent worship of reality a quixotically impracticable +detachment from the concrete basis +of civic life,—these outstanding characteristics of +the Nietzschean philosophy give unmistakable +proof of a central, driving, romantic inspiration: +Nietzsche shifts the essence and principle of being +to a new center of gravity, by substituting the Future +for the Present and relying on the untrammeled +expansion of spontaneous forces which upon +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_153" title="153"> </a> +closer examination are found to be without definite +aim or practical goal.</p> + +<p>For this reason, critically to animadvert upon +Nietzsche as a social reformer would be utterly +out of place; he is simply too much of a poet to +be taken seriously as a statesman or politician. +The weakness of his philosophy before the forum +of Logic has been referred to before. Nothing +can be easier than to prove the incompatibility of +some of his theorems. How, for instance, can the +absolute determinism of the belief in Cyclic Recurrence +be reconciled with the power vested in +superman to deflect by his autonomous will the +straight course of history? Or, to touch upon a +more practical social aspect of his teaching,—if +in the order of nature all men are unequal, how +can we ever bring about the right selection of +leaders, how indeed can we expect to secure the +due ascendancy of character and intellect over the +gregarious grossness of the demos?</p> + +<p>Again, it is easy enough to controvert Nietzsche +almost at any pass by demonstrating his unphilosophic +onesidedness. Were Nietzsche not stubbornly +onesided, he would surely have conceded—as +any sane-minded person must concede in these +times of suffering and sacrifice—that charity, self-abnegation, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_154" title="154"> </a> +and self-immolation might be viewed, +not as conclusive proofs of degeneracy, but on +the contrary as signs of growth towards perfection. +Besides, philosophers of the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">métier</i> are sure +to object to the haziness of Nietzsche's idea of +Vitality which in truth is oriented, as is his philosophy +in general, less by thought than by sentiment.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding his obvious connection with +significant contemporaneous currents, the author +of “Zarathustra” is altogether too much <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">sui generis</i> +to be amenable to any crude and rigid classification. +He may plausibly be labelled an anarchist, +yet no definition of anarchism will wholly take +him in. Anarchism stands for the demolition of +the extant social apparatus of restraint. Its battle +is for the free determination of personal happiness. +Nietzsche's prime concern, contrarily, is +with internal self-liberation from the obsessive desire +for personal happiness in any accepted connotation +of the term; such happiness to him does +not constitute the chief object of life.</p> + +<p>The cardinal point of Nietzsche's doctrine is +missed by those who, arguing retrospectively, expound +the gist of his philosophy as an incitation +to barbarism. Nothing can be more remote from +his intentions than the transformation of society +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_155" title="155"> </a> +into a horde of ferocious brutes. His impeachment +of mercy, notwithstanding an appearance of +reckless impiety, is in the last analysis no more and +no less than an expedient in the truly romantic pursuit +of a new ideal of Love. Compassion, in his +opinion, hampers the progress towards forms of +living that shall be pregnant with a new and superior +type of perfection. And in justice to Nietzsche +it should be borne in mind that among the +various manifestations of that human failing there +is none he scorns so deeply as cowardly and petty +commiseration of self. It also deserves to be emphasized +that he nowhere endorses selfishness +when exercised for small or sordid objects. “I +love the brave. But it is not enough to be a +swordsman, one must also know against whom to +use the sword. And often there is more bravery +in one's keeping quiet and going past, in order to +spare one's self for a worthier enemy: Ye shall +have only enemies who are to be hated, but not +enemies who are to be despised.”<a name="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">(27)</a> Despotism +must justify itself by great and worthy ends. And +no man must be permitted to be hard towards +others who lacks the strength of being even harder +towards himself.</p> + +<p><a class="pagenum" name="Page_156" title="156"> </a>At all events it must serve a better purpose to +appraise the practical importance of Nietzsche's +speculations than blankly to denounce their immoralism. +Nietzsche, it has to be repeated, was +not on the whole a creator of new ideas. His +extraordinary influence in the recent past is not +due to any supreme originality or fertility of mind; +it is predominantly due to his eagle-winged imagination. +In him the emotional urge of utterance +was, accordingly, incomparably more potent +than the purely intellectual force of opinion: in +fact the texture of his philosophy is woven of sensations +rather than of ideas, hence its decidedly +ethical trend.</p> + +<p>The latent value of Nietzsche's ethics in their +application to specific social problems it would be +extremely difficult to determine. Their successful +application to general world problems, if it were +possible, would mean the ruin of the only form +of civilization that signifies to us. His philosophy, +if swallowed in the whole, poisons; in large potations, +intoxicates; but in reasonable doses, +strengthens and stimulates. Such danger as it +harbors has no relation to grossness. His call to +the Joy of Living and Doing is no encouragement +of vulgar hedonism, but a challenge to persevering +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_157" title="157"> </a> +effort. He urges the supreme importance of vigor +of body and mind and force of will. “O my +brethren, I consecrate you to be, and show unto +you the way unto a new nobility. Ye shall become +procreators and breeders and sowers of the +future.—Not whence ye come be your honor in +future, but whither ye go! Your will, and your +foot that longeth to get beyond yourselves, be +that your new honor!”<a name="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">(28)</a></p> + +<p>It would be a withering mistake to advocate the +translation of Nietzsche's poetic dreams into the +prose of reality. Unquestionably his Utopia if +it were to be carried into practice would doom to +utter extinction the world it is devised to regenerate. +But it is generally acknowledged that +“prophets have a right to be unreasonable,” and +so, if we would square ourselves with Friedrich +Nietzsche in a spirit of fairness, we ought not to +forget that the daring champion of reckless unrestraint +is likewise the inspired apostle of action, +power, enthusiasm, and aspiration, in fine, a +prophet of Vitality and a messenger of Hope. +</p> +<p class="chapter-page"><a class="pagenum" name="Page_159" title="159"> </a>LEO TOLSTOY</p> + +<h2><a class="pagenum" name="Page_161" title="161"> </a>IV<br/> +<small>THE REVIVALISM OF LEO TOLSTOY</small></h2> + +<p class="drop-cap"><span class="upper-case">In</span> the intellectual record of our times it is one +of the oddest events that the most impressive +preacher who has taken the ear of civilized +mankind in this generation raised up his voice +in a region which in respect of its political, religious, +and economic status was until recently, by +fairly common consent, ruled off the map of Europe. +The greatest humanitarian of his century +sprang up in a land chiefly characterized in the +general judgment of the outside world by the +reactionism of its government and the stolid +ignorance of its populace. A country still teeming +with analphabeticians and proverbial for its dense +medievalism gave to the world a writer who by +the great quality of his art and the lofty spiritualism +of his teaching was able not only to obtain a +wide hearing throughout all civilized countries, +but to become a distinct factor in the moral evolution +of the age. The stupefying events that have +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_162" title="162"> </a> +recently revolutionized the Russian state have +given the world an inkling of the secrets of the +Slavic type of temperament, so mystifying in its +commixture of simplicity and strength on the one +hand with grossness and stupidity, and on the other +hand with the highest spirituality and idealism. +For such people as in these infuriated times still +keep up some objective and judicious interest in +products of the literary art, the volcanic upheaval +in the social life of Russia has probably thrown +some of Tolstoy's less palpable figures into a +greater plastic relief. Tolstoy's own character, +too, has become more tangible in its curious composition. +The close analogy between his personal +theories and the dominant impulses of his race +has now been made patent. We are better able to +understand the people of whom he wrote because +we have come to know better the people for whom +he wrote.</p> + +<p>The emphasis of Tolstoy's popular appeal was +unquestionably enhanced by certain eccentricities +of his doctrine, and still more by his picturesque +efforts to conform his mode of life, by way of +necessary example, to his professed theory of +social elevation. The personality of Tolstoy, like +the character of the Russian people, is many-sided, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_163" title="163"> </a> +and since its aspects are not marked off by convenient +lines of division, but are, rather, commingled +in the great and varied mass of his literary +achievements, it is not easy to make a definitive +forecast of his historic position. Tentatively, +however, the current critical estimate may be +summed up in this: as a creative writer, in particular +of novels and short stories, he stood matchless +among the realists, and the verdict pronounced +at one time by William Dean Howells when he +referred to Tolstoy as “the only living writer of +perfect fiction” is not likely to be overruled by +posterity. Nor will competent judges gainsay his +supreme importance as a critic and moral revivalist +of society, even though they may be seriously +disposed to question whether his principles of conduct +constitute in their aggregate a canon of much +practical worth for the needs of the western world. +As a philosopher or an original thinker, however, +he will hardly maintain the place accorded him +by the less discerning among his multitudinous followers, +for in his persistent attempt to find a +new way of understanding life he must be said to +have signally failed. Wisdom in him was hampered +by Utopian fancies; his dogmas derive from +idiosyncrasies and lead into absurdities. Then, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_164" title="164"> </a> +too, most of his tenets are easily traced to their +sources: in his vagaries as well as in his noblest +and soundest aspirations he was merely continuing +work which others had prepared.