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 32X 
 
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 COMMONPLACE BOOK 
 
 OF 
 
 
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 A COMMONPLACE , BOOK 
 
 OK 
 
 J» 
 
 C^oujfets, M^mmtB, anb Jfaiuifs, 
 
 ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 
 
 
 PAKT I. — K T II I C S A N 1> C H A U A C T K l«. 
 PARTto. — LITKIIATUKE AND A K T, 
 
 ^BY MRS. JAMESON. 
 
 CTu peudeohaque chose, el rittudutont.-ri'.afiano:!!':.- ' - - Montaiok^ 
 
 '« 
 
 WVxi^ lUustraftons unb ^tcjjings. 
 
 LONDON- 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GRKEN, AND LONGMANS. 
 .> V 1854. 
 
 '■'y 
 
I 
 
 "H- 
 
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 MUST 
 
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 lore. 
 i)lace be 
 earner 
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 lightly 
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PREFACE. 
 
 MOST be allowed to say a few words in explanation of 
 [he contents of thjs little volume, which is truly what its 
 lame sets forth— -a book of commonplaces, and nothing 
 
 lore. If I havftiiever, in any work I have ventured to 
 i>lace before the|)ublic, aspired to teach, (being myself a 
 mrne't' in all things,) at least I have hitherto done my 
 l>est to deserve the indulgence I have met with ; and 
 |t would pain me if it could be supposed that such indul- 
 gence had rendered me presumptuous or careless. 
 
 For many years I have been accustomed to make a 
 
 lemorandam of any thought which might come across 
 
 le — (if pen and paper were at hand), and to mark (and 
 
 remark) any passage in a book which excited either a 
 
 bympathetic or an antagonistic feeling. This collection 
 
 )f notes accumulated insensibly from day to day. The 
 
 irolumes on Shakspeare's Women, on Sacred and Legendary 
 
 irt, and various other productions, sprung from seed thus 
 
 lightly and casually sown, which, I hardly know how, 
 
 jrew up and expanded into a regular, readable form, with 
 
 A 3 
 
 
 
VI 
 
 PttKPACE. 
 
 I 
 
 a beginning, a middle, and an end. But wliat was to be 
 done with the fragments which remained — without be- 
 ginning, and without end — links of a hidden or a broken 
 chain? Whether to preserve them or destroy them 
 became a question, and one I could not answer for myself. 
 In allowing a portion of them to go forth to the world in 
 their original form, as unconnected frngments, I have 
 been guided by the wishes of others, who deemed it not 
 wholly uninteresting or profitless to trace the path, some- 
 times devious enough, of an " inquiring spirit," even by 
 the little pebbles dropped as vestiges by the way side. 
 
 V 
 
 -<; 
 
 A book so supremely egotisticaljind subjective can do 
 good only in one way. It may, like conversation with a 
 friend, open up sources of sympathy and reflection $ excite 
 to argument, agreement, or disagreement ; and, like 
 every spontaneous utterance of thought out of an earnest 
 mind, suggest far higher and better thoughts than any to 
 be found here, to higher and more productive minds. If 
 I had not the humble hope of such a possible result, 
 instead of sending these memoranda to the printer, I 
 sliould have thrown them into the fire ; for I lack that 
 (creative faculty which can work up the teachings of 
 heart-sorrow and world-experience into attractive forms 
 of fiction or of art; and having no intention of leaving 
 any such memorials to be published after my death, they 
 must iiave gone into the fire as the only alternative left. 
 
 The passages from books are not, strictly speaking, 
 selected; they are not given here on any principle of 
 clioicc, but simply because that by some process of assimi- 
 lation they became a part of the individual mind. They 
 " found w/e," — to borrow Coleridge's expression, — " found 
 me in some depth of my being ;" I did not " find them.*^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 For the rest, nil those passages which are marked by 
 inverted commas must be regarded as borrowed, though I 
 lave not always been able to give my authority. All 
 )as3age8 not so marked are, I dare not say, original or 
 lew, but at least the unstudied expression of a free dis- 
 jursive mind. Fruits, not advisedly plucked, but which 
 the variable winds have shaken from the tree ; some ripe, 
 some " harsh and crude." 
 
 Wordsworth's famous poem of " The Happy Warrior " 
 j(of which a new application will be found at page 87. )» 
 lis supposed by Mr. De Quincey to have been first 
 Isuggested by the character of Nelson. It has since been 
 ■applied to Sir Charles Napier (the Indian General), as 
 [well as to the Duke of Wellington ; all which serves 
 Ito illustrate my position, that the lines in question are 
 jequally applicable to any man or any woman whose moral 
 [standard is irrespective of selfishness and expediency. 
 
 With regard to the fragment on Sculpture, it may be 
 
 [necessary to state that it was written in 1848. The first 
 
 three paragraphs were inserted in the Art Journal for 
 
 April, 1849. It was intended to enlarge the whole into 
 
 a comprehensive essay on " Subjects fitted for Artistic 
 
 [Treatment;" but this being now impossible, the frag- 
 
 [ ment is given as originally written ; others may think 
 
 jit out, and apply it better than I shall live to do. v f^;^ j^^ _...,. 
 
 September, 1854. ^ . '- ft< .j / 
 
 
 if »-n 
 
 r»<.-# »,. '**-C 
 
 > 
 
 *2 «. r 
 
 W. 
 
 T-*<. tr <..«y. 
 
 
J 
 
 w 
 
^ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 (Irttiirs anil Cliarnrtrr. 
 
 raJ 
 
 If 
 
 ruicAL FragbientsJ 
 Vanity - 
 
 Truths and Traisnis 
 Beauty and Use • 
 What is Soul ? - 
 The Philosophy of Happiness 
 Cheerftdncss a Virtue - 
 Intellect tatd Sympathy - 
 Old Letters - ^ 
 
 The Point of Honour . 
 Looking up . 
 Authors 
 
 Thought and Theory 
 Impulse and Consideration 
 Principle and Expediency 
 Personality of the Evil Principle 
 The Catholic Spirit 
 Death-beds 
 
 l'ag«' 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 10 
 11 
 12 
 13 
 14 
 15 
 15 
 16 
 17 
 18 
 19 
 20 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Thoughts on a Sermon - 
 Love and Fear of God - 
 Social Opinion - - - 
 
 fialzac - - - - 
 
 Political 
 
 Celibacy . . - 
 
 Landor's Wise Sayings - 
 Justice and Generosity - 
 Roman Catholic Converts 
 Stealing and Borrowing 
 Good and Bad - • - 
 
 Italian Proverb. Greek Saying 
 Silent Grief 
 Past and Future 
 Suicide. Countenance - 
 Progress and Progression 
 Happiness in Suffering - 
 Life in the Future 
 Strength. Youth 
 Moral Suffering 
 The Secret of Peace 
 Motives and Impulses - 
 Principle and Passion - 
 Dominant Ideas - - - 
 
 Absence and Death 
 Sydney Smith. Theodore Hook 
 Werther and Childe Harold 
 Money Obligations 
 Charity. Truth 
 Women. Men - 
 Compensation for Sorrow 
 Religion. Avarico 
 Genius, Mind - 
 Hieroglyphical Colours - 
 
 1 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 21 li 
 
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 23 
 
 
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 ■53 ^ 
 
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 - 55 J 
 
 'J 
 
 
 ' ^^ m 
 
 A Ri 
 
 
 ' ^^ J 
 
 The 
 
 
 - 5^ :1 
 
 Poet 
 
 
 - 59 ^ 
 
 
 
 - 60 
 
 1 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ^ ..x 
 
 Page 
 21 
 23 
 24 
 24 
 25 
 26 
 27 
 28 
 29 
 29 
 30 
 31 
 32 
 33 
 34 
 35 
 36 
 37 
 38 
 41 
 42 
 43 
 44 
 45 
 46 
 47 
 51 
 53 
 55 
 56 
 57 
 68 
 59 
 60 
 
 Character - - - . . 
 
 Value of Words - - - - - 
 
 Nature and Art - - - - 
 
 Spirit and Form - . > . 
 
 Penal Retribution. The Church 
 
 Woman's Patriotism .... 
 
 Doubt. Curiosity - - - . 
 
 Tieck. Coleridge - - . . 
 
 Application of a Bon Mot of Talleyrand 
 
 Adverse Individualities - - • . 
 
 Conflict in Love - - - . 
 
 French Expressions .... 
 Practical and Contemplative Life 
 Joanna Baillie. Macaulay's Ballads 
 Cunning - 
 
 Browning's Paracelsus .... 
 Men, Women, and Children 
 Letters - - .... 
 
 Madame de Stael. Deja ... 
 
 Thought too firee - - . . 
 
 Good Qualities, not Virtues - - . 
 
 Sense and Fantasy - • - . 
 
 Use the Present - - . . 
 
 Facts - - 
 
 Wise Sayings ---... 
 Pestilence of Falsehood - - . . 
 
 Signs instead of Words. Relations with the World 
 Milton's Adam and Eve ... 
 
 Thoughts, sundry .... 
 
 Revelation of Childhood 
 'he Indian Hunter and the Fiue ; an AiUgory - 
 
 'OETICAL FllAOMENTS - . . 
 
 xi 
 
 61 
 62 
 64 
 67 
 68 
 70 
 71 
 71 
 73 
 74 
 76 
 77 
 78 
 80 
 80 
 81 
 84 
 100 
 103 
 105 
 106 
 107 
 108 
 109 
 111 
 112 
 113 
 115 
 116 
 117 
 147 
 152 
 
xii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Crtralagtcal. 
 
 The Hermit and the Minstrel - 
 Pandemonium - - ' - 
 
 Southey on the Religious Orders 
 Forms in Religion — Image Worship 
 Religious Differences 
 Expansive Christianity - 
 
 NOTKS FROM VARIOUS SeRMONS : — 
 
 A Roman Catholic Sermon 
 Another - - - . 
 
 Church of England Sermon 
 Another - 
 Dissenting Sermon 
 Father Taylor of Boston - 
 
 f 
 
 1 
 
 B ^^ 
 
 Page 
 
 m ^' 
 
 155 
 
 v< 
 
 158 1 
 
 Dt 
 
 162 J 
 
 M( 
 
 164 m 
 
 Ph 
 
 165 T^ 
 
 Mo 
 
 169 1 
 
 Mu 
 
 172 1 
 
 Upw 
 En 
 
 176 ; 
 
 Ch 
 
 178 1 
 
 Shi 
 
 181 
 
 "1 
 
 187 i 
 
 Th 
 
 188 \ 
 
 W< 
 
 PART 11. 
 
 iittmtnrc aiih Slrt 
 
 Notes from Books: — 
 
 Dr. Arnold - . - 
 
 Niebuhr - - - - 
 
 Lord Bacon - - - 
 
 Chateaubriand - - - 
 
 Bishop Cumberland 
 
 Comte's Philosophy 
 
 Goethe - - - - 
 
 Hazlitt's " Liber Amoris " 
 
 Francis Horner, " The Nightingale " 
 
 Thackeray's " English Humourists " 
 
 Notes on Art : — 
 Analogies 
 
 f- 
 
 198 
 220 
 230 
 240 
 247 
 250 
 261 
 263 
 267 
 271 
 
 276 
 
 i( 
 
i 
 
 I 
 
 4 CONTENTS. 
 
 > 
 
 
 xiii 
 
 f^' ■ " " " 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 Definition of Art 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
 279 
 
 Page M 
 
 No Patriotic Art 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 280 
 
 - 155 ^ 
 
 Verse and Colour 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 280 
 
 • 158 :9 
 
 Dutch Pictures - 
 
 " " •• 
 
 - 
 
 281 
 
 - 162 fl 
 
 Morals in Art - 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 283 
 
 - 164 :mt 
 
 Physiognomy of Hands - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 288 
 
 - 165 fl 
 -^' '• 169 fl 
 
 Mozart and Chopin 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 289 
 
 Music . - - 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 293 
 
 
 Rachel, the Actress 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 294 
 
 - 172 fl 
 
 English and German Actresses 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 298 
 
 j' ' ^^^ fl 
 
 Character of Imogen 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 303 
 
 ¥ ' ^^^ fl 
 
 Shakspeare.Club 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 305 
 
 % - 181 fl 
 
 " Maria Maddalena" - 
 
 - - . 
 
 ^ 
 
 305 
 
 ^ \ --IS? fl 
 
 The Artistic Nature 
 
 - " • 
 
 ^ 
 
 307 
 
 - 188 fl 
 
 Woman's Criticism 
 
 ■* * a 
 
 , 
 
 309 
 
 
 Artistic Influences 
 
 - . . 
 
 . 
 
 310 
 
 
 The Greek Aphrodite - 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 311 
 
 i|B 
 
 Love, in the Greek Tragedy 
 
 - 
 
 ^ 
 
 312 
 
 
 Wilkie's Life and Letters 
 
 - . . 
 
 . 
 
 313 
 
 
 Wilhelm Schadow 
 
 - - . 
 
 
 317 
 
 ''^>^^^B 
 
 Artist Life 
 
 - - . 
 
 . 
 
 321 
 
 
 Materialism in Art 
 
 - - . 
 
 • 
 
 323 
 
 " ^^^ '9b 
 
 A Fragment on Sculpture, and 
 
 on certain Characters 
 
 in 
 
 
 --'- - 220 'fl 
 
 History and Poetry, considered as Subjects for Modern 
 
 
 - 230 fl 
 
 Art - 
 
 - 
 
 • 
 
 326 
 
 - 240 fl 
 
 Helen of Troy - 
 
 - - . 
 
 , 
 
 332 
 
 - 247 fl 
 
 Penelope — liHodamia 
 
 - 
 
 ^ 
 
 336 
 
 - 250 fl 
 
 Hippolytus 
 
 - . . 
 
 . 
 
 339 
 
 ■ 261 M 
 
 Iphigenia 
 
 - * « 
 
 . 
 
 343 
 
 - 263 fl 
 
 Eve 
 
 - - - 
 
 ^ 
 
 347 
 
 - 267 -M 
 
 Adam 
 
 • . _ 
 
 ^ 
 
 350 
 
 ■ 2"^ m 
 
 Angels - 
 
 - - , 
 
 . 
 
 351 
 
 '^M 
 
 Miriam — Ruth - 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 354 
 
 - 276 M 
 
 Christ— Solomon — David 
 
 . 
 
 355 
 
xiv 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Ilagar — Rebecca — Rachel — Queen of Sheba 
 
 Lady Godiva - - - - 
 
 Joan of Arc - - . - 
 
 Characters from Shakspeare 
 
 Characters from Spenser 
 
 From Milton. The Lady — Comus — Satan 
 
 From the Italian and Modern Poets 
 
 'i'l 
 
 LIST OF ETCHINGS, i 
 
 
 1. Out of my garden. '."".''".'. 
 
 2. Fruits and Flowers. After an old drawing. 
 
 3. Virgin Martyrs. Thought. Memory. Fancy. After Bene- 
 
 detto da Matera. V 
 
 4 La Fille du Feu. From a sketch by Von ^hwind. 
 
 5. Harmony. 
 
 6. La Penserosa. After Ambrogio Lorenzetto. 
 
 7. Laus Dei. Angel after Hans Hemling. 
 
 8. Eve and Cain. After Steinle. 
 
 9. Study. After an old print. ' 
 
 10. The Parcic, From a sketch by Carstens. 
 
 11. Antique Owlet. In Goethe's collection at Weimar. 
 
 *,^* The woodcuts are inserted to divide the paragraphs and sub- 
 jects, and are ornamental rather than illustrative. 
 
ba - 
 
 
 Page 
 - 356 
 
 
 
 - 357 
 
 
 
 - 359 
 
 
 f^ 
 
 - 364 
 
 - 36fi 
 
 
 
 - 367 
 
 
 
 • 370 
 
 ^ A 
 
 [pA^T a, 
 
 mar. 
 
 jraphs and sub- 
 
 cy. After Bene- 
 wind. 
 
 U\m m\ €\nu\n. 
 
itliitKl ^r a gill tuts. 
 
 ICON says, how wisely 1 that " there is often as 
 beat vanity in withdrawing and retiring men's 
 ^nceit8 from the world, as in obtruding them." 
 
 ttreme vanity sometimes hides under the garb of 
 Itra modesty. When I see people haunted by the 
 lea of self, — spreading their hands before their 
 
 jes lest they meet the reflection of it in every 
 
 ler face, as if the world were to them like a 
 
 B 
 
ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 Ill I 
 
 French drcawing-rooin, panelled with looking glass, 
 — always fussily putting their obtrusive self behind i 
 them, or dragging over it a scanty drapery of con- 
 sciousness, miscalled modesty, — always on their I 
 defence against compliments, or mistaking sympathy 
 for compliment, which is as great an error, and a| 
 more vulgar one than mistaking flattery for sym- 
 pathy, — when I see all this, as I have seen it, I am ] 
 inclined to attribute it to the immaturity of thei 
 character, or to what is worse, a total want of sim- 
 plicity. To some characters fame is like an intoxi- j 
 eating cup placed to the lips, — they do well to turn 
 away from it, who fear it will turn their hea^. But 
 to others, fame is " love disguised," the love that! 
 answers to love, in its widest most exalted sense. It | 
 seems to me, that we should all bring the best that | 
 is in us (according to the diversity of gifts which \ 
 God has given us), and lay it a reverend offering on 
 the altar of humanity, — if not to burn and enlighten, 
 at least to rise in incense to heaven. So will the! 
 pure in heart, and the unselfish do; and t&ey willl 
 not heed if those who can bring nothing or will' 
 brine: nothing, unless they can blaze like a beacon, 
 call out " VANITY !" (/ a.*-*-<.''<^**-'0 v ^r-^*^-^*^- ' '^ 
 
 illiii 
 
TRUTHS AND TRUISMS. 
 
 9. 
 
 There are truths which, by perpetual repetition, 
 Lve subsided into passive truisms, till, in some 
 
 )ment of feeling or experience, they kindle into 
 Inviction, start to life and light, and the truism 
 kcomes again a vital truth. 
 
 fl 
 
 3. 
 
 [It is well that we obtain what we require at the 
 japest possible rate ; yet those who cheapen goods, 
 beat down the price of a good article, or buy in 
 jference to what is good and genuine of its kind 
 inferior article at an inferior price, sometimes do 
 ich mischief. Not only do they discourage the 
 )ductiou of a better article, but if they be anxious 
 )ut the education of the lower classes they undo 
 kh one hand what they do with the other; they 
 sourage the mere mechanic and the production of 
 [at may be produced without effort of mind and 
 pout education, and they discourage and wrong 
 
 skilled workman for whom education has done 
 [ch more and whose education has cost much more. 
 
 ivery work so merely and basely mechanical, 
 ^t a man can throw into it no part of his own life 
 /■ c 
 
 < 
 
 llv 
 
 b 
 
ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 !'! 
 
 A* 
 
 i il 
 
 and soul, does, in the long run, degrade the human 
 being. It is only by giving him some kind of mental 
 and moral interest in the labour of his hands, making 
 it an exercise of his understanding, and an object of 
 his sympathy, that we can really elevate the work- 1 
 man ; and this is not the case with very cheap pro- 
 duction of any kind. (Southampton, Dec. 1849.) 
 
 Since this was written the same idea has been 
 carried out, with far more eloquent reasoning, ina| 
 noble passage which I have just found in Mr. Rus- 
 kin's last volume of "The Stones of Venice" (the I 
 Sea Stories). As I do not always subscribe to hia 
 theories of Art, I am the more delighted with this] 
 anticipation of a moral agreement between us. 
 
 " We have much studied and much perfected ofl 
 late, the great civilised invention of the division ofl 
 labour, only we give it a false name. It is not, truly I 
 speaking, the labour that is divided, but the men: I 
 — divided into mere segments of men, — broken into! 
 small fragments and crumbs of life ; so that all thel 
 little piece of intelligence that is left in a man is noti 
 enough to make a pin or a nail, but exhausts itself! 
 in making the point of a pin or the head of a nail.! 
 Now, it is a good and desirable thing truly to makel 
 many pins in a day, but if we could only see withi 
 what crystal sand their points are polished — sand of| 
 human soul, much to be magnified before it can bel 
 
BEAUTY AND USE, 
 
 discerned for what it ia, — we should think there 
 mio'ht be some loss in it also; and the great cry that 
 rises from all our manufacturing cities^ louder than 
 their furnace-blast, is all in very deed for this, — 
 that we manufacture everything there except men, — 
 we blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine 
 sugar, and shape pottery; but- to brighten, to 
 I strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, 
 never enters into our estimate of advantages ; and 
 all the evil to which that cry is urging our myriads, 
 can be met only in one way, — not by teaching nor 
 Ipreaching ; for to teach them is but to show them 
 Itheir misery; and to preach to them — if we do 
 Inothing more than preach, — is to mock at it. It 
 [can be met only by a right understanding on the 
 [part of all classes, of what kinds of labour are good 
 Ifor men, raising them and making them happy ; by 
 la determined sacrifice of such convenience, or beauty 
 lor cheapness, as is to be got only by the degradation 
 lof the workman, and by equally determined demand 
 Ifor the products and results of a healthy and en- 
 Inobling labour." .... 
 
 " We are always in these days trying to separate 
 jthe two (intellect and work). We want one man 
 to be always thinking, and another to be always 
 kvorking ; and we call one a gentleman and the 
 )ther an operative : whereas, the workman ought to 
 je often thinking, and the thinker often working, 
 
 c 2 
 
 
 I 
 
1 
 
 \l,< 
 
 III n 
 
 y I 
 
 11! 
 
 ETIIIOAIi PRAOMKNT8. 
 
 \ 
 
 and both hIiohUI be pjcntlcmcn in the best senHc. It 
 is only by labour that thought can bo made healthy, 
 and only by thought that labour can be made 
 happy; and the two cannot be separated with 
 impunity." 
 
 Wordsworth, however, had said the same thinj,' 
 before cither of us : 
 
 " Our life is turn'd 
 Out of her course wherever man is made 
 An offeriug or a sacrifice. — a tool 
 Or implement, — a passiye thing employed • 
 As a brute mean, without acknowledgment 
 Of common right or interest in the end, 
 Used or abused as selfishness may prompt. 
 ' Say what can follow for a rational soul 
 
 Perverted thus, but weakness in all good 
 And strength in evil ? " 
 
 And this leads us to the consideration of another 
 mistake, analogous with the above, but referable in 
 its results chiefly to the higher, or what Mr. Ruskin j 
 calls the thinking, classes of the community. 
 
 It is not good for us to have all that we value | 
 of worldly material things in the form of money. 
 It is the most vulgar form in which value can be in- 
 vested. Not only books, pictures, and all beautiful 
 things are better; but even jewels and trinkets are| 
 
WHAT IS BOTTL? 
 
 Loiuctimca to be preferred to mere.hard money. Lauds 
 
 liind toncments are good, as involving duties; but 
 
 Igtill what is valuable in the market sense should 
 
 Lometiincs take the ideal and the beautiful form, and 
 
 |bc dear and lovely and valuable for its own sake as 
 
 well as for its convertible worth in hard gold. I 
 
 think the character would be apt to deteriorate when 
 
 ill its material possessions take the form of money, 
 
 md when money becomes valuable for its own 
 
 Bake, or as the mere instrument or representative 
 
 )f power. , 
 
 '[in 
 
 4. 
 
 We are told in a late account of Laura Bridge- 
 
 lan, the blind, deaf, and dumb girl, that her 
 
 istructor once endeavoured to explain the difference 
 
 fetween the material and the immaterial, and used 
 
 le word " soul." She interrupted to ask, " What 
 
 soul?" 
 
 " That which thinks, feels, hopes, loves, " 
 
 " And aches?" she added eagerly. 
 
 c 3 
 
ii! 
 ■I i 
 
 i' 
 
 i I 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 I Avas reading to-day in the Notes to Boswell's 
 Life of Johnson that " it is a theory which every 
 one knows to he false in fact, that virtue in real Hfe 
 is always productive of happiness, and vice of misery." i 
 I should say that all my experience teaches me that | 
 the position is not false but true: that virtue does] 
 produce happiness, and vice does produce misery. 
 But let us settle the meaning of the words. Byj 
 happiness, we do not necessarily mean a state of 
 worldly prosperity. By virtue, we do not mean a| 
 series of good actions which may or may not be re- 
 warded, and, if done for reward, lose the essence ofl 
 virtue. Virtue, according to my idea, is the habitual ; 
 sense of right, and the habitual courage to act up to | 
 that sense of right, combined with benevolent sym- 
 pathies, the charity which thinketh no evil. This! 
 union of the highest conscience and the highest sym- j 
 pathy fulfils my notion of virtue. Strength is essen- 
 tial to it; weakness incompatible with it. Where: 
 virtue is, the noblest faculties and the softest feelings 
 are predominant ; the whole being is in that state ofl 
 harmony which I call happiness. Pain may reach it, 1 
 passion may disturb it, but there is always a glimpse I 
 of blue sky above our head ; as we ascend in dignity 
 of being, we ascend in happiness, which is, in my 
 sense of the word, the feeling which connects us 
 with the infinite and with God. 
 
 And vice is necessarily misery : (or that fluctuation; 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HAPPINESS. 
 
 it fluctuation! 
 
 )f principle, that diseased craving for excitement, 
 that weakness out of which springs falsehood, that 
 suspicion of others, that discord with ourselves, with 
 the absence of the benevolent propensities, — these 
 constitute misery as a state of being. The most 
 iiiscrable person I ever met with in my life had 
 [2,000/. a year ; a cunning mind, dexterous to com- 
 pass its own ends ; very little conscience, not enough, 
 )ne would have thought, to vex with any retributive 
 )ang ; but it was the absence of goodness that made 
 the misery, obvious and hourly increasing. The 
 )erpetual kicking against the pricks, the unreason- 
 ible exigeance with regard to things, without any high 
 Standard with regard to persons, — these made the 
 misery. I can speak of it as misery who had it daily 
 In my sight for five long years. 
 
 I have had arguments, if it be not presumption to 
 Jail them so, with Carlyle on this point. It appeared 
 |;o me that he confounded happiness with pleasure, 
 rith self-indulgence. He set aside with a towering 
 [corn the idea of living for the sake of happiness, so 
 galled : he styled this philosophy of happiness " the 
 bhilosophy of the frying-pan." But this was like 
 Ihe reasoning of a child, whose idea of happiness is 
 blenty of sugar-plums. Pleasure, pleasurable sensa- 
 pon, is, as tlie world goes, something to thank God 
 )r. I should be one of the last to undervalue it ; 
 
 hope I am one of the last to live for it ; and pain 
 
 c 4 
 
10 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 is pain, a great evil, which I do not like either to 
 inflict or suffer. But happiness lies beyond either 
 pain or pleasure — is as sublime a thing as virtue 
 itself, indivisible from it; and imder this point of 
 view it seems a perilous mistake to separate them. 
 
 holy, and a virtue. 
 
 Lord Bacon also makes one of the characteristics 
 
 Dante places in his lowest Hell those who in life 
 were melancholy and repining without a cause, thus 
 profaning and darkening God's blessed sunshine — 
 Tristi fummo neV aer dolce ; and in some of the 
 ancient Christian systems of virtues and vices, 
 1 ', , . Melancholy is unholy, and a vice; Cheerfulness is 
 
 t>^vt«i),A/"^4,<*f moral health and goodness to consist in "a con- 
 stant quick sense of felicity, and a noble satisfac- 
 tion." 
 
 What moments, hours, days of exquisite felicity 
 must Christ, our Redeemer, have had, though it has 
 become too customary to place him before us only in 
 the attitude of pain and sorrow ! Why should he be 
 always crowned with thorns, bleeding with wounds, 
 weeping over the world he was appointed to heal, to 
 save, to reconcile with God? The radiant head of | 
 
 ii-ij! 
 
INTELLECT AND SYMPATHY. 
 
 11 
 
 Christ in Rjiphael's Transfiguration should rather 
 be our ideal of Him who came " to bind up the 
 broken-hearted, to preach the acceptable year of the 
 
 Lord." 
 
 6. 
 
