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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/3673-h.zip b/3673-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b52bf44 --- /dev/null +++ b/3673-h.zip diff --git a/3673-h/3673-h.htm b/3673-h/3673-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7bb2a3c --- /dev/null +++ b/3673-h/3673-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3864 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Essays before a Sonata, by Charles Ives +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays Before a Sonata, by Charles Ives + +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: Essays Before a Sonata + +Author: Charles Ives + +Posting Date: April 29, 2009 [EBook #3673] +Release Date: January, 2003 +First Posted: July 11, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS BEFORE A SONATA *** + + + + +Produced by John Mamoun with help from the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team of Charles Franks. HTML +version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +ESSAYS BEFORE A SONATA +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Charles Ives +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +TABLE OF CONTENTS: +</H2> + +<H4> + <A HREF="#bio">BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH</A><BR> + <A HREF="#introfoot">INTRODUCTORY FOOTNOTE BY CHARLES IVES</A><BR> + <A HREF="#intro">INTRODUCTION</A><BR> + <A HREF="#prologue">I—PROLOGUE</A><BR> + <A HREF="#emerson">II—EMERSON</A><BR> + <A HREF="#hawthorne">III—HAWTHORNE</A><BR> + <A HREF="#alcotts">IV—"THE ALCOTTS"</A><BR> + <A HREF="#thoreau">V—THOREAU</A><BR> + <A HREF="#epilogue">VI—EPILOGUE</A><BR> + <A HREF="#info">INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION</A><BR> +</H4> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<A NAME="bio"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +Charles Ives (1874-1954) was probably one of the most +psycho-intellectually brilliant, imaginative and flexible Americans to +ever "walk the land of freedom." A graduate of Yale, he became a +multi-millionaire in the American insurance industry, introducing +brilliant innovations within that industry. He also, unlike a few +composers, found the time and the money (being a shrewd and practical +businessman) to get married and have children. +</P> + +<P> +His accomplishments for which he is best known, however, are those in +the field of music. At the time of its composition, Ives' music was +probably the most radically modern in history, and by itself had enough +material to serve as the foundation of modern 20th century music. For +example, at the turn of the century, this eccentric composer created +band works featuring multiple melodies of multiple time signatures +opposing and complimenting each other within the same piece. Ives was +also a revolutionary atonal composer, who created, essentially without +precedent, many atonal works that not only pre-date those of +Schoenberg, but are just as sophisticated, and arguably even more so, +than those of the 12-tone serialist. +</P> + +<P> +Among those atonal works was his second, "Concord" piano sonata, one of +the finest, and some would say the finest, works of classical music by +an American. It reflects the musical innovations of its creator, +featuring revolutionary atmospheric effects, unprecedented atonal +musical syntax, and surprising technical approaches to playing the +piano, such as pressing down on over 10 notes simultaneously using a +flat piece of wood. +</P> + +<P> +What a mischievious creative genius! +</P> + +<P> +And yet, despite the musically innovative nature of these works, from a +thematic standpoint, they are strictly 19th century. Ives, like +American band-composer Sousa, consciously infused patriotic or +"blue-blood" themes into his pieces. In the "Concord," he attempted to +project, within the music, the 19th century philosophical ideas of the +American Transcendentalists, who obviously had a great impact on his +world-view. +</P> + +<P> +Thus, while other atonal composers such as Schoenberg or Berg attempted +to infuse their music with "20th century" themes of hostility, violence +and estrangement within their atonal music, the atonal music of Ives +is, from a thematic standpoint, really quite "tonal." +</P> + +<P> +Ives wrote the following essays as a (very big) set of program notes to +accompany his second piano sonata. Here, he puts forth his elaborate +theory of music and what it represents, and discusses Transcendental +philosophy and its relation to music. The essays explain Ives' own +philosophy of and understanding of music and art. They also serve as +an analysis of music itself as an artform, and provide a critical +explanation of the "Concord" and the role that the philosophies of +Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau and the Alcotts play in forming its +thematic structure. +</P> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +"ESSAYS BEFORE A SONATA," BY CHARLES IVES +</H2> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="introfoot"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +INTRODUCTORY FOOTNOTE BY CHARLES IVES +</H3> + +<P> +"These prefatory essays were written by the composer for those who +can't stand his music—and the music for those who can't stand his +essays; to those who can't stand either, the whole is respectfully +dedicated." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="intro"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +INTRODUCTION +</H3> + +<P> +The following pages were written primarily as a preface or reason for +the [writer's] second Pianoforte Sonata—"Concord, Mass., 1845,"—a +group of four pieces, called a sonata for want of a more exact name, as +the form, perhaps substance, does not justify it. The music and +prefaces were intended to be printed together, but as it was found that +this would make a cumbersome volume they are separate. The whole is an +attempt to present [one person's] impression of the spirit of +transcendentalism that is associated in the minds of many with Concord, +Mass., of over a half century ago. This is undertaken in +impressionistic pictures of Emerson and Thoreau, a sketch of the +Alcotts, and a Scherzo supposed to reflect a lighter quality which is +often found in the fantastic side of Hawthorne. The first and last +movements do not aim to give any programs of the life or of any +particular work of either Emerson or Thoreau but rather composite +pictures or impressions. They are, however, so general in outline that, +from some viewpoints, they may be as far from accepted impressions +(from true conceptions, for that matter) as the valuation which they +purport to be of the influence of the life, thought, and character of +Emerson and Thoreau is inadequate. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="prologue"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +I—Prologue +</H3> + +<P> +How far is anyone justified, be he an authority or a layman, in +expressing or trying to express in terms of music (in sounds, if you +like) the value of anything, material, moral, intellectual, or +spiritual, which is usually expressed in terms other than music? How +far afield can music go and keep honest as well as reasonable or +artistic? Is it a matter limited only by the composer's power of +expressing what lies in his subjective or objective consciousness? Or +is it limited by any limitations of the composer? Can a tune literally +represent a stonewall with vines on it or with nothing on it, though it +(the tune) be made by a genius whose power of objective contemplation +is in the highest state of development? Can it be done by anything +short of an act of mesmerism on the part of the composer or an act of +kindness on the part of the listener? Does the extreme materializing of +music appeal strongly to anyone except to those without a sense of +humor—or rather with a sense of humor?—or, except, possibly to those +who might excuse it, as Herbert Spencer might by the theory that the +sensational element (the sensations we hear so much about in +experimental psychology) is the true pleasurable phenomenon in music +and that the mind should not be allowed to interfere? Does the success +of program music depend more upon the program than upon the music? If +it does, what is the use of the music, if it does not, what is the use +of the program? Does not its appeal depend to a great extent on the +listener's willingness to accept the theory that music is the language +of the emotions and ONLY that? Or inversely does not this theory tend +to limit music to programs?—a limitation as bad for music itself—for +its wholesome progress,—as a diet of program music is bad for the +listener's ability to digest anything beyond the sensuous (or +physical-emotional). To a great extent this depends on what is meant by +emotion or on the assumption that the word as used above refers more to +the EXPRESSION, of, rather than to a meaning in a deeper sense—which +may be a feeling influenced by some experience perhaps of a spiritual +nature in the expression of which the intellect has some part. "The +nearer we get to the mere expression of emotion," says Professor Sturt +in his "Philosophy of Art and Personality," "as in the antics of boys +who have been promised a holiday, the further we get away from art." +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand is not all music, program-music,—is not pure music, +so called, representative in its essence? Is it not program-music +raised to the nth power or rather reduced to the minus nth power? Where +is the line to be drawn between the expression of subjective and +objective emotion? It is easier to know what each is than when each +becomes what it is. The "Separateness of Art" theory—that art is not +life but a reflection of it—"that art is not vital to life but that +life is vital to it," does not help us. Nor does Thoreau who says not +that "life is art," but that "life is an art," which of course is a +different thing than the foregoing. Tolstoi is even more helpless to +himself and to us. For he eliminates further. From his definition of +art we may learn little more than that a kick in the back is a work of +art, and Beethoven's 9th Symphony is not. Experiences are passed on +from one man to another. Abel knew that. And now we know it. But where +is the bridge placed?—at the end of the road or only at the end of our +vision? Is it all a bridge?—or is there no bridge because there is no +gulf? Suppose that a composer writes a piece of music conscious that he +is inspired, say, by witnessing an act of great self-sacrifice—another +piece by the contemplation of a certain trait of nobility he perceives +in a friend's character—and another by the sight of a mountain lake +under moonlight. The first two, from an inspirational standpoint would +naturally seem to come under the subjective and the last under the +objective, yet the chances are, there is something of the quality of +both in all. There may have been in the first instance physical action +so intense or so dramatic in character that the remembrance of it +aroused a great deal more objective emotion than the composer was +conscious of while writing the music. In the third instance, the music +may have been influenced strongly though subconsciously by a vague +remembrance of certain thoughts and feelings, perhaps of a deep +religious or spiritual nature, which suddenly came to him upon +realizing the beauty of the scene and which overpowered the first +sensuous pleasure—perhaps some such feeling as of the conviction of +immortality, that Thoreau experienced and tells about in Walden. "I +penetrated to those meadows ... when the wild river and the woods were +bathed in so pure and bright a light as would have waked the dead IF +they had been slumbering in their graves as some suppose. There needs +no stronger proof of immortality." Enthusiasm must permeate it, but +what it is that inspires an art-effort is not easily determined much +less classified. The word "inspire" is used here in the sense of cause +rather than effect. A critic may say that a certain movement is not +inspired. But that may be a matter of taste—perhaps the most inspired +music sounds the least so—to the critic. A true inspiration may lack a +true expression unless it is assumed that if an inspiration is not true +enough to produce a true expression—(if there be anyone who can +definitely determine what a true expression is)—it is not an +inspiration at all. +</P> + +<P> +Again suppose the same composer at another time writes a piece of equal +merit to the other three, as estimates go; but holds that he is not +conscious of what inspired it—that he had nothing definite in +mind—that he was not aware of any mental image or process—that, +naturally, the actual work in creating something gave him a satisfying +feeling of pleasure perhaps of elation. What will you substitute for +the mountain lake, for his friend's character, etc.? Will you +substitute anything? If so why? If so what? Or is it enough to let the +matter rest on the pleasure mainly physical, of the tones, their color, +succession, and relations, formal or informal? Can an inspiration come +from a blank mind? Well—he tries to explain and says that he was +conscious of some emotional excitement and of a sense of something +beautiful, he doesn't know exactly what—a vague feeling of exaltation +or perhaps of profound sadness. +</P> + +<P> +What is the source of these instinctive feelings, these vague +intuitions and introspective sensations? The more we try to analyze the +more vague they become. To pull them apart and classify them as +"subjective" or "objective" or as this or as that, means, that they may +be well classified and that is about all: it leaves us as far from the +origin as ever. What does it all mean? What is behind it all? The +"voice of God," says the artist, "the voice of the devil," says the man +in the front row. Are we, because we are, human beings, born with the +power of innate perception of the beautiful in the abstract so that an +inspiration can arise through no external stimuli of sensation or +experience,—no association with the outward? Or was there present in +the above instance, some kind of subconscious, instantaneous, composite +image, of all the mountain lakes this man had ever seen blended as kind +of overtones with the various traits of nobility of many of his friends +embodied in one personality? Do all inspirational images, states, +conditions, or whatever they may be truly called, have for a dominant +part, if not for a source, some actual experience in life or of the +social relation? To think that they do not—always at least—would be a +relief; but as we are trying to consider music made and heard by human +beings (and not by birds or angels) it seems difficult to suppose that +even subconscious images can be separated from some human +experience—there must be something behind subconsciousness to produce +consciousness, and so on. But whatever the elements and origin of these +so-called images are, that they DO stir deep emotional feelings and +encourage their expression is a part of the unknowable we know. They do +often arouse something that has not yet passed the border line between +subconsciousness and consciousness—an artistic intuition (well named, +but)—object and cause unknown!—here is a program!—conscious or +subconscious what does it matter? Why try to trace any stream that +flows through the garden of consciousness to its source only to be +confronted by another problem of tracing this source to its source? +Perhaps Emerson in the <I>Rhodora</I> answers by not trying to explain +</P> + +<P> +That if eyes were made for seeing Then beauty is its own excuse for +being: Why thou wert there, O, rival of the rose! I never thought to +ask, I never knew; But, in my simple ignorance, suppose The self-same +Power that brought me there brought you. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps Sturt answers by substitution: "We cannot explain the origin of +an artistic intuition any more than the origin of any other primary +function of our nature. But if as I believe civilization is mainly +founded on those kinds of unselfish human interests which we call +knowledge and morality it is easily intelligible that we should have a +parallel interest which we call art closely akin and lending powerful +support to the other two. It is intelligible too that moral goodness, +intellectual power, high vitality, and strength should be approved by +the intuition." This reduces, or rather brings the problem back to a +tangible basis namely:—the translation of an artistic intuition into +musical sounds approving and reflecting, or endeavoring to approve and +reflect, a "moral goodness," a "high vitality," etc., or any other +human attribute mental, moral, or spiritual. +</P> + +<P> +Can music do MORE than this? Can it DO this? and if so who and what is +to determine the degree of its failure or success? The composer, the +performer (if there be any), or those who have to listen? One hearing +or a century of hearings?-and if it isn't successful or if it doesn't +fail what matters it?—the fear of failure need keep no one from the +attempt for if the composer is sensitive he need but launch forth a +countercharge of "being misunderstood" and hide behind it. A theme that +the composer sets up as "moral goodness" may sound like "high +vitality," to his friend and but like an outburst of "nervous weakness" +or only a "stagnant pool" to those not even his enemies. Expression to +a great extent is a matter of terms and terms are anyone's. The meaning +of "God" may have a billion interpretations if there be that many souls +in the world. +</P> + +<P> +There is a moral in the "Nominalist and Realist" that will prove all +sums. It runs something like this: No matter how sincere and +confidential men are in trying to know or assuming that they do know +each other's mood and habits of thought, the net result leaves a +feeling that all is left unsaid; for the reason of their incapacity to +know each other, though they use the same words. They go on from one +explanation to another but things seem to stand about as they did in +the beginning "because of that vicious assumption." But we would rather +believe that music is beyond any analogy to word language and that the +time is coming, but not in our lifetime, when it will develop +possibilities unconceivable now,—a language, so transcendent, that its +heights and depths will be common to all mankind. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="emerson"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +II—Emerson +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +1 +</H3> + +<P> +It has seemed to the writer, that Emerson is greater—his identity more +complete perhaps—in the realms of revelation—natural disclosure—than +in those of poetry, philosophy, or prophecy. Though a great poet and +prophet, he is greater, possibly, as an invader of the +unknown,—America's deepest explorer of the spiritual immensities,—a +seer painting his discoveries in masses and with any color that may lie +at hand—cosmic, religious, human, even sensuous; a recorder, freely +describing the inevitable struggle in the soul's uprise—perceiving +from this inward source alone, that every "ultimate fact is only the +first of a new series"; a discoverer, whose heart knows, with Voltaire, +"that man seriously reflects when left alone," and would then discover, +if he can, that "wondrous chain which links the heavens with earth—the +world of beings subject to one law." In his reflections Emerson, unlike +Plato, is not afraid to ride Arion's Dolphin, and to go wherever he is +carried—to Parnassus or to "Musketaquid." +</P> + +<P> +We see him standing on a summit, at the door of the infinite where many +men do not care to climb, peering into the mysteries of life, +contemplating the eternities, hurling back whatever he discovers +there,—now, thunderbolts for us to grasp, if we can, and +translate—now placing quietly, even tenderly, in our hands, things +that we may see without effort—if we won't see them, so much the worse +for us. +</P> + +<P> +We see him,—a mountain-guide, so intensely on the lookout for the +trail of his star, that he has no time to stop and retrace his +footprints, which may often seem indistinct to his followers, who find +it easier and perhaps safer to keep their eyes on the ground. And there +is a chance that this guide could not always retrace his steps if he +tried—and why should he!—he is on the road, conscious only that, +though his star may not lie within walking distance, he must reach it +before his wagon can be hitched to it—a Prometheus illuminating a +privilege of the Gods—lighting a fuse that is laid towards men. +Emerson reveals the less not by an analysis of itself, but by bringing +men towards the greater. He does not try to reveal, personally, but +leads, rather, to a field where revelation is a harvest-part, where it +is known by the perceptions of the soul towards the absolute law. He +leads us towards this law, which is a realization of what experience +has suggested and philosophy hoped for. He leads us, conscious that the +aspects of truth, as he sees them, may change as often as truth remains +constant. Revelation perhaps, is but prophecy intensified—the +intensifying of its mason-work as well as its steeple. Simple prophecy, +while concerned with the past, reveals but the future, while revelation +is concerned with all time. The power in Emerson's prophecy confuses it +with—or at least makes it seem to approach—revelation. It is prophecy +with no time element. Emerson tells, as few bards could, of what will +happen in the past, for his future is eternity and the past is a part +of that. And so like all true prophets, he is always modern, and will +grow modern with the years—for his substance is not relative but a +measure of eternal truths determined rather by a universalist than by a +partialist. He measured, as Michel Angelo said true artists should, +"with the eye and not the hand." But to attribute modernism to his +substance, though not to his expression, is an anachronism—and as +futile as calling today's sunset modern. +</P> + +<P> +As revelation and prophecy, in their common acceptance are resolved by +man, from the absolute and universal, to the relative and personal, and +as Emerson's tendency is fundamentally the opposite, it is easier, +safer and so apparently clearer, to think of him as a poet of natural +and revealed philosophy. And as such, a prophet—but not one to be +confused with those singing soothsayers, whose pockets are filled, as +are the pockets of conservative-reaction and radical demagoguery in +pulpit, street-corner, bank and columns, with dogmatic +fortune-tellings. Emerson, as a prophet in these lower heights, was a +conservative, in that he seldom lost his head, and a radical, in that +he seldom cared whether he lost it or not. He was a born radical as are +all true conservatives. He was too much "absorbed by the absolute," too +much of the universal to be either—though he could be both at once. To +Cotton Mather, he would have been a demagogue, to a real demagogue he +would not be understood, as it was with no self interest that he laid +his hand on reality. The nearer any subject or an attribute of it, +approaches to the perfect truth at its base, the more does +qualification become necessary. Radicalism must always qualify itself. +Emerson clarifies as he qualifies, by plunging into, rather than +"emerging from Carlyle's soul-confusing labyrinths of speculative +radicalism." The radicalism that we hear much about today, is not +Emerson's kind—but of thinner fiber—it qualifies itself by going to +<I>A</I> "root" and often cutting other roots in the process; it is usually +impotent as dynamite in its cause and sometimes as harmful to the +wholesome progress of all causes; it is qualified by its failure. But +the Radicalism of Emerson plunges to all roots, it becomes greater than +itself—greater than all its formal or informal doctrines—too advanced +and too conservative for any specific result—too catholic for all the +churches—for the nearer it is to truth, the farther it is from a +truth, and the more it is qualified by its future possibilities. +</P> + +<P> +Hence comes the difficulty—the futility of attempting to fasten on +Emerson any particular doctrine, philosophic, or religious theory. +Emerson wrings the neck of any law, that would become exclusive and +arrogant, whether a definite one of metaphysics or an indefinite one of +mechanics. He hacks his way up and down, as near as he can to the +absolute, the oneness of all nature both human and spiritual, and to +God's benevolence. To him the ultimate of a conception is its vastness, +and it is probably this, rather than the "blind-spots" in his +expression that makes us incline to go with him but half-way; and then +stand and build dogmas. But if we can not follow all the way—if we do +not always clearly perceive the whole picture, we are at least free to +imagine it—he makes us feel that we are free to do so; perhaps that is +the most he asks. For he is but reaching out through and beyond +mankind, trying to see what he can of the infinite and its +immensities—throwing back to us whatever he can—but ever conscious +that he but occasionally catches a glimpse; conscious that if he would +contemplate the greater, he must wrestle with the lesser, even though +it dims an outline; that he must struggle if he would hurl back +anything—even a broken fragment for men to examine and perchance in it +find a germ of some part of truth; conscious at times, of the futility +of his effort and its message, conscious of its vagueness, but ever +hopeful for it, and confident that its foundation, if not its medium is +somewhere near the eventual and "absolute good" the divine truth +underlying all life. If Emerson must be dubbed an optimist—then an +optimist fighting pessimism, but not wallowing in it; an optimist, who +does not study pessimism by learning to enjoy it, whose imagination is +greater than his curiosity, who seeing the sign-post to Erebus, is +strong enough to go the other way. This strength of optimism, indeed +the strength we find always underlying his tolerance, his radicalism, +his searches, prophecies, and revelations, is heightened and made +efficient by "imagination-penetrative," a thing concerned not with the +combining but the apprehending of things. A possession, akin to the +power, Ruskin says, all great pictures have, which "depends on the +penetration of the imagination into the true nature of the thing +represented, and on the scorn of the imagination for all shackles and +fetters of mere external fact that stand in the way of its +suggestiveness"—a possession which gives the strength of distance to +his eyes, and the strength of muscle to his soul. With this he slashes +down through the loam—nor would he have us rest there. If we would dig +deep enough only to plant a doctrine, from one part of him, he would +show us the quick-silver in that furrow. If we would creed his +Compensation, there is hardly a sentence that could not wreck it, or +could not show that the idea is no tenet of a philosophy, but a clear +(though perhaps not clearly hurled on the canvas) illustration of +universal justice—of God's perfect balances; a story of the analogy or +better the identity of polarity and duality in Nature with that in +morality. The essay is no more a doctrine than the law of gravitation +is. If we would stop and attribute too much to genius, he shows us that +"what is best written or done by genius in the world, was no one man's +work, but came by wide social labor, when a thousand wrought like one, +sharing the same impulse." If we would find in his essay on Montaigne, +a biography, we are shown a biography of scepticism—and in reducing +this to relation between "sensation and the morals" we are shown a true +Montaigne—we know the man better perhaps by this less presentation. If +we would stop and trust heavily on the harvest of originality, he shows +us that this plant—this part of the garden—is but a relative thing. +It is dependent also on the richness that ages have put into the soil. +"Every thinker is retrospective." +</P> + +<P> +Thus is Emerson always beating down through the crust towards the first +fire of life, of death and of eternity. Read where you will, each +sentence seems not to point to the next but to the undercurrent of all. +If you would label his a religion of ethics or of morals, he shames you +at the outset, "for ethics is but a reflection of a divine +personality." All the religions this world has ever known, have been +but the aftermath of the ethics of one or another holy person; "as soon +as character appears be sure love will"; "the intuition of the moral +sentiment is but the insight of the perfection of the laws of the +soul"; but these laws cannot be catalogued. +</P> + +<P> +If a versatilist, a modern Goethe, for instance, could put all of +Emerson's admonitions into practice, a constant permanence would +result,—an eternal short-circuit—a focus of equal X-rays. Even the +value or success of but one precept is dependent, like that of a +ball-game as much on the batting-eye as on the pitching-arm. The +inactivity of permanence is what Emerson will not permit. He will not +accept repose against the activity of truth. But this almost constant +resolution of every insight towards the absolute may get a little on +one's nerves, if one is at all partial-wise to the specific; one begins +to ask what is the absolute anyway, and why try to look clear through +the eternities and the unknowable even out of the other end. Emerson's +fondness for flying to definite heights on indefinite wings, and the +tendency to over-resolve, becomes unsatisfying to the impatient, who +want results to come as they walk. Probably this is a reason that it is +occasionally said that Emerson has no vital message for the rank and +file. He has no definite message perhaps for the literal, but messages +are all vital, as much, by reason of his indefiniteness, as in spite of +it. +</P> + +<P> +There is a suggestion of irony in the thought that the power of his +vague but compelling vitality, which ever sweeps us on in spite of +ourselves, might not have been his, if it had not been for those +definite religious doctrines of the old New England theologians. For +almost two centuries, Emerson's mental and spiritual muscles had been +in training for him in the moral and intellectual contentions, a part +of the religious exercise of his forebears. A kind of higher +sensitiveness seems to culminate in him. It gives him a power of +searching for a wider freedom of soul than theirs. The religion of +Puritanism was based to a great extent, on a search for the unknowable, +limited only by the dogma of its theology—a search for a path, so that +the soul could better be conducted to the next world, while Emerson's +transcendentalism was based on the wider search for the unknowable, +unlimited in any way or by anything except the vast bounds of innate +goodness, as it might be revealed to him in any phenomena of man, +Nature, or God. This distinction, tenuous, in spite of the +definite-sounding words, we like to believe has something peculiar to +Emerson in it. We like to feel that it superimposes the one that makes +all transcendentalism but an intellectual state, based on the theory of +innate ideas, the reality of thought and the necessity of its freedom. +For the philosophy of the religion, or whatever you will call it, of +the Concord Transcendentalists is at least, more than an intellectual +state—it has even some of the functions of the Puritan church—it is a +spiritual state in which both soul and mind can better conduct +themselves in this world, and also in the next—when the time comes. +The search of the Puritan was rather along the path of logic, +spiritualized, and the transcendentalist of reason, spiritualized—a +difference in a broad sense between objective and subjective +contemplation. +</P> + +<P> +The dislike of inactivity, repose and barter, drives one to the +indefinite subjective. Emerson's lack of interest in permanence may +cause him to present a subjectivity harsher on the outside than is +essential. His very universalism occasionally seems a limitation. +Somewhere here may lie a weakness—real to some, apparent to others—a +weakness in so far as his relation becomes less vivid—to the many; +insofar as he over-disregards the personal unit in the universal. If +Genius is the most indebted, how much does it owe to those who would, +but do not easily ride with it? If there is a weakness here is it the +fault of substance or only of manner? If of the former, there is +organic error somewhere, and Emerson will become less and less valuable +to man. But this seems impossible, at least to us. Without considering +his manner or expression here (it forms the general subject of the +second section of this paper), let us ask if Emerson's substance needs +an affinity, a supplement or even a complement or a gangplank? And if +so, of what will it be composed? +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps Emerson could not have risen to his own, if it had not been for +his Unitarian training and association with the churchmen emancipators. +"Christianity is founded on, and supposes the authority of, reason, and +cannot therefore oppose it, without subverting itself." ... "Its office +is to discern universal truths, great and eternal principles ... the +highest power of the soul." Thus preached Channing. Who knows but this +pulpit aroused the younger Emerson to the possibilities of intuitive +reasoning in spiritual realms? The influence of men like Channing in +his fight for the dignity of human nature, against the arbitrary +revelations that Calvinism had strapped on the church, and for the +belief in the divine in human reason, doubtless encouraged Emerson in +his unshackled search for the infinite, and gave him premises which he +later took for granted instead of carrying them around with him. An +over-interest, not an under-interest in Christian ideal aims, may have +caused him to feel that the definite paths were well established and +doing their share, and that for some to reach the same infinite ends, +more paths might be opened—paths which would in themselves, and in a +more transcendent way, partake of the spiritual nature of the land in +quest,—another expression of God's Kingdom in Man. Would you have the +indefinite paths ALWAYS supplemented by the shadow of the definite one +of a first influence? +</P> + +<P> +A characteristic of rebellion, is that its results are often deepest, +when the rebel breaks not from the worst to the greatest, but from the +great to the greater. The youth of the rebel increases this +characteristic. The innate rebellious spirit in young men is active and +buoyant. They could rebel against and improve the millennium. This +excess of enthusiasm at the inception of a movement, causes loss of +perspective; a natural tendency to undervalue the great in that which +is being taken as a base of departure. A "youthful sedition" of Emerson +was his withdrawal from the communion, perhaps, the most socialistic +doctrine (or rather symbol) of the church—a "commune" above property +or class. +</P> + +<P> +Picking up an essay on religion of a rather remarkable-minded +boy—perhaps with a touch of genius—written when he was still in +college, and so serving as a good illustration in point—we +read—"Every thinking man knows that the church is dead." But every +thinking man knows that the church-part of the church always has been +dead—that part seen by candle-light, not Christ-light. Enthusiasm is +restless and hasn't time to see that if the church holds itself as +nothing but the symbol of the greater light it is life itself—as a +symbol of a symbol it is dead. Many of the sincerest followers of +Christ never heard of Him. It is the better influence of an institution +that arouses in the deep and earnest souls a feeling of rebellion to +make its aims more certain. It is their very sincerity that causes +these seekers for a freer vision to strike down for more fundamental, +universal, and perfect truths, but with such feverish enthusiasm, that +they appear to overthink themselves—a subconscious way of going +Godward perhaps. The rebel of the twentieth century says: "Let us +discard God, immortality, miracle—but be not untrue to ourselves." +Here he, no doubt, in a sincere and exalted moment, confuses God with a +name. He apparently feels that there is a separable difference between +natural and revealed religion. He mistakes the powers behind them, to +be fundamentally separate. In the excessive keenness of his search, he +forgets that "being true to ourselves" IS God, that the faintest +thought of immortality IS God, and that God is "miracle." +Over-enthusiasm keeps one from letting a common experience of a day +translate what is stirring the soul. The same inspiring force that +arouses the young rebel, brings later in life a kind of +"experience-afterglow," a realization that the soul cannot discard or +limit anything. Would you have the youthful enthusiasm of rebellion, +which Emerson carried beyond his youth always supplemented by the +shadow of experience? +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps it is not the narrow minded alone that have no interest in +anything, but in its relation to their personality. Is the Christian +Religion, to which Emerson owes embryo-ideals, anything but the +revelation of God in a personality—a revelation so that the narrow +mind could become opened? But the tendency to over-personalize +personality may also have suggested to Emerson the necessity for more +universal, and impersonal paths, though they be indefinite of outline +and vague of ascent. Could you journey, with equal benefit, if they +were less so? Would you have the universal always supplemented by the +shadow of the personal? If this view is accepted, and we doubt that it +can be by the majority, Emerson's substance could well bear a +supplement, perhaps an affinity. Something that will support that which +some conceive he does not offer. Something that will help answer Alton +Locke's question: "What has Emerson for the working-man?" and questions +of others who look for the gang-plank before the ship comes in sight. +Something that will supply the definite banister to the infinite, which +it is said he keeps invisible. Something that will point a crossroad +from "his personal" to "his nature." Something that may be in Thoreau +or Wordsworth, or in another poet whose songs "breathe of a new morning +of a higher life though a definite beauty in Nature"—or something that +will show the birth of his ideal and hold out a background of revealed +religion, as a perspective to his transcendent religion—a counterpoise +in his rebellion—which we feel Channing or Dr. Bushnell, or other +saints known and unknown might supply. +</P> + +<P> +If the arc must be completed—if there are those who would have the +great, dim outlines of Emerson fulfilled, it is fortunate that there +are Bushnells, and Wordsworths, to whom they may appeal—to say nothing +of the Vedas, the Bible, or their own souls. But such possibilities and +conceptions, the deeper they are received, the more they seem to reduce +their need. Emerson's Circle may be a better whole, without its +complement. Perhaps his "unsatiable demand for unity, the need to +recognize one nature in all variety of objects," would have been +impaired, if something should make it simpler for men to find the +identity they at first want in his substance. "Draw if thou canst the +mystic line severing rightly his from thine, which is human, which +divine." Whatever means one would use to personalize Emerson's natural +revelation, whether by a vision or a board walk, the vastness of his +aims and the dignity of his tolerance would doubtless cause him to +accept or at least try to accept, and use "magically as a part of his +fortune." He would modestly say, perhaps, "that the world is enlarged +for him, not by finding new objects, but by more affinities, and +potencies than those he already has." But, indeed, is not enough +manifestation already there? Is not the asking that it be made more +manifest forgetting that "we are not strong by our power to penetrate, +but by our relatedness?" Will more signs create a greater sympathy? Is +not our weak suggestion needed only for those content with their own +hopelessness? +</P> + +<P> +Others may lead others to him, but he finds his problem in making +"gladness hope and fortitude flow from his page," rather than in +arranging that our hearts be there to receive it. The first is his +duty—the last ours! +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +A devotion to an end tends to undervalue the means. A power of +revelation may make one more concerned about his perceptions of the +soul's nature than the way of their disclosure. Emerson is more +interested in what he perceives than in his expression of it. He is a +creator whose intensity is consumed more with the substance of his +creation than with the manner by which he shows it to others. Like +Petrarch he seems more a discoverer of Beauty than an imparter of it. +But these discoveries, these devotions to aims, these struggles toward +the absolute, do not these in themselves, impart something, if not all, +of their own unity and coherence—which is not received, as such, at +first, nor is foremost in their expression. It must be remembered that +"truth" was what Emerson was after—not strength of outline, or even +beauty except in so far as they might reveal themselves, naturally, in +his explorations towards the infinite. To think hard and deeply and to +say what is thought, regardless of consequences, may produce a first +impression, either of great translucence, or of great muddiness, but in +the latter there may be hidden possibilities. Some accuse Brahms' +orchestration of being muddy. This may be a good name for a first +impression of it. But if it should seem less so, he might not be saying +what he thought. The mud may be a form of sincerity which demands that +the heart be translated, rather than handed around through the pit. A +clearer scoring might have lowered the thought. Carlyle told Emerson +that some of his paragraphs didn't cohere. Emerson wrote by sentences +or phrases, rather than by logical sequence. His underlying plan of +work seems based on the large unity of a series of particular aspects +of a subject, rather than on the continuity of its expression. As +thoughts surge to his mind, he fills the heavens with them, crowds them +in, if necessary, but seldom arranges them, along the ground first. +Among class-room excuses for Emerson's imperfect coherence and lack of +unity, is one that remembers that his essays were made from lecture +notes. His habit, often in lecturing, was to compile his ideas as they +came to him on a general subject, in scattered notes, and when on the +platform, to trust to the mood of the occasion, to assemble them. This +seems a specious explanation, though true to fact. Vagueness, is at +times, an indication of nearness to a perfect truth. The definite glory +of Bernard of Cluny's Celestial City, is more beautiful than +true—probably. Orderly reason does not always have to be a visible +part of all great things. Logic may possibly require that unity means +something ascending in self-evident relation to the parts and to the +whole, with no ellipsis in the ascent. But reason may permit, even +demand an ellipsis, and genius may not need the self-evident part. In +fact, these parts may be the "blind-spots" in the progress of unity. +They may be filled with little but repetition. "Nature loves analogy +and hates repetition." Botany reveals evolution not permanence. An +apparent confusion if lived with long enough may become orderly. +Emerson was not writing for lazy minds, though one of the keenest of +his academic friends said that, he (Emerson) could not explain many of +his own pages. But why should he!—he explained them when he discovered +them—the moment before he spoke or wrote them. A rare experience of a +moment at daybreak, when something in nature seems to reveal all +consciousness, cannot be explained at noon. Yet it is a part of the +day's unity. At evening, nature is absorbed by another experience. She +dislikes to explain as much as to repeat. It is conceivable, that what +is unified form to the author, or composer, may of necessity be +formless to his audience. A home-run will cause more unity in the grand +stand than in the season's batting average. If a composer once starts +to compromise, his work will begin to drag on HIM. Before the end is +reached, his inspiration has all gone up in sounds pleasing to his +audience, ugly to him—sacrificed for the first acoustic—an opaque +clarity, a picture painted for its hanging. Easy unity, like easy +virtue, is easier to describe, when judged from its lapses than from +its constancy. When the infidel admits God is great, he means only: "I +am lazy—it is easier to talk than live." Ruskin also says: "Suppose I +like the finite curves best, who shall say I'm right or wrong? No one. +It is simply a question of experience." You may not be able to +experience a symphony, even after twenty performances. Initial +coherence today may be dullness tomorrow probably because formal or +outward unity depends so much on repetition, sequences, antitheses, +paragraphs with inductions and summaries. Macaulay had that kind of +unity. Can you read him today? Emerson rather goes out and shouts: "I'm +thinking of the sun's glory today and I'll let his light shine through +me. I'll say any damn thing that this inspires me with." Perhaps there +are flashes of light, still in cipher, kept there by unity, the code of +which the world has not yet discovered. The unity of one sentence +inspires the unity of the whole—though its physique is as ragged as +the Dolomites. +</P> + +<P> +Intense lights—vague shadows—great pillars in a horizon are difficult +things to nail signboards to. Emerson's outward-inward qualities make +him hard to classify, but easy for some. There are many who like to say +that he—even all the Concord men—are intellectuals. Perhaps—but +intellectuals who wear their brains nearer the heart than some of their +critics. It is as dangerous to determine a characteristic by manner as +by mood. Emerson is a pure intellectual to those who prefer to take him +as literally as they can. There are reformers, and in "the form" lies +their interest, who prefer to stand on the plain, and then insist they +see from the summit. Indolent legs supply the strength of eye for their +inspiration. The intellect is never a whole. It is where the soul finds +things. It is often the only track to the over-values. It appears a +whole—but never becomes one even in the stock exchange, or the +convent, or the laboratory. In the cleverest criminal, it is but a way +to a low ideal. It can never discard the other part of its duality—the +soul or the void where the soul ought to be. So why classify a quality +always so relative that it is more an agency than substance; a quality +that disappears when classified. "The life of the All must stream +through us to make the man and the moment great." A sailor with a +precious cargo doesn't analyze the water. Because Emerson had +generations of Calvinistic sermons in his blood, some cataloguers, +would localize or provincialize him, with the sternness of the old +Puritan mind. They make him THAT, hold him THERE. They lean heavily on +what they find of the above influence in him. They won't follow the +rivers in his thought and the play of his soul. And their cousin +cataloguers put him in another pigeon-hole. They label him "ascetic." +They translate his outward serenity into an impression of severity. But +truth keeps one from being hysterical. Is a demagogue a friend of the +people because he will lie to them to make them cry and raise false +hopes? A search for perfect truths throws out a beauty more spiritual +than sensuous. A sombre dignity of style is often confused by +under-imagination and by surface-sentiment, with austerity. If +Emerson's manner is not always beautiful in accordance with accepted +standards, why not accept a few other standards? He is an ascetic, in +that he refuses to compromise content with manner. But a real ascetic +is an extremist who has but one height. Thus may come the confusion, of +one who says that Emerson carries him high, but then leaves him always +at THAT height—no higher—a confusion, mistaking a latent exultation +for an ascetic reserve. The rules of Thorough Bass can be applied to +his scale of flight no more than they can to the planetary system. +Jadassohn, if Emerson were literally a composer, could no more analyze +his harmony than a guide-to-Boston could. A microscope might show that +he uses chords of the 9th, 11th, or the 99th, but a lens far different +tells us they are used with different aims from those of Debussy. +Emerson is definite in that his art is based on something stronger than +the amusing or at its best the beguiling of a few mortals. If he uses a +sensuous chord, it is not for sensual ears. His harmonies may float, if +the wind blows in that direction, through a voluptuous atmosphere, but +he has not Debussy's fondness for trying to blow a sensuous atmosphere +from his own voluptuous cheeks. And so he is an ascetic! There is a +distance between jowl and soul—and it is not measured by the fraction +of an inch between Concord and Paris. On the other hand, if one thinks +that his harmony contains no dramatic chords, because no theatrical +sound is heard, let him listen to the finale of "Success," or of +"Spiritual Laws," or to some of the poems, "Brahma" or "Sursum Corda," +for example. Of a truth his Codas often seem to crystallize in a +dramatic, though serene and sustained way, the truths of his +subject—they become more active and intense, but quieter and deeper. +</P> + +<P> +Then there comes along another set of cataloguers. They put him down as +a "classicist," or a romanticist, or an eclectic. Because a prophet is +a child of romanticism—because revelation is classic, because +eclecticism quotes from eclectic Hindu Philosophy, a more sympathetic +cataloguer may say, that Emerson inspires courage of the quieter kind +and delight of the higher kind. +</P> + +<P> +The same well-bound school teacher who told the boys that Thoreau was a +naturalist because he didn't like to work, puts down Emerson as a +"classic," and Hawthorne as a "romantic." A loud voice made this doubly +TRUE and SURE to be on the examination paper. But this teacher of +"truth AND dogma" apparently forgot that there is no such thing as +"classicism or romanticism." One has but to go to the various +definitions of these to know that. If you go to a classic definition +you know what a true classic is, and similarly a "true romantic." But +if you go to both, you have an algebraic formula, x = x, a +cancellation, an apercu, and hence satisfying; if you go to all +definitions you have another formula x > x, a destruction, another +apercu, and hence satisfying. Professor Beers goes to the dictionary +(you wouldn't think a college professor would be as reckless as that). +And so he can say that "romantic" is "pertaining to the style of the +Christian and popular literature of the Middle Ages," a Roman Catholic +mode of salvation (not this definition but having a definition). And so +Prof. B. can say that Walter Scott is a romanticist (and Billy Phelps a +classic—sometimes). But for our part Dick Croker is a classic and job +a romanticist. Another professor, Babbitt by name, links up Romanticism +with Rousseau, and charges against it many of man's troubles. He +somehow likes to mix it up with sin. He throws saucers at it, but in a +scholarly, interesting, sincere, and accurate way. He uncovers a +deformed foot, gives it a name, from which we are allowed to infer that +the covered foot is healthy and named classicism. But no Christian +Scientist can prove that Christ never had a stomach-ache. The +Architecture of Humanism [Footnote: Geoffrey Scott (Constable & Co.)] +tells us that "romanticism consists of ... a poetic sensibility towards +the remote, as such." But is Plato a classic or towards the remote? Is +Classicism a poor relation of time—not of man? Is a thing classic or +romantic because it is or is not passed by that biologic—that +indescribable stream-of-change going on in all life? Let us settle the +point for "good," and say that a thing is classic if it is thought of +in terms of the past and romantic if thought of in terms of the +future—and a thing thought of in terms of the present is—well, that +is impossible! Hence, we allow ourselves to say, that Emerson is +neither a classic or romantic but both—and both not only at different +times in one essay, but at the same time in one sentence—in one word. +And must we admit it, so is everyone. If you don't believe it, there +must be some true definition you haven't seen. Chopin shows a few +things that Bach forgot—but he is not eclectic, they say. Brahms shows +many things that Bach did remember, so he is an eclectic, they say. +Leoncavallo writes pretty verses and Palestrina is a priest, and +Confucius inspires Scriabin. A choice is freedom. Natural selection is +but one of Nature's tunes. "All melodious poets shall be hoarse as +street ballads, when once the penetrating keynote of nature and spirit +is sounded—the earth-beat, sea-beat, heart-beat, which make the tune +to which the sun rolls, and the globule of blood and the sap of the +trees." +</P> + +<P> +An intuitive sense of values, tends to make Emerson use social, +political, and even economic phenomena, as means of expression, as the +accidental notes in his scale—rather than as ends, even lesser ends. +In the realization that they are essential parts of the greater values, +he does not confuse them with each other. He remains undisturbed except +in rare instances, when the lower parts invade and seek to displace the +higher. He was not afraid to say that "there are laws which should not +be too well obeyed." To him, slavery was not a social or a political or +an economic question, nor even one of morals or of ethics, but one of +universal spiritual freedom only. It mattered little what party, or +what platform, or what law of commerce governed men. Was man governing +himself? Social error and virtue were but relative. This habit of not +being hindered by using, but still going beyond the great truths of +living, to the greater truths of life gave force to his influence over +the materialists. Thus he seems to us more a regenerator than a +reformer—more an interpreter of life's reflexes than of life's facts, +perhaps. Here he appears greater than Voltaire or Rousseau and helped, +perhaps, by the centrality of his conceptions, he could arouse the +deeper spiritual and moral emotions, without causing his listeners to +distort their physical ones. To prove that mind is over matter, he +doesn't place matter over mind. He is not like the man who, because he +couldn't afford both, gave up metaphysics for an automobile, and when +he ran over a man blamed metaphysics. He would not have us get +over-excited about physical disturbance but have it accepted as a part +of any progress in culture, moral, spiritual or aesthetic. If a poet +retires to the mountain-side, to avoid the vulgar unculture of men, and +their physical disturbance, so that he may better catch a nobler theme +for his symphony, Emerson tells him that "man's culture can spare +nothing, wants all material, converts all impediments into instruments, +all enemies into power." The latest product of man's culture—the +aeroplane, then sails o'er the mountain and instead of an +inspiration—a spray of tobacco-juice falls on the poet. "Calm +yourself, Poet!" says Emerson, "culture will convert furies into muses +and hells into benefit. This wouldn't have befallen you if it hadn't +been for the latest transcendent product of the genius of culture" (we +won't say what kind), a consummation of the dreams of poets, from David +to Tennyson. Material progress is but a means of expression. Realize +that man's coarseness has its future and will also be refined in the +gradual uprise. Turning the world upside down may be one of its lesser +incidents. It is the cause, seldom the effect that interests Emerson. +He can help the cause—the effect must help itself. He might have said +to those who talk knowingly about the cause of war—or of the last war, +and who would trace it down through long vistas of cosmic, political, +moral evolution and what not—he might say that the cause of it was as +simple as that of any dogfight—the "hog-mind" of the minority against +the universal mind, the majority. The un-courage of the former fears to +believe in the innate goodness of mankind. The cause is always the +same, the effect different by chance; it is as easy for a hog, even a +stupid one, to step on a box of matches under a tenement with a +thousand souls, as under an empty bird-house. The many kindly burn up +for the few; for the minority is selfish and the majority generous. The +minority has ruled the world for physical reasons. The physical reasons +are being removed by this "converting culture." Webster will not much +longer have to grope for the mind of his constituency. The +majority—the people—will need no intermediary. Governments will pass +from the representative to the direct. The hog-mind is the principal +thing that is making this transition slow. The biggest prop to the +hog-mind is pride—pride in property and the power property gives. +Ruskin backs this up—"it is at the bottom of all great mistakes; other +passions do occasional good, but whenever pride puts in its word ... it +is all over with the artist." The hog-mind and its handmaidens in +disorder, superficial brightness, fundamental dullness, then cowardice +and suspicion—all a part of the minority (the non-people) the +antithesis of everything called soul, spirit, Christianity, truth, +freedom—will give way more and more to the great primal truths—that +there is more good than evil, that God is on the side of the majority +(the people)—that he is not enthusiastic about the minority (the +non-people)—that he has made men greater than man, that he has made +the universal mind and the over-soul greater and a part of the +individual mind and soul—that he has made the Divine a part of all. +</P> + +<P> +Again, if a picture in economics is before him, Emerson plunges down to +the things that ARE because they are BETTER than they are. If there is +a row, which there usually is, between the ebb and flood tide, in the +material ocean—for example, between the theory of the present order of +competition, and of attractive and associated labor, he would +sympathize with Ricardo, perhaps, that labor is the measure of value, +but "embrace, as do generous minds, the proposition of labor shared by +all." He would go deeper than political economics, strain out the +self-factor from both theories, and make the measure of each pretty +much the same, so that the natural (the majority) would win, but not to +the disadvantage of the minority (the artificial) because this has +disappeared—it is of the majority. John Stuart Mill's political +economy is losing value because it was written by a mind more "a +banker's" than a "poet's." The poet knows that there is no such thing +as the perpetual law of supply and demand, perhaps not of demand and +supply—or of the wage-fund, or price-level, or increments earned or +unearned; and that the existence of personal or public property may not +prove the existence of God. +</P> + +<P> +Emerson seems to use the great definite interests of humanity to +express the greater, indefinite, spiritual values—to fulfill what he +can in his realms of revelation. Thus, it seems that so close a +relation exists between his content and expression, his substance and +manner, that if he were more definite in the latter he would lose power +in the former,—perhaps some of those occasional flashes would have +been unexpressed—flashes that have gone down through the world and +will flame on through the ages—flashes that approach as near the +Divine as Beethoven in his most inspired moments—flashes of +transcendent beauty, of such universal import, that they may bring, of +a sudden, some intimate personal experience, and produce the same +indescribable effect that comes in rare instances, to men, from some +common sensation. In the early morning of a Memorial Day, a boy is +awakened by martial music—a village band is marching down the street, +and as the strains of Reeves' majestic Seventh Regiment March come +nearer and nearer, he seems of a sudden translated—a moment of vivid +power comes, a consciousness of material nobility, an exultant +something gleaming with the possibilities of this life, an assurance +that nothing is impossible, and that the whole world lies at his feet. +But as the band turns the corner, at the soldiers' monument, and the +march steps of the Grand Army become fainter and fainter, the boy's +vision slowly vanishes—his "world" becomes less and less probable—but +the experience ever lies within him in its reality. Later in life, the +same boy hears the Sabbath morning bell ringing out from the white +steeple at the "Center," and as it draws him to it, through the autumn +fields of sumac and asters, a Gospel hymn of simple devotion comes out +to him—"There's a wideness in God's mercy"—an instant suggestion of +that Memorial Day morning comes—but the moment is of deeper +import—there is no personal exultation—no intimate world vision—no +magnified personal hope—and in their place a profound sense of a +spiritual truth,—a sin within reach of forgiveness—and as the hymn +voices die away, there lies at his feet—not the world, but the figure +of the Saviour—he sees an unfathomable courage, an immortality for the +lowest, the vastness in humility, the kindness of the human heart, +man's noblest strength, and he knows that God is nothing—nothing but +love! Whence cometh the wonder of a moment? From sources we know not. +But we do know that from obscurity, and from this higher Orpheus come +measures of sphere melodies [note: Paraphrased from a passage in Sartor +Resartus.] flowing in wild, native tones, ravaging the souls of men, +flowing now with thousand-fold accompaniments and rich symphonies +through all our hearts; modulating and divinely leading them. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +3 +</H3> + +<P> +What is character? In how far does it sustain the soul or the soul it? +Is it a part of the soul? And then—what is the soul? Plato knows but +cannot tell us. Every new-born man knows, but no one tells us. "Nature +will not be disposed of easily. No power of genius has ever yet had the +smallest success in explaining existence. The perfect enigma remains." +As every blind man sees the sun, so character may be the part of the +soul we, the blind, can see, and then have the right to imagine that +the soul is each man's share of God, and character the muscle which +tries to reveal its mysteries—a kind of its first visible +radiance—the right to know that it is the voice which is always +calling the pragmatist a fool. +</P> + +<P> +At any rate, it can be said that Emerson's character has much to do +with his power upon us. Men who have known nothing of his life, have +borne witness to this. It is directly at the root of his substance, and +affects his manner only indirectly. It gives the sincerity to the +constant spiritual hopefulness we are always conscious of, and which +carries with it often, even when the expression is somber, a note of +exultation in the victories of "the innate virtues" of man. And it is +this, perhaps, that makes us feel his courage—not a self-courage, but +a sympathetic one—courageous even to tenderness. It is the open +courage of a kind heart, of not forcing opinions—a thing much needed +when the cowardly, underhanded courage of the fanatic would FORCE +opinion. It is the courage of believing in freedom, per se, rather than +of trying to force everyone to SEE that you believe in it—the courage +of the willingness to be reformed, rather than of reforming—the +courage teaching that sacrifice is bravery, and force, fear. The +courage of righteous indignation, of stammering eloquence, of spiritual +insight, a courage ever contracting or unfolding a philosophy as it +grows—a courage that would make the impossible possible. Oliver +Wendell Holmes says that Emerson attempted the impossible in the +Over-Soul—"an overflow of spiritual imagination." But he (Emerson) +accomplished the impossible in attempting it, and still leaving it +impossible. A courageous struggle to satisfy, as Thoreau says, "Hunger +rather than the palate"—the hunger of a lifetime sometimes by one +meal. His essay on the Pre-Soul (which he did not write) treats of that +part of the over-soul's influence on unborn ages, and attempts the +impossible only when it stops attempting it. +</P> + +<P> +Like all courageous souls, the higher Emerson soars, the more lowly he +becomes. "Do you think the porter and the cook have no experiences, no +wonders for you? Everyone knows as much as the Savant." To some, the +way to be humble is to admonish the humble, not learn from them. +Carlyle would have Emerson teach by more definite signs, rather than +interpret his revelations, or shall we say preach? Admitting all the +inspiration and help that Sartor Resartus has given in spite of its +vaudeville and tragic stages, to many young men getting under way in +the life of tailor or king, we believe it can be said (but very broadly +said) that Emerson, either in the first or second series of essays, +taken as a whole, gives, it seems to us, greater inspiration, partly +because his manner is less didactic, less personally suggestive, +perhaps less clearly or obviously human than Carlyle's. How direct this +inspiration is is a matter of personal viewpoint, temperament, perhaps +inheritance. Augustine Birrell says he does not feel it—and he seems +not to even indirectly. Apparently "a non-sequacious author" can't +inspire him, for Emerson seems to him a "little thin and vague." Is +Emerson or the English climate to blame for this? He, Birrell, says a +really great author dissipates all fears as to his staying power. +(Though fears for our staying-power, not Emerson's, is what we would +like dissipated.) Besides, around a really great author, there are no +fears to dissipate. "A wise author never allows his reader's mind to be +at large," but Emerson is not a wise author. His essay on Prudence has +nothing to do with prudence, for to be wise and prudent he must put +explanation first, and let his substance dissolve because of it. "How +carefully," says Birrell again, "a really great author like Dr. Newman, +or M. Renan, explains to you what he is going to do, and how he is +going to do it." Personally we like the chance of having a hand in the +"explaining." We prefer to look at flowers, but not through a botany, +for it seems that if we look at them alone, we see a beauty of Nature's +poetry, a direct gift from the Divine, and if we look at botany alone, +we see the beauty of Nature's intellect, a direct gift of the +Divine—if we look at both together, we see nothing. +</P> + +<P> +Thus it seems that Carlyle and Birrell would have it that courage and +humility have something to do with "explanation"—and that it is not "a +respect for all"—a faith in the power of "innate virtue" to perceive +by "relativeness rather than penetration"—that causes Emerson to +withhold explanation to a greater degree than many writers. Carlyle +asks for more utility, and Birrell for more inspiration. But we like to +believe that it is the height of Emerson's character, evidenced +especially in his courage and humility that shades its quality, rather +than that its virtue is less—that it is his height that will make him +more and more valuable and more and more within the reach of +all—whether it be by utility, inspiration, or other needs of the human +soul. +</P> + +<P> +Cannot some of the most valuable kinds of utility and inspiration come +from humility in its highest and purest forms? For is not the truest +kind of humility a kind of glorified or transcendent democracy—the +practicing it rather than the talking it—the not-wanting to level all +finite things, but the being willing to be leveled towards the +infinite? Until humility produces that frame of mind and spirit in the +artist can his audience gain the greatest kind of utility and +inspiration, which might be quite invisible at first? Emerson realizes +the value of "the many,"—that the law of averages has a divine source. +He recognizes the various life-values in reality—not by reason of +their closeness or remoteness, but because he sympathizes with men who +live them, and the majority do. "The private store of reason is not +great—would that there were a public store for man," cries Pascal, but +there is, says Emerson, it is the universal mind, an institution +congenital with the common or over-soul. Pascal is discouraged, for he +lets himself be influenced by surface political and religious history +which shows the struggle of the group, led by an individual, rather +than that of the individual led by himself—a struggle as much +privately caused as privately led. The main-path of all social progress +has been spiritual rather than intellectual in character, but the many +bypaths of individual-materialism, though never obliterating the +highway, have dimmed its outlines and caused travelers to confuse the +colors along the road. A more natural way of freeing the congestion in +the benefits of material progress will make it less difficult for the +majority to recognize the true relation between the important spiritual +and religious values and the less important intellectual and economic +values. As the action of the intellect and universal mind becomes more +and more identical, the clearer will the relation of all values become. +But for physical reasons, the group has had to depend upon the +individual as leaders, and the leaders with few exceptions restrained +the universal mind—they trusted to the "private store," but now, +thanks to the lessons of evolution, which Nature has been teaching men +since and before the days of Socrates, the public store of reason is +gradually taking the place of the once-needed leader. From the Chaldean +tablet to the wireless message this public store has been wonderfully +opened. The results of these lessons, the possibilities they are +offering for ever coordinating the mind of humanity, the culmination of +this age-instruction, are seen today in many ways. Labor Federation, +Suffrage Extension, are two instances that come to mind among the many. +In these manifestations, by reason of tradition, or the bad-habit part +of tradition, the hog-mind of the few (the minority), comes in play. +The possessors of this are called leaders, but even these "thick-skins" +are beginning to see that the MOVEMENT is the leader, and that they are +only clerks. Broadly speaking, the effects evidenced in the political +side of history have so much of the physical because the causes have +been so much of the physical. As a result the leaders for the most part +have been under-average men, with skins thick, wits slick, and hands +quick with under-values, otherwise they would not have become leaders. +But the day of leaders, as such, is gradually closing—the people are +beginning to lead themselves—the public store of reason is slowly +being opened—the common universal mind and the common over-soul is +slowly but inevitably coming into its own. "Let a man believe in God, +not in names and places and persons. Let the great soul incarnated in +some poor ... sad and simple Joan, go out to service and sweep chimneys +and scrub floors ... its effulgent day beams cannot be muffled..." and +then "to sweep and scrub will instantly appear supreme and beautiful +actions ... and all people will get brooms and mops." Perhaps, if all of +Emerson—his works and his life—were to be swept away, and nothing of +him but the record of the following incident remained to men—the +influence of his soul would still be great. A working woman after +coming from one of his lectures said: "I love to go to hear Emerson, +not because I understand him, but because he looks as though he thought +everybody was as good as he was." Is it not the courage—the spiritual +hopefulness in his humility that makes this story possible and true? Is +it not this trait in his character that sets him above all creeds—that +gives him inspired belief in the common mind and soul? Is it not this +courageous universalism that gives conviction to his prophecy and that +makes his symphonies of revelation begin and end with nothing but the +strength and beauty of innate goodness in man, in Nature and in God, +the greatest and most inspiring theme of Concord Transcendental +Philosophy, as we hear it. +</P> + +<P> +And it is from such a world-compelling theme and from such vantage +ground, that Emerson rises to almost perfect freedom of action, of +thought and of soul, in any direction and to any height. A vantage +ground, somewhat vaster than Schelling's conception of transcendental +philosophy—"a philosophy of Nature become subjective." In Concord it +includes the objective and becomes subjective to nothing but freedom +and the absolute law. It is this underlying courage of the purest +humility that gives Emerson that outward aspect of serenity which is +felt to so great an extent in much of his work, especially in his codas +and perorations. And within this poised strength, we are conscious of +that "original authentic fire" which Emerson missed in Shelley—we are +conscious of something that is not dispassionate, something that is at +times almost turbulent—a kind of furious calm lying deeply in the +conviction of the eventual triumph of the soul and its union with God! +</P> + +<P> +Let us place the transcendent Emerson where he, himself, places Milton, +in Wordsworth's apostrophe: "Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, +so didst thou travel on life's common way in cheerful Godliness." +</P> + +<P> +The Godliness of spiritual courage and hopefulness—these fathers of +faith rise to a glorified peace in the depth of his greater +perorations. There is an "oracle" at the beginning of the Fifth +Symphony—in those four notes lies one of Beethoven's greatest +messages. We would place its translation above the relentlessness of +fate knocking at the door, above the greater human-message of destiny, +and strive to bring it towards the spiritual message of Emerson's +revelations—even to the "common heart" of Concord—the Soul of +humanity knocking at the door of the Divine mysteries, radiant in the +faith that it will be opened—and the human become the Divine! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="hawthorne"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +III—Hawthorne +</H3> + +<P> +The substance of Hawthorne is so dripping wet with the supernatural, +the phantasmal, the mystical—so surcharged with adventures, from the +deeper picturesque to the illusive fantastic, one unconsciously finds +oneself thinking of him as a poet of greater imaginative impulse than +Emerson or Thoreau. He was not a greater poet possibly than they—but a +greater artist. Not only the character of his substance, but the care +in his manner throws his workmanship, in contrast to theirs, into a +kind of bas-relief. Like Poe he quite naturally and unconsciously +reaches out over his subject to his reader. His mesmerism seeks to +mesmerize us—beyond Zenobia's sister. But he is too great an artist to +show his hand "in getting his audience," as Poe and Tschaikowsky +occasionally do. His intellectual muscles are too strong to let him +become over-influenced, as Ravel and Stravinsky seem to be by the +morbidly fascinating—a kind of false beauty obtained by artistic +monotony. However, we cannot but feel that he would weave his spell +over us—as would the Grimms and Aesop. We feel as much under magic as +the "Enchanted Frog." This is part of the artist's business. The effect +is a part of his art-effort in its inception. Emerson's substance and +even his manner has little to do with a designed effect—his +thunderbolts or delicate fragments are flashed out regardless—they may +knock us down or just spatter us—it matters little to him—but +Hawthorne is more considerate; that is, he is more artistic, as men say. +</P> + +<P> +Hawthorne may be more noticeably indigenous or may have more local +color, perhaps more national color than his Concord contemporaries. But +the work of anyone who is somewhat more interested in psychology than +in transcendental philosophy, will weave itself around individuals and +their personalities. If the same anyone happens to live in Salem, his +work is likely to be colored by the Salem wharves and Salem witches. If +the same anyone happens to live in the "Old Manse" near the Concord +Battle Bridge, he is likely "of a rainy day to betake himself to the +huge garret," the secrets of which he wonders at, "but is too reverent +of their dust and cobwebs to disturb." He is likely to "bow below the +shriveled canvas of an old (Puritan) clergyman in wig and gown—the +parish priest of a century ago—a friend of Whitefield." He is likely +to come under the spell of this reverend Ghost who haunts the "Manse" +and as it rains and darkens and the sky glooms through the dusty attic +windows, he is likely "to muse deeply and wonderingly upon the +humiliating fact that the works of man's intellect decay like those of +his hands" ... "that thought grows moldy," and as the garret is in +Massachusetts, the "thought" and the "mold" are likely to be quite +native. When the same anyone puts his poetry into novels rather than +essays, he is likely to have more to say about the life around +him—about the inherited mystery of the town—than a poet of philosophy +is. +</P> + +<P> +In Hawthorne's usual vicinity, the atmosphere was charged with the +somber errors and romance of eighteenth century New England,—ascetic +or noble New England as you like. A novel, of necessity, nails an +art-effort down to some definite part or parts of the earth's +surface—the novelist's wagon can't always be hitched to a star. To say +that Hawthorne was more deeply interested than some of the other +Concord writers—Emerson, for example—in the idealism peculiar to his +native land (in so far as such idealism of a country can be conceived +of as separate from the political) would be as unreasoning as to hold +that he was more interested in social progress than Thoreau, because he +was in the consular service and Thoreau was in no one's service—or +that the War Governor of Massachusetts was a greater patriot than +Wendell Phillips, who was ashamed of all political parties. Hawthorne's +art was true and typically American—as is the art of all men living in +America who believe in freedom of thought and who live wholesome lives +to prove it, whatever their means of expression. +</P> + +<P> +Any comprehensive conception of Hawthorne, either in words or music, +must have for its basic theme something that has to do with the +influence of sin upon the conscience—something more than the Puritan +conscience, but something which is permeated by it. In this relation he +is wont to use what Hazlitt calls the "moral power of imagination." +Hawthorne would try to spiritualize a guilty conscience. He would sing +of the relentlessness of guilt, the inheritance of guilt, the shadow of +guilt darkening innocent posterity. All of its sins and morbid horrors, +its specters, its phantasmas, and even its hellish hopelessness play +around his pages, and vanishing between the lines are the less guilty +Elves of the Concord Elms, which Thoreau and Old Man Alcott may have +felt, but knew not as intimately as Hawthorne. There is often a +pervading melancholy about Hawthorne, as Faguet says of de Musset +"without posture, without noise but penetrating." There is at times the +mysticism and serenity of the ocean, which Jules Michelet sees in "its +horizon rather than in its waters." There is a sensitiveness to +supernatural sound waves. Hawthorne feels the mysteries and tries to +paint them rather than explain them—and here, some may say that he is +wiser in a more practical way and so more artistic than Emerson. +Perhaps so, but no greater in the deeper ranges and profound mysteries +of the interrelated worlds of human and spiritual life. +</P> + +<P> +This fundamental part of Hawthorne is not attempted in our music (the +2nd movement of the series) which is but an "extended fragment" trying +to suggest some of his wilder, fantastical adventures into the +half-childlike, half-fairylike phantasmal realms. It may have something +to do with the children's excitement on that "frosty Berkshire morning, +and the frost imagery on the enchanted hall window" or something to do +with "Feathertop," the "Scarecrow," and his "Looking Glass" and the +little demons dancing around his pipe bowl; or something to do with the +old hymn tune that haunts the church and sings only to those in the +churchyard, to protect them from secular noises, as when the circus +parade comes down Main Street; or something to do with the concert at +the Stamford camp meeting, or the "Slave's Shuffle"; or something to do +with the Concord he-nymph, or the "Seven Vagabonds," or "Circe's +Palace," or something else in the wonderbook—not something that +happens, but the way something happens; or something to do with the +"Celestial Railroad," or "Phoebe's Garden," or something personal, +which tries to be "national" suddenly at twilight, and universal +suddenly at midnight; or something about the ghost of a man who never +lived, or about something that never will happen, or something else +that is not. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="alcotts"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IV—"The Alcotts" +</H3> + +<P> +If the dictagraph had been perfected in Bronson Alcott's time, he might +now be a great writer. As it is, he goes down as Concord's greatest +talker. "Great expecter," says Thoreau; "great feller," says Sam +Staples, "for talkin' big ... but his daughters is the gals +though—always DOIN' somethin'." Old Man Alcott, however, was usually +"doin' somethin'" within. An internal grandiloquence made him melodious +without; an exuberant, irrepressible, visionary absorbed with +philosophy AS such; to him it was a kind of transcendental business, +the profits of which supported his inner man rather than his family. +Apparently his deep interest in spiritual physics, rather than +metaphysics, gave a kind of hypnotic mellifluous effect to his voice +when he sang his oracles; a manner something of a cross between an +inside pompous self-assertion and an outside serious benevolence. But +he was sincere and kindly intentioned in his eagerness to extend what +he could of the better influence of the philosophic world as he saw it. +In fact, there is a strong didactic streak in both father and daughter. +Louisa May seldom misses a chance to bring out the moral of a homely +virtue. The power of repetition was to them a natural means of +illustration. It is said that the elder Alcott, while teaching school, +would frequently whip himself when the scholars misbehaved, to show +that the Divine Teacher-God-was pained when his children of the earth +were bad. Quite often the boy next to the bad boy was punished, to show +how sin involved the guiltless. And Miss Alcott is fond of working her +story around, so that she can better rub in a moral precept—and the +moral sometimes browbeats the story. But with all the elder Alcott's +vehement, impracticable, visionary qualities, there was a sturdiness +and a courage—at least, we like to think so. A Yankee boy who would +cheerfully travel in those days, when distances were long and +unmotored, as far from Connecticut as the Carolinas, earning his way by +peddling, laying down his pack to teach school when opportunity +offered, must possess a basic sturdiness. This was apparently not very +evident when he got to preaching his idealism. An incident in Alcott's +life helps confirm a theory—not a popular one—that men accustomed to +wander around in the visionary unknown are the quickest and strongest +when occasion requires ready action of the lower virtues. It often +appears that a contemplative mind is more capable of action than an +actively objective one. Dr. Emerson says: "It is good to know that it +has been recorded of Alcott, the benign idealist, that when the Rev. +Thomas Wentworth Higginson, heading the rush on the U.S. Court House in +Boston, to rescue a fugitive slave, looked back for his following at +the court-room door, only the apostolic philosopher was there cane in +hand." So it seems that his idealism had some substantial virtues, even +if he couldn't make a living. +</P> + +<P> +The daughter does not accept the father as a prototype—she seems to +have but few of her father's qualities "in female." She supported the +family and at the same time enriched the lives of a large part of young +America, starting off many little minds with wholesome thoughts and +many little hearts with wholesome emotions. She leaves +memory-word-pictures of healthy, New England childhood days,—pictures +which are turned to with affection by middle-aged children,—pictures, +that bear a sentiment, a leaven, that middle-aged America needs +nowadays more than we care to admit. +</P> + +<P> +Concord village, itself, reminds one of that common virtue lying at the +height and root of all the Concord divinities. As one walks down the +broad-arched street, passing the white house of Emerson—ascetic guard +of a former prophetic beauty—he comes presently beneath the old elms +overspreading the Alcott house. It seems to stand as a kind of homely +but beautiful witness of Concord's common virtue—it seems to bear a +consciousness that its past is LIVING, that the "mosses of the Old +Manse" and the hickories of Walden are not far away. Here is the home +of the "Marches"—all pervaded with the trials and happiness of the +family and telling, in a simple way, the story of "the richness of not +having." Within the house, on every side, lie remembrances of what +imagination can do for the better amusement of fortunate children who +have to do for themselves-much-needed lessons in these days of +automatic, ready-made, easy entertainment which deaden rather than +stimulate the creative faculty. And there sits the little old +spinet-piano Sophia Thoreau gave to the Alcott children, on which Beth +played the old Scotch airs, and played at the Fifth Symphony. +</P> + +<P> +There is a commonplace beauty about "Orchard House"—a kind of +spiritual sturdiness underlying its quaint picturesqueness—a kind of +common triad of the New England homestead, whose overtones tell us that +there must have been something aesthetic fibered in the Puritan +severity—the self-sacrificing part of the ideal—a value that seems to +stir a deeper feeling, a stronger sense of being nearer some perfect +truth than a Gothic cathedral or an Etruscan villa. All around you, +under the Concord sky, there still floats the influence of that human +faith melody, transcendent and sentimental enough for the enthusiast or +the cynic respectively, reflecting an innate hope—a common interest in +common things and common men—a tune the Concord bards are ever +playing, while they pound away at the immensities with a Beethovenlike +sublimity, and with, may we say, a vehemence and perseverance—for that +part of greatness is not so difficult to emulate. +</P> + +<P> +We dare not attempt to follow the philosophic raptures of Bronson +Alcott—unless you will assume that his apotheosis will show how +"practical" his vision in this world would be in the next. And so we +won't try to reconcile the music sketch of the Alcotts with much +besides the memory of that home under the elms—the Scotch songs and +the family hymns that were sung at the end of each day—though there +may be an attempt to catch something of that common sentiment (which we +have tried to suggest above)-a strength of hope that never gives way to +despair—a conviction in the power of the common soul which, when all +is said and done, may be as typical as any theme of Concord and its +transcendentalists. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="thoreau"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +V—Thoreau +</H3> + +<P> +Thoreau was a great musician, not because he played the flute but +because he did not have to go to Boston to hear "the Symphony." The +rhythm of his prose, were there nothing else, would determine his value +as a composer. He was divinely conscious of the enthusiasm of Nature, +the emotion of her rhythms and the harmony of her solitude. In this +consciousness he sang of the submission to Nature, the religion of +contemplation, and the freedom of simplicity—a philosophy +distinguishing between the complexity of Nature which teaches freedom, +and the complexity of materialism which teaches slavery. In music, in +poetry, in all art, the truth as one sees it must be given in terms +which bear some proportion to the inspiration. In their greatest +moments the inspiration of both Beethoven and Thoreau express profound +truths and deep sentiment, but the intimate passion of it, the storm +and stress of it, affected Beethoven in such a way that he could not +but be ever showing it and Thoreau that he could not easily expose it. +They were equally imbued with it, but with different results. A +difference in temperament had something to do with this, together with +a difference in the quality of expression between the two arts. "Who +that has heard a strain of music feared lest he would speak +extravagantly forever," says Thoreau. Perhaps music is the art of +speaking extravagantly. Herbert Spencer says that some men, as for +instance Mozart, are so peculiarly sensitive to emotion ... that music is +to them but a continuation not only of the expression but of the actual +emotion, though the theory of some more modern thinkers in the +philosophy of art doesn't always bear this out. However, there is no +doubt that in its nature music is predominantly subjective and tends to +subjective expression, and poetry more objective tending to objective +expression. Hence the poet when his muse calls for a deeper feeling +must invert this order, and he may be reluctant to do so as these +depths often call for an intimate expression which the physical looks +of the words may repel. They tend to reveal the nakedness of his soul +rather than its warmth. It is not a matter of the relative value of the +aspiration, or a difference between subconsciousness and consciousness +but a difference in the arts themselves; for example, a composer may +not shrink from having the public hear his "love letter in tones," +while a poet may feel sensitive about having everyone read his "letter +in words." When the object of the love is mankind the sensitiveness is +changed only in degree. +</P> + +<P> +But the message of Thoreau, though his fervency may be inconstant and +his human appeal not always direct, is, both in thought and spirit, as +universal as that of any man who ever wrote or sang—as universal as it +is nontemporaneous—as universal as it is free from the measure of +history, as "solitude is free from the measure of the miles of space +that intervene between man and his fellows." In spite of the fact that +Henry James (who knows almost everything) says that "Thoreau is more +than provincial—that he is parochial," let us repeat that Henry +Thoreau, in respect to thought, sentiment, imagination, and soul, in +respect to every element except that of place of physical being—a +thing that means so much to some—is as universal as any personality in +literature. That he said upon being shown a specimen grass from Iceland +that the same species could be found in Concord is evidence of his +universality, not of his parochialism. He was so universal that he did +not need to travel around the world to PROVE it. "I have more of God, +they more of the road." "It is not worth while to go around the world +to count the cats in Zanzibar." With Marcus Aurelius, if he had seen +the present he had seen all, from eternity and all time forever. +</P> + +<P> +Thoreau's susceptibility to natural sounds was probably greater than +that of many practical musicians. True, this appeal is mainly through +the sensational element which Herbert Spencer thinks the predominant +beauty of music. Thoreau seems able to weave from this source some +perfect transcendental symphonies. Strains from the Orient get the best +of some of the modern French music but not of Thoreau. He seems more +interested in than influenced by Oriental philosophy. He admires its +ways of resignation and self-contemplation but he doesn't contemplate +himself in the same way. He often quotes from the Eastern scriptures +passages which were they his own he would probably omit, i.e., the +Vedas say "all intelligences awake with the morning." This seems +unworthy of "accompanying the undulations of celestial music" found on +this same page, in which an "ode to morning" is sung—"the awakening to +newly acquired forces and aspirations from within to a higher life than +we fell asleep from ... for all memorable events transpire in the morning +time and in the morning atmosphere." Thus it is not the whole tone +scale of the Orient but the scale of a Walden morning—"music in single +strains," as Emerson says, which inspired many of the polyphonies and +harmonies that come to us through his poetry. Who can be forever +melancholy "with Aeolian music like this"? +</P> + +<P> +This is but one of many ways in which Thoreau looked to Nature for his +greatest inspirations. In her he found an analogy to the Fundamental of +Transcendentalism. The "innate goodness" of Nature is or can be a moral +influence; Mother Nature, if man will but let her, will keep him +straight—straight spiritually and so morally and even mentally. If he +will take her as a companion, and teacher, and not as a duty or a +creed, she will give him greater thrills and teach him greater truths +than man can give or teach—she will reveal mysteries that mankind has +long concealed. It was the soul of Nature not natural history that +Thoreau was after. A naturalist's mind is one predominantly scientific, +more interested in the relation of a flower to other flowers than its +relation to any philosophy or anyone's philosophy. A transcendent love +of Nature and writing "Rhus glabra" after sumac doesn't necessarily +make a naturalist. It would seem that although thorough in observation +(not very thorough according to Mr. Burroughs) and with a keen +perception of the specific, a naturalist—inherently—was exactly what +Thoreau was not. He seems rather to let Nature put him under her +microscope than to hold her under his. He was too fond of Nature to +practice vivisection upon her. He would have found that painful, "for +was he not a part with her?" But he had this trait of a naturalist, +which is usually foreign to poets, even great ones; he observed acutely +even things that did not particularly interest him—a useful natural +gift rather than a virtue. +</P> + +<P> +The study of Nature may tend to make one dogmatic, but the love of +Nature surely does not. Thoreau no more than Emerson could be said to +have compounded doctrines. His thinking was too broad for that. If +Thoreau's was a religion of Nature, as some say,—and by that they +mean that through Nature's influence man is brought to a deeper +contemplation, to a more spiritual self-scrutiny, and thus closer to +God,—it had apparently no definite doctrines. Some of his theories +regarding natural and social phenomena and his experiments in the art +of living are certainly not doctrinal in form, and if they are in +substance it didn't disturb Thoreau and it needn't us... "In proportion +as he simplifies his life the laws of the universe will appear less +complex and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor +weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air your work need +not be lost; that is where they should be, now put the foundations +under them." ... "Then we will love with the license of a higher order +of beings." Is that a doctrine? Perhaps. At any rate, between the lines +of some such passage as this lie some of the fountain heads that water +the spiritual fields of his philosophy and the seeds from which they +are sown (if indeed his whole philosophy is but one spiritual garden). +His experiments, social and economic, are a part of its cultivation and +for the harvest—and its transmutation, he trusts to moments of +inspiration—"only what is thought, said, and done at a certain rare +coincidence is good." +</P> + +<P> +Thoreau's experiment at Walden was, broadly speaking, one of these +moments. It stands out in the casual and popular opinion as a kind of +adventure—harmless and amusing to some, significant and important to +others; but its significance lies in the fact that in trying to +practice an ideal he prepared his mind so that it could better bring +others "into the Walden-state-of-mind." He did not ask for a literal +approval, or in fact for any approval. "I would not stand between any +man and his genius." He would have no one adopt his manner of life, +unless in doing so he adopts his own—besides, by that time "I may have +found a better one." But if he preached hard he practiced harder what +he preached—harder than most men. Throughout Walden a text that he is +always pounding out is "Time." Time for inside work out-of-doors; +preferably out-of-doors, "though you perhaps may have some pleasant, +thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor house." Wherever the +place—time there must be. Time to show the unnecessariness of +necessities which clog up time. Time to contemplate the value of man to +the universe, of the universe to man, man's excuse for being. Time FROM +the demands of social conventions. Time FROM too much labor for some, +which means too much to eat, too much to wear, too much material, too +much materialism for others. Time FROM the "hurry and waste of life." +Time FROM the "St. Vitus Dance." BUT, on the other side of the ledger, +time FOR learning that "there is no safety in stupidity alone." Time +FOR introspection. Time FOR reality. Time FOR expansion. Time FOR +practicing the art, of living the art of living. Thoreau has been +criticized for practicing his policy of expansion by living in a +vacuum—but he peopled that vacuum with a race of beings and +established a social order there, surpassing any of the precepts in +social or political history. "...for he put some things behind and +passed an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws +were around and within him, the old laws were expanded and interpreted +in a more liberal sense and he lived with the license of a higher +order"—a community in which "God was the only President" and "Thoreau +not Webster was His Orator." It is hard to believe that Thoreau really +refused to believe that there was any other life but his own, though he +probably did think that there was not any other life besides his own +for him. Living for society may not always be best accomplished by +living WITH society. "Is there any virtue in a man's skin that you must +touch it?" and the "rubbing of elbows may not bring men's minds closer +together"; or if he were talking through a "worst seller" (magazine) +that "had to put it over" he might say, "forty thousand souls at a ball +game does not, necessarily, make baseball the highest expression of +spiritual emotion." Thoreau, however, is no cynic, either in character +or thought, though in a side glance at himself, he may have held out to +be one; a "cynic in independence," possibly because of his rule laid +down that "self-culture admits of no compromise." +</P> + +<P> +It is conceivable that though some of his philosophy and a good deal of +his personality, in some of its manifestations, have outward colors +that do not seem to harmonize, the true and intimate relations they +bear each other are not affected. This peculiarity, frequently seen in +his attitude towards social-economic problems, is perhaps more +emphasized in some of his personal outbursts. "I love my friends very +much, but I find that it is of no use to go to see them. I hate them +commonly when I am near." It is easier to see what he means than it is +to forgive him for saying it. The cause of this apparent lack of +harmony between philosophy and personality, as far as they can be +separated, may have been due to his refusal "to keep the very delicate +balance" which Mr. Van Doren in his "Critical Study of Thoreau" says +"it is necessary for a great and good man to keep between his public +and private lives, between his own personality and the whole outside +universe of personalities." Somehow one feels that if he had kept this +balance he would have lost "hitting power." Again, it seems that +something of the above depends upon the degree of greatness or +goodness. A very great and especially a very good man has no separate +private and public life. His own personality though not identical with +outside personalities is so clear or can be so clear to them that it +appears identical, and as the world progresses towards its inevitable +perfection this appearance becomes more and more a reality. For the +same reason that all great men now agree, in principle but not in +detail, in so far as words are able to communicate agreement, on the +great fundamental truths. Someone says: "Be specific—what great +fundamentals?" Freedom over slavery; the natural over the artificial; +beauty over ugliness; the spiritual over the material; the goodness of +man; the Godness of man; have been greater if he hadn't written plays. +Some say that a true composer will never write an opera because a truly +brave man will not take a drink to keep up his courage; which is not +the same thing as saying that Shakespeare is not the greatest figure in +all literature; in fact, it is an attempt to say that many novels, most +operas, all Shakespeares, and all brave men and women (rum or no rum) +are among the noblest blessings with which God has endowed +mankind—because, not being perfect, they are perfect examples pointing +to that perfection which nothing yet has attained. +</P> + +<P> +Thoreau's mysticism at times throws him into elusive moods—but an +elusiveness held by a thread to something concrete and specific, for he +had too much integrity of mind for any other kind. In these moments it +is easier to follow his thought than to follow him. Indeed, if he were +always easy to follow, after one had caught up with him, one might find +that it was not Thoreau. +</P> + +<P> +It is, however, with no mystic rod that he strikes at institutional +life. Here again he felt the influence of the great transcendental +doctrine of "innate goodness" in human nature—a reflection of the like +in nature; a philosophic part which, by the way, was a more direct +inheritance in Thoreau than in his brother transcendentalists. For +besides what he received from a native Unitarianism a good part must +have descended to him through his Huguenot blood from the +"eighteenth-century French philosophy." We trace a reason here for his +lack of interest in "the church." For if revealed religion is the path +between God and man's spiritual part—a kind of formal +causeway—Thoreau's highly developed spiritual life felt, apparently +unconsciously, less need of it than most men. But he might have been +more charitable towards those who do need it (and most of us do) if he +had been more conscious of his freedom. Those who look today for the +cause of a seeming deterioration in the influence of the church may +find it in a wider development of this feeling of Thoreau's; that the +need is less because there is more of the spirit of Christianity in the +world today. Another cause for his attitude towards the church as an +institution is one always too common among "the narrow minds" to have +influenced Thoreau. He could have been more generous. He took the arc +for the circle, the exception for the rule, the solitary bad example +for the many good ones. His persistent emphasis on the value of +"example" may excuse this lower viewpoint. "The silent influence of the +example of one sincere life ... has benefited society more than all the +projects devised for its salvation." He has little patience for the +unpracticing preacher. "In some countries a hunting parson is no +uncommon sight. Such a one might make a good shepherd dog but is far +from being a good shepherd." It would have been interesting to have +seen him handle the speculating parson, who takes a good salary—more +per annum than all the disciples had to sustain their bodies during +their whole lives—from a metropolitan religious corporation for +"speculating" on Sunday about the beauty of poverty, who preaches: +"Take no thought (for your life) what ye shall eat or what ye shall +drink nor yet what ye shall put on ... lay not up for yourself treasure +upon earth ... take up thy cross and follow me"; who on Monday becomes a +"speculating" disciple of another god, and by questionable investments, +successful enough to get into the "press," seeks to lay up a treasure +of a million dollars for his old age, as if a million dollars could +keep such a man out of the poor-house. Thoreau might observe that this +one good example of Christian degeneracy undoes all the acts of +regeneracy of a thousand humble five-hundred-dollar country parsons; +that it out-influences the "unconscious influence" of a dozen Dr. +Bushnells if there be that many; that the repentance of this man who +did not "fall from grace" because he never fell into it—that this +unnecessary repentance might save this man's own soul but not +necessarily the souls of the million head-line readers; that repentance +would put this preacher right with the powers that be in this +world—and the next. Thoreau might pass a remark upon this man's +intimacy with God "as if he had a monopoly of the subject"—an intimacy +that perhaps kept him from asking God exactly what his Son meant by the +"camel," the "needle"—to say nothing of the "rich man." Thoreau might +have wondered how this man NAILED DOWN the last plank in HIS bridge to +salvation, by rising to sublime heights of patriotism, in HIS war +against materialism; but would even Thoreau be so unfeeling as to +suggest to this exhorter that HIS salvation might be clinched "if he +would sacrifice his income" (not himself) and come—in to a real +Salvation Army, or that the final triumph, the supreme happiness in +casting aside this mere $10,000 or $20,000 every year must be denied +him—for was he not captain of the ship—must he not stick to his +passengers (in the first cabin—the very first cabin)—not that the +ship was sinking but that he was ... we will go no further. Even Thoreau +would not demand sacrifice for sacrifice sake—no, not even from Nature. +</P> + +<P> +Property from the standpoint of its influence in checking natural +self-expansion and from the standpoint of personal and inherent right +is another institution that comes in for straight and cross-arm jabs, +now to the stomach, now to the head, but seldom sparring for breath. +For does he not say that "wherever a man goes, men will pursue him with +their dirty institutions"? The influence of property, as he saw it, on +morality or immorality and how through this it mayor should influence +"government" is seen by the following: "I am convinced that if all men +were to live as simply as I did, then thieving and robbery would be +unknown. These take place only in communities where some have got more +than is sufficient while others have not enough— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Nec bella fuerunt,<BR> + Faginus astabat dum<BR> + Scyphus ante dapes—<BR> +</P> + +<P> +You who govern public affairs, what need have you to employ +punishments? Have virtue and the people will be virtuous." If Thoreau +had made the first sentence read: "If all men were like me and were to +live as simply," etc., everyone would agree with him. We may wonder +here how he would account for some of the degenerate types we are told +about in some of our backwoods and mountain regions. Possibly by +assuming that they are an instance of perversion of the species. That +the little civilizing their forbears experienced rendered these people +more susceptible to the physical than to the spiritual influence of +nature; in other words; if they had been purer naturists, as the Aztecs +for example, they would have been purer men. Instead of turning to any +theory of ours or of Thoreau for the true explanation of this +condition—which is a kind of pseudo-naturalism—for its true diagnosis +and permanent cure, are we not far more certain to find it in the +radiant look of humility, love, and hope in the strong faces of those +inspired souls who are devoting their lives with no little sacrifice to +these outcasts of civilization and nature. In truth, may not mankind +find the solution of its eternal problem—find it after and beyond the +last, most perfect system of wealth distribution which science can ever +devise—after and beyond the last sublime echo of the greatest +socialistic symphonies—after and beyond every transcendent thought and +expression in the simple example of these Christ-inspired souls—be +they Pagan, Gentile, Jew, or angel. +</P> + +<P> +However, underlying the practical or impractical suggestions implied in +the quotation above, which is from the last paragraph of Thoreau's +Village, is the same transcendental theme of "innate goodness." For +this reason there must be no limitation except that which will free +mankind from limitation, and from a perversion of this "innate" +possession: And "property" may be one of the causes of this +perversion—property in the two relations cited above. It is +conceivable that Thoreau, to the consternation of the richest members +of the Bolsheviki and Bourgeois, would propose a policy of liberation, +a policy of a limited personal property right, on the ground that +congestion of personal property tends to limit the progress of the soul +(as well as the progress of the stomach)—letting the economic noise +thereupon take care of itself—for dissonances are becoming +beautiful—and do not the same waters that roar in a storm take care of +the eventual calm? That this limit of property be determined not by the +VOICE of the majority but by the BRAIN of the majority under a +government limited to no national boundaries. "The government of the +world I live in is not framed in after-dinner conversation"—around a +table in a capital city, for there is no capital—a government of +principles not parties; of a few fundamental truths and not of many +political expediencies. A government conducted by virtuous leaders, for +it will be led by all, for all are virtuous, as then their "innate +virtue" will no more be perverted by unnatural institutions. This will +not be a millennium but a practical and possible application of +uncommon common sense. For is it not sense, common or otherwise, for +Nature to want to hand back the earth to those to whom it belongs—that +is, to those who have to live on it? Is it not sense, that the average +brains like the average stomachs will act rightly if they have an equal +amount of the right kind of food to act upon and universal education is +on the way with the right kind of food? Is it not sense then that all +grown men and women (for all are necessary to work out the divine "law +of averages") shall have a direct not an indirect say about the things +that go on in this world? +</P> + +<P> +Some of these attitudes, ungenerous or radical, generous or +conservative (as you will), towards institutions dear to many, have no +doubt given impressions unfavorable to Thoreau's thought and +personality. One hears him called, by some who ought to know what they +say and some who ought not, a crabbed, cold-hearted, sour-faced +Yankee—a kind of a visionary sore-head—a cross-grained, egotistic +recluse,—even non-hearted. But it is easier to make a statement than +prove a reputation. Thoreau may be some of these things to those who +make no distinction between these qualities and the manner which often +comes as a kind of by-product of an intense devotion of a principle or +ideal. He was rude and unfriendly at times but shyness probably had +something to do with that. In spite of a certain self-possession he was +diffident in most company, but, though he may have been subject to +those spells when words do not rise and the mind seems wrapped in a +kind of dull cloth which everyone dumbly stares at, instead of looking +through—he would easily get off a rejoinder upon occasion. When a +party of visitors came to Walden and some one asked Thoreau if he found +it lonely there, he replied: "Only by your help." A remark +characteristic, true, rude, if not witty. The writer remembers hearing +a schoolteacher in English literature dismiss Thoreau (and a half hour +lesson, in which time all of Walden,—its surface—was sailed over) by +saying that this author (he called everyone "author" from Solomon down +to Dr. Parkhurst) "was a kind of a crank who styled himself a +hermit-naturalist and who idled about the woods because he didn't want +to work." Some such stuff is a common conception, though not as common +as it used to be. If this teacher had had more brains, it would have +been a lie. The word idled is the hopeless part of this criticism, or +rather of this uncritical remark. To ask this kind of a man, who plays +all the "choice gems from celebrated composers" literally, always +literally, and always with the loud pedal, who plays all hymns, wrong +notes, right notes, games, people, and jokes literally, and with the +loud pedal, who will die literally and with the loud pedal—to ask this +man to smile even faintly at Thoreau's humor is like casting a pearl +before a coal baron. Emerson implies that there is one thing a genius +must have to be a genius and that is "mother wit." ... "Doctor Johnson, +Milton, Chaucer, and Burns had it. Aunt Mary Moody Emerson has it and +can write scrap letters. Who has it need never write anything but +scraps. Henry Thoreau has it." His humor though a part of this wit is +not always as spontaneous, for it is sometimes pun shape (so is Charles +Lamb's)—but it is nevertheless a kind that can serenely transport us +and which we can enjoy without disturbing our neighbors. If there are +those who think him cold-hearted and with but little human sympathy, +let them read his letters to Emerson's little daughter, or hear Dr. +Emerson tell about the Thoreau home life and the stories of his +boyhood—the ministrations to a runaway slave; or let them ask old Sam +Staples, the Concord sheriff about him. That he "was fond of a few +intimate friends, but cared not one fig for people in the mass," is a +statement made in a school history and which is superficially true. He +cared too much for the masses—too much to let his personality be +"massed"; too much to be unable to realize the futility of wearing his +heart on his sleeve but not of wearing his path to the shore of +"Walden" for future masses to walk over and perchance find the way to +themselves. Some near-satirists are fond of telling us that Thoreau +came so close to Nature that she killed him before he had discovered +her whole secret. They remind us that he died with consumption but +forget that he lived with consumption. And without using much charity, +this can be made to excuse many of his irascible and uncongenial moods. +You to whom that gaunt face seems forbidding—look into the eyes! If he +seems "dry and priggish" to you, Mr. Stevenson, "with little of that +large unconscious geniality of the world's heroes," follow him some +spring morning to Baker Farm, as he "rambles through pine groves ... like +temples, or like fleets at sea, full-rigged, with wavy boughs and +rippling with light so soft and green and shady that the Druids would +have forsaken their oaks to worship in them." Follow him to "the cedar +wood beyond Flint's Pond, where the trees covered with hoary blue +berries, spiring higher and higher, are fit to stand before Valhalla." +Follow him, but not too closely, for you may see little, if you do—"as +he walks in so pure and bright a light gilding its withered grass and +leaves so softly and serenely bright that he thinks he has never bathed +in such a golden flood." Follow him as "he saunters towards the holy +land till one day the sun shall shine more brightly than ever it has +done, perchance shine into your minds and hearts and light up your +whole lives with a great awakening, light as warm and serene and golden +as on a bankside in autumn." Follow him through the golden flood to the +shore of that "holy land," where he lies dying as men say—dying as +bravely as he lived. You may be near when his stern old aunt in the +duty of her Puritan conscience asks him: "Have you made your peace with +God"? and you may see his kindly smile as he replies, "I did not know +that we had ever quarreled." Moments like these reflect more nobility +and equanimity perhaps than geniality—qualities, however, more +serviceable to world's heroes. +</P> + +<P> +The personal trait that one who has affection for Thoreau may find +worst is a combative streak, in which he too often takes refuge. "An +obstinate elusiveness," almost a "contrary cussedness," as if he would +say, which he didn't: "If a truth about something is not as I think it +ought to be, I'll make it what I think, and it WILL be the truth—but +if you agree with me, then I begin to think it may not be the truth." +The causes of these unpleasant colors (rather than characteristics) are +too easily attributed to a lack of human sympathy or to the assumption +that they are at least symbols of that lack instead of to a +supersensitiveness, magnified at times by ill health and at times by a +subconsciousness of the futility of actually living out his ideals in +this life. It has been said that his brave hopes were unrealized +anywhere in his career—but it is certain that they started to be +realized on or about May 6, 1862, and we doubt if 1920 will end their +fulfillment or his career. But there were many in Concord who knew that +within their village there was a tree of wondrous growth, the shadow of +which—alas, too frequently—was the only part they were allowed to +touch. Emerson was one of these. He was not only deeply conscious of +Thoreau's rare gifts but in the Woodland Notes pays a tribute to a side +of his friend that many others missed. Emerson knew that Thoreau's +sensibilities too often veiled his nobilities, that a self-cultivated +stoicism ever fortified with sarcasm, none the less securely because it +seemed voluntary, covered a warmth of feeling. "His great heart, him a +hermit made." A breadth of heart not easily measured, found only in the +highest type of sentimentalists, the type which does not perpetually +discriminate in favor of mankind. Emerson has much of this sentiment +and touches it when he sings of Nature as "the incarnation of a +thought," when he generously visualizes Thoreau, "standing at the +Walden shore invoking the vision of a thought as it drifts heavenward +into an incarnation of Nature." There is a Godlike patience in +Nature,-in her mists, her trees, her mountains—as if she had a more +abiding faith and a clearer vision than man of the resurrection and +immortality! There comes to memory an old yellow-papered composition of +school-boy days whose peroration closed with "Poor Thoreau; he communed +with nature for forty odd years, and then died." "The forty odd +years,"—we'll still grant that part, but he is over a hundred now, and +maybe, Mr. Lowell, he is more lovable, kindlier, and more radiant with +human sympathy today, than, perchance, you were fifty years ago. It may +be that he is a far stronger, a far greater, an incalculably greater +force in the moral and spiritual fibre of his fellow-countrymen +throughout the world today than you dreamed of fifty years ago. You, +James Russell Lowells! You, Robert Louis Stevensons! You, Mark Van +Dorens! with your literary perception, your power of illumination, your +brilliancy of expression, yea, and with your love of sincerity, you +know your Thoreau, but not my Thoreau—that reassuring and true friend, +who stood by me one "low" day, when the sun had gone down, long, long +before sunset. You may know something of the affection that heart +yearned for but knew it a duty not to grasp; you may know something of +the great human passions which stirred that soul—too deep for animate +expression—you may know all of this, all there is to know about +Thoreau, but you know him not, unless you love him! +</P> + +<P> +And if there shall be a program for our music let it follow his thought +on an autumn day of Indian summer at Walden—a shadow of a thought at +first, colored by the mist and haze over the pond: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Low anchored cloud,<BR> + Fountain head and<BR> + Source of rivers...<BR> + Dew cloth, dream drapery—<BR> + Drifting meadow of the air....<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +but this is momentary; the beauty of the day moves him to a certain +restlessness—to aspirations more specific—an eagerness for outward +action, but through it all he is conscious that it is not in keeping +with the mood for this "Day." As the mists rise, there comes a clearer +thought more traditional than the first, a meditation more calm. As he +stands on the side of the pleasant hill of pines and hickories in front +of his cabin, he is still disturbed by a restlessness and goes down the +white-pebbled and sandy eastern shore, but it seems not to lead him +where the thought suggests—he climbs the path along the "bolder +northern" and "western shore, with deep bays indented," and now along +the railroad track, "where the Aeolian harp plays." But his eagerness +throws him into the lithe, springy stride of the specie hunter—the +naturalist—he is still aware of a restlessness; with these faster +steps his rhythm is of shorter span—it is still not the tempo of +Nature, it does not bear the mood that the genius of the day calls for, +it is too specific, its nature is too external, the introspection too +buoyant, and he knows now that he must let Nature flow through him and +slowly; he releases his more personal desires to her broader rhythm, +conscious that this blends more and more with the harmony of her +solitude; it tells him that his search for freedom on that day, at +least, lies in his submission to her, for Nature is as relentless as +she is benignant. +</P> + +<P> +He remains in this mood and while outwardly still, he seems to move +with the slow, almost monotonous swaying beat of this autumnal day. He +is more contented with a "homely burden" and is more assured of "the +broad margin to his life; he sits in his sunny doorway ... rapt in +revery ... amidst goldenrod, sandcherry, and sumac ... in undisturbed +solitude." At times the more definite personal strivings for the ideal +freedom, the former more active speculations come over him, as if he +would trace a certain intensity even in his submission. "He grew in +those seasons like corn in the night and they were better than any +works of the hands. They were not time subtracted from his life but so +much over and above the usual allowance." "He realized what the +Orientals meant by contemplation and forsaking of works." "The day +advanced as if to light some work of his—it was morning and lo! now it +is evening and nothing memorable is accomplished..." "The evening train +has gone by," and "all the restless world with it. The fishes in the +pond no longer feel its rumbling and he is more alone than ever..." His +meditations are interrupted only by the faint sound of the Concord +bell—'tis prayer-meeting night in the village—"a melody as it were, +imported into the wilderness..." "At a distance over the woods the +sound acquires a certain vibratory hum as if the pine needles in the +horizon were the strings of a harp which it swept... A vibration of the +universal lyre... Just as the intervening atmosphere makes a distant +ridge of earth interesting to the eyes by the azure tint it imparts." +... Part of the echo may be "the voice of the wood; the same trivial +words and notes sung by the wood nymph." It is darker, the poet's flute +is heard out over the pond and Walden hears the swan song of that "Day" +and faintly echoes... Is it a transcendental tune of Concord? 'Tis an +evening when the "whole body is one sense," ... and before ending his +day he looks out over the clear, crystalline water of the pond and +catches a glimpse of the shadow—thought he saw in the morning's mist +and haze—he knows that by his final submission, he possesses the +"Freedom of the Night." He goes up the "pleasant hillside of pines, +hickories," and moonlight to his cabin, "with a strange liberty in +Nature, a part of herself." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="epilogue"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VI—Epilogue +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +1 +</H3> + +<P> +The futility of attempting to trace the source or primal impulse of an +art-inspiration may be admitted without granting that human qualities +or attributes which go with personality cannot be suggested, and that +artistic intuitions which parallel them cannot be reflected in music. +Actually accomplishing the latter is a problem, more or less arbitrary +to an open mind, more or less impossible to a prejudiced mind. +</P> + +<P> +That which the composer intends to represent as "high vitality" sounds +like something quite different to different listeners. That which I +like to think suggests Thoreau's submission to nature may, to another, +seem something like Hawthorne's "conception of the relentlessness of an +evil conscience"—and to the rest of our friends, but a series of +unpleasant sounds. How far can the composer be held accountable? Beyond +a certain point the responsibility is more or less undeterminable. The +outside characteristics—that is, the points furthest away from the +mergings—are obvious to mostly anyone. A child knows a "strain of +joy," from one of sorrow. Those a little older know the dignified from +the frivolous—the Spring Song from the season in which the "melancholy +days have come" (though is there not a glorious hope in autumn!). But +where is the definite expression of late-spring against early-summer, +of happiness against optimism? A painter paints a sunset—can he paint +the setting sun? +</P> + +<P> +In some century to come, when the school children will whistle popular +tunes in quarter-tones—when the diatonic scale will be as obsolete as +the pentatonic is now—perhaps then these borderland experiences may be +both easily expressed and readily recognized. But maybe music was not +intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man. Maybe it is better +to hope that music may always be a transcendental language in the most +extravagant sense. Possibly the power of literally distinguishing these +"shades of abstraction"—these attributes paralleled by "artistic +intuitions" (call them what you will)-is ever to be denied man for the +same reason that the beginning and end of a circle are to be denied. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +2 +</H3> + +<P> +There may be an analogy—and on first sight it seems that there must +be—between both the state and power of artistic perceptions and the +law of perpetual change, that ever-flowing stream partly biological, +partly cosmic, ever going on in ourselves, in nature, in all life. This +may account for the difficulty of identifying desired qualities with +the perceptions of them in expression. Many things are constantly +coming into being, while others are constantly going out—one part of +the same thing is coming in while another part is going out of +existence. Perhaps this is why the above conformity in art (a +conformity which we seem naturally to look for) appears at times so +unrealizable, if not impossible. It will be assumed, to make this +theory clearer, that the "flow" or "change" does not go on in the +art-product itself. As a matter of fact it probably does, to a certain +extent—a picture, or a song, may gain or lose in value beyond what the +painter or composer knew, by the progress and higher development in all +art. Keats may be only partially true when he says that "A work of +beauty is a joy forever"—a thing that is beautiful to ME, is a joy to +ME, as long as it remains beautiful to ME—and if it remains so as long +as I live, it is so forever, that is, forever to ME. If he had put it +this way, he would have been tiresome, inartistic, but perhaps truer. +So we will assume here that this change only goes on in man and nature; +and that this eternal process in mankind is paralleled in some way +during each temporary, personal life. +</P> + +<P> +A young man, two generations ago, found an identity with his ideals, in +Rossini; when an older man in Wagner. A young man, one generation ago, +found his in Wagner, but when older in Cesar Franck or Brahms. Some may +say that this change may not be general, universal, or natural, and +that it may be due to a certain kind of education, or to a certain +inherited or contracted prejudice. We cannot deny or affirm this, +absolutely, nor will we try to even qualitatively—except to say that +it will be generally admitted that Rossini, today, does not appeal to +this generation, as he did to that of our fathers. As far as prejudice +or undue influence is concerned, and as an illustration in point, the +following may be cited to show that training may have but little effect +in this connection, at least not as much as usually supposed—for we +believe this experience to be, to a certain extent, normal, or at +least, not uncommon. A man remembers, when he was a boy of about +fifteen years, hearing his music-teacher (and father) who had just +returned from a performance of Siegfried say with a look of anxious +surprise that "somehow or other he felt ashamed of enjoying the music +as he did," for beneath it all he was conscious of an undercurrent of +"make-believe"—the bravery was make-believe, the love was +make-believe, the passion, the virtue, all make-believe, as was the +dragon—P. T. Barnum would have been brave enough to have gone out and +captured a live one! But, that same boy at twenty-five was listening to +Wagner with enthusiasm, his reality was real enough to inspire a +devotion. The "Preis-Lied," for instance, stirred him deeply. But when +he became middle-aged—and long before the Hohenzollern hog-marched +into Belgium—this music had become cloying, the melodies threadbare—a +sense of something commonplace—yes—of make-believe came. These +feelings were fought against for association's sake, and because of +gratitude for bygone pleasures—but the former beauty and nobility were +not there, and in their place stood irritating intervals of descending +fourths and fifths. Those once transcendent progressions, luxuriant +suggestions of Debussy chords of the 9th, 11th, etc., were becoming +slimy. An unearned exultation—a sentimentality deadening something +within hides around in the music. Wagner seems less and less to measure +up to the substance and reality of Cesar Franck, Brahms, d'Indy, or +even Elgar (with all his tiresomeness), the wholesomeness, manliness, +humility, and deep spiritual, possibly religious feeling of these men +seem missing and not made up for by his (Wagner's) manner and +eloquence, even if greater than theirs (which is very doubtful). +</P> + +<P> +From the above we would try to prove that as this stream of change +flows towards the eventual ocean of mankind's perfection, the art-works +in which we identify our higher ideals come by this process to be +identified with the lower ideals of those who embark after us when the +stream has grown in depth. If we stop with the above experience, our +theory of the effect of man's changing nature, as thus explaining +artistic progress, is perhaps sustained. Thus would we show that the +perpetual flow of the life stream is affected by and affects each +individual riverbed of the universal watersheds. Thus would we prove +that the Wagner period was normal, because we intuitively recognized +whatever identity we were looking for at a certain period in our life, +and the fact that it was so made the Franck period possible and then +normal at a later period in our life. Thus would we assume that this is +as it should be, and that it is not Wagner's content or substance or +his lack of virtue, that something in us has made us flow past him and +not he past us. But something blocks our theory! Something makes our +hypotheses seem purely speculative if not useless. It is men like Bach +and Beethoven. +</P> + +<P> +Is it not a matter nowadays of common impression or general opinion +(for the law of averages plays strongly in any theory relating to human +attributes) that the world's attitude towards the substance and quality +and spirit of these two men, or other men of like character, if there +be such, has not been affected by the flowing stream that has changed +us? But if by the measure of this public opinion, as well as it can be +measured, Bach and Beethoven are being flowed past—not as fast perhaps +as Wagner is, but if they are being passed at all from this deeper +viewpoint, then this "change" theory holds. +</P> + +<P> +Here we shall have to assume, for we haven't proved it, that artistic +intuitions can sense in music a weakening of moral strength and +vitality, and that it is sensed in relation to Wagner and not sensed in +relation to Bach and Beethoven. If, in this common opinion, there is a +particle of change toward the latter's art, our theory stands—mind +you, this admits a change in the manner, form, external expression, +etc., but not in substance. If there is no change here towards the +substance of these two men, our theory not only falls but its failure +superimposes or allows us to presume a fundamental duality in music, +and in all art for that matter. +</P> + +<P> +Does the progress of intrinsic beauty or truth (we assume there is such +a thing) have its exposures as well as its discoveries? Does the +non-acceptance of the foregoing theory mean that Wagner's substance and +reality are lower and his manner higher; that his beauty was not +intrinsic; that he was more interested in the repose of pride than in +the truth of humility? It appears that he chose the representative +instead of the spirit itself,—that he chose consciously or +unconsciously, it matters not,—the lower set of values in this +dualism. These are severe accusations to bring—especially when a man +is a little down as Wagner is today. But these convictions were present +some time before he was banished from the Metropolitan. Wagner seems to +take Hugo's place in Faguet's criticism of de Vigny that, "The staging +to him (Hugo) was the important thing—not the conception—that in de +Vigny, the artist was inferior to the poet"; finally that Hugo and so +Wagner have a certain pauvrete de fond. Thus would we ungenerously make +Wagner prove our sum! But it is a sum that won't prove! The theory at +its best does little more than suggest something, which if it is true +at all, is a platitude, viz.: that progressive growth in all life makes +it more and more possible for men to separate, in an art-work, moral +weakness from artistic strength. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +3 +</H3> + +<P> +Human attributes are definite enough when it comes to their +description, but the expression of them, or the paralleling of them in +an art-process, has to be, as said above, more or less arbitrary, but +we believe that their expression can be less vague if the basic +distinction of this art-dualism is kept in mind. It is morally certain +that the higher part is founded, as Sturt suggests, on something that +has to do with those kinds of unselfish human interests which we call +knowledge and morality—knowledge, not in the sense of erudition, but +as a kind of creation or creative truth. This allows us to assume that +the higher and more important value of this dualism is composed of what +may be called reality, quality, spirit, or substance against the lower +value of form, quantity, or manner. Of these terms "substance" seems to +us the most appropriate, cogent, and comprehensive for the higher and +"manner" for the under-value. Substance in a human-art-quality suggests +the body of a conviction which has its birth in the spiritual +consciousness, whose youth is nourished in the moral consciousness, and +whose maturity as a result of all this growth is then represented in a +mental image. This is appreciated by the intuition, and somehow +translated into expression by "manner"—a process always less important +than it seems, or as suggested by the foregoing (in fact we apologize +for this attempted definition). So it seems that "substance" is too +indefinite to analyze, in more specific terms. It is practically +indescribable. Intuitions (artistic or not?) will sense it—process, +unknown. Perhaps it is an unexplained consciousness of being nearer +God, or being nearer the devil—of approaching truth or approaching +unreality—a silent something felt in the truth-of-nature in Turner +against the truth-of-art in Botticelli, or in the fine thinking of +Ruskin against the fine soundings of Kipling, or in the wide expanse of +Titian against the narrow-expanse of Carpaccio, or in some such +distinction that Pope sees between what he calls Homer's "invention" +and Virgil's "judgment"—apparently an inspired imagination against an +artistic care, a sense of the difference, perhaps, between Dr. +Bushnell's Knowing God and knowing about God. A more vivid explanation +or illustration may be found in the difference between Emerson and Poe. +The former seems to be almost wholly "substance" and the latter +"manner." The measure in artistic satisfaction of Poe's manner is equal +to the measure of spiritual satisfaction in Emerson's "substance." The +total value of each man is high, but Emerson's is higher than Poe's +because "substance" is higher than "manner"—because "substance" leans +towards optimism, and "manner" pessimism. We do not know that all this +is so, but we feel, or rather know by intuition that it is so, in the +same way we know intuitively that right is higher than wrong, though we +can't always tell why a thing is right or wrong, or what is always the +difference or the margin between right and wrong. +</P> + +<P> +Beauty, in its common conception, has nothing to do with it +(substance), unless it be granted that its outward aspect, or the +expression between sensuous beauty and spiritual beauty can be always +and distinctly known, which it cannot, as the art of music is still in +its infancy. On reading this over, it seems only decent that some kind +of an apology be made for the beginning of the preceding sentence. It +cannot justly be said that anything that has to do with art has nothing +to do with beauty in any degree,—that is, whether beauty is there or +not, it has something to do with it. A casual idea of it, a kind of a +first necessary-physical impression, was what we had in mind. Probably +nobody knows what actual beauty is—except those serious writers of +humorous essays in art magazines, who accurately, but kindly, with club +in hand, demonstrate for all time and men that beauty is a quadratic +monomial; that it <I>is</I> absolute; that it is relative; that it <I>is not</I> +relative, that it <I>is not</I>... The word "beauty" is as easy to use as +the word "degenerate." Both come in handy when one does or does not +agree with you. For our part, something that Roussel-Despierres says +comes nearer to what we like to think beauty is ... "an infinite source +of good ... the love of the beautiful ... a constant anxiety for moral +beauty." Even here we go around in a circle—a thing apparently +inevitable, if one tries to reduce art to philosophy. But personally, +we prefer to go around in a circle than around in a parallelepipedon, +for it seems cleaner and perhaps freer from mathematics—or for the +same reason we prefer Whittier to Baudelaire—a poet to a genius, or a +healthy to a rotten apple—probably not so much because it is more +nutritious, but because we like its taste better; we like the beautiful +and don't like the ugly; therefore, what we like is beautiful, and what +we don't like is ugly—and hence we are glad the beautiful is not ugly, +for if it were we would like something we don't like. So having +unsettled what beauty is, let us go on. +</P> + +<P> +At any rate, we are going to be arbitrary enough to claim, with no +definite qualification, that substance can be expressed in music, and +that it is the only valuable thing in it, and moreover that in two +separate pieces of music in which the notes are almost identical, one +can be of "substance" with little "manner," and the other can be of +"manner" with little "substance." Substance has something to do with +character. Manner has nothing to do with it. The "substance" of a tune +comes from somewhere near the soul, and the "manner" comes from—God +knows where. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +4 +</H3> + +<P> +The lack of interest to preserve, or ability to perceive the +fundamental divisions of this duality accounts to a large extent, we +believe, for some or many various phenomena (pleasant or unpleasant +according to the personal attitude) of modern art, and all art. It is +evidenced in many ways—the sculptors' over-insistence on the "mold," +the outer rather than the inner subject or content of his +statue—over-enthusiasm for local color—over-interest in the +multiplicity of techniques, in the idiomatic, in the effect as shown, +by the appreciation of an audience rather than in the effect on the +ideals of the inner conscience of the artist or the composer. This lack +of perceiving is too often shown by an over-interest in the material +value of the effect. The pose of self-absorption, which some men, in +the advertising business (and incidentally in the recital and composing +business) put into their photographs or the portraits of themselves, +while all dolled up in their purple-dressing-gowns, in their twofold +wealth of golden hair, in their cissy-like postures over the piano +keys—this pose of "manner" sometimes sounds out so loud that the more +their music is played, the less it is heard. For does not Emerson tell +them this when he says "What you are talks so loud, that I cannot hear +what you say"? The unescapable impression that one sometimes gets by a +glance at these public-inflicted trade-marks, and without having heard +or seen any of their music, is that the one great underlying desire of +these appearing-artists, is to impress, perhaps startle and shock their +audiences and at any cost. This may have some such effect upon some of +the lady-part (male or female) of their listeners but possibly the +members of the men-part, who as boys liked hockey better than +birthday-parties, may feel like shocking a few of these picture-sitters +with something stronger than their own forzandos. +</P> + +<P> +The insistence upon manner in its relation to local color is wider than +a self-strain for effect. If local color is a natural part, that is, a +part of substance, the art-effort cannot help but show its color—and +it will be a true color, no matter how colored; if it is a part, even a +natural part of "manner," either the color part is bound eventually to +drive out the local part or the local drive out all color. Here a +process of cancellation or destruction is going on—a kind of +"compromise" which destroys by deadlock; a compromise purchasing a +selfish pleasure—a decadence in which art becomes first dull, then +dark, then dead, though throughout this process it is outwardly very +much alive,—especially after it is dead. The same tendency may even be +noticed if there is over-insistence upon the national in art. Substance +tends to create affection; manner prejudice. The latter tends to efface +the distinction between the love of both a country's virtue and vices, +and the love of only the virtue. A true love of country is likely to be +so big that it will embrace the virtue one sees in other countries and, +in the same breath, so to speak. A composer born in America, but who +has not been interested in the "cause of the Freedmen," may be so +interested in "negro melodies," that he writes a symphony over them. He +is conscious (perhaps only subconscious) that he wishes it to be +"American music." He tries to forget that the paternal negro came from +Africa. Is his music American or African? That is the great question +which keeps him awake! But the sadness of it is, that if he had been +born in Africa, his music might have been just as American, for there +is good authority that an African soul under an X-ray looks identically +like an American soul. There is a futility in selecting a certain type +to represent a "whole," unless the interest in the spirit of the type +coincides with that of the whole. In other words, if this composer +isn't as deeply interested in the "cause" as Wendell Phillips was, when +he fought his way through that anti-abolitionist crowd at Faneuil Hall, +his music is liable to be less American than he wishes. If a +middle-aged man, upon picking up the Scottish Chiefs, finds that his +boyhood enthusiasm for the prowess and noble deeds and character of Sir +Wm. Wallace and of Bruce is still present, let him put, or try to put +that glory into an overture, let him fill it chuck-full of Scotch +tunes, if he will. But after all is said and sung he will find that his +music is American to the core (assuming that he is an American and +wishes his music to be). It will be as national in character as the +heart of that Grand Army Grandfather, who read those Cragmore Tales of +a summer evening, when that boy had brought the cows home without +witching. Perhaps the memories of the old soldier, to which this man +still holds tenderly, may be turned into a "strain" or a "sonata," and +though the music does not contain, or even suggest any of the old +war-songs, it will be as sincerely American as the subject, provided +his (the composer's) interest, spirit, and character sympathize with, +or intuitively coincide with that of the subject. +</P> + +<P> +Again, if a man finds that the cadences of an Apache war-dance come +nearest to his soul, provided he has taken pains to know enough other +cadences—for eclecticism is part of his duty—sorting potatoes means a +better crop next year—let him assimilate whatever he finds highest of +the Indian ideal, so that he can use it with the cadences, fervently, +transcendentally, inevitably, furiously, in his symphonies, in his +operas, in his whistlings on the way to work, so that he can paint his +house with them—make them a part of his prayer-book—this is all +possible and necessary, if he is confident that they have a part in his +spiritual consciousness. With this assurance his music will have +everything it should of sincerity, nobility, strength, and beauty, no +matter how it sounds; and if, with this, he is true to none but the +highest of American ideals (that is, the ideals only that coincide with +his spiritual consciousness) his music will be true to itself and +incidentally American, and it will be so even after it is proved that +all our Indians came from Asia. +</P> + +<P> +The man "born down to Babbitt's Corners," may find a deep appeal in the +simple but acute "Gospel Hymns of the New England camp meetin'," of a +generation or so ago. He finds in them—some of them—a vigor, a depth +of feeling, a natural-soil rhythm, a sincerity, emphatic but +inartistic, which, in spite of a vociferous sentimentality, carries him +nearer the "Christ of the people" than does the Te Deum of the greatest +cathedral. These tunes have, for him, a truer ring than many of those +groove-made, even-measured, monotonous, non-rhythmed, indoor-smelling, +priest-taught, academic, English or neo-English hymns (and +anthems)—well-written, well-harmonized things, well-voice-led, +well-counterpointed, well-corrected, and well O.K.'d, by well corrected +Mus. Bac. R.F.O.G.'s-personified sounds, correct and inevitable to +sight and hearing—in a word, those proper forms of stained-glass +beauty, which our over-drilled mechanisms-boy-choirs are limited to. +But, if the Yankee can reflect the fervency with which "his gospels" +were sung—the fervency of "Aunt Sarah," who scrubbed her life away, +for her brother's ten orphans, the fervency with which this woman, +after a fourteen-hour work day on the farm, would hitch up and drive +five miles, through the mud and rain to "prayer meetin'"—her one +articulate outlet for the fullness of her unselfish soul—if he can +reflect the fervency of such a spirit, he may find there a local color +that will do all the world good. If his music can but catch that +"spirit" by being a part with itself, it will come somewhere near his +ideal—and it will be American, too, perhaps nearer so than that of the +devotee of Indian or negro melody. In other words, if local color, +national color, any color, is a true pigment of the universal color, it +is a divine quality, it is a part of substance in art—not of manner. +The preceding illustrations are but attempts to show that whatever +excellence an artist sees in life, a community, in a people, or in any +valuable object or experience, if sincerely and intuitively reflected +in his work, and so he himself, is, in a way, a reflected part of that +excellence. Whether he be accepted or rejected, whether his music is +always played, or never played—all this has nothing to do with it—it +is true or false by his own measure. If we may be permitted to leave +out two words, and add a few more, a sentence of Hegel appears to sum +up this idea, "The universal need for expression in art lies in man's +rational impulse to exalt the inner ... world (i.e., the highest ideals +he sees in the inner life of others) together with what he finds in his +own life—into a spiritual consciousness for himself." The artist does +feel or does not feel that a sympathy has been approved by an artistic +intuition and so reflected in his work. Whether he feels this sympathy +is true or not in the final analysis, is a thing probably that no one +but he (the artist) knows but the truer he feels it, the more substance +it has, or as Sturt puts it, "his work is art, so long as he feels in +doing it as true artists feel, and so long as his object is akin to the +objects that true artists admire." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Griggs in an Essay on Debussy, [John C. Griggs, "Debussy" Yale +Review, 1914] asks if this composer's content is worthy the manner. +Perhaps so, perhaps not—Debussy himself, doubtless, could not give a +positive answer. He would better know how true his feeling and sympathy +was, and anyone else's personal opinion can be of but little help here. +</P> + +<P> +We might offer the suggestion that Debussy's content would have been +worthier his manner, if he had hoed corn or sold newspapers for a +living, for in this way he might have gained a deeper vitality and +truer theme to sing at night and of a Sunday. Or we might say that what +substance there is, is "too coherent"—it is too clearly expressed in +the first thirty seconds. There you have the "whole fragment," a +translucent syllogism, but then the reality, the spirit, the substance +stops and the "form," the "perfume," the "manner," shimmer right along, +as the soapsuds glisten after one has finished washing. Or we might say +that his substance would have been worthier, if his adoration or +contemplation of Nature, which is often a part of it, and which rises +to great heights, as is felt for example, in La Mer, had been more the +quality of Thoreau's. Debussy's attitude toward Nature seems to have a +kind of sensual sensuousness underlying it, while Thoreau's is a kind +of spiritual sensuousness. It is rare to find a farmer or peasant whose +enthusiasm for the beauty in Nature finds outward expression to compare +with that of the city-man who comes out for a Sunday in the country, +but Thoreau is that rare country-man and Debussy the city-man with his +weekend flights into country-aesthetics. We would be inclined to say +that Thoreau leaned towards substance and Debussy towards manner. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +5 +</H3> + +<P> +There comes from Concord, an offer to every mind—the choice between +repose and truth, and God makes the offer. "Take which you +please ... between these, as a pendulum, man oscillates. He in whom the +love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first +philosophy, the first political party he meets," most likely his +father's. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation. Here is another +aspect of art-duality, but it is more drastic than ours, as it would +eliminate one part or the other. A man may aim as high as Beethoven or +as high as Richard Strauss. In the former case the shot may go far +below the mark; in truth, it has not been reached since that "thunder +storm of 1828" and there is little chance that it will be reached by +anyone living today, but that matters not, the shot will never rebound +and destroy the marksman. But, in the latter case, the shot may often +hit the mark, but as often rebound and harden, if not destroy, the +shooter's heart—even his soul. What matters it, men say, he will then +find rest, commodity, and reputation—what matters it—if he find there +but few perfect truths—what matters (men say)—he will find there +perfect media, those perfect instruments of getting in the way of +perfect truths. +</P> + +<P> +This choice tells why Beethoven is always modern and Strauss always +mediaeval—try as he may to cover it up in new bottles. He has chosen +to capitalize a "talent"—he has chosen the complexity of media, the +shining hardness of externals, repose, against the inner, invisible +activity of truth. He has chosen the first creed, the easy creed, the +philosophy of his fathers, among whom he found a half-idiot-genius +(Nietzsche). His choice naturally leads him to glorify and to magnify +all kind of dull things—stretched-out geigermusik—which in turn +naturally leads him to "windmills" and "human heads on silver +platters." Magnifying the dull into the colossal, produces a kind of +"comfort"—the comfort of a woman who takes more pleasure in the fit of +fashionable clothes than in a healthy body—the kind of comfort that +has brought so many "adventures of baby-carriages at county +fairs"—"the sensation of Teddy bears, smoking their first +cigarette"—on the program of symphony orchestras of one hundred +performers,—the lure of the media—the means—not the end—but the +finish,—thus the failure to perceive that thoughts and memories of +childhood are too tender, and some of them too sacred to be worn +lightly on the sleeve. Life is too short for these one hundred men, to +say nothing of the composer and the "dress-circle," to spend an +afternoon in this way. They are but like the rest of us, and have only +the expectancy of the mortality-table to survive—perhaps only this +"piece." We cannot but feel that a too great desire for "repose" +accounts for such phenomena. A MS. score is brought to a +concertmaster—he may be a violinist—he is kindly disposed, he looks +it over, and casually fastens on a passage "that's bad for the fiddles, +it doesn't hang just right, write it like this, they will play it +better." But that one phrase is the germ of the whole thing. "Never +mind, it will fit the hand better this way—it will sound better." My +God! what has sound got to do with music! The waiter brings the only +fresh egg he has, but the man at breakfast sends it back because it +doesn't fit his eggcup. Why can't music go out in the same way it comes +in to a man, without having to crawl over a fence of sounds, thoraxes, +catguts, wire, wood, and brass? Consecutive-fifths are as harmless as +blue laws compared with the relentless tyranny of the "media." The +instrument!—there is the perennial difficulty—there is music's +limitations. Why must the scarecrow of the keyboard—the tyrant in +terms of the mechanism (be it Caruso or a Jew's-harp) stare into every +measure? Is it the composer's fault that man has only ten fingers? Why +can't a musical thought be presented as it is born—perchance "a +bastard of the slums," or a "daughter of a bishop"—and if it happens +to go better later on a bass-drum (than upon a harp) get a good +bass-drummer. [Footnote: The first movement (Emerson) of the music, +which is the cause of all these words, was first thought of (we +believe) in terms of a large orchestra, the second (Hawthorne) in terms +of a piano or a dozen pianos, the third (Alcotts)—of an organ (or +piano with voice or violin), and the last (Thoreau), in terms of +strings, colored possibly with a flute or horn.] That music must be +heard, is not essential—what it sounds like may not be what it is. +Perhaps the day is coming when music—believers will learn "that +silence is a solvent ... that gives us leave to be universal" rather than +personal. +</P> + +<P> +Some fiddler was once honest or brave enough, or perhaps ignorant +enough, to say that Beethoven didn't know how to write for the +violin,—that, maybe, is one of the many reasons Beethoven is not a +Vieuxtemps. Another man says Beethoven's piano sonatas are not +pianistic—with a little effort, perhaps, Beethoven could have become a +Thalberg. His symphonies are perfect-truths and perfect for the +orchestra of 1820—but Mahler could have made them—possibly did make +them—we will say, "more perfect," as far as their media clothes are +concerned, and Beethoven is today big enough to rather like it. He is +probably in the same amiable state of mind that the Jesuit priest said, +"God was in," when He looked down on the camp ground and saw the priest +sleeping with a Congregational Chaplain. Or in the same state of mind +you'll be in when you look down and see the sexton keeping your +tombstone up to date. The truth of Joachim offsets the repose of +Paganini and Kubelik. The repose and reputation of a successful +pianist—(whatever that means) who plays Chopin so cleverly that he +covers up a sensuality, and in such a way that the purest-minded see +nothing but sensuous beauty in it, which, by the way, doesn't disturb +him as much as the size of his income-tax—the repose and fame of this +man is offset by the truth and obscurity of the village organist who +plays Lowell Mason and Bach with such affection that he would give his +life rather than lose them. The truth and courage of this organist, who +risks his job, to fight the prejudice of the congregation, offset the +repose and large salary of a more celebrated choirmaster, who holds his +job by lowering his ideals, who is willing to let the organ smirk under +an insipid, easy-sounding barcarolle for the offertory, who is willing +to please the sentimental ears of the music committee (and its +wives)—who is more willing to observe these forms of politeness than +to stand up for a stronger and deeper music of simple devotion, and for +a service of a spiritual unity, the kind of thing that Mr. Bossitt, who +owns the biggest country place, the biggest bank, and the biggest +"House of God" in town (for is it not the divine handiwork of his +own-pocketbook)—the kind of music that this man, his wife, and his +party (of property right in pews) can't stand because it isn't "pretty." +</P> + +<P> +The doctrine of this "choice" may be extended to the distinction +between literal-enthusiasm and natural-enthusiasm (right or wrong +notes, good or bad tones against good or bad interpretation, good or +bad sentiment) or between observation and introspection, or to the +distinction between remembering and dreaming. Strauss remembers, +Beethoven dreams. We see this distinction also in Goethe's confusion of +the moral with the intellectual. There is no such confusion in +Beethoven—to him they are one. It is told, and the story is so well +known that we hesitate to repeat it here, that both these men were +standing in the street one day when the Emperor drove by—Goethe, like +the rest of the crowd, bowed and uncovered—but Beethoven stood bolt +upright, and refused even to salute, saying: "Let him bow to us, for +ours is a nobler empire." Goethe's mind knew this was true, but his +moral courage was not instinctive. +</P> + +<P> +This remembering faculty of "repose," throws the mind in unguarded +moments quite naturally towards "manner" and thus to the many things +the media can do. It brings on an itching to over-use them—to be +original (if anyone will tell what that is) with nothing but numbers to +be original with. We are told that a conductor (of the orchestra) has +written a symphony requiring an orchestra of one hundred and fifty men. +If his work perhaps had one hundred and fifty valuable ideas, the one +hundred and fifty men might be justifiable—but as it probably contains +not more than a dozen, the composer may be unconsciously ashamed of +them, and glad to cover them up under a hundred and fifty men. A man +may become famous because he is able to eat nineteen dinners a day, but +posterity will decorate his stomach, not his brain. +</P> + +<P> +Manner breeds a cussed-cleverness—only to be clever—a satellite of +super-industrialism, and perhaps to be witty in the bargain, not the +wit in mother-wit, but a kind of indoor, artificial, mental arrangement +of things quickly put together and which have been learned and +studied—it is of the material and stays there, while humor is of the +emotional and of the approaching spiritual. Even Dukas, and perhaps +other Gauls, in their critical heart of hearts, may admit that "wit" in +music, is as impossible as "wit" at a funeral. The wit is evidence of +its lack. Mark Twain could be humorous at the death of his dearest +friend, but in such a way as to put a blessing into the heart of the +bereaved. Humor in music has the same possibilities. But its quantity +has a serious effect on its quality, "inverse ratio" is a good formula +to adopt here. Comedy has its part, but wit never. Strauss is at his +best in these lower rooms, but his comedy reminds us more of the +physical fun of Lever rather than "comedy in the Meredithian sense" as +Mason suggests. Meredith is a little too deep or too subtle for +Strauss—unless it be granted that cynicism is more a part of comedy +than a part of refined-insult. Let us also remember that Mr. Disston, +not Mr. Strauss, put the funny notes in the bassoon. A symphony written +only to amuse and entertain is likely to amuse only the writer—and him +not long after the check is cashed. +</P> + +<P> +"Genius is always ascetic and piety and love," thus Emerson reinforces +"God's offer of this choice" by a transcendental definition. The moment +a famous violinist refused "to appear" until he had received his +check,—at that moment, precisely (assuming for argument's sake, that +this was the first time that materialism had the ascendancy in this +man's soul) at that moment he became but a man of +"talent"—incidentally, a small man and a small violinist, regardless +of how perfectly he played, regardless to what heights of emotion he +stirred his audience, regardless of the sublimity of his artistic and +financial success. +</P> + +<P> +d'Annunzio, it is told, becoming somewhat discouraged at the result of +some of his Fiume adventures said: "We are the only Idealists left." +This remark may have been made in a moment of careless impulse, but if +it is taken at its face value, the moment it was made that moment his +idealism started downhill. A grasp at monopoly indicates that a sudden +shift has taken place from the heights where genius may be found, to +the lower plains of talent. The mind of a true idealist is great enough +to know that a monopoly of idealism or of wheat is a thing nature does +not support. +</P> + +<P> +A newspaper music column prints an incident (so how can we assume that +it is not true?) of an American violinist who called on Max Reger, to +tell him how much he (the American) appreciated his music. Reger gives +him a hopeless look and cries: "What! a musician and not speak German!" +At that moment, by the clock, regardless of how great a genius he may +have been before that sentence was uttered—at that moment he became +but a man of "talent." "For the man of talent affects to call his +transgressions of the laws of sense trivial and to count them nothing +considered with his devotion to his art." His art never taught him +prejudice or to wear only one eye. "His art is less for every deduction +from his holiness and less for every defect of common sense." And this +common sense has a great deal to do with this distinguishing difference +of Emerson's between genius and talent, repose and truth, and between +all evidences of substance and manner in art. Manner breeds +partialists. "Is America a musical nation?"—if the man who is ever +asking this question would sit down and think something over he might +find less interest in asking it—he might possibly remember that all +nations are more musical than any nation, especially the nation that +pays the most—and pays the most eagerly, for anything, after it has +been professionally-rubber stamped. Music may be yet unborn. Perhaps no +music has ever been written or heard. Perhaps the birth of art will +take place at the moment, in which the last man, who is willing to make +a living out of art is gone and gone forever. In the history of this +youthful world the best product that human-beings can boast of is +probably, Beethoven—but, maybe, even his art is as nothing in +comparison with the future product of some coal-miner's soul in the +forty-first century. And the same man who is ever asking about the most +musical nation, is ever discovering the most musical man of the most +musical nation. When particularly hysterical he shouts, "I have found +him! Smith Grabholz—the one great American poet,—at last, here is the +Moses the country has been waiting for"—(of course we all know that +the country has not been waiting for anybody—and we have many Moses +always with us). But the discoverer keeps right on shouting "Here is +the one true American poetry, I pronounce it the work of a genius. I +predict for him the most brilliant career—for his is an art +that...—for his is a soul that ... for his is a..." and Grabholz is +ruined;—but ruined, not alone, by this perennial discoverer of pearls +in any oyster-shell that treats him the best, but ruined by his own +(Grabholz's) talent,—for genius will never let itself be discovered by +"a man." Then the world may ask "Can the one true national "this" or +"that" be killed by its own discoverer?" "No," the country replies, +"but each discovery is proof of another impossibility." It is a sad +fact that the one true man and the one true art will never behave as +they should except in the mind of the partialist whom God has +forgotten. But this matters little to him (the man)—his business is +good—for it is easy to sell the future in terms of the past—and there +are always some who will buy anything. The individual usually "gains" +if he is willing to but lean on "manner." The evidence of this is quite +widespread, for if the discoverer happens to be in any other line of +business his sudden discoveries would be just as important—to him. In +fact, the theory of substance and manner in art and its related +dualisms, "repose and truth, genius and talent," &c., may find +illustration in many, perhaps most, of the human activities. And when +examined it (the illustration) is quite likely to show how "manner" is +always discovering partisans. For example, enthusiastic discoveries of +the "paragon" are common in politics—an art to some. These +revelations, in this profession are made easy by the pre-election +discovering-leaders of the people. And the genius who is discovered, +forthwith starts his speeches of "talent"—though they are hardly +that—they are hardly more than a string of subplatitudes, +square-looking, well-rigged things that almost everybody has seen, +known, and heard since Rome or man fell. Nevertheless these signs of +perfect manner, these series of noble sentiments that the "noble" never +get off, are forcibly, clearly, and persuasively handed +out—eloquently, even beautifully expressed, and with such personal +charm, magnetism, and strength, that their profound messages speed +right through the minds and hearts, without as much as spattering the +walls, and land right square in the middle of the listener's vanity. +For all this is a part of manner and its quality is of splendor—for +manner is at times a good bluff but substance a poor one and knows it. +The discovered one's usual and first great outburst is probably the +greatest truth that he ever utters. Fearlessly standing, he looks +straight into the eyes of the populace and with a strong ringing voice +(for strong voices and strong statesmanship are inseparable) and with +words far more eloquent than the following, he sings "This honor is +greater than I deserve but duty calls me—(what, not stated)... If +elected, I shall be your servant" ... (for, it is told, that he +believes in modesty,—that he has even boasted that he is the most +modest man in the country)... Thus he has the right to shout, "First, +last and forever I am for the people. I am against all bosses. I have +no sympathy for politicians. I am for strict economy, liberal +improvements and justice! I am also for the—ten commandments" (his +intuitive political sagacity keeps him from mentioning any particular +one).—But a sublime height is always reached in his perorations. Here +we learn that he believes in honesty—(repeat "honesty");—we are even +allowed to infer that he is one of the very few who know that there is +such a thing; and we also learn that since he was a little boy +(barefoot) his motto has been "Do Right,"—he swerves not from the +right!—he believes in nothing but the right; (to him—everything is +right!—if it gets him elected); but cheers invariably stop this great +final truth (in brackets) from rising to animate expression. Now all of +these translucent axioms are true (are not axioms always true?),—as +far as manner is concerned. In other words, the manner functions +perfectly. But where is the divine substance? This is not there—why +should it be—if it were he might not be there. "Substance" is not +featured in this discovery. For the truth of substance is sometimes +silence, sometimes ellipses,—and the latter if supplied might turn +some of the declarations above into perfect truths,—for instance +"first and last and forever I am for the people ('s votes). I'm against +all bosses (against me). I have no sympathy for (rival) politicians," +etc., etc. But these tedious attempts at comedy should stop,—they're +too serious,—besides the illustration may be a little hard on a few, +the minority (the non-people) though not on the many, the majority (the +people)! But even an assumed parody may help to show what a power +manner is for reaction unless it is counterbalanced and then saturated +by the other part of the duality. Thus it appears that all there is to +this great discovery is that one good politician has discovered another +good politician. For manner has brought forth its usual talent;—for +manner cannot discover the genius who has discarded platitudes—the +genius who has devised a new and surpassing order for mankind, simple +and intricate enough, abstract and definite enough, locally impractical +and universally practical enough, to wipe out the need for further +discoveries of "talent" and incidentally the discoverer's own fortune +and political "manner." Furthermore, he (this genius) never will be +discovered until the majority-spirit, the common-heart, the +human-oversoul, the source of all great values, converts all talent +into genius, all manner into substance—until the direct expression of +the mind and soul of the majority, the divine right of all +consciousness, social, moral, and spiritual, discloses the one true art +and thus finally discovers the one true leader—even itself:—then no +leaders, no politicians, no manner, will hold sway—and no more +speeches will be heard. +</P> + +<P> +The intensity today, with which techniques and media are organized and +used, tends to throw the mind away from a "common sense" and towards +"manner" and thus to resultant weak and mental states—for example, the +Byronic fallacy—that one who is full of turbid feeling about himself +is qualified to be some sort of an artist. In this relation "manner" +also leads some to think that emotional sympathy for self is as true a +part of art as sympathy for others; and a prejudice in favor of the +good and bad of one personality against the virtue of many +personalities. It may be that when a poet or a whistler becomes +conscious that he is in the easy path of any particular idiom,—that he +is helplessly prejudiced in favor of any particular means of +expression,—that his manner can be catalogued as modern or +classic,—that he favors a contrapuntal groove, a sound-coloring one, a +sensuous one, a successful one, or a melodious one (whatever that +means),—that his interests lie in the French school or the German +school, or the school of Saturn,—that he is involved in this +particular "that" or that particular "this," or in any particular brand +of emotional complexes,—in a word, when he becomes conscious that his +style is "his personal own,"—that it has monopolized a geographical +part of the world's sensibilities, then it may be that the value of his +substance is not growing,—that it even may have started on its way +backwards,—it may be that he is trading an inspiration for a bad habit +and finally that he is reaching fame, permanence, or some other +under-value, and that he is getting farther and farther from a perfect +truth. But, on the contrary side of the picture, it is not unreasonable +to imagine that if he (this poet, composer, and laborer) is open to all +the overvalues within his reach,—if he stands unprotected from all the +showers of the absolute which may beat upon him,—if he is willing to +use or learn to use, or at least if he is not afraid of trying to use, +whatever he can, of any and all lessons of the infinite that humanity +has received and thrown to man,—that nature has exposed and +sacrificed, that life and death have translated—if he accepts all and +sympathizes with all, is influenced by all, whether consciously or +sub-consciously, drastically or humbly, audibly or inaudibly, whether +it be all the virtue of Satan or the only evil of Heaven—and all, +even, at one time, even in one chord,—then it may be that the value of +his substance, and its value to himself, to his art, to all art, even +to the Common Soul is growing and approaching nearer and nearer to +perfect truths—whatever they are and wherever they may be. +</P> + +<P> +Again, a certain kind of manner-over-influence may be caused by a +group-disease germ. The over-influence by, the over-admiration of, and +the over-association with a particular artistic personality or a +particular type or group of personalities tends to produce equally +favorable and unfavorable symptoms, but the unfavorable ones seem to be +more contagious. Perhaps the impulse remark of some famous man (whose +name we forget) that he "loved music but hated musicians," might be +followed (with some good results) at least part of the time. To see the +sun rise, a man has but to get up early, and he can always have Bach in +his pocket. We hear that Mr. Smith or Mr. Morgan, etc., et al. design +to establish a "course at Rome," to raise the standard of American +music, (or the standard of American composers—which is it?) but +possibly the more our composer accepts from his patrons "et al." the +less he will accept from himself. It may be possible that a day in a +"Kansas wheat field" will do more for him than three years in Rome. It +may be, that many men—perhaps some of genius—(if you won't admit that +all are geniuses) have been started on the downward path of subsidy by +trying to write a thousand dollar prize poem or a ten thousand dollar +prize opera. How many masterpieces have been prevented from blossoming +in this way? A cocktail will make a man eat more, but will not give him +a healthy, normal appetite (if he had not that already). If a bishop +should offer a "prize living" to the curate who will love God the +hardest for fifteen days, whoever gets the prize would love God the +least. Such stimulants, it strikes us, tend to industrialize art, +rather than develop a spiritual sturdiness—a sturdiness which Mr. +Sedgwick says [footnote: H. D. Sedgwick. The New American Type. +Riverside Press.] "shows itself in a close union between spiritual life +and the ordinary business of life," against spiritual feebleness which +"shows itself in the separation of the two." If one's spiritual +sturdiness is congenital and somewhat perfect he is not only conscious +that this separation has no part in his own soul, but he does not feel +its existence in others. He does not believe there is such a thing. But +perfection in this respect is rare. And for the most of us, we believe, +this sturdiness would be encouraged by anything that will keep or help +us keep a normal balance between the spiritual life and the ordinary +life. If for every thousand dollar prize a potato field be substituted, +so that these candidates of "Clio" can dig a little in real life, +perhaps dig up a natural inspiration, arts—air might be a little +clearer—a little freer from certain traditional delusions, for +instance, that free thought and free love always go to the same +cafe—that atmosphere and diligence are synonymous. To quote Thoreau +incorrectly: "When half-Gods talk, the Gods walk!" Everyone should have +the opportunity of not being over-influenced. +</P> + +<P> +Again, this over-influence by and over-insistence upon "manner" may +finally lead some to believe "that manner for manner's sake is a basis +of music." Someone is quoted as saying that "ragtime is the true +American music." Anyone will admit that it is one of the many true, +natural, and, nowadays, conventional means of expression. It is an +idiom, perhaps a "set or series of colloquialisms," similar to those +that have added through centuries and through natural means, some +beauty to all languages. Every language is but the evolution of slang, +and possibly the broad "A" in Harvard may have come down from the +"butcher of Southwark." To examine ragtime rhythms and the syncopations +of Schumann or of Brahms seems to the writer to show how much alike +they are not. Ragtime, as we hear it, is, of course, more (but not much +more) than a natural dogma of shifted accents, or a mixture of shifted +and minus accents. It is something like wearing a derby hat on the back +of the head, a shuffling lilt of a happy soul just let out of a Baptist +Church in old Alabama. Ragtime has its possibilities. But it does not +"represent the American nation" any more than some fine old senators +represent it. Perhaps we know it now as an ore before it has been +refined into a product. It may be one of nature's ways of giving art +raw material. Time will throw its vices away and weld its virtues into +the fabric of our music. It has its uses as the cruet on the +boarding-house table has, but to make a meal of tomato ketchup and +horse-radish, to plant a whole farm with sunflowers, even to put a +sunflower into every bouquet, would be calling nature something worse +than a politician. Mr. Daniel Gregory Mason, whose wholesome influence, +by the way, is doing as much perhaps for music in America as American +music is, amusingly says: "If indeed the land of Lincoln and Emerson +has degenerated until nothing remains of it but a 'jerk and rattle,' +then we, at least, are free to repudiate this false patriotism of 'my +Country right or wrong,' to insist that better than bad music is no +music, and to let our beloved art subside finally under the clangor of +the subway gongs and automobile horns, dead, but not dishonored." And +so may we ask: Is it better to sing inadequately of the "leaf on Walden +floating," and die "dead but not dishonored," or to sing adequately of +the "cherry on the cocktail," and live forever? +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +6 +</H3> + +<P> +If anyone has been strong enough to escape these rocks—this "Scylla +and Charybdis,"—has survived these wrong choices, these under-values +with their prizes, Bohemias and heroes, is not such a one in a better +position, is he not abler and freer to "declare himself and so to love +his cause so singly that he will cleave to it, and forsake all else? +What is this cause for the American composer but the utmost musical +beauty that he, as an individual man, with his own qualities and +defects, is capable of understanding and striving towards?—forsaking +all else except those types of musical beauty that come home to him," +[footnote: Contemporary Composers, D. G. Mason, Macmillan Co., N. Y.] +and that his spiritual conscience intuitively approves. +</P> + +<P> +"It matters not one jot, provided this course of personal loyalty to a +cause be steadfastly pursued, what the special characteristics of the +style of the music may be to which one gives one's devotion." +[footnote: Contemporary Composers, D. G. Mason, Macmillan Co., N. Y.] +This, if over-translated, may be made to mean, what we have been trying +to say—that if your interest, enthusiasm, and devotion on the side of +substance and truth, are of the stuff to make you so sincere that you +sweat—to hell with manner and repose! Mr. Mason is responsible for too +many young minds, in their planting season to talk like this, to be as +rough, or to go as far, but he would probably admit that, broadly +speaking—some such way, i.e., constantly recognizing this ideal +duality in art, though not the most profitable road for art to travel, +is almost its only way out to eventual freedom and salvation. Sidney +Lanier, in a letter to Bayard Taylor writes: "I have so many fair +dreams and hopes about music in these days (1875). It is gospel whereof +the people are in great need. As Christ gathered up the Ten +Commandments and redistilled them into the clear liquid of the wondrous +eleventh—love God utterly and thy neighbor as thyself—so I think the +time will come when music rightly developed to its now little forseen +grandeur will be found to be a late revelation of all gospels in one." +Could the art of music, or the art of anything have a more profound +reason for being than this? A conception unlimited by the narrow names +of Christian, Pagan, Jew, or Angel! A vision higher and deeper than art +itself! +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +7 +</H3> + +<P> +The humblest composer will not find true humility in aiming low—he +must never be timid or afraid of trying to express that which he feels +is far above his power to express, any more than he should be afraid of +breaking away, when necessary, from easy first sounds, or afraid of +admitting that those half truths that come to him at rare intervals, +are half true, for instance, that all art galleries contain +masterpieces, which are nothing more than a history of art's beautiful +mistakes. He should never fear of being called a high-brow—but not the +kind in Prof. Brander Matthews' definition. John L. Sullivan was a +"high-brow" in his art. A high-brow can always whip a low-brow. +</P> + +<P> +If he "truly seeks," he "will surely find" many things to sustain him. +He can go to a part of Alcott's philosophy—"that all occupations of +man's body and soul in their diversity come from but one mind and +soul!" If he feels that to subscribe to all of the foregoing and then +submit, though not as evidence, the work of his own hands is +presumptuous, let him remember that a man is not always responsible for +the wart on his face, or a girl for the bloom on her cheek, and as they +walk out of a Sunday for an airing, people will see them—but they must +have the air. He can remember with Plotinus, "that in every human soul +there is the ray of the celestial beauty," and therefore every human +outburst may contain a partial ray. And he can believe that it is +better to go to the plate and strike out than to hold the bench down, +for by facing the pitcher, he may then know the umpire better, and +possibly see a new parabola. His presumption, if it be that, may be but +a kind of courage juvenal sings about, and no harm can then be done +either side. "Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +8 +</H3> + +<P> +To divide by an arbitrary line something that cannot be divided is a +process that is disturbing to some. Perhaps our deductions are not as +inevitable as they are logical, which suggests that they are not +"logic." An arbitrary assumption is never fair to all any of the time, +or to anyone all the time. Many will resent the abrupt separation that +a theory of duality in music suggests and say that these general +subdivisions are too closely inter-related to be labeled +decisively—"this or that." There is justice in this criticism, but our +answer is that it is better to be short on the long than long on the +short. In such an abstruse art as music it is easy for one to point to +this as substance and to that as manner. Some will hold and it is +undeniable—in fact quite obvious—that manner has a great deal to do +with the beauty of substance, and that to make a too arbitrary +division, or distinction between them, is to interfere, to some extent, +with an art's beauty and unity. There is a great deal of truth in this +too. But on the other hand, beauty in music is too often confused with +something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair. Many sounds +that we are used to, do not bother us, and for that reason, we are +inclined to call them beautiful. Frequently,—possibly almost +invariably,—analytical and impersonal tests will show, we believe, +that when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted as beautiful on its +first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the +mind to sleep. A narcotic is not always unnecessary, but it is seldom a +basis of progress,—that is, wholesome evolution in any creative +experience. This kind of progress has a great deal to do with +beauty—at least in its deeper emotional interests, if not in its moral +values. (The above is only a personal impression, but it is based on +carefully remembered instances, during a period of about fifteen or +twenty years.) Possibly the fondness for individual utterance may throw +out a skin-deep arrangement, which is readily accepted as +beautiful—formulae that weaken rather than toughen up the +musical-muscles. If the composer's sincere conception of his art and of +its functions and ideals, coincide to such an extent with these +groove-colored permutations of tried out progressions in expediency, +that he can arrange them over and over again to his transcendent +delight—has he or has he not been drugged with an overdose of +habit-forming sounds? And as a result do not the muscles of his +clientele become flabbier and flabbier until they give way altogether +and find refuge only in a seasoned opera box—where they can see +without thinking? And unity is too generally conceived of, or too +easily accepted as analogous to form, and form (as analogous) to +custom, and custom to habit, and habit may be one of the parents of +custom and form, and there are all kinds of parents. Perhaps all unity +in art, at its inception, is half-natural and half-artificial but time +insists, or at least makes us, or inclines to make us feel that it is +all natural. It is easy for us to accept it as such. The "unity of +dress" for a man at a ball requires a collar, yet he could dance better +without it. Coherence, to a certain extent, must bear some relation to +the listener's subconscious perspective. For example, a critic has to +listen to a thousand concerts a year, in which there is much +repetition, not only of the same pieces, but the same formal relations +of tones, cadences, progressions, etc. There is present a certain +routine series of image-necessity-stimulants, which he doesn't seem to +need until they disappear. Instead of listening to music, he listens +around it. And from this subconscious viewpoint, he inclines perhaps +more to the thinking about than thinking in music. If he could go into +some other line of business for a year or so perhaps his perspective +would be more naturally normal. The unity of a sonata movement has long +been associated with its form, and to a greater extent than is +necessary. A first theme, a development, a second in a related key and +its development, the free fantasia, the recapitulation, and so on, and +over again. Mr. Richter or Mr. Parker may tell us that all this is +natural, for it is based on the classic-song form, but in spite of your +teachers a vague feeling sometimes creeps over you that the form-nature +of the song has been stretched out into deformity. Some claim for +Tchaikowsky that his clarity and coherence of design is unparalleled +(or some such word) in works for the orchestra. That depends, it seems +to us, on how far repetition is an essential part of clarity and +coherence. We know that butter comes from cream—but how long must we +watch the "churning arm!" If nature is not enthusiastic about +explanation, why should Tschaikowsky be? Beethoven had to churn, to +some extent, to make his message carry. He had to pull the ear, hard +and in the same place and several times, for the 1790 ear was tougher +than the 1890 one. But the "great Russian weeper" might have spared us. +To Emerson, "unity and the over-soul, or the common-heart, are +synonymous." Unity is at least nearer to these than to solid geometry, +though geometry may be all unity. +</P> + +<P> +But to whatever unpleasantness the holding to this theory of duality +brings us, we feel that there is a natural law underneath it all, and +like all laws of nature, a liberal interpretation is the one nearest +the truth. What part of these supplements are opposites? What part of +substance is manner? What part of this duality is polarity? These +questions though not immaterial may be disregarded, if there be a +sincere appreciation (intuition is always sincere) of the "divine" +spirit of the thing. Enthusiasm for, and recognition of these higher +over these lower values will transform a destructive iconoclasm into +creation, and a mere devotion into consecration—a consecration which, +like Amphion's music, will raise the Walls of Thebes. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +9 +</H3> + +<P> +Assuming, and then granting, that art-activity can be transformed or +led towards an eventual consecration, by recognizing and using in their +true relation, as much as one can, these higher and lower dual +values—and that the doing so is a part, if not the whole of our old +problem of paralleling or approving in art the highest attributes, +moral and spiritual, one sees in life—if you will grant all this, let +us offer a practical suggestion—a thing that one who has imposed the +foregoing should try to do just out of common decency, though it be but +an attempt, perhaps, to make his speculations less speculative, and to +beat off metaphysics. +</P> + +<P> +All, men-bards with a divine spark, and bards without, feel the need at +times of an inspiration from without, "the breath of another soul to +stir our inner flame," especially when we are in pursuit of a part of +that "utmost musical beauty," that we are capable of +understanding—when we are breathlessly running to catch a glimpse of +that unforeseen grandeur of Mr. Lanier's dream. In this beauty and +grandeur perhaps marionettes and their souls have a part—though how +great their part is, we hear, is still undetermined; but it is morally +certain that, at times, a part with itself must be some of those +greater contemplations that have been caught in the "World's Soul," as +it were, and nourished for us there in the soil of its literature. +</P> + +<P> +If an interest in, and a sympathy for, the thought-visions of men like +Charles Kingsley, Marcus Aurelius, Whit tier, Montaigne, Paul of +Tarsus, Robert Browning, Pythagoras, Channing, Milton, Sophocles, +Swedenborg, Thoreau, Francis of Assisi, Wordsworth, Voltaire, Garrison, +Plutarch, Ruskin, Ariosto, and all kindred spirits and souls of great +measure, from David down to Rupert Brooke,—if a study of the thought +of such men creates a sympathy, even a love for them and their +ideal-part, it is certain that this, however inadequately expressed, is +nearer to what music was given man for, than a devotion to "Tristan's +sensual love of Isolde," to the "Tragic Murder of a Drunken Duke," or +to the sad thoughts of a bathtub when the water is being let out. It +matters little here whether a man who paints a picture of a useless +beautiful landscape imperfectly is a greater genius than the man who +paints a useful bad smell perfectly. +</P> + +<P> +It is not intended in this suggestion that inspirations coming from the +higher planes should be limited to any particular thought or work, as +the mind receives it. The plan rather embraces all that should go with +an expression of the composite-value. It is of the underlying spirit, +the direct unrestricted imprint of one soul on another, a portrait, not +a photograph of the personality—it is the ideal part that would be +caught in this canvas. It is a sympathy for "substance"—the over-value +together with a consciousness that there must be a lower value—the +"Demosthenic part of the Philippics"—the "Ciceronic part of the +Catiline," the sublimity, against the vileness of Rousseau's +Confessions. It is something akin to, but something more than these +predominant partial tones of Hawthorne—"the grand old countenance of +Homer; the decrepit form, but vivid face of Aesop; the dark presence of +Dante; the wild Ariosto; Rabelais' smile of deep-wrought mirth; the +profound, pathetic humor of Cervantes; the all-glorious Shakespeare; +Spenser, meet guest for allegoric structure; the severe divinity of +Milton; and Bunyan, molded of humblest clay, but instinct with +celestial fire." +</P> + +<P> +There are communities now, partly vanished, but cherished and sacred, +scattered throughout this world of ours, in which freedom of thought +and soul, and even of body, have been fought for. And we believe that +there ever lives in that part of the over-soul, native to them, the +thoughts which these freedom-struggles have inspired. America is not +too young to have its divinities, and its place legends. Many of those +"Transcendent Thoughts" and "Visions" which had their birth beneath our +Concord elms—messages that have brought salvation to many listening +souls throughout the world—are still growing, day by day, to greater +and greater beauty—are still showing clearer and clearer man's way to +God! +</P> + +<P> +No true composer will take his substance from another finite being—but +there are times, when he feels that his self-expression needs some +liberation from at least a part of his own soul. At such times, shall +he not better turn to those greater souls, rather than to the external, +the immediate, and the "Garish Day"? +</P> + +<P> +The strains of one man may fall far below the course of those Phaetons +of Concord, or of the Aegean Sea, or of Westmorland—but the greater +the distance his music falls away, the more reason that some greater +man shall bring his nearer those higher spheres. +</P> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<A NAME="info"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +INFO ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION +</H3> + +<P> +This edition of Charles Ives' "Essays Before a Sonata" was originally +published in 1920 by The Knickerbocker Press. It has also been +republished unabridged by Dover Publications, Inc., in a 1962 edition, +ISBN 0-486-20320-4. +</P> + +<P> +This electronic text was prepared by John Mamoun with help from +numerous other proofreaders, including those associated with Charles +Franks' Distributed Proofreaders website. 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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: Essays Before a Sonata + +Author: Charles Ives + +Posting Date: April 29, 2009 [EBook #3673] +Release Date: January, 2003 +First Posted: July 11, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS BEFORE A SONATA *** + + + + +Produced by John Mamoun with help from the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team of Charles Franks. HTML +version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +ESSAYS BEFORE A SONATA + + +by + +Charles Ives + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS: + + BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH + INTRODUCTORY FOOTNOTE BY CHARLES IVES + INTRODUCTION + I--PROLOGUE + II--EMERSON + III--HAWTHORNE + IV--"THE ALCOTS" + V--THOREAU + VI--EPILOGUE + INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + + +********************************************************** + + +BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH + + +Charles Ives (1874-1954) was probably one of the most +psycho-intellectually brilliant, imaginative and flexible Americans to +ever "walk the land of freedom." A graduate of Yale, he became a +multi-millionaire in the American insurance industry, introducing +brilliant innovations within that industry. He also, unlike a few +composers, found the time and the money (being a shrewd and practical +businessman) to get married and have children. + +His accomplishments for which he is best known, however, are those in +the field of music. At the time of its composition, Ives' music was +probably the most radically modern in history, and by itself had enough +material to serve as the foundation of modern 20th century music. For +example, at the turn of the century, this eccentric composer created +band works featuring multiple melodies of multiple time signatures +opposing and complimenting each other within the same piece. Ives was +also a revolutionary atonal composer, who created, essentially without +precedent, many atonal works that not only pre-date those of +Schoenberg, but are just as sophisticated, and arguably even more so, +than those of the 12-tone serialist. + +Among those atonal works was his second, "Concord" piano sonata, one of +the finest, and some would say the finest, works of classical music by +an American. It reflects the musical innovations of its creator, +featuring revolutionary atmospheric effects, unprecedented atonal +musical syntax, and surprising technical approaches to playing the +piano, such as pressing down on over 10 notes simultaneously using a +flat piece of wood. + +What a mischievious creative genius! + +And yet, despite the musically innovative nature of these works, from a +thematic standpoint, they are strictly 19th century. Ives, like +American band-composer Sousa, consciously infused patriotic or +"blue-blood" themes into his pieces. In the "Concord," he attempted to +project, within the music, the 19th century philosophical ideas of the +American Transcendentalists, who obviously had a great impact on his +world-view. + +Thus, while other atonal composers such as Schoenberg or Berg attempted +to infuse their music with "20th century" themes of hostility, violence +and estrangement within their atonal music, the atonal music of Ives +is, from a thematic standpoint, really quite "tonal." + +Ives wrote the following essays as a (very big) set of program notes to +accompany his second piano sonata. Here, he puts forth his elaborate +theory of music and what it represents, and discusses Transcendental +philosophy and its relation to music. The essays explain Ives' own +philosophy of and understanding of music and art. They also serve as +an analysis of music itself as an artform, and provide a critical +explanation of the "Concord" and the role that the philosophies of +Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau and the Alcotts play in forming its +thematic structure. + + +************************************************************* + +"ESSAYS BEFORE A SONATA," BY CHARLES IVES + +************************************************************* + + +INTRODUCTORY FOOTNOTE BY CHARLES IVES + + +"These prefatory essays were written by the composer for those who +can't stand his music--and the music for those who can't stand his +essays; to those who can't stand either, the whole is respectfully +dedicated." + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The following pages were written primarily as a preface or reason for +the [writer's] second Pianoforte Sonata--"Concord, Mass., 1845,"--a +group of four pieces, called a sonata for want of a more exact name, as +the form, perhaps substance, does not justify it. The music and +prefaces were intended to be printed together, but as it was found that +this would make a cumbersome volume they are separate. The whole is an +attempt to present [one person's] impression of the spirit of +transcendentalism that is associated in the minds of many with Concord, +Mass., of over a half century ago. This is undertaken in +impressionistic pictures of Emerson and Thoreau, a sketch of the +Alcotts, and a Scherzo supposed to reflect a lighter quality which is +often found in the fantastic side of Hawthorne. The first and last +movements do not aim to give any programs of the life or of any +particular work of either Emerson or Thoreau but rather composite +pictures or impressions. They are, however, so general in outline that, +from some viewpoints, they may be as far from accepted impressions +(from true conceptions, for that matter) as the valuation which they +purport to be of the influence of the life, thought, and character of +Emerson and Thoreau is inadequate. + + + + +I--Prologue + + +How far is anyone justified, be he an authority or a layman, in +expressing or trying to express in terms of music (in sounds, if you +like) the value of anything, material, moral, intellectual, or +spiritual, which is usually expressed in terms other than music? How +far afield can music go and keep honest as well as reasonable or +artistic? Is it a matter limited only by the composer's power of +expressing what lies in his subjective or objective consciousness? Or +is it limited by any limitations of the composer? Can a tune literally +represent a stonewall with vines on it or with nothing on it, though it +(the tune) be made by a genius whose power of objective contemplation +is in the highest state of development? Can it be done by anything +short of an act of mesmerism on the part of the composer or an act of +kindness on the part of the listener? Does the extreme materializing of +music appeal strongly to anyone except to those without a sense of +humor--or rather with a sense of humor?--or, except, possibly to those +who might excuse it, as Herbert Spencer might by the theory that the +sensational element (the sensations we hear so much about in +experimental psychology) is the true pleasurable phenomenon in music +and that the mind should not be allowed to interfere? Does the success +of program music depend more upon the program than upon the music? If +it does, what is the use of the music, if it does not, what is the use +of the program? Does not its appeal depend to a great extent on the +listener's willingness to accept the theory that music is the language +of the emotions and ONLY that? Or inversely does not this theory tend +to limit music to programs?--a limitation as bad for music itself--for +its wholesome progress,--as a diet of program music is bad for the +listener's ability to digest anything beyond the sensuous (or +physical-emotional). To a great extent this depends on what is meant by +emotion or on the assumption that the word as used above refers more to +the EXPRESSION, of, rather than to a meaning in a deeper sense--which +may be a feeling influenced by some experience perhaps of a spiritual +nature in the expression of which the intellect has some part. "The +nearer we get to the mere expression of emotion," says Professor Sturt +in his "Philosophy of Art and Personality," "as in the antics of boys +who have been promised a holiday, the further we get away from art." + +On the other hand is not all music, program-music,--is not pure music, +so called, representative in its essence? Is it not program-music +raised to the nth power or rather reduced to the minus nth power? Where +is the line to be drawn between the expression of subjective and +objective emotion? It is easier to know what each is than when each +becomes what it is. The "Separateness of Art" theory--that art is not +life but a reflection of it--"that art is not vital to life but that +life is vital to it," does not help us. Nor does Thoreau who says not +that "life is art," but that "life is an art," which of course is a +different thing than the foregoing. Tolstoi is even more helpless to +himself and to us. For he eliminates further. From his definition of +art we may learn little more than that a kick in the back is a work of +art, and Beethoven's 9th Symphony is not. Experiences are passed on +from one man to another. Abel knew that. And now we know it. But where +is the bridge placed?--at the end of the road or only at the end of our +vision? Is it all a bridge?--or is there no bridge because there is no +gulf? Suppose that a composer writes a piece of music conscious that he +is inspired, say, by witnessing an act of great self-sacrifice--another +piece by the contemplation of a certain trait of nobility he perceives +in a friend's character--and another by the sight of a mountain lake +under moonlight. The first two, from an inspirational standpoint would +naturally seem to come under the subjective and the last under the +objective, yet the chances are, there is something of the quality of +both in all. There may have been in the first instance physical action +so intense or so dramatic in character that the remembrance of it +aroused a great deal more objective emotion than the composer was +conscious of while writing the music. In the third instance, the music +may have been influenced strongly though subconsciously by a vague +remembrance of certain thoughts and feelings, perhaps of a deep +religious or spiritual nature, which suddenly came to him upon +realizing the beauty of the scene and which overpowered the first +sensuous pleasure--perhaps some such feeling as of the conviction of +immortality, that Thoreau experienced and tells about in Walden. "I +penetrated to those meadows ... when the wild river and the woods were +bathed in so pure and bright a light as would have waked the dead IF +they had been slumbering in their graves as some suppose. There needs +no stronger proof of immortality." Enthusiasm must permeate it, but +what it is that inspires an art-effort is not easily determined much +less classified. The word "inspire" is used here in the sense of cause +rather than effect. A critic may say that a certain movement is not +inspired. But that may be a matter of taste--perhaps the most inspired +music sounds the least so--to the critic. A true inspiration may lack a +true expression unless it is assumed that if an inspiration is not true +enough to produce a true expression--(if there be anyone who can +definitely determine what a true expression is)--it is not an +inspiration at all. + +Again suppose the same composer at another time writes a piece of equal +merit to the other three, as estimates go; but holds that he is not +conscious of what inspired it--that he had nothing definite in +mind--that he was not aware of any mental image or process--that, +naturally, the actual work in creating something gave him a satisfying +feeling of pleasure perhaps of elation. What will you substitute for +the mountain lake, for his friend's character, etc.? Will you +substitute anything? If so why? If so what? Or is it enough to let the +matter rest on the pleasure mainly physical, of the tones, their color, +succession, and relations, formal or informal? Can an inspiration come +from a blank mind? Well--he tries to explain and says that he was +conscious of some emotional excitement and of a sense of something +beautiful, he doesn't know exactly what--a vague feeling of exaltation +or perhaps of profound sadness. + +What is the source of these instinctive feelings, these vague +intuitions and introspective sensations? The more we try to analyze the +more vague they become. To pull them apart and classify them as +"subjective" or "objective" or as this or as that, means, that they may +be well classified and that is about all: it leaves us as far from the +origin as ever. What does it all mean? What is behind it all? The +"voice of God," says the artist, "the voice of the devil," says the man +in the front row. Are we, because we are, human beings, born with the +power of innate perception of the beautiful in the abstract so that an +inspiration can arise through no external stimuli of sensation or +experience,--no association with the outward? Or was there present in +the above instance, some kind of subconscious, instantaneous, composite +image, of all the mountain lakes this man had ever seen blended as kind +of overtones with the various traits of nobility of many of his friends +embodied in one personality? Do all inspirational images, states, +conditions, or whatever they may be truly called, have for a dominant +part, if not for a source, some actual experience in life or of the +social relation? To think that they do not--always at least--would be a +relief; but as we are trying to consider music made and heard by human +beings (and not by birds or angels) it seems difficult to suppose that +even subconscious images can be separated from some human +experience--there must be something behind subconsciousness to produce +consciousness, and so on. But whatever the elements and origin of these +so-called images are, that they DO stir deep emotional feelings and +encourage their expression is a part of the unknowable we know. They do +often arouse something that has not yet passed the border line between +subconsciousness and consciousness--an artistic intuition (well named, +but)--object and cause unknown!--here is a program!--conscious or +subconscious what does it matter? Why try to trace any stream that +flows through the garden of consciousness to its source only to be +confronted by another problem of tracing this source to its source? +Perhaps Emerson in the _Rhodora_ answers by not trying to explain + +That if eyes were made for seeing Then beauty is its own excuse for +being: Why thou wert there, O, rival of the rose! I never thought to +ask, I never knew; But, in my simple ignorance, suppose The self-same +Power that brought me there brought you. + +Perhaps Sturt answers by substitution: "We cannot explain the origin of +an artistic intuition any more than the origin of any other primary +function of our nature. But if as I believe civilization is mainly +founded on those kinds of unselfish human interests which we call +knowledge and morality it is easily intelligible that we should have a +parallel interest which we call art closely akin and lending powerful +support to the other two. It is intelligible too that moral goodness, +intellectual power, high vitality, and strength should be approved by +the intuition." This reduces, or rather brings the problem back to a +tangible basis namely:--the translation of an artistic intuition into +musical sounds approving and reflecting, or endeavoring to approve and +reflect, a "moral goodness," a "high vitality," etc., or any other +human attribute mental, moral, or spiritual. + +Can music do MORE than this? Can it DO this? and if so who and what is +to determine the degree of its failure or success? The composer, the +performer (if there be any), or those who have to listen? One hearing +or a century of hearings?-and if it isn't successful or if it doesn't +fail what matters it?--the fear of failure need keep no one from the +attempt for if the composer is sensitive he need but launch forth a +countercharge of "being misunderstood" and hide behind it. A theme that +the composer sets up as "moral goodness" may sound like "high +vitality," to his friend and but like an outburst of "nervous weakness" +or only a "stagnant pool" to those not even his enemies. Expression to +a great extent is a matter of terms and terms are anyone's. The meaning +of "God" may have a billion interpretations if there be that many souls +in the world. + +There is a moral in the "Nominalist and Realist" that will prove all +sums. It runs something like this: No matter how sincere and +confidential men are in trying to know or assuming that they do know +each other's mood and habits of thought, the net result leaves a +feeling that all is left unsaid; for the reason of their incapacity to +know each other, though they use the same words. They go on from one +explanation to another but things seem to stand about as they did in +the beginning "because of that vicious assumption." But we would rather +believe that music is beyond any analogy to word language and that the +time is coming, but not in our lifetime, when it will develop +possibilities unconceivable now,--a language, so transcendent, that its +heights and depths will be common to all mankind. + + + + +II--Emerson + + +1 + + +It has seemed to the writer, that Emerson is greater--his identity more +complete perhaps--in the realms of revelation--natural disclosure--than +in those of poetry, philosophy, or prophecy. Though a great poet and +prophet, he is greater, possibly, as an invader of the +unknown,--America's deepest explorer of the spiritual immensities,--a +seer painting his discoveries in masses and with any color that may lie +at hand--cosmic, religious, human, even sensuous; a recorder, freely +describing the inevitable struggle in the soul's uprise--perceiving +from this inward source alone, that every "ultimate fact is only the +first of a new series"; a discoverer, whose heart knows, with Voltaire, +"that man seriously reflects when left alone," and would then discover, +if he can, that "wondrous chain which links the heavens with earth--the +world of beings subject to one law." In his reflections Emerson, unlike +Plato, is not afraid to ride Arion's Dolphin, and to go wherever he is +carried--to Parnassus or to "Musketaquid." + +We see him standing on a summit, at the door of the infinite where many +men do not care to climb, peering into the mysteries of life, +contemplating the eternities, hurling back whatever he discovers +there,--now, thunderbolts for us to grasp, if we can, and +translate--now placing quietly, even tenderly, in our hands, things +that we may see without effort--if we won't see them, so much the worse +for us. + +We see him,--a mountain-guide, so intensely on the lookout for the +trail of his star, that he has no time to stop and retrace his +footprints, which may often seem indistinct to his followers, who find +it easier and perhaps safer to keep their eyes on the ground. And there +is a chance that this guide could not always retrace his steps if he +tried--and why should he!