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>An objective survey of Tolstoy's work in realistic +fiction, in which he ranked supreme, should +start with the admission that he was by no means +the first arrival among the Russians in that field. +Nicholas Gogol, Fedor Dostoievsky, and Ivan +Turgenieff had the priority by a small margin. +Of these three powerful novelists, Dostoievsky +(1821–1881) has probably had an even stronger +influence upon modern letters than has Tolstoy +himself. He was one of the earliest writers of +romance to show the younger generation how to +found fiction upon deeper psychologic knowledge. +His greatest proficiency lay, as is apt to be the +case with writers of a realistic bent, in dealing with +the darkest side of life. The wretched and outcast +portion of humanity yielded to his skill its +most congenial material. His novels—“Poor +Folk,” (1846), “Memoirs from a Dead House,” +(1862), “Raskolnikoff,” (1866), “The Idiot,” +(1868), “The Karamasoffs,” (1879)—take the +reader into company such as had heretofore +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_165" title="165"> </a> +not gained open entrance to polite literature: +criminals, defectives, paupers, and prostitutes. +Yet he did not dwell upon the wretchedness +of that submerged section of humanity from any +perverse delight in what is hideous or for the satisfaction +of readers afflicted with morbid curiosity, +but from a compelling sense of pity and +brotherly love. His works are an appeal to charity. +In them, the imperdible grace of the soul +shines through the ugliest outward disguise to win +a glance from the habitual indifference of fortune's +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">enfants gâtés</i>. Dostoievsky preceded Tolstoy +in frankly enlisting his talents in the service +of his outcast brethren. With the same ideal of +the writer's mission held in steady view, Tolstoy +turned his attention from the start, and then more +and more as his work advanced, to the pitiable +condition of the lower orders of society. It must +not be forgotten in this connection that his career +was synchronous with the growth of a social revolution +which, having reached its full force in these +days, is making Russia over for better or for +worse, and whose wellsprings Tolstoy helps us to +fathom.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>For the general grouping of his writings it is +convenient to follow Tolstoy's own division of his +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_166" title="166"> </a> +life. His dreamy poetical childhood was succeeded +by three clearly distinct stages: first, a +score of years filled up with self-indulgent worldliness; +next, a nearly equal length of time devoted +to artistic ambition, earnest meditation, and helpful +social work; last, by a more gradual transition, +the ascetic period, covering a long stretch of +years given up to religious illumination and to the +strenuous advocacy of the Simple Life.</p> + +<p>The remarkable spiritual evolution of this great +man was apparently governed far more by inborn +tendencies than by the workings of experience. Of +Tolstoy in his childhood, youth, middle age, and +senescence we gain trustworthy impressions from +numerous autobiographical documents, but here +we shall have to forego anything more than a passing +reference to the essential facts of his career. +He was descended from an aristocratic family of +German stock but domiciled in Russia since the +fourteenth century. The year of his birth was +1828, the same as Ibsen's. In youth he was +bashful, eccentric, and amazingly ill-favored. +The last-named of these handicaps he outgrew +but late in life, still later did he get over his +bashfulness, and his eccentricity never left him. +His penchant for the infraction of custom nearly +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_167" title="167"> </a> +put a premature stop to his career when in his +urchin days he once threw himself from a window +in an improvised experiment in aerial navigation. +At the age of fourteen he was much taken up with +subtile speculations about the most ancient and +vexing of human problems: the future life, and the +immortality of the soul. Entering the university +at fifteen, he devoted himself in the beginning to +the study of oriental languages, but later on his +interest shifted to the law. At sixteen he was +already imbued with the doctrines of Jean Jacques +Rousseau that were to play such an important rôle +in guiding his conduct. In 1846 he passed out of +the university without a degree, carrying away +nothing but a lasting regret over his wasted time. +He went directly to his ancestral estates, with +the idealistic intention to make the most of +the opportunity afforded him by the patriarchal +relationship that existed in Russia between the +landholder and the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">adscripti glebae</i> and to improve +the condition of his seven hundred dependents. +His efforts, however, were foredoomed to +failure, partly through his lack of experience, +partly also through a certain want of sincerity +or tenacity of purpose. The experiment in social +education having abruptly come to its end, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_168" title="168"> </a> +the disillusionized reformer threw himself headlong +into the diversions and dissipations of the +capital city. In his “Confession” he refers to +that chapter of his existence as made up wholly +of sensuality and worldliness. He was inordinately +proud of his noble birth,—at college his inchoate +apostleship of the universal brotherhood +of man did not shield him from a general dislike +on account of his arrogance,—and he cultivated +the most exclusive social circles of Moscow. He +freely indulged the love of sports that was to cling +through life and keep him strong and supple even +in very old age. (Up to a short time before his +death he still rode horseback and perhaps none of +the renunciations exacted by his principles came so +hard as that of giving up his favorite pastime of +hunting.) But he also fell into the evil ways of +gilded youth, soon achieving notoriety as a toper, +gambler, and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">courreur des femmes</i>. After a while +his brother, who was a person of steadier habits +and who had great influence over him, persuaded +him to quit his profligate mode of living and to +join him at his military post. Under the bracing +effect of the change, the young man's moral energies +quickly revived. In the wilds of the Caucasus +he at once grew freer and cleaner; his deep affection +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_169" title="169"> </a> +for the half-civilized land endeared him both +to the Cossack natives and the Russian soldiers. +He entered the army at twenty-three, and from +November, 1853, up to the fall of Sebastopol in +the summer of 1855, served in the Crimean campaign. +He entered the famous fortress in November, +1854, and was among the last of its +defenders. The indelible impressions made upon +his mind by the heroism of his comrades, the awful +scenes and the appalling suffering he had to +witness, were responsible then and later for descriptions +as harrowing and as stirring as any that +the war literature of our own day has produced.</p> + +<p>In the Crimea he made his début as a writer. +Among the tales of his martial period the most +popular and perhaps the most excellent is the one +called “The Cossacks.” Turgenieff pronounced +it the best short story ever written in Russian, and +it is surely no undue exaggeration to say of Tolstoy's +novelettes in general that in point of technical +mastery they are unsurpassed.</p> + +<p>Sick at heart over the unending bloodshed in +the Caucasus the young officer made his way back +to Petrograd, and here, lionized in the salons +doubly, fur his feats at arms and in letters, he +seems to have returned, within more temperate +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_170" title="170"> </a> +limits, to his former style of living. At any rate, +in his own judgment the ensuing three years were +utterly wasted. The mental inanity and moral +corruption all about him swelled his sense of superiority +and self-righteousness. The glaring +humbug and hypocrisy that permeated his social +environment was, however, more than he could +long endure.</p> + +<p>Having resigned his officer's commission he +went abroad in 1857, to Switzerland, Germany, +and France. The studies and observations made +in these travels sealed his resolution to settle down +for good on his domain and to consecrate his life +to the welfare of his peasants. But a survey of +the situation found upon his return made him realize +that nothing could be done for the “muzhik” +without systematic education: therefore, in order +to prepare himself for efficacious work as a +teacher, he spent some further time abroad for +special study, in 1859. After that, the educational +labor was taken up in full earnest. The lord of +the land became the schoolmaster of his subjects, +reenforcing the effect of <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">viva voce</i> teaching by +means of a periodical published expressly for their +moral uplift. This work he continued for about +three years, his hopes of success now rising, now +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_171" title="171"> </a> +falling, when in a fit of despondency he again +abandoned his philanthropic efforts. About this +time, 1862, he married Sophia Andreyevna Behrs, +the daughter of a Moscow physician. With characteristic +honesty he forced his private diary on +his fiancée, who was only eighteen, so that she +might know the full truth about his pre-conjugal +course of living.</p> + +<p>About the Countess Tolstoy much has been said +in praise and blame. Let her record speak for +itself. Of her union with the great novelist thirteen +children were born, of whom nine reached an +adult age. The mother nursed and tended them +all, with her own hands made their clothes, and +until they grew to the age of ten supplied to them +the place of a schoolmistress. It must not be +inferred from this that her horizon did not extend +beyond nursery and kitchen, for during the earlier +years she acted also as her husband's invaluable +amanuensis. Before the days of the typewriter +his voluminous manuscripts were all copied by her +hand, and recopied and revised—in the case of +“War and Peace” this happened no less than +seven times, and the novel runs to sixteen hundred +close-printed pages!—and under her supervision +his numerous works were not only printed but also +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_172" title="172"> </a> +published and circulated. Moreover, she managed +his properties, landed, personal, and literary, +to the incalculable advantage of the family fortune. +This end, to be sure, she accomplished by +conservative and reliable methods of business; for +while of his literary genius she was the greatest +admirer, she never was in full accord with his +communistic notions. And the highest proof of +all her extraordinary <i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Tüchtigkeit</i> and devotion is +that by her common sense and tact she was enabled +to function for a lifetime as a sort of buffer +between her husband's world-removed dreamland +existence and the rigid and frigid reality of +facts.