 A PROFOUND intellect is weakened and narrowed 
 in general power and influence by a limited range of 
 
 sympathies. I think this is especially true of C : 
 
 excellent, honest, gifted as he is, he does not do half 
 the good he might do, because his sympathies are so 
 confined. And then he wants gentleness : he does 
 not seem to acknowledge that " the wisdom that is 
 from above is gentW He is a man who carries his 
 bright intellect as a light in a dark-lantern ; he sees 
 only the objects on which he chooses to throw that 
 blaze of light : those he sees vividly, but, as it were, 
 exclusively. All other things, though lying near, 
 are dark, because perversely he xoill not throw the 
 liglit of his mind upon them. 
 
 -.-I^' 
 
1' 
 
 18 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 
 .7. 
 
 WiLHELM VON HuMBOLDT says, " Old letters 
 lose their vitality." 
 
 Not true. It is because they retain their vitality 
 that it is so dangerous to keep some letters, — so 
 wicked to burn others, y iri -y^" o-^^J-'^' V; U^ ^ . 
 
 You must listen to this, for it is well and strongly 
 put: — 
 
 " When we meet with an instance of this kind 
 (the allusion is to Count Leopardi), in which the 
 possession of God's choicest natural gifts of genius, 
 knowledge, feeling, is combined with a blindness to 
 His crowning mercy {i. e. our redemption through 
 Christ,) it is wicked to deny, — it is weak to ex- 
 plain it away. It is weaker still to attempt to get 
 rid of it by attenuating the truth of Revelation in 
 order to force it into a kind of resemblance to some 
 sentiment on which an exaggerated and inflated 
 strength is put, in order, as it were, to meet it 
 halfway from the other side. That is to destroy 
 what is really needful for us, — the integrity of 
 
 II' i III 
 
THE POINT OF HONOUR. 
 
 13 
 
 the Gospel, — in order to do what is not needful, 
 and is commonly wrong ; namely, to pass a judg- 
 ment on our fellow-creatures. Never let it be for- 
 gotten that there is scarcely a single moral action of 
 a single human being of which other men have such 
 a knowledge, — its ultimate grounds, — its surround- 
 ing incidents, and the real determining causes of its 
 merits, as to warrant their pronouncing a conclusive 
 uulgment." — Quarterly Review. 
 
 9. 
 
 A MAN thinks himself, and is thought by others 
 to be insulted when another man gives him the lie. 
 It is an offence to be retracted at once, or only to 
 be effaced in blood. To give a woman the lie is not 
 considered in the same unpardonable light by herself 
 or others, — is indeed a slight thing. Now, whence 
 this difference ? Is not truth as dear to a woman as 
 to a man ? Is the virtue itself, or the reputation of 
 it, less necessary to the woman than to the man? 
 If not, what causes this distinction, — one so injurious 
 to the morals of both sexes ? 
 
 \ 
 
14 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 
 
 ^i^-►^. 
 
 I i t.i 
 
 10. 
 
 It is good for us to look up, morally and mentally. 
 If I were tired I would get some help to hold my 
 head up, as Moses got some one to hold up his arms 
 while he prayed. 
 
 It. ' 
 
 
 \H( i ^>- ^ 'i* " Ce qui est moins que moi m'eteint et m'assommc ; 
 
 I - i«^ V- ^ ce qui est a cote de moi m'ennuie et me fatigue. 11 
 
 ' .si ' " % ' "'y ^ ^^6 cc n.^i ^®* au-dessus de moi qui me sou- 
 
 1 f*'* 
 
 tienne et m'arrache a moi-meme." 
 
 
 !«• 
 
 11. 
 
 Ill 
 
 There is an order of writers who, with oharac- 
 ters perverted or hardened through long practice of 
 
AUTHORS. - THOUGHT AND THEORY. 
 
 15 
 
 1 assomme ; 
 
 iii'uiuityj yet possess an inherent divine senne of the 
 Uood and the beautiful, and a passion for setting it 
 forth, SO that men's hearts glow with the tenderness 
 and the elevation which lives not in the heart of the 
 I writer, — only in his head. 
 
 And there is another class of writers who are ex- 
 Icellent in the social relations of life, and kindly and 
 true in heart, yet who, intellectually, have a perverted 
 pleasure in the ridiculous and distorted, the cunning, 
 the crooked, the vicious, — who are never weary of 
 hiolding up before us finished representations of folly 
 [and rascality. 
 
 Now, which is the worst of these? the former, 
 I who do mischief by making us mistrust the good? 
 lor the latter, who degrade us by making us familiar 
 Iwith evil ? 
 
 f'^r; 
 
 12 
 
 " Thought and theory," said Wordsworth, " must 
 )i icede all action that moves to salutary purposes. 
 Yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or 
 
 klieory.'' 
 
16 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 I' .t 
 
 Yes, and no. What we act has its consequences 
 on earth. What we thinky its consequences in hea- 
 ven. It is not without reason that action should 
 be preferred before barren thought; but all action 
 which in its result is worth any thing, must result 
 from thought. So the old rhymester hath it: 
 
 " He that good thinketh good may do, 
 And God will help him there unto ; 
 For was never good work wrought, 
 Without beginning of good thought." 
 
 
 i il 
 
 The result of impulse is the positive ; the result 
 of consideration the negative. The positive is es- 
 sentially and abstractedly better than the negative, 
 though relatively to facts and circumstances it may 
 not be the most expedient. 
 
 On ray observing how often I had had reason to re- 
 gret not having followed the first impulse, o. G. said, 
 " In good minds the first impulses are generally 
 right and true, and, when altered or relinquished 
 from regard to expediency arising out of complicated 
 relations, I always feel sorry, for they remain right. 
 Our first impulses always lean to the positive, our 
 second thoughts to the negative ; and I have no 
 respect for the negative, — it. is the vulgar side of 
 every thing." 
 
 'i! II 
 
 rii 
 
PRINCIPLE AND EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 17 
 
 Oil the other hand, it must be conceded, that one 
 who stands endowed with great power and with great 
 responsihilities in the midst of a thousand duties and 
 interests, can no longer take things in this simple 
 fashion ; for the good first impulse, in its flow, meets, 
 perhaps, some rock, and splits upon it ; it recoils on 
 the heart, and becomes abortive. Or the impulse 
 to do good here becomes injury therey and we are 
 forced to calculate results ; we cannot trust to them. 
 
 I HAVE not sought to deduce my principles from 
 conventional notions of expediency, but have be- 
 lieved that out of the steady adherence to certain 
 fixed principles, the right and the expedient must 
 ensue, and I believe it still. The moment one begins 
 to solder right and wrong together, one's conscience 
 becomes like a piece of plated goods. 
 
 It requires merely passive courage and strength 
 to resist, and in some cases to overcome evil. But 
 it requires more — it needs bravery and self-reliance 
 and surpassing faith — to act out the true inspirations 
 of your intelligence and the true impulses of your 
 heart. 
 
 .v^lf iv- 
 
 :r«i^^ 
 
I 
 
 llllil 
 
 18 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 Out of the attempt to hamioni^c our actual llfel 
 with our aspirations, our experience with our faitli,! 
 we make poetry, — or, it may be, religion. 
 
 used the phrase " stu?if/ into heroism ^^^ ii^| 
 
 Shelley said, " cradled into poetry i"* by wrong. 
 
 13. 
 
 Coleridge calls the personal existence of the| 
 Evil Principle, " a mere fiction, or, at best, an alle- 
 gory supported by a few popular phrases and figures 
 of speech, used incidentally or dramatically by the I 
 Evangelists." And he says, that "the existence of a 
 personal, intelligent. Evil Being, the counterpart 
 and antagonist of God, is in direct contradiction to 
 the most express declarations of Holy Writ. * Shal\\ 
 there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done itf 
 Amos, iii. 6. * / make peace and create eviV—\ 
 Isaiah, xlv. 7. This is the deep mystery of the abyss j 
 of God." 
 
 Do our theologians go with him here? I think I 
 
THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT. 
 
 Id 
 
 ir :ictiial lift ^^Kt : yet, as a theologian, Coleridge is constantly 
 th our f!iitli,^Kpej^lc(l to by Churchmen. 
 
 3? I think 3 
 
 14. 
 
 |« We find (in the Epistle of St. Taul to the Co- 
 itliians), every where instilled as the essence of all 
 ell-being and well-doing, (without which the wisest 
 liblic and political constitution is but a lifeless for- 
 ila, and the highest powers of individual endow- 
 jnt profitless or pernicious,) the spirit of a divine 
 [mpathy with the happiness and rights, — with the 
 fcculiarities, gifts, graces, and endowments of other 
 ^nds, which alone, whether in the family or in the 
 inrch, can impart unity and effectual working to- 
 ither for good in the communities of men." 
 
 I" The Christian religion was, in fact, a charter of 
 sedoni to the whole human race." — Thomas Dis- 
 
 irses on St. PauVs Epiitle to the Corinthians. 
 [And this is the true Catholic spirit, — the spirit 
 |d the teaching of Paul, — in contradistinction to 
 Roman Catholic spirit, — the spirit and tendency 
 
 Peter, which stands upon forms, which has no 
 Bpect for individuality except in so far as it can 
 
i 
 
 I m 
 
 imprison this indiviclmility within a creed, or use 
 to a purpose. 
 
 15. 
 
 Du. Baillie once said that " all his observation! 
 of death-beds inclined him to believe that nature in- 
 tended that we should go out of the world as uncon-' 
 scions as we came into it." " In all ray experience,'! 
 he added, " I have not seen one instance in fifty tol 
 the contrary." 
 
 Yet even in such a large experience the occur- 
 rence of "one instance in fifty to the contrary' 
 would invalidate the assumption that such was tliel 
 law of nature (or " nature's intention," which, if itl 
 means any thing, means the same). 
 
 The moment in which the spirit meets death is 
 perhaps like the moment in which it is embraced by I 
 sleep. It never, I suppose, happened to any one! 
 to be conscious of the immediate transition from t!ie| 
 waking to the sleeping state. 
 
 -*'-^^T^^^" 
 
 
THOUGHTS ON A 8RRMON. 
 
 tl 
 
 
 t 
 
 'i I 
 
 < t ' 
 
 16. 
 
 (Thoughts on n Sermon.) 
 
 He is really sublime, this man ! with his faith in 
 I" the religion of pain," and "the deification of sorrow !" 
 But is he therefore right ? What has he preached 
 to us to-day with all the force of eloquence, all the 
 earnestness of conviction ? that ** pain is the life of 
 God as shown forth in Christ;" — "that we are to be 
 crucified to the world and the world to us." This 
 Iperpetual presence of a crucified God between us 
 and a pitying redeeming Christ, leads many a 
 mourner to the belief that this world is all a Gol- 
 gotha of pain, and that we are here to crucify each 
 lother. Is this the law under which we are to live 
 and strive ? The missionary Bridaine accused him- 
 self of sin in that he had preached fasting, penance, 
 and the chastisements of God to wretches steeped 
 I in poverty and dying of hunger ; and is there not 
 a similar cruelty and misuse of power in the servants 
 of Him who came to bind up the broken-hearted, 
 
 D 2 
 
.1 .' 
 
 I' ! 
 II 
 
 I ; 
 
 i.fi 
 
 I 'I.I 
 
 i! 
 
 n 
 
 23 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 •when they preach the necessity, or at least the 
 theory, of moral pain to those whose hearts are] 
 aching from moral evil ? 
 
 Surely there is a great difference between tke] 
 resignation or the endurance of a truthful, faithful, 
 loving, hopeful spirit, and this dreadful theology of j 
 suffering as the necessary and appointed state of 
 things ! I, for one, will not accept it. Even while 
 most miserable, I will believe in happiness; even 
 while I do or suffer evil, I will believe in goodness ;| 
 even while my eyes see not through tears, I will be- 
 lieve in the existence of what I do not see — that God I 
 is benign, that nature is fair, that the world is not 
 made as a prison or a penance. "While I stand lost 
 in utter darkness, I will yet wait for the return of I 
 the unfailing dawn, — even though my soul be amazed 
 into such a blind perplexity that I know not on 
 which side to look for it, and ask " where is the 
 East? and whence the day spring?" For the East I 
 holds its wonted place, and the light is withheld onlyj 
 till its appointed time. 
 
 God so strengthen me that I may think of painj 
 and sin only as accidental apparent discords in liisl 
 great harmonious scheme of good ! Then I am ready! 
 — I will take up the cross, and bear it bravely, while! 
 I must; but I will lay it down when I can, and in| 
 any case I will never lay it on another. 
 
LOVE AND FEAR OF GOD. 
 
 2.'l 
 
 17. 
 
 If I fear God it is because I love him, and 
 believe in his love ; I cannot conceive myself as 
 standing in fear of any spiritual or human being 
 in whose love I do not entirely believe. Of that 
 Impersonation of Evil, who goes about seeking 
 whom he may devour, the image brings to me no 
 fear, only intense disgust and aversion. Yes, it is 
 because of his love for me that I fear to offend 
 ajrainst God ; it is because of his love that his dis- 
 pleasure must be terrible. And with regard to 
 human beings, only the being I love has the power 
 to give me pain or inspire me with fear ; only those 
 in whose love I believe, have the power to injure me. 
 Take away my love, and you take away my fear : 
 take away their love, and you take; away the power 
 to do me any harm which can reach me in the sources 
 of life and feeling. 
 
2t 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 iN;: 
 
 I 
 
 18. 
 
 Social opinion is like a sharp knife. There ure 
 foolish people who regard it only with terror, and 
 dare not touch or meddle with it. There are more 
 foolish people, who, in rashness or defianceT seize it 
 by the blade, and get cut and mangled for their 
 pains. And there are wise people, who grasp it 
 discreetly and boldly by the handle, and use it to 
 carve out their own purposes. 
 
 While we were discussing Balzac's celebrity as 
 a romance writer, she (o. G.") said, with a shudder: 
 " His laurels are steeped in the tears of women, — 
 every truth he tells has been wrung in tortures from 
 some woman's heart." 
 
POLITICAL. 
 
 25 
 
 19. 
 
 Sill Walter Scott, writing in 1831, seems to 
 rcard it as a terrible misfortune that the wliole 
 buv-lier class in Scotland should be gradually pre- 
 |)uring for representative reform. " I mean," he 
 t^ays, " the middling and respectable classes : when 
 ji borough reform comes, which, perhaps, cannot 
 long be delayed, ministers will no longer return a 
 member for Scotland from the towns." " The gentry," 
 he adds, " will abide longer by sound principles, for 
 they are needy, and desire advancement for them- 
 selves, and appointments for their sons and so on. But 
 tliirf is a very hollow dependence, and those who sin- 
 cerely hold ancient opinions are waxing old," &c. &c. 
 
 With a great deal more, showing the strange 
 moral confusion which his political bias had caused 
 in his otherwise clear head and honest mind. The 
 sound principles, then, by which educated people are 
 to abide, — over the decay of which he laments, — are 
 such as can only be upheld by the most vulgar self- 
 interest ! If a man should utter openly such senti- 
 ments in these days, what should we think of him ? 
 
 In the order of absolutism lurk the elements of 
 change and destruction. In the unrest of freedom, 
 the spirit of change and progress. 
 
 D 4 
 
20 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 l:^F 
 
 '! ! 
 
 20. 
 
 " A SINGLE life," said Bacon, " doth well witli 
 churchmen, for charity will hardly water the ground 
 where it must first fill a pool." 
 
 Certainly there are men whose charities are 
 limited, if not dried up, by their concentrated do- 
 mestic anxieties and relations. But there are others 
 whose charities are more diffused, as well as healthier 
 and warmer, through the strength of their domestic 
 affections. 
 
 Wordsworth speaks strongly of the evils of ordain- 
 ing men as clergymen in places where they had been 
 bom or brought up, or in the midst of their own 
 relatives : " Their habits, their manners, their talk, 
 their acquaintanceships, their friendships, and let me 
 say even their domestic affections, naturally draw 
 them one way, while their professional obligations 
 point out another." If this were true universally, or 
 even generally, it would be a strong argument in 
 favour of the celibacy of the Roman Catholic clergy, 
 which certainly is one element, and not the least of I 
 their power. 
 
LANDOR'S WISE SAYINGS. 
 
 21. 
 
 Landor says truly : " Love is a secondary passion 
 those who love most, a primary in those who love 
 
 bast : he who is inspired by it in the strongest de- 
 
 ree is inspired by honour in a greater." 
 
 " Whatever is worthy of being loved for anyj 
 ling is worthy to be preserved." ' 
 
 Again : — " Those are the worst of suicides who 
 )Iuntarily and prepensely stab or suffocate their 
 
 m fame, when God hath commanded them to 
 Land on high for an example." 
 
 " Weak motives," he says, ** are sufficient for 
 kak minds; whenever we see a mind which we 
 ?lieved a stronger than our own moved habitually 
 
 what appears inadequate, we may be certain that 
 lerc is — to bring a metaphor from the forest — more 
 than root.'''' 
 
 Here is another sentence from the same writer — 
 jch In wise sayings: — 
 " Plato would make wives common to abolish 
 
28 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMEXTS. 
 
 selfishness; the very mischief which, above all others, 
 it would directly and immediately bring forth. There 
 is no selfishness where there is a wife and family. 
 There the house is lighted up by mutual charities ; 
 everything achieved for them is a victory ; every- 
 thing endured a triumph. How many vices are sup- 
 pressed that there may be no bad example I How 
 many exertions made to recommend and Inculcate 
 a good one ! " 
 
 True : and I have much more confidence in the 
 charity which begins in the home and diverges into a 
 large humanity, than in the world-wide philanthropy 
 which begins at the outside of our horizon to con- 
 verge into egotism, of which I could show you many 
 arid notable examples. 
 
 All my experience of the world teaches me that in 
 ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the safe side and 
 the just side of a question is the generous side and 
 the merciful side. This your mere worldly people 
 do not seem to know, and therein make the sorriest 
 and the vulgarest of all mistakes. . " Pour etre assez 
 bo7i il faut '"etre troj) ;" we all need more mercy 
 than we deserve. 
 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CONVERTS. 
 
 29 
 
 How often in this world the actions that we con- 
 ilcnin are the result of sentiments that we love and 
 o})iuion8 that we admire I 
 
 23. 
 
 A. 
 
 observed in reference to some of her 
 
 friends who had gone over to the Roman Catholic 
 Clmrch, " that the peace and comfort which they 
 had sought and found in that mode of faith was like 
 the drugged sleep in comparison with the natural 
 jsleep: necessary, healing perhaps, where there is 
 disease and unrest, not otherwise." 
 
 li 
 
 !M'vr»!i.Kki 
 
 <i.-ii 
 
 24. 
 
 " A POET," says Coleridge, " ought not to pick 
 nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as 
 to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine 
 
 1 
 
30 
 
 KTIIICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 nature accurately, but write fVoiu recollection, and 
 trust more to your imagination than your memory." 
 This advice is even more applicable to the painter, 
 but true perhaps in its application to all artists. 
 Raphael and Mozart were, in this sense, great 
 borrowers. 
 
 : :■ 1 
 
 m-' n 
 
 25. 
 
 1 
 
 " What is the difference between being good and 
 being bad ? the good do not yield to temptation and 
 the bad do." 
 
 This is often the distinction between the good and 
 the bad in regard to act and deed ; but it does not 
 constitute the difference between beinff good and 
 beinff bad. 
 
 i* 
 
 iiiij 
 
ITALIAN PROVERK. - GREEK 8AY1XG. 
 
 31 
 
 2G. 
 
 The Italians say (in one of their characteristic 
 proverbs) Sospetto licetizia Fede, Lord Bacon inter- 
 prets the saying " as if suspicion did give a passport 
 to faith," which is somewhat obscure and ambiguous. 
 It means, that suspicion discharges us from the duty 
 of good faith; and in this, its original sense, it is like 
 many of the old Italian proverbs, worldly wise and 
 profoundly immoral. 
 
 ' >•' 
 
 27. 
 
 It was well said by Themistocles to the King of 
 Persia, that " speech was like cloth of arras opened 
 and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth appear in 
 figure, whereas in thoughts they lie but in packs" 
 (?. e. rolled up or packed up). Dryden had evidently 
 this passage in his mind when he wrote those beauti- 
 ful lines : 
 
 " Speech is the light, the morning of the mind ; 
 It spreads the beauteous images abroad, 
 Which else lie furled and shrouded in the soul." 
 
 Here the comparison of Themistocles, happy in itself, 
 is expanded into a vivid poetical image. 
 
ETHICAL PRA0MENT8. 
 
 i4 
 
 28. 
 
 *' TnosE are the killing griefs that do not speak," 
 is true of some, not all characters. There are natures 
 in which the killing grief finds utterance while it 
 kills ; moods in which we cry aloud, " as the beast 
 crieth, expansive not appealing." That is my o>vn 
 nature: so in grief or in joy, I say as the birds sing: 
 
 "Unci wenn derMensch in seiner Qual verstummt, 
 Gab mir cin Got zu sagen was icli leide ! " 
 
 c 
 
 li 
 
 29. 
 
 Blessed is the memory of those who have kept 
 themselves unspotted from the world! — yet more 
 blessed and more dear the memory of those who have 
 kept themselves unspotted in the world ! 
 
 I,H- 
 
VAST AND FUTURE. 
 
 30. 
 
 EvKitYTiiiNCr that ever has been, from the be- 
 o-inning of the world till now, belongs to us, is ours, 
 is even a part of us. We belong to the future, and 
 gjiiill be a part of it. Therefore the sympathies of 
 all are in the past ; only the poet and the prophet 
 sympathise with the future. 
 
 When Tennyson makes Ulysses say, ''I am a 
 part of all that I have seen," it ought to be rather 
 the converse, — " What I have seen becomes a part 
 of nie." 
 
 H 
 
 31. 
 
 In what regards policy — government — the interest 
 of the many is sacrificed to the few ; in what regards 
 society, the morals and happiness of individuals are 
 sacrificed to the many. 
 
KTIIICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 82. 
 
 We spoke to-nigUt of the cowardice, the crime of 
 
 a particular suicide: o. o. agreed as to this instance, 
 
 but added : " There is a different aspect under wliicli 
 
 suicide might be regarded. It is not always, I think, 
 
 / from a want of religion, or in a spirit of defiance, or 
 
 a want of confidence in God that we quit life. It is 
 
 ■' as if we should flee to the feet of the Almighty and 
 
 \ embrace his knees, and exclaim, * O my father I take 
 
 me home ! I have endured as long as it was possible; 
 
 I can endure no more, so I come to you I ' " 
 
 Of an amiable man with a disagreeable expression- 
 less face, she said : " His countenance ahvays gives 
 me the idea of matter too strong, too hard for the 
 soul to pierce through. It is as a plaster mask 
 which I long to break (making the gesture Avith her 
 hand), that I may see the countenance of his heart, 
 for that must be beautiful ! " 
 
I'ROORESa AND PBOORE88TON, 
 
 W. 
 
 Carlyle said to me : ♦* I want to sec some insti- 
 itution to teach a man the truth, the worth, the 
 i beauty, the heroism of whicli his present existence is 
 
 capable; where 's the use of sending liim to study 
 [what the Greeks and Romans did, and said, and 
 j wrote ? Do ye think the Greeks and Romans would 
 I have been what they were, if they had just only 
 U lulled what the Phoenicians did before them?" I 
 I ghoukl have answered, had I dared : " Yet perhaps 
 I the Greeks and Romans would not have been what 
 
 they were if the Egyptians and Phoenicians had not 
 
 been before them." 
 
 A 
 
 34, 
 
 • 
 
 Can there be progress which is not progression — 
 I which does not leave a past from which to start — 
 
 on which to rest our foot when we spring forward? 
 
 No wise man kicks the ladder from beneath him, or 
 
 obliterates the traces of the road through which he has 
 Itravelled, or pulls down the memorials he has built 
 [by the way side. We cannot get on without link- 
 ling our present and our future with our past. All 
 
 reaction is destructive — all progress conservative. 
 
/ 
 
 36 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 I) M 
 
 When we have destroyed that which the past built 
 up, what reward have we ? — we are forced to fall 
 back, and have to begin anew. " Novelty," as Lord 
 Bacon says, " cannot be content to add, but it must! 
 deface." For tlus very reason novelty is not progress, k 
 as the French would try to persuade themselves and 
 us. We gain nothing by defacing and trampling I 
 down the idols of the past to set up new ones in their 
 places — let it be sufficient to leave them behind us, 
 measuring our advance by keeping them in sight. 
 
 m 
 
 35. 
 
 m 
 
 E was compassionating to-day the old and 
 
 the invalided ; those whose life is prolonged in s[)iti 
 of suffering ; and she seemed, even out of the excc^> 
 of her pity and sympathy, to wish them fairly out ot; 
 the world ; but it is a mistake in reasoning and feel- 
 ing. She does not know how much of happiness may I 
 consist with suffering, with physical suffering, and| 
 even with mental suffering. 
 
LIFE IN THE FUTURE. 
 
 37 
 
 36. 
 
 « Renoncez dans votre ame, et renoncez y ferme- 
 ; nient, une fols pour toutes, a vouloir vous connaitre 
 au-clelti de cette existence passagere qui vous est 
 I imposee, et vous redeviendrez agreable a Dieu, utile 
 I aiix autres hommeSj tranquille avec vous-memes." 
 
 This does not mean " renounce hope or faith in the 
 future." No ! But renounce that perpetual craving 
 ' after a selfish interest in the unrevealed future life 
 which takes the true relish from the duties and the 
 pleasures of this. We can conceive of no future life 
 which is not a continuation of this : to anticipate in 
 ihat future life, another life, a different life ; what is 
 it but to call in doubt our individual identity ? 
 
 If we pray, " O teach us where and what is 
 peace !" would not the answer be, " In the grave ye 
 shall have it — not before ? " Yet is it not strange 
 that those who believe most absolutely in an after- 
 life, yet think of the grave as peace ? Now, if we 
 carry this life with us — and what other life can we 
 cany with us, unless we cease to be ourselves — how 
 shall there be peace ? 
 
 .,«p^» 
 
 As to the future, my soul, like Cato's, " shrinks 
 I back upon herself and startles at destruction ; " but 
 T do not think of my own destruction, rather of that 
 
 A. 
 
 n 
 
 ' m 
 
 \ 
 
 B 2 
 
i •!' 
 
 
 : 11 :' "' 
 
 
 j 
 
 l' 
 
 ■liiij 
 
 t ' w 
 
 il 
 
 ■1 
 
 j 
 
 38 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 which I love. That I should cease to be is not very 
 intolerable ; but that what I love, and do now in my 
 soul possess, should cease to be — there is the pang, 
 the terror I I desire that which I love to be im- 
 mortal, whether I be so myself or not. 
 
 Is not the idea which most men entertain of 
 another, of an eternal life, merely a continuation of 
 this present existence under pleasanter conditions? 
 We cannot conceive another state of existence,— 
 we only fancy we do so. \ 
 
 ■xl^^: 
 
 K,!^^ 
 
 " I CONCEIVE that in all probability we have 
 immortality already. Most men seem to divide life 
 and immortality, making them two distinct things, 
 when, in fact, they are one and the same. What is 
 immortality but a continuation of life — life which is 
 already our own ? We ha\ e, then, begun our inmior- 
 tality even now." 
 
 " For the same reason, or, rather, through the 
 same want of reasoning by which we make life and 
 immortality two (distinct things), do we make time 
 and eternity two, which like the others are really one 
 and the same. As immortality is but the continua- 
 tion of life, so eternity is but the continuation of 
 
STRENGTH. — YOUTH. 
 
 89 
 
 time; and what we call time is only that part of 
 eternity in which we exist woia" — The Neio Philo- 
 sophy. 
 
 ^:- 
 
 37. 
 
 Strength does not consist only in the more or the 
 less. There are different sorts of strength as well as 
 (lifFerent degrees : — The strength of marble to 
 resist; the streiu :h of steel to oppose; the strength 
 of the fine g'^i. v ich you can twist round your 
 finger, but whicn can bear the force of innumerable 
 pounds without breaking. 
 
 f 1 
 
 38. 
 
 Goethe used to say, that while intellectual attain- 
 ment is progressive, it is difficult to be as good when 
 we are old, as we were when young. Dr. Johnson 
 has expressed the same thing. 
 
 Then are we to assume, that to do good effectively 
 
 E 3 
 
40 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 and wisely is the privilege of age and experience? 
 To be good, through faith in goodness, the privilege 
 of the young ? 
 