--he is on the road, conscious only that, +though his star may not lie within walking distance, he must reach it +before his wagon can be hitched to it--a Prometheus illuminating a +privilege of the Gods--lighting a fuse that is laid towards men. +Emerson reveals the less not by an analysis of itself, but by bringing +men towards the greater. He does not try to reveal, personally, but +leads, rather, to a field where revelation is a harvest-part, where it +is known by the perceptions of the soul towards the absolute law. He +leads us towards this law, which is a realization of what experience +has suggested and philosophy hoped for. He leads us, conscious that the +aspects of truth, as he sees them, may change as often as truth remains +constant. Revelation perhaps, is but prophecy intensified--the +intensifying of its mason-work as well as its steeple. Simple prophecy, +while concerned with the past, reveals but the future, while revelation +is concerned with all time. The power in Emerson's prophecy confuses it +with--or at least makes it seem to approach--revelation. It is prophecy +with no time element. Emerson tells, as few bards could, of what will +happen in the past, for his future is eternity and the past is a part +of that. And so like all true prophets, he is always modern, and will +grow modern with the years--for his substance is not relative but a +measure of eternal truths determined rather by a universalist than by a +partialist. He measured, as Michel Angelo said true artists should, +"with the eye and not the hand." But to attribute modernism to his +substance, though not to his expression, is an anachronism--and as +futile as calling today's sunset modern. + +As revelation and prophecy, in their common acceptance are resolved by +man, from the absolute and universal, to the relative and personal, and +as Emerson's tendency is fundamentally the opposite, it is easier, +safer and so apparently clearer, to think of him as a poet of natural +and revealed philosophy. And as such, a prophet--but not one to be +confused with those singing soothsayers, whose pockets are filled, as +are the pockets of conservative-reaction and radical demagoguery in +pulpit, street-corner, bank and columns, with dogmatic +fortune-tellings. Emerson, as a prophet in these lower heights, was a +conservative, in that he seldom lost his head, and a radical, in that +he seldom cared whether he lost it or not. He was a born radical as are +all true conservatives. He was too much "absorbed by the absolute," too +much of the universal to be either--though he could be both at once. To +Cotton Mather, he would have been a demagogue, to a real demagogue he +would not be understood, as it was with no self interest that he laid +his hand on reality. The nearer any subject or an attribute of it, +approaches to the perfect truth at its base, the more does +qualification become necessary. Radicalism must always qualify itself. +Emerson clarifies as he qualifies, by plunging into, rather than +"emerging from Carlyle's soul-confusing labyrinths of speculative +radicalism." The radicalism that we hear much about today, is not +Emerson's kind--but of thinner fiber--it qualifies itself by going to +_A_ "root" and often cutting other roots in the process; it is usually +impotent as dynamite in its cause and sometimes as harmful to the +wholesome progress of all causes; it is qualified by its failure. But +the Radicalism of Emerson plunges to all roots, it becomes greater than +itself--greater than all its formal or informal doctrines--too advanced +and too conservative for any specific result--too catholic for all the +churches--for the nearer it is to truth, the farther it is from a +truth, and the more it is qualified by its future possibilities. + +Hence comes the difficulty--the futility of attempting to fasten on +Emerson any particular doctrine, philosophic, or religious theory. +Emerson wrings the neck of any law, that would become exclusive and +arrogant, whether a definite one of metaphysics or an indefinite one of +mechanics. He hacks his way up and down, as near as he can to the +absolute, the oneness of all nature both human and spiritual, and to +God's benevolence. To him the ultimate of a conception is its vastness, +and it is probably this, rather than the "blind-spots" in his +expression that makes us incline to go with him but half-way; and then +stand and build dogmas. But if we can not follow all the way--if we do +not always clearly perceive the whole picture, we are at least free to +imagine it--he makes us feel that we are free to do so; perhaps that is +the most he asks. For he is but reaching out through and beyond +mankind, trying to see what he can of the infinite and its +immensities--throwing back to us whatever he can--but ever conscious +that he but occasionally catches a glimpse; conscious that if he would +contemplate the greater, he must wrestle with the lesser, even though +it dims an outline; that he must struggle if he would hurl back +anything--even a broken fragment for men to examine and perchance in it +find a germ of some part of truth; conscious at times, of the futility +of his effort and its message, conscious of its vagueness, but ever +hopeful for it, and confident that its foundation, if not its medium is +somewhere near the eventual and "absolute good" the divine truth +underlying all life. If Emerson must be dubbed an optimist--then an +optimist fighting pessimism, but not wallowing in it; an optimist, who +does not study pessimism by learning to enjoy it, whose imagination is +greater than his curiosity, who seeing the sign-post to Erebus, is +strong enough to go the other way. This strength of optimism, indeed +the strength we find always underlying his tolerance, his radicalism, +his searches, prophecies, and revelations, is heightened and made +efficient by "imagination-penetrative," a thing concerned not with the +combining but the apprehending of things. A possession, akin to the +power, Ruskin says, all great pictures have, which "depends on the +penetration of the imagination into the true nature of the thing +represented, and on the scorn of the imagination for all shackles and +fetters of mere external fact that stand in the way of its +suggestiveness"--a possession which gives the strength of distance to +his eyes, and the strength of muscle to his soul. With this he slashes +down through the loam--nor would he have us rest there. If we would dig +deep enough only to plant a doctrine, from one part of him, he would +show us the quick-silver in that furrow. If we would creed his +Compensation, there is hardly a sentence that could not wreck it, or +could not show that the idea is no tenet of a philosophy, but a clear +(though perhaps not clearly hurled on the canvas) illustration of +universal justice--of God's perfect balances; a story of the analogy or +better the identity of polarity and duality in Nature with that in +morality. The essay is no more a doctrine than the law of gravitation +is. If we would stop and attribute too much to genius, he shows us that +"what is best written or done by genius in the world, was no one man's +work, but came by wide social labor, when a thousand wrought like one, +sharing the same impulse." If we would find in his essay on Montaigne, +a biography, we are shown a biography of scepticism--and in reducing +this to relation between "sensation and the morals" we are shown a true +Montaigne--we know the man better perhaps by this less presentation. If +we would stop and trust heavily on the harvest of originality, he shows +us that this plant--this part of the garden--is but a relative thing. +It is dependent also on the richness that ages have put into the soil. +"Every thinker is retrospective." + +Thus is Emerson always beating down through the crust towards the first +fire of life, of death and of eternity. Read where you will, each +sentence seems not to point to the next but to the undercurrent of all. +If you would label his a religion of ethics or of morals, he shames you +at the outset, "for ethics is but a reflection of a divine +personality." All the religions this world has ever known, have been +but the aftermath of the ethics of one or another holy person; "as soon +as character appears be sure love will"; "the intuition of the moral +sentiment is but the insight of the perfection of the laws of the +soul"; but these laws cannot be catalogued. + +If a versatilist, a modern Goethe, for instance, could put all of +Emerson's admonitions into practice, a constant permanence would +result,--an eternal short-circuit--a focus of equal X-rays. Even the +value or success of but one precept is dependent, like that of a +ball-game as much on the batting-eye as on the pitching-arm. The +inactivity of permanence is what Emerson will not permit. He will not +accept repose against the activity of truth. But this almost constant +resolution of every insight towards the absolute may get a little on +one's nerves, if one is at all partial-wise to the specific; one begins +to ask what is the absolute anyway, and why try to look clear through +the eternities and the unknowable even out of the other end. Emerson's +fondness for flying to definite heights on indefinite wings, and the +tendency to over-resolve, becomes unsatisfying to the impatient, who +want results to come as they walk. Probably this is a reason that it is +occasionally said that Emerson has no vital message for the rank and +file. He has no definite message perhaps for the literal, but messages +are all vital, as much, by reason of his indefiniteness, as in spite of +it. + +There is a suggestion of irony in the thought that the power of his +vague but compelling vitality, which ever sweeps us on in spite of +ourselves, might not have been his, if it had not been for those +definite religious doctrines of the old New England theologians. For +almost two centuries, Emerson's mental and spiritual muscles had been +in training for him in the moral and intellectual contentions, a part +of the religious exercise of his forebears. A kind of higher +sensitiveness seems to culminate in him. It gives him a power of +searching for a wider freedom of soul than theirs. The religion of +Puritanism was based to a great extent, on a search for the unknowable, +limited only by the dogma of its theology--a search for a path, so that +the soul could better be conducted to the next world, while Emerson's +transcendentalism was based on the wider search for the unknowable, +unlimited in any way or by anything except the vast bounds of innate +goodness, as it might be revealed to him in any phenomena of man, +Nature, or God. This distinction, tenuous, in spite of the +definite-sounding words, we like to believe has something peculiar to +Emerson in it. We like to feel that it superimposes the one that makes +all transcendentalism but an intellectual state, based on the theory of +innate ideas, the reality of thought and the necessity of its freedom. +For the philosophy of the religion, or whatever you will call it, of +the Concord Transcendentalists is at least, more than an intellectual +state--it has even some of the functions of the Puritan church--it is a +spiritual state in which both soul and mind can better conduct +themselves in this world, and also in the next--when the time comes. +The search of the Puritan was rather along the path of logic, +spiritualized, and the transcendentalist of reason, spiritualized--a +difference in a broad sense between objective and subjective +contemplation. + +The dislike of inactivity, repose and barter, drives one to the +indefinite subjective. Emerson's lack of interest in permanence may +cause him to present a subjectivity harsher on the outside than is +essential. His very universalism occasionally seems a limitation. +Somewhere here may lie a weakness--real to some, apparent to others--a +weakness in so far as his relation becomes less vivid--to the many; +insofar as he over-disregards the personal unit in the universal. If +Genius is the most indebted, how much does it owe to those who would, +but do not easily ride with it? If there is a weakness here is it the +fault of substance or only of manner? If of the former, there is +organic error somewhere, and Emerson will become less and less valuable +to man. But this seems impossible, at least to us. Without considering +his manner or expression here (it forms the general subject of the +second section of this paper), let us ask if Emerson's substance needs +an affinity, a supplement or even a complement or a gangplank? And if +so, of what will it be composed? + +Perhaps Emerson could not have risen to his own, if it had not been for +his Unitarian training and association with the churchmen emancipators. +"Christianity is founded on, and supposes the authority of, reason, and +cannot therefore oppose it, without subverting itself." ... "Its office +is to discern universal truths, great and eternal principles ... the +highest power of the soul." Thus preached Channing. Who knows but this +pulpit aroused the younger Emerson to the possibilities of intuitive +reasoning in spiritual realms? The influence of men like Channing in +his fight for the dignity of human nature, against the arbitrary +revelations that Calvinism had strapped on the church, and for the +belief in the divine in human reason, doubtless encouraged Emerson in +his unshackled search for the infinite, and gave him premises which he +later took for granted instead of carrying them around with him. An +over-interest, not an under-interest in Christian ideal aims, may have +caused him to feel that the definite paths were well established and +doing their share, and that for some to reach the same infinite ends, +more paths might be opened--paths which would in themselves, and in a +more transcendent way, partake of the spiritual nature of the land in +quest,--another expression of God's Kingdom in Man. Would you have the +indefinite paths ALWAYS supplemented by the shadow of the definite one +of a first influence? + +A characteristic of rebellion, is that its results are often deepest, +when the rebel breaks not from the worst to the greatest, but from the +great to the greater. The youth of the rebel increases this +characteristic. The innate rebellious spirit in young men is active and +buoyant. They could rebel against and improve the millennium. This +excess of enthusiasm at the inception of a movement, causes loss of +perspective; a natural tendency to undervalue the great in that which +is being taken as a base of departure. A "youthful sedition" of Emerson +was his withdrawal from the communion, perhaps, the most socialistic +doctrine (or rather symbol) of the church--a "commune" above property +or class. + +Picking up an essay on religion of a rather remarkable-minded +boy--perhaps with a touch of genius--written when he was still in +college, and so serving as a good illustration in point--we +read--"Every thinking man knows that the church is dead." But every +thinking man knows that the church-part of the church always has been +dead--that part seen by candle-light, not Christ-light. Enthusiasm is +restless and hasn't time to see that if the church holds itself as +nothing but the symbol of the greater light it is life itself--as a +symbol of a symbol it is dead. Many of the sincerest followers of +Christ never heard of Him. It is the better influence of an institution +that arouses in the deep and earnest souls a feeling of rebellion to +make its aims more certain. It is their very sincerity that causes +these seekers for a freer vision to strike down for more fundamental, +universal, and perfect truths, but with such feverish enthusiasm, that +they appear to overthink themselves--a subconscious way of going +Godward perhaps. The rebel of the twentieth century says: "Let us +discard God, immortality, miracle--but be not untrue to ourselves." +Here he, no doubt, in a sincere and exalted moment, confuses God with a +name. He apparently feels that there is a separable difference between +natural and revealed religion. He mistakes the powers behind them, to +be fundamentally separate. In the excessive keenness of his search, he +forgets that "being true to ourselves" IS God, that the faintest +thought of immortality IS God, and that God is "miracle." +Over-enthusiasm keeps one from letting a common experience of a day +translate what is stirring the soul. The same inspiring force that +arouses the young rebel, brings later in life a kind of +"experience-afterglow," a realization that the soul cannot discard or +limit anything. Would you have the youthful enthusiasm of rebellion, +which Emerson carried beyond his youth always supplemented by the +shadow of experience? + +Perhaps it is not the narrow minded alone that have no interest in +anything, but in its relation to their personality. Is the Christian +Religion, to which Emerson owes embryo-ideals, anything but the +revelation of God in a personality--a revelation so that the narrow +mind could become opened? But the tendency to over-personalize +personality may also have suggested to Emerson the necessity for more +universal, and impersonal paths, though they be indefinite of outline +and vague of ascent. Could you journey, with equal benefit, if they +were less so? Would you have the universal always supplemented by the +shadow of the personal? If this view is accepted, and we doubt that it +can be by the majority, Emerson's substance could well bear a +supplement, perhaps an affinity. Something that will support that which +some conceive he does not offer. Something that will help answer Alton +Locke's question: "What has Emerson for the working-man?" and questions +of others who look for the gang-plank before the ship comes in sight. +Something that will supply the definite banister to the infinite, which +it is said he keeps invisible. Something that will point a crossroad +from "his personal" to "his nature." Something that may be in Thoreau +or Wordsworth, or in another poet whose songs "breathe of a new morning +of a higher life though a definite beauty in Nature"--or something that +will show the birth of his ideal and hold out a background of revealed +religion, as a perspective to his transcendent religion--a counterpoise +in his rebellion--which we feel Channing or Dr. Bushnell, or other +saints known and unknown might supply. + +If the arc must be completed--if there are those who would have the +great, dim outlines of Emerson fulfilled, it is fortunate that there +are Bushnells, and Wordsworths, to whom they may appeal--to say nothing +of the Vedas, the Bible, or their own souls. But such possibilities and +conceptions, the deeper they are received, the more they seem to reduce +their need. Emerson's Circle may be a better whole, without its +complement. Perhaps his "unsatiable demand for unity, the need to +recognize one nature in all variety of objects," would have been +impaired, if something should make it simpler for men to find the +identity they at first want in his substance. "Draw if thou canst the +mystic line severing rightly his from thine, which is human, which +divine." Whatever means one would use to personalize Emerson's natural +revelation, whether by a vision or a board walk, the vastness of his +aims and the dignity of his tolerance would doubtless cause him to +accept or at least try to accept, and use "magically as a part of his +fortune." He would modestly say, perhaps, "that the world is enlarged +for him, not by finding new objects, but by more affinities, and +potencies than those he already has." But, indeed, is not enough +manifestation already there? Is not the asking that it be made more +manifest forgetting that "we are not strong by our power to penetrate, +but by our relatedness?" Will more signs create a greater sympathy? Is +not our weak suggestion needed only for those content with their own +hopelessness? + +Others may lead others to him, but he finds his problem in making +"gladness hope and fortitude flow from his page," rather than in +arranging that our hearts be there to receive it. The first is his +duty--the last ours! + + +2 + + +A devotion to an end tends to undervalue the means. A power of +revelation may make one more concerned about his perceptions of the +soul's nature than the way of their disclosure. Emerson is more +interested in what he perceives than in his expression of it. He is a +creator whose intensity is consumed more with the substance of his +creation than with the manner by which he shows it to others. Like +Petrarch he seems more a discoverer of Beauty than an imparter of it. +But these discoveries, these devotions to aims, these struggles toward +the absolute, do not these in themselves, impart something, if not all, +of their own unity and coherence--which is not received, as such, at +first, nor is foremost in their expression. It must be remembered that +"truth" was what Emerson was after--not strength of outline, or even +beauty except in so far as they might reveal themselves, naturally, in +his explorations towards the infinite. To think hard and deeply and to +say what is thought, regardless of consequences, may produce a first +impression, either of great translucence, or of great muddiness, but in +the latter there may be hidden possibilities. Some accuse Brahms' +orchestration of being muddy. This may be a good name for a first +impression of it. But if it should seem less so, he might not be saying +what he thought. The mud may be a form of sincerity which demands that +the heart be translated, rather than handed around through the pit. A +clearer scoring might have lowered the thought. Carlyle told Emerson +that some of his paragraphs didn't cohere. Emerson wrote by sentences +or phrases, rather than by logical sequence. His underlying plan of +work seems based on the large unity of a series of particular aspects +of a subject, rather than on the continuity of its expression. As +thoughts surge to his mind, he fills the heavens with them, crowds them +in, if necessary, but seldom arranges them, along the ground first. +Among class-room excuses for Emerson's imperfect coherence and lack of +unity, is one that remembers that his essays were made from lecture +notes. His habit, often in lecturing, was to compile his ideas as they +came to him on a general subject, in scattered notes, and when on the +platform, to trust to the mood of the occasion, to assemble them. This +seems a specious explanation, though true to fact. Vagueness, is at +times, an indication of nearness to a perfect truth. The definite glory +of Bernard of Cluny's Celestial City, is more beautiful than +true--probably. Orderly reason does not always have to be a visible +part of all great things. Logic may possibly require that unity means +something ascending in self-evident relation to the parts and to the +whole, with no ellipsis in the ascent. But reason may permit, even +demand an ellipsis, and genius may not need the self-evident part. In +fact, these parts may be the "blind-spots" in the progress of unity. +They may be filled with little but repetition. "Nature loves analogy +and hates repetition." Botany reveals evolution not permanence. An +apparent confusion if lived with long enough may become orderly. +Emerson was not writing for lazy minds, though one of the keenest of +his academic friends said that, he (Emerson) could not explain many of +his own pages. But why should he!--he explained them when he discovered +them--the moment before he spoke or wrote them. A rare experience of a +moment at daybreak, when something in nature seems to reveal all +consciousness, cannot be explained at noon. Yet it is a part of the +day's unity. At evening, nature is absorbed by another experience. She +dislikes to explain as much as to repeat. It is conceivable, that what +is unified form to the author, or composer, may of necessity be +formless to his audience. A home-run will cause more unity in the grand +stand than in the season's batting average. If a composer once starts +to compromise, his work will begin to drag on HIM. Before the end is +reached, his inspiration has all gone up in sounds pleasing to his +audience, ugly to him--sacrificed for the first acoustic--an opaque +clarity, a picture painted for its hanging. Easy unity, like easy +virtue, is easier to describe, when judged from its lapses than from +its constancy. When the infidel admits God is great, he means only: "I +am lazy--it is easier to talk than live." Ruskin also says: "Suppose I +like the finite curves best, who shall say I'm right or wrong? No one. +It is simply a question of experience." You may not be able to +experience a symphony, even after twenty performances. Initial +coherence today may be dullness tomorrow probably because formal or +outward unity depends so much on repetition, sequences, antitheses, +paragraphs with inductions and summaries. Macaulay had that kind of +unity. Can you read him today? Emerson rather goes out and shouts: "I'm +thinking of the sun's glory today and I'll let his light shine through +me. I'll say any damn thing that this inspires me with." Perhaps there +are flashes of light, still in cipher, kept there by unity, the code of +which the world has not yet discovered. The unity of one sentence +inspires the unity of the whole--though its physique is as ragged as +the Dolomites. + +Intense lights--vague shadows--great pillars in a horizon are difficult +things to nail signboards to. Emerson's outward-inward qualities make +him hard to classify, but easy for some. There are many who like to say +that he--even all the Concord men--are intellectuals. Perhaps--but +intellectuals who wear their brains nearer the heart than some of their +critics. It is as dangerous to determine a characteristic by manner as +by mood. Emerson is a pure intellectual to those who prefer to take him +as literally as they can. There are reformers, and in "the form" lies +their interest, who prefer to stand on the plain, and then insist they +see from the summit. Indolent legs supply the strength of eye for their +inspiration. The intellect is never a whole. It is where the soul finds +things. It is often the only track to the over-values. It appears a +whole--but never becomes one even in the stock exchange, or the +convent, or the laboratory. In the cleverest criminal, it is but a way +to a low ideal. It can never discard the other part of its duality--the +soul or the void where the soul ought to be. So why classify a quality +always so relative that it is more an agency than substance; a quality +that disappears when classified. "The life of the All must stream +through us to make the man and the moment great." A sailor with a +precious cargo doesn't analyze the water. Because Emerson had +generations of Calvinistic sermons in his blood, some cataloguers, +would localize or provincialize him, with the sternness of the old +Puritan mind. They make him THAT, hold him THERE. They lean heavily on +what they find of the above influence in him. They won't follow the +rivers in his thought and the play of his soul. And their cousin +cataloguers put him in another pigeon-hole. They label him "ascetic." +They translate his outward serenity into an impression of severity. But +truth keeps one from being hysterical. Is a demagogue a friend of the +people because he will lie to them to make them cry and raise false +hopes? A search for perfect truths throws out a beauty more spiritual +than sensuous. A sombre dignity of style is often confused by +under-imagination and by surface-sentiment, with austerity. If +Emerson's manner is not always beautiful in accordance with accepted +standards, why not accept a few other standards? He is an ascetic, in +that he refuses to compromise content with manner. But a real ascetic +is an extremist who has but one height. Thus may come the confusion, of +one who says that Emerson carries him high, but then leaves him always +at THAT height--no higher--a confusion, mistaking a latent exultation +for an ascetic reserve. The rules of Thorough Bass can be applied to +his scale of flight no more than they can to the planetary system. +Jadassohn, if Emerson were literally a composer, could no more analyze +his harmony than a guide-to-Boston could. A microscope might show that +he uses chords of the 9th, 11th, or the 99th, but a lens far different +tells us they are used with different aims from those of Debussy. +Emerson is definite in that his art is based on something stronger than +the amusing or at its best the beguiling of a few mortals. If he uses a +sensuous chord, it is not for sensual ears. His harmonies may float, if +the wind blows in that direction, through a voluptuous atmosphere, but +he has not Debussy's fondness for trying to blow a sensuous atmosphere +from his own voluptuous cheeks. And so he is an ascetic! There is a +distance between jowl and soul--and it is not measured by the fraction +of an inch between Concord and Paris. On the other hand, if one thinks +that his harmony contains no dramatic chords, because no theatrical +sound is heard, let him listen to the finale of "Success," or of +"Spiritual Laws," or to some of the poems, "Brahma" or "Sursum Corda," +for example. Of a truth his Codas often seem to crystallize in a +dramatic, though serene and sustained way, the truths of his +subject--they become more active and intense, but quieter and deeper. + +Then there comes along another set of cataloguers. They put him down as +a "classicist," or a romanticist, or an eclectic. Because a prophet is +a child of romanticism--because revelation is classic, because +eclecticism quotes from eclectic Hindu Philosophy, a more sympathetic +cataloguer may say, that Emerson inspires courage of the quieter kind +and delight of the higher kind. + +The same well-bound school teacher who told the boys that Thoreau was a +naturalist because he didn't like to work, puts down Emerson as a +"classic," and Hawthorne as a "romantic." A loud voice made this doubly +TRUE and SURE to be on the examination paper. But this teacher of +"truth AND dogma" apparently forgot that there is no such thing as +"classicism or romanticism." One has but to go to the various +definitions of these to know that. If you go to a classic definition +you know what a true classic is, and similarly a "true romantic." But +if you go to both, you have an algebraic formula, x = x, a +cancellation, an apercu, and hence satisfying; if you go to all +definitions you have another formula x > x, a destruction, another +apercu, and hence satisfying. Professor Beers goes to the dictionary +(you wouldn't think a college professor would be as reckless as that). +And so he can say that "romantic" is "pertaining to the style of the +Christian and popular literature of the Middle Ages," a Roman Catholic +mode of salvation (not this definition but having a definition). And so +Prof. B. can say that Walter Scott is a romanticist (and Billy Phelps a +classic--sometimes). But for our part Dick Croker is a classic and job +a romanticist. Another professor, Babbitt by name, links up Romanticism +with Rousseau, and charges against it many of man's troubles. He +somehow likes to mix it up with sin. He throws saucers at it, but in a +scholarly, interesting, sincere, and accurate way. He uncovers a +deformed foot, gives it a name, from which we are allowed to infer that +the covered foot is healthy and named classicism. But no Christian +Scientist can prove that Christ never had a stomach-ache. The +Architecture of Humanism [Footnote: Geoffrey Scott (Constable & Co.)] +tells us that "romanticism consists of ... a poetic sensibility towards +the remote, as such." But is Plato a classic or towards the remote? Is +Classicism a poor relation of time--not of man? Is a thing classic or +romantic because it is or is not passed by that biologic--that +indescribable stream-of-change going on in all life? Let us settle the +point for "good," and say that a thing is classic if it is thought of +in terms of the past and romantic if thought of in terms of the +future--and a thing thought of in terms of the present is--well, that +is impossible! Hence, we allow ourselves to say, that Emerson is +neither a classic or romantic but both--and both not only at different +times in one essay, but at the same time in one sentence--in one word. +And must we admit it, so is everyone. If you don't believe it, there +must be some true definition you haven't seen. Chopin shows a few +things that Bach forgot--but he is not eclectic, they say. Brahms shows +many things that Bach did remember, so he is an eclectic, they say. +Leoncavallo writes pretty verses and Palestrina is a priest, and +Confucius inspires Scriabin. A choice is freedom. Natural selection is +but one of Nature's tunes. "All melodious poets shall be hoarse as +street ballads, when once the penetrating keynote of nature and spirit +is sounded--the earth-beat, sea-beat, heart-beat, which make the tune +to which the sun rolls, and the globule of blood and the sap of the +trees." + +An intuitive sense of values, tends to make Emerson use social, +political, and even economic phenomena, as means of expression, as the +accidental notes in his scale--rather than as ends, even lesser ends. +In the realization that they are essential parts of the greater values, +he does not confuse them with each other. He remains undisturbed except +in rare instances, when the lower parts invade and seek to displace the +higher. He was not afraid to say that "there are laws which should not +be too well obeyed." To him, slavery was not a social or a political or +an economic question, nor even one of morals or of ethics, but one of +universal spiritual freedom only. It mattered little what party, or +what platform, or what law of commerce governed men. Was man governing +himself? Social error and virtue were but relative. This habit of not +being hindered by using, but still going beyond the great truths of +living, to the greater truths of life gave force to his influence over +the materialists. Thus he seems to us more a regenerator than a +reformer--more an interpreter of life's reflexes than of life's facts, +perhaps. Here he appears greater than Voltaire or Rousseau and helped, +perhaps, by the centrality of his conceptions, he could arouse the +deeper spiritual and moral emotions, without causing his listeners to +distort their physical ones. To prove that mind is over matter, he +doesn't place matter over mind. He is not like the man who, because he +couldn't afford both, gave up metaphysics for an automobile, and when +he ran over a man blamed metaphysics. He would not have us get +over-excited about physical disturbance but have it accepted as a part +of any progress in culture, moral, spiritual or aesthetic. If a poet +retires to the mountain-side, to avoid the vulgar unculture of men, and +their physical disturbance, so that he may better catch a nobler theme +for his symphony, Emerson tells him that "man's culture can spare +nothing, wants all material, converts all impediments into instruments, +all enemies into power." The latest product of man's culture--the +aeroplane, then sails o'er the mountain and instead of an +inspiration--a spray of tobacco-juice falls on the poet. "Calm +yourself, Poet!" says Emerson, "culture will convert furies into muses +and hells into benefit. This wouldn't have befallen you if it hadn't +been for the latest transcendent product of the genius of culture" (we +won't say what kind), a consummation of the dreams of poets, from David +to Tennyson. Material progress is but a means of expression. Realize +that man's coarseness has its future and will also be refined in the +gradual uprise. Turning the world upside down may be one of its lesser +incidents. It is the cause, seldom the effect that interests Emerson. +He can help the cause--the effect must help itself. He might have said +to those who talk knowingly about the cause of war--or of the last war, +and who would trace it down through long vistas of cosmic, political, +moral evolution and what not--he might say that the cause of it was as +simple as that of any dogfight--the "hog-mind" of the minority against +the universal mind, the majority. The un-courage of the former fears to +believe in the innate goodness of mankind. The cause is always the +same, the effect different by chance; it is as easy for a hog, even a +stupid one, to step on a box of matches under a tenement with a +thousand souls, as under an empty bird-house. The many kindly burn up +for the few; for the minority is selfish and the majority generous. The +minority has ruled the world for physical reasons. The physical reasons +are being removed by this "converting culture." Webster will not much +longer have to grope for the mind of his constituency. The +majority--the people--will need no intermediary. Governments will pass +from the representative to the direct. The hog-mind is the principal +thing that is making this transition slow. The biggest prop to the +hog-mind is pride--pride in property and the power property gives. +Ruskin backs this up--"it is at the bottom of all great mistakes; other +passions do occasional good, but whenever pride puts in its word ... it +is all over with the artist." The hog-mind and its handmaidens in +disorder, superficial brightness, fundamental dullness, then cowardice +and suspicion--all a part of the minority (the non-people) the +antithesis of everything called soul, spirit, Christianity, truth, +freedom--will give way more and more to the great primal truths--that +there is more good than evil, that God is on the side of the majority +(the people)--that he is not enthusiastic about the minority (the +non-people)--that he has made men greater than man, that he has made +the universal mind and the over-soul greater and a part of the +individual mind and soul--that he has made the Divine a part of all. + +Again, if a picture in economics is before him, Emerson plunges down to +the things that ARE because they are BETTER than they are. If there is +a row, which there usually is, between the ebb and flood tide, in the +material ocean--for example, between the theory of the present order of +competition, and of attractive and associated labor, he would +sympathize with Ricardo, perhaps, that labor is the measure of value, +but "embrace, as do generous minds, the proposition of labor shared by +all." He would go deeper than political economics, strain out the +self-factor from both theories, and make the measure of each pretty +much the same, so that the natural (the majority) would win, but not to +the disadvantage of the minority (the artificial) because this has +disappeared--it is of the majority. John Stuart Mill's political +economy is losing value because it was written by a mind more "a +banker's" than a "poet's." The poet knows that there is no such thing +as the perpetual law of supply and demand, perhaps not of demand and +supply--or of the wage-fund, or price-level, or increments earned or +unearned; and that the existence of personal or public property may not +prove the existence of God. + +Emerson seems to use the great definite interests of humanity to +express the greater, indefinite, spiritual values--to fulfill what he +can in his realms of revelation. Thus, it seems that so close a +relation exists between his content and expression, his substance and +manner, that if he were more definite in the latter he would lose power +in the former,--perhaps some of those occasional flashes would have +been unexpressed--flashes that have gone down through the world and +will flame on through the ages--flashes that approach as near the +Divine as Beethoven in his most inspired moments--flashes of +transcendent beauty, of such universal import, that they may bring, of +a sudden, some intimate personal experience, and produce the same +indescribable effect that comes in rare instances, to men, from some +common sensation. In the early morning of a Memorial Day, a boy is +awakened by martial music--a village band is marching down the street, +and as the strains of Reeves' majestic Seventh Regiment March come +nearer and nearer, he seems of a sudden translated--a moment of vivid +power comes, a consciousness of material nobility, an exultant +something gleaming with the possibilities of this life, an assurance +that nothing is impossible, and that the whole world lies at his feet. +But as the band turns the corner, at the soldiers' monument, and the +march steps of the Grand Army become fainter and fainter, the boy's +vision slowly vanishes--his "world" becomes less and less probable--but +the experience ever lies within him in its reality. Later in life, the +same boy hears the Sabbath morning bell ringing out from the white +steeple at the "Center," and as it draws him to it, through the autumn +fields of sumac and asters, a Gospel hymn of simple devotion comes out +to him--"There's a wideness in God's mercy"--an instant suggestion of +that Memorial Day morning comes--but the moment is of deeper +import--there is no personal exultation--no intimate world vision--no +magnified personal hope--and in their place a profound sense of a +spiritual truth,--a sin within reach of forgiveness--and as the hymn +voices die away, there lies at his feet--not the world, but the figure +of the Saviour--he sees an unfathomable courage, an immortality for the +lowest, the vastness in humility, the kindness of the human heart, +man's noblest strength, and he knows that God is nothing--nothing but +love! Whence cometh the wonder of a moment? From sources we know not. +But we do know that from obscurity, and from this higher Orpheus come +measures of sphere melodies [note: Paraphrased from a passage in Sartor +Resartus.] flowing in wild, native tones, ravaging the souls of men, +flowing now with thousand-fold accompaniments and rich symphonies +through all our hearts; modulating and divinely leading them. + + +3 + + +What is character? In how far does it sustain the soul or the soul it? +Is it a part of the soul? And then--what is the soul? Plato knows but +cannot tell us. Every new-born man knows, but no one tells us. "Nature +will not be disposed of easily. No power of genius has ever yet had the +smallest success in explaining existence. The perfect enigma remains." +As every blind man sees the sun, so character may be the part of the +soul we, the blind, can see, and then have the right to imagine that +the soul is each man's share of God, and character the muscle which +tries to reveal its mysteries--a kind of its first visible +radiance--the right to know that it is the voice which is always +calling the pragmatist a fool. + +At any rate, it can be said that Emerson's character has much to do +with his power upon us. Men who have known nothing of his life, have +borne witness to this. It is directly at the root of his substance, and +affects his manner only indirectly. It gives the sincerity to the +constant spiritual hopefulness we are always conscious of, and which +carries with it often, even when the expression is somber, a note of +exultation in the victories of "the innate virtues" of man. And it is +this, perhaps, that makes us feel his courage--not a self-courage, but +a sympathetic one--courageous even to tenderness. It is the open +courage of a kind heart, of not forcing opinions--a thing much needed +when the cowardly, underhanded courage of the fanatic would FORCE +opinion. It is the courage of believing in freedom, per se, rather than +of trying to force everyone to SEE that you believe in it--the courage +of the willingness to be reformed, rather than of reforming--the +courage teaching that sacrifice is bravery, and force, fear. The +courage of righteous indignation, of stammering eloquence, of spiritual +insight, a courage ever contracting or unfolding a philosophy as it +grows--a courage that would make the impossible possible. Oliver +Wendell Holmes says that Emerson attempted the impossible in the +Over-Soul--"an overflow of spiritual imagination." But he (Emerson) +accomplished the impossible in attempting it, and still leaving it +impossible. A courageous struggle to satisfy, as Thoreau says, "Hunger +rather than the palate"--the hunger of a lifetime sometimes by one +meal. His essay on the Pre-Soul (which he did not write) treats of that +part of the over-soul's influence on unborn ages, and attempts the +impossible only when it stops attempting it. + +Like all courageous souls, the higher Emerson soars, the more lowly he +becomes. "Do you think the porter and the cook have no experiences, no +wonders for you? Everyone knows as much as the Savant." To some, the +way to be humble is to admonish the humble, not learn from them. +Carlyle would have Emerson teach by more definite signs, rather than +interpret his revelations, or shall we say preach? Admitting all the +inspiration and help that Sartor Resartus has given in spite of its +vaudeville and tragic stages, to many young men getting under way in +the life of tailor or king, we believe it can be said (but very broadly +said) that Emerson, either in the first or second series of essays, +taken as a whole, gives, it seems to us, greater inspiration, partly +because his manner is less didactic, less personally suggestive, +perhaps less clearly or obviously human than Carlyle's. How direct this +inspiration is is a matter of personal viewpoint, temperament, perhaps +inheritance. Augustine Birrell says he does not feel it--and he seems +not to even indirectly. Apparently "a non-sequacious author" can't +inspire him, for Emerson seems to him a "little thin and vague." Is +Emerson or the English climate to blame for this? He, Birrell, says a +really great author dissipates all fears as to his staying power. +(Though fears for our staying-power, not Emerson's, is what we would +like dissipated.) Besides, around a really great author, there are no +fears to dissipate. "A wise author never allows his reader's mind to be +at large," but Emerson is not a wise author. His essay on Prudence has +nothing to do with prudence, for to be wise and prudent he must put +explanation first, and let his substance dissolve because of it. "How +carefully," says Birrell again, "a really great author like Dr. Newman, +or M. Renan, explains to you what he is going to do, and how he is +going to do it." Personally we like the chance of having a hand in the +"explaining." We prefer to look at flowers, but not through a botany, +for it seems that if we look at them alone, we see a beauty of Nature's +poetry, a direct gift from the Divine, and if we look at botany alone, +we see the beauty of Nature's intellect, a direct gift of the +Divine--if we look at both together, we see nothing. + +Thus it seems that Carlyle and Birrell would have it that courage and +humility have something to do with "explanation"--and that it is not "a +respect for all"--a faith in the power of "innate virtue" to perceive +by "relativeness rather than penetration"--that causes Emerson to +withhold explanation to a greater degree than many writers. Carlyle +asks for more utility, and Birrell for more inspiration. But we like to +believe that it is the height of Emerson's character, evidenced +especially in his courage and humility that shades its quality, rather +than that its virtue is less--that it is his height that will make him +more and more valuable and more and more within the reach of +all--whether it be by utility, inspiration, or other needs of the human +soul. + +Cannot some of the most valuable kinds of utility and inspiration come +from humility in its highest and purest forms? For is not the truest +kind of humility a kind of glorified or transcendent democracy--the +practicing it rather than the talking it--the not-wanting to level all +finite things, but the being willing to be leveled towards the +infinite? Until humility produces that frame of mind and spirit in the +artist can his audience gain the greatest kind of utility and +inspiration, which might be quite invisible at first? Emerson realizes +the value of "the many,"--that the law of averages has a divine source. +He recognizes the various life-values in reality--not by reason of +their closeness or remoteness, but because he sympathizes with men who +live them, and the majority do. "The private store of reason is not +great--would that there were a public store for man," cries Pascal, but +there is, says Emerson, it is the universal mind, an institution +congenital with the common or over-soul. Pascal is discouraged, for he +lets himself be influenced by surface political and religious history +which shows the struggle of the group, led by an individual, rather +than that of the individual led by himself--a struggle as much +privately caused as privately led. The main-path of all social progress +has been spiritual rather than intellectual in character, but the many +bypaths of individual-materialism, though never obliterating the +highway, have dimmed its outlines and caused travelers to confuse the +colors along the road. A more natural way of freeing the congestion in +the benefits of material progress will make it less difficult for the +majority to recognize the true relation between the important spiritual +and religious values and the less important intellectual and economic +values. As the action of the intellect and universal mind becomes more +and more identical, the clearer will the relation of all values become. +But for physical reasons, the group has had to depend upon the +individual as leaders, and the leaders with few exceptions restrained +the universal mind--they trusted to the "private store," but now, +thanks to the lessons of evolution, which Nature has been teaching men +since and before the days of Socrates, the public store of reason is +gradually taking the place of the once-needed leader. From the Chaldean +tablet to the wireless message this public store has been wonderfully +opened. The results of these lessons, the possibilities they are +offering for ever coordinating the mind of humanity, the culmination of +this age-instruction, are seen today in many ways. Labor Federation, +Suffrage Extension, are two instances that come to mind among the many. +In these manifestations, by reason of tradition, or the bad-habit part +of tradition, the hog-mind of the few (the minority), comes in play. +The possessors of this are called leaders, but even these "thick-skins" +are beginning to see that the MOVEMENT is the leader, and that they are +only clerks. Broadly speaking, the effects evidenced in the political +side of history have so much of the physical because the causes have +been so much of the physical. As a result the leaders for the most part +have been under-average men, with skins thick, wits slick, and hands +quick with under-values, otherwise they would not have become leaders. +But the day of leaders, as such, is gradually closing--the people are +beginning to lead themselves--the public store of reason is slowly +being opened--the common universal mind and the common over-soul is +slowly but inevitably coming into its own. "Let a man believe in God, +not in names and places and persons. Let the great soul incarnated in +some poor ... sad and simple Joan, go out to service and sweep chimneys +and scrub floors ... its effulgent day beams cannot be muffled..." and +then "to sweep and scrub will instantly appear supreme and beautiful +actions ... and all people will get brooms and mops." Perhaps, if all of +Emerson--his works and his life--were to be swept away, and nothing of +him but the record of the following incident remained to men--the +influence of his soul would still be great. A working woman after +coming from one of his lectures said: "I love to go to hear Emerson, +not because I understand him, but because he looks as though he thought +everybody was as good as he was." Is it not the courage--the spiritual +hopefulness in his humility that makes this story possible and true? Is +it not this trait in his character that sets him above all creeds--that +gives him inspired belief in the common mind and soul? Is it not this +courageous universalism that gives conviction to his prophecy and that +makes his symphonies of revelation begin and end with nothing but the +strength and beauty of innate goodness in man, in Nature and in God, +the greatest and most inspiring theme of Concord Transcendental +Philosophy, as we hear it. + +And it is from such a world-compelling theme and from such vantage +ground, that Emerson rises to almost perfect freedom of action, of +thought and of soul, in any direction and to any height. A vantage +ground, somewhat vaster than Schelling's conception of transcendental +philosophy--"a philosophy of Nature become subjective." In Concord it +includes the objective and becomes subjective to nothing but freedom +and the absolute law. It is this underlying courage of the purest +humility that gives Emerson that outward aspect of serenity which is +felt to so great an extent in much of his work, especially in his codas +and perorations. And within this poised strength, we are conscious of +that "original authentic fire" which Emerson missed in Shelley--we are +conscious of something that is not dispassionate, something that is at +times almost turbulent--a kind of furious calm lying deeply in the +conviction of the eventual triumph of the soul and its union with God! + +Let us place the transcendent Emerson where he, himself, places Milton, +in Wordsworth's apostrophe: "Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, +so didst thou travel on life's common way in cheerful Godliness." + +The Godliness of spiritual courage and hopefulness--these fathers of +faith rise to a glorified peace in the depth of his greater +perorations. There is an "oracle" at the beginning of the Fifth +Symphony--in those four notes lies one of Beethoven's greatest +messages. We would place its translation above the relentlessness of +fate knocking at the door, above the greater human-message of destiny, +and strive to bring it towards the spiritual message of Emerson's +revelations--even to the "common heart" of Concord--the Soul of +humanity knocking at the door of the Divine mysteries, radiant in the +faith that it will be opened--and the human become the Divine! + + + + +III--Hawthorne + + +The substance of Hawthorne is so dripping wet with the supernatural, +the phantasmal, the mystical--so surcharged with adventures, from the +deeper picturesque to the illusive fantastic, one unconsciously finds +oneself thinking of him as a poet of greater imaginative impulse than +Emerson or Thoreau. He was not a greater poet possibly than they--but a +greater artist. Not only the character of his substance, but the care +in his manner throws his workmanship, in contrast to theirs, into a +kind of bas-relief. Like Poe he quite naturally and unconsciously +reaches out over his subject to his reader. His mesmerism seeks to +mesmerize us--beyond Zenobia's sister. But he is too great an artist to +show his hand "in getting his audience," as Poe and Tschaikowsky +occasionally do. His intellectual muscles are too strong to let him +become over-influenced, as Ravel and Stravinsky seem to be by the +morbidly fascinating--a kind of false beauty obtained by artistic +monotony. However, we cannot but feel that he would weave his spell +over us--as would the Grimms and Aesop. We feel as much under magic as +the "Enchanted Frog." This is part of the artist's business. The effect +is a part of his art-effort in its inception. Emerson's substance and +even his manner has little to do with a designed effect--his +thunderbolts or delicate fragments are flashed out regardless--they may +knock us down or just spatter us--it matters little to him--but +Hawthorne is more considerate; that is, he is more artistic, as men say. + +Hawthorne may be more noticeably indigenous or may have more local +color, perhaps more national color than his Concord contemporaries. But +the work of anyone who is somewhat more interested in psychology than +in transcendental philosophy, will weave itself around individuals and +their personalities. If the same anyone happens to live in Salem, his +work is likely to be colored by the Salem wharves and Salem witches. If +the same anyone happens to live in the "Old Manse" near the Concord +Battle Bridge, he is likely "of a rainy day to betake himself to the +huge garret," the secrets of which he wonders at, "but is too reverent +of their dust and cobwebs to disturb." He is likely to "bow below the +shriveled canvas of an old (Puritan) clergyman in wig and gown--the +parish priest of a century ago--a friend of Whitefield." He is likely +to come under the spell of this reverend Ghost who haunts the "Manse" +and as it rains and darkens and the sky glooms through the dusty attic +windows, he is likely "to muse deeply and wonderingly upon the +humiliating fact that the works of man's intellect decay like those of +his hands" ... "that thought grows moldy," and as the garret is in +Massachusetts, the "thought" and the "mold" are likely to be quite +native. When the same anyone puts his poetry into novels rather than +essays, he is likely to have more to say about the life around +him--about the inherited mystery of the town--than a poet of philosophy +is. + +In Hawthorne's usual vicinity, the atmosphere was charged with the +somber errors and romance of eighteenth century New England,--ascetic +or noble New England as you like. A novel, of necessity, nails an +art-effort down to some definite part or parts of the earth's +surface--the novelist's wagon can't always be hitched to a star. To say +that Hawthorne was more deeply interested than some of the other +Concord writers--Emerson, for example--in the idealism peculiar to his +native land (in so far as such idealism of a country can be conceived +of as separate from the political) would be as unreasoning as to hold +that he was more interested in social progress than Thoreau, because he +was in the consular service and Thoreau was in no one's service--or +that the War Governor of Massachusetts was a greater patriot than +Wendell Phillips, who was ashamed of all political parties. Hawthorne's +art was true and typically American--as is the art of all men living in +America who believe in freedom of thought and who live wholesome lives +to prove it, whatever their means of expression. + +Any comprehensive conception of Hawthorne, either in words or music, +must have for its basic theme something that has to do with the +influence of sin upon the conscience--something more than the Puritan +conscience, but something which is permeated by it. In this relation he +is wont to use what Hazlitt calls the "moral power of imagination." +Hawthorne would try to spiritualize a guilty conscience. He would sing +of the relentlessness of guilt, the inheritance of guilt, the shadow of +guilt darkening innocent posterity. All of its sins and morbid horrors, +its specters, its phantasmas, and even its hellish hopelessness play +around his pages, and vanishing between the lines are the less guilty +Elves of the Concord Elms, which Thoreau and Old Man Alcott may have +felt, but knew not as intimately as Hawthorne. There is often a +pervading melancholy about Hawthorne, as Faguet says of de Musset +"without posture, without noise but penetrating." There is at times the +mysticism and serenity of the ocean, which Jules Michelet sees in "its +horizon rather than in its waters." There is a sensitiveness to +supernatural sound waves. Hawthorne feels the mysteries and tries to +paint them rather than explain them--and here, some may say that he is +wiser in a more practical way and so more artistic than Emerson. +Perhaps so, but no greater in the deeper ranges and profound mysteries +of the interrelated worlds of human and spiritual life. + +This fundamental part of Hawthorne is not attempted in our music (the +2nd movement of the series) which is but an "extended fragment" trying +to suggest some of his wilder, fantastical adventures into the +half-childlike, half-fairylike phantasmal realms. It may have something +to do with the children's excitement on that "frosty Berkshire morning, +and the frost imagery on the enchanted hall window" or something to do +with "Feathertop," the "Scarecrow," and his "Looking Glass" and the +little demons dancing around his pipe bowl; or something to do with the +old hymn tune that haunts the church and sings only to those in the +churchyard, to protect them from secular noises, as when the circus +parade comes down Main Street; or something to do with the concert at +the Stamford camp meeting, or the "Slave's Shuffle"; or something to do +with the Concord he-nymph, or the "Seven Vagabonds," or "Circe's +Palace," or something else in the wonderbook--not something that +happens, but the way something happens; or something to do with the +"Celestial Railroad," or "Phoebe's Garden," or something personal, +which tries to be "national" suddenly at twilight, and universal +suddenly at midnight; or something about the ghost of a man who never +lived, or about something that never will happen, or something else +that is not. + + + + +IV--"The Alcotts" + + +If the dictagraph had been perfected in Bronson Alcott's time, he might +now be a great writer. As it is, he goes down as Concord's greatest +talker. "Great expecter," says Thoreau; "great feller," says Sam +Staples, "for talkin' big ... but his daughters is the gals +though--always DOIN' somethin'." Old Man Alcott, however, was usually +"doin' somethin'" within. An internal grandiloquence made him melodious +without; an exuberant, irrepressible, visionary absorbed with +philosophy AS such; to him it was a kind of transcendental business, +the profits of which supported his inner man rather than his family. +Apparently his deep interest in spiritual physics, rather than +metaphysics, gave a kind of hypnotic mellifluous effect to his voice +when he sang his oracles; a manner something of a cross between an +inside pompous self-assertion and an outside serious benevolence. But +he was sincere and kindly intentioned in his eagerness to extend what +he could of the better influence of the philosophic world as he saw it. +In fact, there is a strong didactic streak in both father and daughter. +Louisa May seldom misses a chance to bring out the moral of a homely +virtue. The power of repetition was to them a natural means of +illustration. It is said that the elder Alcott, while teaching school, +would frequently whip himself when the scholars misbehaved, to show +that the Divine Teacher-God-was pained when his children of the earth +were bad. Quite often the boy next to the bad boy was punished, to show +how sin involved the guiltless. And Miss Alcott is fond of working her +story around, so that she can better rub in a moral precept--and the +moral sometimes browbeats the story. But with all the elder Alcott's +vehement, impracticable, visionary qualities, there was a sturdiness +and a courage--at least, we like to think so. A Yankee boy who would +cheerfully travel in those days, when distances were long and +unmotored, as far from Connecticut as the Carolinas, earning his way by +peddling, laying down his pack to teach school when opportunity +offered, must possess a basic sturdiness. This was apparently not very +evident when he got to preaching his idealism. An incident in Alcott's +life helps confirm a theory--not a popular one--that men accustomed to +wander around in the visionary unknown are the quickest and strongest +when occasion requires ready action of the lower virtues. It often +appears that a contemplative mind is more capable of action than an +actively objective one. Dr. Emerson says: "It is good to know that it +has been recorded of Alcott, the benign idealist, that when the Rev. +Thomas Wentworth Higginson, heading the rush on the U.S. Court House in +Boston, to rescue a fugitive slave, looked back for his following at +the court-room door, only the apostolic philosopher was there cane in +hand." So it seems that his idealism had some substantial virtues, even +if he couldn't make a living. + +The daughter does not accept the father as a prototype--she seems to +have but few of her father's qualities "in female." She supported the +family and at the same time enriched the lives of a large part of young +America, starting off many little minds with wholesome thoughts and +many little hearts with wholesome emotions. She leaves +memory-word-pictures of healthy, New England childhood days,--pictures +which are turned to with affection by middle-aged children,--pictures, +that bear a sentiment, a leaven, that middle-aged America needs +nowadays more than we care to admit. + +Concord village, itself, reminds one of that common virtue lying at the +height and root of all the Concord divinities. As one walks down the +broad-arched street, passing the white house of Emerson--ascetic guard +of a former prophetic beauty--he comes presently beneath the old elms +overspreading the Alcott house. It seems to stand as a kind of homely +but beautiful witness of Concord's common virtue--it seems to bear a +consciousness that its past is LIVING, that the "mosses of the Old +Manse" and the hickories of Walden are not far away. Here is the home +of the "Marches"--all pervaded with the trials and happiness of the +family and telling, in a simple way, the story of "the richness of not +having." Within the house, on every side, lie remembrances of what +imagination can do for the better amusement of fortunate children who +have to do for themselves-much-needed lessons in these days of +automatic, ready-made, easy entertainment which deaden rather than +stimulate the creative faculty. And there sits the little old +spinet-piano Sophia Thoreau gave to the Alcott children, on which Beth +played the old Scotch airs, and played at the Fifth Symphony. + +There is a commonplace beauty about "Orchard House"--a kind of +spiritual sturdiness underlying its quaint picturesqueness--a kind of +common triad of the New England homestead, whose overtones tell us that +there must have been something aesthetic fibered in the Puritan +severity--the self-sacrificing part of the ideal--a value that seems to +stir a deeper feeling, a stronger sense of being nearer some perfect +truth than a Gothic cathedral or an Etruscan villa. All around you, +under the Concord sky, there still floats the influence of that human +faith melody, transcendent and sentimental enough for the enthusiast or +the cynic respectively, reflecting an innate hope--a common interest in +common things and common men--a tune the Concord bards are ever +playing, while they pound away at the immensities with a Beethovenlike +sublimity, and with, may we say, a vehemence and perseverance--for that +part of greatness is not so difficult to emulate. + +We dare not attempt to follow the philosophic raptures of Bronson +Alcott--unless you will assume that his apotheosis will show how +"practical" his vision in this world would be in the next. And so we +won't try to reconcile the music sketch of the Alcotts with much +besides the memory of that home under the elms--the Scotch songs and +the family hymns that were sung at the end of each day--though there +may be an attempt to catch something of that common sentiment (which we +have tried to suggest above)-a strength of hope that never gives way to +despair--a conviction in the power of the common soul which, when all +is said and done, may be as typical as any theme of Concord and its +transcendentalists. + + + + +V--Thoreau + + +Thoreau was a great musician, not because he played the flute but +because he did not have to go to Boston to hear "the Symphony." The +rhythm of his prose, were there nothing else, would determine his value +as a composer. He was divinely conscious of the enthusiasm of Nature, +the emotion of her rhythms and the harmony of her solitude. In this +consciousness he sang of the submission to Nature, the religion of +contemplation, and the freedom of simplicity--a philosophy +distinguishing between the complexity of Nature which teaches freedom, +and the complexity of materialism which teaches slavery. In music, in +poetry, in all art, the truth as one sees it must be given in terms +which bear some proportion to the inspiration. In their greatest +moments the inspiration of both Beethoven and Thoreau express profound +truths and deep sentiment, but the intimate passion of it, the storm +and stress of it, affected Beethoven in such a way that he could not +but be ever showing it and Thoreau that he could not easily expose it. +They were equally imbued with it, but with different results. A +difference in temperament had something to do with this, together with +a difference in the quality of expression between the two arts. "Who +that has heard a strain of music feared lest he would speak +extravagantly forever," says Thoreau. Perhaps music is the art of +speaking extravagantly. Herbert Spencer says that some men, as for +instance Mozart, are so peculiarly sensitive to emotion ... that music is +to them but a continuation not only of the expression but of the actual +emotion, though the theory of some more modern thinkers in the +philosophy of art doesn't always bear this out. However, there is no +doubt that in its nature music is predominantly subjective and tends to +subjective expression, and poetry more objective tending to objective +expression. Hence the poet when his muse calls for a deeper feeling +must invert this order, and he may be reluctant to do so as these +depths often call for an intimate expression which the physical looks +of the words may repel. They tend to reveal the nakedness of his soul +rather than its warmth. It is not a matter of the relative value of the +aspiration, or a difference between subconsciousness and consciousness +but a difference in the arts themselves; for example, a composer may +not shrink from having the public hear his "love letter in tones," +while a poet may feel sensitive about having everyone read his "letter +in words." When the object of the love is mankind the sensitiveness is +changed only in degree. + +But the message of Thoreau, though his fervency may be inconstant and +his human appeal not always direct, is, both in thought and spirit, as +universal as that of any man who ever wrote or sang--as universal as it +is nontemporaneous--as universal as it is free from the measure of +history, as "solitude is free from the measure of the miles of space +that intervene between man and his fellows." In spite of the fact that +Henry James (who knows almost everything) says that "Thoreau is more +than provincial--that he is parochial," let us repeat that Henry +Thoreau, in respect to thought, sentiment, imagination, and soul, in +respect to every element except that of place of physical being--a +thing that means so much to some--is as universal as any personality in +literature. That he said upon being shown a specimen grass from Iceland +that the same species could be found in Concord is evidence of his +universality, not of his parochialism. He was so universal that he did +not need to travel around the world to PROVE it. "I have more of God, +they more of the road." "It is not worth while to go around the world +to count the cats in Zanzibar." With Marcus Aurelius, if he had seen +the present he had seen all, from eternity and all time forever. + +Thoreau's susceptibility to natural sounds was probably greater than +that of many practical musicians. True, this appeal is mainly through +the sensational element which Herbert Spencer thinks the predominant +beauty of music. Thoreau seems able to weave from this source some +perfect transcendental symphonies. Strains from the Orient get the best +of some of the modern French music but not of Thoreau. He seems more +interested in than influenced by Oriental philosophy. He admires its +ways of resignation and self-contemplation but he doesn't contemplate +himself in the same way. He often quotes from the Eastern scriptures +passages which were they his own he would probably omit, i.e., the +Vedas say "all intelligences awake with the morning." This seems +unworthy of "accompanying the undulations of celestial music" found on +this same page, in which an "ode to morning" is sung--"the awakening to +newly acquired forces and aspirations from within to a higher life than +we fell asleep from ... for all memorable events transpire in the morning +time and in the morning atmosphere." Thus it is not the whole tone +scale of the Orient but the scale of a Walden morning--"music in single +strains," as Emerson says, which inspired many of the polyphonies and +harmonies that come to us through his poetry. Who can be forever +melancholy "with Aeolian music like this"? + +This is but one of many ways in which Thoreau looked to Nature for his +greatest inspirations. In her he found an analogy to the Fundamental of +Transcendentalism. The "innate goodness" of Nature is or can be a moral +influence; Mother Nature, if man will but let her, will keep him +straight--straight spiritually and so morally and even mentally. If he +will take her as a companion, and teacher, and not as a duty or a +creed, she will give him greater thrills and teach him greater truths +than man can give or teach--she will reveal mysteries that mankind has +long concealed. It was the soul of Nature not natural history that +Thoreau was after. A naturalist's mind is one predominantly scientific, +more interested in the relation of a flower to other flowers than its +relation to any philosophy or anyone's philosophy. A transcendent love +of Nature and writing "Rhus glabra" after sumac doesn't necessarily +make a naturalist. It would seem that although thorough in observation +(not very thorough according to Mr. Burroughs) and with a keen +perception of the specific, a naturalist--inherently--was exactly what +Thoreau was not. He seems rather to let Nature put him under her +microscope than to hold her under his. He was too fond of Nature to +practice vivisection upon her. He would have found that painful, "for +was he not a part with her?" But he had this trait of a naturalist, +which is usually foreign to poets, even great ones; he observed acutely +even things that did not particularly interest him--a useful natural +gift rather than a virtue. + +The study of Nature may tend to make one dogmatic, but the love of +Nature surely does not. Thoreau no more than Emerson could be said to +have compounded doctrines. His thinking was too broad for that. If +Thoreau's was a religion of Nature, as some say,--and by that they +mean that through Nature's influence man is brought to a deeper +contemplation, to a more spiritual self-scrutiny, and thus closer to +God,--it had apparently no definite doctrines. Some of his theories +regarding natural and social phenomena and his experiments in the art +of living are certainly not doctrinal in form, and if they are in +substance it didn't disturb Thoreau and it needn't us... "In proportion +as he simplifies his life the laws of the universe will appear less +complex and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor +weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air your work need +not be lost; that is where they should be, now put the foundations +under them." ... "Then we will love with the license of a higher order +of beings." Is that a doctrine? Perhaps. At any rate, between the lines +of some such passage as this lie some of the fountain heads that water +the spiritual fields of his philosophy and the seeds from which they +are sown (if indeed his whole philosophy is but one spiritual garden). +His experiments, social and economic, are a part of its cultivation and +for the harvest--and its transmutation, he trusts to moments of +inspiration--"only what is thought, said, and done at a certain rare +coincidence is good." + +Thoreau's experiment at Walden was, broadly speaking, one of these +moments. It stands out in the casual and popular opinion as a kind of +adventure--harmless and amusing to some, significant and important to +others; but its significance lies in the fact that in trying to +practice an ideal he prepared his mind so that it could better bring +others "into the Walden-state-of-mind." He did not ask for a literal +approval, or in fact for any approval. "I would not stand between any +man and his genius." He would have no one adopt his manner of life, +unless in doing so he adopts his own--besides, by that time "I may have +found a better one." But if he preached hard he practiced harder what +he preached--harder