</p> + +<p>Thus Tolstoy's energies were left to go undivided +into literary production; its amount, as a result, +was enormous. If all his writings were to be +collected, including the unpublished manuscripts +now reposing in the Rumyantzoff Museum, which +are said to be about equal in quantity to the published +works, and if to this collection were added +his innumerable letters, most of which are of +very great interest, the complete set of Tolstoy's +works would run to considerably more than one +hundred volumes. To discuss all of Tolstoy's +writings, or even to mention all, is here quite out +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_173" title="173"> </a> +of the question. All those, however, that seem +vital for the purpose of a just estimate and characterization +will be touched upon.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>The literary fame of Tolstoy was abundantly +secured already in the earlier part of his life by +his numerous short stories and sketches. The +three remarkable pen pictures of the siege of +Sebastopol, and tales such as “The Cossacks,” +“Two Hussars,” “Polikushka,” “The Snow-Storm,” +“The Encounter,” “The Invasion,” “The +Captive in the Caucasus,” “Lucerne,” “Albert,” +and many others, revealed together with an exceptional +depth of insight an extraordinary plastic +ability and skill of motivation; in fact they deserve +to be set as permanent examples before the +eyes of every aspiring author. In their characters +and their setting they present true and racy pictures +of a portentous epoch, intimate studies of +the human soul that are full of charm and fascination, +notwithstanding their tragic sadness of outlook. +Manifestly this author was a prose poet of +such marvelous power that he could abstain consistently +from the use of sweeping color, overwrought +sentiment, and high rhetorical invective.</p> + +<p>At this season Tolstoy, while he refrained from +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_174" title="174"> </a> +following any of the approved literary models, +was paying much attention to the artistic refinement +of his style. There was to be a time when +he would abjure all considerations of artistry on +the ground that by them the ethical issue in a narration +is beclouded. But it would be truer to say +conversely that in his own later works, since “Anna +Karenina,” the clarity of the artistic design was +dimmed by the <ins title="obstrusive">obtrusive</ins> didactic purpose. Fortunately +the artistic interest was not yet wholly +subordinated to the religious urge while the three +great novels were in course of composition: “War +and Peace,” (1864–69), “Anna Karenina,” (first +part, 1873; published complete in 1877), and +“Resurrection,” (1899). To the first of these is +usually accorded the highest place among all of +Tolstoy's works; it is by this work that he takes +his position as the chief epic poet of modern times. +“War and Peace” is indeed an epic rather than +a novel in the ordinary meaning. Playing against +the background of tremendous historical transactions, +the narrative sustains the epic character not +only in the hugeness of its dimensions, but equally +in the qualities of its technique. There is very little +comment by the author upon the events, and +merely a touch of subjective irony here and +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_175" title="175"> </a> +there. The story is straightforwardly told as it +was lived out by its characters. Tolstoy has not +the self-complacency to thrust in the odds and ends +of his personal philosophy, as is done so annoyingly +even by a writer of George Meredith's consequence, +nor does he ever treat his readers with the +almost simian impertinence so successfully affected +by a Bernard Shaw. If “War and Peace” has any +faults, they are the faults of its virtues, and +spring mainly from an unmeasured prodigality of +the creative gift. As a result of Tolstoy's excessive +range of vision, the orderly progress of events +in that great novel is broken up somewhat by the +profusion of shapes that monopolize the attention +one at a time much as individual spots in a landscape +do under the sweeping glare of the search-light. +Yet although in the externalization of this +crowding multitude of figures no necessary detail +is lacking, the grand movement as a whole is not +swamped by the details. The entire story is governed +by the conception of events as an emanation +of the cosmic will, not merely as the consequence +of impulses proceeding from a few puissant geniuses +of the Napoleonic order.</p> + +<p>It is quite in accord with such a view of history +that the machinery of this voluminous epopee +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_176" title="176"> </a> +is not set in motion by a single conspicuous protagonist. +As a matter of fact, it is somewhat baffling +to try to name the principals in the story, +since in artistic importance all the figures are on +an equal footing before their maker; possibly the +fact that Tolstoy's ethical theory embodied the +most persistent protest ever raised against the +inequality of social estates proved not insignificant +for his manner of characterization. Ethical justice, +however, is carried to an artistic fault, for the +feelings and reactions of human nature in so many +diverse individuals lead to an intricacy and subtlety +of motivation which obscures the organic causes +through overzeal in making them patent. Anyway, +Tolstoy authenticates himself in this novel +as a past master of realism, particularly in his +utterly convincing depictment of Russian soldier +life. And as a painter of the battlefield he ranks, +allowing for the difference of the medium, with +Vasili Verestschagin at his best. It may be said +in passing that these two Russian pacifists, by +their gruesome exposition of the horrors of war, +aroused more sentiment against warfare than did +all the spectacular and expensive peace conferences +inaugurated by the crowned but hollow head of +their nation, and the splendid declamations of the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_177" title="177"> </a> +possessors of, or aspirants for, the late Mr. +Nobel's forty-thousand dollar prize.</p> + +<p>Like all true realists, Tolstoy took great pains +to inform himself even about the minutiæ of his +subjects, but he never failed, as did in large +measure Zola in <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">La Débâcle</i>, to infuse emotional +meaning into the static monotony of facts and figures. +In his strong attachment for his own human +creatures he is more nearly akin to the idealizing +or sentimentalizing type of realists, like Daudet, +Kipling, Hauptmann, than to the downright matter-of-fact +naturalists such as Zola or Gorki. But +to classify him at all would be wrong and futile, +since he was never leagued with literary creeds +and cliques and always stood aloof from the heated +theoretical controversies of his time even after +he had hurled his great inclusive challenge to art.</p> + +<p>“War and Peace” was written in Tolstoy's happiest +epoch, at a time, comparatively speaking, of +spiritual calm. He had now reached some satisfying +convictions in his religious speculations, and +felt that his personal life was moving up in the +right direction. His moral change is made plain +in the contrast between two figures of the story, +Prince Andrey and Peter Bezukhoff: the ambitious +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_178" title="178"> </a> +worldling and the honest seeker after the +right way.</p> + +<p>In his second great novel, “Anna Karenina,” +the undercurrent of the author's own moral experience +has a distinctly greater carrying power. It is +through the earnest idealist, Levine, that Tolstoy +has recorded his own aspirations. Characteristically, +he does not make Levine the central figure.</p> + +<p>“Anna Karenina” is undoubtedly far from +“pleasant” reading, since it is the tragical recital +of an adulterous love. But the situation, with its +appalling consequence of sorrow, is seized in its +fullest psychological depth and by this means +saved from being in any way offensive. The relation +between the principals is viewed as by no +means an ordinary liaison. Anna and Vronsky +are serious-minded, honorable persons, who have +struggled conscientiously against their mutual enchantment, +but are swept out of their own moral +orbits by the resistless force of Fate. This fatalistic +element in the tragedy is variously emphasized; +so at the beginning of the story, where +Anna, in her emotional confusion still half-ignorant +of her infatuation, suddenly realizes her love +for Vronsky; or in the scene at the horse races +where he meets with an accident. Throughout the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_179" title="179"> </a> +narrative the psychological argumentation is beyond +criticism. Witness the description of Anna's +husband, a sort of cousin-in-kind of Ibsen's Thorvald +Helmer, reflecting on his future course after +his wife's confession of her unfaithfulness. Or +that other episode, perhaps the greatest of them +all, when Anna, at the point of death, joins together +the hands of her husband and her lover. +Or, finally, the picture of Anna as she deserts her +home leaving her son behind in voluntary expiation +of her wrong-doing, an act, by the way, that +betrays a nicety of conscience far too subtle for +the Rhadamantine inquisitors who demand to +know why, if Anna would atone to Karenin, does +she go with Vronsky? How perfectly true to life, +subsequently, is the rapid <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">dégringolade</i> of this passion +under the gnawing curse of the homeless, +workless, purposeless existence which little by +little disunites the lovers! Only the end may be +somewhat open to doubt, with its metastasis of +the heroine's character,—unless indeed we consider +the sweeping change accounted for by the +theory of duplex personality. She herself believes +that there are two quite different women alive in +her, the one steadfastly loyal to her obligations, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_180" title="180"> </a> +the other blindly driven into sin by the demon of +her uncontrollable temperament.</p> + +<p>In the power of analysis, “Anna Karenina” is +beyond doubt Tolstoy's masterpiece, and yet in +its many discursive passages it already foreshadows +the disintegration of his art, or more precisely, +its ultimate capitulation to moral propagandism. +For it was while at work upon this +great novel that the old perplexities returned to +bewilder his soul. In the tumultuous agitation of +his conscience, the crucial and fundamental questions, +Why Do We Live? and How Should We +Live? could nevermore be silenced. Now a definitive +attitude toward life is forming; to it all the +later works bear a vital relation. And so, in regard +to their moral outlook, Tolstoy's books may +fitly be divided into those written before and those +written since his “conversion.” “Anna Karenina” +happens to be on the dividing line.