 To preserve our faith in goodness with an ex- 
 tended knowledge of evil, to preserve the tenderness 
 of our pity after long contemplation of pain, and the 
 warmth of our charity after long experience of false- 
 hood, is to be at once good and wise — to underistaml 
 and to love each other as the angels who look down 
 upon us from heaven. 
 
 !! 'I 
 
 We can sometimes love what we do not urdorstand, 
 but it is impossible completely to understand wliat 
 we do not love. 
 
 
 I OBSERVE, that in our relations with the people 
 around us, we forgive them more readily for wliat 
 they do, which they can help, than for what they are, 
 which they cannot helji. 
 
MORAL SUFFERING. 
 
 41 
 
 « Whence springs the greatest degree of moral 
 suffering ? " was a question debated this evening, but 
 not settled. It was argued that it would depend on 
 tlie texture of character, its more or less conscien- 
 tiousness, susceptibility, or strength. I thought from 
 two sentiments — from jealousy y that is, the sense of 
 51 wrong endured, in one class of characters; from 
 remorse, that is, from the sense of a wrong inflicted, 
 in another. 
 
 ■<?o..'' 
 
 40. 
 
 The bread of life is love ; the salt of life is work ; 
 the sweetness of life, poesy ; the water of life, faith. 
 
 i 'I 
 
 41. 
 
 I HAVE seen triflers attempting to draw out a deep 
 intellect ; arid they reminded me of children throwing 
 pebbles down the well at Carisbrook, that they might 
 hear them sound. 
 
 E 4 
 
42 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 42. 
 
 i "■' 
 
 A BOND is necessary to complete our being, only 
 
 we must be careful that the bond does not become 
 bondage. 
 
 " The secret of peace," said a. b., " is the reso- 
 lution of the lesser into the greater ; " meaning, 
 perhaps, the due relative appreciation of our duties, 
 and the proper placing of our affections : or, did she 
 not rather mean, the resolving of the lesser duties 
 and affections into the higher? But it is true in 
 either sense. 
 
 The love we have for Genius is to common love 
 what the fire on the altar is to the fire on the hearth. 
 We cherish it not for warmth or for service, but for 
 an offering, as the expression of our worship. 
 
 All love not responded to and accepted is a spe- 
 cies of idolatry. It is like the worship of a dumb 
 beautiful image we have ourselves set up and deified, 
 
MOTIVES AND IMPULSES. 
 
 43 
 
 but cannot Inspire with life, ,nor warm with sym- 
 natliy. No ! — though we should consume our own 
 licarts on the altar. Our love of God would be idol- 
 atry if we did not believe in his love for us — his 
 responsive love. 
 
 r- 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■r^. 
 
 In the same moment that we begin to speculate 
 on the possibility of cessation or change in any strong 
 affection that we feel, even from that moment we 
 may date its death : — it has become the fetch of the 
 
 living love. 
 
 /^\ 
 
 
 M: 
 
 43. 
 
 " Motives," said Coleridge, " imply weakness, 
 and the reasoning powers imply the existence of 
 evil and temptation. The angelic nature would act 
 from impulse alone." This is the sort of angel which 
 Angelico da Fiesole conceived and represented, and 
 he only. 
 
 Again : — " If a man's conduct can neither be as- 
 cribed to the angelic or the bestial within him, it must 
 be fiendish. Passion without appetite Ujiendish.'^ 
 
 > i9 
 
'14 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 And, he might have added, appetite without 
 passion, bestial. Love in which is neither appetite 
 nor passion is angelic. The union of all is human; 
 and according as one or other predominates, does the 
 human being approximate to the fiend, the beast, or 
 the angel. 
 
 (2- 
 
 <j - - 
 
 I';'jH! 
 
 I don't mean to say that principle is not a finer 
 thing than passion ; but passions existed before prin- 
 ciples : they came into the world with us ; principles 
 are superinduced. 
 
 There are bad principles as well as bad passions ; 
 and more bad principles than bad passions. Good 
 principles derive life, and strength, and warmth from 
 high and good passions ; but principles do not give 
 life, they only bind up life into a consistent whole. 
 One great fault in education is, the pains taken to 
 inculcate principles rather than to train feelings. 
 It is as if we took it for granted that passions could 
 only be bad, and are to be ignored or repressed alto- 
 gether, — the old mischievous monkish doctrine. 
 
DOMINANT IDEAS. 
 
 <» 
 
 44. 
 
 It is easy to be humble where humility is a con- 
 descension — easy to concede where we know ourselves 
 Avron"'ed — easy to forgive where vengeance is in 
 our power. 
 
 -^-"^ 
 
 <L*^*^-l-. 
 
 " You and I," said ii. G., yesterday, " are alike in 
 this : — both of us so abhor injustice, that we are 
 ready to fight it with a broomstick if we can find 
 
 nothing better ! " 
 
 45. 
 
 " The wise only possess ideas — the greater part of 
 mankind are possessed hy them. When once the 
 mind, in despite of the remonstrating conscience, has 
 abandoned its free power to a haunting impulse or 
 idea, then whatever tends to give depth and vividness 
 to this idea or indefinite imagination, increases its 
 despotism, and in the same proportion renders the 
 reason and free will ineffectual." This paragraph 
 from Coleridge sounds like a truism until we have 
 felt its truth. 
 
■M 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 " La Volontc, en se durugUmt, devicnt passion ; 
 cette passion continuee so change en habitude, ct 
 faute de resistor a cette habitude elle se transfornic 
 en besoin." — St. Augustin. Which may be ren- 
 dered — "Out of the unregulated will, springs y>os. 
 sioHi out of passion gratified, habit; out of habits 
 unresisted, necessity.''^ This, also, is one of the truths 
 which become, from the impossibility of disputing 
 or refuting them, truisms — and little regarded, till 
 the truth makes itself felt. 
 
 I WISH I could realise what you call my ^^ grand 
 idea of being.independent of the absent." I have not 
 a friend worthy the name, whose absence is not pain 
 and dread to me ; — death itself is terrible only as it 
 is absence. At some moments, if I could, I woiUd 
 cease to love those who are absent from me, or to 
 speak more correctly, those whose path in life diverges 
 from mine — whose dwelling place is far off; — with 
 whom I am united in the strongest bonds of sympathy 
 while separated by duties and interests, by space and 
 time. The presence of those whom we love is as 
 a double life; absence, in its anxious longing, and 
 sense of vacancy, is as a foretaste of death. 
 
 " La mort de nos amis ne compte pas du moment 
 
THEODORB HOOK AND SYDNEY SMITH. 
 
 47 
 
 on ilu nicurcnt, luaia de ccliii (>i\ nous ccssoiih dc vivrc 
 avcc cux ; " or, it miglit rather be said, pour cux ; 
 but I think tbiis arises from a want either of faith or 
 faithfulness. 
 
 "La penr des morts est une abominable faiblesse I 
 c'cst la plus commune et la plus barbare des profana- 
 tions; les meres ne la comiaisseut pas ! ^' — And why? 
 Becnusc the most faithful love is the love of the 
 mother for her child. 
 
 f 
 
 .ill 
 
 46. 
 
 At dinner to-day there was an attempt made 
 by two very clever men to place Theodore Hook 
 abovfi **^vdney Smith. I fought with all my might 
 against both. It seems to me that a mind must be 
 strangely warped that could ever place on a par 
 two men with aspirations and purposes so different, 
 whether we consider them merely as individuals, or 
 called before the bar of the public as writers. I do 
 not take to Sydney Smith personally, because my 
 nature feels the want of the artistic and imaginative 
 in his nature ; but see what he has done for huma- 
 nity, for society, for liberty, for truth, — for us 
 
 !ti 
 1 1 
 
It 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
 il 
 
 lirit 
 
 
 ■r'::^ 
 
 48 
 
 FTlIICATi FRAGMENTS. 
 
 women I What has Theodore Hook done that 
 has not perished with liim ? Even as wits — and 
 I have been in company with both — I could not 
 compare them; but they say the wit of Theodore 
 Hook was only fitted for the company of men — the 
 strongest proof that it was not genuine of its kind, 
 that when most bearable, it was most superficial. I 
 set aside the other obvious inference, that it required 
 to be excited by stimulants and those of the coarsest, 
 grossest kind. The wit of Sydney Smith almost 
 always involved a thought worth remembering for 
 its own sake, as well as worth remembering for its 
 brilliant vehicle : the value of ten thousand poundr 
 sterling of sense concentrated into a cut and polished 
 diamond. 
 
 It is not true, as I have heard it said, that after 
 leaving the society of Sydney Smith you only re- 
 membered how much you had laughed, not the good 
 things at which you had laughed. Few men — wits 
 by profession — ever said so many memorable things 
 as those recorded of Sydney Smith. 
 
 47. 
 
 " When we would show any one that he is mis- 
 taken, our best course is to observe on what side 
 he considers the subject, — for his view of it is gene- 
 
AMBITION. 
 
 40 
 
 rally right on tlda nidc, — and admit to him that he 
 in ri"ht so far. lie will be satisfied with this ac- 
 knowledgment, that ho waf» not wrong in his judg- 
 ment, hut only inadvertent in not looking at the 
 whole of the case." — Pascal. 
 
 .'- ' "^■ 
 
 48. 
 
 " We should reflect," says Jeremy Taylor, preach- 
 ing against ambition, "that whatever tempts the 
 pride and vanity of amlntious persons is not so big as 
 the smallest star which we see scattered in disorder 
 and unregarded on the pavement of heaven." 
 
 Very beautiful and poetical, but certainly no good 
 argument against the sin he denounces. The star is 
 inaccessible, and what tempts our pride or our ambi- 
 tion is only that which we consider with hope as «c- 
 cessible. That we look up to the stars not desir^T-g-, 
 not aspiring, but only loving — therein lir i our 
 hearts' truest, holiest, safest devotion its contrasted 
 with ambition. 
 
 It is the " desire of the moth for the star," that 
 leads to its burning itself in the candle. 
 
 1(1 
 
 
1 ' 
 
 50 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 I il; 
 
 11 
 
 The brow stamped " with the hieroglyphics of an 
 eternal sorrow," is a strong and beautiful expression 
 of Bishop Taylor's. 
 
 He says truly: "It is seldom that God sends 
 such calamities upon men as men bring upon them- 
 selves and suffer willingly." And again : " Wliat 
 will not tender women suffer to hide their shame!" 
 What indeed ! And again : " Nothing is intolerable 
 that is necessary." And again : " Nothing is to be 
 esteemed evil which God and nature have fixed with 
 eternal sanctions." 
 
 There is not one of these ethical sentences which 
 might not be treated as a text and expounded, open- 
 ing into as many " branches" of consideration as ever 
 did a Presbyterian sermon. Yet several involve a 
 fallacy, as it seems to me ; — others a deeper, wider, 
 and more awful signification than Taylor himself 
 seems to have contemplated when he uttered them. 
 
 49. 
 
 The same reasons which rendered Goethe's " Wcr- 
 ther" so popular, so passionately admired at the time 
 
WERTHER AND CHILDE HAROLD. 
 
 51 
 
 it ai)pcarcd — jtist .ifter the seven years' war, — helped 
 to render Lord Byron so popular in his time. It Avas 
 not the individuality of " Werther," nor the individu- 
 ality of " Childe Harold" which produced the effect 
 of making them, for a time, a pervading power, — a 
 part of the life of their contemporaries. It was 
 because in both cases a chord was struck which was 
 ready to vibrate. A phase of feeling pre-existent, 
 palpitating at the heart of society, which had never 
 found expression in any poetic form since the days of 
 Dante, was made visible and audible as if by an 
 electric force ; words and forms were given to a dif- 
 fused sentiment of pain and resistance, caused by a 
 long period of war, of political and social commotion, 
 and of unhealthy morbid excitement. " Werther " 
 and "Childe Harold" will never perish; because, 
 tliough they have ceased to be the echo of a wide 
 despair, there will always be, unhappily, individual 
 minds and hearts to respond to the individuality. 
 
 Lord Byron has sometimes, to use his own ex- 
 pression, " curdled " a whole world of meaning into 
 the compass of one line : — 
 
 " The starry Galileo and his woes." 
 
 " The blind old man of Ohio's rocky isle." 
 
 Here every word, almost every syllable, paints an 
 
 #i 
 
'ill 
 
 ;l 
 
 1- % 
 
 if: m 
 
 ii 
 
 ETHICAL PRAOMENTS. 
 
 idea. Such lines are picturesque. And I rcnicniber 
 another, from Thomson, I think : — 
 
 " Placed far amid the melancholy main." 
 
 In general, where words arc used in description, 
 the objects and ideas flow with the words in succes. 
 sion. But in each of these lines the mind takes in a 
 wide horizon, comprising a multitude of objects at 
 once, as the eye takes in a picture, with scene, and 
 action, and figures, foreground and background, all 
 at once. That is the reason I call such lines pic- 
 turesque. 
 
 .50. 
 
 I HAVE a great admiration for power, a great terror 
 of weakness — especially in my own sex, — yet fed 
 that my love is for those who overcome the mental 
 and moral suffering and temptation, through excess 
 of tenderness rather than through excess of strength; 
 for those whose refinement and softness of nature 
 mingling with high intellectual power and tlic 
 capacity for strong passion, present to me a prob- 
 lem to solve, which, when solved, I take to my heart. 
 The question is not, which of the two diversities of 
 
MONEY OBLIGATIONS. 
 
 6» 
 
 cliiuacter be the highest and best, but which is m'^st 
 synipiithetic with my own. 
 
 il^ 
 
 51. 
 
 C told me, that some time ago, when poor 
 
 Bethune the Scotch poet first became known, and 
 
 Avas in great hardship, C himself had collected 
 
 a little smn (about 30/.), and ::ent it to him through 
 his publishers. Bethune wrote back to refuse it 
 absolutely, and to say that, while he had head and 
 
 hands, he would not accept charity. C w^rote 
 
 to him in answer, still anonymously, arguing against 
 the principle, as founded in false pride, &c. Now 
 poor Bethune is dead, and the money is found un- 
 touched, — left with a friend to be returned to the 
 donors ! 
 
 This sort of disgust and terror, which all finely 
 constituted minds feel with regard to pecuniary obli- 
 gation, — my own utter rej)ugnance to it, even from 
 the hands of those I most love, — makes one sad to 
 think of It gives one such a miserable impression 
 of our social humanity ! 
 
 Goethe makes the same remark in the " Wilhelm 
 
 f2 
 
 r ' i 
 
 t:',!l 
 
 \\\\ ■ I 
 
 §! 
 
H '4 
 
 :i!, •■* 
 
 r^ 
 
 -'i 
 
 M 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 Meister : " — " Es ist sonderbar welch ein wundcrliclies 
 Bedcnken man sich macht, Geld von Frcimden uiul 
 Gonnern anzunehmen, von denen man jcde andere 
 Gabe mit Dank und Freude empfangen wiirde." 
 
 C^^^ 
 
 52. 
 
 (e 
 
 In the celestial hierarchy, according to Dionysius 
 Areopageta, the angels of Love hold the first place, 
 the angels of Light the second, and the Thrones 
 and Dominations the third. Among terrestrials, the 
 Intellects, which act through the imagination upon 
 the heart of man — i.e. poets and artists — may be 
 accounted first in order; the merely scientific in- 
 tellects the second ; and the merely ruling intellects— 
 those which apply themselves to the government of 
 mankind, without the aid of either science or ima- 
 gination — will not be disparaged if they are placed 
 last." 
 
 All government, all exercise of power — no matter 
 in what form — which is not based in love and 
 directed by knowledge, is a tyranny. It is not of 
 God, and shall not stand. 
 
CHARITY. - TRUTH, 
 
 fiS 
 
 " A time Avill come when the operations of 
 charity Avill no longer be carried on by machinery, 
 relentless, ponderous, indiscriminate, but by human 
 creatures, watchful, tearful, considerate, and wise." — 
 IVestminster Revieic. 
 
 53. 
 " Those writers who never go further into a sub- 
 ject than is compatible with making what they say 
 indisputably clear to man, woman, and child, may be 
 the lights of this age, but they will not be the lights 
 of another." 
 
 " It is not always necessary that truth should 
 take a bodily form, ~ a material palpable form. It is 
 sometimes better that it should dwell around us 
 spiritually, creating harmony, — sounding through 
 the air like the solemn sweet tone of a bell." 
 
 
 F 3 
 
 ■fflii 
 
 n 
 
00 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 54. 
 
 WoMKN are inclined to full in love with priests 
 and physicians, because of the help and comfort they 
 derive from both in perilous moral and physical 
 maladies. Thoy believe in the presence of real \nty, 
 real sympathy, where the tone and look of each have 
 become merely habitual and conventional, — I may 
 say professional. On the other hand, women are 
 inclined to fall in love with criminal and miserable 
 men out of the pity which in our sex is akin to love, 
 and out of the power of bestowing comfort or love. 
 " Car les femmes ont un instinct celeste pour le 
 malheur." So, in the first instance, they love from 
 gratitude or faith; in the last, from compassion or 
 hope. 
 
 55. 
 
 « 
 
 Men of all countries," says Sir James Mack- 
 intosh, " appear to be more alike in their best 
 qualities than the pride of civilisation would be 
 willing to allow." 
 
 And in their ivorst. The distinction between 
 savage and civilised humanity lies not in the (jtia- 
 litieSj but the habits. 
 
COMPENSATION FOR SORROW. 
 
 57 
 
 Coleridge notices "the increase in modern times 
 of vicious associations with things in themselves in- 
 different," as a sign of unhealthiness in taste, in feel- 
 iiiLS in conscience. 
 
 The truth of this remark is particularly illustrated 
 in the French literature of tlie last century. 
 
 " And yet the compensations of calamity are 
 made apparent to the understanding also after long 
 intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel 
 disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, 
 seems at the moment unpaid loss and unpayable, but 
 the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that 
 underlies all facts. The death of a dear friend, wife, 
 brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, 
 somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or 
 genius; for it commonly operates a revolution in 
 our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or 
 youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a 
 wonted occupation, or a household, or a style of liv- 
 ing, and allows the formation of new influences that 
 prove of the first importance during the next years." 
 — Emerson. 
 
 F 4 
 
08 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 56. 
 
 Religion, in a general ^ense, is properly tlic 
 comprehension and acknowledgment of an unseen 
 spiritual power and the soul's allegiance to it ; and 
 Christianity, in its particular sense, is the com- 
 prehension and appreciation of the personal character 
 of Christ, and the heart's allegiance to that. 
 
 57. 
 
 Avarice is to the intellect what sensuality is to the 
 morals. It is an intellectual form of sensuality, inas- 
 much as it is the passion for the acquisition, the enjoy- 
 ment in the possession, of a palpable, tangible, selfish 
 pleasure ; and it would have the same tendency to 
 unspiritualise, to degrade, and to harden the higher 
 faculties that a course of grosser sensualism would 
 have to corrupt the lower faculties. Both dull the 
 edffc of all that is fine aud tender within us. 
 
GENIUS. -MIND. 
 
 fll» 
 
 58. 
 
 A KINO or a prince becomes! by accident a part of 
 liij^tory. A poet or an artist becomes by nature and 
 necessity a part of universal humanity. 
 
 ifir^* 
 
 As what we call Genius arises out of the dispro- 
 portionate power and size of a certain faculty, so the 
 great difficulty lies in harmonising with it the rest of 
 the character. 
 
 " Though it burn our house down, who does not 
 venerate fire ? " says the Hindoo proverb. 
 
 .f^ 
 
 ^Z. 
 
 •^ 
 
 59. 
 
 An elegant mind informing a graceful person is 
 like a spirit lamp in an alabaster vase, shedding 
 round its own softened radiance and heightening the 
 beauty of its medium. An elegant mind in a plain 
 ungraceful person is like the same lamp enclosed in a 
 vase of bronze ; we may, if we approach near enough, 
 rejoice in its influence, though we may not behold 
 its radiance. 
 
 
 > 11 
 
 I i ]': , .■[ 
 
w 
 
 m 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 <r>- 
 
 ->v^^ 
 
 .^-^■rs..- 
 
 Landor, in a passage I was reading to-day, spenks 
 of a language of criticism, in which qualities shoiikl 
 be graduated by colours ; " as, tor instance, p?irplc 
 might cx})res8 grandeur and majesty of thought; 
 scarlet, vigour of expression ; pink, liveliness ; (/reen, 
 elegant and equable composition, and so on." 
 
 Blue, then, might express contemplative power? 
 yelloic, wit ? violet, tenderness ? and so on. 
 
 60. 
 
 I QUOTED to A. the saying of a sceptical philo- 
 sopher : " The world is but one enormous will, 
 constantly rushing into life." 
 
 " Is that," she responded quickly, " another new 
 name for God ? " 
 
 61. 
 
 ( 
 
 A DEATH-BED repentance has become proverbial ) 
 for its fruitlessness, and a death-bed forgiveness is? 
 
CHARACTER. 
 
 et 
 
 equally 80. They who wait till their own dcath-betl 
 to make reparation, or till their adversary's death- 
 bed to grant absolution, seem to me much upon a 
 par in regard to the moral, as well as the religious, 
 failure. 
 
 62. 
 
 A CHARACTER endued with a large, vivacious, active 
 intellect and a limited range of sympathies, generally 
 remains immature. We can grow wise only through 
 the experience which reaches us through our sym- 
 pathies and becomes a part of our life. All other 
 experience may be gain, but it remains in a manner 
 extraneous, adds to our possessions without adding 
 to our strength, and sharpens our implements with- 
 out increasing our capacity to use them. 
 
 Not always those who have the quickest, keenest 
 perception of character are the best to deal with it, 
 and perhaps for that very reason. Before we can 
 influence or deal with mind, contemplation must be 
 lost in sympathy, observation must be merged in 
 love. 
 
 I ' 
 
 kii-'l 
 
 i-JM 
 
 '-' 'i! ( ' 
 
 ' '.\ 
 
KTHICAL FRA(!Mi;XTM. 
 
 63. 
 
 Montaigne, in his eloquent tirade agninst melan- 
 choly, observes that the Italians have the sanic 
 word, Tri&tezziiy for melancholy and for malignity or 
 wickedness. The noun IVisto, " a wretch," has tlic 
 double sense of our English word corresponding witli 
 the French noun miserable. So Judas Iscariot is 
 called quel tristo. Our word " wretchedness " is not, 
 however, used in the double sense of tristezza. 
 
 -"^ 
 
 -oi-'^-b 
 
 -<t. 
 
 (( 
 
 On ne considere pas assez les paroles comme des 
 faits : " that was well said 1 
 
 Since for the purpose of circulation and inter- 
 communication we are obliged to coin truth into 
 words, we should be careful not to adulterate the 
 coin, to keep it pure, and up to the original standard 
 of significance and value, that it may be reconvertiblc 
 into the truth it represents. 
 
 If I use a term in a sense wherein I know it i? 
 
VAMIK OF VVORim. 
 
 m 
 
 not understood by the person I uddrcHs, tlicn I am 
 fiiilty of using words (in so tUr as tlicy represent 
 trutli), if not to ensnare intentionally, yet to mislead 
 consciously : it is like adulterating coin. 
 
 '^^^ 
 
 i?^r^ 
 
 if I 
 
 " Common people," said Johnson, " do not accu- 
 rately adapt their Avords to their thoughts, nor their 
 thoughts to the objects;" — that is to say, they neither 
 see truly nor speak truly — and in this respect chil- 
 dren, half-educated women, and ill-educated men, arc 
 the " common people." 
 
 It is one of the most serious mistakes in Education 
 that we are not sufficiently careful to habituate chil- 
 dren to the accurate use of words. Accuracy of 
 lansuage is one of the bulwarks of truth. If wo 
 looked into the matter we should probably find that 
 all the varieties and modifications of conscious and 
 unconscious lying — as exaggeration, equivocation, 
 evasion, misrepresentation — might be traced to the 
 early misuse of words ; therefore the contemptuous, 
 careless tone in which people say sometimes : 
 " words — words — mere words ! " is unthinking 
 and unwise. It tends to debase the value of that 
 which is the only medium of the inner life between 
 man and man : — " Nous ne sommes hommes, et nous 
 
04 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 1 
 
 } '' 
 
 ne tenons Ics uns aiix autres, que par la parole," 
 said Montaigne. 
 
 64. 
 
 (( 
 
 We are happy, good, tranquil, in proportion as 
 our inner life is accessible to the external life, and in 
 harmony with it. When we become dead to the 
 moving life of Nature around us, to the changes of 
 day and night (I do not speak here of the sympa- 
 thetic influences of our fellow-creatures), then we 
 may call ourselves philosophical, but we are surely 
 either bad or mad." 
 
 '* Or perhaps only sad?" 
 
 There are moments in the life of every con- 
 templative being, when the healing power of Nature 
 is felt — even as Wordsworth describes it — felt in 
 
NATURE AND ART. 
 
 06 
 
 the blood, in every pulse along the veins. In such 
 nioments converse, sympathy, the faces, the presence 
 of the dearest, come so near to us, they make us 
 shrink ; books, pictures, music, anything, any object 
 which has passed through the medium of mind, and 
 has been in a manner humanised, is felt as an in- 
 trusive reflection of the busy, weary, thought-worn 
 self within us. Only Nature, speaking through no in- 
 terpreter, gently steals us out of our humanity, 
 orivlno; us a foretaste of that more diffused disem- 
 bodied life which may hereafter be ours. Beautiful 
 and genial, and not wholly untrue, were the old 
 superstitions which placed a haunting divinity in 
 every grove, and heard a living voice responsive in 
 every murmuring stream. 
 
 This present Sunday I set off with the others to 
 walk to church, but it was late ; I could not keep 
 up with the pedestrians, and, not to delay them, 
 turned back. I wandered down the hill path to the 
 river brink, and crossed the little bridge and strolled 
 along, pensive yet with no definite or continuous 
 subject of thought. How beautiful it was — how 
 tranquil I not a cloud in the blue sky, not a breath 
 of air ! " And where the dead leaf fell there did it 
 rest;" but so still it was that scarce a single leaf did 
 flutter or fall, though the narrow pathway along the 
 
 yi 
 
 -»VVi 
 
 -i' 
 
 i\ 
 
\\ 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 water's edge was already encumbered with heaps of 
 decaying foliage. Everywhere around, the autumnal 
 tints prevailed, except in one sheltered place under 
 the lowering cliff, where a single tree, a magnificent 
 lime, still flourished in summer luxuriance, with not 
 a leaf turned or shed. I stood still opposite, looking 
 on it quietly for a long time. It seemed to me a 
 happy tree, so fresh and fair and grand, as if its 
 guardian Dryad would not suffer it to be defaced. 
 Then I turned, for close beside me sounded the soft, 
 interrupted, half-suppressed warble of a bird, sitting 
 on a leafless spray, which seemed to bend with its 
 tiny weight. Some imes which I used to love in 
 my childhood came into my mind, blending softly 
 with the presences around me. 
 
 " The little bird now to salute the morn 
 Upon the naked branches sets her foot, 
 The leaves still lying at the mossy root. 
 And there a silly chirruping doth keep, 
 As if she fain would sing, yet fain would weCp ; 
 Praising fair summer that too soon is gone. 
 And sad for winter too soon coming on !" 
 
 The river, where I stood, taking an abrupt turn, 
 ran wimpling by; not as I had seen it but a few 
 days before, — rolling tumultuously, the dead leavers 
 whirling in its eddies, swollen and turbid with the 
 mountain torrents, making one think of the kelpies, 
 the water wraiths, and such uncanny things, — but 
 gentle, transparent, and flashing in the low sunlight : 
 
SPIRIT AND FORM. 
 
 67 
 
 even the barberries, drooping with rich crimson 
 clusters over the little pools near the bank, and 
 reflected in them as in a mirror, I remember vividly 
 as a part of the exquisite loveliness which seemed to 
 melt into my life. For such moments we are grate- 
 ful: we feel then what God can do for us, and what 
 man can not. — Carolside, November 5th, 1843. 
 
 ■"-^■&:>.v 
 
 67 
 " In the early ages of faith, the sj^irit of Christianity 
 glided into and gave a new significance to the forms 
 of heathenism. It was not the forms of heathenism 
 which encrusted and overlaid the spirit of Christianity, 
 for in that case the spirit would have burst through 
 such extraneous formulae, and set them aside at once 
 and for ever." 
 