than most men. Throughout Walden a text that he is +always pounding out is "Time." Time for inside work out-of-doors; +preferably out-of-doors, "though you perhaps may have some pleasant, +thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor house." Wherever the +place--time there must be. Time to show the unnecessariness of +necessities which clog up time. Time to contemplate the value of man to +the universe, of the universe to man, man's excuse for being. Time FROM +the demands of social conventions. Time FROM too much labor for some, +which means too much to eat, too much to wear, too much material, too +much materialism for others. Time FROM the "hurry and waste of life." +Time FROM the "St. Vitus Dance." BUT, on the other side of the ledger, +time FOR learning that "there is no safety in stupidity alone." Time +FOR introspection. Time FOR reality. Time FOR expansion. Time FOR +practicing the art, of living the art of living. Thoreau has been +criticized for practicing his policy of expansion by living in a +vacuum--but he peopled that vacuum with a race of beings and +established a social order there, surpassing any of the precepts in +social or political history. "...for he put some things behind and +passed an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws +were around and within him, the old laws were expanded and interpreted +in a more liberal sense and he lived with the license of a higher +order"--a community in which "God was the only President" and "Thoreau +not Webster was His Orator." It is hard to believe that Thoreau really +refused to believe that there was any other life but his own, though he +probably did think that there was not any other life besides his own +for him. Living for society may not always be best accomplished by +living WITH society. "Is there any virtue in a man's skin that you must +touch it?" and the "rubbing of elbows may not bring men's minds closer +together"; or if he were talking through a "worst seller" (magazine) +that "had to put it over" he might say, "forty thousand souls at a ball +game does not, necessarily, make baseball the highest expression of +spiritual emotion." Thoreau, however, is no cynic, either in character +or thought, though in a side glance at himself, he may have held out to +be one; a "cynic in independence," possibly because of his rule laid +down that "self-culture admits of no compromise." + +It is conceivable that though some of his philosophy and a good deal of +his personality, in some of its manifestations, have outward colors +that do not seem to harmonize, the true and intimate relations they +bear each other are not affected. This peculiarity, frequently seen in +his attitude towards social-economic problems, is perhaps more +emphasized in some of his personal outbursts. "I love my friends very +much, but I find that it is of no use to go to see them. I hate them +commonly when I am near." It is easier to see what he means than it is +to forgive him for saying it. The cause of this apparent lack of +harmony between philosophy and personality, as far as they can be +separated, may have been due to his refusal "to keep the very delicate +balance" which Mr. Van Doren in his "Critical Study of Thoreau" says +"it is necessary for a great and good man to keep between his public +and private lives, between his own personality and the whole outside +universe of personalities." Somehow one feels that if he had kept this +balance he would have lost "hitting power." Again, it seems that +something of the above depends upon the degree of greatness or +goodness. A very great and especially a very good man has no separate +private and public life. His own personality though not identical with +outside personalities is so clear or can be so clear to them that it +appears identical, and as the world progresses towards its inevitable +perfection this appearance becomes more and more a reality. For the +same reason that all great men now agree, in principle but not in +detail, in so far as words are able to communicate agreement, on the +great fundamental truths. Someone says: "Be specific--what great +fundamentals?" Freedom over slavery; the natural over the artificial; +beauty over ugliness; the spiritual over the material; the goodness of +man; the Godness of man; have been greater if he hadn't written plays. +Some say that a true composer will never write an opera because a truly +brave man will not take a drink to keep up his courage; which is not +the same thing as saying that Shakespeare is not the greatest figure in +all literature; in fact, it is an attempt to say that many novels, most +operas, all Shakespeares, and all brave men and women (rum or no rum) +are among the noblest blessings with which God has endowed +mankind--because, not being perfect, they are perfect examples pointing +to that perfection which nothing yet has attained. + +Thoreau's mysticism at times throws him into elusive moods--but an +elusiveness held by a thread to something concrete and specific, for he +had too much integrity of mind for any other kind. In these moments it +is easier to follow his thought than to follow him. Indeed, if he were +always easy to follow, after one had caught up with him, one might find +that it was not Thoreau. + +It is, however, with no mystic rod that he strikes at institutional +life. Here again he felt the influence of the great transcendental +doctrine of "innate goodness" in human nature--a reflection of the like +in nature; a philosophic part which, by the way, was a more direct +inheritance in Thoreau than in his brother transcendentalists. For +besides what he received from a native Unitarianism a good part must +have descended to him through his Huguenot blood from the +"eighteenth-century French philosophy." We trace a reason here for his +lack of interest in "the church." For if revealed religion is the path +between God and man's spiritual part--a kind of formal +causeway--Thoreau's highly developed spiritual life felt, apparently +unconsciously, less need of it than most men. But he might have been +more charitable towards those who do need it (and most of us do) if he +had been more conscious of his freedom. Those who look today for the +cause of a seeming deterioration in the influence of the church may +find it in a wider development of this feeling of Thoreau's; that the +need is less because there is more of the spirit of Christianity in the +world today. Another cause for his attitude towards the church as an +institution is one always too common among "the narrow minds" to have +influenced Thoreau. He could have been more generous. He took the arc +for the circle, the exception for the rule, the solitary bad example +for the many good ones. His persistent emphasis on the value of +"example" may excuse this lower viewpoint. "The silent influence of the +example of one sincere life ... has benefited society more than all the +projects devised for its salvation." He has little patience for the +unpracticing preacher. "In some countries a hunting parson is no +uncommon sight. Such a one might make a good shepherd dog but is far +from being a good shepherd." It would have been interesting to have +seen him handle the speculating parson, who takes a good salary--more +per annum than all the disciples had to sustain their bodies during +their whole lives--from a metropolitan religious corporation for +"speculating" on Sunday about the beauty of poverty, who preaches: +"Take no thought (for your life) what ye shall eat or what ye shall +drink nor yet what ye shall put on ... lay not up for yourself treasure +upon earth ... take up thy cross and follow me"; who on Monday becomes a +"speculating" disciple of another god, and by questionable investments, +successful enough to get into the "press," seeks to lay up a treasure +of a million dollars for his old age, as if a million dollars could +keep such a man out of the poor-house. Thoreau might observe that this +one good example of Christian degeneracy undoes all the acts of +regeneracy of a thousand humble five-hundred-dollar country parsons; +that it out-influences the "unconscious influence" of a dozen Dr. +Bushnells if there be that many; that the repentance of this man who +did not "fall from grace" because he never fell into it--that this +unnecessary repentance might save this man's own soul but not +necessarily the souls of the million head-line readers; that repentance +would put this preacher right with the powers that be in this +world--and the next. Thoreau might pass a remark upon this man's +intimacy with God "as if he had a monopoly of the subject"--an intimacy +that perhaps kept him from asking God exactly what his Son meant by the +"camel," the "needle"--to say nothing of the "rich man." Thoreau might +have wondered how this man NAILED DOWN the last plank in HIS bridge to +salvation, by rising to sublime heights of patriotism, in HIS war +against materialism; but would even Thoreau be so unfeeling as to +suggest to this exhorter that HIS salvation might be clinched "if he +would sacrifice his income" (not himself) and come--in to a real +Salvation Army, or that the final triumph, the supreme happiness in +casting aside this mere $10,000 or $20,000 every year must be denied +him--for was he not captain of the ship--must he not stick to his +passengers (in the first cabin--the very first cabin)--not that the +ship was sinking but that he was ... we will go no further. Even Thoreau +would not demand sacrifice for sacrifice sake--no, not even from Nature. + +Property from the standpoint of its influence in checking natural +self-expansion and from the standpoint of personal and inherent right +is another institution that comes in for straight and cross-arm jabs, +now to the stomach, now to the head, but seldom sparring for breath. +For does he not say that "wherever a man goes, men will pursue him with +their dirty institutions"? The influence of property, as he saw it, on +morality or immorality and how through this it mayor should influence +"government" is seen by the following: "I am convinced that if all men +were to live as simply as I did, then thieving and robbery would be +unknown. These take place only in communities where some have got more +than is sufficient while others have not enough-- + + Nec bella fuerunt, + Faginus astabat dum + Scyphus ante dapes-- + +You who govern public affairs, what need have you to employ +punishments? Have virtue and the people will be virtuous." If Thoreau +had made the first sentence read: "If all men were like me and were to +live as simply," etc., everyone would agree with him. We may wonder +here how he would account for some of the degenerate types we are told +about in some of our backwoods and mountain regions. Possibly by +assuming that they are an instance of perversion of the species. That +the little civilizing their forbears experienced rendered these people +more susceptible to the physical than to the spiritual influence of +nature; in other words; if they had been purer naturists, as the Aztecs +for example, they would have been purer men. Instead of turning to any +theory of ours or of Thoreau for the true explanation of this +condition--which is a kind of pseudo-naturalism--for its true diagnosis +and permanent cure, are we not far more certain to find it in the +radiant look of humility, love, and hope in the strong faces of those +inspired souls who are devoting their lives with no little sacrifice to +these outcasts of civilization and nature. In truth, may not mankind +find the solution of its eternal problem--find it after and beyond the +last, most perfect system of wealth distribution which science can ever +devise--after and beyond the last sublime echo of the greatest +socialistic symphonies--after and beyond every transcendent thought and +expression in the simple example of these Christ-inspired souls--be +they Pagan, Gentile, Jew, or angel. + +However, underlying the practical or impractical suggestions implied in +the quotation above, which is from the last paragraph of Thoreau's +Village, is the same transcendental theme of "innate goodness." For +this reason there must be no limitation except that which will free +mankind from limitation, and from a perversion of this "innate" +possession: And "property" may be one of the causes of this +perversion--property in the two relations cited above. It is +conceivable that Thoreau, to the consternation of the richest members +of the Bolsheviki and Bourgeois, would propose a policy of liberation, +a policy of a limited personal property right, on the ground that +congestion of personal property tends to limit the progress of the soul +(as well as the progress of the stomach)--letting the economic noise +thereupon take care of itself--for dissonances are becoming +beautiful--and do not the same waters that roar in a storm take care of +the eventual calm? That this limit of property be determined not by the +VOICE of the majority but by the BRAIN of the majority under a +government limited to no national boundaries. "The government of the +world I live in is not framed in after-dinner conversation"--around a +table in a capital city, for there is no capital--a government of +principles not parties; of a few fundamental truths and not of many +political expediencies. A government conducted by virtuous leaders, for +it will be led by all, for all are virtuous, as then their "innate +virtue" will no more be perverted by unnatural institutions. This will +not be a millennium but a practical and possible application of +uncommon common sense. For is it not sense, common or otherwise, for +Nature to want to hand back the earth to those to whom it belongs--that +is, to those who have to live on it? Is it not sense, that the average +brains like the average stomachs will act rightly if they have an equal +amount of the right kind of food to act upon and universal education is +on the way with the right kind of food? Is it not sense then that all +grown men and women (for all are necessary to work out the divine "law +of averages") shall have a direct not an indirect say about the things +that go on in this world? + +Some of these attitudes, ungenerous or radical, generous or +conservative (as you will), towards institutions dear to many, have no +doubt given impressions unfavorable to Thoreau's thought and +personality. One hears him called, by some who ought to know what they +say and some who ought not, a crabbed, cold-hearted, sour-faced +Yankee--a kind of a visionary sore-head--a cross-grained, egotistic +recluse,--even non-hearted. But it is easier to make a statement than +prove a reputation. Thoreau may be some of these things to those who +make no distinction between these qualities and the manner which often +comes as a kind of by-product of an intense devotion of a principle or +ideal. He was rude and unfriendly at times but shyness probably had +something to do with that. In spite of a certain self-possession he was +diffident in most company, but, though he may have been subject to +those spells when words do not rise and the mind seems wrapped in a +kind of dull cloth which everyone dumbly stares at, instead of looking +through--he would easily get off a rejoinder upon occasion. When a +party of visitors came to Walden and some one asked Thoreau if he found +it lonely there, he replied: "Only by your help." A remark +characteristic, true, rude, if not witty. The writer remembers hearing +a schoolteacher in English literature dismiss Thoreau (and a half hour +lesson, in which time all of Walden,--its surface--was sailed over) by +saying that this author (he called everyone "author" from Solomon down +to Dr. Parkhurst) "was a kind of a crank who styled himself a +hermit-naturalist and who idled about the woods because he didn't want +to work." Some such stuff is a common conception, though not as common +as it used to be. If this teacher had had more brains, it would have +been a lie. The word idled is the hopeless part of this criticism, or +rather of this uncritical remark. To ask this kind of a man, who plays +all the "choice gems from celebrated composers" literally, always +literally, and always with the loud pedal, who plays all hymns, wrong +notes, right notes, games, people, and jokes literally, and with the +loud pedal, who will die literally and with the loud pedal--to ask this +man to smile even faintly at Thoreau's humor is like casting a pearl +before a coal baron. Emerson implies that there is one thing a genius +must have to be a genius and that is "mother wit." ... "Doctor Johnson, +Milton, Chaucer, and Burns had it. Aunt Mary Moody Emerson has it and +can write scrap letters. Who has it need never write anything but +scraps. Henry Thoreau has it." His humor though a part of this wit is +not always as spontaneous, for it is sometimes pun shape (so is Charles +Lamb's)--but it is nevertheless a kind that can serenely transport us +and which we can enjoy without disturbing our neighbors. If there are +those who think him cold-hearted and with but little human sympathy, +let them read his letters to Emerson's little daughter, or hear Dr. +Emerson tell about the Thoreau home life and the stories of his +boyhood--the ministrations to a runaway slave; or let them ask old Sam +Staples, the Concord sheriff about him. That he "was fond of a few +intimate friends, but cared not one fig for people in the mass," is a +statement made in a school history and which is superficially true. He +cared too much for the masses--too much to let his personality be +"massed"; too much to be unable to realize the futility of wearing his +heart on his sleeve but not of wearing his path to the shore of +"Walden" for future masses to walk over and perchance find the way to +themselves. Some near-satirists are fond of telling us that Thoreau +came so close to Nature that she killed him before he had discovered +her whole secret. They remind us that he died with consumption but +forget that he lived with consumption. And without using much charity, +this can be made to excuse many of his irascible and uncongenial moods. +You to whom that gaunt face seems forbidding--look into the eyes! If he +seems "dry and priggish" to you, Mr. Stevenson, "with little of that +large unconscious geniality of the world's heroes," follow him some +spring morning to Baker Farm, as he "rambles through pine groves ... like +temples, or like fleets at sea, full-rigged, with wavy boughs and +rippling with light so soft and green and shady that the Druids would +have forsaken their oaks to worship in them." Follow him to "the cedar +wood beyond Flint's Pond, where the trees covered with hoary blue +berries, spiring higher and higher, are fit to stand before Valhalla." +Follow him, but not too closely, for you may see little, if you do--"as +he walks in so pure and bright a light gilding its withered grass and +leaves so softly and serenely bright that he thinks he has never bathed +in such a golden flood." Follow him as "he saunters towards the holy +land till one day the sun shall shine more brightly than ever it has +done, perchance shine into your minds and hearts and light up your +whole lives with a great awakening, light as warm and serene and golden +as on a bankside in autumn." Follow him through the golden flood to the +shore of that "holy land," where he lies dying as men say--dying as +bravely as he lived. You may be near when his stern old aunt in the +duty of her Puritan conscience asks him: "Have you made your peace with +God"? and you may see his kindly smile as he replies, "I did not know +that we had ever quarreled." Moments like these reflect more nobility +and equanimity perhaps than geniality--qualities, however, more +serviceable to world's heroes. + +The personal trait that one who has affection for Thoreau may find +worst is a combative streak, in which he too often takes refuge. "An +obstinate elusiveness," almost a "contrary cussedness," as if he would +say, which he didn't: "If a truth about something is not as I think it +ought to be, I'll make it what I think, and it WILL be the truth--but +if you agree with me, then I begin to think it may not be the truth." +The causes of these unpleasant colors (rather than characteristics) are +too easily attributed to a lack of human sympathy or to the assumption +that they are at least symbols of that lack instead of to a +supersensitiveness, magnified at times by ill health and at times by a +subconsciousness of the futility of actually living out his ideals in +this life. It has been said that his brave hopes were unrealized +anywhere in his career--but it is certain that they started to be +realized on or about May 6, 1862, and we doubt if 1920 will end their +fulfillment or his career. But there were many in Concord who knew that +within their village there was a tree of wondrous growth, the shadow of +which--alas, too frequently--was the only part they were allowed to +touch. Emerson was one of these. He was not only deeply conscious of +Thoreau's rare gifts but in the Woodland Notes pays a tribute to a side +of his friend that many others missed. Emerson knew that Thoreau's +sensibilities too often veiled his nobilities, that a self-cultivated +stoicism ever fortified with sarcasm, none the less securely because it +seemed voluntary, covered a warmth of feeling. "His great heart, him a +hermit made." A breadth of heart not easily measured, found only in the +highest type of sentimentalists, the type which does not perpetually +discriminate in favor of mankind. Emerson has much of this sentiment +and touches it when he sings of Nature as "the incarnation of a +thought," when he generously visualizes Thoreau, "standing at the +Walden shore invoking the vision of a thought as it drifts heavenward +into an incarnation of Nature." There is a Godlike patience in +Nature,-in her mists, her trees, her mountains--as if she had a more +abiding faith and a clearer vision than man of the resurrection and +immortality! There comes to memory an old yellow-papered composition of +school-boy days whose peroration closed with "Poor Thoreau; he communed +with nature for forty odd years, and then died." "The forty odd +years,"--we'll still grant that part, but he is over a hundred now, and +maybe, Mr. Lowell, he is more lovable, kindlier, and more radiant with +human sympathy today, than, perchance, you were fifty years ago. It may +be that he is a far stronger, a far greater, an incalculably greater +force in the moral and spiritual fibre of his fellow-countrymen +throughout the world today than you dreamed of fifty years ago. You, +James Russell Lowells! You, Robert Louis Stevensons! You, Mark Van +Dorens! with your literary perception, your power of illumination, your +brilliancy of expression, yea, and with your love of sincerity, you +know your Thoreau, but not my Thoreau--that reassuring and true friend, +who stood by me one "low" day, when the sun had gone down, long, long +before sunset. You may know something of the affection that heart +yearned for but knew it a duty not to grasp; you may know something of +the great human passions which stirred that soul--too deep for animate +expression--you may know all of this, all there is to know about +Thoreau, but you know him not, unless you love him! + +And if there shall be a program for our music let it follow his thought +on an autumn day of Indian summer at Walden--a shadow of a thought at +first, colored by the mist and haze over the pond: + + Low anchored cloud, + Fountain head and + Source of rivers... + Dew cloth, dream drapery-- + Drifting meadow of the air.... + +but this is momentary; the beauty of the day moves him to a certain +restlessness--to aspirations more specific--an eagerness for outward +action, but through it all he is conscious that it is not in keeping +with the mood for this "Day." As the mists rise, there comes a clearer +thought more traditional than the first, a meditation more calm. As he +stands on the side of the pleasant hill of pines and hickories in front +of his cabin, he is still disturbed by a restlessness and goes down the +white-pebbled and sandy eastern shore, but it seems not to lead him +where the thought suggests--he climbs the path along the "bolder +northern" and "western shore, with deep bays indented," and now along +the railroad track, "where the Aeolian harp plays." But his eagerness +throws him into the lithe, springy stride of the specie hunter--the +naturalist--he is still aware of a restlessness; with these faster +steps his rhythm is of shorter span--it is still not the tempo of +Nature, it does not bear the mood that the genius of the day calls for, +it is too specific, its nature is too external, the introspection too +buoyant, and he knows now that he must let Nature flow through him and +slowly; he releases his more personal desires to her broader rhythm, +conscious that this blends more and more with the harmony of her +solitude; it tells him that his search for freedom on that day, at +least, lies in his submission to her, for Nature is as relentless as +she is benignant. + +He remains in this mood and while outwardly still, he seems to move +with the slow, almost monotonous swaying beat of this autumnal day. He +is more contented with a "homely burden" and is more assured of "the +broad margin to his life; he sits in his sunny doorway ... rapt in +revery ... amidst goldenrod, sandcherry, and sumac ... in undisturbed +solitude." At times the more definite personal strivings for the ideal +freedom, the former more active speculations come over him, as if he +would trace a certain intensity even in his submission. "He grew in +those seasons like corn in the night and they were better than any +works of the hands. They were not time subtracted from his life but so +much over and above the usual allowance." "He realized what the +Orientals meant by contemplation and forsaking of works." "The day +advanced as if to light some work of his--it was morning and lo! now it +is evening and nothing memorable is accomplished..." "The evening train +has gone by," and "all the restless world with it. The fishes in the +pond no longer feel its rumbling and he is more alone than ever..." His +meditations are interrupted only by the faint sound of the Concord +bell--'tis prayer-meeting night in the village--"a melody as it were, +imported into the wilderness..." "At a distance over the woods the +sound acquires a certain vibratory hum as if the pine needles in the +horizon were the strings of a harp which it swept... A vibration of the +universal lyre... Just as the intervening atmosphere makes a distant +ridge of earth interesting to the eyes by the azure tint it imparts." +... Part of the echo may be "the voice of the wood; the same trivial +words and notes sung by the wood nymph." It is darker, the poet's flute +is heard out over the pond and Walden hears the swan song of that "Day" +and faintly echoes... Is it a transcendental tune of Concord? 'Tis an +evening when the "whole body is one sense," ... and before ending his +day he looks out over the clear, crystalline water of the pond and +catches a glimpse of the shadow--thought he saw in the morning's mist +and haze--he knows that by his final submission, he possesses the +"Freedom of the Night." He goes up the "pleasant hillside of pines, +hickories," and moonlight to his cabin, "with a strange liberty in +Nature, a part of herself." + + + + +VI--Epilogue + + +1 + + +The futility of attempting to trace the source or primal impulse of an +art-inspiration may be admitted without granting that human qualities +or attributes which go with personality cannot be suggested, and that +artistic intuitions which parallel them cannot be reflected in music. +Actually accomplishing the latter is a problem, more or less arbitrary +to an open mind, more or less impossible to a prejudiced mind. + +That which the composer intends to represent as "high vitality" sounds +like something quite different to different listeners. That which I +like to think suggests Thoreau's submission to nature may, to another, +seem something like Hawthorne's "conception of the relentlessness of an +evil conscience"--and to the rest of our friends, but a series of +unpleasant sounds. How far can the composer be held accountable? Beyond +a certain point the responsibility is more or less undeterminable. The +outside characteristics--that is, the points furthest away from the +mergings--are obvious to mostly anyone. A child knows a "strain of +joy," from one of sorrow. Those a little older know the dignified from +the frivolous--the Spring Song from the season in which the "melancholy +days have come" (though is there not a glorious hope in autumn!). But +where is the definite expression of late-spring against early-summer, +of happiness against optimism? A painter paints a sunset--can he paint +the setting sun? + +In some century to come, when the school children will whistle popular +tunes in quarter-tones--when the diatonic scale will be as obsolete as +the pentatonic is now--perhaps then these borderland experiences may be +both easily expressed and readily recognized. But maybe music was not +intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man. Maybe it is better +to hope that music may always be a transcendental language in the most +extravagant sense. Possibly the power of literally distinguishing these +"shades of abstraction"--these attributes paralleled by "artistic +intuitions" (call them what you will)-is ever to be denied man for the +same reason that the beginning and end of a circle are to be denied. + + +2 + + +There may be an analogy--and on first sight it seems that there must +be--between both the state and power of artistic perceptions and the +law of perpetual change, that ever-flowing stream partly biological, +partly cosmic, ever going on in ourselves, in nature, in all life. This +may account for the difficulty of identifying desired qualities with +the perceptions of them in expression. Many things are constantly +coming into being, while others are constantly going out--one part of +the same thing is coming in while another part is going out of +existence. Perhaps this is why the above conformity in art (a +conformity which we seem naturally to look for) appears at times so +unrealizable, if not impossible. It will be assumed, to make this +theory clearer, that the "flow" or "change" does not go on in the +art-product itself. As a matter of fact it probably does, to a certain +extent--a picture, or a song, may gain or lose in value beyond what the +painter or composer knew, by the progress and higher development in all +art. Keats may be only partially true when he says that "A work of +beauty is a joy forever"--a thing that is beautiful to ME, is a joy to +ME, as long as it remains beautiful to ME--and if it remains so as long +as I live, it is so forever, that is, forever to ME. If he had put it +this way, he would have been tiresome, inartistic, but perhaps truer. +So we will assume here that this change only goes on in man and nature; +and that this eternal process in mankind is paralleled in some way +during each temporary, personal life. + +A young man, two generations ago, found an identity with his ideals, in +Rossini; when an older man in Wagner. A young man, one generation ago, +found his in Wagner, but when older in Cesar Franck or Brahms. Some may +say that this change may not be general, universal, or natural, and +that it may be due to a certain kind of education, or to a certain +inherited or contracted prejudice. We cannot deny or affirm this, +absolutely, nor will we try to even qualitatively--except to say that +it will be generally admitted that Rossini, today, does not appeal to +this generation, as he did to that of our fathers. As far as prejudice +or undue influence is concerned, and as an illustration in point, the +following may be cited to show that training may have but little effect +in this connection, at least not as much as usually supposed--for we +believe this experience to be, to a certain extent, normal, or at +least, not uncommon. A man remembers, when he was a boy of about +fifteen years, hearing his music-teacher (and father) who had just +returned from a performance of Siegfried say with a look of anxious +surprise that "somehow or other he felt ashamed of enjoying the music +as he did," for beneath it all he was conscious of an undercurrent of +"make-believe"--the bravery was make-believe, the love was +make-believe, the passion, the virtue, all make-believe, as was the +dragon--P. T. Barnum would have been brave enough to have gone out and +captured a live one! But, that same boy at twenty-five was listening to +Wagner with enthusiasm, his reality was real enough to inspire a +devotion. The "Preis-Lied," for instance, stirred him deeply. But when +he became middle-aged--and long before the Hohenzollern hog-marched +into Belgium--this music had become cloying, the melodies threadbare--a +sense of something commonplace--yes--of make-believe came. These +feelings were fought against for association's sake, and because of +gratitude for bygone pleasures--but the former beauty and nobility were +not there, and in their place stood irritating intervals of descending +fourths and fifths. Those once transcendent progressions, luxuriant +suggestions of Debussy chords of the 9th, 11th, etc., were becoming +slimy. An unearned exultation--a sentimentality deadening something +within hides around in the music. Wagner seems less and less to measure +up to the substance and reality of Cesar Franck, Brahms, d'Indy, or +even Elgar (with all his tiresomeness), the wholesomeness, manliness, +humility, and deep spiritual, possibly religious feeling of these men +seem missing and not made up for by his (Wagner's) manner and +eloquence, even if greater than theirs (which is very doubtful). + +From the above we would try to prove that as this stream of change +flows towards the eventual ocean of mankind's perfection, the art-works +in which we identify our higher ideals come by this process to be +identified with the lower ideals of those who embark after us when the +stream has grown in depth. If we stop with the above experience, our +theory of the effect of man's changing nature, as thus explaining +artistic progress, is perhaps sustained. Thus would we show that the +perpetual flow of the life stream is affected by and affects each +individual riverbed of the universal watersheds. Thus would we prove +that the Wagner period was normal, because we intuitively recognized +whatever identity we were looking for at a certain period in our life, +and the fact that it was so made the Franck period possible and then +normal at a later period in our life. Thus would we assume that this is +as it should be, and that it is not Wagner's content or substance or +his lack of virtue, that something in us has made us flow past him and +not he past us. But something blocks our theory! Something makes our +hypotheses seem purely speculative if not useless. It is men like Bach +and Beethoven. + +Is it not a matter nowadays of common impression or general opinion +(for the law of averages plays strongly in any theory relating to human +attributes) that the world's attitude towards the substance and quality +and spirit of these two men, or other men of like character, if there +be such, has not been affected by the flowing stream that has changed +us? But if by the measure of this public opinion, as well as it can be +measured, Bach and Beethoven are being flowed past--not as fast perhaps +as Wagner is, but if they are being passed at all from this deeper +viewpoint, then this "change" theory holds. + +Here we shall have to assume, for we haven't proved it, that artistic +intuitions can sense in music a weakening of moral strength and +vitality, and that it is sensed in relation to Wagner and not sensed in +relation to Bach and Beethoven. If, in this common opinion, there is a +particle of change toward the latter's art, our theory stands--mind +you, this admits a change in the manner, form, external expression, +etc., but not in substance. If there is no change here towards the +substance of these two men, our theory not only falls but its failure +superimposes or allows us to presume a fundamental duality in music, +and in all art for that matter. + +Does the progress of intrinsic beauty or truth (we assume there is such +a thing) have its exposures as well as its discoveries? Does the +non-acceptance of the foregoing theory mean that Wagner's substance and +reality are lower and his manner higher; that his beauty was not +intrinsic; that he was more interested in the repose of pride than in +the truth of humility? It appears that he chose the representative +instead of the spirit itself,--that he chose consciously or +unconsciously, it matters not,--the lower set of values in this +dualism. These are severe accusations to bring--especially when a man +is a little down as Wagner is today. But these convictions were present +some time before he was banished from the Metropolitan. Wagner seems to +take Hugo's place in Faguet's criticism of de Vigny that, "The staging +to him (Hugo) was the important thing--not the conception--that in de +Vigny, the artist was inferior to the poet"; finally that Hugo and so +Wagner have a certain pauvrete de fond. Thus would we ungenerously make +Wagner prove our sum! But it is a sum that won't prove! The theory at +its best does little more than suggest something, which if it is true +at all, is a platitude, viz.: that progressive growth in all life makes +it more and more possible for men to separate, in an art-work, moral +weakness from artistic strength. + + +3 + + +Human attributes are definite enough when it comes to their +description, but the expression of them, or the paralleling of them in +an art-process, has to be, as said above, more or less arbitrary, but +we believe that their expression can be less vague if the basic +distinction of this art-dualism is kept in mind. It is morally certain +that the higher part is founded, as Sturt suggests, on something that +has to do with those kinds of unselfish human interests which we call +knowledge and morality--knowledge, not in the sense of erudition, but +as a kind of creation or creative truth. This allows us to assume that +the higher and more important value of this dualism is composed of what +may be called reality, quality, spirit, or substance against the lower +value of form, quantity, or manner. Of these terms "substance" seems to +us the most appropriate, cogent, and comprehensive for the higher and +"manner" for the under-value. Substance in a human-art-quality suggests +the body of a conviction which has its birth in the spiritual +consciousness, whose youth is nourished in the moral consciousness, and +whose maturity as a result of all this growth is then represented in a +mental image. This is appreciated by the intuition, and somehow +translated into expression by "manner"--a process always less important +than it seems, or as suggested by the foregoing (in fact we apologize +for this attempted definition). So it seems that "substance" is too +indefinite to analyze, in more specific terms. It is practically +indescribable. Intuitions (artistic or not?) will sense it--process, +unknown. Perhaps it is an unexplained consciousness of being nearer +God, or being nearer the devil--of approaching truth or approaching +unreality--a silent something felt in the truth-of-nature in Turner +against the truth-of-art in Botticelli, or in the fine thinking of +Ruskin against the fine soundings of Kipling, or in the wide expanse of +Titian against the narrow-expanse of Carpaccio, or in some such +distinction that Pope sees between what he calls Homer's "invention" +and Virgil's "judgment"--apparently an inspired imagination against an +artistic care, a sense of the difference, perhaps, between Dr. +Bushnell's Knowing God and knowing about God. A more vivid explanation +or illustration may be found in the difference between Emerson and Poe. +The former seems to be almost wholly "substance" and the latter +"manner." The measure in artistic satisfaction of Poe's manner is equal +to the measure of spiritual satisfaction in Emerson's "substance." The +total value of each man is high, but Emerson's is higher than Poe's +because "substance" is higher than "manner"--because "substance" leans +towards optimism, and "manner" pessimism. We do not know that all this +is so, but we feel, or rather know by intuition that it is so, in the +same way we know intuitively that right is higher than wrong, though we +can't always tell why a thing is right or wrong, or what is always the +difference or the margin between right and wrong. + +Beauty, in its common conception, has nothing to do with it +(substance), unless it be granted that its outward aspect, or the +expression between sensuous beauty and spiritual beauty can be always +and distinctly known, which it cannot, as the art of music is still in +its infancy. On reading this over, it seems only decent that some kind +of an apology be made for the beginning of the preceding sentence. It +cannot justly be said that anything that has to do with art has nothing +to do with beauty in any degree,--that is, whether beauty is there or +not, it has something to do with it. A casual idea of it, a kind of a +first necessary-physical impression, was what we had in mind. Probably +nobody knows what actual beauty is--except those serious writers of +humorous essays in art magazines, who accurately, but kindly, with club +in hand, demonstrate for all time and men that beauty is a quadratic +monomial; that it _is_ absolute; that it is relative; that it _is _not_ +relative, that it _is _not_... The word "beauty" is as easy to use as +the word "degenerate." Both come in handy when one does or does not +agree with you. For our part, something that Roussel-Despierres says +comes nearer to what we like to think beauty is ... "an infinite source +of good ... the love of the beautiful ... a constant anxiety for moral +beauty." Even here we go around in a circle--a thing apparently +inevitable, if one tries to reduce art to philosophy. But personally, +we prefer to go around in a circle than around in a parallelepipedon, +for it seems cleaner and perhaps freer from mathematics--or for the +same reason we prefer Whittier to Baudelaire--a poet to a genius, or a +healthy to a rotten apple--probably not so much because it is more +nutritious, but because we like its taste better; we like the beautiful +and don't like the ugly; therefore, what we like is beautiful, and what +we don't like is ugly--and hence we are glad the beautiful is not ugly, +for if it were we would like something we don't like. So having +unsettled what beauty is, let us go on. + +At any rate, we are going to be arbitrary enough to claim, with no +definite qualification, that substance can be expressed in music, and +that it is the only valuable thing in it, and moreover that in two +separate pieces of music in which the notes are almost identical, one +can be of "substance" with little "manner," and the other can be of +"manner" with little "substance." Substance has something to do with +character. Manner has nothing to do with it. The "substance" of a tune +comes from somewhere near the soul, and the "manner" comes from--God +knows where. + + +4 + + +The lack of interest to preserve, or ability to perceive the +fundamental divisions of this duality accounts to a large extent, we +believe, for some or many various phenomena (pleasant or unpleasant +according to the personal attitude) of modern art, and all art. It is +evidenced in many ways--the sculptors' over-insistence on the "mold," +the outer rather than the inner subject or content of his +statue--over-enthusiasm for local color--over-interest in the +multiplicity of techniques, in the idiomatic, in the effect as shown, +by the appreciation of an audience rather than in the effect on the +ideals of the inner conscience of the artist or the composer. This lack +of perceiving is too often shown by an over-interest in the material +value of the effect. The pose of self-absorption, which some men, in +the advertising business (and incidentally in the recital and composing +business) put into their photographs or the portraits of themselves, +while all dolled up in their purple-dressing-gowns, in their twofold +wealth of golden hair, in their cissy-like postures over the piano +keys--this pose of "manner" sometimes sounds out so loud that the more +their music is played, the less it is heard. For does not Emerson tell +them this when he says "What you are talks so loud, that I cannot hear +what you say"? The unescapable impression that one sometimes gets by a +glance at these public-inflicted trade-marks, and without having heard +or seen any of their music, is that the one great underlying desire of +these appearing-artists, is to impress, perhaps startle and shock their +audiences and at any cost. This may have some such effect upon some of +the lady-part (male or female) of their listeners but possibly the +members of the men-part, who as boys liked hockey better than +birthday-parties, may feel like shocking a few of these picture-sitters +with something stronger than their own forzandos. + +The insistence upon manner in its relation to local color is wider than +a self-strain for effect. If local color is a natural part, that is, a +part of substance, the art-effort cannot help but show its color--and +it will be a true color, no matter how colored; if it is a part, even a +natural part of "manner," either the color part is bound eventually to +drive out the local part or the local drive out all color. Here a +process of cancellation or destruction is going on--a kind of +"compromise" which destroys by deadlock; a compromise purchasing a +selfish pleasure--a decadence in which art becomes first dull, then +dark, then dead, though throughout this process it is outwardly very +much alive,--especially after it is dead. The same tendency may even be +noticed if there is over-insistence upon the national in art. Substance +tends to create affection; manner prejudice. The latter tends to efface +the distinction between the love of both a country's virtue and vices, +and the love of only the virtue. A true love of country is likely to be +so big that it will embrace the virtue one sees in other countries and, +in the same breath, so to speak. A composer born in America, but who +has not been interested in the "cause of the Freedmen," may be so +interested in "negro melodies," that he writes a symphony over them. He +is conscious (perhaps only subconscious) that he wishes it to be +"American music." He tries to forget that the paternal negro came from +Africa. Is his music American or African? That is the great question +which keeps him awake! But the sadness of it is, that if he had been +born in Africa, his music might have been just as American, for there +is good authority that an African soul under an X-ray looks identically +like an American soul. There is a futility in selecting a certain type +to represent a "whole," unless the interest in the spirit of the type +coincides with that of the whole. In other words, if this composer +isn't as deeply interested in the "cause" as Wendell Phillips was, when +he fought his way through that anti-abolitionist crowd at Faneuil Hall, +his music is liable to be less American than he wishes. If a +middle-aged man, upon picking up the Scottish Chiefs, finds that his +boyhood enthusiasm for the prowess and noble deeds and character of Sir +Wm. Wallace and of Bruce is still present, let him put, or try to put +that glory into an overture, let him fill it chuck-full of Scotch +tunes, if he will. But after all is said and sung he will find that his +music is American to the core (assuming that he is an American and +wishes his music to be). It will be as national in character as the +heart of that Grand Army Grandfather, who read those Cragmore Tales of +a summer evening, when that boy had brought the cows home without +witching. Perhaps the memories of the old soldier, to which this man +still holds tenderly, may be turned into a "strain" or a "sonata," and +though the music does not contain, or even suggest any of the old +war-songs, it will be as sincerely American as the subject, provided +his (the composer's) interest, spirit, and character sympathize with, +or intuitively coincide with that of the subject. + +Again, if a man finds that the cadences of an Apache war-dance come +nearest to his soul, provided he has taken pains to know enough other +cadences--for eclecticism is part of his duty--sorting potatoes means a +better crop next year--let him assimilate whatever he finds highest of +the Indian ideal, so that he can use it with the cadences, fervently, +transcendentally, inevitably, furiously, in his symphonies, in his +operas, in his whistlings on the way to work, so that he can paint his +house with them--make them a part of his prayer-book--this is all +possible and necessary, if he is confident that they have a part in his +spiritual consciousness. With this assurance his music will have +everything it should of sincerity, nobility, strength, and beauty, no +matter how it sounds; and if, with this, he is true to none but the +highest of American ideals (that is, the ideals only that coincide with +his spiritual consciousness) his music will be true to itself and +incidentally American, and it will be so even after it is proved that +all our Indians came from Asia. + +The man "born down to Babbitt's Corners," may find a deep appeal in the +simple but acute "Gospel Hymns of the New England camp meetin'," of a +generation or so ago. He finds in them--some of them--a vigor, a depth +of feeling, a natural-soil rhythm, a sincerity, emphatic but +inartistic, which, in spite of a vociferous sentimentality, carries him +nearer the "Christ of the people" than does the Te Deum of the greatest +cathedral. These tunes have, for him, a truer ring than many of those +groove-made, even-measured, monotonous, non-rhythmed, indoor-smelling, +priest-taught, academic, English or neo-English hymns (and +anthems)--well-written, well-harmonized things, well-voice-led, +well-counterpointed, well-corrected, and well O.K.'d, by well corrected +Mus. Bac. R.F.O.G.'s-personified sounds, correct and inevitable to +sight and hearing--in a word, those proper forms of stained-glass +beauty, which our over-drilled mechanisms-boy-choirs are limited to. +But, if the Yankee can reflect the fervency with which "his gospels" +were sung--the fervency of "Aunt Sarah," who scrubbed her life away, +for her brother's ten orphans, the fervency with which this woman, +after a fourteen-hour work day on the farm, would hitch up and drive +five miles, through the mud and rain to "prayer meetin'"--her one +articulate outlet for the fullness of her unselfish soul--if he can +reflect the fervency of such a spirit, he may find there a local color +that will do all the world good. If his music can but catch that +"spirit" by being a part with itself, it will come somewhere near his +ideal--and it will be American, too, perhaps nearer so than that of the +devotee of Indian or negro melody. In other words, if local color, +national color, any color, is a true pigment of the universal color, it +is a divine quality, it is a part of substance in art--not of manner. +The preceding illustrations are but attempts to show that whatever +excellence an artist sees in life, a community, in a people, or in any +valuable object or experience, if sincerely and intuitively reflected +in his work, and so he himself, is, in a way, a reflected part of that +excellence. Whether he be accepted or rejected, whether his music is +always played, or never played--all this has nothing to do with it--it +is true or false by his own measure. If we may be permitted to leave +out two words, and add a few more, a sentence of Hegel appears to sum +up this idea, "The universal need for expression in art lies in man's +rational impulse to exalt the inner ... world (i.e., the highest ideals +he sees in the inner life of others) together with what he finds in his +own life--into a spiritual consciousness for himself." The artist does +feel or does not feel that a sympathy has been approved by an artistic +intuition and so reflected in his work. Whether he feels this sympathy +is true or not in the final analysis, is a thing probably that no one +but he (the artist) knows but the truer he feels it, the more substance +it has, or as Sturt puts it, "his work is art, so long as he feels in +doing it as true artists feel, and so long as his object is akin to the +objects that true artists admire." + +Dr. Griggs in an Essay on Debussy, [John C. Griggs, "Debussy" Yale +Review, 1914] asks if this composer's content is worthy the manner. +Perhaps so, perhaps not--Debussy himself, doubtless, could not give a +positive answer. He would better know how true his feeling and sympathy +was, and anyone else's personal opinion can be of but little help here. + +We might offer the suggestion that Debussy's content would have been +worthier his manner, if he had hoed corn or sold newspapers for a +living, for in this way he might have gained a deeper vitality and +truer theme to sing at night and of a Sunday. Or we might say that what +substance there is, is "too coherent"--it is too clearly expressed in +the first thirty seconds. There you have the "whole fragment," a +translucent syllogism, but then the reality, the spirit, the substance +stops and the "form," the "perfume," the "manner," shimmer right along, +as the soapsuds glisten after one has finished washing. Or we might say +that his substance would have been worthier, if his adoration or +contemplation of Nature, which is often a part of it, and which rises +to great heights, as is felt for example, in La Mer, had been more the +quality of Thoreau's. Debussy's attitude toward Nature seems to have a +kind of sensual sensuousness underlying it, while Thoreau's is a kind +of spiritual sensuousness. It is rare to find a farmer or peasant whose +enthusiasm for the beauty in Nature finds outward expression to compare +with that of the city-man who comes out for a Sunday in the country, +but Thoreau is that rare country-man and Debussy the city-man with his +weekend flights into country-aesthetics. We would be inclined to say +that Thoreau leaned towards substance and Debussy towards manner. + + +5 + + +There comes from Concord, an offer to every mind--the choice between +repose and truth, and God makes the offer. "Take which you +please ... between these, as a pendulum, man oscillates. He in whom the +love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first +philosophy, the first political party he meets," most likely his +father's. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation. Here is another +aspect of art-duality, but it is more drastic than ours, as it would +eliminate one part or the other. A man may aim as high as Beethoven or +as high as Richard Strauss. In the former case the shot may go far +below the mark; in truth, it has not been reached since that "thunder +storm of 1828" and there is little chance that it will be reached by +anyone living today, but that matters not, the shot will never rebound +and destroy the marksman. But, in the latter case, the shot may often +hit the mark, but as often rebound and harden, if not destroy, the +shooter's heart--even his soul. What matters it, men say, he will then +find rest, commodity, and reputation--what matters it--if he find there +but few perfect truths--what matters (men say)--he will find there +perfect media, those perfect instruments of getting in the way of +perfect truths. + +This choice tells why Beethoven is always modern and Strauss always +mediaeval--try as he may to cover it up in new bottles. He has chosen +to capitalize a "talent"--he has chosen the complexity of media, the +shining hardness of externals, repose, against the inner, invisible +activity of truth. He has chosen the first creed, the easy creed, the +philosophy of his fathers, among whom he found a half-idiot-genius +(Nietzsche). His choice naturally leads him to glorify and to magnify +all kind of dull things--stretched-out geigermusik--which in turn +naturally leads him to "windmills" and "human heads on silver +platters." Magnifying the dull into the colossal, produces a kind of +"comfort"--the comfort of a woman who takes more pleasure in the fit of +fashionable clothes than in a healthy body--the kind of comfort that +has brought so many "adventures of baby-carriages at county +fairs"--"the sensation of Teddy bears, smoking their first +cigarette"--on the program of symphony orchestras of one hundred +performers,--the lure of the media--the means--not the end--but the +finish,--thus the failure to perceive that thoughts and memories of +childhood are too tender, and some of them too sacred to be worn +lightly on the sleeve. Life is too short for these one hundred men, to +say nothing of the composer and the "dress-circle," to spend an +afternoon in this way. They are but like the rest of us, and have only +the expectancy of the mortality-table to survive--perhaps only this +"piece." We cannot but feel that a too great desire for "repose" +accounts for such phenomena. A MS. score is brought to a +concertmaster--he may be a violinist--he is kindly disposed, he looks +it over, and casually fastens on a passage "that's bad for the fiddles, +it doesn't hang just right, write it like this, they will play it +better." But that one phrase is the germ of the whole thing. "Never +mind, it will fit the hand better this way--it will sound better." My +God! what has sound got to do with music! The waiter brings the only +fresh egg he has, but the man at breakfast sends it back because it +doesn't fit his eggcup. Why can't music go out in the same way it comes +in to a man, without having to crawl over a fence of sounds, thoraxes, +catguts, wire, wood, and brass? Consecutive-fifths are as harmless as +blue laws compared with the relentless tyranny of the "media." The +instrument!--there is the perennial difficulty--there is music's +limitations. Why must the scarecrow of the keyboard--the tyrant in +terms of the mechanism (be it Caruso or a Jew's-harp) stare into every +measure? Is it the composer's fault that man has only ten fingers? Why +can't a musical thought be presented as it is born--perchance "a +bastard of the slums," or a "daughter of a bishop"--and if it happens +to go better later on a bass-drum (than upon a harp) get a good +bass-drummer. [Footnote: The first movement (Emerson) of the music, +which is the cause of all these words, was first thought of (we +believe) in terms of a large orchestra, the second (Hawthorne) in terms +of a piano or a dozen pianos, the third (Alcotts)--of an organ (or +piano with voice or violin), and the last (Thoreau), in terms of +strings, colored possibly with a flute or horn.] That music must be +heard, is not essential--what it sounds like may not be what it is. +Perhaps the day is coming when music--believers will learn "that +silence is a solvent ... that gives us leave to be universal" rather than +personal. + +Some fiddler was once honest or brave enough, or perhaps ignorant +enough, to say that Beethoven didn't know how to write for the +violin,--that, maybe, is one of the many reasons Beethoven is not a +Vieuxtemps. Another man says Beethoven's piano sonatas are not +pianistic--with a little effort, perhaps, Beethoven could have become a +Thalberg. His symphonies are perfect-truths and perfect for the +orchestra of 1820--but Mahler could have made them--possibly did make +them--we will say, "more perfect," as far as their media clothes are +concerned, and Beethoven is today big enough to rather like it. He is +probably in the same amiable state of mind that the Jesuit priest said, +"God was in," when He looked down on the camp ground and saw the priest +sleeping with a Congregational Chaplain. Or in the same state of mind +you'll be in when you look down and see the sexton keeping your +tombstone up to date. The truth of Joachim offsets the repose of +Paganini and Kubelik. The repose and reputation of a successful +pianist--(whatever that means) who plays Chopin so cleverly that he +covers up a sensuality, and in such a way that the purest-minded see +nothing but sensuous beauty in it, which, by the way, doesn't disturb +him as much as the size of his income-tax--the repose and fame of this +man is offset by the truth and obscurity of the village organist who +plays Lowell Mason and Bach with such affection that he would give his +life rather than lose them. The truth and courage of this organist, who +risks his job, to fight the prejudice of the congregation, offset the +repose and large salary of a more celebrated choirmaster, who holds his +job by lowering his ideals, who is willing to let the organ smirk under +an insipid, easy-sounding barcarolle for the offertory, who is willing +to please the sentimental ears of the music committee (and its +wives)--who is more willing to observe these forms of politeness than +to stand up for a stronger and deeper music of simple devotion, and for +a service of a spiritual unity, the kind of thing that Mr. Bossitt, who +owns the biggest country place, the biggest bank, and the biggest +"House of God" in town (for is it not the divine handiwork of his +own-pocketbook)--the kind of music that this man, his wife, and his +party (of property right in pews) can't stand because it isn't "pretty." + +The doctrine of this "choice" may be extended to the distinction +between literal-enthusiasm and natural-enthusiasm (right or wrong +notes, good or bad tones against good or bad interpretation, good or +bad sentiment) or between observation and introspection, or to the +distinction between remembering and dreaming. Strauss remembers, +Beethoven dreams. We see this distinction also in Goethe's confusion of +the moral with the intellectual. There is no such confusion in +Beethoven--to him they are one. It is told, and the story is so well +known that we hesitate to repeat it here, that both these men were +standing in the street one day when the Emperor drove by--Goethe, like +the rest of the crowd, bowed and uncovered--but Beethoven stood bolt +upright, and refused even to salute, saying: "Let him bow to us, for +ours is a nobler empire." Goethe's mind knew this was true, but his +moral courage was not instinctive. + +This remembering faculty of "repose," throws the mind in unguarded +moments quite naturally towards "manner" and thus to the many things +the media can do. It brings on an itching to over-use them--to be +original (if anyone will tell what that is) with nothing but numbers to +be original with. We are told that a conductor (of the orchestra) has +written a symphony requiring an orchestra of one hundred and fifty men. +If his work perhaps had one hundred and fifty valuable ideas, the one +hundred and fifty men might be justifiable--but as it probably contains +not more than a dozen, the composer may be unconsciously ashamed of +them, and glad to cover them up under a hundred and fifty men. A man +may become famous because he is able to eat nineteen dinners a day, but +posterity will decorate his stomach, not his brain. + +Manner breeds a cussed-cleverness--only to be clever--a satellite of +super-industrialism, and perhaps to be witty in the bargain, not the +wit in mother-wit, but a kind of indoor, artificial, mental arrangement +of things quickly put together and which have been learned and +studied--it is of the material and stays there, while humor is of the +emotional and of the approaching spiritual. Even Dukas, and perhaps +other Gauls, in their critical heart of hearts, may admit that "wit" in +music, is as impossible as "wit" at a funeral. The wit is evidence of +its lack. Mark Twain could be humorous at the death of his dearest +friend, but in such a way as to put a blessing into the heart of the +bereaved. Humor in music has the same possibilities. But its quantity +has a serious effect on its quality, "inverse ratio" is a good formula +to adopt here. Comedy has its part, but wit never. Strauss is at his +best in these lower rooms, but his comedy reminds us more of the +physical fun of Lever rather than "comedy in the Meredithian sense" as +Mason suggests. Meredith is a little too deep or too subtle for +Strauss--unless it be granted that cynicism is more a part of comedy +than a part of refined-insult. Let us also remember that Mr. Disston, +not Mr. Strauss, put the funny notes in the bassoon. A symphony written +only to amuse and entertain is likely to amuse only the writer--and him +not long after the check is cashed. + +"Genius is always ascetic and piety and love," thus Emerson reinforces +"God's offer of this choice" by a transcendental definition. The moment +a famous violinist refused "to appear" until he had received his +check,--at that moment, precisely (assuming for argument's sake, that +this was the first time that materialism had the ascendancy in this +man's soul) at that moment he became but a man of +"talent"--incidentally, a small man and a small violinist, regardless +of how perfectly he played, regardless to what heights of emotion he +stirred his audience, regardless of the sublimity of his artistic and +financial success. + +d'Annunzio, it is told, becoming somewhat discouraged at the result of +some of his Fiume adventures said: "We are the only Idealists left." +This remark may have been made in a moment of careless impulse, but if +it is taken at its face value, the moment it was made that moment his +idealism started downhill. A grasp at monopoly indicates that a sudden +shift has taken place from the heights where genius may be found, to +the lower plains of talent. The mind of a true idealist is great enough +to know that a monopoly of idealism or of wheat is a thing nature does +not support. + +A newspaper music column prints an incident (so how can we assume that +it is not true?) of an American violinist who called on Max Reger, to +tell him how much he (the American) appreciated his music. Reger gives +him a hopeless look and cries: "What! a musician and not speak German!" +At that moment, by the clock, regardless of how great a genius he may +have been before that sentence was uttered--at that moment he became +but a man of "talent." "For the man of talent affects to call his +transgressions of the laws of sense trivial and to count them nothing +considered with his devotion to his art." His art never taught him +prejudice or to wear only one eye. "His art is less for every deduction +from his holiness and less for every defect of common sense." And this +common sense has a great deal to do with this distinguishing difference +of Emerson's between genius and talent, repose and truth, and between +all evidences of substance and manner in art. Manner breeds +partialists. "Is America a musical nation?"--if the man who is ever +asking this question would sit down and think something over he might +find less interest in asking it--he might possibly remember that all +nations are more musical than any nation, especially the nation that +pays the most--and pays the most eagerly, for anything, after it has +been professionally-rubber stamped. Music may be yet unborn. Perhaps no +music has ever been written or heard. Perhaps the birth of art will +take place at the moment, in which the last man, who is willing to make +a living out of art is gone and gone forever. In the history of this +youthful world the best product that human-beings can boast of is +probably, Beethoven--but, maybe, even his art is as nothing in +comparison with the future product of some coal-miner's soul in the +forty-first century. And the same man who is ever asking about the most +musical nation, is ever discovering the most musical man of the most +musical nation. When particularly hysterical he shouts, "I have found +him! Smith Grabholz--the one great American poet,--at last, here is the +Moses the country has been waiting for"--(of course we all know that +the country has not been waiting for anybody--and we have many Moses +always with us). But the discoverer keeps right on shouting "Here is +the one true American poetry, I pronounce it the work of a genius. I +predict for him the most brilliant career--for his is an art +that...--for his is a soul that ... for his is a..." and Grabholz is +ruined;--but ruined, not alone, by this perennial discoverer of pearls +in any oyster-shell that treats him the best, but ruined by his own +(Grabholz's) talent,--for genius will never let itself be discovered by +"a man." Then the world may ask "Can the one true national "this" or +"that" be killed by its own discoverer?" "No," the country replies, +"but each discovery is proof of another impossibility." It is a sad +fact that the one true man and the one true art will never behave as +they should except in the mind of the partialist whom God has +forgotten. But this matters little to him (the man)--his business is +good--for it is easy to sell the future in terms of the past--and there +are always some who will buy anything. The individual usually "gains" +if he is willing to but lean on "manner." The evidence of this is quite +widespread, for if the discoverer happens to be in any other line of +business his sudden discoveries would be just as important--to him. In +fact, the theory of substance and manner in art and its related +dualisms, "repose and truth, genius and talent," &c., may find +illustration in many, perhaps most, of the human activities. And when +examined it (the illustration) is quite likely to show how "manner" is +always discovering partisans. For example, enthusiastic discoveries of +the "paragon" are common in politics--an art to some. These +revelations, in this profession are made easy by the pre-election +discovering-leaders of the people. And the genius who is discovered, +forthwith starts his speeches of "talent"--though they are hardly +that--they are hardly more than a string of subplatitudes, +square-looking, well-rigged things that almost everybody has seen, +known, and heard since Rome or man fell. Nevertheless these signs of +perfect manner, these series of noble sentiments that the "noble" never +get off, are forcibly, clearly, and persuasively handed +out--eloquently, even beautifully expressed, and with such personal +charm, magnetism, and strength, that their profound messages speed +right through the minds and hearts, without as much as spattering the +walls, and land right square in the middle of the listener's vanity. +For all this is a part of manner and its quality is of splendor--for +manner is at times a good bluff but substance a poor one and knows it. +The discovered one's usual and first great outburst is probably the +greatest truth that he ever utters. Fearlessly standing, he looks +straight into the eyes of the populace and with a strong ringing voice +(for strong voices and strong statesmanship are inseparable) and with +words far more eloquent than the following, he sings "This honor is +greater than I deserve but duty calls me--(what, not stated)... If +elected, I shall be your servant" ... (for, it is told, that he +believes in modesty,--that he has even boasted that he is the most +modest man in the country)... Thus he has the right to shout, "First, +last and forever I am for the people. I am against all bosses. I have +no sympathy for politicians. I am for strict economy, liberal +improvements and justice! I am also for the--ten commandments" (his +intuitive political sagacity keeps him from mentioning any particular +one).--But a sublime height is always reached in his perorations. Here +we learn that he believes in honesty--(repeat "honesty");--we are even +allowed to infer that he is one of the very few who know that there is +such a thing; and we also learn that since he was a little boy +(barefoot) his motto has been "Do Right,"--he swerves not from the +right!--he believes in nothing but the right; (to him--everything is +right!