</p> + +<p>He was a man well past fifty, of enviable social +position, in prosperous circumstances, widely celebrated +for his art, highly respected for his character, +and in his domestic life blessed with every +reason for contentment. Yet all the gifts of fortune +sank into insignificance before that vexing, +unanswered Why? In the face of a paralyzing +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_181" title="181"> </a> +universal aimlessness, there could be to him no +abiding sense of life in his personal enjoyments +and desires. The burden of life became still less +endurable face to face with the existence of evil +and with the wretchedness of our social arrangements. +With so much toil and trouble, squalor, +ignorance, crime, and every conceivable kind of +bodily and mental suffering all about me, why +should I be privileged to live in luxury and idleness? +This ever recurring question would not +permit him to enjoy his possessions without self-reproach. +To think of thousands of fellowmen +lacking the very necessaries, made affluence and its +concomitant ways of living odious to him. We +know that in 1884, or thereabouts, he radically +changed his views and modes of life so as to bring +them into conformity with the laws of the Gospel. +But before this conversion, in the despairing anguish +that attacked him after the completion of +“Anna Karenina,” he was frequently tempted to +suicide. Although the thought of death was very +terrible to him then and at all times, still he would +rather perish than live on in a world made heinous +and hateful by the iniquity of men. Then it was +that he searched for a reason why the vast proportion +of humanity endure life, nay enjoy it, and +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_182" title="182"> </a> +why self-destruction is condemned by the general +opinion, and this in spite of the fact that for most +mortals existence is even harder than it could have +been for him, since he at least was shielded from +material want and lived amid loving souls. The +answer he found in the end seemed to lead by a +straight road out of the wilderness of doubt and +despair. The great majority, so he ascertained, +are able to bear the burden of life because they +heed the ancient injunction: “<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ora et labora</i>”; they +<em>work</em> and they <em>believe</em>. Might he not sweeten his +lot after the same prescription? Being of a delicate +spiritual sensibility, he had long realized that +people of the idle class were for the most part inwardly +indifferent to religion and in their actions +defiant of its spirit. In the upper strata of society +religious thought, where it exists, is largely adulterated +or weakened; sophisticated by education, +doctored by science, thinned out with worldly ambitions +and with practical needs and considerations. +The faith that supports life is found only among +simple folk. For faith, to deserve the name, must +be absolute, uncritical, unreasoning. Starting +from these convictions as a basis, Tolstoy resolutely +undertook <em>to learn to believe</em>; a determination +which led him, as it has led other ardent religionists, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_183" title="183"> </a> +so far astray from ecclesiastical paths +that in due course of time he was unavoidably +excommunicated from his church. His convictions +made him a vehement antagonist of churchdom +because of its stiffness of creed and laxness of +practice. For his own part he soon arrived at a +full and absolute acceptance of the Christian faith +in what he considered to be its primitive and essential +form. In “Walk Ye in the Light,” +(1893), the reversion of a confirmed worldling to +this original conception of Christianity gives the +story of the writer's own change of heart.</p> + +<p>To the period under discussion belongs Tolstoy's +drama, “The Power of Darkness,” +(1886).<a name="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">(29)</a> It is a piece of matchless realism, probably +the first unmixedly naturalistic play ever +wrought out. It is brutally, terribly true to life, +and that to life at its worst, both in respect of +the plot and the actors, who are individualized +down to the minutest characteristics of utterance +and gesture. Withal it is a species of modern morality, +replete with a reformatory purpose that reflects +deeply the author's tensely didactic state of +mind. His instructional zeal is heightened by intimate +knowledge of the Russian peasant, on his +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_184" title="184"> </a> +good side as well as on his bad. Some of his short +stories are crass pictures of the muzhik's bestial +degradation, veritable pattern cards of human and +inhuman vices. In other stories, again, the deep-seated +piety of the muzhik, and his patriarchal +simplicity of heart are portrayed. As instance, +the story of “Two Old Men,” (1885), who are +pledged to attain the Holy Land: the one performs +his vow to the letter, the other, much the +godlier of the two, is kept from his goal by a +work of practical charity. In another story a +muzhik is falsely accused of murder and accepts +his undeserved punishment in a devout spirit of +non-resistance. In a third, a poor cobbler who +intuitively walks in the light is deemed worthy of +a visit from Christ.</p> + +<p>In “The Power of Darkness,” the darkest +traits of peasant life prevail, yet the frightful picture +is somehow Christianized, as it were, so that +even the miscreant Nikita, in spite of his monstrous +crimes, is sure of our profound compassion. +We are gripped at the very heartstrings by that +great confession scene where he stutters out his +budget of malefactions, forced by his awakened +conscience and urged on by his old father: “Speak +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_185" title="185"> </a> +out, my child, speak it off your soul, then you will +feel easier.”</p> + +<p>“The Power of Darkness” was given its counterpart +in the satirical comedy, “Fruits of Culture,” +(1889). The wickedness of refined society +is more mercilessly excoriated than low-lived infamy. +But artistically considered the peasant +tragedy is far superior to the “society play.”</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>Tolstoy was a pessimist both by temperament +and philosophical persuasion. This is made manifest +among other things by the prominent place +which the idea of Death occupies in his writings. +His feelings are expressed with striking simplicity +by one of the principal characters in “War and +Peace”: “One must often think of death, so that +it may lose its terrors for us, cease to be an enemy, +and become on the contrary a friend that delivers +us from this life of miseries.” Still, in Tolstoy's +stories, death, as a rule, is a haunting spectre. This +conception comes to the fore even long after his +conversion in a story like “Master and Man.” +Throughout his literary activity it has an obsessive +hold on his mind. Even the shadowing of +the animal mind by the ubiquitous spectre gives +rise to a story: “Cholstomjer, The Story of a +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_186" title="186"> </a> +Horse,” (1861), and in one of the earlier tales +even the death of a tree is pictured. Death is +most terrifying when, denuded of its heroic embellishments +in battle pieces such as “The Death +of a Soldier” (“Sebastopol”) or the description +of Prince Andrey's death in “War and Peace,” it +is exposed in all its bare and grim loathsomeness. +Such happens in the short novel published in 1886 +under the name of “The Death of Ivan Ilyitch,”—in +point of literary merit one of Tolstoy's greatest +performances. It is a plain tale about a middle-aged +man of the official class, happy in an +unreflecting sort of way in the jog-trot of his work +and domestic arrangements. Suddenly his fate is +turned,—by a trite mishap resulting in a long, +hopeless sickness. His people at first give him the +most anxious care, but as the illness drags on +their devotion gradually abates, the patient is +neglected, and soon almost no thought is given to +him. In the monotonous agony of his prostration, +the sufferer slowly comes to realize that he is +dying, while his household has gone back to its +habitual ways mindless of him, as though he were +already dead, or had never lived. All through this +lengthened crucifixion he still clings to life, and it +is only when the family, gathering about him +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_187" title="187"> </a> +shortly before the release, can but ill conceal their +impatience for the end, that Ivan at last accepts +his fate: “I will no longer let them suffer—I +will die; I will deliver them and myself.” So he +dies, and the world pursues its course unaltered,—in +which consists the after-sting of this poignant +tragedy.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>Between the years 1879 and 1886 Tolstoy published +the main portion of what may be regarded +as his spiritual autobiography, namely, “The Confession,” +(1879, with a supplement in 1882), +“The Union and Translation of the Four Gospels,” +(1881–2), “What Do I Believe?” (also +translated under the title “My Religion,” 1884) +and “What Then Must We Do?” (1886). He +was now well on the way to the logical ultimates +of his ethical ideas, and in the revulsion from artistic +ambitions so plainly foreshown in a treatise +in 1887: “What is True Art?” he repudiated unequivocally +all his earlier work so far as it sprang +from any motives other than those of moral teaching. +Without a clear appreciation of these facts a +just estimate of “The Kreutzer Sonata” (1889) +is impossible.</p> + +<p>The central character of the book is a commonplace, +rather well-meaning fellow who has been +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_188" title="188"> </a> +tried for the murder of his wife, slain by him in a +fit of insensate jealousy, and has been acquitted +because of the extenuating circumstances in the +case. The object of the story is to lay bare the +causes of his crime. Tolstoy's ascetic proclivity +had long since set him thinking about sex problems +in general and in particular upon the ethics of +marriage. And by this time he had arrived at +the conclusion that the demoralized state of our +society is chiefly due to polygamy and polyandrism; +corroboration of his uncompromising +views on the need of social purity he finds in the +evangelist Matthew, v:27–28, where the difference +between the old command and its new, far +more rigorous, interpretation is bluntly stated: +“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old +time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say +unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to +lust after her hath committed adultery with her +already in his heart.”