 '^i. -> . 
 
 o 
 
08 
 
 s , 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 68. 
 
 Question^".. In the execution of the penal statutes, 
 can the individual interest of the convict be reconciled 
 with the interest of society ? or must the good of the 
 convict and the good of society be considered ns 
 inevitably and necessarily opposed ? — the one sacri- 
 ficed to the other, and at the best only a compromise 
 possible ? 
 
 This is a question pending at present, and will 
 require wise heads to decide it. How would Christ 
 have decided it? When He set the poor accused 
 woman free, was He considering the good of the cul- 
 prit or the good of society? and how far are we 
 bound to follow His example? If He consigned 
 the wicked to weeping and gnashing of teeth, was it 
 for atonement or retribution, punishment or penance ? 
 and how far are we bound to follow His example ? 
 
 69. 
 
 I MARKED the following passage in Montaigne as 
 most curiously applicable to these present times, in 
 so far as our religious contests are concerned ; and I 
 leave it in his quaint old French. 
 
 " C'est un effet de la Providence divine de pcr- 
 mettre sa saincte Eglise etre agitee, comme nous la 
 
LIBERTY. 
 
 voyons, de tant de troubles et d'orages, pour eveiller 
 par ce contraste les dmes pies et les ravoir de 
 roisivetc et du sommeil ou les avait plongees une si 
 longue tranquillite. Si nous contrepaisons la perte 
 que nous avons faite par le nc.nbre de ceux qui se 
 sont devoyes, au gain qui nous vient par nous etre 
 remis en haleine, ressuscite notre zcle et nos forces a 
 Toccasion de ce combat, je ne sais si I'utilite ne sur- 
 morite point le dommage." 
 
 rf»fc,y 
 
 70. 
 
 " They (the friends of Cassiup'i were divided in 
 opinion, — some holding that servitude was the ex- 
 treme of evils, and others that tyranny was better 
 than civil war." 
 
 Unhappy that nation, wherever it may be, where 
 the question is yet pending between servitude and 
 civil war! such a nation might be driven to solve 
 the problem after the manner of Casgius — with the 
 dagger's point. 
 
 " Surely," said Moore, " it is wrong for the lovers 
 of liberty to identify the principle of resistance to 
 power with such an odious j irson as the devi) ! " 
 
 ■/: 
 
 
 V. 2 
 
 ^ 
 
 BRAAew, 
 
•mm 
 
 70 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
 71. 
 
 (( 
 
 Wheke the question is of a great deal of good 
 to ensue from a small injustice, men must pursue tlic 
 things which are just in present, and leave the future 
 to Divine Providence." 
 
 This 80 simple rule of right is seldom attended to 
 as a rule of life till we are placed in some strait In 
 which it is forced upon us. 
 
 (I '! 
 
 M 
 
 72. 
 
 A woman's patriotism is more of a sentiment than 
 a man's, — more passionate: it is only an extension 
 of the domestic affections, and with her la patrie i^ 
 only an enlargement of home. In the same manner, 
 a woman's idea of fame is alv'ays a more extended 
 sympathy, and is much more of a presence than an 
 anticipation. To her the voice of fame is only the 
 echo — fainter and more distant — of the voice of 
 love. 
 
COLERIDGE. - TIECK. 
 
 n 
 
 73. 
 
 " La doute s'introduit dans Tame qui reve, la foi 
 descend dans Tame qui souffre." 
 
 The reverse is equally true, — and judging from 
 my own experience, I should say oftener true. 
 
 ^ titr.:. 
 
 74. 
 
 '• La curiosite est si voisine a la perfidie qu'clle 
 pent enlaidir lea plus beaux visages." 
 
 75. 
 
 When I told Tieck of the death of Coleridge (I 
 had just received the sad but not unexpected news in 
 a letter from England), he exclaimed with emotion, 
 " A great spirit has passed away from the earth, and 
 has left no adequate memorial of its greatness." 
 Speaking of him afterwards, he said, " Coleridge 
 possessed the creative and inventive spirit of poetry, 
 not the productive ; he thought too much to produce, — 
 
 G 3 
 
 til 
 

 ' .* 
 
 72 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 the analytical power interfered with the genius: 
 Others with more active faculties seized and worked 
 out his magnificent hints and ideas. Walter Scott 
 and Lord Byron borrowed the first idea of the form 
 and spirit of their narrative poems from Coleridge's 
 * Christabelle.'" This judgment of one great poet 
 and critic passed on another seemed to me worth 
 preserving. 
 
 76. 
 
 Coleridge says, " In politics what begins in fear 
 usually ends in folly." 
 
 He might have gone farther, and added: In morals 
 what begins in fear usually ends in wickedness. In 
 religion what begins in fear usually ends in fanati- 
 cism. Fear, either as a principle or a motive, is the 
 beginning of all evil. 
 
 In another place he says, — 
 
 " Talent lying in the understanding is often in- 
 herited; genius, being the action of reas. and 
 imagination, rarely or never." 
 
SARA COLEBIDOE. - TALLEYRAND. 
 
 78 
 
 There seems confusion here, for genius lies not 
 in the amount of intellect — it is a quality of the 
 intellect apart from quantity. And the distinction 
 between talent and genius is definite. Talent com- 
 hines and uses; genius combines and creates. 
 
 Of Sara Coleridge, Mr. Kenyon said, very truly 
 and beautifidly, " that like her father she had 
 the controversial intellect without the controversial 
 
 spirit. ^^ 
 
 77. 
 We all remember the famous hon mot of Talley- 
 rand. When seated between Madame de Stael and 
 ]\Iadame Recamier, and pouring forth gallantry, first 
 at the feet of one then of the other, Madame de Stael 
 suddenly asked him if she and Madame Recamier 
 fell into the river, which of the two he would save 
 first ? " Madame," replied Talleyrand, " je crois que 
 vous pouvez nager ! " Now we will match this 
 pretty hon mot with one far prettier, and founded on 
 it. Prince S., whom I knew formerly, was one day 
 
 G 4 
 
 ruHMMMMNRlnhk. 
 
I 
 
 t :r 
 
 'l • 
 
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 V, 
 
 i '. 
 
 
 74 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 loitcrinjT on the banka of the Isar, in the Enjijlish 
 garden at Munich, by the side of the beaiitit'.il 
 Madame de V., then the object of his devoted uu- 
 miration. For a while he had been speaking to her 
 of his mother, for wh(>in, vaurien as he was, he 
 had ever shown the strongest filial love and respect. 
 Afterwards, as they wandered on, he began to pour 
 forth his soul to the lady of his love with all the 
 eloquence of passion. Suddenly she turned and said 
 to hhn, " If ydiir mother and myself were both to 
 fall into this river, whom would you save first?" 
 " My mother!" he instantly replied: and then, look- 
 ing at her expressively, immediately added, " To 
 save yuu first would be as If I were to save myself 
 first!" 
 
 -'^^ 
 
 "';<i 
 
 If we were not always bringing ourselves into 
 comparison with others, w^e should know theiii 
 better. 
 
 There are ways of governing every mind whicli 
 
ADVERSE INDIVIDUALITIES. 
 
 7B 
 
 lies within the circle cleHcribcd by our own; the 
 only (lucstion is, whether the means rc(iuirc(l be 
 such as we can use? and if so, whether we shall 
 think it ripfht to do so ? 
 
 You think I do not know you, or that I mistake 
 you utterly, because I am actuated by the impidses 
 of my own nature, rather than by my perception of 
 the impulses of yours ? It is not so. 
 
 If we would retain our own consistency, without 
 which there is no moral strength, we must stand 
 Hiiu upon our own moral life. 
 
 '• Be true unto thyself ; 
 And it shall follow as the night to day, ^ 
 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man." 
 
 But to be true to others as well as ourselves, is 
 not merely to allow to them the same independence, 
 but to sympathise with it. Unhappily here lies the 
 cliief difficulty. There are brains so large that they 
 unconsciously swamp all individualities which come 
 in contact or too near, and brains so small that they 
 cannot take in the conception of any other individu- 
 ality as a whole, only in part or parts. As in 
 Religion, where there is a strong, sincere, definite 
 faith, there is generally more or less intolerance ; so 
 in character, where there is strong individuality, 
 self-assurance, and defined principles of action, there 
 is usually .something hard and intolerant of the indi- 
 

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 Photographic 
 
 Sdences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 
 
 (716)872-4503 
 
m 
 
 
 w 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 viduality of others. In some characters we meet 
 with, toleration is a principle of the reason, and 
 intolerance a quality of the mind, and then the 
 whole being strikes a discord. 
 
 79. 
 If we can still love those who have made us 
 suffer, we love them all the more. It is as if the 
 principle, that conflict is a necessary law of progress, 
 were applicable even to love. For there is no love 
 like that which has roused up the intensest feelings 
 of our nature, — revealed us to ourselves, like light- 
 ning suddenly disclosing an abyss, — yet has survived 
 all the storm and tumult of such passionate discord 
 and all the terror of such a revelation. 
 
 80. 
 F. HAS much, much to learn I Through power, 
 through passion, through feeling we do much, but 
 only through observation, reflection, and sympathy 
 we learn much ; hence it is that minds highly gifted 
 often remain immature. Artist minds especially, so 
 long as they live only or chiefly for their art, their 
 
 '). 
 
FRENCH EXPEE88IONS. 
 
 77 
 
 faculties bent on creating or representing, remain 
 immature on one side — the reasoning and reflecting 
 side of the character. 
 
 81. 
 
 Said a Frenchman of his adversary, " 11 se croit / 
 superieure a moi de toute la hauteur de sa betise I " \ 
 There is a mingled felicity, politeness, and acrimony j 
 in this phrase quite untranslatable. • * 
 
 It is a pity that we have no words to express the 
 French distinction between rever and revasser. The 
 one implies meditation on a definite subject : the 
 other the abandonment of the mind to vague dis- 
 cussion, aimless thoughts. 
 
 / 
 
 '■^t;«r«-— ■ 
 
 82. 
 
 It seems to me that the conversation of the first 
 
 iH 
 

 m i 
 
 
 78 
 
 ■\\ 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 converger in the world would tire me, pall on me at 
 last, where I am not sure of the sincerity. Talk 
 without truth is the hollow brass ; talk without love 
 is like the tinkling cymbal, and where it does not 
 tinkle it gingles, and where it does not gingle, it jars. 
 
 'hld^^^J:^^ 
 
 83. 
 There are few things more striking, more inter- 
 esting to a tAioughtful mind, than to trace through 
 all the poetry, literature, and art of the Middle 
 Ages that broad ever-present distinction between the 
 practical and the contemplative life. This was, no 
 doubt, suggested and kept in view by the one grand 
 division of the whole social community into those 
 who were devoted to the religious profession (an 
 immense proportion of both sexes) and those who 
 were not. All through Dante, all through the 
 productions of mediaeval art, we find this pervading 
 idea ; and we must understand it well and keep 
 it in mind, or we shall never be able to appre- 
 hend the entire beauty and meaning of certain 
 
PRACTICAL AND CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE. 
 
 79 
 
 religious groups in scul{)ture and painting, and the 
 significance of the characters introduced. Thus, 
 in subjects from the Old Testament, Leah always 
 represents the practical, Rachel, the contemplative 
 life. In the New Testament, Martha and Mary 
 figure in the same allegorical sense ; and among 
 the saints we always find St. Catherine and St. 
 Clara patronising the religious and contemplative 
 life, while St. Barbara and St. Ursula preside 
 over the military or secular existence. It was 
 a part, and a very important part, of that beautiful 
 and expressive symbolism through which art in all 
 its forms spoke to the popular mind. 
 
 For myself, I have the strongest admiration for 
 the practical, but the strongest sympathy with the 
 contemplative life. I bow to Leah and to Martha, 
 but my love is lor Rachel and for Mary. 
 
 84. 
 
 Bettina does not describe nature, she informs it 
 with her own life : she seems to live in the elements, 
 to exist in the fire, the air, the water, like a sylph, 
 a gnome, an elf; she does not contemplate nature, 
 she is nature ; sihe is like the bird in the air, the fish 
 
 m 
 
 Tc*n 
 
w 
 
 '^i; 1 
 
 «0 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 in the sea, the squirrel in the wood. It is one thing 
 to describe nature, and quite another unconsciously 
 80 to inform nature with a portion of our own life. 
 
 i 
 
 K. 
 
 85. 
 
 Joanna Baillie had a great admiration of Ma- 
 caulay's Roman Ballads. " But," said some one, " do 
 you really account them as poetry ? " She replied, 
 " They are poetry if the sounds of the trumpet be 
 music I" 
 
 ^^^^ 
 
 86. 
 
 All my own experience of life teaches me the 
 contempt of cunning, not the fear. The phrase 
 " profound cunning " has always seemed to me a 
 contradiction in terms. I never knew a cunning 
 mind which was not either shallow or on some point 
 diseased. People dissemble sometimes who yet hate 
 dissembling, but a " cunning mind " emphatically 
 delights in its own cunning, and is the ready prey 
 of cunning. That " pleasure in deceiving and apt- 
 ness to be deceived " usually go together, was one of 
 the wise sayings of the wisest of men. v 
 
PARACELSUS. 
 
 81 
 
 87. 
 
 It was a saying of Paracelsus, that " Those who 
 would understand the courses of the heavens above 
 must first of all recognise the heaven in man:" 
 meaning, I suppose, that all pursuit of knowledge 
 which is not accompanied by praise of God and love 
 of our fellow-creatures must turn to bitterness, 
 emptiness, foolishness. We must imagine him to 
 have come to this conclusion only late in life. 
 
 Browning, in that wonderful poem of Paracel- 
 sus, — a poem in which there is such a profound 
 far-seeing philosophy, set forth with such a luxuri- 
 ance of illustration and imagery, and such a wealth 
 of glorious eloquence, that I know nothing to be 
 compared with it since Goethe and Wordsworth, — 
 represents his aspiring philosopher as at first im- 
 pelled solely by the appetite to know. He asks 
 nothing of men, he despises them; but he will serve 
 them, raise them, after a sort of God-like fashion. 
 
 , :vsi 
 
 /"" 
 
 ^ii 
 
 ; 
 
M 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 B', 
 
 .• r 
 
 
 i 
 
 independent of their sympathy, scorning their ap- 
 plause, using them like instruments, cheating them 
 like children,— all for their good; but it will not do. 
 In Aprile, " who would love infinitely, and be be- 
 loved," is figured the type of the poet-nature, de- 
 siring only beauty, resolving all into beauty ; while 
 in Paracelsus we have the type of the reflecting, the 
 inquiring mind, desiring only knowledge, resolving 
 all into knowledge, asking nothing more to crown 
 his being. And both find out their mistake; both 
 come to feel that love without knowledge is blind 
 and weak, and knowledge without love barren and 
 
 vam. 
 
 I too have sought to know as thou to love, 
 Excluding love as thou refused'st knowledge ; 
 Still thou hast beauty and I power. We wake ! 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Are we not halves of one dissever'd world, 
 Whom this strange chance unites once more? Part?- 
 Till thou, the lover, know, and I, the knower, 
 Love —until both are saved!" 
 
 -Never ! 
 
 After all, perhaps, only the same old world- 
 renowned myth in another form — the marriage of 
 Cupid and Psyche ; Love and Intelligence long 
 parted, long-suffering, again embracing, and lighted 
 on by Beauty to an immortal union. But to return 
 to our poet. Aprile, exhausted by his own aimless, 
 dazzling visions, expires on the bosona of him wlio 
 knows; and Paracelsus, who began with a self- 
 
COLONIES. 
 
 sufficing scorn of his kind, dies a baffled and de- 
 graded man in the arms of him who loves; — yet 
 wiser in his fall than through his aspirations, he dies 
 trusting in the progress of humanity so long as 
 humanity is content to be human; to love as well 
 as to know ; — to fear, to hope, to worship, as well as 
 to aspire. 
 
 88. 
 
 Lord Bacon says : " I like a plantation (in the 
 sense of colony) in a pure soil ; that is, where people 
 are not displanted to the end to plant in others : for 
 else it is rather an extirpation than a plantation." 
 (Bacon, who wrote this, counselled to James i. me 
 plantation of Ulster exactly on the principle he has 
 here deprecated.) 
 
 He adds, " It is a shameful and unblessed thing to 
 take the scum of people, and wicked condemned men, 
 to be the people with whom you plant" (?.(?. colo- 
 nise). And it is only now that our politicians are 
 beginning to discover and act upon this great moral 
 
 1^1 
 
84 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 M :' 
 
 m 
 
 '^': 
 
 truth and obvious fitncsa of things I — like Bacon, 
 adopting practically, and from mere motives of ex- 
 pediency, a principle they would theoretically ahjuro! 
 
 Because in real life we cannot, or do not, re- 
 concile the high theory with the low practice, we use 
 our wit to render the theory ridiculous, and our 
 reason to reconcile us to the practice. We ought to 
 do just the reverse. 
 
 Many would say, if they spoke the truth, that it 
 had cost them a life-long effort to unlearn what they 
 had been taught. 
 
 For as the eye becomes blinded by fashion to 
 positive deformity, so through social conventionalism 
 the conscience becomes blinded to positive immo- 
 rality. 
 
 It is fatal in any mind to make the moral standard 
 for men high and the moral standard for women low, 
 or vice versa. This has appeared to me the very 
 commonest of all mistakes in men and women who 
 have lived much in the world, hut fatal nevertheless, 
 and in three ways; first, as distorting the moral 
 ideal, so far as it exists in the conscience ; secondly, 
 as perplexing the bounds, practically, of right and 
 
 wrong; t 
 and princ 
 mises, am 
 is fatal i 
 eistency a 
 practically 
 
 Akin t 
 belief thai 
 virtues ai 
 itself, but 
 masculine 
 in which 
 individual 
 character 
 I firmly b 
 extended, 
 which are 
 considerec 
 purity, th 
 duty, and 
 passions. 
 as a natu 
 
 A man 
 du'cct trut 
 
tl 
 
 MEN AND WOMEN. 
 
 95 
 
 wrong ; thirdly, as being at variance with the spirit 
 and principles of Christianity. Admit these pro- 
 mises, and it follows inevitably that such a mistake 
 is fatal in the last degree, as disturbing the con- 
 sistency and the elevation of the character, morally, 
 practically, religiously. 
 
 Akin to this mistake, or identical with it, is the 
 belief that there are essential masculine and feminine 
 virtues and vices. It is not, in fact, the quality 
 itself, but the modification of the quality, which is 
 masculine or feminine : and on the manner or degree 
 in which these are balanced and combined in the 
 individual, depends the perfection of that individual 
 character — its approximation to that of Christ. 
 I firmly believe that as the influences of religion are 
 extended, and as civilisation advances, those qualities 
 which are now admired as essentially /em/w2«e will be 
 considered as essentially human, such as gentleness, 
 purity, the more unselfish and spiritual sense of 
 duty, and the dominance of the affections over the 
 passions. This is, perhaps, what BufFon, speaking 
 as a naturalist, meant, when he said that with the 
 progress of humanity, " Les races se feminisent ;" 
 at least I understand the phrase in this sense. 
 
 A man who requires from his own sex manly 
 direct truth, and laughs at the cowardly subterfuges 
 
 H 2 
 
 
 lU 
 
M 
 
 ETHICAL FttAOMENTS. 
 
 i -i 
 
 and small arts of women as being feminine; — a 
 woman who rcquirca from her own sex tendernej-s 
 and purity, and thinks ruffianinm and sensuality 
 pardonable in a man as being masculine ^ — these 
 have repudiated the Christian standard of morals 
 which Christ, in his own person, bequeathed to us — 
 that standard which we have accoi)ted as Christians 
 — theoretically at least — and which makes no dis- 
 tinction between " the highest, holiest manhood,' 
 and the highest, holiest womanhood. 
 
 I might illustrate this position not only scriptu- 
 rally but philosophically, by quoting the axiom of 
 the Greek philosopher Antisthenes, the disciple of 
 Socrates, — " The virtue of the man and the woman 
 is the same ;" which shows a perception of the moral 
 truth, a sort of anticipation of the Christian doc- 
 trine, even in the pagan times. But I prefer an 
 illustration which is at once practical and poeti- 
 cal, and plain to the most prejudiced among men or 
 women. 
 
 Every reader of Wordsworth will recollect, if he 
 does not know by heart, the poem entitled "The 
 Happy Warrior." It has been quoted often as an 
 epitome of every manly, soldierly, and elevated 
 quality. I have heard it applied to the Duke of 
 Wellington. Those who make the experiment of 
 merely substituting the word woman for the word 
 warrior, and changing the feminine for the mas- 
 
MEN AND WUMKN. 
 
 cul'uo pronoun, will find that it rcado c(iuully well; 
 that alnioiit from beginning to end it is literally 
 M applicable to the one sex as to the other. As 
 tliutj: — 
 
 <b*6 
 
 YW- 
 
 •tJi. 
 
 '.<v-* 
 
 CIIARACTEU OF THE HAPPY WOMAN. 
 
 Who is the happy woman f Who is nhe 
 
 That every woman born should wish to be? 
 
 It is the generous spirit, who, when brought 
 
 Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought 
 
 Upon tiie plan that pleased her childish thought 
 
 Whose high endeavours are an inward light, ' 
 
 That make the path before her always bright : 
 
 Who, with a natural instinct to discern 
 
 What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn ; 
 
 Abides by this resolve, and stops not there, ^. . r i ^ J^^f t '' 
 
 But makes her moral being her prime care ; 'imk"*^ t-Wv X>'.*'^'^-*^ 
 
 Who, doomed to go in company with Pain, 
 
 And Fear, and Sorrow, miserable train ! 
 
 Turns that necessity to glorious gain ; 
 
 In face of these doth exercise a power 
 
 Which is our human nature's highest dower 
 
 Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves 
 
 Of their bad influence, and their good receives ; 
 
 By objects, which might force the soul to abitt« 
 
 Her feeling, rendered more compassionate ; 
 
 Is placable — because occasions rise 
 
 So often that demand such sacrifice ; 
 
 More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure 
 
 As tempted more ; more able to endure. 
 
 As more exposed to suffering and distress ; 
 
 Thence, also, more alive to tenderness. 
 
 'Tis she whose law is reason ; who depends 
 
 Upon that law as on the best of friends ; 
 
 Whence in a state where men are tempted still 
 
 To evil for a guard against worse ill, 
 
 H 3 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
88 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 V 
 
 / 
 
 And what in quality or act is best, 
 Doth seldom on a right foundation rest, 
 She fixes good on good alone, and owes ^ 
 To virtue every triumph that she knows/ 
 Who, if she rise to station of command. 
 Rises by open means ; and there will stand 
 On honourable terms, or else retire, 
 
 ****** 
 Who comprehends her trust, and to the same 
 Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim ; 
 And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait 
 For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state ; 
 Whom they must follow ; on whose head must fall 
 Like showers of manna, if they come at all : 
 Whose powers shed round her in the common strife 
 Or mild concerns of ordinary life, 
 A constant influence, a peculiar grace ; 
 But who, if she be called upon to face 
 Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined 
 Great issues, good or bad for human kind, 
 Is happy as a lover ; and attired 
 With sudden brightness, like to one inspired ; 
 And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law 
 In calmness made, and sees what she foresaw ; 
 Or if an unexpected call succeed. 
 Come when it will, is equal to the need ! 
 
 In all these fifty-six lines there is only one line 
 which cannot be feminised in its significance, — that 
 which I have filled up with asterisks, and which is 
 totally at variance with our ideal of A HArrv 
 Woman. It is the line — 
 
 " And in himself possess his own desire/' 
 
 No woman could exist happily or virtuously in 
 such complete independence of all external affection? 
 
MEN AND WOMEN. 
 
 8» 
 
 as these words express. " Her desire is to her hus- 
 band," — this is the sort of subjection prophesied for 
 the daughters of Eve. A woman doomed to exist 
 without this earthly rest for her affections, does not 
 " in herself possess her own desire ;" she turns 
 towards God; and if she does not make her life a 
 life of worship, she makes it a life of charity, (which 
 in itself is worship,) or she dies a spiritual and a 
 moral death. Is it much better with the man who 
 concentrates his aspirations in himself? I should 
 think not. 
 
 Swift, as a man and a writer, is one of those who 
 had least sympathy with women ; and I have some- 
 times thought that the exaggeration, even to mor- 
 bidity, of the coarse and the cruel in his character, 
 arose from this want of sympathy ; but his strong 
 sense showed him the one great moral truth as 
 regards the two sexes, and gave him the courage to 
 avow it. 
 
 He says, " I am ignorant of any one quality that 
 is amiable in a woman which is not equally so in a 
 man. I do not except even modesty and gentleness 
 of nature ; nor do I know one vice o^ folly which is 
 not equally detestable in both." Then, remarking 
 that cowardice is an iinfirmity generally allowed to 
 \>'onien, he wonders that they should fancy it be- 
 
 H 4 
 
 il 
 
90 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 coming or graceful, or think it worth improving by 
 affectation, particularly as it is generally allied to 
 cruelty. 
 
 Here is a passage from one of Humboldt's letters, 
 which I have seen quoted with sympathy and ad- 
 miration, as applied to the manly character only : — 
 • " Masculine independence of mind I hold to be 
 in reality the first requisite for the formation of a 
 character of real manly worth. The man who suffers 
 himself to be deceived and carried away by his own 
 weakness, may be a very amiable person in other 
 respects, but cannot be called a good man; such 
 beings should not find favour in the eyes of a woman, 
 for a truly beautiful and purely feminine nature 
 should be attracted only by what is highest and 
 noblest in the character of man." 
 
 Now we will take this bit of moral philosophy, 
 and, without the slightest alteration of the context, 
 apply it to the female character. 
 
 " Feminine independence of mind I hold to be 
 in reality the first requisite for the formation of a 
 character of real feminine worth. The woman who 
 allows herself to be deceived and carried away by 
 her own weakness may be a very amiable person in 
 other respects, but cannot be called a good woman ; 
 such beings should not find favour in the eyes of a 
 man, for the truly beautiful and purely manly nature 
 
 i t 
 
MEN AND WOMEN. 
 
 # 
 
 should be attracted only by what is highest and 
 noblest in the character of woman." 
 
 After reading the above extracts, does it not seem 
 clear, that by the exclusive or emphatic use of certain 
 phrases and epithets, as more applicable to one sex 
 than to the other, we have introduced a most un- 
 christian confusion into the conscience, and have 
 prejudiced it early against the acceptance of the 
 larger truth ? 
 
 It might seem, that where we reject the distinc- 
 tion between masculine and feminine virtues, one 
 and the same type of perfection should suffice for 
 the two sexes ; yet it is clear that the moment we 
 come to consider the personality, the same type will 
 not suffice : and it is worth consideration that when 
 we place before us the highest type of manhood, as 
 exemplified in Christ, we do not imagine him as the 
 father, but as the son ; and if we think of the most 
 perfect type of womanhood, we never can exclude 
 the mother. 
 
 Montaigne deals with the whole question in his 
 own homely straightforward fashion : — 
 
 "Je dis que les males et les femelles sont jettes en 
 meme moule ; sauf I'institution et I'usage la difference 
 n'y est pas grande. Platon appelle indifferemment 
 les uns et les autres a la societe de touts etudes^ 
 
 mm 
 
 1 li 
 
 rl i 
 
 m 
 
 I' A I 
 
 .' 
 
I' 
 
 1^=^ 
 
 1*1 
 
 / 
 
 w 
 
 m ' 
 
 h 
 
 1 i 
 
 If 
 
 ■I 
 
 ^4" 
 
 92 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 exercises, charges, et vocations guerrieres et paisibles 
 en sa republique, et le philosophe Antisthenes otait 
 toute distinction entre leur vertu et la notre. II est 
 bien plus aisd d'accuser un sexe que d'excuser 
 I'autre : c'est ce qu'on dit, * le fourgon se moque de 
 la poele.'" 
 
 Not that I agree with Plato, — rather would 
 leave all the fighting, military and political, if there 
 must be fighting, to the men. 
 
 Among the absurdities talked about women, one 
 hears, perhaps, such an aphorism as the following, 
 quoted with a sort of ludicrous complacency, — " The 
 woman's strength consists in her weakness!" as if it 
 were not the weakness of a woman which makes her 
 in her violence at once so aggravating and so con- 
 temptible, in her dissimulation at once so shallow 
 and so dangerous, and in her vengeance at once so 
 cowardly and so cruel. 
 