--if it gets him elected); but cheers invariably stop this great +final truth (in brackets) from rising to animate expression. Now all of +these translucent axioms are true (are not axioms always true?),--as +far as manner is concerned. In other words, the manner functions +perfectly. But where is the divine substance? This is not there--why +should it be--if it were he might not be there. "Substance" is not +featured in this discovery. For the truth of substance is sometimes +silence, sometimes ellipses,--and the latter if supplied might turn +some of the declarations above into perfect truths,--for instance +"first and last and forever I am for the people ('s votes). I'm against +all bosses (against me). I have no sympathy for (rival) politicians," +etc., etc. But these tedious attempts at comedy should stop,--they're +too serious,--besides the illustration may be a little hard on a few, +the minority (the non-people) though not on the many, the majority (the +people)! But even an assumed parody may help to show what a power +manner is for reaction unless it is counterbalanced and then saturated +by the other part of the duality. Thus it appears that all there is to +this great discovery is that one good politician has discovered another +good politician. For manner has brought forth its usual talent;--for +manner cannot discover the genius who has discarded platitudes--the +genius who has devised a new and surpassing order for mankind, simple +and intricate enough, abstract and definite enough, locally impractical +and universally practical enough, to wipe out the need for further +discoveries of "talent" and incidentally the discoverer's own fortune +and political "manner." Furthermore, he (this genius) never will be +discovered until the majority-spirit, the common-heart, the +human-oversoul, the source of all great values, converts all talent +into genius, all manner into substance--until the direct expression of +the mind and soul of the majority, the divine right of all +consciousness, social, moral, and spiritual, discloses the one true art +and thus finally discovers the one true leader--even itself:--then no +leaders, no politicians, no manner, will hold sway--and no more +speeches will be heard. + +The intensity today, with which techniques and media are organized and +used, tends to throw the mind away from a "common sense" and towards +"manner" and thus to resultant weak and mental states--for example, the +Byronic fallacy--that one who is full of turbid feeling about himself +is qualified to be some sort of an artist. In this relation "manner" +also leads some to think that emotional sympathy for self is as true a +part of art as sympathy for others; and a prejudice in favor of the +good and bad of one personality against the virtue of many +personalities. It may be that when a poet or a whistler becomes +conscious that he is in the easy path of any particular idiom,--that he +is helplessly prejudiced in favor of any particular means of +expression,--that his manner can be catalogued as modern or +classic,--that he favors a contrapuntal groove, a sound-coloring one, a +sensuous one, a successful one, or a melodious one (whatever that +means),--that his interests lie in the French school or the German +school, or the school of Saturn,--that he is involved in this +particular "that" or that particular "this," or in any particular brand +of emotional complexes,--in a word, when he becomes conscious that his +style is "his personal own,"--that it has monopolized a geographical +part of the world's sensibilities, then it may be that the value of his +substance is not growing,--that it even may have started on its way +backwards,--it may be that he is trading an inspiration for a bad habit +and finally that he is reaching fame, permanence, or some other +under-value, and that he is getting farther and farther from a perfect +truth. But, on the contrary side of the picture, it is not unreasonable +to imagine that if he (this poet, composer, and laborer) is open to all +the overvalues within his reach,--if he stands unprotected from all the +showers of the absolute which may beat upon him,--if he is willing to +use or learn to use, or at least if he is not afraid of trying to use, +whatever he can, of any and all lessons of the infinite that humanity +has received and thrown to man,--that nature has exposed and +sacrificed, that life and death have translated--if he accepts all and +sympathizes with all, is influenced by all, whether consciously or +sub-consciously, drastically or humbly, audibly or inaudibly, whether +it be all the virtue of Satan or the only evil of Heaven--and all, +even, at one time, even in one chord,--then it may be that the value of +his substance, and its value to himself, to his art, to all art, even +to the Common Soul is growing and approaching nearer and nearer to +perfect truths--whatever they are and wherever they may be. + +Again, a certain kind of manner-over-influence may be caused by a +group-disease germ. The over-influence by, the over-admiration of, and +the over-association with a particular artistic personality or a +particular type or group of personalities tends to produce equally +favorable and unfavorable symptoms, but the unfavorable ones seem to be +more contagious. Perhaps the impulse remark of some famous man (whose +name we forget) that he "loved music but hated musicians," might be +followed (with some good results) at least part of the time. To see the +sun rise, a man has but to get up early, and he can always have Bach in +his pocket. We hear that Mr. Smith or Mr. Morgan, etc., et al. design +to establish a "course at Rome," to raise the standard of American +music, (or the standard of American composers--which is it?) but +possibly the more our composer accepts from his patrons "et al." the +less he will accept from himself. It may be possible that a day in a +"Kansas wheat field" will do more for him than three years in Rome. It +may be, that many men--perhaps some of genius--(if you won't admit that +all are geniuses) have been started on the downward path of subsidy by +trying to write a thousand dollar prize poem or a ten thousand dollar +prize opera. How many masterpieces have been prevented from blossoming +in this way? A cocktail will make a man eat more, but will not give him +a healthy, normal appetite (if he had not that already). If a bishop +should offer a "prize living" to the curate who will love God the +hardest for fifteen days, whoever gets the prize would love God the +least. Such stimulants, it strikes us, tend to industrialize art, +rather than develop a spiritual sturdiness--a sturdiness which Mr. +Sedgwick says [footnote: H. D. Sedgwick. The New American Type. +Riverside Press.] "shows itself in a close union between spiritual life +and the ordinary business of life," against spiritual feebleness which +"shows itself in the separation of the two." If one's spiritual +sturdiness is congenital and somewhat perfect he is not only conscious +that this separation has no part in his own soul, but he does not feel +its existence in others. He does not believe there is such a thing. But +perfection in this respect is rare. And for the most of us, we believe, +this sturdiness would be encouraged by anything that will keep or help +us keep a normal balance between the spiritual life and the ordinary +life. If for every thousand dollar prize a potato field be substituted, +so that these candidates of "Clio" can dig a little in real life, +perhaps dig up a natural inspiration, arts--air might be a little +clearer--a little freer from certain traditional delusions, for +instance, that free thought and free love always go to the same +cafe--that atmosphere and diligence are synonymous. To quote Thoreau +incorrectly: "When half-Gods talk, the Gods walk!" Everyone should have +the opportunity of not being over-influenced. + +Again, this over-influence by and over-insistence upon "manner" may +finally lead some to believe "that manner for manner's sake is a basis +of music." Someone is quoted as saying that "ragtime is the true +American music." Anyone will admit that it is one of the many true, +natural, and, nowadays, conventional means of expression. It is an +idiom, perhaps a "set or series of colloquialisms," similar to those +that have added through centuries and through natural means, some +beauty to all languages. Every language is but the evolution of slang, +and possibly the broad "A" in Harvard may have come down from the +"butcher of Southwark." To examine ragtime rhythms and the syncopations +of Schumann or of Brahms seems to the writer to show how much alike +they are not. Ragtime, as we hear it, is, of course, more (but not much +more) than a natural dogma of shifted accents, or a mixture of shifted +and minus accents. It is something like wearing a derby hat on the back +of the head, a shuffling lilt of a happy soul just let out of a Baptist +Church in old Alabama. Ragtime has its possibilities. But it does not +"represent the American nation" any more than some fine old senators +represent it. Perhaps we know it now as an ore before it has been +refined into a product. It may be one of nature's ways of giving art +raw material. Time will throw its vices away and weld its virtues into +the fabric of our music. It has its uses as the cruet on the +boarding-house table has, but to make a meal of tomato ketchup and +horse-radish, to plant a whole farm with sunflowers, even to put a +sunflower into every bouquet, would be calling nature something worse +than a politician. Mr. Daniel Gregory Mason, whose wholesome influence, +by the way, is doing as much perhaps for music in America as American +music is, amusingly says: "If indeed the land of Lincoln and Emerson +has degenerated until nothing remains of it but a 'jerk and rattle,' +then we, at least, are free to repudiate this false patriotism of 'my +Country right or wrong,' to insist that better than bad music is no +music, and to let our beloved art subside finally under the clangor of +the subway gongs and automobile horns, dead, but not dishonored." And +so may we ask: Is it better to sing inadequately of the "leaf on Walden +floating," and die "dead but not dishonored," or to sing adequately of +the "cherry on the cocktail," and live forever? + + +6 + + +If anyone has been strong enough to escape these rocks--this "Scylla +and Charybdis,"--has survived these wrong choices, these under-values +with their prizes, Bohemias and heroes, is not such a one in a better +position, is he not abler and freer to "declare himself and so to love +his cause so singly that he will cleave to it, and forsake all else? +What is this cause for the American composer but the utmost musical +beauty that he, as an individual man, with his own qualities and +defects, is capable of understanding and striving towards?--forsaking +all else except those types of musical beauty that come home to him," +[footnote: Contemporary Composers, D. G. Mason, Macmillan Co., N. Y.] +and that his spiritual conscience intuitively approves. + +"It matters not one jot, provided this course of personal loyalty to a +cause be steadfastly pursued, what the special characteristics of the +style of the music may be to which one gives one's devotion." +[footnote: Contemporary Composers, D. G. Mason, Macmillan Co., N. Y.] +This, if over-translated, may be made to mean, what we have been trying +to say--that if your interest, enthusiasm, and devotion on the side of +substance and truth, are of the stuff to make you so sincere that you +sweat--to hell with manner and repose! Mr. Mason is responsible for too +many young minds, in their planting season to talk like this, to be as +rough, or to go as far, but he would probably admit that, broadly +speaking--some such way, i.e., constantly recognizing this ideal +duality in art, though not the most profitable road for art to travel, +is almost its only way out to eventual freedom and salvation. Sidney +Lanier, in a letter to Bayard Taylor writes: "I have so many fair +dreams and hopes about music in these days (1875). It is gospel whereof +the people are in great need. As Christ gathered up the Ten +Commandments and redistilled them into the clear liquid of the wondrous +eleventh--love God utterly and thy neighbor as thyself--so I think the +time will come when music rightly developed to its now little forseen +grandeur will be found to be a late revelation of all gospels in one." +Could the art of music, or the art of anything have a more profound +reason for being than this? A conception unlimited by the narrow names +of Christian, Pagan, Jew, or Angel! A vision higher and deeper than art +itself! + + +7 + + +The humblest composer will not find true humility in aiming low--he +must never be timid or afraid of trying to express that which he feels +is far above his power to express, any more than he should be afraid of +breaking away, when necessary, from easy first sounds, or afraid of +admitting that those half truths that come to him at rare intervals, +are half true, for instance, that all art galleries contain +masterpieces, which are nothing more than a history of art's beautiful +mistakes. He should never fear of being called a high-brow--but not the +kind in Prof. Brander Matthews' definition. John L. Sullivan was a +"high-brow" in his art. A high-brow can always whip a low-brow. + +If he "truly seeks," he "will surely find" many things to sustain him. +He can go to a part of Alcott's philosophy--"that all occupations of +man's body and soul in their diversity come from but one mind and +soul!" If he feels that to subscribe to all of the foregoing and then +submit, though not as evidence, the work of his own hands is +presumptuous, let him remember that a man is not always responsible for +the wart on his face, or a girl for the bloom on her cheek, and as they +walk out of a Sunday for an airing, people will see them--but they must +have the air. He can remember with Plotinus, "that in every human soul +there is the ray of the celestial beauty," and therefore every human +outburst may contain a partial ray. And he can believe that it is +better to go to the plate and strike out than to hold the bench down, +for by facing the pitcher, he may then know the umpire better, and +possibly see a new parabola. His presumption, if it be that, may be but +a kind of courage juvenal sings about, and no harm can then be done +either side. "Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator." + + +8 + + +To divide by an arbitrary line something that cannot be divided is a +process that is disturbing to some. Perhaps our deductions are not as +inevitable as they are logical, which suggests that they are not +"logic." An arbitrary assumption is never fair to all any of the time, +or to anyone all the time. Many will resent the abrupt separation that +a theory of duality in music suggests and say that these general +subdivisions are too closely inter-related to be labeled +decisively--"this or that." There is justice in this criticism, but our +answer is that it is better to be short on the long than long on the +short. In such an abstruse art as music it is easy for one to point to +this as substance and to that as manner. Some will hold and it is +undeniable--in fact quite obvious--that manner has a great deal to do +with the beauty of substance, and that to make a too arbitrary +division, or distinction between them, is to interfere, to some extent, +with an art's beauty and unity. There is a great deal of truth in this +too. But on the other hand, beauty in music is too often confused with +something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair. Many sounds +that we are used to, do not bother us, and for that reason, we are +inclined to call them beautiful. Frequently,--possibly almost +invariably,--analytical and impersonal tests will show, we believe, +that when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted as beautiful on its +first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the +mind to sleep. A narcotic is not always unnecessary, but it is seldom a +basis of progress,--that is, wholesome evolution in any creative +experience. This kind of progress has a great deal to do with +beauty--at least in its deeper emotional interests, if not in its moral +values. (The above is only a personal impression, but it is based on +carefully remembered instances, during a period of about fifteen or +twenty years.) Possibly the fondness for individual utterance may throw +out a skin-deep arrangement, which is readily accepted as +beautiful--formulae that weaken rather than toughen up the +musical-muscles. If the composer's sincere conception of his art and of +its functions and ideals, coincide to such an extent with these +groove-colored permutations of tried out progressions in expediency, +that he can arrange them over and over again to his transcendent +delight--has he or has he not been drugged with an overdose of +habit-forming sounds? And as a result do not the muscles of his +clientele become flabbier and flabbier until they give way altogether +and find refuge only in a seasoned opera box--where they can see +without thinking? And unity is too generally conceived of, or too +easily accepted as analogous to form, and form (as analogous) to +custom, and custom to habit, and habit may be one of the parents of +custom and form, and there are all kinds of parents. Perhaps all unity +in art, at its inception, is half-natural and half-artificial but time +insists, or at least makes us, or inclines to make us feel that it is +all natural. It is easy for us to accept it as such. The "unity of +dress" for a man at a ball requires a collar, yet he could dance better +without it. Coherence, to a certain extent, must bear some relation to +the listener's subconscious perspective. For example, a critic has to +listen to a thousand concerts a year, in which there is much +repetition, not only of the same pieces, but the same formal relations +of tones, cadences, progressions, etc. There is present a certain +routine series of image-necessity-stimulants, which he doesn't seem to +need until they disappear. Instead of listening to music, he listens +around it. And from this subconscious viewpoint, he inclines perhaps +more to the thinking about than thinking in music. If he could go into +some other line of business for a year or so perhaps his perspective +would be more naturally normal. The unity of a sonata movement has long +been associated with its form, and to a greater extent than is +necessary. A first theme, a development, a second in a related key and +its development, the free fantasia, the recapitulation, and so on, and +over again. Mr. Richter or Mr. Parker may tell us that all this is +natural, for it is based on the classic-song form, but in spite of your +teachers a vague feeling sometimes creeps over you that the form-nature +of the song has been stretched out into deformity. Some claim for +Tchaikowsky that his clarity and coherence of design is unparalleled +(or some such word) in works for the orchestra. That depends, it seems +to us, on how far repetition is an essential part of clarity and +coherence. We know that butter comes from cream--but how long must we +watch the "churning arm!" If nature is not enthusiastic about +explanation, why should Tschaikowsky be? Beethoven had to churn, to +some extent, to make his message carry. He had to pull the ear, hard +and in the same place and several times, for the 1790 ear was tougher +than the 1890 one. But the "great Russian weeper" might have spared us. +To Emerson, "unity and the over-soul, or the common-heart, are +synonymous." Unity is at least nearer to these than to solid geometry, +though geometry may be all unity. + +But to whatever unpleasantness the holding to this theory of duality +brings us, we feel that there is a natural law underneath it all, and +like all laws of nature, a liberal interpretation is the one nearest +the truth. What part of these supplements are opposites? What part of +substance is manner? What part of this duality is polarity? These +questions though not immaterial may be disregarded, if there be a +sincere appreciation (intuition is always sincere) of the "divine" +spirit of the thing. Enthusiasm for, and recognition of these higher +over these lower values will transform a destructive iconoclasm into +creation, and a mere devotion into consecration--a consecration which, +like Amphion's music, will raise the Walls of Thebes. + + +9 + + +Assuming, and then granting, that art-activity can be transformed or +led towards an eventual consecration, by recognizing and using in their +true relation, as much as one can, these higher and lower dual +values--and that the doing so is a part, if not the whole of our old +problem of paralleling or approving in art the highest attributes, +moral and spiritual, one sees in life--if you will grant all this, let +us offer a practical suggestion--a thing that one who has imposed the +foregoing should try to do just out of common decency, though it be but +an attempt, perhaps, to make his speculations less speculative, and to +beat off metaphysics. + +All, men-bards with a divine spark, and bards without, feel the need at +times of an inspiration from without, "the breath of another soul to +stir our inner flame," especially when we are in pursuit of a part of +that "utmost musical beauty," that we are capable of +understanding--when we are breathlessly running to catch a glimpse of +that unforeseen grandeur of Mr. Lanier's dream. In this beauty and +grandeur perhaps marionettes and their souls have a part--though how +great their part is, we hear, is still undetermined; but it is morally +certain that, at times, a part with itself must be some of those +greater contemplations that have been caught in the "World's Soul," as +it were, and nourished for us there in the soil of its literature. + +If an interest in, and a sympathy for, the thought-visions of men like +Charles Kingsley, Marcus Aurelius, Whit tier, Montaigne, Paul of +Tarsus, Robert Browning, Pythagoras, Channing, Milton, Sophocles, +Swedenborg, Thoreau, Francis of Assisi, Wordsworth, Voltaire, Garrison, +Plutarch, Ruskin, Ariosto, and all kindred spirits and souls of great +measure, from David down to Rupert Brooke,--if a study of the thought +of such men creates a sympathy, even a love for them and their +ideal-part, it is certain that this, however inadequately expressed, is +nearer to what music was given man for, than a devotion to "Tristan's +sensual love of Isolde," to the "Tragic Murder of a Drunken Duke," or +to the sad thoughts of a bathtub when the water is being let out. It +matters little here whether a man who paints a picture of a useless +beautiful landscape imperfectly is a greater genius than the man who +paints a useful bad smell perfectly. + +It is not intended in this suggestion that inspirations coming from the +higher planes should be limited to any particular thought or work, as +the mind receives it. The plan rather embraces all that should go with +an expression of the composite-value. It is of the underlying spirit, +the direct unrestricted imprint of one soul on another, a portrait, not +a photograph of the personality--it is the ideal part that would be +caught in this canvas. It is a sympathy for "substance"--the over-value +together with a consciousness that there must be a lower value--the +"Demosthenic part of the Philippics"--the "Ciceronic part of the +Catiline," the sublimity, against the vileness of Rousseau's +Confessions. It is something akin to, but something more than these +predominant partial tones of Hawthorne--"the grand old countenance of +Homer; the decrepit form, but vivid face of Aesop; the dark presence of +Dante; the wild Ariosto; Rabelais' smile of deep-wrought mirth; the +profound, pathetic humor of Cervantes; the all-glorious Shakespeare; +Spenser, meet guest for allegoric structure; the severe divinity of +Milton; and Bunyan, molded of humblest clay, but instinct with +celestial fire." + +There are communities now, partly vanished, but cherished and sacred, +scattered throughout this world of ours, in which freedom of thought +and soul, and even of body, have been fought for. And we believe that +there ever lives in that part of the over-soul, native to them, the +thoughts which these freedom-struggles have inspired. America is not +too young to have its divinities, and its place legends. Many of those +"Transcendent Thoughts" and "Visions" which had their birth beneath our +Concord elms--messages that have brought salvation to many listening +souls throughout the world--are still growing, day by day, to greater +and greater beauty--are still showing clearer and clearer man's way to +God! + +No true composer will take his substance from another finite being--but +there are times, when he feels that his self-expression needs some +liberation from at least a part of his own soul. At such times, shall +he not better turn to those greater souls, rather than to the external, +the immediate, and the "Garish Day"? + +The strains of one man may fall far below the course of those Phaetons +of Concord, or of the Aegean Sea, or of Westmorland--but the greater +the distance his music falls away, the more reason that some greater +man shall bring his nearer those higher spheres. + + +************************************************************** + + +INFO ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + +This edition of Charles Ives' "Essays Before a Sonata" was originally +published in 1920 by The Knickerbocker Press. It has also been +republished unabridged by Dover Publications, Inc., in a 1962 edition, +ISBN 0-486-20320-4. + +This electronic text was prepared by John Mamoun with help from +numerous other proofreaders, including those associated with Charles +Franks' Distributed Proofreaders website. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.05/20/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. +Hart and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all +fees.] [Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in +any sales of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they +hardware or software or any other related product without express +permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by John Mamoun (mamounjo@umdnj.edu) with +help from the Online Distributed Proofreading Team of Charles Franks + + + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS: + +BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH +INTRODUCTORY FOOTNOTE BY CHARLES IVES +INTRODUCTION +I--PROLOGUE +II--EMERSON +III--HAWTHORNE +IV--"THE ALCOTS" +V--THOREAU +VI--EPILOGUE +INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + + +********************************************************** + + +BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH + + +Charles Ives (1874-1954) was probably one of the most psycho- +intellectually brilliant, imaginative and flexible Americans to +ever "walk the land of freedom." A graduate of Yale, he became a +multi-millionaire in the American insurance industry, introducing +brilliant innovations within that industry. He also, unlike a +few composers, found the time and the money (being a shrewd and +practical businessman) to get married and have children. + +His accomplishments for which he is best known, however, are +those in the field of music. At the time of its composition, +Ives' music was probably the most radically modern in history, +and by itself had enough material to serve as the foundation of +modern 20th century music. For example, at the turn of the +century, this eccentric composer created band works featuring +multiple melodies of multiple time signatures opposing and +complimenting each other within the same piece. Ives was also a +revolutionary atonal composer, who created, essentially without +precedent, many atonal works that not only pre-date those of +Schoenberg, but are just as sophisticated, and arguably even more +so, than those of the 12-tone serialist. + +Among those atonal works was his second, "Concord" piano sonata, +one of the finest, and some would say the finest, works of +classical music by an American. It reflects the musical +innovations of its creator, featuring revolutionary atmospheric +effects, unprecedented atonal musical syntax, and surprising +technical approaches to playing the piano, such as pressing down +on over 10 notes simultaneously using a flat piece of wood. + +What a mischievious creative genius! + +And yet, despite the musically innovative nature of these works, +from a thematic standpoint, they are strictly 19th century. +Ives, like American band-composer Sousa, consciously infused +patriotic or "blue-blood" themes into his pieces. In the +"Concord," he attempted to project, within the music, the 19th +century philosophical ideas of the American Transcendentalists, +who obviously had a great impact on his world-view. + +Thus, while other atonal composers such as Schoenberg or Berg +attempted to infuse their music with "20th century" themes of +hostility, violence and estrangement within their atonal music, +the atonal music of Ives is, from a thematic standpoint, really +quite "tonal." + +Ives wrote the following essays as a (very big) set of program +notes to accompany his second piano sonata. Here, he puts forth +his elaborate theory of music and what it represents, and +discusses Transcendental philosophy and its relation to music. +The essays explain Ives' own philosophy of and understanding of +music and art. They also serve as an analysis of music itself as +an artform, and provide a critical explanation of the "Concord" +and the role that the philosophies of Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau +and the Alcotts play in forming its thematic structure. + + +************************************************************* +"ESSAYS BEFORE A SONATA," BY CHARLES IVES +************************************************************* + + +INTRODUCTORY FOOTNOTE BY CHARLES IVES + + +"These prefatory essays were written by the composer for those +who can't stand his music--and the music for those who can't +stand his essays; to those who can't stand either, the whole is +respectfully dedicated." + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The following pages were written primarily as a preface or reason +for the [writer's] second Pianoforte Sonata--"Concord, Mass., +1845,"--a group of four pieces, called a sonata for want of a +more exact name, as the form, perhaps substance, does not justify +it. The music and prefaces were intended to be printed together, +but as it was found that this would make a cumbersome volume they +are separate. The whole is an attempt to present [one person's] +impression of the spirit of transcendentalism that is associated +in the minds of many with Concord, Mass., of over a half century +ago. This is undertaken in impressionistic pictures of Emerson +and Thoreau, a sketch of the Alcotts, and a Scherzo supposed to +reflect a lighter quality which is often found in the fantastic +side of Hawthorne. The first and last movements do not aim to +give any programs of the life or of any particular work of either +Emerson or Thoreau but rather composite pictures or impressions. +They are, however, so general in outline that, from some +viewpoints, they may be as far from accepted impressions (from +true conceptions, for that matter) as the valuation which they +purport to be of the influence of the life, thought, and +character of Emerson and Thoreau is inadequate. + + +I--Prologue + + +How far is anyone justified, be he an authority or a layman, in +expressing or trying to express in terms of music (in sounds, if +you like) the value of anything, material, moral, intellectual, +or spiritual, which is usually expressed in terms other than +music? How far afield can music go and keep honest as well as +reasonable or artistic? Is it a matter limited only by the +composer's power of expressing what lies in his subjective or +objective consciousness? Or is it limited by any limitations of +the composer? Can a tune literally represent a stonewall with +vines on it or with nothing on it, though it (the tune) be made +by a genius whose power of objective contemplation is in the +highest state of development? Can it be done by anything short of +an act of mesmerism on the part of the composer or an act of +kindness on the part of the listener? Does the extreme +materializing of music appeal strongly to anyone except to those +without a sense of humor--or rather with a sense of humor?--or, +except, possibly to those who might excuse it, as Herbert Spencer +might by the theory that the sensational element (the sensations +we hear so much about in experimental psychology) is the true +pleasurable phenomenon in music and that the mind should not be +allowed to interfere? Does the success of program music depend +more upon the program than upon the music? If it does, what is +the use of the music, if it does not, what is the use of the +program? Does not its appeal depend to a great extent on the +listener's willingness to accept the theory that music is the +language of the emotions and ONLY that? Or inversely does not +this theory tend to limit music to programs?--a limitation as bad +for music itself--for its wholesome progress,--as a diet of +program music is bad for the listener's ability to digest +anything beyond the sensuous (or physical-emotional). To a great +extent this depends on what is meant by emotion or on the +assumption that the word as used above refers more to the +EXPRESSION, of, rather than to a meaning in a deeper sense--which +may be a feeling influenced by some experience perhaps of a +spiritual nature in the expression of which the intellect has +some part. "The nearer we get to the mere expression of emotion," +says Professor Sturt in his "Philosophy of Art and Personality," +"as in the antics of boys who have been promised a holiday, the +further we get away from art." + +On the other hand is not all music, program-music,--is not pure +music, so called, representative in its essence? Is it not +program-music raised to the nth power or rather reduced to the +minus nth power? Where is the line to be drawn between the +expression of subjective and objective emotion? It is easier to +know what each is than when each becomes what it is. The +"Separateness of Art" theory--that art is not life but a +reflection of it--"that art is not vital to life but that life is +vital to it," does not help us. Nor does Thoreau who says not +that "life is art," but that "life is an art," which of course is +a different thing than the foregoing. Tolstoi is even more +helpless to himself and to us. For he eliminates further. From +his definition of art we may learn little more than that a kick +in the back is a work of art, and Beethoven's 9th Symphony is +not. Experiences are passed on from one man to another. Abel knew +that. And now we know it. But where is the bridge placed?--at the +end of the road or only at the end of our vision? Is it all a +bridge?--or is there no bridge because there is no gulf? Suppose +that a composer writes a piece of music conscious that he is +inspired, say, by witnessing an act of great self-sacrifice-- +another piece by the contemplation of a certain trait of nobility +he perceives in a friend's character--and another by the sight of +a mountain lake under moonlight. The first two, from an +inspirational standpoint would naturally seem to come under the +subjective and the last under the objective, yet the chances are, +there is something of the quality of both in all. There may have +been in the first instance physical action so intense or so +dramatic in character that the remembrance of it aroused a great +deal more objective emotion than the composer was conscious of +while writing the music. In the third instance, the music may +have been influenced strongly though subconsciously by a vague +remembrance of certain thoughts and feelings, perhaps of a deep +religious or spiritual nature, which suddenly came to him upon +realizing the beauty of the scene and which overpowered the first +sensuous pleasure--perhaps some such feeling as of the conviction +of immortality, that Thoreau experienced and tells about in +Walden. "I penetrated to those meadows...when the wild river and +the woods were bathed in so pure and bright a light as would have +waked the dead IF they had been slumbering in their graves as +some suppose. There needs no stronger proof of immortality." +Enthusiasm must permeate it, but what it is that inspires an art- +effort is not easily determined much less classified. The word +"inspire" is used here in the sense of cause rather than effect. +A critic may say that a certain movement is not inspired. But +that may be a matter of taste--perhaps the most inspired music +sounds the least so--to the critic. A true inspiration may lack a +true expression unless it is assumed that if an inspiration is +not true enough to produce a true expression--(if there be anyone +who can definitely determine what a true expression is)--it is +not an inspiration at all. + +Again suppose the same composer at another time writes a piece of +equal merit to the other three, as estimates go; but holds that +he is not conscious of what inspired it--that he had nothing +definite in mind--that he was not aware of any mental image or +process--that, naturally, the actual work in creating something +gave him a satisfying feeling of pleasure perhaps of elation. +What will you substitute for the mountain lake, for his friend's +character, etc.? Will you substitute anything? If so why? If so +what? Or is it enough to let the matter rest on the pleasure +mainly physical, of the tones, their color, succession, and +relations, formal or informal? Can an inspiration come from a +blank mind? Well--he tries to explain and says that he was +conscious of some emotional excitement and of a sense of +something beautiful, he doesn't know exactly what--a vague +feeling of exaltation or perhaps of profound sadness. + +What is the source of these instinctive feelings, these vague +intuitions and introspective sensations? The more we try to +analyze the more vague they become. To pull them apart and +classify them as "subjective" or "objective" or as this or as +that, means, that they may be well classified and that is about +all: it leaves us as far from the origin as ever. What does it +all mean? What is behind it all? The "voice of God," says the +artist, "the voice of the devil," says the man in the front row. +Are we, because we are, human beings, born with the power of +innate perception of the beautiful in the abstract so that an +inspiration can arise through no external stimuli of sensation or +experience,--no association with the outward? Or was there +present in the above instance, some kind of subconscious, +instantaneous, composite image, of all the mountain lakes this +man had ever seen blended as kind of overtones with the various +traits of nobility of many of his friends embodied in one +personality? Do all inspirational images, states, conditions, or +whatever they may be truly called, have for a dominant part, if +not for a source, some actual experience in life or of the social +relation? To think that they do not--always at least--would be a +relief; but as we are trying to consider music made and heard by +human beings (and not by birds or angels) it seems difficult to +suppose that even subconscious images can be separated from some +human experience--there must be something behind subconsciousness +to produce consciousness, and so on. But whatever the elements +and origin of these so-called images are, that they DO stir deep +emotional feelings and encourage their expression is a part of +the unknowable we know. They do often arouse something that has +not yet passed the border line between subconsciousness and +consciousness--an artistic intuition (well named, but)--object +and cause unknown!--here is a program!--conscious or subconscious +what does it matter? Why try to trace any stream that flows +through the garden of consciousness to its source only to be +confronted by another problem of tracing this source to its +source? Perhaps Emerson in the _Rhodora_ answers by not trying to +explain + +That if eyes were made for seeing Then beauty is its own excuse +for being: Why thou wert there, O, rival of the rose! I never +thought to ask, I never knew; But, in my simple ignorance, +suppose The self-same Power that brought me there brought you. + +Perhaps Sturt answers by substitution: "We cannot explain the +origin of an artistic intuition any more than the origin of any +other primary function of our nature. But if as I believe +civilization is mainly founded on those kinds of unselfish human +interests which we call knowledge and morality it is easily +intelligible that we should have a parallel interest which we +call art closely akin and lending powerful support to the other +two. It is intelligible too that moral goodness, intellectual +power, high vitality, and strength should be approved by the +intuition." This reduces, or rather brings the problem back to a +tangible basis namely:--the translation of an artistic intuition +into musical sounds approving and reflecting, or endeavoring to +approve and reflect, a "moral goodness," a "high vitality," etc., +or any other human attribute mental, moral, or spiritual. + +Can music do MORE than this? Can it DO this? and if so who and +what is to determine the degree of its failure or success? The +composer, the performer (if there be any), or those who have to +listen? One hearing or a century of hearings?-and if it isn't +successful or if it doesn't fail what matters it?--the fear of +failure need keep no one from the attempt for if the composer is +sensitive he need but launch forth a countercharge of "being +misunderstood" and hide behind it. A theme that the composer sets +up as "moral goodness" may sound like "high vitality," to his +friend and but like an outburst of "nervous weakness" or only a +"stagnant pool" to those not even his enemies. Expression to a +great extent is a matter of terms and terms are anyone's. The +meaning of "God" may have a billion interpretations if there be +that many souls in the world. + +There is a moral in the "Nominalist and Realist" that will prove +all sums. It runs something like this: No matter how sincere and +confidential men are in trying to know or assuming that they do +know each other's mood and habits of thought, the net result +leaves a feeling that all is left unsaid; for the reason of their +incapacity to know each other, though they use the same words. +They go on from one explanation to another but things seem to +stand about as they did in the beginning "because of that vicious +assumption." But we would rather believe that music is beyond any +analogy to word language and that the time is coming, but not in +our lifetime, when it will develop possibilities unconceivable +now,--a language, so transcendent, that its heights and depths +will be common to all mankind. + + +II--Emerson + + +1 + + +It has seemed to the writer, that Emerson is greater--his +identity more complete perhaps--in the realms of revelation-- +natural disclosure--than in those of poetry, philosophy, or +prophecy. Though a great poet and prophet, he is greater, +possibly, as an invader of the unknown,--America's deepest +explorer of the spiritual immensities,--a seer painting his +discoveries in masses and with any color that may lie at hand-- +cosmic, religious, human, even sensuous; a recorder, freely +describing the inevitable struggle in the soul's uprise-- +perceiving from this inward source alone, that every "ultimate +fact is only the first of a new series"; a discoverer, whose +heart knows, with Voltaire, "that man seriously reflects when +left alone," and would then discover, if he can, that "wondrous +chain which links the heavens with earth--the world of beings +subject to one law." In his reflections Emerson, unlike Plato, is +not afraid to ride Arion's Dolphin, and to go wherever he is +carried--to Parnassus or to "Musketaquid." + +We see him standing on a summit, at the door of the infinite +where many men do not care to climb, peering into the mysteries +of life, contemplating the eternities, hurling back whatever he +discovers there,--now, thunderbolts for us to grasp, if we can, +and translate--now placing quietly, even tenderly, in our hands, +things that we may see without effort--if we won't see them, so +much the worse for us. + +We see him,--a mountain-guide, so intensely on the lookout for +the trail of his star, that he has no time to stop and retrace +his footprints, which may often seem indistinct to his followers, +who find it easier and perhaps safer to keep their eyes on the +ground. And there is a chance that this guide could not always +retrace his steps if he tried--and why should he!--he is on the +road, conscious only that, though his star may not lie within +walking distance, he must reach it before his wagon can be +hitched to it--a Prometheus illuminating a privilege of the Gods- +-lighting a fuse that is laid towards men. Emerson reveals the +less not by an analysis of itself, but by bringing men towards +the greater. He does not try to reveal, personally, but leads, +rather, to a field where revelation is a harvest-part, where it +is known by the perceptions of the soul towards the absolute law. +He leads us towards this law, which is a realization of what +experience has suggested and philosophy hoped for. He leads us, +conscious that the aspects of truth, as he sees them, may change +as often as truth remains constant. Revelation perhaps, is but +prophecy intensified--the intensifying of its mason-work as well +as its steeple. Simple prophecy, while concerned with the past, +reveals but the future, while revelation is concerned with all +time. The power in Emerson's prophecy confuses it with--or at +least makes it seem to approach--revelation. It is prophecy with +no time element. Emerson tells, as few bards could, of what will +happen in the past, for his future is eternity and the past is a +part of that. And so like all true prophets, he is always modern, +and will grow modern with the years--for his substance is not +relative but a measure of eternal truths determined rather by a +universalist than by a partialist. He measured, as Michel Angelo +said true artists should, "with the eye and not the hand." But to +attribute modernism to his substance, though not to his +expression, is an anachronism--and as futile as calling today's +sunset modern. + +As revelation and prophecy, in their common acceptance are +resolved by man, from the absolute and universal, to the relative +and personal, and as Emerson's tendency is fundamentally the +opposite, it is easier, safer and so apparently clearer, to think +of him as a poet of natural and revealed philosophy. And as such, +a prophet--but not one to be confused with those singing +soothsayers, whose pockets are filled, as are the pockets of +conservative-reaction and radical demagoguery in pulpit, street- +corner, bank and columns, with dogmatic fortune-tellings. +Emerson, as a prophet in these lower heights, was a conservative, +in that he seldom lost his head, and a radical, in that he seldom +cared whether he lost it or not. He was a born radical as are all +true conservatives. He was too much "absorbed by the absolute," +too much of the universal to be either--though he could be both +at once. To Cotton Mather, he would have been a demagogue, to a +real demagogue he would not be understood, as it was with no self +interest that he laid his hand on reality. The nearer any subject +or an attribute of it, approaches to the perfect truth at its +base, the more does qualification become necessary. Radicalism +must always qualify itself. Emerson clarifies as he qualifies, by +plunging into, rather than "emerging from Carlyle's +soul-confusing labyrinths of speculative radicalism." The +radicalism that we hear much about today, is not Emerson's kind-- +but of thinner fiber--it qualifies itself by going to _A_ "root" +and often cutting other roots in the process; it is usually +impotent as dynamite in its cause and sometimes as harmful to the +wholesome progress of all causes; it is qualified by its failure. +But the Radicalism of Emerson plunges to all roots, it becomes +greater than itself--greater than all its formal or informal +doctrines--too advanced and too conservative for any specific +result--too catholic for all the churches--for the nearer it is +to truth, the farther it is from a truth, and the more it is +qualified by its future possibilities. + +Hence comes the difficulty--the futility of attempting to fasten +on Emerson any particular doctrine, philosophic, or religious +theory. Emerson wrings the neck of any law, that would become +exclusive and arrogant, whether a definite one of metaphysics or +an indefinite one of mechanics. He hacks his way up and down, as +near as he can to the absolute, the oneness of all nature both +human and spiritual, and to God's benevolence. To him the +ultimate of a conception is its vastness, and it is probably +this, rather than the "blind-spots" in his expression that makes +us incline to go with him but half-way; and then stand and build +dogmas. But if we can not follow all the way--if we do not always +clearly perceive the whole picture, we are at least free to +imagine it--he makes us feel that we are free to do so; perhaps +that is the most he asks. For he is but reaching out through and +beyond mankind, trying to see what he can of the infinite and its +immensities--throwing back to us whatever he can--but ever +conscious that he but occasionally catches a glimpse; conscious +that if he would contemplate the greater, he must wrestle with +the lesser, even though it dims an outline; that he must struggle +if he would hurl back anything--even a broken fragment for men to +examine and perchance in it find a germ of some part of truth; +conscious at times, of the futility of his effort and its +message, conscious of its vagueness, but ever hopeful for it, and +confident that its foundation, if not its medium is somewhere +near the eventual and "absolute good" the divine truth underlying +all life. If Emerson must be dubbed an optimist--then an optimist +fighting pessimism, but not wallowing in it; an optimist, who +does not study pessimism by learning to enjoy it, whose +imagination is greater than his curiosity, who seeing the sign- +post to Erebus, is strong enough to go the other way. This +strength of optimism, indeed the strength we find always +underlying his tolerance, his radicalism, his searches, +prophecies, and revelations, is heightened and made efficient by +"imagination-penetrative," a thing concerned not with the +combining but the apprehending of things. A possession, akin to +the power, Ruskin says, all great pictures have, which "depends +on the penetration of the imagination into the true nature of the +thing represented, and on the scorn of the imagination for all +shackles and fetters of mere external fact that stand in the way +of its suggestiveness"--a possession which gives the strength of +distance to his eyes, and the strength of muscle to his soul. +With this he slashes down through the loam--nor would he have us +rest there. If we would dig deep enough only to plant a doctrine, +from one part of him, he would show us the quick-silver in that +furrow. If we would creed his Compensation, there is hardly a +sentence that could not wreck it, or could not show that the idea +is no tenet of a philosophy, but a clear (though perhaps not +clearly hurled on the canvas) illustration of universal justice-- +of God's perfect balances; a story of the analogy or better the +identity of polarity and duality in Nature with that in morality. +The essay is no more a doctrine than the law of gravitation is. +If we would stop and attribute too much to genius, he shows us +that "what is best written or done by genius in the world, was no +one man's work, but came by wide social labor, when a thousand +wrought like one, sharing the same impulse." If we would find in +his essay on Montaigne, a biography, we are shown a biography of +scepticism--and in reducing this to relation between "sensation +and the morals" we are shown a true Montaigne--we know the man +better perhaps by this less presentation. If we would stop and +trust heavily on the harvest of originality, he shows us that +this plant--this part of the garden--is but a relative thing. It +is dependent also on the richness that ages have put into the +soil. "Every thinker is retrospective." + +Thus is Emerson always beating down through the crust towards the +first fire of life, of death and of eternity. Read where you +will, each sentence seems not to point to the next but to the +undercurrent of all. If you would label his a religion of ethics +or of morals, he shames you at the outset, "for ethics is but a +reflection of a divine personality." All the religions this world +has ever known, have been but the aftermath of the ethics of one +or another holy person; "as soon as character appears be sure +love will"; "the intuition of the moral sentiment is but the +insight of the perfection of the laws of the soul"; but these +laws cannot be catalogued. + +If a versatilist, a modern Goethe, for instance, could put all of +Emerson's admonitions into practice, a constant permanence would +result,--an eternal short-circuit--a focus of equal X-rays. Even +the value or success of but one precept is dependent, like that +of a ball-game as much on the batting-eye as on the pitching-arm. +The inactivity of permanence is what Emerson will not permit. He +will not accept repose against the activity of truth. But this +almost constant resolution of every insight towards the absolute +may get a little on one's nerves, if one is at all partial-wise +to the specific; one begins to ask what is the absolute anyway, +and why try to look clear through the eternities and the +unknowable even out of the other end. Emerson's fondness for +flying to definite heights on indefinite wings, and the tendency +to over-resolve, becomes unsatisfying to the impatient, who want +results to come as they walk. Probably this is a reason that it +is occasionally said that Emerson has no vital message for the +rank and file. He has no definite message perhaps for the +literal, but messages are all vital, as much, by reason of his +indefiniteness, as in spite of it. + +There is a suggestion of irony in the thought that the power of +his vague but compelling vitality, which ever sweeps us on in +spite of ourselves, might not have been his, if it had not been +for those definite religious doctrines of the old New England +theologians. For almost two centuries, Emerson's mental and +spiritual muscles had been in training for him in the moral and +intellectual contentions, a part of the religious exercise of his +forebears. A kind of higher sensitiveness seems to culminate in +him. It gives him a power of searching for a wider freedom of +soul than theirs. The religion of Puritanism was based to a great +extent, on a search for the unknowable, limited only by the dogma +of its theology--a search for a path, so that the soul could +better be conducted to the next world, while Emerson's +transcendentalism was based on the wider search for the +unknowable, unlimited in any way or by anything except the vast +bounds of innate goodness, as it might be revealed to him in any +phenomena of man, Nature, or God. This distinction, tenuous, in +spite of the definite-sounding words, we like to believe has +something peculiar to Emerson in it. We like to feel that it +superimposes the one that makes all transcendentalism but an +intellectual state, based on the theory of innate ideas, the +reality of thought and the necessity of its freedom. For the +philosophy of the religion, or whatever you will call it, of the +Concord Transcendentalists is at least, more than an intellectual +state--it has even some of the functions of the Puritan church-- +it is a spiritual state in which both soul and mind can better +conduct themselves in this world, and also in the next--when the +time comes. The search of the Puritan was rather along the path +of logic, spiritualized, and the transcendentalist of reason, +spiritualized--a difference in a broad sense between objective +and subjective contemplation. + +The dislike of inactivity, repose and barter, drives one to the +indefinite subjective. Emerson's lack of interest in permanence +may cause him to present a subjectivity harsher on the outside +than is essential. His very universalism occasionally seems a +limitation. Somewhere here may lie a weakness--real to some, +apparent to others--a weakness in so far as his relation becomes +less vivid--to the many; insofar as he over-disregards the +personal unit in the universal. If Genius is the most indebted, +how much does it owe to those who would, but do not easily ride +with it? If there is a weakness here is it the fault of substance +or only of manner? If of the former, there is organic error +somewhere, and Emerson will become less and less valuable to man. +But this seems impossible, at least to us. Without considering +his manner or expression here (it forms the general subject of +the second section of this paper), let us ask if Emerson's +substance needs an affinity, a supplement or even a complement or +a gangplank? And if so, of what will it be composed? + +Perhaps Emerson could not have risen to his own, if it had not +been for his Unitarian training and association with the +churchmen emancipators. "Christianity is founded on, and supposes +the authority of, reason, and cannot therefore oppose it, without +subverting itself."..."Its office is to discern universal truths, +great and eternal principles...the highest power of the soul." +Thus preached Channing. Who knows but this pulpit aroused the +younger Emerson to the possibilities of intuitive reasoning in +spiritual realms? The influence of men like Channing in his fight +for the dignity of human nature, against the arbitrary +revelations that Calvinism had strapped on the church, and for +the belief in the divine in human reason, doubtless encouraged +Emerson in his unshackled search for the infinite, and gave him +premises which he later took for granted instead of carrying them +around with him. An over-interest, not an under-interest in +Christian ideal aims, may have caused him to feel that the +definite paths were well established and doing their share, and +that for some to reach the same infinite ends, more paths might +be opened--paths which would in themselves, and in a more +transcendent way, partake of the spiritual nature of the land in +quest,--another expression of God's Kingdom in Man. Would you +have the indefinite paths ALWAYS supplemented by the shadow of +the definite one of a first influence? + +A characteristic of rebellion, is that its results are often +deepest, when the rebel breaks not from the worst to the +greatest, but from the great to the greater. The youth of the +rebel increases this characteristic. The innate rebellious spirit +in young men is active and buoyant. They could rebel against and +improve the millennium. This excess of enthusiasm at the +inception of a movement, causes loss of perspective; a natural +tendency to undervalue the great in that which is being taken as +a base of departure. A "youthful sedition" of Emerson was his +withdrawal from the communion, perhaps, the most socialistic +doctrine (or rather symbol) of the church--a "commune" above +property or class. + +Picking up an essay on religion of a rather remarkable-minded +boy--perhaps with a touch of genius--written when he was still in +college, and so serving as a good illustration in point--we +read--"Every thinking man knows that the church is dead." But +every thinking man knows that the church-part of the church +always has been dead--that part seen by candle-light, not Christ- +light. Enthusiasm is restless and hasn't time to see that if the +church holds itself as nothing but the symbol of the greater +light it is life itself--as a symbol of a symbol it is dead. Many +of the sincerest followers of Christ never heard of Him. It is +the better influence of an institution that arouses in the deep +and earnest souls a feeling of rebellion to make its aims more +certain. It is their very sincerity that causes these seekers for +a freer vision to strike down for more fundamental, universal, +and perfect truths, but with such feverish enthusiasm, that they +appear to overthink themselves--a subconscious way of going +Godward perhaps. The rebel of the twentieth century says: "Let us +discard God, immortality, miracle--but be not untrue to +ourselves." Here he, no doubt, in a sincere and exalted moment, +confuses God with a name. He apparently feels that there is a +separable difference between natural and revealed religion. He +mistakes the powers behind them, to be fundamentally separate. In +the excessive keenness of his search, he forgets that "being true +to ourselves" IS God, that the faintest thought of immortality IS +God, and that God is "miracle." Over-enthusiasm keeps one from +letting a common experience of a day translate what is stirring +the soul. The same inspiring force that arouses the young rebel, +brings later in life a kind of "experience-afterglow," a +realization that the soul cannot discard or limit anything. Would +you have the youthful enthusiasm of rebellion, which Emerson +carried beyond his youth always supplemented by the shadow of +experience? + +Perhaps it is not the narrow minded alone that have no interest +in anything, but in its relation to their personality. Is the +Christian Religion, to which Emerson owes embryo-ideals, anything +but the revelation of God in a personality--a revelation so that +the narrow mind could become opened? But the tendency to over- +personalize personality may also have suggested to Emerson the +necessity for more universal, and impersonal paths, though they +be indefinite of outline and vague of ascent. Could you journey, +with equal benefit, if they were less so? Would you have the +universal always supplemented by the shadow of the personal? If +this view is accepted, and we doubt that it can be by the +majority, Emerson's substance could well bear a supplement, +perhaps an affinity. Something that will support that which some +conceive he does not offer. Something that will help answer Alton +Locke's question: "What has Emerson for the working-man?" and +questions of others who look for the gang-plank before the ship +comes in sight. Something that will supply the definite banister +to the infinite, which it is said he keeps invisible. Something +that will point a crossroad from "his personal" to "his nature." +Something that may be in Thoreau or Wordsworth, or in another +poet whose songs "breathe of a new morning of a higher life +though a definite beauty in Nature"--or something that will show +the birth of his ideal and hold out a background of revealed +religion, as a perspective to his transcendent religion--a +counterpoise in his rebellion--which we feel Channing or Dr. +Bushnell, or other saints known and unknown might supply. + +If the arc must be completed--if there are those who would have +the great, dim outlines of Emerson fulfilled, it is fortunate +that there are Bushnells, and Wordsworths, to whom they may +appeal--to say nothing of the Vedas, the Bible, or their own +souls. But such possibilities and conceptions, the deeper they +are received, the more they seem to reduce their need. Emerson's +Circle may be a better whole, without its complement. Perhaps his +"unsatiable demand for unity, the need to recognize one nature in +all variety of objects," would have been impaired, if something +should make it simpler for men to find the identity they at first +want in his substance. "Draw if thou canst the mystic line +severing rightly his from thine, which is human, which divine." +Whatever means one would use to personalize Emerson's natural +revelation, whether by a vision or a board walk, the vastness of +his aims and the dignity of his tolerance would doubtless cause +him to accept or at least try to accept, and use "magically as a +part of his fortune." He would modestly say, perhaps, "that the +world is enlarged for him, not by finding new objects, but by +more affinities, and potencies than those he already has." But, +indeed, is not enough manifestation already there? Is not the +asking that it be made more manifest forgetting that "we are not +strong by our power to penetrate, but by our relatedness?" Will +more signs create a greater sympathy? Is not our weak suggestion +needed only for those content with their own hopelessness? + +Others may lead others to him, but he finds his problem in making +"gladness hope and fortitude flow from his page," rather than in +arranging that our hearts be there to receive it. The first is +his duty--the last ours! + + +2 + + +A devotion to an end tends to undervalue the means. A power of +revelation may make one more concerned about his perceptions of +the soul's nature than the way of their disclosure. Emerson is +more interested in what he perceives than in his expression of +it. He is a creator whose intensity is consumed more with the +substance of his creation than with the manner by which he shows +it to others. Like Petrarch he seems more a discoverer of Beauty +than an imparter of it. But these discoveries, these devotions to +aims, these struggles toward the absolute, do not these in +themselves, impart something, if not all, of their own unity and +coherence--which is not received, as such, at first, nor is +foremost in their expression. It must be remembered that "truth" +was what Emerson was after--not strength of outline, or even +beauty except in so far as they might reveal themselves, +naturally, in his explorations towards the infinite. To think +hard and deeply and to say what is thought, regardless of +consequences, may produce a first impression, either of great +translucence, or of great muddiness, but in the latter there may +be hidden possibilities. Some accuse Brahms' orchestration of +being muddy. This may be a good name for a first impression of +it. But if it should seem less so, he might not be saying what he +thought. The mud may be a form of sincerity which demands that +the heart be translated, rather than handed around through the +pit. A clearer scoring might have lowered the thought. Carlyle +told Emerson that some of his paragraphs didn't cohere. Emerson +wrote by sentences or phrases, rather than by logical sequence. +His underlying plan of work seems based on the large unity of a +series of particular aspects of a subject, rather than on the +continuity of its expression. As thoughts surge to his mind, he +fills the heavens with them, crowds them in, if necessary, but +seldom arranges them, along the ground first. Among class-room +excuses for Emerson's imperfect coherence and lack of unity, is +one that remembers that his essays were made from lecture notes. +His habit, often in lecturing, was to compile his ideas as they +came to him on a general subject, in scattered notes, and when on +the platform, to trust to the mood of the occasion, to assemble +them. This seems a specious explanation, though true to fact. +Vagueness, is at times, an indication of nearness to a perfect +truth. The definite glory of Bernard of Cluny's Celestial City, +is more beautiful than true--probably. Orderly reason does not +always have to be a visible part of all great things. Logic may +possibly require that unity means something ascending in self- +evident relation to the parts and to the whole, with no ellipsis +in the ascent. But reason may permit, even demand an ellipsis, +and genius may not need the self-evident part. In fact, these +parts may be the "blind-spots" in the progress of unity. They may +be filled with little but repetition. "Nature loves analogy and +hates repetition." Botany reveals evolution not permanence. An +apparent confusion if lived with long enough may become orderly. +Emerson was not writing for lazy minds, though one of the keenest +of his academic friends said that, he (Emerson) could not explain +many of his own pages. But why should he!