</p> + +<p>Now Tolstoy thinks that society, far from concurring +in the scriptural condemnation of lewdness, +caters systematically to the appetites of the +voluptuary. If Tolstoy is right in his diagnosis, +then the euphemistic term “social evil” has far +wider reaches of meaning than those to which it is +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_189" title="189"> </a> +customarily applied. With the head person in +“The Kreutzer Sonata,” Tolstoy regards society +as no better than a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">maison de tolérance</i> conducted +on a very comprehensive scale. Women are +reared with the main object of alluring men +through charms and accomplishments; the arts of +the hairdresser, the dressmaker, and milliner, as +well as the exertions of governesses, music masters, +and linguists all converge toward the same +aim: to impart the power of attracting men. Between +the woman of the world and the professional +courtezan the main difference in the light +of this view lies in the length of the service. Pozdnicheff +accordingly divides femininity into long +term and short term prostitutes, which rather fantastic +classification Tolstoy follows up intrepidly +to its last logical consequence.</p> + +<p>The main idea of “The Kreutzer Sonata,” as +stated in the postscript, is that sexless life is best. +A recommendation of celibacy as mankind's highest +ideal to be logical should involve a wish for +the disappearance of human life from the globe. +A world-view of such pessimistic sort prevents itself +from the forfeiture of all bonds with humanity +only by its concomitant reasoning that a race for +whom it were better not to be is the very one that +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_190" title="190"> </a> +will struggle desperately against its <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">summum bonum</i>. +Since race suicide, then, is a hopeless desideratum, +the reformer must turn to more practicable +methods if he would at least alleviate the +worst of our social maladjustments. Idleness is +the mother of all mischief, because it superinduces +sensual self-indulgence. Therefore we must suppress +anything that makes for leisure and pleasure. +At this point we grasp the meaning of Tolstoy's +vehement recoil from art. It is, to a great +extent, the strong-willed resistance of a highly +impressionable puritan against the enticements of +beauty,—their distracting and disquieting effect, +and principally their power of sensuous suggestion.</p> + +<p>The last extensive work published by Tolstoy +was “Resurrection,” (1889). In artistic merit it +is not on a level with “War and Peace” and “Anna +Karenina,” nor can this be wondered at, considering +the opinion about the value of art that had +meanwhile ripened in the author.</p> + +<p>“Resurrection” was written primarily for a constructive +moral purpose, yet the subject matter +was such as to secrete, unintendedly, a corrosive +criticism of social and religious cant. The satirical +connotation of the novel could not have been more +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_191" title="191"> </a> +grimly brought home than through this fact, that +the hero by his unswerving allegiance to Christian +principles of conduct greatly shocks, at first, our +sense of the proprieties, instead of eliciting our +enthusiastic admiration. In spite of our highest +moral notions Prince Nekhludoff, like that humbler +follower of the voice of conscience in Gerhart +Hauptmann's novel, impresses us as a “Fool in +Christ.” The story, itself, leads by degrees from +the under-world of crime and punishment to a +great spiritual elevation. Maslowa, a drunken +street-walker, having been tried on a charge of +murder, is wrongfully sentenced to transportation +for life, because—the jury is tired out and the +judge in a hurry to visit his mistress. Prince +Nekhludoff, sitting on that jury, recognizes in the +victim of justice a girl whose downfall he himself +had caused. He is seized by penitence and resolves +to follow the convict to Siberia, share her +sufferings, dedicate his life to her redemption. +She has sunk so low that his hope of reforming +her falters, yet true to his resolution he offers to +marry her. Although the offer is rejected, yet the +suggestion of a new life which it brings begins to +work a change in the woman. In the progress of +the story her better nature gradually gains sway +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_192" title="192"> </a> +until a thorough moral revolution is completed.</p> + +<p>“Resurrection” derives its special value from +its clear demonstration of those rules of conduct +to which the author was straining with every moral +fiber to conform his own life. From his ethical +speculations and social experiments are projected +figures like that of Maria Paulovna, a rich and +beautiful woman who prefers to live like a common +workingwoman and is drawn by her social +conscience into the revolutionary vortex. In this +figure, and more definitely still in the political convict +Simonson, banished because of his educational +work among the common people, Tolstoy studies +for the first time the so-called “intellectual” type +of revolutionist. His view of the “intellectuals” +is sympathetic, on the whole. They believe that +evil springs from ignorance. Their agitation issues +from the highest principles, and they are +capable of any self-sacrifice for the general weal. +Still Tolstoy, as a thoroughly anti-political reformer, +deprecates their organized movement.</p> + +<p>Altogether, he repudiated the systems of social +reconstruction that go by the name of socialism, +because he relied for the regeneration of society +wholly and solely upon individual self-elevation. +In an essential respect he was nevertheless a socialist, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_193" title="193"> </a> +inasmuch as he strove for the ideal of universal +equality. His social philosophy, bound up +inseparably with his personal religious evolution, +is laid down in a vast number of essays, letters, +sketches, tracts, didactic tales, and perhaps most +comprehensively in those autobiographical documents +already mentioned. Sociologically the most +important of these is a book on the problem of +property, entitled, “What Then Must We Do?” +(1886), which expounds the passage in Luke +iii:10, 11: “And the people asked him, saying, +What shall we do then? He answered and saith +unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart +to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let +him do likewise.” Not long before that, he had +thought of devoting himself entirely to charitable +work, but practical experiments at Moscow demonstrated +to him the futility of almsgiving. Speaking +on that point to his English biographer, Aylmer +Maude,<a name="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">(30)</a> he remarked: “All such activity, if +people attribute importance to it, is worthless.” +When his interviewer insisted that the destitute +have to be provided for somehow and that the +Count himself was in the habit of giving money +to beggars, the latter replied: “Yes, but I do not +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_194" title="194"> </a> +imagine that I am doing good! I only do it for +myself, because I know that I have no right to be +well off while they are in misery.” It is worth +mention in passing that during the famine of +1891–2 this determined opponent of organized +charity, in noble inconsistency with his theories, led +in the dispensation of relief to the starving population +of Middle Russia.</p> + +<p>But in “What Then Must We Do?” he treats +the usual organized dabbling in charity as utterly +preposterous: “Give away all you have or else you +can do no good.” … “If I give away a hundred +thousand and still withhold five hundred thousand, +I am far from acting in the spirit of charity, and +remain a factor of social injustice and evil. At the +sight of the freezing and hungering I must still +feel responsible for their plight, and feel that +since we should live in conditions where that evil +can be abstained from, it is impossible for me in +the position in which I deliberately place myself +to be anything other than a source of general +evil.”</p> + +<p>It was chiefly due to the influence of two peasants, +named Sutayeff and Bondareff, that Tolstoy +decided by a path of religious reasoning to abandon +“parasitical existence,”—that is, to sacrifice +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_195" title="195"> </a> +all prerogatives of his wealth and station and to +share the life of the lowly. He reasoned as follows: +“Since I am to blame for the existence of +social wrong, I can lessen my blame only by making +myself like unto those that labor and are +heavy-laden.” Economically, Tolstoy reasons +from this fallacy: If all men do not participate +equitably in the menial work that has to be performed +in the world, it follows that a disproportionate +burden of work falls upon the shoulders +of the more defenseless portion of humanity. +Whether this undue amount of labor be exacted +in the form of chattel slavery, or, which is scarcely +less objectionable, in the form of the virtual slavery +imposed by modern industrial conditions, +makes no material difference. The evil conditions +are bound to continue so long as the instincts that +make for idleness prevail over the co-operative impulses. +The only remedy lies in the simplification +of life in the upper strata of the social body, overwork +in the laboring classes being the direct result +of the excessive demands for the pleasures and +luxuries of life in the upper classes.</p> + +<p>To Bondareff in particular Tolstoy confessedly +owes the conviction that the best preventive for +immorality is physical labor, for which reason the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_196" title="196"> </a> +lower classes are less widely removed from grace +than the upper. Bondareff maintained on scriptural +grounds that everybody should employ at +least a part of his time in working the land. This +view Tolstoy shared definitely after 1884. Not +only did he devote a regular part of his day to +agricultural labor; he learned, in addition, shoemaking +and carpentry, meaning to demonstrate by +his example that it is feasible to return to those +patriarchal conditions under which the necessities +of life were produced by the consumer himself. +From this time forth he modelled his habits more +and more upon those of the common rustic. He +adopted peasant apparel and became extremely +frugal in his diet. Although by natural taste he +was no scorner of the pleasures of the table, he +now eliminated one luxury after another. About +this time he also turned strict vegetarian, then +gave up the use of wine and spirits, and ultimately +even tobacco, of which he had been very fond, was +made to go the way of flesh. He practiced this +self-abnegation in obedience to the Law of Life +which he interpreted as a stringent renunciation +of physical satisfactions and personal happiness. +Nor did he shirk the ultimate conclusion to which +his premises led: if the Law of Life imposes the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_197" title="197"> </a> +suppression of all natural desires and appetites +and commands the voluntary sacrifice of every +form of property and power, it must be clear that +life itself is devoid of sense and utterly undesirable. +And so it is expressly stated in his +“Thoughts.”