 I SHOULD not say, from my experience of my own 
 sex, that a woman's nature is flexible and impressible, 
 though her feelings are. I know very few instances 
 of a very inferior man ruling the mind of a superior 
 woman, whereas I know twenty — fifty — of a very 
 
MEN AND WOMEN. 
 
 93 
 
 inferior woman ruling a superior man. If he love 
 her, the chances are that she will in the end weaken 
 and demoralise him. If a superior woman marry a 
 vulgar or inferior man he makes her miserable, but 
 he seldom governs her mind, or vulgarises her 
 nature, and if there be love on his side the chances 
 are that in the end she will elevate and refine him. 
 
 The most dangerous man to a woman is a man of 
 high intellectual endowments morally perverted; for 
 in a woman's nature there is such a necessity to 
 approve where she admires, and to believe where 
 she loves, — a devotion compounded of love and 
 fiiith is so much a part of her being, — that while 
 the instincts remain true and the feelings uncor- 
 rupted, the conscience and the will may both be led 
 far astray. Thus fell " our general mother," — type 
 of her sex, — overpowered, rather than deceived, by 
 the colossal intellect,— half serpent, half angelic. 
 
 Coleridge speaks, and with a just indignant 
 scorn, of those who consider chastity as if it were a 
 thing — a thing which might be lost or kept by 
 external accident — a thing of which one might be 
 robbed, instead of a state of being. According to 
 law and custom, the chastity of Woman is as the 
 property of Man, to whom she is accountable for it. 
 
 
 \ \ 
 
94 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 \>i 
 
 i 
 
 'I 
 
 Hi 
 
 rather than to God and her own conscience. What- 
 ever people may say, such is the common, the social, 
 the legal view of the case. It is a remnant of 
 Oriental barbarism. It tends to much vice, or, at 
 the best, to a low standard of morality, in both 
 sexes. This idea of property in the woman survives 
 still in our present social state, particularly among 
 the lower orders, and is one cause of the ill treat- 
 ment of wives. All those who are particularly 
 acquainted with the manners and condition of the 
 people will testify to this; namely, that when a 
 child or any weaker individual is ill treated, those 
 standing by will interfere and protect the victim; 
 but if the sufferer be the wife 'of the oppressor, it is a 
 point of etiquette to look on, to take no part in the 
 fray, and to leave the brute man to do what he likes 
 " with his own ." Even the victim herself, if she be 
 not pummelled to death, frequently deprecates such 
 an interference with the dignity and the rights of 
 her owner. Like the poor woman in the " Medecin 
 malgre lui : " — " Voyez un peu cet impertinent qui 
 veut empecher les maris de battre leurs femmes I — et 
 si je veux qu'il me batte, moi?" — and so ends by 
 giving her defender a box on the ear. 
 
 " Au milieu de tous les obstacles que la nature et 
 la society ont semes sur les pas de la femme, la seule 
 
MEN AND WOMEN. 
 
 V» 
 
 .A 
 
 condition de repos pour elle est de s'entourer de 
 barrieres que les passions ne puissent franchir; in- 
 capable de s'approprier I'existence, elle est toujours 
 semblable sL la Chinoise dont les pieds ont ^te mutil^s 
 et pour laquelle toute liberte est un leurre, toute 
 espace ouverte une cause de chute. En attendant que 
 I'education ait donne aux femmes leur veritable place, 
 malheur k celles qui brisent les lisses accoutumees I 
 pour elles I'independance ne sera, comme la gloire, 
 qu'un deuil eclatant du bonheur!" — B. Constant, 
 
 This also is one of those common-places of well- 
 sounding eloquence, in which a fallacy is so wrapt 
 up in words we have to dig it out. If this be true, 
 it is true only so long as you compress the feet and 
 compress the intellect, — no longer. 
 
 Here is another : — 
 
 " L'exp^rience lui avait appris que quel que fut 
 leur age, ou leur caractere, toutes les femmes vivaient 
 avec le meme reve, et qu'elles avaient toutes au fond 
 du coeur un roman commence dont elles attendaient 
 jusqu'a la mort le heros, comme les juifs attendenty 
 le Messie." 
 
 ' r This "roman commence," (et qui ne finit jamais), 
 is true as regards women who are idle, and who have 
 not replaced dreams by duties. And what are the 
 " barrieres " which passion cannot overleap, from the 
 moment it has subjugated the will ? How fine, how 
 true that scene in Calderon's " Magico Prodigioso," 
 
 I I 
 
ki i\ 
 
 v " 
 
 ' }\ 
 
 7 
 
 ■/ 
 
 9» 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 where Jnstlna conquers the fiend only by not con- 
 senting to ill I 
 
 " This agony 
 
 Of passion which aflSicts my heart and soul 
 May sweep imagination in its storm ; 
 The will is firm." 
 
 And the baffled demon shrinks back, — 
 
 " Woman, thou hast subdued me 
 Only by not owning thyself subdued ! " 
 
 I 
 
 A FRIEND of mine was once using some mincing 
 elegancies of language to describe a high degree of 
 moral turpitude, when a man near her interposed, 
 with stern sarcasm, " Speak out I Give things their 
 proper names ! Half words are the perdition of 
 
 women l 
 
 f» 
 
 " I OBSERVE," said Sydney Smith, " that generally i 
 about the age of forty, women get tired of being 
 
 /I 
 
 •v; nit 
 

 MEN AND WOMEN. 
 
 W 
 
 virtuous and men of being honest." This was said 
 and received with a laugh as one of his good things ; 
 but, like many of his good things, how dreadfully 
 triJcf^And why? because, ^c«ero%, education has 
 made the virtue of the woman and the honesty of the 
 man a matter of external opinion, not a law of the 
 inward life. 
 
 "•*«r 
 
 Dante, in his lowest hell, has placed those who 
 have betrayed women ; and in the lowest deep of the 
 lowest deep those who have betrayed trust. 
 
 Inveterate sensuality, which has the effect of 
 utterly stupifying and brutifying lower minds, gives 
 to natures more sensitively or more powerfully or- 
 ganised a horrible dash of ferocity. For there is 
 an awful relation between animal blood-thirstiness 
 and the proneness to sensuality, and in some sensual- 
 ists a sort of feline propensity to torment and lacerate 
 the prey they have not the appetite to devour. 
 
 Mi,f 
 
ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 \ 
 
 " La Chevalerie faisait une tentative qui n'a 
 jamais rtJussi, quoique souvcnt cssay^e ; la tentative 
 de se servir des passions humaines, et particuliere- 
 ment de Tamour pour conduire I'homm'e a la vertu. 
 Dans cette route I'homme s'arrete toujours en chemin. 
 L'amour inspire beaucoup de bons sentiments — le 
 courage, le d^vouement, le sacrifice des biens et de la 
 vie ; mais il ne se sacrifie pas lui-m^me, et c'est hi 
 que la faiblesse humaine reprend ses droits." — St. 
 Marc'Girardin, «* 
 
 I am not sure that this well-sounding remark is 
 true — or, if true, it is true of the mere passion, not 
 of love in its highest phase, which is self-sacrificing, 
 which has its essence in the capability of self-sacri- 
 fice. 
 
 " Love was given, 
 Encouraged, sanctioned, chiefly for this end ; 
 For this the passion to excess was driven, 
 That se//" might be annull'd." 
 
 4' 
 
 In every mind where there is a strong tendency 
 to fear, there is a strong capacity to hate. Those 
 who dwell in fear dwell next door to hate ; and I 
 think it is the cowardice of women which makes 
 them such intense haters. 
 
n'ii 
 
 MEN. WOMEN, CHILDREN. 
 
 Our present social opinion says to the man, " You 
 may be a vulgar brutal sensualist, and use the basest 
 means to attain the basest ends ; but so long as you 
 do not offend against conventional good manners you 
 shall be held blameless." And to the woman it says, 
 « You shall be guilty of nothing but of yielding to 
 the softest impulses of tenderness, of relenting pity ; 
 but if you cannot add hypocrisy you shall be 
 punished as the most desperate criminal." 
 
 /-A_?IC^_. 
 
 (( 
 
 It is worthy of notice that the external expressions 
 appropriated to certain feelings undergo change at 
 different periods of life and in different constitutions. 
 The child cries and sobs from fear or pain, the adult 
 more generally from sudden grief or warm affection, 
 or sympathy with the feeling of others."— Dr. Hol- 
 land. 
 
 Those who have been accustomed to observe the 
 ways of children will doubt the accuracy of this 
 remark, though from the high authority of one of 
 the most accomplished physiologists of our time. 
 Children cry from grief, and from sympathy with 
 grief, at a very early age. I have seen an infant in 
 its mother's amis, before it could speak, begin to 
 
 I 
 
 i'l 
 
100 
 
 ». » 
 
 ETHICAL PRA0MENT8. 
 
 whimper anil cry when it looked up in her tiico, 
 which was disturbed and bathed with tears ; and that 
 has tUways appeared to me an exquisite touch of 
 most truthful nature in Wordsworth's description of 
 the desolation of Margaret : — 
 
 •' Her little child 
 Had from its mother caught the trick of grief, 
 And sighed amid its playthings." 
 
 •C'rT? 
 
 89. 
 
 " Letteus," said Sir James Mackintosh, " must 
 not be on a subject. Lady Mary Wortley's letters 
 on her journey to Constantinople are an admirable 
 book of travels, but they are not letters. A meeting 
 to discuss a question of science is not conversation, 
 nor are papers written to another to inform or discuss, 
 letters. Conversation is relaxation, not business, and 
 must never appear to be occupation; — nor must 
 letters." 
 
 " A masculine character may be a defect in a 
 female, but a masculine genius is still a praise to a 
 writer of whatever sex. The feminine graces of 
 Madame de Sevigne's genius are exquisitely charin- 
 
 V V 
 
• t'llCC, 
 
 id tlisit 
 ich of 
 iion of 
 
 " must 
 letters 
 mirablc 
 meeting 
 rsation, 
 discuss, 
 ess, and 
 ►r must 
 
 ct in a 
 lise to a 
 aces of 
 cliarni- 
 
 MAOAME I)l!) STAtlL. 
 
 1M 
 
 ing, but the philosophy and t»lorjucnco of Madumu de 
 Stttcl arc above the dis»tiiirtion8 of sex," 
 
 90. 
 
 Op the wars between Napoleon and the Holy 
 Alliance, Madame de Stacl once said with most ad- 
 mirable and prophetic sense : — " It is a contest be- 
 tween a man who is the enemy of liberty, and a 
 system which is equally its enemy." But it is easier 
 to get rid of a man than of a system : witness the 
 Russians, who assassinate their czars one after an- 
 other, but cannot get rid of their system. 
 
 91. 
 
 The Empress Elizabeth of Russia during the war 
 with Sweden commanded tlie old Hetman of the 
 Cossacks to come to court on his way to Finland. 
 " If the Emperor, your father," said the Iletman, 
 " had taken my advice, your Majesty would not now 
 
 I 2 
 
n M 
 
 IM 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 have been annoyed by the Swedes." " What was 
 your advice?" asked the Empress. " To put all the 
 nobility to death, and transplant the people into 
 Russia." " But that," said the Empress, " would 
 have been cruel!" " I do not see that," he replied 
 quietly ; " they are all dead now, and they would 
 only have been dead if my advice had been taken." 
 
 Something strangely comprehensive and unanswer- 
 able in this barbarian logic ! 
 
 vf 
 
 |:i 
 
 .i:S?:E? 
 
 It was the Abbe Boileau who said of the Jesuits, 
 that they had lengthened the Creed and shortened the 
 Decalogue. The same witty ecclesiastic being asked 
 why he always wrote in Latin, took a pinch of snuff, 
 and answered gravely, " Why, for fear the bishops 
 should read me !" 
 
 93. 
 
 When Talleyrand once visited a certain repro- 
 bate friend of his, who w as ill of cholera, the pationt 
 
UEJA. 
 
 103 
 
 exclaimed in his agony, " Je sens les tourmens do 
 I'enfer!" 
 
 « Deja?" said Talleyrand. 
 
 Much in a word ! I remember seeing a pretty 
 French vaudeville wherein a lady is by some accident 
 or contrivance shut up perforce with a lover she has 
 rejected. She frets at the contretemps. He makes 
 use of the occasion to plead his cause. The cruel 
 fair one will not relent. Still he pleads — still she 
 turns away. At length they are interrupted. 
 
 " Deja!" exclaims the lady, in an accent we may 
 suppose to be very different from that of Talleyrand ; 
 and on the intonation of this one word, pronounced 
 as only an accomplished French actress could pro- 
 nounce it, depends the denouement of the piece. 
 
 94. 
 
 Louis XVI. sent a distinguished physician over 
 to England to inquire into the management of our 
 hospitals. He praised them much, but added, " II y 
 manque deux choses ; nos cures et nos hospitalieres ; " 
 tliat is, he felt the want of the religious element in 
 the official and medical treatment of the sick. A 
 want which, I think, is felt at present and will be 
 supplied. 
 
 I 3 
 
 i ! 
 
 ht 
 
 •■ 11 '. 
 
 
 1 
 
 m 
 
 Kj 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 !'"' 
 
 ii':: 
 
 f . \ 
 
 ■ 
 
 i 
 
 : 1 1 
 
 Li 
 
lal 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 95. 
 
 Those who have the largest horizon of thoiiglit, 
 the most extended vision in regard to the relation of 
 things, are not remarkable for self-reliance and ready 
 judgment. A man who sees limitedly and clearly, is 
 more sure of himself, and more direct in his dealings 
 with circumstances and with others, than a man 
 whose many-sided capacity embraces an immense 
 extent of objects and objections, — just as, they say, 
 a horse with blinkers more surely chooses his path, 
 and is less likely to shy. 
 
 ^ 
 
 .-^ 
 
 ■:?;:rl 
 
 96. 
 
 What we truly and earnestly aspire to be, that in 
 some sense we are. The mere aspiration, by chang- 
 ing the frame of the mind, for the moment realises 
 itself ^t, J .■#**'w'^^^ /ni'i'W'-.. 
 
THOUGHT TOO FREE. 
 
 105 
 
 97. 
 
 There are no such self-deceivers as those who 
 think they reason when they only feel. 
 
 98. 
 
 There are moments when the liberty of the inner 
 life, opposed to the trammels of the outer, becomes 
 too oppressive : moments when we wish that our 
 mental horizon were less extended, thought less free ; 
 when we long to put the discursive soul into a narrow 
 path like a railway, and force it to run on in a 
 straight line to some determined goal. 
 
 99. 
 
 If the deepest and best affections which God has 
 irivcn us sometimes brood over the heart like doves 
 of peace, — they sometimes suck out our life-blood 
 like vampires. '^ - - ^ 
 
 O-' ('- 
 
 -•^"^ 
 
 ^<*- 
 
 ^* 
 
 I 4 
 
 I 
 
 ilr 
 ill'' 
 
 ! ■ .1 
 
i! <S 
 
 106 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 / 
 
 100. 
 
 To a Frenchman the words that express things / 
 r .. ^ ' ^eem often to suffice for the things themselves, and c^^ 
 . (i» '■ :^ ;-^ he pronounces the words, amour, grace, sensibility, as ;^cl 
 <• ^* > _ir ' j£ ^j^j^ ^ relish in his mouth — as if he tasted them ' 
 — as if he possessed them, v r .-' ' 
 
 ^ps 
 
 101. 
 
 There are many good qualities, and valuable 
 ones too, which hardly deserve the name of virtues. 
 The word Virtue was synonymous in the old lime 
 with valour, and seems to imply contest ; not merely 
 passive goodness, but active resistance to evil, I 
 wonder sometimes why it is that we so continually 
 hear the phrase, " a virtuous woman," and scarcely 
 ever that of a " virtuous man," except in poetry or 
 from the pulpit, 
 
 102. 
 
 li,^ 
 
 A LIE, though it be killed and dead, can stinj 
 sometimes, — like a dead wasp^ ^^ .^^*'t»^«-<::*/^ «,/ /"- ul 
 
 I../ 
 
SENSE AND PHANTASY. 
 
 107 
 
 103. 
 
 " On me dit toute la joumee clans le mondc, telle 
 opinion, telle idee, sont reques. On ne salt done pas 
 qii'en fait d'opinion et d'idees j'aime beaucoiip inieux 
 les Glioses qui sont yejettees que celles qui sont 
 
 revues?" 
 
 f)p: J- it-c-t.Mt'f-- - e/- ^^i^yt ' ^^c tr^j^^j ,. K. /c^ <^-<^ 
 
 r 
 
 ^ 
 
 i/ 
 
 104. 
 
 " Sense can support herself handsomely in most -=i&0<^ 
 countries on some eighteenpence a day, but for "° '^^/*"'5 
 phantasy, planets and solar systems will not suffice." .1 ' ^j / 
 And thence do you infer the superiority of sense ./ -'/ 
 over phantasy ? Shallow reasoning ! God who made 
 the soul of man of sufficient capacity to embrace 
 whole worlds and systems of worlds, gave us thereby 
 a foretaste of our immortality. 
 
 
 /V,V1 
 
 M' 
 
 r 
 
 I: 
 
 ■* I i.»»m H I iKi i wiwgwiii j i w iip imm wamuM fi 
 
Ill 
 
 -A 
 
 108 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 ■% 
 
 
 m 
 
 ■ X 
 
 I 'I 
 
 ,* 
 
 105. 
 
 " Faith in the hereafter is as necessary for the 
 intellectual as the moral character, and to the man of 
 letters as well as to the Christian, the present forms 
 but the slightest portion of his existence." — Southey. 
 
 Goethe did not think so. " Genutzt dem Augen- 
 blick," " Use the present," was his favourite maxim ; 
 and always this notion of sacrificing or slighting the 
 present seems to me a great mistake. It ought to he 
 the most important part of our existence, as it is the 
 only part of it over which we have power. It is in 
 the present only that we absolve the past and lay the 
 foundation for the future. 
 
 106. 
 
 " Je allseitigen, je individueller," is a beautiful 
 significant phrase, quite untranslateable, used, I 
 think, by liahel (Madame Varnhagen). It means 
 that the more tiic mind can multiply :ti every sid* 
 its capacities of thinking and feeling, the more indi- 
 vidual, the more original, that mind becomes. 
 
FACTS. - MOR/IL SYMPATHIES. 
 
 IW 
 
 107. 
 
 " I WONDER," said c, " that facts should be 
 called stubborn things." I wonder, too, seeing you 
 can always oppose a fact with another fact, and 
 that nothing is so easy as to twist, pervert, and argue 
 or misrepresent a fact into twenty different forms. 
 " II n'y a rien qui s'arrange aussi facilement que les 
 fiiits," — Nothing so tractable as facts, — said Ben- 
 jamin Constant, True ; so long as facts are only ma- 
 terial, — or as one should say, mere matter of fact, — 
 you can modify them to a purpose, turn them upside 
 down and inside out ; but once vivify a fact with a 
 feeling, and it stands up before us a living and a very 
 stubborn thing. 
 
 108. 
 
 Every human being is born to influence some 
 other human being ; or many, or all human beings, in 
 proportion to the extent and power of the sympathies, 
 rather than of the intellect. , . u^y\ M.a J M. ■■,,<.. u ' 
 
 It was said, and very beautifully said, that " one 
 man's wit becomes all men's wisdom." Even more 
 true is it that one man's virtue becomes a standard 
 which raises our anticipation of possible goodness 
 in all men. 
 
 i..<^ 
 
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110 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 t\r y 
 
 li ;.;» 
 
 / 
 
 109. 
 
 It is curious that the memory, most retentive of 
 images, should yet be much more retentive of feel- 
 ings than of facts : for instance, we remember witli 
 ^ucli intense vividness a period of suffering, tliat it 
 seems even to renew itself through the medium of 
 thought; yet, at the same time, we perhaps find 
 difficulty in recalling, with any distinctness, the 
 causes of that pain. 
 
 I r 
 
 ■,t;f h 
 
 110. 
 
 " Truth has never manifested itself to me in such 
 a broad stream of light as seems to be poured upon 
 some minds. Truth has appeared to my mental eye 
 like a vivid, yet small and trembling star in a storm, 
 now appearing for a moment with a beauty that en- 
 raptured, now lost in such clouds, as, had I less 
 faith, might make me suspect that the previous clear 
 sight had been a delusion." — Blanco White. 
 
 Very exquisite, in the aptness as well as poetry of 
 the comparison ! Some walk by daylight, some 
 
 tm 
 
SAYINGS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Avalk by starlight. Those who sec the sun do not 
 sec the stars ; those who see the stars do not see the 
 sun. 
 
 He says in another place : — 
 
 " I am averse to too much activity of the Imagin- 
 ation on the future life. I hope to die full of con- 
 fidence that no evil awaits me ; but any picture of a 
 future life distresses me. I feel as if an eternity of 
 existence were already an insupportable burden on 
 my soul." 
 
 How characteristic of that lassitude of the soul and 
 sickness of the heart which " asks not happiness, but 
 longs for rest ! " 
 
 !hl 
 
 I 
 
 ill 
 
 111. 
 
 " Those are the worst of suicides who voluntarily 
 and prepensely stab or suffocate their fame when 
 God hath commanded them to stand on high for an 
 example." 
 
 V2. 
 
 Caklyle thus apostrophised a celebrated orator, 
 who abused his gift of eloquence to insincere pur- 
 poses of vanity, self-interest, and expediency : — 
 
 ;. : M 
 
 
mi 
 
 I'liit: 
 
 r- 
 
 
 ii .■'*] 
 
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 ii 
 
 ^i '■!' 
 
 \('> 
 
 I-', 
 
 
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 112 
 
 ETHICAL PRA0MENT8. 
 
 " You blaBplicmoiis scoundrel I God gave you that 
 gifted tongue of yours, and set it between your teeth, 
 to make known your true meaning to us, not to be 
 rattled like a muffin-man's bell 1 " 
 
 113 
 
 I THINK, with Carlyle, that a lie should be trampled 
 on and extinguished wherever found. I am for 
 fumigating the atmosjihere when I suspctt that false- 
 hood, like pestilence, breathes around me. A. thinks 
 this is too young a feeling, and that as the truth is 
 sure to conquer in the end, it is not worth while 
 to fight every separate lie, or fling a torch into every 
 infected hole. Perhaps not. so far as we are our- 
 selves concerned; but we should think of others. 
 While secure in our own antidote, or wise in our 
 own caution, we should not leave the miasma to 
 poison the healthful, or the briars to entangle the 
 unwary. There is no occasion perhaps for Truth to 
 sally forth like a knight-errant tilting at every vizor, 
 but neither should she sit self-assured in her tower 
 of strength, leaving pitfalls outside her gate for the 
 blind to fall into. 
 
 ^=^< 
 
 (( 
 
n 
 
 SIONS mSTEAT) OF WORDS. 
 
 \\H 
 
 114. 
 
 " There is a way to separate memory from ima- 
 gination — wo may narrate without painting. I am 
 convinced that the mind can employ certain indis- 
 tinct signs to represent even its most vivid impres- 
 sions; that instead of picture writing, it can use 
 something like algebraic symbols: such is the lan- 
 guage of the soul when the paroxysm of pain has 
 passed, and the wounds it received formerly are 
 skinned over, not healed : — it is a language very 
 opposite to that used by the poet and the novel- 
 writer." — Blanco White. 
 
 True ; but a language in which the soul can con- 
 verse only with itself; or else a language more con- 
 ventional than words, and like paper as a tender for 
 gold, more capable of being defaced and falsified. 
 There is a proverb we have heard quoted : " Speech 
 is silver, silence is golden." But better is the silver 
 (liifused than the talent of gold buried. 
 
 ii; 
 
 However distinguished and gifted, mentally and 
 morally, we find that in conduct and in our external 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 . 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
lit 
 
 ETHICAL FRA0MENT9. 
 
 v;f 
 
 relations with society there is ever a leveUin«:i; in- 
 fluence at work. Seldom in our relations with the 
 world, and in the ordinary conunercc of life, are the 
 best and highest within us brought forth; for the 
 whole system of social intercourse is levelling. As 
 it is said that law knows no distinction of persons 
 but that which it has itself instituted ; so of society 
 it may be said, that it allows of no distinction but 
 those which it can recognise — external distinctions. 
 
 We hear it said that general society — the world, 
 as it is called — and a public school, arc excellent 
 educators ; because in one the man, in the other the 
 boy, "finds, as the phrase is, his own level." He 
 does not; he finds the level of others. That may 
 be good for those below mediocrity, but for those 
 above it bad: and it is for those we should most 
 care, for if once brought down in early life by the 
 levelling influence of numbers, they seldom rise again, 
 or only partially. Nothing so dangerous as to be 
 perpetually measuring ourselves against what is be- 
 neath us, feeling our superiority to that which wc 
 force ourselves to assimilate to. This has been tlie 
 perdition of many a school-boy and many a man. 
 
MlhTONN ADAM AND KVK. 
 
 lin 
 
 IK). 
 
 " II mo emhlc (juo Ic i>liis noble mpi)ort entrc lo 
 (•Kil et la tiu'i'c, Ic plus beau don que Dleu nit fait a 
 riionimo, la pens^e, l'inr*piration, ho decompose en 
 (|uel(]ue 8orte d^s ((u'elle eat descendue dans son nmc. 
 KlIc y vicnt 8im[)le et deninteressec ; il la reproduit 
 ('i)iTompuc par tons Ics interets auxquels il Taasocie ; 
 die lui a 6i6 confiec pour la multiplier a I'avantage 
 i\c tons ; il la public au profit dc son amour-propre." 
 — Madame de Saint- Aulaire. 
 
 There woidd bo much to say about this, for it is 
 not always, nor generally, amour-propre or interest ; 
 it is the desire of sympathy, which imi>el8 the artist 
 njind to the utterance in words, or the expression in 
 form, of that thought or inspiration which God has 
 sent into his soul. 
 
 .j*ra 
 
 ^=^*. 
 
 I^-^ 
 
 117. 
 
 Milton's Eve is the type of the masculine stand- 
 ard of perfection in woman ; a graceful figure, an 
 abundance of fine hair, nuich "coy submission," and 
 such a dejjrec of unreasoninjv wilfulness as shall risk 
 perdition. 
 
 And the woman's standard for the man is Adam, 
 who rules and demands subjection, and is so in- 
 dulgent that he gives up to blandishment what he 
 
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 ii 
 
 
 
116 
 
 ETHICAL FIIAG5IENTS. 
 
 would refuse to reason, and what his own reason 
 condemns. 
 
 
 118. 
 
 Every subject whicli excites discussion impels to 
 thought. Every expression of a mind liumbly seek- 
 ing truth, not assuming to have found it, helps the 
 seeker after truth. 
 
 -r^-^-^^^- 
 
 119. ^ 
 
 As a man just released from the rack stands bruised 
 and broken, — bleeding at every pore, and dislocated 
 in every limb, and raises his eyes to heaven, and 
 says, " God be praised ! I suffer no more ! " because 
 to that past sharp agony the respite comes like peace 
 — like sleep, — so we stand, after some great wrench 
 in our best affections, where they have been torn up 
 by the root ; when the conflict is over, and the tension 
 of the heart-strings is relaxed, then comes a sort of 
 rest, — but of what kind ? 
 
 120. 
 
 To trust religiously, to hope humbly, to desire 
 nobly, to think rationally, to will resolutely, and to 
 work earnestly, — may this be mine ! 
 
A REVELATION OF CHILDHOOD. 
 
 117 
 
 121. 
 
 A REVELATION OF CHILDHOOD. 
 
 (FEOM A LETTER.) 
 
 We are all interested in this great question of 
 popular education ; but I see others much more 
 sanguine than I am. They hope for some im- 
 mediate good result from all that is thought, written, 
 spoken on the subject day after day. I see such 
 results as possible, probable, but far, far off. All 
 this talk is of systems and methods, institutions, 
 school houses, schoolmasters, schoolmistresses, school 
 books ; the ways and the means by which we are to 
 instruct, inform, manage, mould, regulate, that which 
 lies in most cases beyond our reach — the spirit sent 
 from God. What do we know of the mystery of 
 child-nature, child-life ? What, indeed, do we know 
 of any life ? All life we acknowledge to be an awful 
 mystery, but child-life we treat as if it were no mys- 
 tery whatever — just so much material placed in our 
 I hands to be fashioned to a certain form according to 
 jour will or our prejudices, — fitted to certain pur- 
 
 
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US 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGJIENTS. 
 