--he explained them when +he discovered them--the moment before he spoke or wrote them. A +rare experience of a moment at daybreak, when something in nature +seems to reveal all consciousness, cannot be explained at noon. +Yet it is a part of the day's unity. At evening, nature is +absorbed by another experience. She dislikes to explain as much +as to repeat. It is conceivable, that what is unified form to the +author, or composer, may of necessity be formless to his +audience. A home-run will cause more unity in the grand stand +than in the season's batting average. If a composer once starts +to compromise, his work will begin to drag on HIM. Before the end +is reached, his inspiration has all gone up in sounds pleasing to +his audience, ugly to him--sacrificed for the first acoustic--an +opaque clarity, a picture painted for its hanging. Easy unity, +like easy virtue, is easier to describe, when judged from its +lapses than from its constancy. When the infidel admits God is +great, he means only: "I am lazy--it is easier to talk than +live." Ruskin also says: "Suppose I like the finite curves best, +who shall say I'm right or wrong? No one. It is simply a question +of experience." You may not be able to experience a symphony, +even after twenty performances. Initial coherence today may be +dullness tomorrow probably because formal or outward unity +depends so much on repetition, sequences, antitheses, paragraphs +with inductions and summaries. Macaulay had that kind of unity. +Can you read him today? Emerson rather goes out and shouts: "I'm +thinking of the sun's glory today and I'll let his light shine +through me. I'll say any damn thing that this inspires me with." +Perhaps there are flashes of light, still in cipher, kept there +by unity, the code of which the world has not yet discovered. The +unity of one sentence inspires the unity of the whole--though its +physique is as ragged as the Dolomites. + +Intense lights--vague shadows--great pillars in a horizon are +difficult things to nail signboards to. Emerson's outward-inward +qualities make him hard to classify, but easy for some. There are +many who like to say that he--even all the Concord men--are +intellectuals. Perhaps--but intellectuals who wear their brains +nearer the heart than some of their critics. It is as dangerous +to determine a characteristic by manner as by mood. Emerson is a +pure intellectual to those who prefer to take him as literally as +they can. There are reformers, and in "the form" lies their +interest, who prefer to stand on the plain, and then insist they +see from the summit. Indolent legs supply the strength of eye for +their inspiration. The intellect is never a whole. It is where +the soul finds things. It is often the only track to the over- +values. It appears a whole--but never becomes one even in the +stock exchange, or the convent, or the laboratory. In the +cleverest criminal, it is but a way to a low ideal. It can never +discard the other part of its duality--the soul or the void where +the soul ought to be. So why classify a quality always so +relative that it is more an agency than substance; a quality that +disappears when classified. "The life of the All must stream +through us to make the man and the moment great." A sailor with a +precious cargo doesn't analyze the water. Because Emerson had +generations of Calvinistic sermons in his blood, some +cataloguers, would localize or provincialize him, with the +sternness of the old Puritan mind. They make him THAT, hold him +THERE. They lean heavily on what they find of the above influence +in him. They won't follow the rivers in his thought and the play +of his soul. And their cousin cataloguers put him in another +pigeon-hole. They label him "ascetic." They translate his outward +serenity into an impression of severity. But truth keeps one from +being hysterical. Is a demagogue a friend of the people because +he will lie to them to make them cry and raise false hopes? A +search for perfect truths throws out a beauty more spiritual than +sensuous. A sombre dignity of style is often confused by under- +imagination and by surface-sentiment, with austerity. If +Emerson's manner is not always beautiful in accordance with +accepted standards, why not accept a few other standards? He is +an ascetic, in that he refuses to compromise content with manner. +But a real ascetic is an extremist who has but one height. Thus +may come the confusion, of one who says that Emerson carries him +high, but then leaves him always at THAT height--no higher--a +confusion, mistaking a latent exultation for an ascetic reserve. +The rules of Thorough Bass can be applied to his scale of flight +no more than they can to the planetary system. Jadassohn, if +Emerson were literally a composer, could no more analyze his +harmony than a guide-to-Boston could. A microscope might show +that he uses chords of the 9th, 1lth, or the 99th, but a lens far +different tells us they are used with different aims from those +of Debussy. Emerson is definite in that his art is based on +something stronger than the amusing or at its best the beguiling +of a few mortals. If he uses a sensuous chord, it is not for +sensual ears. His harmonies may float, if the wind blows in that +direction, through a voluptuous atmosphere, but he has not +Debussy's fondness for trying to blow a sensuous atmosphere from +his own voluptuous cheeks. And so he is an ascetic! There is a +distance between jowl and soul--and it is not measured by the +fraction of an inch between Concord and Paris. On the other hand, +if one thinks that his harmony contains no dramatic chords, +because no theatrical sound is heard, let him listen to the +finale of "Success," or of "Spiritual Laws," or to some of the +poems, "Brahma" or "Sursum Corda," for example. Of a truth his +Codas often seem to crystallize in a dramatic, though serene and +sustained way, the truths of his subject--they become more active +and intense, but quieter and deeper. + +Then there comes along another set of cataloguers. They put him +down as a "classicist," or a romanticist, or an eclectic. Because +a prophet is a child of romanticism--because revelation is +classic, because eclecticism quotes from eclectic Hindu +Philosophy, a more sympathetic cataloguer may say, that Emerson +inspires courage of the quieter kind and delight of the higher +kind. + +The same well-bound school teacher who told the boys that Thoreau +was a naturalist because he didn't like to work, puts down +Emerson as a "classic," and Hawthorne as a "romantic." A loud +voice made this doubly TRUE and SURE to be on the examination +paper. But this teacher of "truth AND dogma" apparently forgot +that there is no such thing as "classicism or romanticism." One +has but to go to the various definitions of these to know that. +If you go to a classic definition you know what a true classic +is, and similarly a "true romantic." But if you go to both, you +have an algebraic formula, x = x, a cancellation, an apercu, and +hence satisfying; if you go to all definitions you have another +formula x > x, a destruction, another apercu, and hence +satisfying. Professor Beers goes to the dictionary (you wouldn't +think a college professor would be as reckless as that). And so +he can say that "romantic" is "pertaining to the style of the +Christian and popular literature of the Middle Ages," a Roman +Catholic mode of salvation (not this definition but having a +definition). And so Prof. B. can say that Walter Scott is a +romanticist (and Billy Phelps a classic--sometimes). But for our +part Dick Croker is a classic and job a romanticist. Another +professor, Babbitt by name, links up Romanticism with Rousseau, +and charges against it many of man's troubles. He somehow likes +to mix it up with sin. He throws saucers at it, but in a +scholarly, interesting, sincere, and accurate way. He uncovers a +deformed foot, gives it a name, from which we are allowed to +infer that the covered foot is healthy and named classicism. But +no Christian Scientist can prove that Christ never had a stomach- +ache. The Architecture of Humanism [Footnote: Geoffrey Scott +(Constable & Co.)] tells us that "romanticism consists of...a +poetic sensibility towards the remote, as such." But is Plato a +classic or towards the remote? Is Classicism a poor relation of +time--not of man? Is a thing classic or romantic because it is or +is not passed by that biologic--that indescribable stream-of- +change going on in all life? Let us settle the point for "good," +and say that a thing is classic if it is thought of in terms of +the past and romantic if thought of in terms of the future--and a +thing thought of in terms of the present is--well, that is +impossible! Hence, we allow ourselves to say, that Emerson is +neither a classic or romantic but both--and both not only at +different times in one essay, but at the same time in one +sentence--in one word. And must we admit it, so is everyone. If +you don't believe it, there must be some true definition you +haven't seen. Chopin shows a few things that Bach forgot--but he +is not eclectic, they say. Brahms shows many things that Bach did +remember, so he is an eclectic, they say. Leoncavallo writes +pretty verses and Palestrina is a priest, and Confucius inspires +Scriabin. A choice is freedom. Natural selection is but one of +Nature's tunes. "All melodious poets shall be hoarse as street +ballads, when once the penetrating keynote of nature and spirit +is sounded--the earth-beat, sea-beat, heart-beat, which make the +tune to which the sun rolls, and the globule of blood and the sap +of the trees." + +An intuitive sense of values, tends to make Emerson use social, +political, and even economic phenomena, as means of expression, +as the accidental notes in his scale--rather than as ends, even +lesser ends. In the realization that they are essential parts of +the greater values, he does not confuse them with each other. He +remains undisturbed except in rare instances, when the lower +parts invade and seek to displace the higher. He was not afraid +to say that "there are laws which should not be too well obeyed." +To him, slavery was not a social or a political or an economic +question, nor even one of morals or of ethics, but one of +universal spiritual freedom only. It mattered little what party, +or what platform, or what law of commerce governed men. Was man +governing himself? Social error and virtue were but relative. +This habit of not being hindered by using, but still going beyond +the great truths of living, to the greater truths of life gave +force to his influence over the materialists. Thus he seems to us +more a regenerator than a reformer--more an interpreter of life's +reflexes than of life's facts, perhaps. Here he appears greater +than Voltaire or Rousseau and helped, perhaps, by the centrality +of his conceptions, he could arouse the deeper spiritual and +moral emotions, without causing his listeners to distort their +physical ones. To prove that mind is over matter, he doesn't +place matter over mind. He is not like the man who, because he +couldn't afford both, gave up metaphysics for an automobile, and +when he ran over a man blamed metaphysics. He would not have us +get over-excited about physical disturbance but have it accepted +as a part of any progress in culture, moral, spiritual or +aesthetic. If a poet retires to the mountain-side, to avoid the +vulgar unculture of men, and their physical disturbance, so that +he may better catch a nobler theme for his symphony, Emerson +tells him that "man's culture can spare nothing, wants all +material, converts all impediments into instruments, all enemies +into power." The latest product of man's culture--the aeroplane, +then sails o'er the mountain and instead of an inspiration--a +spray of tobacco-juice falls on the poet. "Calm yourself, Poet!" +says Emerson, "culture will convert furies into muses and hells +into benefit. This wouldn't have befallen you if it hadn't been +for the latest transcendent product of the genius of culture" (we +won't say what kind), a consummation of the dreams of poets, from +David to Tennyson. Material progress is but a means of +expression. Realize that man's coarseness has its future and will +also be refined in the gradual uprise. Turning the world upside +down may be one of its lesser incidents. It is the cause, seldom +the effect that interests Emerson. He can help the cause--the +effect must help itself. He might have said to those who talk +knowingly about the cause of war--or of the last war, and who +would trace it down through long vistas of cosmic, political, +moral evolution and what not--he might say that the cause of it +was as simple as that of any dogfight--the "hog-mind" of the +minority against the universal mind, the majority. The un-courage +of the former fears to believe in the innate goodness of mankind. +The cause is always the same, the effect different by chance; it +is as easy for a hog, even a stupid one, to step on a box of +matches under a tenement with a thousand souls, as under an empty +bird-house. The many kindly burn up for the few; for the minority +is selfish and the majority generous. The minority has ruled the +world for physical reasons. The physical reasons are being +removed by this "converting culture." Webster will not much +longer have to grope for the mind of his constituency. The +majority--the people--will need no intermediary. Governments will +pass from the representative to the direct. The hog-mind is the +principal thing that is making this transition slow. The biggest +prop to the hog-mind is pride--pride in property and the power +property gives. Ruskin backs this up--"it is at the bottom of all +great mistakes; other passions do occasional good, but whenever +pride puts in its word...it is all over with the artist." The +hog-mind and its handmaidens in disorder, superficial brightness, +fundamental dullness, then cowardice and suspicion--all a part of +the minority (the non-people) the antithesis of everything called +soul, spirit, Christianity, truth, freedom--will give way more +and more to the great primal truths--that there is more good than +evil, that God is on the side of the majority (the people)--that +he is not enthusiastic about the minority (the non-people)--that +he has made men greater than man, that he has made the universal +mind and the over-soul greater and a part of the individual mind +and soul--that he has made the Divine a part of all. + +Again, if a picture in economics is before him, Emerson plunges +down to the things that ARE because they are BETTER than they +are. If there is a row, which there usually is, between the ebb +and flood tide, in the material ocean--for example, between the +theory of the present order of competition, and of attractive and +associated labor, he would sympathize with Ricardo, perhaps, that +labor is the measure of value, but "embrace, as do generous +minds, the proposition of labor shared by all." He would go +deeper than political economics, strain out the self-factor from +both theories, and make the measure of each pretty much the same, +so that the natural (the majority) would win, but not to the +disadvantage of the minority (the artificial) because this has +disappeared--it is of the majority. John Stuart Mill's political +economy is losing value because it was written by a mind more "a +banker's" than a "poet's." The poet knows that there is no such +thing as the perpetual law of supply and demand, perhaps not of +demand and supply--or of the wage-fund, or price-level, or +increments earned or unearned; and that the existence of personal +or public property may not prove the existence of God. + +Emerson seems to use the great definite interests of humanity to +express the greater, indefinite, spiritual values--to fulfill +what he can in his realms of revelation. Thus, it seems that so +close a relation exists between his content and expression, his +substance and manner, that if he were more definite in the latter +he would lose power in the former,--perhaps some of those +occasional flashes would have been unexpressed--flashes that have +gone down through the world and will flame on through the ages-- +flashes that approach as near the Divine as Beethoven in his most +inspired moments--flashes of transcendent beauty, of such +universal import, that they may bring, of a sudden, some intimate +personal experience, and produce the same indescribable effect +that comes in rare instances, to men, from some common sensation. +In the early morning of a Memorial Day, a boy is awakened by +martial music--a village band is marching down the street, and as +the strains of Reeves' majestic Seventh Regiment March come +nearer and nearer, he seems of a sudden translated--a moment of +vivid power comes, a consciousness of material nobility, an +exultant something gleaming with the possibilities of this life, +an assurance that nothing is impossible, and that the whole world +lies at his feet. But as the band turns the corner, at the +soldiers' monument, and the march steps of the Grand Army become +fainter and fainter, the boy's vision slowly vanishes--his +"world" becomes less and less probable--but the experience ever +lies within him in its reality. Later in life, the same boy hears +the Sabbath morning bell ringing out from the white steeple at +the "Center," and as it draws him to it, through the autumn +fields of sumac and asters, a Gospel hymn of simple devotion +comes out to him--"There's a wideness in God's mercy"--an instant +suggestion of that Memorial Day morning comes--but the moment is +of deeper import--there is no personal exultation--no intimate +world vision--no magnified personal hope--and in their place a +profound sense of a spiritual truth,--a sin within reach of +forgiveness--and as the hymn voices die away, there lies at his +feet--not the world, but the figure of the Saviour--he sees an +unfathomable courage, an immortality for the lowest, the vastness +in humility, the kindness of the human heart, man's noblest +strength, and he knows that God is nothing--nothing but love! +Whence cometh the wonder of a moment? From sources we know not. +But we do know that from obscurity, and from this higher Orpheus +come measures of sphere melodies [note: Paraphrased from a +passage in Sartor Resartus.] flowing in wild, native tones, +ravaging the souls of men, flowing now with thousand-fold +accompaniments and rich symphonies through all our hearts; +modulating and divinely leading them. + + +3 + + +What is character? In how far does it sustain the soul or the +soul it? Is it a part of the soul? And then--what is the soul? +Plato knows but cannot tell us. Every new-born man knows, but no +one tells us. "Nature will not be disposed of easily. No power of +genius has ever yet had the smallest success in explaining +existence. The perfect enigma remains." As every blind man sees +the sun, so character may be the part of the soul we, the blind, +can see, and then have the right to imagine that the soul is each +man's share of God, and character the muscle which tries to +reveal its mysteries--a kind of its first visible radiance--the +right to know that it is the voice which is always calling the +pragmatist a fool. + +At any rate, it can be said that Emerson's character has much to +do with his power upon us. Men who have known nothing of his +life, have borne witness to this. It is directly at the root of +his substance, and affects his manner only indirectly. It gives +the sincerity to the constant spiritual hopefulness we are always +conscious of, and which carries with it often, even when the +expression is somber, a note of exultation in the victories of +"the innate virtues" of man. And it is this, perhaps, that makes +us feel his courage--not a self-courage, but a sympathetic one-- +courageous even to tenderness. It is the open courage of a kind +heart, of not forcing opinions--a thing much needed when the +cowardly, underhanded courage of the fanatic would FORCE opinion. +It is the courage of believing in freedom, per se, rather than of +trying to force everyone to SEE that you believe in it--the +courage of the willingness to be reformed, rather than of +reforming--the courage teaching that sacrifice is bravery, and +force, fear. The courage of righteous indignation, of stammering +eloquence, of spiritual insight, a courage ever contracting or +unfolding a philosophy as it grows--a courage that would make the +impossible possible. Oliver Wendell Holmes says that Emerson +attempted the impossible in the Over-Soul--"an overflow of +spiritual imagination." But he (Emerson) accomplished the +impossible in attempting it, and still leaving it impossible. A +courageous struggle to satisfy, as Thoreau says, "Hunger rather +than the palate"--the hunger of a lifetime sometimes by one meal. +His essay on the Pre-Soul (which he did not write) treats of that +part of the over-soul's influence on unborn ages, and attempts +the impossible only when it stops attempting it. + +Like all courageous souls, the higher Emerson soars, the more +lowly he becomes. "Do you think the porter and the cook have no +experiences, no wonders for you? Everyone knows as much as the +Savant." To some, the way to be humble is to admonish the humble, +not learn from them. Carlyle would have Emerson teach by more +definite signs, rather than interpret his revelations, or shall +we say preach? Admitting all the inspiration and help that Sartor +Resartus has given in spite of its vaudeville and tragic stages, +to many young men getting under way in the life of tailor or +king, we believe it can be said (but very broadly said) that +Emerson, either in the first or second series of essays, taken as +a whole, gives, it seems to us, greater inspiration, partly +because his manner is less didactic, less personally suggestive, +perhaps less clearly or obviously human than Carlyle's. How +direct this inspiration is is a matter of personal viewpoint, +temperament, perhaps inheritance. Augustine Birrell says he does +not feel it--and he seems not to even indirectly. Apparently "a +non-sequacious author" can't inspire him, for Emerson seems to +him a "little thin and vague." Is Emerson or the English climate +to blame for this? He, Birrell, says a really great author +dissipates all fears as to his staying power. (Though fears for +our staying-power, not Emerson's, is what we would like +dissipated.) Besides, around a really great author, there are no +fears to dissipate. "A wise author never allows his reader's mind +to be at large," but Emerson is not a wise author. His essay on +Prudence has nothing to do with prudence, for to be wise and +prudent he must put explanation first, and let his substance +dissolve because of it. "How carefully," says Birrell again, "a +really great author like Dr. Newman, or M. Renan, explains to you +what he is going to do, and how he is going to do it." Personally +we like the chance of having a hand in the "explaining." We +prefer to look at flowers, but not through a botany, for it seems +that if we look at them alone, we see a beauty of Nature's +poetry, a direct gift from the Divine, and if we look at botany +alone, we see the beauty of Nature's intellect, a direct gift of +the Divine--if we look at both together, we see nothing. + +Thus it seems that Carlyle and Birrell would have it that courage +and humility have something to do with "explanation"--and that it +is not "a respect for all"--a faith in the power of "innate +virtue" to perceive by "relativeness rather than penetration"-- +that causes Emerson to withhold explanation to a greater degree +than many writers. Carlyle asks for more utility, and Birrell for +more inspiration. But we like to believe that it is the height of +Emerson's character, evidenced especially in his courage and +humility that shades its quality, rather than that its virtue is +less--that it is his height that will make him more and more +valuable and more and more within the reach of all--whether it be +by utility, inspiration, or other needs of the human soul. + +Cannot some of the most valuable kinds of utility and inspiration +come from humility in its highest and purest forms? For is not +the truest kind of humility a kind of glorified or transcendent +democracy--the practicing it rather than the talking it--the not- +wanting to level all finite things, but the being willing to be +leveled towards the infinite? Until humility produces that frame +of mind and spirit in the artist can his audience gain the +greatest kind of utility and inspiration, which might be quite +invisible at first? Emerson realizes the value of "the many,"-- +that the law of averages has a divine source. He recognizes the +various life-values in reality--not by reason of their closeness +or remoteness, but because he sympathizes with men who live them, +and the majority do. "The private store of reason is not great-- +would that there were a public store for man," cries Pascal, but +there is, says Emerson, it is the universal mind, an institution +congenital with the common or over-soul. Pascal is discouraged, +for he lets himself be influenced by surface political and +religious history which shows the struggle of the group, led by +an individual, rather than that of the individual led by himself +--a struggle as much privately caused as privately led. The main- +path of all social progress has been spiritual rather than +intellectual in character, but the many bypaths of individual- +materialism, though never obliterating the highway, have dimmed +its outlines and caused travelers to confuse the colors along the +road. A more natural way of freeing the congestion in the +benefits of material progress will make it less difficult for the +majority to recognize the true relation between the important +spiritual and religious values and the less important +intellectual and economic values. As the action of the intellect +and universal mind becomes more and more identical, the clearer +will the relation of all values become. But for physical reasons, +the group has had to depend upon the individual as leaders, and +the leaders with few exceptions restrained the universal mind-- +they trusted to the "private store," but now, thanks to the +lessons of evolution, which Nature has been teaching men since +and before the days of Socrates, the public store of reason is +gradually taking the place of the once-needed leader. From the +Chaldean tablet to the wireless message this public store has +been wonderfully opened. The results of these lessons, the +possibilities they are offering for ever coordinating the mind of +humanity, the culmination of this age-instruction, are seen today +in many ways. Labor Federation, Suffrage Extension, are two +instances that come to mind among the many. In these +manifestations, by reason of tradition, or the bad-habit part of +tradition, the hog-mind of the few (the minority), comes in play. +The possessors of this are called leaders, but even these "thick- +skins" are beginning to see that the MOVEMENT is the leader, and +that they are only clerks. Broadly speaking, the effects +evidenced in the political side of history have so much of the +physical because the causes have been so much of the physical. As +a result the leaders for the most part have been under-average +men, with skins thick, wits slick, and hands quick with under- +values, otherwise they would not have become leaders. But the day +of leaders, as such, is gradually closing--the people are +beginning to lead themselves--the public store of reason is +slowly being opened--the common universal mind and the common +over-soul is slowly but inevitably coming into its own. "Let a +man believe in God, not in names and places and persons. Let the +great soul incarnated in some poor...sad and simple Joan, go out +to service and sweep chimneys and scrub floors...its effulgent +day beams cannot be muffled..." and then "to sweep and scrub will +instantly appear supreme and beautiful actions...and all people +will get brooms and mops." Perhaps, if all of Emerson--his works +and his life--were to be swept away, and nothing of him but the +record of the following incident remained to men--the influence +of his soul would still be great. A working woman after coming +from one of his lectures said: "I love to go to hear Emerson, not +because I understand him, but because he looks as though he +thought everybody was as good as he was." Is it not the courage-- +the spiritual hopefulness in his humility that makes this story +possible and true? Is it not this trait in his character that +sets him above all creeds--that gives him inspired belief in the +common mind and soul? Is it not this courageous universalism that +gives conviction to his prophecy and that makes his symphonies of +revelation begin and end with nothing but the strength and beauty +of innate goodness in man, in Nature and in God, the greatest and +most inspiring theme of Concord Transcendental Philosophy, as we +hear it. + +And it is from such a world-compelling theme and from such +vantage ground, that Emerson rises to almost perfect freedom of +action, of thought and of soul, in any direction and to any +height. A vantage ground, somewhat vaster than Schelling's +conception of transcendental philosophy--"a philosophy of Nature +become subjective." In Concord it includes the objective and +becomes subjective to nothing but freedom and the absolute law. +It is this underlying courage of the purest humility that gives +Emerson that outward aspect of serenity which is felt to so great +an extent in much of his work, especially in his codas and +perorations. And within this poised strength, we are conscious of +that "original authentic fire" which Emerson missed in Shelley-- +we are conscious of something that is not dispassionate, +something that is at times almost turbulent--a kind of furious +calm lying deeply in the conviction of the eventual triumph of +the soul and its union with God! + +Let us place the transcendent Emerson where he, himself, places +Milton, in Wordsworth's apostrophe: "Pure as the naked heavens, +majestic, free, so didst thou travel on life's common way in +cheerful Godliness." + +The Godliness of spiritual courage and hopefulness--these fathers +of faith rise to a glorified peace in the depth of his greater +perorations. There is an "oracle" at the beginning of the Fifth +Symphony--in those four notes lies one of Beethoven's greatest +messages. We would place its translation above the relentlessness +of fate knocking at the door, above the greater human-message of +destiny, and strive to bring it towards the spiritual message of +Emerson's revelations--even to the "common heart" of Concord--the +Soul of humanity knocking at the door of the Divine mysteries, +radiant in the faith that it will be opened--and the human become +the Divine! + + +III--Hawthorne + + +The substance of Hawthorne is so dripping wet with the +supernatural, the phantasmal, the mystical--so surcharged with +adventures, from the deeper picturesque to the illusive +fantastic, one unconsciously finds oneself thinking of him as a +poet of greater imaginative impulse than Emerson or Thoreau. He +was not a greater poet possibly than they--but a greater artist. +Not only the character of his substance, but the care in his +manner throws his workmanship, in contrast to theirs, into a kind +of bas-relief. Like Poe he quite naturally and unconsciously +reaches out over his subject to his reader. His mesmerism seeks +to mesmerize us--beyond Zenobia's sister. But he s too great an +artist to show his hand "in getting his audience," as Poe and +Tschaikowsky occasionally do. His intellectual muscles are too +strong to let him become over-influenced, as Ravel and Stravinsky +seem to be by the morbidly fascinating--a kind of false beauty +obtained by artistic monotony. However, we cannot but feel that +he would weave his spell over us--as would the Grimms and Aesop. +We feel as much under magic as the "Enchanted Frog." This is part +of the artist's business. The effect is a part of his art-effort +in its inception. Emerson's substance and even his manner has +little to do with a designed effect--his thunderbolts or delicate +fragments are flashed out regardless--they may knock us down or +just spatter us--it matters little to him--but Hawthorne is more +considerate; that is, he is more artistic, as men say. + +Hawthorne may be more noticeably indigenous or may have more +local color, perhaps more national color than his Concord +contemporaries. But the work of anyone who is somewhat more +interested in psychology than in transcendental philosophy, will +weave itself around individuals and their personalities. If the +same anyone happens to live in Salem, his work is likely to be +colored by the Salem wharves and Salem witches. If the same +anyone happens to live in the "Old Manse" near the Concord Battle +Bridge, he is likely "of a rainy day to betake himself to the +huge garret," the secrets of which he wonders at, "but is too +reverent of their dust and cobwebs to disturb." He is likely to +"bow below the shriveled canvas of an old (Puritan) clergyman in +wig and gown--the parish priest of a century ago--a friend of +Whitefield." He is likely to come under the spell of this +reverend Ghost who haunts the "Manse" and as it rains and darkens +and the sky glooms through the dusty attic windows, he is likely +"to muse deeply and wonderingly upon the humiliating fact that +the works of man's intellect decay like those of his hands"... +"that thought grows moldy," and as the garret is in +Massachusetts, the "thought" and the "mold" are likely to be +quite native. When the same anyone puts his poetry into novels +rather than essays, he is likely to have more to say about the +life around him--about the inherited mystery of the town--than a +poet of philosophy is. + +In Hawthorne's usual vicinity, the atmosphere was charged with +the somber errors and romance of eighteenth century New England,- +-ascetic or noble New England as you like. A novel, of necessity, +nails an art-effort down to some definite part or parts of the +earth's surface--the novelist's wagon can't always be hitched to +a star. To say that Hawthorne was more deeply interested than +some of the other Concord writers--Emerson, for example--in the +idealism peculiar to his native land (in so far as such idealism +of a country can be conceived of as separate from the political) +would be as unreasoning as to hold that he was more interested in +social progress than Thoreau, because he was in the consular +service and Thoreau was in no one's service--or that the War +Governor of Massachusetts was a greater patriot than Wendell +Phillips, who was ashamed of all political parties. Hawthorne's +art was true and typically American--as is the art of all men +living in America who believe in freedom of thought and who live +wholesome lives to prove it, whatever their means of expression. + +Any comprehensive conception of Hawthorne, either in words or +music, must have for its basic theme something that has to do +with the influence of sin upon the conscience--something more +than the Puritan conscience, but something which is permeated by +it. In this relation he is wont to use what Hazlitt calls the +"moral power of imagination." Hawthorne would try to spiritualize +a guilty conscience. He would sing of the relentlessness of +guilt, the inheritance of guilt, the shadow of guilt darkening +innocent posterity. All of its sins and morbid horrors, its +specters, its phantasmas, and even its hellish hopelessness play +around his pages, and vanishing between the lines are the less +guilty Elves of the Concord Elms, which Thoreau and Old Man +Alcott may have felt, but knew not as intimately as Hawthorne. +There is often a pervading melancholy about Hawthorne, as Faguet +says of de Musset "without posture, without noise but +penetrating." There is at times the mysticism and serenity of the +ocean, which Jules Michelet sees in "its horizon rather than in +its waters." There is a sensitiveness to supernatural sound +waves. Hawthorne feels the mysteries and tries to paint them +rather than explain them--and here, some may say that he is wiser +in a more practical way and so more artistic than Emerson. +Perhaps so, but no greater in the deeper ranges and profound +mysteries of the interrelated worlds of human and spiritual life. + +This fundamental part of Hawthorne is not attempted in our music +(the 2nd movement of the series) which is but an "extended +fragment" trying to suggest some of his wilder, fantastical +adventures into the half-childlike, half-fairylike phantasmal +realms. It may have something to do with the children's +excitement on that "frosty Berkshire morning, and the frost +imagery on the enchanted hall window" or something to do with +"Feathertop," the "Scarecrow," and his "Looking Glass" and the +little demons dancing around his pipe bowl; or something to do +with the old hymn tune that haunts the church and sings only to +those in the churchyard, to protect them from secular noises, as +when the circus parade comes down Main Street; or something to do +with the concert at the Stamford camp meeting, or the "Slave's +Shuffle"; or something to do with the Concord he-nymph, or the +"Seven Vagabonds," or "Circe's Palace," or something else in the +wonderbook--not something that happens, but the way something +happens; or something to do with the "Celestial Railroad," or +"Phoebe's Garden," or something personal, which tries to be +"national" suddenly at twilight, and universal suddenly at +midnight; or something about the ghost of a man who never lived, +or about something that never will happen, or something else that +is not. + + +IV--"The Alcotts" + + +If the dictagraph had been perfected in Bronson Alcott's time, he +might now be a great writer. As it is, he goes down as Concord's +greatest talker. "Great expecter," says Thoreau; "great feller," +says Sam Staples, "for talkin' big...but his daughters is the +gals though--always DOIN' somethin'." Old Man Alcott, however, +was usually "doin' somethin'" within. An internal grandiloquence +made him melodious without; an exuberant, irrepressible, +visionary absorbed with philosophy AS such; to him it was a kind +of transcendental business, the profits of which supported his +inner man rather than his family. Apparently his deep interest in +spiritual physics, rather than metaphysics, gave a kind of +hypnotic mellifluous effect to his voice when he sang his +oracles; a manner something of a cross between an inside pompous +self-assertion and an outside serious benevolence. But he was +sincere and kindly intentioned in his eagerness to extend what he +could of the better influence of the philosophic world as he saw +it. In fact, there is a strong didactic streak in both father and +daughter. Louisa May seldom misses a chance to bring out the +moral of a homely virtue. The power of repetition was to them a +natural means of illustration. It is said that the elder Alcott, +while teaching school, would frequently whip himself when the +scholars misbehaved, to show that the Divine Teacher-God-was +pained when his children of the earth were bad. Quite often the +boy next to the bad boy was punished, to show how sin involved +the guiltless. And Miss Alcott is fond of working her story +around, so that she can better rub in a moral precept--and the +moral sometimes browbeats the story. But with all the elder +Alcott's vehement, impracticable, visionary qualities, there was +a sturdiness and a courage--at least, we like to think so. A +Yankee boy who would cheerfully travel in those days, when +distances were long and unmotored, as far from Connecticut as the +Carolinas, earning his way by peddling, laying down his pack to +teach school when opportunity offered, must possess a basic +sturdiness. This was apparently not very evident when he got to +preaching his idealism. An incident in Alcott's life helps +confirm a theory--not a popular one--that men accustomed to +wander around in the visionary unknown are the quickest and +strongest when occasion requires ready action of the lower +virtues. It often appears that a contemplative mind is more +capable of action than an actively objective one. Dr. Emerson +says: "It is good to know that it has been recorded of Alcott, +the benign idealist, that when the Rev. Thomas Wentworth +Higginson, heading the rush on the U.S. Court House in Boston, to +rescue a fugitive slave, looked back for his following at the +court-room door, only the apostolic philosopher was there cane in +hand." So it seems that his idealism had some substantial +virtues, even if he couldn't make a living. + +The daughter does not accept the father as a prototype--she seems +to have but few of her father's qualities "in female." She +supported the family and at the same time enriched the lives of a +large part of young America, starting off many little minds with +wholesome thoughts and many little hearts with wholesome +emotions. She leaves memory-word-pictures of healthy, New England +childhood days,--pictures which are turned to with affection by +middle-aged children,--pictures, that bear a sentiment, a leaven, +that middle-aged America needs nowadays more than we care to +admit. + +Concord village, itself, reminds one of that common virtue lying +at the height and root of all the Concord divinities. As one +walks down the broad-arched street, passing the white house of +Emerson--ascetic guard of a former prophetic beauty--he comes +presently beneath the old elms overspreading the Alcott house. It +seems to stand as a kind of homely but beautiful witness of +Concord's common virtue--it seems to bear a consciousness that +its past is LIVING, that the "mosses of the Old Manse" and the +hickories of Walden are not far away. Here is the home of the +"Marches"--all pervaded with the trials and happiness of the +family and telling, in a simple way, the story of "the richness +of not having." Within the house, on every side, lie remembrances +of what imagination can do for the better amusement of fortunate +children who have to do for themselves-much-needed lessons in +these days of automatic, ready-made, easy entertainment which +deaden rather than stimulate the creative faculty. And there sits +the little old spinet-piano Sophia Thoreau gave to the Alcott +children, on which Beth played the old Scotch airs, and played at +the Fifth Symphony. + +There is a commonplace beauty about "Orchard House"--a kind of +spiritual sturdiness underlying its quaint picturesqueness--a +kind of common triad of the New England homestead, whose +overtones tell us that there must have been something aesthetic +fibered in the Puritan severity--the self-sacrificing part of the +ideal--a value that seems to stir a deeper feeling, a stronger +sense of being nearer some perfect truth than a Gothic cathedral +or an Etruscan villa. All around you, under the Concord sky, +there still floats the influence of that human faith melody, +transcendent and sentimental enough for the enthusiast or the +cynic respectively, reflecting an innate hope--a common interest +in common things and common men--a tune the Concord bards are +ever playing, while they pound away at the immensities with a +Beethovenlike sublimity, and with, may we say, a vehemence and +perseverance--for that part of greatness is not so difficult to +emulate. + +We dare not attempt to follow the philosophic raptures of Bronson +Alcott--unless you will assume that his apotheosis will show how +"practical" his vision in this world would be in the next. And so +we won't try to reconcile the music sketch of the Alcotts with +much besides the memory of that home under the elms--the Scotch +songs and the family hymns that were sung at the end of each +day--though there may be an attempt to catch something of that +common sentiment (which we have tried to suggest above)-a +strength of hope that never gives way to despair--a conviction in +the power of the common soul which, when all is said and done, +may be as typical as any theme of Concord and its +transcendentalists. + + +V--Thoreau + + +Thoreau was a great musician, not because he played the flute but +because he did not have to go to Boston to hear "the Symphony." +The rhythm of his prose, were there nothing else, would determine +his value as a composer. He was divinely conscious of the +enthusiasm of Nature, the emotion of her rhythms and the harmony +of her solitude. In this consciousness he sang of the submission +to Nature, the religion of contemplation, and the freedom of +simplicity--a philosophy distinguishing between the complexity of +Nature which teaches freedom, and the complexity of materialism +which teaches slavery. In music, in poetry, in all art, the truth +as one sees it must be given in terms which bear some proportion +to the inspiration. In their greatest moments the inspiration of +both Beethoven and Thoreau express profound truths and deep +sentiment, but the intimate passion of it, the storm and stress +of it, affected Beethoven in such a way that he could not but be +ever showing it and Thoreau that he could not easily expose it. +They were equally imbued with it, but with different results. A +difference in temperament had something to do with this, together +with a difference in the quality of expression between the two +arts. "Who that has heard a strain of music feared lest he would +speak extravagantly forever," says Thoreau. Perhaps music is the +art of speaking extravagantly. Herbert Spencer says that some +men, as for instance Mozart, are so peculiarly sensitive to +emotion...that music is to them but a continuation not only of +the expression but of the actual emotion, though the theory of +some more modern thinkers in the philosophy of art doesn't always +bear this out. However, there is no doubt that in its nature +music is predominantly subjective and tends to subjective +expression, and poetry more objective tending to objective +expression. Hence the poet when his muse calls for a deeper +feeling must invert this order, and he may be reluctant to do so +as these depths often call for an intimate expression which the +physical looks of the words may repel. They tend to reveal the +nakedness of his soul rather than its warmth. It is not a matter +of the relative value of the aspiration, or a difference between +subconsciousness and consciousness but a difference in the arts +themselves; for example, a composer may not shrink from having +the public hear his "love letter in tones," while a poet may feel +sensitive about having everyone read his "letter in words." When +the object of the love is mankind the sensitiveness is changed +only in degree. + +But the message of Thoreau, though his fervency may be inconstant +and his human appeal not always direct, is, both in thought and +spirit, as universal as that of any man who ever wrote or sang-- +as universal as it is nontemporaneous--as universal as it is free +from the measure of history, as "solitude is free from the +measure of the miles of space that intervene between man and his +fellows." In spite of the fact that Henry James (who knows almost +everything) says that "Thoreau is more than provincial--that he +is parochial," let us repeat that Henry Thoreau, in respect to +thought, sentiment, imagination, and soul, in respect to every +element except that of place of physical being--a thing that +means so much to some--is as universal as any personality in +literature. That he said upon being shown a specimen grass from +Iceland that the same species could be found in Concord is +evidence of his universality, not of his parochialism. He was so +universal that he did not need to travel around the world to +PROVE it. "I have more of God, they more of the road." "It is not +worth while to go around the world to count the cats in +Zanzibar." With Marcus Aurelius, if he had seen the present he +had seen all, from eternity and all time forever. + +Thoreau's susceptibility to natural sounds was probably greater +than that of many practical musicians. True, this appeal is +mainly through the sensational element which Herbert Spencer +thinks the predominant beauty of music. Thoreau seems able to +weave from this source some perfect transcendental symphonies. +Strains from the Orient get the best of some of the modern French +music but not of Thoreau. He seems more interested in than +influenced by Oriental philosophy. He admires its ways of +resignation and self-contemplation but he doesn't contemplate +himself in the same way. He often quotes from the Eastern +scriptures passages which were they his own he would probably +omit, i.e., the Vedas say "all intelligences awake with the +morning." This seems unworthy of "accompanying the undulations of +celestial music" found on this same page, in which an "ode to +morning" is sung--"the awakening to newly acquired forces and +aspirations from within to a higher life than we fell asleep +from...for all memorable events transpire in the morning time and +in the morning atmosphere." Thus it is not the whole tone scale +of the Orient but the scale of a Walden morning--"music in single +strains," as Emerson says, which inspired many of the polyphonies +and harmonies that come to us through his poetry. Who can be +forever melancholy "with Aeolian music like this"? + +This is but one of many ways in which Thoreau looked to Nature +for his greatest inspirations. In her he found an analogy to the +Fundamental of Transcendentalism. The "innate goodness" of Nature +is or can be a moral influence; Mother Nature, if man will but +let her, will keep him straight--straight spiritually and so +morally and even mentally. If he will take her as a companion, +and teacher, and not as a duty or a creed, she will give him +greater thrills and teach him greater truths than man can give or +teach--she will reveal mysteries that mankind has long concealed. +It was the soul of Nature not natural history that Thoreau was +after. A naturalist's mind is one predominantly scientific, more +interested in the relation of a flower to other flowers than its +relation to any philosophy or anyone's philosophy. A transcendent +love of Nature and writing "Rhus glabra" after sumac doesn't +necessarily make a naturalist. It would seem that although +thorough in observation (not very thorough according to Mr. +Burroughs) and with a keen perception of the specific, a +naturalist--inherently--was exactly what Thoreau was not. He +seems rather to let Nature put him under her microscope than to +hold her under his. He was too fond of Nature to practice +vivisection upon her. He would have found that painful, "for was +he not a part with her?" But he had this trait of a naturalist, +which is usually foreign to poets, even great ones; he observed +acutely even things that did not particularly interest him--a +useful natural gift rather than a virtue. + +The study of Nature may tend to make one dogmatic, but the love +of Nature surely does not. Thoreau no more than Emerson could be +said to have compounded doctrines. His thinking was too broad for +that. If Thoreau's was a religion of Nature, as some say,-and by +that they mean that through Nature's influence man is brought to +a deeper contemplation, to a more spiritual self-scrutiny, and +thus closer to God,-it had apparently no definite doctrines. Some +of his theories regarding natural and social phenomena and his +experiments in the art of living are certainly not doctrinal in +form, and if they are in substance it didn't disturb Thoreau and +it needn't us..."In proportion as he simplifies his life the laws +of the universe will appear less complex and solitude will not be +solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have +built castles in the air your work need not be lost; that is +where they should be, now put the foundations under +them."..."Then we will love with the license of a higher order of +beings." Is that a doctrine? Perhaps. At any rate, between the +lines of some such passage as this lie some of the fountain heads +that water the spiritual fields of his philosophy and the seeds +from which they are sown (if indeed his whole philosophy is but +one spiritual garden). His experiments, social and economic, are +a part of its cultivation and for the harvest--and its +transmutation, he trusts to moments of inspiration--"only what is +thought, said, and done at a certain rare coincidence is good." + +Thoreau's experiment at Walden was, broadly speaking, one of +these moments. It stands out in the casual and popular opinion as +a kind of adventure--harmless and amusing to some, significant +and important to others; but its significance lies in the fact +that in trying to practice an ideal he prepared his mind so that +it could better bring others "into the Walden-state-of-mind." He +did not ask for a literal approval, or in fact for any approval. +"I would not stand between any man and his genius." He would have +no one adopt his manner of life, unless in doing so he adopts his +own--besides, by that time "I may have found a better one." But +if he preached hard he practiced harder what he preached--harder +than most men. Throughout Walden a text that he is always +pounding out is "Time." Time for inside work out-of-doors; +preferably out-of-doors, "though you perhaps may have some +pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor house." +Wherever the place--time there must be. Time to show the +unnecessariness of necessities which clog up time. Time to +contemplate the value of man to the universe, of the universe to +man, man's excuse for being. Time FROM the demands of social +conventions. Time FROM too much labor for some, which means too +much to eat, too much to wear, too much material, too much +materialism for others. Time FROM the "hurry and waste of life." +Time FROM the "St. Vitus Dance." BUT, on the other side of the +ledger, time FOR learning that "there is no safety in stupidity +alone." Time FOR introspection. Time FOR reality. Time FOR +expansion. Time FOR practicing the art, of living the art of +living. Thoreau has been criticized for practicing his policy of +expansion by living in a vacuum--but he peopled that vacuum with +a race of beings and established a social order there, surpassing +any of the precepts in social or political history."...for he put +some things behind and passed an invisible boundary; new, +universal, and more liberal laws were around and within him, the +old laws were expanded and interpreted in a more liberal sense +and he lived with the license of a higher order"--a community in +which "God was the only President" and "Thoreau not Webster was +His Orator." It is hard to believe that Thoreau really refused to +believe that there was any other life but his own, though he +probably did think that there was not any other life besides his +own for him. Living for society may not always be best +accomplished by living WITH society. "is there any virtue in a +man's skin that you must touch it?" and the "rubbing of elbows +may not bring men's minds closer together"; or if he were talking +through a "worst seller" (magazine) that "had to put it over" he +might say, "forty thousand souls at a ball game does not, +necessarily, make baseball the highest expression of spiritual +emotion." Thoreau, however, is no cynic, either in character or +thought, though in a side glance at himself, he may have held out +to be one; a "cynic in independence," possibly because of his +rule laid down that "self-culture admits of no compromise." + +It is conceivable that though some of his philosophy and a good +deal of his personality, in some of its manifestations, have +outward colors that do not seem to harmonize, the true and +intimate relations they bear each other are not affected. This +peculiarity, frequently seen in his attitude towards social- +economic problems, is perhaps more emphasized in some of his +personal outbursts. "I love my friends very much, but I find that +it is of no use to go to see them. I hate them commonly when I am +near." It is easier to see what he means than it is to forgive +him for saying it. The cause of this apparent lack of harmony +between philosophy and personality, as far as they can be +separated, may have been due to his refusal "to keep the very +delicate balance" which Mr. Van Doren in his "Critical Study of +Thoreau" says "it is necessary for a great and good man to keep +between his public and private lives, between his own personality +and the whole outside universe of personalities." Somehow one +feels that if he had kept this balance he would have lost +"hitting power." Again, it seems that something of the above +depends upon the degree of greatness or goodness. A very great +and especially a very good man has no separate private and public +life. His own personality though not identical with outside +personalities is so clear or can be so clear to them that it +appears identical, and as the world progresses towards its +inevitable perfection this appearance becomes more and more a +reality. For the same reason that all great men now agree, in +principle but not in detail, in so far as words are able to +communicate agreement, on the great fundamental truths. Someone +says: "Be specific--what great fundamentals?" Freedom over +slavery; the natural over the artificial; beauty over ugliness; +the spiritual over the material; the goodness of man; the Godness +of man; have been greater if he hadn't written plays. Some say +that a true composer will never write an opera because a truly +brave man will not take a drink to keep up his courage; which is +not the same thing as saying that Shakespeare is not the greatest +figure in all literature; in fact, it is an attempt to say that +many novels, most operas, all Shakespeares, and all brave men and +women (rum or no rum) are among the noblest blessings with which +God has endowed mankind--because, not being perfect, they are +perfect examples pointing to that perfection which nothing yet +has attained. + +Thoreau's mysticism at times throws him into elusive moods--but +an elusiveness held by a thread to something concrete and +specific, for he had too much integrity of mind for any other +kind. In these moments it is easier to follow his thought than to +follow him. Indeed, if he were always easy to follow, after one +had caught up with him, one might find that it was not Thoreau. + +It is, however, with no mystic rod that he strikes at +institutional life. Here again he felt the influence of the great +transcendental doctrine of "innate goodness" in human nature--a +reflection of the like in nature; a philosophic part which, by +the way, was a more direct inheritance in Thoreau than in his +brother transcendentalists. For besides what he received from a +native Unitarianism a good part must have descended to him +through his Huguenot blood from the "eighteenth-century French +philosophy." We trace a reason here for his lack of interest in +"the church." For if revealed religion is the path between God +and man's spiritual part--a kind of formal causeway--Thoreau's +highly developed spiritual life felt, apparently unconsciously, +less need of it than most men. But he might have been more +charitable towards those who do need it (and most of us do) if he +had been more conscious of his freedom. Those who look today for +the cause of a seeming deterioration in the influence of the +church may find it in a wider development of this feeling of +Thoreau's; that the need is less because there is more of the +spirit of Christianity in the world today. Another cause for his +attitude towards the church as an institution is one always too +common among "the narrow minds" to have influenced Thoreau. He +could have been more generous. He took the arc for the circle, +the exception for the rule, the solitary bad example for the many +good ones. His persistent emphasis on the value of "example" may +excuse this lower viewpoint. "The silent influence of the example +of one sincere life...has benefited society more than all the +projects devised for its salvation." He has little patience for +the unpracticing preacher. "In some countries a hunting parson is +no uncommon sight. Such a one might make a good shepherd dog but +is far from being a good shepherd." It would have been +interesting to have seen him handle the speculating parson, who +takes a good salary--more per annum than all the disciples had to +sustain their bodies during their whole lives--from a +metropolitan religious corporation for "speculating" on Sunday +about the beauty of poverty, who preaches: "Take no thought (for +your life) what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet what +ye shall put on...lay not up for yourself treasure upon +earth...take up thy cross and follow me"; who on Monday becomes a +"speculating" disciple of another god, and by questionable +investments, successful enough to get into the "press," seeks to +lay up a treasure of a million dollars for his old age, as if a +million dollars could keep such a man out of the poor-house. +Thoreau might observe that this one good example of Christian +degeneracy undoes all the acts of regeneracy of a thousand humble +five-hundred-dollar country parsons; that it out-influences the +"unconscious influence" of a dozen Dr. Bushnells if there be that +many; that the repentance of this man who did not "fall from +grace" because he never fell into it--that this unnecessary +repentance might save this man's own soul but not necessarily the +souls of the million head-line readers; that repentance would put +this preacher right with the powers that be in this world--and +the next. Thoreau might pass a remark upon this man's intimacy +with God "as if he had a monopoly of the subject"--an intimacy +that perhaps kept him from asking God exactly what his Son meant +by the "camel," the "needle"--to say nothing of the "rich man." +Thoreau might have wondered how this man NAILED DOWN the last +plank in HIS bridge to salvation, by rising to sublime heights of +patriotism, in HIS war against materialism; but would even +Thoreau be so unfeeling as to suggest to this exhorter that HIS +salvation might be clinched "if he would sacrifice his income" +(not himself) and come--in to a real Salvation Army, or that the +final triumph, the supreme happiness in casting aside this mere +$10,000 or $20,000 every year must be denied him--for was he not +captain of the ship--must he not stick to his passengers (in the +first cabin--the very first cabin)--not that the ship was sinking +but that he was...we will go no further. Even Thoreau would not +demand sacrifice for sacrifice sake--no, not even from Nature. + +Property from the standpoint of its influence in checking natural +self-expansion and from the standpoint of personal and inherent +right is another institution that comes in for straight and +cross-arm jabs, now to the stomach, now to the head, but seldom +sparring for breath. For does he not say that "wherever a man +goes, men will pursue him with their dirty institutions"? The +influence of property, as he saw it, on morality or immorality +and how through this it mayor should influence "government" is +seen by the following: "I am convinced that if all men were to +live as simply as I did, then thieving and robbery would be +unknown. These take place only in communities where some have got +more than is sufficient while others have not enough-- + +Nec bella fuerunt, +Faginus astabat dum +Scyphus ante dapes-- + +You who govern public affairs, what need have you to employ +punishments? Have virtue and the people will be virtuous." If +Thoreau had made the first sentence read: "If all men were like +me and were to live as simply," etc., everyone would agree with +him. We may wonder here how he would account for some of the +degenerate types we are told about in some of our backwoods and +mountain regions. Possibly by assuming that they are an instance +of perversion of the species. That the little civilizing their +forbears experienced rendered these people more susceptible to +the physical than to the spiritual influence of nature; in other +words; if they had been purer naturists, as the Aztecs for +example, they would have been purer men. Instead of turning to +any theory of ours or of Thoreau for the true explanation of this +condition--which is a kind of pseudo-naturalism--for its true +diagnosis and permanent cure, are we not far more certain to find +it in the radiant look of humility, love, and hope in the strong +faces of those inspired souls who are devoting their lives with +no little sacrifice to these outcasts of civilization and nature. +In truth, may not mankind find the solution of its eternal +problem--find it after and beyond the last, most perfect system +of wealth distribution which science can ever devise--after and +beyond the last sublime echo of the greatest socialistic +symphonies--after and beyond every transcendent thought and +expression in the simple example of these Christ-inspired souls-- +be they Pagan, Gentile, Jew, or angel. + +However, underlying the practical or impractical suggestions +implied in the quotation above, which is from the last paragraph +of Thoreau's Village, is the same transcendental theme of "innate +goodness." For this reason there must be no limitation except +that which will free mankind from limitation, and from a +perversion of this "innate" possession: And "property" may be one +of the causes of this perversion--property in the two relations +cited above. It is conceivable that Thoreau, to the consternation +of the richest members of the Bolsheviki and Bourgeois, would +propose a policy of liberation, a policy of a limited personal +property right, on the ground that congestion of personal +property tends to limit the progress of the soul (as well as the +progress of the stomach)--letting the economic noise thereupon +take care of itself--for dissonances are becoming beautiful--and +do not the same waters that roar in a storm take care of the +eventual calm? That this limit of property be determined not by +the VOICE of the majority but by the BRAIN of the majority under +a government limited to no national boundaries. "The government +of the world I live in is not framed in after-dinner +conversation"--around a table in a capital city, for there is no +capital--a government of principles not parties; of a few +fundamental truths and not of many political expediencies. A +government conducted by virtuous leaders, for it will be led by +all, for all are virtuous, as then their "innate virtue" will no +more be perverted by unnatural institutions. This will not be a +millennium but a practical and possible application of uncommon +common sense. For is it not sense, common or otherwise, for +Nature to want to hand back the earth to those to whom it +belongs--that is, to those who have to live on it? Is it not +sense, that the average brains like the average stomachs will act +rightly if they have an equal amount of the right kind of food to +act upon and universal education is on the way with the right +kind of food? Is it not sense then that all grown men and women +(for all are necessary to work out the divine "law of averages") +shall have a direct not an indirect say about the things that go +on in this world? + +Some of these attitudes, ungenerous or radical, generous or +conservative (as you will), towards institutions dear to many, +have no doubt given impressions unfavorable to Thoreau's thought +and personality. One hears him called, by some who ought to know +what they say and some who ought not, a crabbed, cold-hearted, +sour-faced Yankee--a kind of a visionary sore-head--a cross- +grained, egotistic recluse,--even non-hearted. But it is easier +to make a statement than prove a reputation. Thoreau may be some +of these things to those who make no distinction between these +qualities and the manner which often comes as a kind of by- +product of an intense devotion of a principle or ideal. He was +rude and unfriendly at times but shyness probably had something +to do with that. In spite of a certain self-possession he was +diffident in most company, but, though he may have been subject +to those spells when words do not rise and the mind seems wrapped +in a kind of dull cloth which everyone dumbly stares at, instead +of looking through--he would easily get off a rejoinder upon +occasion. When a party of visitors came to Walden and some one +asked Thoreau if he found it lonely there, he replied: "Only by +your help." A remark characteristic, true, rude, if not witty. +The writer remembers hearing a schoolteacher in English +literature dismiss Thoreau (and a half hour lesson, in which time +all of Walden,--its surface--was sailed over) by saying that this +author (he called everyone "author" from Solomon down to Dr. +Parkhurst) "was a kind of a crank who styled himself a hermit- +naturalist and who idled about the woods because he didn't want +to work." Some such stuff is a common conception, though not as +common as it used to be. If this teacher had had more brains, it +would have been a lie. The word idled is the hopeless part of +this criticism, or rather of this uncritical remark. To ask this +kind of a man, who plays all the "choice gems from celebrated +composers" literally, always literally, and always with the loud +pedal, who plays all hymns, wrong notes, right notes, games, +people, and jokes literally, and with the loud pedal, who will +die literally and with the loud pedal--to ask this man to smile +even faintly at Thoreau's humor is like casting a pearl before a +coal baron. Emerson implies that there is one thing a genius must +have to be a genius and that is "mother wit."..."Doctor Johnson, +Milton, Chaucer, and Burns had it. Aunt Mary Moody Emerson has it +and can write scrap letters. Who has it need never write anything +but scraps. Henry Thoreau has it." His humor though a part of +this wit is not always as spontaneous, for it is sometimes pun +shape (so is Charles Lamb's)--but it is nevertheless a kind that +can serenely transport us and which we can enjoy without +disturbing our neighbors. If there are those who think him cold- +hearted and with but little human sympathy, let them read his +letters to Emerson's little daughter, or hear Dr. Emerson tell +about the Thoreau home life and the stories of his boyhood--the +ministrations to a runaway slave; or let them ask old Sam +Staples, the Concord sheriff about him. That he "was fond of a +few intimate friends, but cared not one fig for people in the +mass," is a statement made in a school history and which is +superficially true. He cared too much for the masses--too much to +let his personality be "massed"; too much to be unable to realize +the futility of wearing his heart on his sleeve but not of +wearing his path to the shore of "Walden" for future masses to +walk over and perchance find the way to themselves. Some near- +satirists are fond of telling us that Thoreau came so close to +Nature that she killed him before he had discovered her whole +secret. They remind us that he died with consumption but forget +that he lived with consumption. And without using much charity, +this can be made to excuse many of his irascible and uncongenial +moods. You to whom that gaunt face seems forbidding--look into +the eyes! If he seems "dry and priggish" to you, Mr. Stevenson, +"with little of that large unconscious geniality of the world's +heroes," follow him some spring morning to Baker Farm, as he +"rambles through pine groves...like temples, or like fleets at +sea, full-rigged, with wavy boughs and rippling with light so +soft and green and shady that the Druids would have forsaken +their oaks to worship in them." Follow him to "the cedar wood +beyond Flint's Pond, where the trees covered with hoary blue +berries, spiring higher and higher, are fit to stand before +Valhalla." Follow him, but not too closely, for you may see +little, if you do--"as he walks in so pure and bright a light +gilding its withered grass and leaves so softly and serenely +bright that he thinks he has never bathed in such a golden +flood." Follow him as "he saunters towards the holy land till one +day the sun shall shine more brightly than ever it has done, +perchance shine into your minds and hearts and light up your +whole lives with a great awakening, light as warm and serene and +golden as on a bankside in autumn." Follow him through the golden +flood to the shore of that "holy land," where he lies dying as +men say--dying as bravely as he lived. You may be near when his +stern old aunt in the duty of her Puritan conscience asks him: +"Have you made your peace with God"? and you may see his kindly +smile as he replies, "I did not know that we had ever quarreled." +Moments like these reflect more nobility and equanimity perhaps +than geniality--qualities, however, more serviceable to world's +heroes. + +The personal trait that one who has affection for Thoreau may +find worst is a combative streak, in which he too often takes +refuge. "An obstinate elusiveness," almost a "contrary +cussedness," as if he would say, which he didn't: "If a truth +about something is not as I think it ought to be, I'll make it +what I think, and it WILL be the truth--but if you agree with me, +then I begin to think it may not be the truth." The causes of +these unpleasant colors (rather than characteristics) are too +easily attributed to a lack of human sympathy or to the +assumption that they are at least symbols of that lack instead of +to a supersensitiveness, magnified at times by ill health and at +times by a subconsciousness of the futility of actually living +out his ideals in this life. It has been said that his brave +hopes were unrealized anywhere in his career--but it is certain +that they started to be realized on or about May 6, 1862, and we +doubt if 1920 will end their fulfillment or his career. But there +were many in Concord who knew that within their village there was +a tree of wondrous growth, the shadow of which--alas, too +frequently--was the only part they were allowed to touch. Emerson +was one of these. He was not only deeply conscious of Thoreau's +rare gifts but in the Woodland Notes pays a tribute to a side of +his friend that many others missed. Emerson knew that Thoreau's +sensibilities too often veiled his nobilities, that a self- +cultivated stoicism ever fortified with sarcasm, none the less +securely because it seemed voluntary, covered a warmth of +feeling. "His great heart, him a hermit made." A breadth of heart +not easily measured, found only in the highest type of +sentimentalists, the type which does not perpetually discriminate +in favor of mankind. Emerson has much of this sentiment and +touches it when he sings of Nature as "the incarnation of a +thought," when he generously visualizes Thoreau, "standing at the +Walden shore invoking the vision of a thought as it drifts +heavenward into an incarnation of Nature." There is a Godlike +patience in Nature,-in her mists, her trees, her mountains--as if +she had a more abiding faith and a clearer vision than man of the +resurrection and immortality! There comes to memory an old +yellow-papered composition of school-boy days whose peroration +closed with "Poor Thoreau; he communed with nature for forty odd +years, and then died." "The forty odd years,"--we'll still grant +that part, but he is over a hundred now, and maybe, Mr. Lowell, +he is more lovable, kindlier, and more radiant with human +sympathy today, than, perchance, you were fifty years ago. It may +be that he is a far stronger, a far greater, an incalculably +greater force in the moral and spiritual fibre of his fellow- +countrymen throughout the world today than you dreamed of fifty +years ago. You, James Russell Lowells! You, Robert Louis +Stevensons! You, Mark Van Dorens! with your literary perception, +your power of illumination, your brilliancy of expression, yea, +and with your love of sincerity, you know your Thoreau, but not +my Thoreau--that reassuring and true friend, who stood by me one +"low" day, when the sun had gone down, long, long before sunset. +You may know something of the affection that heart yearned for +but knew it a duty not to grasp; you may know something of the +great human passions which stirred that soul--too deep for +animate expression--you may know all of this, all there is to +know about Thoreau, but you know him not, unless you love him! + +And if there shall be a program for our music let it follow his +thought on an autumn day of Indian summer at Walden--a shadow of +a thought at first, colored by the mist and haze over the pond: + +Low anchored cloud, +Fountain head and +Source of rivers... +Dew cloth, dream drapery-- +Drifting meadow of the air.... + +but this is momentary; the beauty of the day moves him to a +certain restlessness--to aspirations more specific--an eagerness +for outward action, but through it all he is conscious that it is +not in keeping with the mood for this "Day." As the mists rise, +there comes a clearer thought more traditional than the first, a +meditation more calm. As he stands on the side of the pleasant +hill of pines and hickories in front of his cabin, he is still +disturbed by a restlessness and goes down the white-pebbled and +sandy eastern shore, but it seems not to lead him where the +thought suggests--he climbs the path along the "bolder northern" +and "western shore, with deep bays indented," and now along the +railroad track, "where the Aeolian harp plays." But his eagerness +throws him into the lithe, springy stride of the specie hunter-- +the naturalist--he is still aware of a restlessness; with these +faster steps his rhythm is of shorter span--it is still not the +tempo of Nature, it does not bear the mood that the genius of the +day calls for, it is too specific, its nature is. too external, +the introspection too buoyant, and he knows now that he must let +Nature flow through him and slowly; he releases his more personal +desires to her broader rhythm, conscious that this blends more +and more with the harmony of her solitude; it tells him that his +search for freedom on that day, at least, lies in his submission +to her, for Nature is as relentless as she is benignant. + +He remains in this mood and while outwardly still, he seems to +move with the slow, almost monotonous swaying beat of this +autumnal day. He is more contented with a "homely burden" and is +more assured of "the broad margin to his life; he sits in his +sunny doorway...rapt in revery...amidst goldenrod, sandcherry, +and sumac...in undisturbed solitude." At times the more definite +personal strivings for the ideal freedom, the former more active +speculations come over him, as if he would trace a certain +intensity even in his submission. "He grew in those seasons like +corn in the night and they were better than any works of the +hands. They were not time subtracted from his life but so much +over and above the usual allowance." "He realized what the +Orientals meant by contemplation and forsaking of works." "The +day advanced as if to light some work of his--it was morning and +lo! now it is evening and nothing memorable is accomplished..." +"The evening train has gone by," and "all the restless world with +it. The fishes in the pond no longer feel its rumbling and he is +more alone than ever..." His meditations are interrupted only by +the faint sound of the Concord bell--'tis prayer-meeting night in +the village--"a melody as it were, imported into the +wilderness..." "At a distance over the woods the sound acquires a +certain vibratory hum as if the pine needles in the horizon were +the strings of a harp which it swept...A vibration of the +universal lyre...Just as the intervening atmosphere makes a +distant ridge of earth interesting to the eyes by the azure tint +it imparts."