<a name="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">(31)</a></p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>To what extent Tolstoy was a true Christian +believer may best be gathered from his own writings, +“What Do I Believe?” (1884), “On Life,” +(1887), and “The Kingdom of God is within +You,” (1893). Although at the age of seventeen +he had ceased to be orthodox, there can be no +question whatever that throughout his whole life +religion remained the deepest source of his inspiration. +By the early eighties he had emerged +from that acute scepticism that well-nigh cost him +life and reason, and had, outwardly at least, made +his peace with the church, attending services regularly, +and observing the feasts and the fasts; here +again in imitating the muzhik in his religious practices +he strove apparently to attain also to the +muzhik's actual gift of credulity. But in this endeavor +his superior culture proved an impediment +to him, and his widening doctrinal divergence from +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_198" title="198"> </a> +the established church finally drew upon his head, +in 1891, the official curse of the Holy Synod. And +yet a leading religious journal was right, shortly +after his death, in this comment upon the religious +meaning of his life: “If Christians everywhere +should put their religious beliefs into practice with +the simplicity and sincerity of Tolstoy, the entire +religious, moral, and social life of the world would +be revolutionized in a month.” The orthodox +church expelled him from its communion because +of his radicalism; but in his case radicalism meant +indeed the going to the roots of Christian religion, +to the original foundations of its doctrines. In the +teachings of the <em>primitive</em> church there presented +itself to Tolstoy a dumfoundingly simple code for +the attainment of moral perfection. Hence arose +his opposition to the <em>established</em> church which +seemed to have strayed so widely from its own +fundamentals.</p> + +<p>Since Tolstoy's life aimed at the progressive +exercise of self-sacrifice, his religious belief could +be no gospel of joy. In fact, his is a sad, gray, +ascetic religion, wholly devoid of poetry and emotional +uplift. He did not learn to believe in the +divinity of Christ nor in the existence of a God +in any definite sense personal, and it is not even +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_199" title="199"> </a> +clear whether he believed in an after-life. And +yet he did not wrongfully call himself a Christian, +for the mainspring of his faith and his labor was +the message of Christ delivered to his disciples +in the Sermon on the Mount. This, for Tolstoy, +contained all the philosophy and the theology of +which the modern world stands in need, since in +the precept of non-resistance is joined forever the +issue between the Law and the Gospel: “Ye have +heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, +and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That +ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee +on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”</p> + +<p>And farther on: “Ye have heard that it hath +been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate +thine enemy. But I say unto you. Love your +enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to +them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully +use you, and persecute you.” …</p> + +<p>In this commandment Tolstoy found warrant +for unswerving forbearance toward every species +of private and corporate aggression. Offenders +against individuals or the commonwealth deserve +nothing but pity. Prisons should be abolished and +criminals never punished. Tolstoy went so far +as to declare that even if he saw his own wife or +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_200" title="200"> </a> +daughters being assaulted, he would abstain from +using force in their defense. The infliction of the +death penalty was to him the most odious of +crimes. No life, either human or animal, should +be wilfully destroyed.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of non-resistance removes every +conceivable excuse for war between the nations. +A people is as much bound as is an individual by +the injunction: “Whosoever shall smite thee on +the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” War +is not to be justified on patriotic grounds, for +patriotism, far from being a virtue, is an enlarged +and unduly glorified form of selfishness. Consistently +with his convictions, Tolstoy put forth +his strength not for the glory of his nation but for +the solidarity of mankind.</p> + +<p>The cornerstones of Tolstoy's religion, then, +were these three articles of faith. First, True +Faith gives Life. Second, Man must live by labor. +Third, Evil must never be resisted by means of +evil.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>Outside of the sphere of religious thought it is +inaccurate to speak of a specific Tolstoyan philosophy, +and it is impossible for the student to subscribe +unconditionally to the hackneyed formula of +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_201" title="201"> </a> +the books that Tolstoy “will be remembered as +perhaps the most profound influence of his day on +human thought.” Yet the statement might be +made measurably true if it were modified in accordance +with the important reservation made +earlier in this sketch. In the field of thought he +was not an original explorer. He was great only +as the promulgator, not as the inventor, of ideas. +His work has not enriched the wisdom of man by +a single new thought, nor was he a systematizer +and expounder of thought or a philosopher. In +fact he possessed slight familiarity with philosophical +literature. Among the older metaphysicians +his principal guide was Spinoza, and in more +modern speculative science he did not advance +beyond Schopenhauer. To the latter he was not +altogether unlike in his mental temper. At least +he showed himself indubitably a pessimist in his +works by placing in fullest relief the bad side of +the social state. We perceive the pessimistic disposition +also through his personal behavior, seeing +how he desponded under the discords of life, +how easily he lost courage whenever he undertook +to cope with practical problems, and how sedulously +he avoided the contact with temptations. It +was only by an almost total withdrawal from the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_202" title="202"> </a> +world, and by that entire relief from its daily and +ordinary affairs which he owed to the devotion of +his wife that Tolstoy was enabled during his later +years to look upon the world less despairingly.</p> + +<p>Like his theology, so, too, his civic and economic +creed was marked by the utmost and altogether +too primitive simplicity. Political questions were +of slight interest to him, unless they touched upon +his vital principles. If, therefore, we turn from +his very definite position in matters of individual +conduct to his political views, we shall find that +he was wanting in a program of practical changes. +His only positive contribution to economic discussion +was a persistent advocacy of agrarian reform. +Under the influence of Henry George he became +an eloquent pleader for the single tax and the +nationalization of the land. This question he +discussed in numerous places, with especial force +and clearness in a long article entitled “A Great +Iniquity.”<a name="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">(32)</a> He takes the view that the mission of +the State, if it have any at all, can only consist +in guaranteeing the rights of every one of its +denizens, but that in actual fact the State protects +only the rights of the propertied. Intelligent and +right-minded citizens must not conspire with the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_203" title="203"> </a> +State to ride rough-shod over the helpless majority. +Keenly alive to the unalterable tendency of +organized power to abridge the rights of individuals +and to dominate both their material and spiritual +existence, Tolstoy fell into the opposite extreme +and would have abolished with a clean sweep +all factors of social control, including the right of +property and the powers of government, and +transformed society into a community of equals +and brothers, relying for its peace and well-being +upon a universal love of liberty and justice.</p> + +<p>By his disbelief in authority, the rejection of +the socialists' schemes of reconstruction, his mistrust +of fixed institutions and reliance on individual +right-mindedness for the maintenance of the +common good, Tolstoy in the sphere of civic +thought separated himself from the political socialists +by the whole diameter of initial principle: +he might not unjustly be classified, therefore, as +an anarchist, if this definition were neither too +narrow nor too wide. The Christian Socialists +might claim him, because he aspires ardently to +ideals essentially Christian in their nature, and +there is surely truth in the thesis that “every +thinker who understands and earnestly accepts +the teaching of the Master is at heart a socialist.” +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_204" title="204"> </a> +At the same time, Christianity and Socialism +do not travel the whole way together. For +a religion that enjoins patience and submission +can hardly be conducive to the full flowering of +Socialism. And Tolstoy's attitude towards the +church differs radically from that of the Christian +Socialists. On the whole one had best abstain +from classifying men of genius.</p> + +<p>The base of Tolstoy's social creed was the non-recognition +of private property. The effect of +the present system is to maintain the inequality +of men and thereby to excite envy and stir up +hatred among them. Eager to set a personal example +and precedent, Tolstoy rendered himself +nominally penniless by making all his property, +real and personal, over to his wife and children. +Likewise he abdicated his copyrights. Thus he +reduced himself to legal pauperism with a completeness +of success that cannot but stir with envy +the bosom of any philanthropist who shares Mr. +Andrew Carnegie's conviction that to die rich is +to die disgraced.</p> + +<p>Tolstoy's detractors have cast a plausible suspicion +upon his sincerity. They pointed out +among other things that his relinquishment of +pecuniary profit in his books was apparent, not +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_205" title="205"> </a> +real. Since Russia has no copyright conventions +with other countries, it was merely making a virtue +of necessity to authorize freely the translation +of his works into foreign languages. As for +the Russian editions of his writings, it is said that +in so far as the heavy hand of the censor did not +prevent, the Countess, as her husband's financial +agent, managed quite skilfully to exploit them.