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 14 
 
 ? 
 
 poses according to our notions of expediency. Till 
 we know how to reverence childhood we shall do no 
 good. Educators commit the same mistake with 
 regard to childhood that theologians commit with 
 regard to our present earthly existence ; thinking of 
 it, treating of it, as of little value or significance in 
 itself, only transient, and preparatory to some con- 
 dition of being which is to follow — as if it were 
 something separate from us and to be left behind us 
 as the creature casts its skin. But as in the sight 
 of God this life is also something for its own sake, 
 so in the estimation of Christ, childhood was some- 
 thing for its own sake, — something holy and beautiful 
 in itself, and dear to him. He saw it not merely as 
 the germ of something to grow out of it, but as 
 perfect and lovely in itself as the flower which pre- 
 cedes the fruit. We misunderstand childhood, and 
 we misuse it ; we delight in it, and we pamper it ; 
 we spoil it ingeniously, we neglect it sinfully ; at 
 the best we trifle with it as a plaything which we 
 can pidl to pieces and put together at pleasure — 
 ignorant, reckless, presumptuous that we are ! 
 
 And if Ave are perpetually making the grossest 
 mistakes in the physical and practical management of 
 childhood, how much more in regard to what is 
 spiritual ! What do we know of that which lies in the 
 minds of children ? we know only what we put there. 
 The world of instincts, perceptions, experiences. 
 
A REVELATION OP CHILDHOOD. 
 
 119 
 
 I 
 
 pleasures, and painn, lying there without self-con- 
 sciousness, — sometimes helplessly mute, sometimes 
 SO imperfectly expressed, that we quite mistake the 
 manifestation — what do we know of all this ? How 
 shall we come at the understanding of it? The 
 child lives, and does not contemplate its own life. 
 It can give no account of that inward, busy, perpetual 
 activity of the growing faculties and feelings which 
 it is of so much importance that we should know. 
 To lead children by questionings to think about their 
 own identity, or observe their own feelings, is to 
 teach them to be artificial. To waken self-con- 
 sciousness before you awaken conscience is the 
 beginning of incalculable mischief. Introspection 
 is always, as a habit, unhealthy : introspection in 
 childhood, fatally so. How shall we come at a 
 knowledge of li^e such as it is when it first gushes 
 from its mysterious fountain head? We cannot re- 
 ascend the stream. We all, however we may re- 
 member the external scenes lived through in our 
 infancy, either do not, or cannot, ccmsult that part 
 of our nature which remains indissolubly connected 
 with the inward life of that time. We so forget it, 
 that we know not how to deal with the child-nature 
 when it comes under our power. We seldom reason 
 about children from natural laws, or psychological 
 data. Unconsciously we confound our matured 
 experience with our memory : we attribute to 
 
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 120 
 
 FVrHlCAL rRAG.MRNTS. 
 
 ; 
 
 i!'4j 
 
 children whiit is not possible, exact from them what 
 
 is impossil)le ; — ignore many things which the child 
 
 has neither words to express, nor the will nor the 
 
 power to manifest. The quickness with which 
 
 children perceive^4he. keenness with which they 
 
 fiuffer, the tenacity with which they remember, I 
 
 ! have never seen fully appreciated. What misery 
 
 * we cause to children, what mischief we do them 
 
 I by bringing our own minds, habits, artificial pre- 
 
 1/ judices and senile experiences, to bear on their young 
 
 { life, and cramp and overshadow it — it is fearful ! 
 
 Of all the wronn;s and anomalies that afflict our 
 
 earth, a sinful childhood, a suffering childhood, are 
 
 among thi. worst. 
 
 ye men ! who sit in committees, and are called 
 upon to legislate for children, — for children who are 
 the offspring of diseased or degenerate humanity, 
 or the victims of a yet more diseased society, — do 
 you, when you take evidence from jailors, and police- 
 men, and parish schoolmasters, and doctors of di- 
 vinity, do you ever call up, also, the wise physician, 
 the thoughtful physiologist, the experienced mother? 
 You have accumulated facts, great blue books full of 
 facts, but till you know in what fixed and uniform 
 
 ! principles of nature to seek their solution, your facts 
 i remain a dead letter. 
 
 1 say nothing here of teaching, though very few 
 in truth understand that lowest part of our duty to 
 
A RKVKLATION OF CHILDIIOOI). 
 
 121 
 
 children. Men, it is generally allowed, teach better 
 tlian women because they have been better taught 
 the things they teach. Women train better than 
 men because of their quick instinctive perceptions 
 and sympathies, and greater tenderness and patience. 
 In schools and in families I would have some things 
 taught by men, and some by women : but we will 
 liere put aside the art, the act of teaching: we will 
 turn aside from the droves of children in national 
 schools and reformatory asylums, and turn to the 
 individual child, brought up within the guarded 
 circle of a home or a select school, watched by an 
 intelligent, a consLcientious influence. How shall we 
 deal with that spirit which has come out of nature's 
 hands unless we remember what we were ourselves 
 in the past? What sympathy can we have with 
 that state of being which we regard as unmature, 
 so long as we commit the double mistake of some- 
 times attributing to children motives which could 
 only spring from our adult experience, and some- 
 times denying to them the same intuitive tempers and 
 feelings which actuate and agitate our maturer life ? 
 We do not sufficiently consider that our life is notf/^ 
 made up of separate parts, but is one — is a prolH 
 gressive whole. When we talk of leaving our 
 childhood behind us, \/e might as well say that the 
 river flowing onward to the sea had left the fountain 
 behind. 
 
 R 4 
 
 V ■ -i 
 
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 122 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 122. 
 
 I WILL here put together some recollections of my 
 own child-life ; not because it was in any respect 
 an exceptional or remarkable existence, but for 
 a reason exactly the reverse, because it was like 
 that of many children ; at least I have met with 
 many children who throve or suffered from the same 
 or similar unseen causes even under external con- 
 ditions and management every way dissimilar. Facts, 
 therefore, which can be relied on, may be generally 
 useful as hints towards a theory of conduct. What 
 I shall say here shall be simply the truth so far as 
 it goes ; not something between the false and the 
 
 true, garnished for effect, — not 
 
 something 
 
 half- 
 
 remembered, half-imagined, — but plain, absolute, 
 matter of fact. 
 
 No; certainly I was not an extraordinary child. 
 I have had something to do with children, and have 
 met with several more remarkable for quickness of 
 talent, and precocity of feeling. If any thing in 
 particular, I believe I was particularly naughty, — 
 at least so it was said twenty times a day. But 
 
A REVELATION OP CHILDHOOD. 
 
 128 
 
 looking back now, I do not think I was particular 
 even in this respect ; I perpetrated not more than 
 the usual amount of mischief — so called — which 
 every lively active child perpetrates between five 
 and ten years old. I had the usual desire to know, 
 and the usual dislike to learn ; the usual love of 
 fairy tales, and hatred of French exercises. But 
 not of what I learned, but of what I did not learn ; 
 not of what they taught me, but of what they could 
 not teach me ; not of what was open, apparent, 
 manageable, but of the under current, the hidden, 
 the unmanaged or unmanageable, I have to speak, 
 and you, my friend, to hear and turn to account, if 
 you will, and how you will. As we grow old the 
 experiences of infancy come back upon us with a 
 strange vividness. There is a period when the over- 
 flowing, tumultuous life of our youth rises up 
 between us and those first years ; but as the torrent 
 subsides in its bed we can look across the impassable 
 gulf to that haunted fairy land which we shall never 
 more approach, and never more forget ! 
 
 In memory I can go back to a very early age. 
 I perfectly remember being sung to sleep, and can 
 remember even the tune which was sung to me — 
 blessings on the voice that sang it ! I was an affec- 
 tionate, but not, as I now think, a loveable nor an 
 attractive child. I did not, like the little Mozart, 
 
 
 
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124 
 
 KTHICAL FRA(4MJ';NTS, 
 
 : I'l: 
 
 ^k I M 
 
 ask of every one iiroimd me, " Do you love mo?" 
 The instinctive question Avas, rather, " Can I love 
 you?" Yet certainly 1 was not more than six years 
 old when I suffered from the fear of not being loved 
 where I had attached myself, and from the idea that 
 another was preferred before me, such anguish as had 
 nearly killed me. Whether those around me re- 
 garded it as a fit of ill-temper, or a fit of illness, I do 
 not know. I could not then have given a name to 
 the pang that fevered me. I knew not the cause, 
 but never forgot the suffering. It left a deeper im- 
 pression than childish passions usually do; and the 
 recollection was so far salutaiy, that in after life 1 
 guarded myself against the approaches of that hate- 
 ful, deformed, agonising thing which men call jea- 
 lousy, as I would from an attack of cramp or cholera. 
 If such self-knowledge has not saved me from the pain, 
 at least it has saved me from the demoralising effects 
 of the passion, by a wholesome terror, and even a 
 sort of disgust. 
 
 With a good temper, there was the capacity of 
 strong, deep, silent resentment, and a vindictive 
 spirit of rather a peculiar kind. I recollect that 
 when one of those set over me inflicted what 
 then apjoeared a most horrible injury and injustice, 
 the thoughts of vengeance haunted my fancy 
 for months: but it was an inverted sort of ven- 
 geance. I imagined the house of my enemy on fire, 
 
A REVELATION OF CHILDHOOD, 
 
 lis 
 
 and rushed through the Unmcs to rescue her. She 
 vviis drowning, and I leaped into the deep water to 
 (h'aw her forth. She was pining in prison, and T 
 Forced bars and bolts to deliver her. If this were 
 magnanimity, it was not the less vengeance ; for, 
 observe, I always fancied evil, and shame, and humi- 
 liation to my adversary ; to myself the role of supe- 
 riority and gratified pride. For several years this 
 sort of burning resentment against wrong done to 
 myself and others, though it took no mean or cruel 
 form, was a source of intense, untold suffering. No 
 one was aware of it. I was left to settle it; and 
 my mind righted itself I hardly know how : not 
 certainly by religious influences — they passed over 
 my mind, and did not at the time sink into it, — and 
 as for earthly counsel or comfort, I never had either 
 when most needed. And as it fared with me then, 
 so it has been in after life; so it has been, must be, 
 with all those who, in fighting out alone the pitched 
 battle between principle and passion, will accept no 
 intervention between the infinite within them and 
 the infinite above them; so it has been, must be, with 
 all strong natures. Will it be said that victory in 
 the struggle brings increase of strength? It may 
 be so with some who survive the contest ; but then, 
 how many sink ! how many are crippled morally 
 for life ! how many, strengthened in some particular 
 faculties, suffer in losing the harmony of the character 
 
 \ \ 
 
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 12A 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 lit 
 
 
 I I 
 
 as a whole ! Tliis is one of the points in which the 
 matured mind may help the childish nature at strife 
 with itself. It is impossible to say how far this sort 
 of vindictiveness might have penetrated and hardened 
 into the character, if I had been of a timid or re- 
 tiring nature. It was expelled at last by no outer 
 influences, but by a growing sense of power and self- 
 reliance. 
 
 In regard to truth — always such a difficulty in 
 education, — I certainly had, as a child, and like 
 most children, confused ideas about it. I had a more 
 distinct and absolute idea of honour than of truth, 
 — a mistake into which our conventional morality 
 leads those who educate and those who are educated. 
 I knew very well, in a general way, that to tell a lie 
 was wicked ; to lie for my own profit or pleasure, or to 
 the hurt of others, was, according to my infant code 
 of morals, worse than wicked — it was dishonourable. 
 But I had no compunction about telling jettons; 
 — inventing scenes and circumstances, which I re- 
 lated as real, and with a keen sense of triumphant 
 enjoyment in seeing the listener taken in by a most 
 artful and ingenious concatenation of impossibilities. 
 In this respect " Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, that liar 
 of the first magnitude," was nothing in comparison 
 to me. I must have been twelve years old before 
 my conscience was first awakened up to a sense of 
 
A REVELATION OF CIlILDHOOl). 
 
 m 
 
 ich the 
 it strife 
 118 sort 
 irdened 
 or rc- 
 3 outer 
 nd selt- 
 
 lulty in 
 nd like 
 [ a more 
 ■ truth, 
 iiorality 
 lucated. 
 ell a lie 
 •e, or to 
 nt code 
 ourable. 
 Actions ; 
 1 I re- 
 nipliant 
 a most 
 bilities. 
 hat liar 
 parison 
 before 
 sense of 
 
 the iiecensity of truth as a principle, as well as its 
 holiness as a virtue. Afterwards, having to set 
 rijjjht the minds of others cleared my own mind on 
 tliis and some other important points. 
 
 I do not think I was naturally obstinate, but re- 
 member going without food all day, and being sent 
 hungry and exhausted to bed, because I would not 
 do some trifling thing required of me. I think it 
 was to recite some lines I knew by heart. I was 
 punished as wilfully obstinate: but what no one 
 knew then, and what I know now as the fact, was, 
 that after refusing to do what was required, and 
 bearing anger and threats in consequence, I lost the 
 power to do it. I became stone : the will was petri- 
 fied, and I absolutely could not comply. They might 
 have hacked me in pieces before my lips could have 
 unclosed to utterance. The obstinacy was not in 
 the mind, but on the nerves ; and I am persuaded 
 that what we call obstinacy in children, and grown- 
 up people, too, is often something of this kind, and 
 that it may be increased, by mismanagement, by 
 persistence, or what is called firmness, in the con- 
 trolling power, into disease, or something near to it. 
 
 There was in my childish mind another cause of 
 suffering besides those I have mentioned, less acute, 
 but more permanent and always unacknowledged. 
 
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 KTIIICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 ^i !'► 
 
 
 It was fear — fear of <larknoH8 and supernatural in- 
 fluences. As long as I ean rcinenibcr anytlun|j:, 1 
 remember these horrors of my infancy. How they 
 had been awakened I do not know ; they were never 
 revealed. I had heard other children ridiculed for 
 such fears, and held my j)cace. At first thes(! 
 haiuiting, thrilling, stifling terrors were vague; after- 
 wards the form varied ; but one of the most perma- 
 nent was the ghost in Hamlet. There was a volume 
 of Shakspeare lying about, in which was an en- 
 graving I have not seen since, but it remains dis- 
 tinct in my mind as a picture. On one side stood 
 Hamlet with his hair on end, literally " like quills 
 upon the fretful porcupine," and one hand with all 
 the fingers outspread. On the other strided the 
 ghost, encased in armour with nodding plumes ; one 
 finger pointing forwards, and all surrounded with a 
 supernatural light. O that spectre I for three years 
 it followed me up and down the dark staircase, or 
 stood by my bed : only the blessed light had power 
 to exorcise it. How it was that I knew, while 1 
 trembled and quaked, that it was unreal, never cried 
 out, never exi^ostulatcd, never confessed, I do not 
 know. The figure of Apollyon looming over Christian, 
 which I had found in an old edition of the " Pilgrim's 
 Progress," was also a great torment. But worse, 
 perhaps, were certain phantasms without shape, — 
 things like the vision in Job — " A spirit passed be- 
 fore my face ; it stood still, hut I could not discern the 
 
rill in- 
 unji, 1 
 I thoy 
 I never 
 led tor 
 , these 
 ; after- 
 perina- 
 volumc^ 
 an en- 
 ns din- 
 ie stood 
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 ,vith all 
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 A RKVKLATION OF CHlLDIlOOl). 
 
 121) 
 
 form thsrcof:^^ — and it' not intelli^ihle voices, there 
 were strange unacc«)iintable sonnds tilling tlu; air 
 antund with a sort of mysterious lite. In daylight 
 I was not only fearless, hut audacious, inclined to 
 defy all power and brave all danger, — that is, all 
 danger I couhl see. I reniend)er volunteering to 
 lead the way through a herd of cattle (among which 
 was a dangerous bull, the terror of the neighlour- 
 liood) armed only with a little stick ; but first I said 
 the Lord's Prayer fervently. In the ghastly night 
 I never prayed; terror stifled ^n-ayer. These visiim- 
 ary sufferings, in some form or other, pursued me 
 till I was nearly twelve years old. If I had not 
 possessed a strong constitution and a strong under- 
 standing, which rejected and contemned my own 
 fears, even while they shook me, I had been destroyed. 
 How much weaker children suflPer in this way, I have 
 since known ; and have known how to bring them i 
 help and strength, through sympathy and knowledge, 
 the sympathy that soothes and docs not encourage — 
 — the knowledge that dispels, and does not suggest, j 
 the evil. 
 
 People, in general, even those who have been 
 much interested in education, are not aware of the 
 sacred duty of truth, exact truth in their intercourse 
 with children. Limit what vou tell them accordinjxi' 
 to the measure of their faculties ; but let what you- 
 say be the tnith. Accuracy not merely as to fact,| 
 
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1.30 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 i'ii< ' 
 
 f '1 
 
 but well-considered accuracy in the use of words, is 
 essential with children. I have read some wise book 
 on the treatment of the insane, in which absolute 
 veracity and accuracy in speaking is prescribed 
 as a curative principle ; and deception for any pur- 
 pose is deprecated as almost fatal to the health 
 of the patient. Now, it is a good sanitary prin- 
 ciple, that what is curative is preventive; and 
 that an unhealthy state of mind, leading to madness, 
 may, in some organisations, be induced by that sort 
 of uncertainty and perplexity which grows up where 
 the mind has not been accustomed to truth in its 
 external relations. It is like breathing for a con- 
 tinuance an impure or confined air. 
 
 Of the mischief that may be done to a childish mind 
 by a falsehood uttered in thoughtless gaiety, I re- 
 member an absurd and yet a painful instance. A 
 visitor was turning over, for a little girl, some prints, 
 one of which represented an Indian widow springing 
 into the fire kindled for the funeral pile of her hus- 
 band. It was thus explained to the child, who 
 asked innocently, whether, if her father died, her 
 mother would be burned? The person to whom 
 the question was addressed, a lively, amiable woman, 
 was probably much amused by the question, and an- 
 swered, giddily, "Oh, of course, — certainly!" and 
 was believed implicitly. But thenceforth, for many 
 weary months, the mind of that child was haunted 
 
•rds, is 
 B book 
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 jcribed 
 jr pur- 
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 f prin- 
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 ladness, 
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 whom 
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 A BBVELATION OP CHILDHOOD. 
 
 181 
 
 and tortured by the image of her mother springing 
 into the devouring flames, and consumed by fire, with 
 all the accessories of the picture, particularly the 
 drums beating to drown her cries. In a weaker or- 
 ganisation, the results might have been permanent 
 and serious. But to proceed. 
 
 These terrors I have described had an existence 
 external to myself: I had no power over them 
 to shape them by my will, and their power over 
 me vanished gradually before a more dangerous 
 infatuation, — the propensity to reverie. The 
 shaping spirit of imagination began when I was 
 about eight or nine years old to haunt my inner 
 life. I can truly say that, from ten years old to 
 fourteen or fifteen, I lived a double existence ; one 
 ! outward, linking me with the external sensible world, 
 the other inward, creating a world to and for itself, 
 conscious to itself only. I carried on for whole 
 years a series of actions, scenes, and adventures; 
 one springing out of another, and coloured and modi- 
 fied by increasing knowledge. This habit grew so 
 upon me, that there were moments — as when I came 
 to some crisis in my imaginary adventures, — when I 
 was not more awake to outward things than in sleep, 
 — scarcely took cognisance of the beings around me. 
 When punished for idleness by being placed in soli- 
 tary confinement (the worst of all punishments for 
 children), the intended penance was nothing less than 
 
 
 
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 132 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 a delight and an emancipation, giving me up to my 
 dreams. I had a very strict and very accomplished 
 governess, one of the cleverest women I have ever 
 met with in my life ; but nothing of this was known 
 or even suspected by her, and I exulted in possessing 
 something which her power could not reach. My 
 reveries were my real life : it was an unhealthy state 
 of things. 
 
 Those who are engaged in the training of children 
 will perhaps pause here. It may be said, in the first 
 place. How are we to reach those recesses of the 
 inner life which the God who made us keeps from 
 every eye but his own? As when we walk ovfer 
 the field in spring we are aware of a thousand 
 influences and processes at work of which we 
 have no exact knowledge or clear perception, yet 
 must watch and use accordingly, — so it is with 
 education. And secondly, it may be asked, if 
 such secret processes be working unconscious mis- 
 chief, where the remedy ? The remedy is in em- 
 ployment. Then the mother or the teacher echoes 
 with astonishment, " Employment ! the child is em- 
 ployed from morning till night ; she is learning .1 
 dozen sciences and languages ; she has masters and 
 lessons for every hour of every day : with her pencil, 
 her piano, her books, her companions, her birds, her 
 flowers, — what can she want more ?" An energetic 
 child even at a very early age, and yet farther as the 
 
A REVELATION OF CHILDHOOD. 
 
 m' 
 
 physical organisation is developed, w^ants something 
 more and something better ; employment which 
 shall bring with it the bond of a higher duty than 
 that which centres in self and self-improvement; 
 employment which shall not merely cultivate the 
 understanding, but strengthen and elevate the con- 
 science ; employment for the higher and more gene- 
 rous faculties ; employment addressed to the sympa- 
 thies ; employment which has the aim of utility, not 
 pretended, but real, obvious, direct utility. A girl who 
 as a mere child is not always being taught or being 
 amused, whose mind is early restrained by the bond 
 if definite duty, and thrown out of the limit of 
 toi;, will not in after years be subject to fancies that 
 disturb or to reveries that absorb, and the present 
 and the actual will have that power they ought to 
 have as combined in due degree with desire and 
 anticipation. 
 
 / The Roman Catholic priesthood understand this \ 
 , well: employment, which enlists with the spiritual the 
 sympathetic part of our being, is a means through 
 which they guide both young and adult minds. 
 Physicians who have to manage various states of 
 mental and moral disease understand this well ; they 
 speak of the necessity of employment (not mere 
 amusement) as a curative means, but of employment 
 /with the direct aim of usefulness, apprehended 
 and appreciated by the patient, else it is nothing. 
 
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134 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
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 It is the same with children. Such employment, 
 chosen with reference to utility, and in harmony 
 with the faculties, would prove in many cases either 
 preventive or curative. In my own case, as I now 
 think, it would have been both. 
 
 There was a time when it was thought essential 
 that women should know something of cookery, 
 something of medicine, something of surgery. If 
 all these things are far better understood now than 
 heretofore, is that a reason why a well educated 
 woman should be left wholly ignorant of them ? A 
 knowledge of what people call " common things " — 
 of the elements of physiology, of the conditions of 
 health, of the qualities, nutritiv'> or remedial, of sub- 
 stances commonly used as food or medicine, and the 
 most economical and most beneficial way of applying 
 both, — these should form a part of the system of 
 every girls' school — whether for the higher or the 
 lower classes. At present you shall see a girl study- 
 ing chemistry, and attending Faraday's lectures, who 
 would be puzzled to compound a rice-pudding or a 
 cup of barley-water: and a girl who could work 
 quickly a complicated sum in the Rule of Three, 
 afterwards wasting a fourth of her husband's wages 
 through want of management. 
 
 In my own case, how much of the practical and 
 the sympathetic in my nature was exhausted in airy 
 visions ! 
 
A REVELATION OF CHILDHOOD, 
 
 185 
 
 As to the stuff out of which my waking dreams 
 were composed, I cannot tell you much. I have a 
 remembrance that I was always a princess-heroine 
 in the disguise of a knight, a sort of Clorinda or 
 Britomart, going about to redress the wrongs of the 
 poor, fight giants, and kill dragons; or founding a 
 society in some far-off solitude or desolate island, 
 which would have rivalled that of Gonsalez, where 
 there were to be no tears, no tasks, and no laws, 
 — except those which I made myself, — no caged 
 birds nor tormented kittens. 
 
 123. 
 
 Enough of the pains, and mistakes, and vagaries 
 of childhood; let me tell of some of its pleasures 
 equally unguessed and unexpressed. A great, an 
 exquisite source of enjoyment arose out of an early, 
 instinctive, boundless delight in external beauty. How 
 this went hand in hand with my terrors and reveries, 
 how it could coexist with them, I cannot tell now 
 — it was so ; and if this sympathy with the external, 
 living, beautiful world, had been properly, scientifi- 
 
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 186 
 
 ETHIOAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 >xn 
 
 cally cultivated, and directed to useful definite pur- 
 poses, it would have been the best remedy for much 
 that was morbid : this was not the case, and we were, 
 unhappily for me, too early removed from the coun- 
 try to a town residence. I can remember, how- 
 ever, that in very early years the appearances of 
 nature did truly " haunt me like a passion ; " the stars 
 were to me as the gates of heaven ; the rolling of the 
 wave to the shore, the graceful weeds and grasses 
 bending before the breeze as they grew by the wayside; 
 the minute and delicate forms of insects ; the trem- 
 bling shadows of boughs and leaves dancing on the 
 ground in the highest noon; these were to me perfect 
 pleasures of which the imagery now in my mind is 
 distinct. Wordsworth's poem of " The DaiFodils," 
 the one beginning — 
 
 " I wandered lonely as a cloud," 
 
 may appear to some unintelligible or overcharged, 
 but to me it was a vivid truth, a simple fact ; and if 
 "Wordsworth had been then in my hands I think I 
 must have loved him. It was this intense sense of 
 beauty which gave the first zest to poetry : I loved 
 it, not because it told me what I did not know, but 
 because it helped me to words in which to clothe my 
 own knowledge and perceptions, and reflected back the 
 pictures unconsciously hoarded up in my mind. This 
 was what made Thomson's "• Seasons" a favourite 
 
A REVELATION 0" CHILDHOOD. 
 
 137 
 
 book when I first began to read for my own amuse- 
 ment, and before I could understand one half of it : 
 St. Pierre's " Indian Cottage " (" La Chaumiere In- 
 dienne") was also charming, either because it re- 
 flected my dreams, or gave me new stuff for them in 
 pictures of an external world quite different from 
 that I inhabited, — palm-trees, elephants, tigers, 
 dark-turbaned men with flowing draperies ; and the 
 " Arabian Nights " completed my Oriental intoxica- 
 tion, which lasted for a long time. 
 
 I have said little of the impressions left by 
 books, and of my first religious notions. A friend 
 of mine had once the wise idea of collecting together 
 a variety of evidence as to the impressions left by 
 certain books on childish or immature minds : If 
 carried out, it would have been one of the most 
 valuable additions to educational experience ever 
 made. For myself I did not much care about the 
 books put into my hands, nor imbibe much information 
 from them. I had a great taste, I am sorry to say, 
 for forbidden books ; yet it was not the forbidden 
 books that did the mischief, except in their being 
 read furtively. I remember impressions of vice 
 and cruelty from some parts of the Old Testament 
 and Goldsmith's " History of England," which I 
 shudder to recall. Shakspeare was on the forbidden 
 shelf. I had read him all through between seven 
 and ten years old. He never did me any moral 
 
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 138 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 
 mischief. He never soiled my mind with any dis- 
 ordered image. What was exceptionable and coarse 
 in language I passed by without attaching any mean- 
 ing whatever to it. How it might have been if 
 I had read Shakspeare first when I was fifteen 
 or sixteen, I do not know ; perhaps the occasional 
 coarsenesses and obscurities might have shocked the 
 delicacy or puzzled the intelligence of that sen- 
 sitive and inquiring age. But at nine or ten I had 
 no comprehension of what was unseemly ; what might 
 be obscure in words to wordy commentators, was to 
 me lighted up by the idea I found or interpreted for 
 myself — right or wrong. ^ 
 
 No; I repeat, Shakspeare — bless him I — never 
 did me any moral mischief. Though the Witches in 
 Macbeth troubled me, — though the Ghost in Hamlet 
 terrified me (the picture that is, — for the spirit in 
 Shakspeare was solemn and pathetic, not hideous), — 
 though poor little Arthur cost me an ocean of 
 tears, — yet much that was obscure, and all that was 
 painful and revolting was merged on the whole in 
 the vivid presence of a new, beautiful, vigorous, living 
 world. The plays which I now think the most 
 wonderful produced comparatively little effect on my 
 fancy : Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Macbeth, struck 
 me then less than the historical plays, and far less 
 than the Midsummer Night's Dream and Cymbeline. 
 It may be thought, perhaps, that Falstaff is not a 
 
 % t' i sal 
 
A REVELATION OF CHILDHOOD. 
 