...Part of the echo may be "the voice of the wood; +the same trivial words and notes sung by the wood nymph." It is +darker, the poet's flute is heard out over the pond and Walden +hears the swan song of that "Day" and faintly echoes...Is it a +transcendental tune of Concord? 'Tis an evening when the "whole +body is one sense,"...and before ending his day he looks out over +the clear, crystalline water of the pond and catches a glimpse of +the shadow--thought he saw in the morning's mist and haze--he +knows that by his final submission, he possesses the "Freedom of +the Night." He goes up the "pleasant hillside of pines, +hickories," and moonlight to his cabin, "with a strange liberty +in Nature, a part of herself." + + +VI--Epilogue + + +1 + + +The futility of attempting to trace the source or primal impulse +of an art-inspiration may be admitted without granting that human +qualities or attributes which go with personality cannot be +suggested, and that artistic intuitions which parallel them +cannot be reflected in music. Actually accomplishing the latter +is a problem, more or less arbitrary to an open mind, more or +less impossible to a prejudiced mind. + +That which the composer intends to represent as "high vitality" +sounds like something quite different to different listeners. +That which I like to think suggests Thoreau's submission to +nature may, to another, seem something like Hawthorne's +"conception of the relentlessness of an evil conscience"--and to +the rest of our friends, but a series of unpleasant sounds. How +far can the composer be held accountable? Beyond a certain point +the responsibility is more or less undeterminable. The outside +characteristics--that is, the points furthest away from the +mergings--are obvious to mostly anyone. A child knows a "strain +of joy," from one of sorrow. Those a little older know the +dignified from the frivolous--the Spring Song from the season in +which the "melancholy days have come" (though is there not a +glorious hope in autumn!). But where is the definite expression +of late-spring against early-summer, of happiness against +optimism? A painter paints a sunset--can he paint the setting +sun? + +In some century to come, when the school children will whistle +popular tunes in quarter-tones--when the diatonic scale will be +as obsolete as the pentatonic is now--perhaps then these +borderland experiences may be both easily expressed and readily +recognized. But maybe music was not intended to satisfy the +curious definiteness of man. Maybe it is better to hope that +music may always be a transcendental language in the most +extravagant sense. Possibly the power of literally distinguishing +these "shades of abstraction"--these attributes paralleled by +"artistic intuitions" (call them what you will)-is ever to be +denied man for the same reason that the beginning and end of a +circle are to be denied. + + +2 + + +There may be an analogy--and on first sight it seems that there +must be--between both the state and power of artistic perceptions +and the law of perpetual change, that ever-flowing stream partly +biological, partly cosmic, ever going on in ourselves, in nature, +in all life. This may account for the difficulty of identifying +desired qualities with the perceptions of them in expression. +Many things are constantly coming into being, while others are +constantly going out--one part of the same thing is coming in +while another part is going out of existence. Perhaps this is why +the above conformity in art (a conformity which we seem naturally +to look for) appears at times so unrealizable, if not impossible. +It will be assumed, to make this theory clearer, that the "flow" +or "change" does not go on in the art-product itself. As a matter +of fact it probably does, to a certain extent--a picture, or a +song, may gain or lose in value beyond what the painter or +composer knew, by the progress and higher development in all art. +Keats may be only partially true when he says that "A work of +beauty is a joy forever"--a thing that is beautiful to ME, is a +joy to ME, as long as it remains beautiful to ME--and if it +remains so as long as I live, it is so forever, that is, forever +to ME. If he had put it this way, he would have been tiresome, +inartistic, but perhaps truer. So we will assume here that this +change only goes on in man and nature; and that this eternal +process in mankind is paralleled in some way during each +temporary, personal life. + +A young man, two generations ago, found an identity with his +ideals, in Rossini; when an older man in Wagner. A young man, one +generation ago, found his in Wagner, but when older in Cesar +Franck or Brahms. Some may say that this change may not be +general, universal, or natural, and that it may be due to a +certain kind of education, or to a certain inherited or +contracted prejudice. We cannot deny or affirm this, absolutely, +nor will we try to even qualitatively--except to say that it will +be generally admitted that Rossini, today, does not appeal to +this generation, as he did to that of our fathers. As far as +prejudice or undue influence is concerned, and as an illustration +in point, the following may be cited to show that training may +have but little effect in this connection, at least not as much +as usually supposed--for we believe this experience to be, to a +certain extent, normal, or at least, not uncommon. A man +remembers, when he was a boy of about fifteen years, hearing his +music-teacher (and father) who had just returned from a +performance of Siegfried say with a look of anxious surprise that +"somehow or other he felt ashamed of enjoying the music as he +did," for beneath it all he was conscious of an undercurrent of +"make-believe"--the bravery was make-believe, the love was make- +believe, the passion, the virtue, all make-believe, as was the +dragon--P. T. Barnum would have been brave enough to have gone +out and captured a live one! But, that same boy at twenty-five +was listening to Wagner with enthusiasm, his reality was real +enough to inspire a devotion. The "Preis-Lied," for instance, +stirred him deeply. But when he became middle-aged--and long +before the Hohenzollern hog-marched into Belgium--this music had +become cloying, the melodies threadbare--a sense of something +commonplace--yes--of make-believe came. These feelings were +fought against for association's sake, and because of gratitude +for bygone pleasures--but the former beauty and nobility were not +there, and in their place stood irritating intervals of +descending fourths and fifths. Those once transcendent +progressions, luxuriant suggestions of Debussy chords of the 9th, +11th, etc., were becoming slimy. An unearned exultation--a +sentimentality deadening something within hides around in the +music. Wagner seems less and less to measure up to the substance +and reality of Cesar Franck, Brahms, d'Indy, or even Elgar (with +all his tiresomeness), the wholesomeness, manliness, humility, +and deep spiritual, possibly religious feeling of these men seem +missing and not made up for by his (Wagner's) manner and +eloquence, even if greater than theirs (which is very doubtful). + +From the above we would try to prove that as this stream of +change flows towards the eventual ocean of mankind's perfection, +the art-works in which we identify our higher ideals come by this +process to be identified with the lower ideals of those who +embark after us when the stream has grown in depth. If we stop +with the above experience, our theory of the effect of man's +changing nature, as thus explaining artistic progress, is perhaps +sustained. Thus would we show that the perpetual flow of the life +stream is affected by and affects each individual riverbed of the +universal watersheds. Thus would we prove that the Wagner period +was normal, because we intuitively recognized whatever identity +we were looking for at a certain period in our life, and the fact +that it was so made the Franck period possible and then normal at +a later period in our life. Thus would we assume that this is as +it should be, and that it is not Wagner's content or substance or +his lack of virtue, that something in us has made us flow past +him and not he past us. But something blocks our theory! +Something makes our hypotheses seem purely speculative if not +useless. It is men like Bach and Beethoven. + +Is it not a matter nowadays of common impression or general +opinion (for the law of averages plays strongly in any theory +relating to human attributes) that the world's attitude towards +the substance and quality and spirit of these two men, or other +men of like character, if there be such, has not been affected by +the flowing stream that has changed us? But if by the measure of +this public opinion, as well as it can be measured, Bach and +Beethoven are being flowed past--not as fast perhaps as Wagner +is, but if they are being passed at all from this deeper +viewpoint, then this "change" theory holds. + +Here we shall have to assume, for we haven't proved it, that +artistic intuitions can sense in music a weakening of moral +strength and vitality, and that it is sensed in relation to +Wagner and not sensed in relation to Bach and Beethoven. If, in +this common opinion, there is a particle of change toward the +latter's art, our theory stands--mind you, this admits a change +in the manner, form, external expression, etc., but not in +substance. If there is no change here towards the substance of +these two men, our theory not only falls but its failure +superimposes or allows us to presume a fundamental duality in +music, and in all art for that matter. + +Does the progress of intrinsic beauty or truth (we assume there +is such a thing) have its exposures as well as its discoveries? +Does the non-acceptance of the foregoing theory mean that +Wagner's substance and reality are lower and his manner higher; +that his beauty was not intrinsic; that he was more interested in +the repose of pride than in the truth of humility? It appears +that he chose the representative instead of the spirit itself,-- +that he chose consciously or unconsciously, it matters not,--the +lower set of values in this dualism. These are severe accusations +to bring--especially when a man is a little down as Wagner is +today. But these convictions were present some time before he was +banished from the Metropolitan. Wagner seems to take Hugo's place +in Faguet's criticism of de Vigny that, "The staging to him +(Hugo) was the important thing--not the conception--that in de +Vigny, the artist was inferior to the poet"; finally that Hugo +and so Wagner have a certain pauvrete de fond. Thus would we +ungenerously make Wagner prove our sum! But it is a sum that +won't prove! The theory at its best does little more than suggest +something, which if it is true at all, is a platitude, viz.: that +progressive growth in all life makes it more and more possible +for men to separate, in an art-work, moral weakness from artistic +strength. + + +3 + + +Human attributes are definite enough when it comes to their +description, but the expression of them, or the paralleling of +them in an art-process, has to be, as said above, more or less +arbitrary, but we believe that their expression can be less vague +if the basic distinction of this art-dualism is kept in mind. It +is morally certain that the higher part is founded, as Sturt +suggests, on something that has to do with those kinds of +unselfish human interests which we call knowledge and morality-- +knowledge, not in the sense of erudition, but as a kind of +creation or creative truth. This allows us to assume that the +higher and more important value of this dualism is composed of +what may be called reality, quality, spirit, or substance against +the lower value of form, quantity, or manner. Of these terms +"substance" seems to us the most appropriate, cogent, and +comprehensive for the higher and "manner" for the under-value. +Substance in a human-art-quality suggests the body of a +conviction which has its birth in the spiritual consciousness, +whose youth is nourished in the moral consciousness, and whose +maturity as a result of all this growth is then represented in a +mental image. This is appreciated by the intuition, and somehow +translated into expression by "manner"--a process always less +important than it seems, or as suggested by the foregoing (in +fact we apologize for this attempted definition). So it seems +that "substance" is too indefinite to analyze, in more specific +terms. It is practically indescribable. Intuitions (artistic or +not?) will sense it--process, unknown. Perhaps it is an +unexplained consciousness of being nearer God, or being nearer +the devil--of approaching truth or approaching unreality--a +silent something felt in the truth-of-nature in Turner against +the truth-of-art in Botticelli, or in the fine thinking of Ruskin +against the fine soundings of Kipling, or in the wide expanse of +Titian against the narrow-expanse of Carpaccio, or in some such +distinction that Pope sees between what he calls Homer's +"invention" and Virgil's "judgment"--apparently an inspired +imagination against an artistic care, a sense of the difference, +perhaps, between Dr. Bushnell's Knowing God and knowing about +God. A more vivid explanation or illustration may be found in the +difference between Emerson and Poe. The former seems to be almost +wholly "substance" and the latter "manner." The measure in +artistic satisfaction of Poe's manner is equal to the measure of +spiritual satisfaction in Emerson's "substance." The total value +of each man is high, but Emerson's is higher than Poe's because +"substance" is higher than "manner"--because "substance" leans +towards optimism, and "manner" pessimism. We do not know that all +this is so, but we feel, or rather know by intuition that it is +so, in the same way we know intuitively that right is higher than +wrong, though we can't always tell why a thing is right or wrong, +or what is always the difference or the margin between right and +wrong. + +Beauty, in its common conception, has nothing to do with it +(substance), unless it be granted that its outward aspect, or the +expression between sensuous beauty and spiritual beauty can be +always and distinctly known, which it cannot, as the art of music +is still in its infancy. On reading this over, it seems only +decent that some kind of an apology be made for the beginning of +the preceding sentence. It cannot justly be said that anything +that has to do with art has nothing to do with beauty in any +degree,--that is, whether beauty is there or not, it has +something to do with it. A casual idea of it, a kind of a first +necessary-physical impression, was what we had in mind. Probably +nobody knows what actual beauty is--except those serious writers +of humorous essays in art magazines, who accurately, but kindly, +with club in hand, demonstrate for all time and men that beauty +is a quadratic monomial; that it _is_ absolute; that it is +relative; that it _is _not_ relative, that it _is _not_...The +word "beauty" is as easy to use as the word "degenerate." Both +come in handy when one does or does not agree with you. For our +part, something that Roussel-Despierres says comes nearer to what +we like to think beauty is..."an infinite source of good...the +love of the beautiful...a constant anxiety for moral beauty." +Even here we go around in a circle--a thing apparently +inevitable, if one tries to reduce art to philosophy. But +personally, we prefer to go around in a circle than around in a +parallelepipedon, for it seems cleaner and perhaps freer from +mathematics--or for the same reason we prefer Whittier to +Baudelaire--a poet to a genius, or a healthy to a rotten apple-- +probably not so much because it is more nutritious, but because +we like its taste better; we like the beautiful and don't like +the ugly; therefore, what we like is beautiful, and what we don't +like is ugly--and hence we are glad the beautiful is not ugly, +for if it were we would like something we don't like. So having +unsettled what beauty is, let us go on. + +At any rate, we are going to be arbitrary enough to claim, with +no definite qualification, that substance can be expressed in +music, and that it is the only valuable thing in it, and moreover +that in two separate pieces of music in which the notes are +almost identical, one can be of "substance" with little "manner," +and the other can be of "manner" with little "substance." +Substance has something to do with character. Manner has nothing +to do with it. The "substance" of a tune comes from somewhere +near the soul, and the "manner" comes from--God knows where. + + +4 + + +The lack of interest to preserve, or ability to perceive the +fundamental divisions of this duality accounts to a large extent, +we believe, for some or many various phenomena (pleasant or +unpleasant according to the personal attitude) of modern art, and +all art. It is evidenced in many ways--the sculptors' over- +insistence on the "mold," the outer rather than the inner subject +or content of his statue--over-enthusiasm for local color--over- +interest in the multiplicity of techniques, in the idiomatic, in +the effect as shown, by the appreciation of an audience rather +than in the effect on the ideals of the inner conscience of the +artist or the composer. This lack of perceiving is too often +shown by an over-interest in the material value of the effect. +The pose of self-absorption, which some men, in the advertising +business (and incidentally in the recital and composing business) +put into their photographs or the portraits of themselves, while +all dolled up in their purple-dressing-gowns, in their twofold +wealth of golden hair, in their cissy-like postures over the +piano keys--this pose of "manner" sometimes sounds out so loud +that the more their music is played, the less it is heard. For +does not Emerson tell them this when he says "What you are talks +so loud, that I cannot hear what you say"? The unescapable +impression that one sometimes gets by a glance at these public- +inflicted trade-marks, and without having heard or seen any of +their music, is that the one great underlying desire of these +appearing-artists, is to impress, perhaps startle and shock their +audiences and at any cost. This may have some such effect upon +some of the lady-part (male or female) of their listeners but +possibly the members of the men-part, who as boys liked hockey +better than birthday-parties, may feel like shocking a few of +these picture-sitters with something stronger than their own +forzandos. + +The insistence upon manner in its relation to local color is +wider than a self-strain for effect. If local color is a natural +part, that is, a part of substance, the art-effort cannot help +but show its color--and it will be a true color, no matter how +colored; if it is a part, even a natural part of "manner," either +the color part is bound eventually to drive out the local part or +the local drive out all color. Here a process of cancellation or +destruction is going on--a kind of "compromise" which destroys by +deadlock; a compromise purchasing a selfish pleasure--a decadence +in which art becomes first dull, then dark, then dead, though +throughout this process it is outwardly very much alive,-- +especially after it is dead. The same tendency may even be +noticed if there is over-insistence upon the national in art. +Substance tends to create affection; manner prejudice. The latter +tends to efface the distinction between the love of both a +country's virtue and vices, and the love of only the virtue. A +true love of country is likely to be so big that it will embrace +the virtue one sees in other countries and, in the same breath, +so to speak. A composer born in America, but who has not been +interested in the "cause of the Freedmen," may be so interested +in "negro melodies," that he writes a symphony over them. He is +conscious (perhaps only subconscious) that he wishes it to be +"American music." He tries to forget that the paternal negro came +from Africa. Is his music American or African? That is the great +question which keeps him awake! But the sadness of it is, that if +he had been born in Africa, his music might have been just as +American, for there is good authority that an African soul under +an X-ray looks identically like an American soul. There is a +futility in selecting a certain type to represent a "whole," +unless the interest in the spirit of the type coincides with that +of the whole. In other words, if this composer isn't as deeply +interested in the "cause" as Wendell Phillips was, when he fought +his way through that anti-abolitionist crowd at Faneuil Hall, his +music is liable to be less American than he wishes. If a middle- +aged man, upon picking up the Scottish Chiefs, finds that his +boyhood enthusiasm for the prowess and noble deeds and character +of Sir Wm. Wallace and of Bruce is still present, let him put, or +try to put that glory into an overture, let him fill it chuck- +full of Scotch tunes, if he will. But after all is said and sung +he will find that his music is American to the core (assuming +that he is an American and wishes his music to be). It will be as +national in character as the heart of that Grand Army +Grandfather, who read those Cragmore Tales of a summer evening, +when that boy had brought the cows home without witching. Perhaps +the memories of the old soldier, to which this man still holds +tenderly, may be turned into a "strain" or a "sonata," and though +the music does not contain, or even suggest any of the old war- +songs, it will be as sincerely American as the subject, provided +his (the composer's) interest, spirit, and character sympathize +with, or intuitively coincide with that of the subject. + +Again, if a man finds that the cadences of an Apache war-dance +come nearest to his soul, provided he has taken pains to know +enough other cadences--for eclecticism is part of his duty-- +sorting potatoes means a better crop next year--let him +assimilate whatever he finds highest of the Indian ideal, so that +he can use it with the cadences, fervently, transcendentally, +inevitably, furiously, in his symphonies, in his operas, in his +whistlings on the way to work, so that he can paint his house +with them--make them a part of his prayer-book--this is all +possible and necessary, if he is confident that they have a part +in his spiritual consciousness. With this assurance his music +will have everything it should of sincerity, nobility, strength, +and beauty, no matter how it sounds; and if, with this, he is +true to none but the highest of American ideals (that is, the +ideals only that coincide with his spiritual consciousness) his +music will be true to itself and incidentally American, and it +will be so even after it is proved that all our Indians came from +Asia. + +The man "born down to Babbitt's Corners," may find a deep appeal +in the simple but acute "Gospel Hymns of the New England camp +meetin'," of a generation or so ago. He finds in them--some of +them--a vigor, a depth of feeling, a natural-soil rhythm, a +sincerity, emphatic but inartistic, which, in spite of a +vociferous sentimentality, carries him nearer the "Christ of the +people" than does the Te Deum of the greatest cathedral. These +tunes have, for him, a truer ring than many of those groove-made, +even-measured, monotonous, non-rhythmed, indoor-smelling, priest- +taught, academic, English or neo-English hymns (and anthems)-- +well-written, well-harmonized things, well-voice-led, well- +counterpointed, well corrected, and well O.K.'d, by well +corrected Mus. Bac. R.F.O.G.'s-personified sounds, correct and +inevitable to sight and hearing--in a word, those proper forms of +stained-glass beauty, which our over-drilled mechanisms-boy- +choirs are limited to. But, if the Yankee can reflect the +fervency with which "his gospels" were sung--the fervency of +"Aunt Sarah," who scrubbed her life away, for her brother's ten +orphans, the fervency with which this woman, after a fourteen- +hour work day on the farm, would hitch up and drive five miles, +through the mud and rain to "prayer meetin'"--her one articulate +outlet for the fullness of her unselfish soul--if he can reflect +the fervency of such a spirit, he may find there a local color +that will do all the world good. If his music can but catch that +"spirit" by being a part with itself, it will come somewhere near +his ideal--and it will be American, too, perhaps nearer so than +that of the devotee of Indian or negro melody. In other words, if +local color, national color, any color, is a true pigment of the +universal color, it is a divine quality, it is a part of +substance in art--not of manner. The preceding illustrations are +but attempts to show that whatever excellence an artist sees in +life, a community, in a people, or in any valuable object or +experience, if sincerely and intuitively reflected in his work, +and so he himself, is, in a way, a reflected part of that +excellence. Whether he be accepted or rejected, whether his music +is always played, or never played--all this has nothing to do +with it--it is true or false by his own measure. If we may be +permitted to leave out two words, and add a few more, a sentence +of Hegel appears to sum up this idea, "The universal need for +expression in art lies in man's rational impulse to exalt the +inner...world (i.e., the highest ideals he sees in the inner life +of others) together with what he finds in his own life--into a +spiritual consciousness for himself." The artist does feel or +does not feel that a sympathy has been approved by an artistic +intuition and so reflected in his work. Whether he feels this +sympathy is true or not in the final analysis, is a thing +probably that no one but he (the artist) knows but the truer he +feels it, the more substance it has, or as Sturt puts it, "his +work is art, so long as he feels in doing it as true artists +feel, and so long as his object is akin to the objects that true +artists admire." + +Dr. Griggs in an Essay on Debussy, [John C. Griggs, "Debussy" +Yale Review, 1914] asks if this composer's content is worthy the +manner. Perhaps so, perhaps not--Debussy himself, doubtless, +could not give a positive answer. He would better know how true +his feeling and sympathy was, and anyone else's personal opinion +can be of but little help here. + +We might offer the suggestion that Debussy's content would have +been worthier his manner, if he had hoed corn or sold newspapers +for a living, for in this way he might have gained a deeper +vitality and truer theme to sing at night and of a Sunday. Or we +might say that what substance there is, is "too coherent"--it is +too clearly expressed in the first thirty seconds. There you have +the "whole fragment," a translucent syllogism, but then the +reality, the spirit, the substance stops and the "form," the +"perfume," the "manner," shimmer right along, as the soapsuds +glisten after one has finished washing. Or we might say that his +substance would have been worthier, if his adoration or +contemplation of Nature, which is often a part of it, and which +rises to great heights, as is felt for example, in La Mer, had +been more the quality of Thoreau's. Debussy's attitude toward +Nature seems to have a kind of sensual sensuousness underlying +it, while Thoreau's is a kind of spiritual sensuousness. It is +rare to find a farmer or peasant whose enthusiasm for the beauty +in Nature finds outward expression to compare with that of the +city-man who comes out for a Sunday in the country, but Thoreau +is that rare country-man and Debussy the city-man with his +weekend flights into country-aesthetics. We would be inclined to +say that Thoreau leaned towards substance and Debussy towards +manner. + + +5 + + +There comes from Concord, an offer to every mind--the choice +between repose and truth, and God makes the offer. "Take which +you please...between these, as a pendulum, man oscillates. He in +whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, +the first philosophy, the first political party he meets," most +likely his father's. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation. +Here is another aspect of art-duality, but it is more drastic +than ours, as it would eliminate one part or the other. A man may +aim as high as Beethoven or as high as Richard Strauss. In the +former case the shot may go far below the mark; in truth, it has +not been reached since that "thunder storm of 1828" and there is +little chance that it will be reached by anyone living today, but +that matters not, the shot will never rebound and destroy the +marksman. But, in the latter case, the shot may often hit the +mark, but as often rebound and harden, if not destroy, the +shooter's heart--even his soul. What matters it, men say, he will +then find rest, commodity, and reputation--what matters it--if he +find there but few perfect truths--what matters (men say)--he +will find there perfect media, those perfect instruments of +getting in the way of perfect truths. + +This choice tells why Beethoven is always modern and Strauss +always mediaeval--try as he may to cover it up in new bottles. He +has chosen to capitalize a "talent"--he has chosen the complexity +of media, the shining hardness of externals, repose, against the +inner, invisible activity of truth. He has chosen the first +creed, the easy creed, the philosophy of his fathers, among whom +he found a half-idiot-genius (Nietzsche). His choice naturally +leads him to glorify and to magnify all kind of dull things-- +stretched-out geigermusik--which in turn naturally leads him to +"windmills" and "human heads on silver platters." Magnifying the +dull into the colossal, produces a kind of "comfort"--the comfort +of a woman who takes more pleasure in the fit of fashionable +clothes than in a healthy body--the kind of comfort that has +brought so many "adventures of baby-carriages at county fairs"-- +"the sensation of Teddy bears, smoking their first cigarette"--on +the program of symphony orchestras of one hundred performers,-- +the lure of the media--the means--not the end--but the finish,-- +thus the failure to perceive that thoughts and memories of +childhood are too tender, and some of them too sacred to be worn +lightly on the sleeve. Life is too short for these one hundred +men, to say nothing of the composer and the "dress-circle," to +spend an afternoon in this way. They are but like the rest of us, +and have only the expectancy of the mortality-table to survive-- +perhaps only this "piece." We cannot but feel that a too great +desire for "repose" accounts for such phenomena. A MS. score is +brought to a concertmaster--he may be a violinist--he is kindly +disposed, he looks it over, and casually fastens on a passage +"that's bad for the fiddles, it doesn't hang just right, write it +like this, they will play it better." But that one phrase is the +germ of the whole thing. "Never mind, it will fit the hand better +this way--it will sound better." My God! what has sound got to do +with music! The waiter brings the only fresh egg he has, but the +man at breakfast sends it back because it doesn't fit his eggcup. +Why can't music go out in the same way it comes in to a man, +without having to crawl over a fence of sounds, thoraxes, +catguts, wire, wood, and brass? Consecutive-fifths are as +harmless as blue laws compared with the relentless tyranny of the +"media." The instrument!--there is the perennial difficulty-- +there is music's limitations. Why must the scarecrow of the +keyboard--the tyrant in terms of the mechanism (be it Caruso or a +Jew's-harp) stare into every measure? Is it the composer's fault +that man has only ten fingers? Why can't a musical thought be +presented as it is born--perchance "a bastard of the slums," or a +"daughter of a bishop"--and if it happens to go better later on +a bass-drum (than upon a harp) get a good bass-drummer. +[Footnote: The first movement (Emerson) of the music, which is +the cause of all these words, was first thought of (we believe) +in terms of a large orchestra, the second (Hawthorne) in terms of +a piano or a dozen pianos, the third (Alcotts)--of an organ (or +piano with voice or violin), and the last (Thoreau), in terms of +strings, colored possibly with a flute or horn.] That music must +be heard, is not essential--what it sounds like may not be what +it is. Perhaps the day is coming when music--believers will learn +"that silence is a solvent...that gives us leave to be universal" +rather than personal. + +Some fiddler was once honest or brave enough, or perhaps ignorant +enough, to say that Beethoven didn't know how to write for the +violin,--that, maybe, is one of the many reasons Beethoven is not +a Vieuxtemps. Another man says Beethoven's piano sonatas are not +pianistic--with a little effort, perhaps, Beethoven could have +become a Thalberg. His symphonies are perfect-truths and perfect +for the orchestra of l820--but Mahler could have made them-- +possibly did make them--we will say, "more perfect," as far as +their media clothes are concerned, and Beethoven is today big +enough to rather like it. He is probably in the same amiable +state of mind that the Jesuit priest said, "God was in," when He +looked down on the camp ground and saw the priest sleeping with a +Congregational Chaplain. Or in the same state of mind you'll be +in when you look down and see the sexton keeping your tombstone +up to date. The truth of Joachim offsets the repose of Paganini +and Kubelik. The repose and reputation of a successful pianist-- +(whatever that means) who plays Chopin so cleverly that he covers +up a sensuality, and in such a way that the purest-minded see +nothing but sensuous beauty in it, which, by the way, doesn't +disturb him as much as the size of his income-tax--the repose and +fame of this man is offset by the truth and obscurity of the +village organist who plays Lowell Mason and Bach with such +affection that he would give his life rather than lose them. The +truth and courage of this organist, who risks his job, to fight +the prejudice of the congregation, offset the repose and large +salary of a more celebrated choirmaster, who holds his job by +lowering his ideals, who is willing to let the organ smirk under +an insipid, easy-sounding barcarolle for the offertory, who is +willing to please the sentimental ears of the music committee +(and its wives)--who is more willing to observe these forms of +politeness than to stand up for a stronger and deeper music of +simple devotion, and for a service of a spiritual unity, the kind +of thing that Mr. Bossitt, who owns the biggest country place, +the biggest bank, and the biggest "House of God" in town (for is +it not the divine handiwork of his own-pocketbook)--the kind of +music that this man, his wife, and his party (of property right +in pews) can't stand because it isn't "pretty." + +The doctrine of this "choice" may be extended to the distinction +between literal-enthusiasm and natural-enthusiasm (right or wrong +notes, good or bad tones against good or bad interpretation, good +or bad sentiment) or between observation and introspection, or to +the distinction between remembering and dreaming. Strauss +remembers, Beethoven dreams. We see this distinction also in +Goethe's confusion of the moral with the intellectual. There is +no such confusion in Beethoven--to him they are one. It is told, +and the story is so well known that we hesitate to repeat it +here, that both these men were standing in the street one day +when the Emperor drove by--Goethe, like the rest of the crowd, +bowed and uncovered--but Beethoven stood bolt upright, and +refused even to salute, saying: "Let him bow to us, for ours is a +nobler empire." Goethe's mind knew this was true, but his moral +courage was not instinctive. + +This remembering faculty of "repose," throws the mind in +unguarded moments quite naturally towards "manner" and thus to +the many things the media can do. It brings on an itching to +over-use them--to be original (if anyone will tell what that is) +with nothing but numbers to be original with. We are told that a +conductor (of the orchestra) has written a symphony requiring an +orchestra of one hundred and fifty men. If his work perhaps had +one hundred and fifty valuable ideas, the one hundred and fifty +men might be justifiable--but as it probably contains not more +than a dozen, the composer may be unconsciously ashamed of them, +and glad to cover them up under a hundred and fifty men. A man +may become famous because he is able to eat nineteen dinners a +day, but posterity will decorate his stomach, not his brain. + +Manner breeds a cussed-cleverness--only to be clever--a satellite +of super-industrialism, and perhaps to be witty in the bargain, +not the wit in mother-wit, but a kind of indoor, artificial, +mental arrangement of things quickly put together and which have +been learned and studied--it is of the material and stays there, +while humor is of the emotional and of the approaching spiritual. +Even Dukas, and perhaps other Gauls, in their critical heart of +hearts, may admit that "wit" in music, is as impossible as "wit" +at a funeral. The wit is evidence of its lack. Mark Twain could +be humorous at the death of his dearest friend, but in such a way +as to put a blessing into the heart of the bereaved. Humor in +music has the same possibilities. But its quantity has a serious +effect on its quality, "inverse ratio" is a good formula to adopt +here. Comedy has its part, but wit never. Strauss is at his best +in these lower rooms, but his comedy reminds us more of the +physical fun of Lever rather than "comedy in the Meredithian +sense" as Mason suggests. Meredith is a little too deep or too +subtle for Strauss--unless it be granted that cynicism is more a +part of comedy than a part of refined-insult. Let us also +remember that Mr. Disston, not Mr. Strauss, put the funny notes +in the bassoon. A symphony written only to amuse and entertain is +likely to amuse only the writer--and him not long after the check +is cashed. + +"Genius is always ascetic and piety and love," thus Emerson +reinforces "God's offer of this choice" by a transcendental +definition. The moment a famous violinist refused "to appear" +until he had received his check,--at that moment, precisely +(assuming for argument's sake, that this was the first time that +materialism had the ascendancy in this man's soul) at that moment +he became but a man of "talent"--incidentally, a small man and a +small violinist, regardless of how perfectly he played, +regardless to what heights of emotion he stirred his audience, +regardless of the sublimity of his artistic and financial +success. + +d'Annunzio, it is told, becoming somewhat discouraged at the +result of some of his Fiume adventures said: "We are the only +Idealists left." This remark may have been made in a moment of +careless impulse, but if it is taken at its face value, the +moment it was made that moment his idealism started downhill. A +grasp at monopoly indicates that a sudden shift has taken place +from the heights where genius may be found, to the lower plains +of talent. The mind of a true idealist is great enough to know +that a monopoly of idealism or of wheat is a thing nature does +not support. + +A newspaper music column prints an incident (so how can we assume +that it is not true?) of an American violinist who called on Max +Reger, to tell him how much he (the American) appreciated his +music. Reger gives him a hopeless look and cries: "What! a +musician and not speak German!" At that moment, by the clock, +regardless of how great a genius he may have been before that +sentence was uttered--at that moment he became but a man of +"talent." "For the man of talent affects to call his +transgressions of the laws of sense trivial and to count them +nothing considered with his devotion to his art." His art never +taught him prejudice or to wear only one eye. "His art is less +for every deduction from his holiness and less for every defect +of common sense." And this common sense has a great deal to do +with this distinguishing difference of Emerson's between genius +and talent, repose and truth, and between all evidences of +substance and manner in art. Manner breeds partialists. "Is +America a musical nation?"--if the man who is ever asking this +question would sit down and think something over he might find +less interest in asking it--he might possibly remember that all +nations are more musical than any nation, especially the nation +that pays the most--and pays the most eagerly, for anything, +after it has been professionally-rubber stamped. Music may be yet +unborn. Perhaps no music has ever been written or heard. Perhaps +the birth of art will take place at the moment, in which the last +man, who is willing to make a living out of art is gone and gone +forever. In the history of this youthful world the best product +that human-beings can boast of is probably, Beethoven--but, +maybe, even his art is as nothing in comparison with the future +product of some coal-miner's soul in the forty-first century. And +the same man who is ever asking about the most musical nation, is +ever discovering the most musical man of the most musical nation. +When particularly hysterical he shouts, "I have found him! Smith +Grabholz--the one great American poet,--at last, here is the +Moses the country has been waiting for"--(of course we all know +that the country has not been waiting for anybody--and we have +many Moses always with us). But the discoverer keeps right on +shouting "Here is the one true American poetry, I pronounce it +the work of a genius. I predict for him the most brilliant +career--for his is an art that...--for his is a soul that... for +his is a..." and Grabholz is ruined;--but ruined, not alone, by +this perennial discoverer of pearls in any oyster-shell that +treats him the best, but ruined by his own (Grabholz's) talent,-- +for genius will never let itself be discovered by "a man." Then +the world may ask "Can the one true national "this" or "that" be +killed by its own discoverer?" "No," the country replies, "but +each discovery is proof of another impossibility." It is a sad +fact that the one true man and the one true art will never behave +as they should except in the mind of the partialist whom God has +forgotten. But this matters little to him (the man)--his business +is good--for it is easy to sell the future in terms of the past-- +and there are always some who will buy anything. The individual +usually "gains" if he is willing to but lean on "manner." The +evidence of this is quite widespread, for if the discoverer +happens to be in any other line of business his sudden +discoveries would be just as important--to him. In fact, the +theory of substance and manner in art and its related dualisms, +"repose and truth, genius and talent," &c., may find illustration +in many, perhaps most, of the human activities. And when examined +it (the illustration) is quite likely to show how "manner" is +always discovering partisans. For example, enthusiastic +discoveries of the "paragon" are common in politics--an art to +some. These revelations, in this profession are made easy by the +pre-election discovering-leaders of the people. And the genius +who is discovered, forthwith starts his speeches of "talent"-- +though they are hardly that--they are hardly more than a string +of subplatitudes, square-looking, well-rigged things that almost +everybody has seen, known, and heard since Rome or man fell. +Nevertheless these signs of perfect manner, these series of noble +sentiments that the "noble" never get off, are forcibly, clearly, +and persuasively handed out--eloquently, even beautifully +expressed, and with such personal charm, magnetism, and strength, +that their profound messages speed right through the minds and +hearts, without as much as spattering the walls, and land right +square in the middle of the listener's vanity. For all this is a +part of manner and its quality is of splendor--for manner is at +times a good bluff but substance a poor one and knows it. The +discovered one's usual and first great outburst is probably the +greatest truth that he ever utters. Fearlessly standing, he looks +straight into the eyes of the populace and with a strong ringing +voice (for strong voices and strong statesmanship are +inseparable) and with words far more eloquent than the following, +he sings "This honor is greater than I deserve but duty calls me- +-(what, not stated)... If elected, I shall be your servant"... +(for, it is told, that he believes in modesty,--that he has even +boasted that he is the most modest man in the country)... Thus he +has the right to shout, "First, last and forever I am for the +people. I am against all bosses. I have no sympathy for +politicians. I am for strict economy, liberal improvements and +justice! I am also for the--ten commandments" (his intuitive +political sagacity keeps him from mentioning any particular +one).--But a sublime height is always reached in his perorations. +Here we learn that he believes in honesty--(repeat "honesty");-- +we are even allowed to infer that he is one of the very few who +know that there is such a thing; and we also learn that since he +was a little boy (barefoot) his motto has been "Do Right,"--he +swerves not from the right!--he believes in nothing but the +right; (to him--everything is right!--if it gets him elected); +but cheers invariably stop this great final truth (in brackets) +from rising to animate expression. Now all of these translucent +axioms are true (are not axioms always true?),--as far as manner +is concerned. In other words, the manner functions perfectly. But +where is the divine substance? This is not there--why should it +be--if it were he might not be there. "Substance" is not featured +in this discovery. For the truth of substance is sometimes +silence, sometimes ellipses,--and the latter if supplied might +turn some of the declarations above into perfect truths,--for +instance "first and last and forever I am for the people ('s +votes). I'm against all bosses (against me). I have no sympathy +for (rival) politicians," etc., etc. But these tedious attempts +at comedy should stop,--they're too serious,--besides the +illustration may be a little hard on a few, the minority (the +non-people) though not on the many, the majority (the people)! +But even an assumed parody may help to show what a power manner +is for reaction unless it is counterbalanced and then saturated +by the other part of the duality. Thus it appears that all there +is to this great discovery is that one good politician has +discovered another good politician. For manner has brought forth +its usual talent;--for manner cannot discover the genius who has +discarded platitudes--the genius who has devised a new and +surpassing order for mankind, simple and intricate enough, +abstract and definite enough, locally impractical and universally +practical enough, to wipe out the need for further discoveries of +"talent" and incidentally the discoverer's own fortune and +political "manner." Furthermore, he (this genius) never will be +discovered until the majority-spirit, the common-heart, the +human-oversoul, the source of all great values, converts all +talent into genius, all manner into substance--until the direct +expression of the mind and soul of the majority, the divine right +of all consciousness, social, moral, and spiritual, discloses the +one true art and thus finally discovers the one true leader--even +itself:--then no leaders, no politicians, no manner, will hold +sway--and no more speeches will be heard. + +The intensity today, with which techniques and media are +organized and used, tends to throw the mind away from a "common +sense" and towards "manner" and thus to resultant weak and mental +states--for example, the Byronic fallacy--that one who is full of +turbid feeling about himself is qualified to be some sort of an +artist. In this relation "manner" also leads some to think that +emotional sympathy for self is as true a part of art as sympathy +for others; and a prejudice in favor of the good and bad of one +personality against the virtue of many personalities. It may be +that when a poet or a whistler becomes conscious that he is in +the easy path of any particular idiom,--that he is helplessly +prejudiced in favor of any particular means of expression,--that +his manner can be catalogued as modern or classic,--that he +favors a contrapuntal groove, a sound-coloring one, a sensuous +one, a successful one, or a melodious one (whatever that means),- +-that his interests lie in the French school or the German +school, or the school of Saturn,--that he is involved in this +particular "that" or that particular "this," or in any particular +brand of emotional complexes,--in a word, when he becomes +conscious that his style is "his personal own,"--that it has +monopolized a geographical part of the world's sensibilities, +then it may be that the value of his substance is not growing,-- +that it even may have started on its way backwards,--it may be +that he is trading an inspiration for a bad habit and finally +that he is reaching fame, permanence, or some other under-value, +and that he is getting farther and farther from a perfect truth. +But, on the contrary side of the picture, it is not unreasonable +to imagine that if he (this poet, composer, and laborer) is open +to all the overvalues within his reach,--if he stands unprotected +from all the showers of the absolute which may beat upon him,--if +he is willing to use or learn to use, or at least if he is not +afraid of trying to use, whatever he can, of any and all lessons +of the infinite that humanity has received and thrown to man,-- +that nature has exposed and sacrificed, that life and death have +translated--if he accepts all and sympathizes with all, is +influenced by all, whether consciously or sub-consciously, +drastically or humbly, audibly or inaudibly, whether it be all +the virtue of Satan or the only evil of Heaven--and all, even, at +one time, even in one chord,--then it may be that the value of +his substance, and its value to himself, to his art, to all art, +even to the Common Soul is growing and approaching nearer and +nearer to perfect truths--whatever they are and wherever they may +be. + +Again, a certain kind of manner-over-influence may be caused by a +group-disease germ. The over-influence by, the over-admiration +of, and the over-association with a particular artistic +personality or a particular type or group of personalities tends +to produce equally favorable and unfavorable symptoms, but the +unfavorable ones seem to be more contagious. Perhaps the impulse +remark of some famous man (whose name we forget) that he "loved +music but hated musicians," might be followed (with some good +results) at least part of the time. To see the sun rise, a man +has but to get up early, and he can always have Bach in his +pocket. We hear that Mr. Smith or Mr. Morgan, etc., et al. design +to establish a "course at Rome," to raise the standard of +American music, (or the standard of American composers--which is +it?) but possibly the more our composer accepts from his patrons +"et al." the less he will accept from himself. It may be possible +that a day in a "Kansas wheat field" will do more for him than +three years in Rome. It may be, that many men--perhaps some of +genius--(if you won't admit that all are geniuses) have been +started on the downward path of subsidy by trying to write a +thousand dollar prize poem or a ten thousand dollar prize opera. +How many masterpieces have been prevented from blossoming in this +way? A cocktail will make a man eat more, but will not give him a +healthy, normal appetite (if he had not that already). If a +bishop should offer a "prize living" to the curate who will love +God the hardest for fifteen days, whoever gets the prize would +love God the least. Such stimulants, it strikes us, tend to +industrialize art, rather than develop a spiritual sturdiness--a +sturdiness which Mr. Sedgwick says [footnote: H. D. Sedgwick. The +New American Type. Riverside Press. ] "shows itself in a close +union between spiritual life and the ordinary business of life," +against spiritual feebleness which "shows itself in the +separation of the two." If one's spiritual sturdiness is +congenital and somewhat perfect he is not only conscious that +this separation has no part in his own soul, but he does not feel +its existence in others. He does not believe there is such a +thing. But perfection in this respect is rare. And for the most +of us, we believe, this sturdiness would be encouraged by +anything that will keep or help us keep a normal balance between +the spiritual life and the ordinary life. If for every thousand +dollar prize a potato field be substituted, so that these +candidates of "Clio" can dig a little in real life, perhaps dig +up a natural inspiration, arts--air might be a little clearer--a +little freer from certain traditional delusions, for instance, +that free thought and free love always go to the same cafe--that +atmosphere and diligence are synonymous. To quote Thoreau +incorrectly: "When half-Gods talk, the Gods walk!" Everyone +should have the opportunity of not being over-influenced. + +Again, this over-influence by and over-insistence upon "manner" +may finally lead some to believe "that manner for manner's sake +is a basis of music." Someone is quoted as saying that "ragtime +is the true American music." Anyone will admit that it is one of +the many true, natural, and, nowadays, conventional means of +expression. It is an idiom, perhaps a "set or series of +colloquialisms," similar to those that have added through +centuries and through natural means, some beauty to all +languages. Every language is but the evolution of slang, and +possibly the broad "A" in Harvard may have come down from the +"butcher of Southwark." To examine ragtime rhythms and the +syncopations of Schumann or of Brahms seems to the writer to show +how much alike they are not. Ragtime, as we hear it, is, of +course, more (but not much more) than a natural dogma of shifted +accents, or a mixture of shifted and minus accents. It is +something like wearing a derby hat on the back of the head, a +shuffling lilt of a happy soul just let out of a Baptist Church +in old Alabama. Ragtime has its possibilities. But it does not +"represent the American nation" any more than some fine old +senators represent it. Perhaps we know it now as an ore before it +has been refined into a product. It may be one of nature's ways +of giving art raw material. Time will throw its vices away and +weld its virtues into the fabric of our music. It has its uses as +the cruet on the boarding-house table has, but to make a meal of +tomato ketchup and horse-radish, to plant a whole farm with +sunflowers, even to put a sunflower into every bouquet, would be +calling nature something worse than a politician. Mr. Daniel +Gregory Mason, whose wholesome influence, by the way, is doing as +much perhaps for music in America as American music is, amusingly +says: "If indeed the land of Lincoln and Emerson has degenerated +until nothing remains of it but a 'jerk and rattle,' then we, at +least, are free to repudiate this false patriotism of 'my Country +right or wrong,' to insist that better than bad music is no +music, and to let our beloved art subside finally under the +clangor of the subway gongs and automobile horns, dead, but not +dishonored." And so may we ask: Is it better to sing inadequately +of the "leaf on Walden floating," and die "dead but not +dishonored," or to sing adequately of the "cherry on the +cocktail," and live forever? + + +6 + + +If anyone has been strong enough to escape these rocks--this +"Scylla and Charybdis,"--has survived these wrong choices, these +under-values with their prizes, Bohemias and heroes, is not such +a one in a better position, is he not abler and freer to "declare +himself and so to love his cause so singly that he will cleave to +it, and forsake all else? What is this cause for the American +composer but the utmost musical beauty that he, as an individual +man, with his own qualities and defects, is capable of +understanding and striving towards?--forsaking all else except +those types of musical beauty that come home to him," [footnote: +Contemporary Composers, D. G. Mason, Macmil1an Co., N. Y.] and +that his spiritual conscience intuitively approves. + +"It matters not one jot, provided this course of personal loyalty +to a cause be steadfastly pursued, what the special +characteristics of the style of the music may be to which one +gives one's devotion." [footnote: Contemporary Composers, D. G. +Mason, Macmil1an Co., N. Y.] This, if over-translated, may be +made to mean, what we have been trying to say--that if your +interest, enthusiasm, and devotion on the side of substance and +truth, are of the stuff to make you so sincere that you sweat--to +hell with manner and repose! Mr. Mason is responsible for too +many young minds, in their planting season to talk like this, to +be as rough, or to go as far, but he would probably admit that, +broadly speaking--some such way, i.e., constantly recognizing +this ideal duality in art, though not the most profitable road +for art to travel, is almost its only way out to eventual freedom +and salvation. Sidney Lanier, in a letter to Bayard Taylor +writes: "I have so many fair dreams and hopes about music in +these days (1875). It is gospel whereof the people are in great +need. As Christ gathered up the Ten Commandments and redistilled +them into the clear liquid of the wondrous eleventh--love God +utterly and thy neighbor as thyself--so I think the time will +come when music rightly developed to its now little forseen +grandeur will be found to be a late revelation of all gospels in +one." Could the art of music, or the art of anything have a more +profound reason for being than this? A conception unlimited by +the narrow names of Christian, Pagan, Jew, or Angel! A vision +higher and deeper than art itself! + + +7 + + +The humblest composer will not find true humility in aiming low-- +he must never be timid or afraid of trying to express that which +he feels is far above his power to express, any more than he +should be afraid of breaking away, when necessary, from easy +first sounds, or afraid of admitting that those half truths that +come to him at rare intervals, are half true, for instance, that +all art galleries contain masterpieces, which are nothing more +than a history of art's beautiful mistakes. He should never fear +of being called a high-brow--but not the kind in Prof. Brander +Matthews' definition. John L. Sullivan was a "high-brow" in his +art. A high-brow can always whip a low-brow. + +If he "truly seeks," he "will surely find" many things to sustain +him. He can go to a part of Alcott's philosophy--"that all +occupations of man's body and soul in their diversity come from +but one mind and soul!" If he feels that to subscribe to all of +the foregoing and then submit, though not as evidence, the work +of his own hands is presumptuous, let him remember that a man is +not always responsible for the wart on his face, or a girl for +the bloom on her cheek, and as they walk out of a Sunday for an +airing, people will see them--but they must have the air. He can +remember with Plotinus, "that in every human soul there is the +ray of the celestial beauty," and therefore every human outburst +may contain a partial ray. And he can believe that it is better +to go to the plate and strike out than to hold the bench down, +for by facing the pitcher, he may then know the umpire better, +and possibly see a new parabola. His presumption, if it be that, +may be but a kind of courage juvenal sings about, and no harm can +then be done either side. "Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator." + + +8 + + +To divide by an arbitrary line something that cannot be divided +is a process that is disturbing to some. Perhaps our deductions +are not as inevitable as they are logical, which suggests that +they are not "logic." An arbitrary assumption is never fair to +all any of the time, or to anyone all the time. Many will resent +the abrupt separation that a theory of duality in music suggests +and say that these general subdivisions are too closely inter- +related to be labeled decisively--"this or that." There is +justice in this criticism, but our answer is that it is better to +be short on the long than long on the short. In such an abstruse +art as music it is easy for one to point to this as substance and +to that as manner. Some will hold and it is undeniable--in fact +quite obvious--that manner has a great deal to do with the beauty +of substance, and that to make a too arbitrary division, or +distinction between them, is to interfere, to some extent, with +an art's beauty and unity. There is a great deal of truth in this +too. But on the other hand, beauty in music is too often confused +with something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair. Many +sounds that we are used to, do not bother us, and for that +reason, we are inclined to call them beautiful. Frequently,-- +possibly almost invariably,--analytical and impersonal tests will +show, we believe, that when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted +as beautiful on its first hearing, its fundamental quality is one +that tends to put the mind to sleep. A narcotic is not always +unnecessary, but it is seldom a basis of progress,--that is, +wholesome evolution in any creative experience. This kind of +progress has a great deal to do with beauty--at least in its +deeper emotional interests, if not in its moral values. (The +above is only a personal impression, but it is based on carefully +remembered instances, during a period of about fifteen or twenty +years.) Possibly the fondness for individual utterance may throw +out a skin-deep arrangement, which is readily accepted as +beautiful--formulae that weaken rather than toughen up the +musical-muscles. If the composer's sincere conception of his art +and of its functions and ideals, coincide to such an extent with +these groove-colored permutations of tried out progressions in +expediency, that he can arrange them over and over again to his +transcendent delight--has he or has he not been drugged with an +overdose of habit-forming sounds? And as a result do not the +muscles of his clientele become flabbier and flabbier until they +give way altogether and find refuge only in a seasoned opera +box--where they can see without thinking? And unity is too +generally conceived of, or too easily accepted as analogous to +form, and form (as analogous) to custom, and custom to habit, and +habit may be one of the parents of custom and form, and there are +all kinds of parents. Perhaps all unity in art, at its inception, +is half-natural and half-artificial but time insists, or at least +makes us, or inclines to make us feel that it is all natural. It +is easy for us to accept it as such. The "unity of dress" for a +man at a ball requires a collar, yet he could dance better +without it. Coherence, to a certain extent, must bear some +relation to the listener's subconscious perspective. For example, +a critic has to listen to a thousand concerts a year, in which +there is much repetition, not only of the same pieces, but the +same formal relations of tones, cadences, progressions, etc. +There is present a certain routine series of image-necessity- +stimulants, which he doesn't seem to need until they disappear. +Instead of listening to music, he listens around it. And from +this subconscious viewpoint, he inclines perhaps more to the +thinking about than thinking in music. If he could go into some +other line of business for a year or so perhaps his perspective +would be more naturally normal. The unity of a sonata movement +has long been associated with its form, and to a greater extent +than is necessary. A first theme, a development, a second in a +related key and its development, the free fantasia, the +recapitulation, and so on, and over again. Mr. Richter or Mr. +Parker may tell us that all this is natural, for it is based on +the classic-song form, but in spite of your teachers a vague +feeling sometimes creeps over you that the form-nature of the +song has been stretched out into deformity. Some claim for +Tchaikowsky that his clarity and coherence of design is +unparalleled (or some such word) in works for the orchestra. That +depends, it seems to us, on how far repetition is an essential +part of clarity and coherence. We know that butter comes from +cream--but how long must we watch the "churning arm!" If nature +is not enthusiastic about explanation, why should Tschaikowsky +be? Beethoven had to churn, to some extent, to make his message +carry. He had to pull the ear, hard and in the same place and +several times, for the 1790 ear was tougher than the 1890 one. +But the "great Russian weeper" might have spared us. To Emerson, +"unity and the over-soul, or the common-heart, are synonymous." +Unity is at least nearer to these than to solid geometry, though +geometry may be all unity. + +But to whatever unpleasantness the holding to this theory of +duality brings us, we feel that there is a natural law underneath +it all, and like all laws of nature, a liberal interpretation is +the one nearest the truth. What part of these supplements are +opposites? What part of substance is manner? What part of this +duality is polarity? These questions though not immaterial may be +disregarded, if there be a sincere appreciation (intuition is +always sincere) of the "divine" spirit of the thing. Enthusiasm +for, and recognition of these higher over these lower values will +transform a destructive iconoclasm into creation, and a mere +devotion into consecration--a consecration which, like Amphion's +music, will raise the Walls of Thebes. + + +9 + + +Assuming, and then granting, that art-activity can be transformed +or led towards an eventual consecration, by recognizing and using +in their true relation, as much as one can, these higher and +lower dual values--and that the doing so is a part, if not the +whole of our old problem of paralleling or approving in art the +highest attributes, moral and spiritual, one sees in life--if you +will grant all this, let us offer a practical suggestion--a thing +that one who has imposed the foregoing should try to do just out +of common decency, though it be but an attempt, perhaps, to make +his speculations less speculative, and to beat off metaphysics. + +All, men-bards with a divine spark, and bards without, feel the +need at times of an inspiration from without, "the breath of +another soul to stir our inner flame," especially when we are in +pursuit of a part of that "utmost musical beauty," that we are +capable of understanding--when we are breathlessly running to +catch a glimpse of that unforeseen grandeur of Mr. Lanier's +dream. In this beauty and grandeur perhaps marionettes and their +souls have a part--though how great their part is, we hear, is +still undetermined; but it is morally certain that, at times, a +part with itself must be some of those greater contemplations +that have been caught in the "World's Soul," as it were, and +nourished for us there in the soil of its literature. + +If an interest in, and a sympathy for, the thought-visions of men +like Charles Kingsley, Marcus Aurelius, Whit tier, Montaigne, +Paul of Tarsus, Robert Browning, Pythagoras, Channing, Milton, +Sophocles, Swedenborg, Thoreau, Francis of Assisi, Wordsworth, +Voltaire, Garrison, Plutarch, Ruskin, Ariosto, and all kindred +spirits and souls of great measure, from David down to Rupert +Brooke,--if a study of the thought of such men creates a +sympathy, even a love for them and their ideal-part, it is +certain that this, however inadequately expressed, is nearer to +what music was given man for, than a devotion to "Tristan's +sensual love of Isolde," to the "Tragic Murder of a Drunken +Duke," or to the sad thoughts of a bathtub when the water is +being let out. It matters little here whether a man who paints a +picture of a useless beautiful landscape imperfectly is a greater +genius than the man who paints a useful bad smell perfectly. + +It is not intended in this suggestion that inspirations coming +from the higher planes should be limited to any particular +thought or work, as the mind receives it. The plan rather +embraces all that should go with an expression of the composite- +value. It is of the underlying spirit, the direct unrestricted +imprint of one soul on another, a portrait, not a photograph of +the personality--it is the ideal part that would be caught in +this canvas. It is a sympathy for "substance"--the over-value +together with a consciousness that there must be a lower value-- +the "Demosthenic part of the Philippics"--the "Ciceronic part of +the Catiline," the sublimity, against the vileness of Rousseau's +Confessions. It is something akin to, but something more than +these predominant partial tones of Hawthorne--"the grand old +countenance of Homer; the decrepit form, but vivid face of Aesop; +the dark presence of Dante; the wild Ariosto; Rabelais' smile of +deep-wrought mirth; the profound, pathetic humor of Cervantes; +the all-glorious Shakespeare; Spenser, meet guest for allegoric +structure; the severe divinity of Milton; and Bunyan, molded of +humblest clay, but instinct with celestial fire." + +There are communities now, partly vanished, but cherished and +sacred, scattered throughout this world of ours, in which freedom +of thought and soul, and even of body, have been fought for. And +we believe that there ever lives in that part of the over-soul, +native to them, the thoughts which these freedom-struggles have +inspired. America is not too young to have its divinities, and +its place legends. Many of those "Transcendent Thoughts" and +"Visions" which had their birth beneath our Concord elms-- +messages that have brought salvation to many listening souls +throughout the world--are still growing, day by day, to greater +and greater beauty--are still showing clearer and clearer man's +way to God! + +No true composer will take his substance from another finite +being--but there are times, when he feels that his self- +expression needs some liberation from at least a part of his own +soul. At such times, shall he not better turn to those greater +souls, rather than to the external, the immediate, and the +"Garish Day"? + +The strains of one man may fall far below the course of those +Phaetons of Concord, or of the Aegean Sea, or of Westmorland--but +the greater the distance his music falls away, the more reason +that some greater man shall bring his nearer those higher +spheres. + + +************************************************************** + + +INFO ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + +This edition of Charles Ives' "Essays Before a Sonata" was +originally published in 1920 by The Knickerbocker Press. It has +also been republished unabridged by Dover Publications, Inc., in a +1962 edition, ISBN 0-486-20320-4. + +This electronic text was prepared by John Mamoun with help from +numerous other proofreaders, including those associated with +Charles Franks' Distributed Proofreaders website. This e-text is +public domain, freely copyable and distributable for any non- +commercial purpose, and may be included without royalty or +permission on a mass media storage product, such as a cd-rom, that +contains at least 50 public domain electronic texts, whether +offered for non-commercial or commercial purposes. Any other +commercial usage requires permission. + + + + + +Use of the Project Gutenberg Trademark requires separate +permission. + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext "Essays Before a Sonata," by +Charles Ives + diff --git a/old/ivess10.zip b/old/ivess10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..33ebe11 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ivess10.zip |