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>Altogether, did Tolstoy practice what he professed? +Inconsistency between principles and +conduct is a not uncommon frailty of genius, as is +notoriously illustrated by Tolstoy's real spiritual +progenitor, Jean Jacques Rousseau.</p> + +<p>Now there are many discreditable stories in +circulation about the muzhik lord of Yasnaya +Polyana. He urged upon others the gospel commands: +“Lay not up for yourselves treasures +upon earth” and: “Take what ye have and give +to the poor,” and for his own part lived, according +to report, in sumptuous surroundings. He +went ostentatiously on pilgrimages to holy places, +barefooted but with an expert pedicure attending +him. He dressed in a coarse peasant blouse, but +underneath it wore fine silk and linen. He was +a vegetarian of the strictest observance, yet so +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_206" title="206"> </a> +much of an epicure that his taste for unseasonable +dainties strained the domestic resources. He +preached simplicity, and according to rumor dined +off priceless plate; taught the equality of men, +and was served by lackies in livery. He abstained +from alcohol and tobacco, but consumed six cups +of strong coffee at a sitting. Finally, he extolled +the sexless life and was the father of thirteen children. +It was even murmured that notwithstanding +his professed affection for the muzhik and his +incessant proclamation of universal equality, the +peasantry of Yasnaya Polyana was the most +wretchedly-treated to be found in the whole province +and that the extortionate landlordism of the +Tolstoys was notorious throughout the empire.</p> + +<p>Much of this, to be sure, is idle gossip, unworthy +of serious attention. Nevertheless, there +is evidence enough to show that Tolstoy's insistence +upon a literal acceptance of earlier Christian +doctrines led him into unavoidable inconsistencies +and shamed him into a tragical sense of +dishonesty.</p> + +<p>Unquestionably Tolstoy lived very simply and +laboriously for a man of great rank, means, and +fame, but his life was neither hard nor cramped. +Having had no personal experience of garret +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_207" title="207"> </a> +and hovel, he could have no first-hand practical +knowledge of the sting of poverty, nor could he +obtain hardship artificially by imposing upon himself +a mild imitation of physical discomfort. For +the true test of penury is not the suffering of to-day +but the oppressive dread of to-morrow. His +ostensible muzhik existence, wanting in none of +the essentials of civilization, was a romance that +bore to the real squalid pauperism of rural Russia +about the same relation that the bucolic make-belief +of Boucher's or Watteau's swains and shepherdesses +bore to the unperfumed truth of a +sheep-farm or a hog-sty. As time passed, and the +sage turned his thoughts to a more rigid enforcement +of his renunciations, it was no easy task for +a devoted wife to provide comfort for him without +shaking him too rudely out of his fond illusion +that he was enduring privations.</p> + +<p>After all, then, his practice did not tally with +his theory; and this consciousness of living contrary +to his own teachings was a constant source +of unhappiness which no moral quibbles of his +friends could still.</p> + +<p>Yet no man could be farther from being a hypocrite. +If at last he broke down under a burden +of conscience, it was a burden imposed by the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_208" title="208"> </a> +reality of human nature which makes it impossible +for any man to live up to intentions of such rigor +as Tolstoy's. From the start he realized that +he did not conform his practice entirely to his +teachings, and as he grew old he was resolved that +having failed to harmonize his life with his beliefs +he would at least corroborate his sincerity +by his manner of dying. Even in this, however, +he was to be thwarted. In his dramatic ending, +still plainly remembered, we feel a grim consistency +with the lifelong defeat of his will to +suffer.</p> + +<p>Early in 1910 a student by the name of Manzos +addressed a rebuke to Tolstoy for simulating the +habits of the poor, denouncing his mode of life as +a form of mummery. He challenged the sage to +forsake his comforts and the affections of his +family, and to go forth and beg his way from +place to place. “Do this,” entreated the young +fanatic, “and you will be the first true man after +Christ.” With his typical large-heartedness, Tolstoy +accepted the reproof and said in the course +of his long reply:<a name="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">(33)</a> … “The fact that I am +living with wife and daughter in terrible and +shameful conditions of luxury when poverty surrounds +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_209" title="209"> </a> +me on all sides, torments me ever more +and more, and there is not a day when I am not +thinking of following your advice. I thank you +very, very much for your letter.” As a matter +of fact, he had more than once before made ready +to put his convictions to a fiery proof by a final +sacrifice,—leaving his home and spending his remaining +days in utter solitude. But when he +finally proceeded to carry out this ascetic intention +and actually set out on a journey to some vague +and lonely destination, he was foiled in his purpose. +If ever Tolstoy's behavior irresistibly provoked +misrepresentation of his motives it was by +this somewhat theatrical hegira. The fugitive +left Yasnaya Polyana, not alone, but with his two +favorite companions, his daughter Alexandra and +a young Hungarian physician who for some time +had occupied the post of private secretary to him. +After paying a farewell visit to his sister, a nun +cloistered in Shamardin, he made a start for the +Trans-Caucasus. His idea was to go somewhere +near the Tolstoy colony at the Black Sea. But +in an early stage of the journey, a part of which +was made in an ordinary third-class railway compartment, +the old man was overcome by illness +and fatigue. He was moved to a trackman's hut +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_210" title="210"> </a> +at the station of Astopovo, not farther than eighty +miles from his home, and here,—surrounded by +his hastily summoned family and tenderly nursed +for five days,—he expired. Thus he was denied +the summit of martyrdom to which he had aspired,—a +lonely death, unminded of men.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>Even a summary review like this of Tolstoy's +life and labors cannot be concluded without some +consideration of his final attitude toward the esthetic +embodiment of civilization. The development +of his philosophy of self-abnegation had led +irresistibly, as we have seen, to the condemnation +of all self-regarding instincts. Among these, Art +appeared to him as one of the most insidious. He +warned against the cultivation of the beautiful on +the ground that it results in the suppression and +destruction of the moral sense. Already in 1883 +it was known that he had made up his mind to +abandon his artistic aspirations out of loyalty to +his moral theory, and would henceforth dedicate +his talents exclusively to the propagation of humanitarian +views. In vain did the dean of Russian +letters, Turgenieff, appeal to him with a +death-bed message: “My friend, great writer of +the Russians, return to literary work! Heed my +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_211" title="211"> </a> +prayer.” Tolstoy stood firm in his determination. +Nevertheless, his genius refused to be throttled by +his conscience; he could not paralyze his artistic +powers; he could merely bend them to his moral +aims.</p> + +<p>As a logical corollary to his opposition to art +for art's sake, Tolstoy cast from him all his own +writings antedating “Confession,”—and denounced +all of them as empty manifestations of +worldly conceit. His authorship of that immortal +novel, “War and Peace,” filled him with shame +and remorse. His views on Art are plainly and +forcibly expounded in the famous treatise on +“What is Art?” and in the one on “Shakespeare.” +In both he maintains that Art, no matter of what +sort, should serve the sole purpose of bringing +men nearer to each other in the common purpose +of right living. Hence, no art work is legitimate +without a pervasive moral design. The only true +touchstone of an art work is the uplifting strength +that proceeds from it. Therefore, a painting like +the “Angelus,” or a poem like “The Man with the +Hoe” would transcend in worth the creations of +a Michael Angelo or a Heinrich Heine even as +the merits of Sophocles, Shakespeare, and Goethe +are outmatched in Tolstoy's judgment by those of +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_212" title="212"> </a> +Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, and George Eliot. +By the force of this naïve reasoning and his theoretical +antipathy toward true art, he was led to see +in “Uncle Tom's Cabin” the veritable acme of +literary perfection, for the reason that this book +wielded such an enormous and noble influence +upon the most vital question of its day. He +strongly discountenanced the literary practice of +revamping ancient themes, believing with Ibsen +that modern writers should impart their ideas +through the medium of modern life. Yet at the +same time he was up in arms against the self-styled +“moderns”! They took their incentives +from science, and this Tolstoy decried, because +science did not fulfill its mission of teaching people +how rightly to live. In this whole matter he reasoned +doggedly from fixed ideas, no matter to +what ultimates the argument would carry him. +For instance, he did not stick at branding Shakespeare +as an utter barbarian, and to explain the +reverence for such “disgusting” plays as “King +Lear” as a crass demonstration of imitative +hypocrisy.</p> + +<p>Art in general is a practice aiming at the production +of the beautiful. But what is “beautiful”? +asked Tolstoy. The current definitions he +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_213" title="213"> </a> +pronounced wrong because they were formulated +from the standpoint of the pleasure-seeker. Such +at least has been the case since the Renaissance. +From that time forward, Art, like all cults of +pleasure, has been evil. To the pleasure-seeker, +the beautiful is that which is enjoyable; hence he +appraises works of art according to their ability +to procure enjoyment. In Tolstoy's opinion this +is no less absurd than if we were to estimate the +nutritive value of food-stuffs by the pleasure accompanying +their consumption. So he baldly declares +that we must abolish beauty as a criterion +of art, or conversely, must establish truth as the +single standard of beauty. “The heroine of my +stories whom I strive to represent in all her +beauty, who was ever beautiful, is so, and will +remain so, is Truth.”