 180 
 
 character to strike a child, or to be understood by 
 a child : — no ; surely not. To me Falstaff was not 
 witty and wicked — only irresistibly fat and funny; 
 and I remember lying on the ground rolling with 
 laughter over some of the scenes in Henry the 
 Fourth, — the mock play, and the seven men in 
 buckram. But The Tempest and Cymbelinc were 
 the plays I liked best and knew best. 
 
 Altogether I should say that in my early years 
 books were known to me, not as such, not for their 
 general contents, but for some especial image or 
 picture I had picked out of them and assimilated to 
 my own mind and mixed up with my own life. For 
 example, out of Homer's Odyssey (lent to me by 
 the parish clerk) I had the picture of Nasicaa and 
 her maidens going down in their chariots to wash 
 their linen : so that when the first time I went 
 to the Pitti Palace, and could hardly see the 
 pictures through blinding tears, I saw that picture 
 of Rubens, which all remember who have been at 
 Florence, and it flashed delight and refreshment 
 through those remembered childish associations. 
 The Syrens and Polypheme left also vivid pic- 
 tures on my fancy. The Iliad, on the contrary, 
 wearied me, except the parting of Hector and An- 
 dromache, in which the child, scared by its father's 
 dazzling helm and nodding crest, remains a vivid 
 image in my mind from that time. 
 
 
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 140 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 • The eame parish clerk — a curioua fellow in his 
 way, — lent me also some religious tracts and stories, 
 by Hannah More. It is most certain that more 
 moral mischief was done to me by some of these 
 than by all Shakspeare's plays together. These so- 
 called pious tracts first introduced me to a knowledge 
 of the vices of vulgar life, and the excitements of a 
 vulgar religion, — the fear of being hanged and the 
 fear of hell became coexistent in my mind; and 
 the teaching resolved itself into this, — that it was 
 not by being naughty, but by being found out, that 
 I was to incur the risk of both. My fairy world 
 was better! 1 
 
 About Religion : — I was taught religion as chil- 
 dren used to be taught it in my younger days, and 
 are taught it still in some cases, I believe — through 
 the medium of creeds and catechisms. I read the 
 Bible too early, and too indiscriminately, and too 
 irreverently. Even the New Testament was too 
 early placed in my hands ; too early made a lesson 
 book, as the custom then was. The letter of »,nc 
 Scriptures — the words — were familiarised to me by 
 sermonising and dogmatising, long before I could 
 enter into the spirit. Meantime, happily, another 
 religion was growing up in my heart, which, 
 strangely enough, seemed to me quite apart from 
 that which was taught, — which, indeed, I never in 
 any way regarded as the same which I was taught 
 
A REVELATION OP CHILDHOOD. 
 
 141 
 
 wlieii I atood up wearily on a Sunday to repeat the 
 collect and say the catechism. It was quite another 
 thing. Not only the taught religion and the senti- 
 ment of faith and adoration were never combined, 
 but it never for years entered into my head to com- 
 bine them ; the first remained extraneous, the latter 
 had gradually taken root in my life, even from the 
 moment my mother joined my little hands in prayer. 
 The histories out of the Bible (the Parables espe- 
 cially) were, however, enchanting to me, though my 
 interpretation of them was in some instances the 
 very reverse of correct or orthodox. To my infant 
 conception our Lord was a being who had come 
 down from heaven to make people good, and to tell 
 them beautiful stories. And though no pains were 
 spared to indoctrinate me, and all my pastors and 
 masters took it for granted that my ideas were quite 
 satisfactory, nothing could be more confused and 
 heterodox. 
 
 It is a common observation that girls of lively 
 talents are apt to grow pert and satirical. I fell 
 into this danger when about ten years old. Sallies 
 at the expense of certain people, ill-looking, or ill- 
 dressed, or ridiculous, or foolish, had been laughed 
 at and applauded in company, until, without being 
 naturally malignant, I ran some risk of becoming so 
 from sheer vanity. 
 
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141 
 
 ETHICAL PRAOMBNTB. 
 
 
 The fables which appeal to our higher moral sym- 
 pathies may sometimes do ns much for us as the 
 truths of science. So thought our Saviour when he 
 taught the multitude in parables. 
 
 A good clergyman who lived near us, a famous 
 Persian scholar, took it into his head to teach me 
 Persian (I was then about seven years old), and I 
 Bet to work with infinite delight and earnestness. 
 All I learned was soon forgotten ; but a few years 
 afterwards, happening to stumble on a volume of 
 Sir William Jones's works — his Persian grammar — 
 it revived my Orientalism, and I began to study it 
 eagerly. Among the exercises given was a Persian 
 fable or poem — one of those traditions of our Lord 
 which are preserved in the East. The beautiful 
 apologue of ** St. Peter and the Cherries," which 
 Goethe has versified or imitated, is a well known 
 example. This fable I allude to was something 
 similar, but I have not met with the original these 
 forty years, and must give it here from memory. 
 
 " Jesus," says the story, " arrived one evening at 
 the gates of a certain city, and he sent his disciples 
 forward to prepare supper, while he himself, intent 
 on doing good, walked through the streets into the 
 market place. 
 
 " And he saw at the corner of the market some 
 people gathered together looking at an object on the 
 ground ; and he drew near to see what it might be. 
 
A REVELATION OF CHILDHOOD. 
 
 \hA 
 
 !S 
 
 It was a (lend dofij, with a halter round h'lH neck, 
 by which he appeared to have been draj^j^od throu{i(h 
 the dirt ; and a viler, a more abject, a more unclean 
 thing, never met the eyes of man. 
 
 " And those who stood by looked on with ab- 
 horrence. 
 
 "* Faugh!' said one, stopping his nr;.<c; * it iiol- 
 lutes the air.' * How long,' said anciher^ * shnji *hi 
 foul beast offend our sight?' *Iii'<k jm. Im ioni 
 hide,' said a third ; * one could not evcni cut a ^hoc 
 out of it.' * And his ears,' said a fbuvfh, "nil dra^"- 
 glcd and bleeding 1' * No doubt/ fjald a fifth, *b» 
 hath been hanged for thieving I' 
 
 " And Jesus heard them, and looking dcwn com- 
 passionately on the dead creature, he said, ' TcaAs 
 are not equal to the whiteness of hia tooth I' 
 
 " Then the people turned towards him with 
 amazement, and said among themselves, * Who U 
 this? this must be Jesus of Nazareth, for oiUy 11 K 
 could find something to pity and approve even in ti. 
 dead dog ; ' and being ashamed, they l)0\ved their 
 heads before him, and went each oa his way." 
 
 I can recall, at this hour, the nvkl, ytt softening 
 and pathetic impression left on my (ancy by tliis old 
 Eastern story. It struck m'^ as exquisitely humor- 
 ous, as well as exquisitely beautiful. It gave me 
 a pain in my i'onscicnce, for it seemed thenceforward 
 so easy and so vulgar to say satirical things, and so 
 
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144 
 
 ETHICAL FBAQMENTS, 
 
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 much nobler to be benign and merciful, and I took 
 the lesson so home, that I was in great danger of 
 falling into the opposite extreme,— ^ of seeking the 
 beautiful even in the midst of the corrupt and the 
 repulsive. Pity, a large element in my compo- 
 sition, might have easily degenerated into weakness, 
 threatening to subvert hatred of evil in trying to 
 find excuses for it ; and whether my mind has ever 
 completely righted itself, I am not sure. 
 
 Educators are not always aware, I think, how acute 
 are the perceptions, and how permanent the memo- 
 ries of children. I remember experiments tried upon 
 my temper and feelings, and how I was made aware 
 of this, by their being repeated, and, in some in- 
 stances, spoken of, before me. Music, to which I 
 was early and peculiarly sensitive, was sometimes 
 made the medium of these experiments. Discordant 
 sounds were not only hateful, but made me turn 
 white and cold, and sent the blood backward to my 
 heart; and certain tunes had a curious effect, I 
 cannot now account for: for though, when heard 
 for the first time, they had little eifect, they became 
 intolerable by repetition; they turned up some 
 hidden emotion within me too strong to be borne. It 
 could not have been from association, which I believe 
 to be a principal element in the emotion excited by 
 music. I was too young for that. What associution.s 
 
A EEVBLATION OF CHILDHOOD. 
 
 145 
 
 could such a baby have had with pleasure or with 
 pain ? Or could it be possible that associations with 
 some former state of existence awoke up to sound ? 
 That our life "hath elsewhere its beginning, and 
 cometh from afar," is a belief, or at least an instinct, 
 in some minds, which music, and only music, seems 
 to thrill into consciousness. At this time, when I was 
 about five or six years old, Mrs. Arkwright—she was 
 then Fanny Kemble, — used to come to our house, 
 and used to entrance me with her singing. I had a 
 sort of adoration for her, such as an ecstatic votary 
 might have for a Saint Cecilia. I trembled with 
 pleasure when I only heard her step. But her 
 voice I — it has charmed hundreds since ; whom has 
 it ever moved to a more genuine passion of delight 
 than the little child that crept silent and tremulous 
 to her side? And she was fond of me, — fond of 
 singing to me, and, it must be confessed, fond also 
 of playing these experiments on me. The music of 
 "Paul and Virginia" was then in vogue, and there 
 was one air — a very simple air — in that opera, 
 which, after the first few bars, always made me stop 
 my ears and rush out of the room. I became at last 
 aware that this was sometimes done by particular 
 desire to please my parents, or amuse and interest 
 others by the display of such vehement emotion. 
 My infant conscience became perplexed between the 
 reality of the feeling and the exhibition of it. People 
 
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 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS, 
 
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 are not always aware of the injury done to children 
 by repeating before them things they say, or de- 
 scribing things they do : words and actions, spon- 
 taneous and unconscious, become thenceforth arti- 
 ficial and conscious. I can speak of the injury done 
 to myself, between five and eight years old. There 
 was some danger of my becoming a precocious actress, 
 — danger of permanent mischief such as I have seen 
 done to other children, — but I was saved by the 
 recoil of resistance and resentment excited in my 
 mind. 
 
 This is enough. All that has been told here 
 refers to a period between five and ten years old. \ 
 
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 THE INDIAN HUNTER AND THE FIRE. 
 
 (FUOM the GERMAN OF O. v. G.) 
 
 Once upon a time the lightning from heaven fell 
 upon a tree standing in the old primeval forest and 
 kindled it, so that it flamed on high. And it happened 
 that a young lumter, who had lost his path in that 
 wilderness, beheld the gleam of the flames from a 
 distance, and, forcing his way through the thicket, he 
 flung himself down in rapture before the blazing tree. 
 
 L 9 
 
 \ '\ 
 
 i-t ^ 
 
 'rr ! 
 
 j(r:- 
 
148 
 
 ETHICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 ir ll: 
 
 MM'^^i 
 
 
 "O divine light and warmth!" he exclaimed, 
 stretching forth his arms. " O blessed I O heaven- 
 descended Fire! let me thank thee I let me adore 
 thee I Giver of a new existence, quickening thro' 
 every pulse, how lost, how cold, how dark have I 
 dwelt without thee I Restorer of my life I remain 
 ever near me, and, through thy benign and celestial 
 influence, send love and joy to illuminate my soul!" 
 And the Fire answered and said to him, " It is true 
 that my birth is from heaven, but I am now, through 
 mingling with earthly elements, subdued to earthly 
 influences ; therefore, beware how thou choose me 
 for thy friend, without having first studied my twor 
 fold nature. O youth ! take heed lest what appear to 
 thee now a blessing, may be turned, at some future 
 time, to fiery pain and death." And the youth re- 
 plied, " No ! no ! thou blessed Fire, this could 
 never be. Am I then so senseless, so inconstant, so 
 thankless ? O believe it not I Let me stay near thee ; 
 let me be thy priest, to watch and tend thee truly. 
 Ofttimes in my wild wintry life, when the chill dark- 
 ness encompassed me, and the ice-blast lifted my hair, 
 have I dreamed of the soft summer breath, — of the 
 sunshine that should light up the world within me and 
 the world around me. But still that time came not. 
 It seemed ever far, faroiF; and I had perished utterly 
 before the light and the warmth had reached me, had . 
 it not been for thee ! " 
 
 Thus the youth poured forth his soul, and the 
 
 I 
 
 .-..^- 
 
THE HUNTKR AND THE FIRE. 
 
 14H» 
 
 Fire answered him in murmured tones, while her 
 beams with a softer radiance played over his cheek 
 and brow : " Be it so then. Yet do thou watch 
 me constantly and minister to me carefully; neglect 
 me not, leave me not to myself, lest the light and 
 warmth in which thou so delightest fail thee sud- 
 denly, and there be no redress; and O watch thy- 
 self also I beware lest thou too ardently stir up my 
 impatient fiery being I beware lest thou heap too 
 much fuel upon me ; once more beware, lest, instead 
 of life, and love, and joy, I bring thee only death 
 and burning pain I" And the youth passionately 
 vowed to keep her behest : and in the beginning all 
 went well. How often, for hours together, would 
 he lie gazing entranced toward the radiant beneficent 
 Fire, basking in her warmth, and throwing now a 
 leafy spray, now a fragment of dry wood, anon a 
 handful of odorous gums, as incense, upon the flame, 
 which gracefully curling and waving upwards, quiver- 
 ing and sparkling, seemed to whisper in return divine 
 oracles ; or he fancied he beheld, while gazing into 
 the glowing depths, marvellous shapes, fairy visions 
 dancing and glancing along. Then he would sing to 
 her songs full of love, and she, responding to the 
 song she had herself inspired, sometimes replied, in 
 softest whispers, so loving and so low, that even the 
 jealous listening woods could not overhear ; at other 
 times she would shoot up suddenly in rapturous 
 
 M 
 
 ■■'f 
 
'I •: 
 
 /... 
 
 u 
 
 150 
 
 ETHICAL PRAGMEJiTTS, 
 
 splendour, like a pillar of light, and revealed to him 
 all the wonders and the beauties which lay around 
 him, hitherto veiled from his sight 
 
 But at length, as he became accustomed to the 
 glory and the warmth, and nothing more was left for 
 the fire to bestow, or her light to reveal, then he 
 began to weary and to dream again of the morning, 
 and to long for the sun-beams ; and it was to him as 
 if the fire stood between him and the sun's light, and 
 he reproached her therefore, and he became moody 
 and ungrateful ; and the fire was no longer the same, 
 but unquiet and changeful, sometimes flickering un- 
 steadily, sometimes throwing out a lurid glare. And 
 when the youth, forgetful of his ministry, left the 
 flame unfed and unsustained, so that ofttimes she 
 drooped and waned, and crept in dying gleams along 
 the damp ground, his heart Avould fail him with a 
 sudden remorse, and he would cast on the fuel with 
 such a rough and lavish hand that the indignant fire 
 hissed thereat, and burst forth in a smoky sullen 
 gleam, — then died away again. Then the youth, 
 half sorrowful, half impatient, would remember how 
 bright, how glowing, how dazzling was the flame in 
 those former happy days, when it played over his 
 chilled and wearied limbs, and shed its warmth upon 
 his brow, and he desired eagerly to recall that once 
 inspiring glow* And he stirred up the embers vio- 
 lently till they burned him, and then he grew angry, 
 
 \V 
 
THE HUNTER AND THE PIRE. 
 
 161 
 
 and then again he wearied of all the watching and 
 the care which the subtle, celestial, tameless element 
 required at his hand : and at length, one day in a 
 sullen mood, he snatched up a pitcher of water from 
 the fountain and poured it hastily on the yet living 
 
 flame. 
 
 For one moment it arose blazing towards heaven, 
 shed a last gleam upon the pale brow of the youth, 
 and then sank down in darkness extinguished for 
 ever ! 
 
 M 2 
 
 r , ; I 
 
 
 ; 
 
 I ■ ! 
 
 ■ -1 
 
 
 1: 
 
w 
 
 
 %' : 
 
 152 
 
 POETICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 PAULINA. 
 
 TBOH AIT CNFINISnSD TALE, 1823. 
 
 And think'st thou that the fond o'erflowing love 
 I bear thee in my heart could ever be 
 
 Repaid by careless smiles that round thee rove, 
 And beam on others as they beam on me ? 
 
 Oh, could I speak to thee ! could I but tell 
 The nameless thoughts that in my bosom swell, 
 And struggle for expression ! or set free 
 From the o'er mastering spirit's proud control 
 The pain that throbs in silence at my soul. 
 Perhaps — yet no — I will not sue, nor bend. 
 To win a heartless pity — Let it end! 
 
 I have been near thee still at mom, at eve ; 
 
 Have mark'd thee in thy joy, have seen thee grieve ; 
 
 Have seen thee gay with triumph, sick with fears, 
 
 Radiant in beauty, desolate in tears : 
 
 And communed with thy heart, till I made mine 
 
 The echo and the mirror unto thine. 
 
 And I have sat and looked into thine eyes 
 
 As men on earth look to the starry skies. 
 
 That seek to read in Heaven their human destinies ! 
 
 Too quickly I read mine, — I knew it well, — 
 I judg'd not of thy heart by all it gave. 
 But all that it withheld ; and I could tell 
 The very sea-mark where affection's wave 
 Would cease to flow, or flow to ebb again, 
 And knew my lavish love was poured in vain, 
 As fruitless streams o'er sandy deserts melt, 
 ITnrecompensed, unvalued, and unfelt ! ' 
 
 V 
 
POETICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 163 
 
 LINES.— 1840. 
 
 Take me, my mother Earth, to thy cold breast, 
 And fold me there in everlasting rest. 
 
 The long day is o'er ! 
 
 I'm weary, I would sleep — 
 
 But deep, deep, 
 
 Never to waken more ! 
 
 I have had joy and sorrow ; I have proved 
 
 What life could give ; have lov'd, have been belov'd; 
 
 I am sick, and heart sore. 
 
 And weary, — let me sleep ! 
 
 But deep, deep, 
 
 Never to waken more ! 
 
 To thy dark chambers, mother Earth, I come, 
 Prepare my dreamless bed in my last home ; 
 
 Shut down the marble door. 
 
 And leave me, — let me sleep I 
 
 But deep, deep, 
 
 Never to waken more ! 
 
 Now I lie down, — 1 close my aching eyes. 
 If on this night another morn must rise. 
 
 Wake me not, I implore ! 
 
 I only ask to sleep. 
 
 And deep, deep. 
 
 Never to waken more ! 
 
 M 3 
 
 m 
 
 W ; 
 
3^liBnlngital fx^mnU. 
 
 •^f\/\i\/yj\j\.^\y\^ 
 
 N 
 
 THE HERMIT AND THE MINSTREL. 
 (▲ PABABLB, FBOM ST. JSBOMB.) 
 
 A CERTAIN holy anchorite had passed a long life in 
 a cave of the Thebaid, remote from all communion 
 with men ; and eschewing, as he would the gates of 
 Hell, even the very presence of a woman ; and he 
 fasted and prayed, and performed many and severe 
 penances ; and his whole thought was how he should 
 make himself of account in the sight of God, that he 
 might enter into his paradise. 
 
 And having lived this life for three score and ten 
 
 M 4 
 
 ■%.. 
 
\M 
 
 THEOLUaiCAL FRAGMKNTS. 
 
 »rit '" 
 
 ■I: <■ 1 I ■ 
 
 yciirrt lu! wurt putfi'tl up with the notion of his own 
 great virtue and sanctity, and, like to St. Anthony, 
 he besouirht the Lord to show him what saint ho 
 should enudate as greater than himself, thinking 
 perliaps, in his heart, that the Lord would answer 
 that none was greater or holier. And the same 
 night the angel of God appeared to him, and said, 
 " If thou wouldst excel all others in virtue and 
 sanctity, thou nuist strive to be like a certain minstrel 
 who goes begging and singing from door to door." 
 
 And the holy man was in great astonishment, and 
 he arose and took his staff and ran forth in search of 
 this minstrel ; and when he had found him he ques- 
 tioned him earnestly, saying, " Tell me, I pray thee, 
 my brother, what good works thou hast performed 
 in thy lifetime, and by what prayers and penances 
 thou hast made thyself acceptable to God?" 
 
 And the man, greatly wondering and ashamed to 
 be so questioned, hung down his head as he replied. 
 *' I beseech thee, holy father, mock me not ! I have 
 performed no good works, and as to praying, alas ! 
 sinner that I am, I am not worthy to pray. I do 
 nothing but go about from door to door amusing the 
 people with my viol and my flute." 
 
 And the holy man insisted and said, " Nay, but 
 peradventure in the midst of this thy evil life thou 
 hast done some good works?" And the minstrel 
 replied, " I know of nothing good that I have done." 
 
 ,.fl?<^- '■ 
 
THR HERMIT AND THE MINSTREL. 
 
 187 
 
 Ami the hcnuit, wondering more iui<l more, said, 
 " How luiHt tln)U become a beggar: \\n^^ thou spent 
 tliy substance in riotoua living, like most others of 
 tliy culling?" and the man answering, said, *' Nay ; 
 but there was a poor woman whom I found nnming 
 hither and thither in distraction, for her husband and 
 lier children had been sold into slavery to pay a debt. 
 And the woman being very fair, certain sons of 
 Belial pursued after her ; so I took her home to my 
 hut and protected her from them, and I gave her all 
 I possessed to redeem her family, and conducted her 
 in safety to the city, where she was reunited to her 
 husband and children. But what of that, my father ; 
 is there a man who would not have done the same ? " 
 And the hermit, hearing the minstrel speak these 
 words, wept bitterly, saying, " For my part, I have 
 not done so much good in all my life ; and yet they 
 call me a man of God, and thou art only a poor min- 
 strel 1" 
 
 \ i 
 
 At Vienna, some years ago, I saw a picture by 
 Von Schwind, which was conceived in the spirit 
 of this old apologue. It exhibited the lives of two 
 twin brothers diverging from the cradle. One of 
 them, by profound study, becomes a most learned 
 and skilful physician, and ministers to the sick ; at- 
 taining to great riches and honoui's through his 
 labours and his philanthropy. The other brother, 
 
 M 5 
 
158 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 ;?'-- 
 
 I 
 
 ;■*.! 
 
 who has no turn for study, becomes a poor fiddler, 
 and spends his life in consoling, by his music, suffer- 
 ings beyond the reach of the healing art. In the 
 end, the two brothers meet at the close of life. He 
 who had been fiddling through the world is sick and 
 worn out : his brother prescribes for him, and is seen 
 culling simples for his restoration, while the fiddler 
 touches his instrument for the solace of his kind 
 physician. 
 
 It is in such representations that painting did once 
 speak, and might again speak to the hearts of the 
 people. 
 
 Another version of the same thought, we find in 
 De Berenger's pretty ballad, " Les deux Sceurs de 
 ChariUr 
 
 125. 
 
 When I was a child, and read Milton for the first 
 time, his Pandemonium seemed to me a magnificent 
 place. It struck me more than his Paradise, for 
 that was beautiful, but Pandemonium was terrible 
 and beautiful too. The wondrous fabric that '' from 
 

 PANDEMONIUM. 
 
 159 
 
 the earth rose like an exhalation to the sound of 
 dulcet symphonies and voices sweet," — the splendid 
 piles of architecture sweeping line beyond line, 
 " Cornice and frieze with bossy sculptures graven," 
 — realised a certain picture of Palmyra I had once 
 seen, and which had taken possession of my imagina- 
 tion : then the throne, outshining the wealth of Ormuz 
 and of Ind, - the flood of light streaming from " starry 
 lamps and blazing cressets " quite threw the flames of 
 perdition into the shade. As it was said of Erskine, 
 that he always spoke of Satan with respect, as of a 
 great statesman out of place, a sort of leader of the 
 Opposition ; so to me the grand arch-fiend was a hero, 
 like my then favourite Greeks and Romans, a Cymon, 
 a Curtius, a Decius, devoting himself for the good ol' 
 his country ; - such was the moral confusion created 
 in my mind. Pandemonium inspired no horror ; on 
 the contrary, my fancy revelled in the artistic 
 beauty of the creation. I felt that I should like to 
 go and see it ; so that, in fact, if Milton meant to 
 inspire abhorrence, he has failed, even to the height 
 of his sublimity. Dante has succeeded better. 
 Those who dwell with complacency on the doctrine 
 of eternal punishments must delight in the ferocity 
 and the ingenuity of his grim inventions, worthy of 
 a vengeful theology. Wicked latitudinarians may 
 sliudder and shiver at the images called up — gro- 
 tesque, abominable, hideous but then Dante him- 
 
 .■;.?; 
 
 >» ■! 
 
 !■■ 
 
 1,'. , 
 
160 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 I aa 
 
 self would sternly rebuke them for making their 
 human sympathies a measure for the judgments of 
 God, and compassion only a veil for treason and 
 rebellion : — 
 
 " Chi 6 piu scellerato di colui 
 Ch'al giudicio divin passion porta ? " 
 
 " Who can show greater wickedness than he 
 Whose passion by the will of God is moved? " 
 
 However, it must be said in favour of Dante's 
 Inferno, that no one ever wished to go there. 
 
 These be the Christian poets ! but they must 
 yield in depth of imagined horrors to the Christian 
 Fathers. Tertullian (writing in the second century) 
 not only sends the wicked into that dolorous region 
 of despair, but makes the endless measureless torture 
 of the doomed a part of the joys of the redeemed. 
 The spectacle is to give them the same sort of 
 delight as the heathen took in their games, and 
 Pandemonium is to be as a vast amphitheatre for the 
 amusement of the New Jerusalem. " How magni- 
 ficent," exclaims this pious doctor of the Churcli, 
 " V 'M be the scale of that game ! With what 
 admiration, what laughter, what glee, what triumph, 
 shall I behold so many mighty monarchs, who had 
 been given out as received into the skies, moaning in 
 unfathomable gloom ! Persecutors of the Christians 
 liquefying amid shooting spires of flame ! Philoso- 
 phers blui^hing before tlioir disciples amid tluKsc 
 
 m,j- 
 
PANDEMONIUM. 
 
 161 
 
 ruddy fires ! Then," he goes on, still alluding to the 
 amphitheatre, " then is the time to hear the tragedians 
 doubly pathetic, now that they bewail their own 
 agonies ! To observe actors released by the fierce- 
 ness of their torments from all restraints on their 
 gestures ! Then may we admire the charioteer glowing 
 all over in his car of torture, and watch the wrestlers 
 struggling, not in the gymnasium but with flames ! " 
 And he asks exultingly, " What praetor, or consul, 
 or questor, or priest, can purchase you by his muni- 
 ficence a game of triumph like this ? " 
 
 And even more terrible are the imaginations of 
 good Bishop Taylor, who distils the essence from all 
 sins, all miseries, all sorrows, all terrors, all plagues, 
 and mingles them in one chalice of wrath and 
 vengeance to be held to the lips and forced down 
 the unwilling throats of the doomed " with violence 
 of devils and accursed spirits ! " Are these mere 
 words? Did any one ever fancy or try to realise 
 what they express ? 
 
 ! 
 
 "■ 'r ■ '-fl 
 
 
 .'■.■■■'. 
 
 
 *': 
 
vff 
 
 162 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 126. 
 
 I WAS surprised to find this passage in one of 
 Southey's letters : — 
 
 " A Catholic Establishment would be the best, 
 l)erhaps the only means of civilising Ireland. Jesuits 
 and Benedictines, though they would not enlighten 
 the savages, ">vould humanise them and bring the 
 country into cultivation. A petition that asked for 
 this, saying plainly, * We are Papists, and will be so, 
 and this is the best thing that can be done foi us and 
 you too,' — such a petition I would support, consider- 
 ing what the present condition of Ireland is, how 
 wretchedly it has always been governed, and ho\y^ 
 hopeless the prospect." (1805.) 
 
 Southey was thinking of what the religious orders 
 had done for Paraguay ; whether he would have 
 penned the same sentiments twenty or even ten 
 years later, is more than doubtful. 
 