</p> + +<p>His views on art have a certain analogy with +two modern schools,—much against his will, +since he strenuously disavows and deprecates +everything modern; they make us think on the +one hand of the “naturalists,” inasmuch as like +them Tolstoy eschews all intentional graces of +style and diction: and on the other hand of the +“impressionists,” with whom he seems united by +his fundamental definition of art, namely that it +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_214" title="214"> </a> +is the expression of a dominant emotion calculated +to reproduce itself in the reader or beholder. +Lacking, however, a deep and catholic understanding +for art, Tolstoy, in contrast with the +modern impressionists, would restrict artists to +the expression of a single type of sentiments, those +that reside in the sphere of religious consciousness. +To him art, as properly conceived and +practiced, must be ancillary to religion, and its +proper gauge is the measure of its agreement with +accepted moral teachings. Remembering, then, +the primitive form of belief to which Tolstoy contrived +to attain, we find ourselves face to face +with a theory of art which sets up as the final +arbiter the man “unspoiled by culture,” and he, +in Tolstoy's judgment, is the Russian muzhik.</p> + +<hr class="thought-break"/> + +<p>This course of reasoning on art is in itself +sufficient to show the impossibility for any modern +mind of giving sweeping assent to Tolstoy's teachings. +And a like difficulty would be experienced +if we tried to follow him in his meditations on any +other major interest of life. Seeking with a tremendous +earnestness of conscience to reduce the +bewildering tangle of human affairs to elementary +simplicity, he enmeshed himself in a new network +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_215" title="215"> </a> +of contradictions. The effect was disastrous for +the best part of his teaching; his own extremism +stamped as a hopeless fantast a man incontestably +gifted by nature, as few men have been in history, +with the cardinal virtues of a sage, a reformer, +and a missionary of social justice. Because of +this extremism, his voice was doomed to remain +that of one crying in the wilderness.</p> + +<p>The world could not do better than to accept +Tolstoy's fundamental prescriptions: simplicity of +living, application to work, and concentration +upon moral culture. But to apply his radical +scheme to existing conditions would amount to a +self-stultification of the race, for it would entail +the unpardonably sinful sacrifice of some of the +finest and most hard-won achievements of human +progress. For our quotidian difficulties his example +promises no solution. The great mass of +us are not privileged to test our individual schemes +of redemption in the leisured security of an ideal +experiment station; not for every man is there a +Yasnaya Polyana, and the Sophia Andreyevnas +are thinly sown in the matrimonial market.</p> + +<p>But even though Tolstoyism will not serve as a +means of solving the great social problems, it supplies +a helpful method of social criticism. And its +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_216" title="216"> </a> +value goes far beyond that: the force of his influence +was too great not to have strengthened enormously +the moral conscience of the world; he has +played, and will continue to play, a leading part +in the establishing and safeguarding of democracy. +After all, we do not have to separate meticulously +what is true in Tolstoy's teaching from +what is false in order to acknowledge him as a +Voice of his epoch. For as Lord Morley puts the +matter in the case of Jean Jacques Rousseau: +“There are some teachers whose distinction is +neither correct thought, nor an eye for the exigencies +of practical organization, but simply depth +and fervor of the moral sentiment, bringing with +it the indefinable gift of touching many hearts with +love of virtue and the things of the spirit.”</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">(1)</a> +“The Wrack of the Storm,” 1916. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">(2)</a> +“The Wrack of the Storm,” pp. 16–18. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">(3)</a> +In the English translation this is the chapter preceding the +last one and is headed “When the War Is Over,” p. 293 ff.; it +is separately published in <i>The Forum</i> for July, 1916. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">(4)</a> +In a paper read by title before the Modern Language Association +of America at Yale University, December 29, 1917. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">(5)</a> +Maeterlinck, “On Emerson.” +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">(6)</a> +“<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Das Schaudern ist der Menschheit bestes Teil.</i>” +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">(7)</a> +“The Treasure of the Humble.” +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">(8)</a> +“Self-Reliance.” +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">(9)</a> +Considerable liberty has been taken by Maeterlinck in the +grouping and naming of his essay upon their republication in +the several collections. The confusion caused thereby is greatly +increased by the deviation of some of the translated editions +from the original volumes as to the sequence of articles, the +individual and collective titles, and even the contents themselves. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">(10)</a> +“The Light Beyond” (1917) is not a new work at all, but +merely a combination of parts from “Our Eternity” and “The +Wrack of the Storm.” +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">(11)</a> +“The Wrack of the Storm,” p. 144 f. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">(12)</a> +Quoted from the excellent translation by A. T. de Mattos. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">(13)</a> +The stories deal among other things with the harmonious +communal life in Godin's <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Phalanstère</i>. Strindberg wrote two +descriptions of it, one before, the other after visiting the colony. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">(14)</a> +As is convincingly pointed out in a footnote of J. A. Cramb's +“Germany and England.” +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">(15)</a> +H. L. Mencken, “The Mailed Fist and Its Prophet.” <i>Atlantic +Monthly</i>, November, 1914. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">(16)</a> +His real name was Kaspar Schmidt; he lived from 1806–1856. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">(17)</a> +By Machiavelli and Stirner, respectively. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">(18)</a> +<i lang="de" xml:lang="de">Biologische Probleme, zugleich als Versuch einer rationellen +Ethik.</i> Leipzig, 1882. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">(19)</a> +“Longing, longing, unquenchable desire, reproducing itself +forever anew—thirst and drought; sole deliverance: death, dissolution, +extinction,—and no awaking.” +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">(20)</a> +Work of all arts. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">(21)</a> +“Thus Spake Zarathustra,” pp. 243–245. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">(22)</a> +“Thus Spake Zarathustra,” p. 399, sec. 29. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">(23)</a> +Goethe's <i>Faust</i>, II, ll. 1940–1. Bayard Taylor translates: <i>Encheiresin +naturae</i>, this Chemistry names, nor knows how herself +she banters and blames! +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">(24)</a> +“Thus Spake Zarathustra,” p. 120. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">(25)</a> +<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Ibid.</i>, p. 296, sec. 13. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">(26)</a> +</p> + +<div class="poetry width205"> +<div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">O man! Lose not sight!<br/></div> +<div class="line">What saith the deep midnight?<br/></div> +<div class="line">“I lay in sleep, in sleep;<br/></div> +<div class="line">From deep dream I woke to light.<br/></div> +<div class="line">The world is deep,<br/></div> +<div class="line">And deeper than ever day though! it might.<br/></div> +<div class="line">Deep is its woe,—<br/></div> +<div class="line">And deeper still than woe—delight.”<br/></div> +<div class="line">Saith woe: “Pass, go!<br/></div> +<div class="line">Eternity's sought by all delight,—<br/></div> +<div class="line">Eternity deep—by all delight.<br/></div> +</div> +</div> +<p> +“Thus Spake Zarathustra,” The Drunken Song, p. 174.—The +translation but faintly suggests the poetic appeal of the original. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">(27)</a> +“Thus Spake Zarathustra,” p. 304. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">(28)</a> +“Thus Spake Zarathustra,” p. 294. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">(29)</a> +The only tragedy brought out during his life time. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">(30)</a> +“The Life of Tolstoy,” Later Years, p. 643 f. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">(31)</a> +No. 434. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">(32)</a> +Printed in the (London) <i>Times</i> of September 10, 1905. +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">(33)</a> +February 17, 1910. +</p> +</div> +</div> + + +<div id="tnote-bottom"> +<p class="center"><a name="tn-bottom"><b>Transcriber's Note:</b></a></p> +<p>The following is a list of corrections made to the original. The +first passage is the original passage, the second the corrected one.</p> + +<ul id="corrections"> +<li><a href="#Page_9">Page 9</a>:<br/><span class="correction">sublimal</span> regions of the inner life, and that their<br/><span class="correction">subliminal</span> regions of the inner life, and that their</li> +<li><a href="#Page_110">Page 110</a>:<br/>for his argument in the writings of the de-<span class="correction">gallisized</span><br/>for his argument in the writings of the de-<span class="correction">gallicized</span></li> +<li><a href="#Page_113">Page 113</a>:<br/>same time, the universal <span class="correction">decreptitude</span> prevented<br/>same time, the universal <span class="correction">decrepitude</span> prevented</li> +<li><a href="#Page_174">Page 174</a>:<br/>dimmed by the <span class="correction">obstrusive</span> didactic purpose. Fortunately<br/>dimmed by the <span class="correction">obtrusive</span> didactic purpose. Fortunately</li> +</ul> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prophets of Dissent, by Otto Heller + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROPHETS OF DISSENT *** + +***** This file should be named 36111-h.htm or 36111-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/1/36111/ + +Produced by Jana Srna and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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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