 M^^^^^ 
 
 127. <S-' 
 
 The old monks and penitents — dirty, (ugly/ ema- 
 ciated old fellows they were! — spent their days in 
 speaking and preaching of their own and others' sin- 
 fulness, yet seem to have had ever present before 
 them a standard of beauty, brightness, beneficence, 
 
 i,f^ 
 
 m ■ ■ ii 
 
/*■■■(;'. 
 
 IMAGE WORSHIP. 
 
 183 
 
 
 ! i 
 
 aspirations which nothing earthly could sjitisfy, 
 ^vhich made theit ideas of sinfulness and misery 
 comparative, and their scale was graduated from 
 
 themselves upwards. 
 
 )hilosopher8 reverse this. 
 
 
 We teach and prcxh the spritual dignity, the lofty f^u^v^-'f '"''-'' 
 capabilities of humanity. Yet, by some mistake, we 
 seem to be always rpeculating on the amount of evil 
 which may or can be endured, and on the amount of 
 wickedness which may or must be tolerated; .and our 
 scale is graduated from ourselves downwards. 
 
 128. 
 
 " So long as the ancient mythology had any sepa- 
 rate establishment in the empire, the spiritual wor- 
 ship which our religion demands, and so essentially 
 impliev=! as only fitting for it, was preserved in its 
 purity by means of the salutary contrast ; but no 
 sooner had the Church become completely trium- 
 phant and exclusive, and the parallel of Pagan 
 idolatry totally removed, than the old constitutional 
 appetite revived in all its original force, and after a 
 short but famous struggle with the Iconoclasts, an 
 imag*^ worship was established, and consecrated by 
 bulls and canons, which, in whatever light it is 
 regarded, differed in no respect but the names of its 
 objects from that which had existed for so many 
 
 
fa^^^K 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 '-■^^^M 
 
 11 
 
 
 ' 'J' ' ''iHnu^''IJ^Hr'' 
 
 r' 
 
 f ' ■ ^ 
 
 
 ':; ! 
 
 i 
 
 r1 
 
 ' 
 
 
 « :■ ji (J 
 
 iii; 13' 
 
 164 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 ages as the chief characteristic of the religious faith 
 of the Gentiles." - ^. Nelson Coleridge. 
 
 I think, with submission, that it differed in senti- 
 ment ; for in the mythology of the Pagans the wor- 
 ship was to beauty^ immortality, and power, and in 
 the Christian mythology — if I may call it so — of 
 the Middle Ages, the worship was to purity, self- 
 denial, and charity. 
 
 129. 
 
 " A NARROW half-i enlightened reason may easily 
 make sport of all those forms in which religious faith 
 has been clothed by human imagination, and ask 
 why they are retained, and why one should be pre- 
 ferred to another? It is sufficient to reply, that 
 some forms there must be if Religion is to endure as 
 a social influence, and that the forms already in 
 existence are the best, if they are in unison with 
 human sympathies, and express, with the breadth 
 and vagueness which every popular utterance must 
 from its nature possess, the interior convictions of 
 the general mind. What would become of the most 
 sacred truth if all the forms which have harboured it 
 were destroyed at once by an unxelenting reason, 
 and it were driven naked and shivering about tlio 
 earth till some clever logician hi;d devised a suitable 
 abode for its reception? It is on these outward 
 
 *^i m 
 
RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES. 
 
 165 
 
 forms of religion that tlie spirit of artistic beauty 
 descends and moulds them into fitting expressions of 
 tlic invisible grace and majesty of spiritual truth." 
 — Prospective Revieui, Feb. 24. 1845. 
 
 130. 
 
 " Have not Dying Clirists taught fortitude to the 
 virtuous sufferer? Have not Holy Families cherished 
 and ennooled domestic affections? The tender 
 genius of the Christian morality, even in its most 
 degenerate state, has made the Mother and her 
 Child the highest objects of affectionate superstition. 
 How much has that beautiful superstition by the 
 pencils of great artists contributed to humanise man- 
 kind?" — Sir James Mackintosh, writing in 1802. 
 
 131. 
 
 I REMEMBER once at Merton College Chapel (May, 
 1844), while Archdeacon Manning was preaching an 
 eloquent sermon on the eternity of reward and 
 punishment in the future life, I was looking at the 
 row of windows opposite, and I saw that there were 
 seven, all different in pattern and construction, yet 
 all harmonising with each other and with the build- 
 ing of which they formed a part ; — a symbol they 
 
 1^ 
 
 !■ i' 
 
!!ll 
 
 im 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 I t 
 
 I 
 
 ! 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 niiglit have been of differences in the Church of 
 Christ. From the varied windows opposite I looked 
 down to the faces of the congregation, all upturned 
 to the preacher, with expression how different! 
 Faith, hope, fear, in the open mouths and expanded 
 eyelids of some ; a sort of silent protest in the com- 
 pressed lips and knitted brows of others ; a specula- 
 tive inquiry and interest, or merely admiring acqui- 
 escence in others ; as the high or low, the wide or 
 contracted head prevailed ; and all this diversity in 
 organisation, in habits of thought, in expression, har- 
 monised for the time by one predominant object, one 
 feeling ! the hungry sheep looking up to be fed ! 
 When I sigh over apparent disagreement, let me 
 think of those windows in Merton College Chapel, 
 and the same light from heaven streaming through 
 them all ! — and of that assemblage of human faco.^, 
 uplifted with the same aspiration one and all ! 
 
 V ; / 
 
 132. 
 
 I HAVE just read the nvticle (by Sterling, I be- 
 lieve,) in the " Edinbur^-,' Review" for July ; and, 
 
RELIGIOUS DIPFRRENCES. 
 
 itn 
 
 as it chanced, this aiainc evening, Dr. Channing's 
 " Discourse on the Church," and Captain Macono- 
 chie's " Report on Secondary Punishments " from 
 Sydney, came before me. 
 
 And as I laid them down, one after another, this 
 thought struck me : — that about the same time, in 
 three different and far divided regions of the globe, 
 three men, one military, the other an ecclesiastic, the 
 third a lawyer, and belonging apparently to different 
 religious denominations, all gave utterance to nearly 
 the same sentiments in regard to a Christian Church. 
 Channing says, "A church destined to endure through 
 nil ages, to act on all, to blend itself with new forms 
 of society, and with the highest improvements of the 
 race, cannot be expected to ordain an immutable 
 mode of administration, but must leave its modes 
 of worship and commimion to conform themselves 
 silently and gradually to the wants and progress of 
 humanity. The rites and arrangements which suit 
 one period lose their significance or efficiency in 
 another ; the forms which minister to the mind noio 
 may fetter it hereafter, and must give place to its 
 free unfolding," &c., and more to the same purpose. 
 
 The reviewer savs, " We believe that in the 
 judgment of an enlightened charity, many Christian 
 societies who are accustomed to denounce each others' 
 errors, will at length come to be regarded as members 
 ill common of one great and comprehensive Church, 
 
 N 
 
168 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 in which diversity of forms arc liiirrnonised by an ull- 
 pervadinp; nnity of spirit." And more to the same 
 purpose. The soldier and reformer says, " I believe 
 there may be error because there must be imper- 
 fection in the religious faith of the l)est among us ; 
 but that the degree of this error is not vital in any 
 Christian denomination seems demonstrable by the 
 best fruits of faith — good works — being evidenced 
 by all." 
 
 It is pleasant to see benign spirits divided in 
 opinion, but harmonised by faith, thus standing h.ind 
 in hand upon a shore of peace, and looking out to- 
 gether in serene hope for the dawning of a better 
 day, instead of rushing forth, each with his own 
 farthing candle, under pretence of illuminating the 
 world — every one even more intent on putting out 
 his neighbour's light than on guarding his own. 
 
 (Nov. 15. 1841.) 
 
 While the idea of possible harmony in the uni- 
 versal Church of Christ (by which I mean all who 
 accept His teaching and are glad to bear His name) 
 is gaining ground theoretically, practically it seems 
 more and more distant; since 1841 (when the above 
 was written) the divergence is greater than ever; 
 and, as in politics, moderate opinions appear (since 
 1848) to merge on either side into the extremes of 
 ultra conservatism and ultra radicalism, as fear of 
 
 IL 
 
EXPAN8IVK CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 i«m 
 
 the pant or hope of the future predominate, ho it iw 
 in tlic Church. The Hort of dualism wliicli prevuiirt 
 in politics and reli*j;ion might giv(! Home colour to 
 Lord Lindsay's theory of " progress through an- 
 
 tagonism 
 
 » 
 
 1.33. 
 
 I INCLINE to agree with those who think it a great 
 mistake to eonsider the present condition or c<mcep- 
 tion of Christianity as complete and final : like the 
 human soul U which it was fitted by Divine love 
 and wisdom, it has an immeasurable capacity of de- 
 velopment, and " The Lord hath more truth yet to 
 hreak forth out of his Holy Word." 
 
 .^^ 
 
 134. 
 
 " The nations of the present age want not kss 
 religion, but more. They do not wish for less com- 
 
 N 2 
 

 ^. 
 
 .\& 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
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 jj. 
 
 m 
 
 170 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 munity with the Apostolic times, but for more ; but 
 above all, they want their wounds healed by a 
 Christianity showing a life-renewing vitality allied 
 to reason and conscience, and ready and able to 
 reform the social relations of life, beginning with the 
 domestic and culminating with the political. They 
 want no negations, but positive reconstruction — no 
 conventionality, but an honest bond Jide foundation, 
 deep as the human mind, and a structure free and 
 organic as nature. In the meantime let no national 
 form be urged as identical with divine truth, let no 
 dogmatic formula oppress conscience and reason, and 
 let no corporation of priests, no set of dogmatists, sow 
 discord and hatred in the sacred communities of 
 domestic and national life. This view cannot be 
 obtained without national efforts. Christian education, 
 free institutions, and social reforms. Then no zeal 
 will be called Christian which is not hallowed by 
 charity, — no faith Christian which is not sanctioned 
 by reason." — Hypolitus, 
 
 " Any author who in our times treats theological 
 and ecclesiastical subjects frankly, and therefore with 
 reference to the problems of the age, must expect to 
 be ignored, and if that cannot be done, abused and 
 reviled." 
 
 The same is true of moral subjects on which strong 
 prejudices (or shall I say strong convictions ^) exist 
 in minds not very strong. 
 
EXPANSIVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 171 
 
 It is not perhaps of so much consequence what we 
 believe, as it is important that we believe ; that we 
 do not affect to believe, and so belie our own souls. 
 Belief is not always in our power, but truth is. 
 
 135. 
 
 It seems an arbitrary limitation of the design of 
 Christianity to assume, as Priestley does, that " it 
 consists solely in the revelation of a future life con- 
 firmed by the bodily resurrection of Christ." This 
 is truly a very material view of Christianity. If I 
 were to be sure of annihilation I should not be less 
 certain of the truth of Christianity as a system of 
 morals exquisitely adapted for the improvement and 
 happiness of man as an individual; and equally 
 adapted to conduce to the amelioration and progres- 
 sive happiness of mankind as a species. 
 
 I^R'' 
 
 i^^m' 
 
 I MI 
 
 N 3 
 
! ) 
 
 II 
 
 172 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRiVGMBNTS. 
 
 NOTES PROM VAEIOUa SERMONS, 
 
 MADE ON THB BPOT ; 
 SUUWINO SOME THINGS IN WHICH ALL QOOl) MEN ABE AOUEED. 
 
 I. 
 
 From a Roman Catholic Sermon. 
 
 When travelling in Ireland, I stayed over one 
 Sunday in a certain town in the north, and rambled 
 out early in the morning. It was cold and wet, the 
 streets empty and quiet, but the sound of voices 
 drew me in one direction, down a court where was a 
 Roman Catholic chapel. It was so crowded that 
 many of the congregation stood round the door. 
 I remarked among them a number of soldiers and 
 most miserable-looking women. All made way for 
 me with true national courtesy, and I entered at the 
 moment the priest was finishing mass, and about to 
 begin his sermon. There was no pulpit, and he 
 
 ;ili! 
 
liim^i. 
 
 BE AaUEEI). 
 
 AN IRISH SERMON. 
 
 178 
 
 stood on the step of the altar ; a fine-looking man, 
 with a bright face, a sonorous voice, and a veri/ 
 strong Irish accent. His text was from Matt. v. 
 43,44. 
 
 He began by explaining what Christ really meant 
 by the words " Love thy neighbour." Then drew a 
 picture in contrast of hatred and dissension, com- 
 mencing with dissension in families, between kin- 
 dred, and between husband and wife. Then made a 
 most touching appeal in behalf of children brought 
 up in an atmosphere of contention where no love is. 
 " God help them ! God pity them ! small chance for 
 them of being either good or happy ! for their young 
 hearts are saddened and soured with strife, and they 
 eat their bread in bitterness !" 
 
 Then he preached patience to the wives, indul- 
 gence' to the hutobands, and denounced scolds and 
 quarrelsome women in a manner that seemed to 
 glance at recent events : " When ye are found in the 
 streets vilifying and slandering one another, ay, 
 and fighting and tearing each other's hair, do ye 
 think ye're women? no, ye're not! ye're devils in- 
 carnate, and ye'U go where the devils will be fit 
 companions for ye!" &c. (Here some women near 
 me, with long black hair streaming down, fell upon 
 their knees, sobbing with contrition.) He then went 
 on, in the same strain of homely eloquence, to the 
 evils of political and religious hatred, and quoted the 
 
 N 4 
 
174 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 .'! 'I 
 
 text, " If it be possible, as much aa lieth in you, 
 live peaceably with all men." " I'm a Catholic," he 
 went on, " and I believe in the truth of my own 
 religion above all others. I'm convinced, by long 
 study and observation, it's the best that is ; but 
 what then ? Do ye think I hate my neighbour be- 
 cause he thinks differently ? Do ye think I mane to 
 force my religion down other people's throats ? If I 
 were to preach such upcharity to ye, my people, 
 you wouldn't listen to me, ye oughtn't to listen to 
 me. Did Jesus Christ force His religion down other 
 people's throats ? Not He I He endured all. He was 
 kind to all, even to the wicked Jews that afterwards 
 crucified Him." " If you say you can't love your 
 neighbour because he's your enemy, and has injured 
 you, what does that mane? *^e can^t! ye carHtP as 
 if that excuse will serve God 1 hav'n't ye done more 
 and worse against Him ? and didn't He send His only 
 Son into the world to redeem ye ? My good people, 
 you're all sprung from one stock, all sons of Adam, 
 all related to one another. When God created Eve, 
 mightn't he have made her out of any thing, a stock 
 or a stone, or out of nothing at all, at all ? but he 
 took one of Adam's ribs and moulded her out of 
 that, and gave her to him, just to show that we're 
 all from one original, all related together, men and 
 women. Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Turks 
 and Christians ; all bone of one bone, and flesh of 
 
 h i: i 
 
#>^,51 
 
 n'. 1 
 
 w 
 
 AN IBISH SERMON. 
 
 17B 
 
 one Hesh !" He then insisted and demonstrated that 
 all the miseries of life, all the sorrows and mistakes 
 of men, women, and children ; and, in particular, all 
 the disasters of Ireland, the bankrupt landlords, the 
 religious dissensions, the fights domestic and political, 
 the rich without thought for the poor, and the poor 
 without food or work, all arose from nothing but the 
 want of love. " Down on your knees," he exclaimed, 
 " and ask God's mercy and pardon ; and, as ye hope 
 to find it, ask pardon one of another for every angry 
 word ye have spoken, for every uncharitable thought 
 that has come into your minds ; and if any man or 
 woman have aught against his neighbour, no matter 
 what, let it be plucked out of his heart before he 
 laves this place, let it be forgotten at the door of 
 this chapel. Let me, your pastor, have no more 
 rason to be ashamed of you ; as if I were set over 
 wild bastes, instead of Christian men and women I" 
 
 After more in this fervid strain, which I cannot 
 recollect, he gave his blessing in the sama earnest, 
 heartfelt manner. I never saw a congregation more 
 attentive, more reverent, and apparently more 
 touched and edified. (1848.) 
 
 \\\ 
 
M 
 
 170 
 
 THBOLOOIGAL FRAOMHNTS. 
 
 II. 
 
 From another Roman Catholic Sermon, delivered in 
 the private chapel of a Nobleman* 
 
 This Discourse was preached on the festival of 
 St. John the Baptist, and was a summary of his 
 doctrine, life, and character. The text was taken from 
 St Luke, iii. 9. to 14. ; in which St. John answers 
 the question of the people, " what shall we do then ? " 
 by a brief exposition of their several duties. 
 
 " What is most remarkable in all this," said the 
 priest, " is truly that there is nothing very remarkable 
 in it. The Baptist required from his hearers very 
 simple and very familiar duties, — such as he was 
 not the first to preach, such as had been recognised 
 as duties by all religions; and do you think that 
 those who were neither Jews nor Christians were 
 therefore left without any religion ? No ! never did 
 God leave any of his creatures without religion ; they 
 could not utter the words riffht, wrong, — beautiful, 
 hateful, without recognising a religion written by 
 God on their hearts from the beginning — a religion 
 which existed before the preaching of John, before 
 the coming of Christ, and of which the appearance of 
 John, and the doctrine and sacrifice of Christ, were 
 but the fulfilment. For Christ came to fulfil the 
 law, not to destroy it. Do you ask what law ? Not 
 
ielivered in 
 
 ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 H7 
 
 the law of Mosea, but the universal law of God's 
 moral truth written in our hearts. It is, my friends, 
 a folly to talk of natural religion as of something 
 different from revealed religion. 
 
 " The great proof of the truth of John's mission 
 lies in its comprehensiveness : men and women, ar- 
 tisans and soldiers, the rich and the poor, the young 
 and the old, gathered to him in the wilderness ; 
 and he included all in his teaching, for he was 
 sent to all ; and the best proof of the truth of his 
 teaching lies in its harmony with that law already 
 written in the heart and the conscience of man. 
 When Christ came afterwards, he preached a doctrine 
 more sublime, with a more authoritative voice ; but 
 here, also, the best proof we have of the truth of 
 that divine teaching lies in this — that he had pre- 
 pared from the beginning the heart and the con- 
 science of man to harmonise with it." 
 
 This was a very curious sermon ; quiet, elegant, 
 and learned> with a good deal of sacred and proiiiy^e 
 history introduced in illustration, which I am sorry 
 I cannot remember in detail. It made, however, no 
 appeal to feeling or to practice ; and after listening 
 to it, we all went in to luncheon and discussed our 
 newspapers. 
 
 ,je^» 
 
I* .1 
 
 
 yA 
 
 mi 
 
 178 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 m. 
 
 Fragments of a Sermon (^Anglican Church). 
 
 Text, Luke iv., from the 14th to the 18th, but more 
 especially the 18th verse. This sermon was extempore. 
 
 The preacher began by observing, that our Lord's 
 sermon at Nazareth established the second of two 
 principles. By his sermon from the Mount, in which 
 he had addressed the multitude in the open air, under 
 the vault of the blue heaven alone, he has left to us 
 the principle that all places are fitted for the service 
 of God, and that all places may be sanctified by the 
 preaching of his truth. While, by his sermon in the 
 Synagogue (that which is recorded by St. Luke in 
 this passage), he has established the principle, that it 
 is right to set apart a place to assemble together in 
 worship and to listen to instruction ; and it is ob- 
 servable that on this occasion our Saviour taught in 
 the synagogue, where there was no sacrifice, no 
 ministry of the priests, as in the Temple ; but where 
 a portion of the law and the prophets might be read 
 by any man ; and any man, even a stranger (as he 
 was himself), might be called upon to expound. 
 
 Then reading impressively the whole of the nar- 
 rative down to the 32nd verse, the preacher closed 
 the sacred volume, and went on to this effect : — 
 
 I I 
 
 U I 
 
AN ENGLISH SERMON. 
 
 !?• 
 
 " There are two orders of evil in the world — Sin 
 and Crime. Of the second, the world takes strict 
 cognisance ; of the first, it takes comparatively little ; 
 yet that is worst in the eyes of God. There arc two 
 orders of temptation: the temptation which assails 
 our lower nature — our appetites; the temptation 
 which assails our higher nature — our intellect. The 
 firstf leading to sin in the body, is punished in the 
 body, — the consequence being pain, disease, death. 
 The second^ leading to sins of the soul, as pride 
 chiefly, uncharitableness, selfish sacrifice of others to 
 our own interests or purposes, — is punished in the 
 soul — in the Hell of the Spirit." 
 
 (All this part of his discourse very beautifid, 
 earnest, eloquent; but I regretted that he did not 
 follow out the distinction he began with between sin 
 and crimef and the views and deductions, religious 
 and moral, which that distinction leads to.) 
 
 He continued to this effect : " Christ said that it 
 was a part of his mission to heal the broken-hearted. 
 What is meant by the phrase ' a broken heart ?'" Ho 
 illustrated it by the story of Eli, and by the wife of 
 Phineas, both of whom died broken in heart ; " and 
 our Saviour himself died on the cross heart-broken 
 by sorrow rather than by physical torture." — 
 
 (I lost something here because I was questioning 
 and doubting within myself, for I have always had 
 the thought that Christ must have been fflad to die.) 
 
 I 1 M 
 
IM 
 
 THBOLOOICAL FRAOMRNTS. 
 
 Ho went on: — "To heal the broken-hearted is 
 to say to those who are beset by the remembrance 
 and the misery of sin, * My brother, the past is 
 past — think not of it to thy perdition ; arise and 
 sin no more.'" (All this, and more to the same 
 purpose, wonderfully beautiful I and I became all 
 soul — subdued to listen.) " There are two ways of 
 meeting the pressure of misery and heart-break : 
 first, by trusting to time" (then followed a quotation 
 from Schiller's " Wallenstein," in reference to grief, 
 which sounded strange, and yet beautiful, from the 
 pulpit, "Was verschmerzte nicht der Mensch?" — 
 what cannot man grieve down ?) ; " secondly, by 
 defiance and resistance, setting oneself resolutely to 
 endure. But Christ taught a diflTerent way from 
 either — by submission — by the complete surrender 
 of our whole being to the will of God. 
 
 " The next part of Christ's mission svas to preach 
 deliverance to the captives." (Then followed a most 
 eloquent and beautiful exposition of Christian free- 
 dom — of who were free ; and who were not free, but 
 properly spiritual captives.) " To be content within 
 limitations is freedom ; to desire beyond those limit- 
 ations is bondage. The bird which is content within 
 her cage is free ; the bird which can fly from tree to 
 tree, yet desires to soar like the eagle, — the eagle 
 which can ascend to the mountain peak, yet desires 
 to reach the height of that sun on which his eye is 
 
flOIiOMON AND THE QUKBN OF BHRIIA. 
 
 IHl 
 
 fixctl, — these arc in bondage. The man who i» not 
 content within his sphere of duties and ])owers, but 
 feels his faculties, his position, his profession, a per- 
 petual trammel, — he is spiritually in bondage. The 
 only freedom is the freedom of the soul, content 
 within its external limitations, and yet elevated spi- 
 ritually far above them by the inward powers and 
 impulses which lift him up to God." 
 
 IV. 
 
 Recollections of another Church of England Sermon 
 preached extempoi'e. 
 
 The text was taken from Matt. xii. 42. : " The Queen of 
 the South shall rise up in the judgment with this gene- 
 ration, and shall condemn it," &e. 
 
 The preacher began by drawing that distinction 
 between knowledge and wisdom which so many 
 comprehend and allow, and so few apply. He then 
 described the two parties in the great question of 
 popular education. Those who would base all human 
 progress on secular instruction, on knowledge in 
 contradistinction to ignorance, as on light opposed to 
 darkness; — and the mistake of those who, taking the 
 contrary extreme, denounce all secular instruction 
 imparted to the poor as dangerous, or contemn it as 
 
18S 
 
 THE0IX)0IGAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 •Sir.- 
 
 ! v. 
 
 (.'!> ■! 
 
 m 
 
 useless. The error of those who sneer at the triumph 
 of intellect he termed a species of idiocy ; and the error 
 of those who do not see the insufficiency of knowledge, 
 blind presumption. Then he contrasted worldly 
 wisdom and spiritual ; with a flow of gorgeous elo- 
 quence he enlarged on the picture of worldly wisdom 
 as exhibited in the character of Solomon, and of in- 
 tellect, and admiration for intellect, in the character of 
 the Queen of Sheba. " In what consisted the wisdom 
 of Solomon ? He made, as the sacred history assures 
 us, three thousand proverbs, mostly prudential maxims 
 relating to conduct in life ; the use and abuse of 
 riches ; prosperity and adversity. His acquirements 
 in natural philosophy seem to have been confined to 
 the appearances of material '^nd visible things ; the 
 herbs and trees, the beasts and birds, the creeping 
 things and fishes. His political wisdom consisted 
 in increasing his wealth, his dominions, and the 
 number of his subjects and cities. On his temple 
 he lavished all that art had then accomplished, and 
 on his own house a world of riches in gold, and 
 silver, and precious things : but all was done for 
 his own glory — nothing for the improvement or 
 the happiness of his people, who were ground down 
 by taxes, suffered in the midst of all his magnificence, 
 and remained ignorant in spite of all his knowledge. 
 Witness the wars, tyrannies, miseries, delusions, and 
 idolatries which followed after his death." 
 
SOLOMON AND THE QUEEN OP SHEBA. 
 
 188 
 
 " But the Queen of Sheba came not from the 
 uttermost parts of the earth to view the magnificence 
 and wonder at the greatness of the King, she came 
 to hear his wisdom. She came not to ask anything 
 from him, but to prove him with hard questions. 
 No idea of worldly gain, or selfish ambition, was 
 in her thoughts ; she paid even for the pleasure of 
 hearing his wise sayings by rare and costly gifts." 
 
 " Knowledge is power ; but he who worships 
 knowledge not for its own sake, but for the power it 
 brings, worships power. Knowledge is riches ; but 
 he who worships knowledge for the sake of all it 
 bestows, worships riches. The Queen of Sheba 
 worshipped knowledge solely for its own sake ; and 
 the truths which she sought from the lips of Solomon 
 she sought for truth's sake. She gave, all she could 
 give, in return, the spicy products of her own land, 
 treasures of pure gold, and blessings warm from her 
 heart. The man who makes a voyage to the anti- 
 podes only to behold the constellation of the Southern 
 Cross, the man who sails to the North to see how the 
 magnet trembles and varies, these love knowledge 
 for its own sake, and are impelled by the same en- 
 thusiasm as the Queen of Sheba«" He went on to 
 analyse the character of Solomon, and did not treat 
 him, I thought, with much reverence either as sage 
 or prophet. He remarked that, " of the thousand 
 songs of Solomon one only survives, and that both 
 
 '< ii 
 
1 1 Hi 
 
 t84 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 I? ' 
 
 in this song and in his proverbs his meaning has 
 often been mistaken ; it is supposed to be spiritual, 
 and is interpreted symbolically, when in fact the 
 plain, obvious, material significance is the true one." 
 He continued to this effect, — but with a power of 
 language and illustration which I cannot render. 
 " We see in Solomon's own description of his 
 dominion, his glory, his wealth, his fame, what his 
 boasted wisdom achieved ; what it could, and what it 
 could not do for him. "What was the end of all his 
 magnificence? of his worship of the beautiful? of 
 his intellectual triumphs ? of his political subtlety ? 
 of his ships, and his commerce, and his chariots, and 
 his horses, and his fame which reached to the ends 
 of the earth? All — as it is related — ended in fee- 
 bleness, in scepticism, in disbelief of happiness, in 
 sensualism, idolatry, and dotage ! The whole ' Book 
 of Ecclesiastes,' fine as it is, presents a picture of 
 selfishness and epicurism. This was the King of 
 the Jews I the King of those that know ! (// maestro 
 di color chi sanno.) Solomon is a type of worldly 
 wisdom, of desire of knowledge for the sake of all 
 that knowledge can give. We imitate him Avhen 
 we would base the happiness of a people on knoAv- 
 ledge. When we have commanded the sun to be 
 our painter, and the lightning to run on our errands, 
 what reward have we ? Not the increase of happi- 
 
SOLOMON AND THE QUEEN OP SHEBA. 
 
 185 
 
 W 
 
 hat 
 
 IS 
 
 ness, nor the increase of jj^oodness ; nor 
 next to both — our faith in both." 
 
 " It would seem profane to contrast Solomon and 
 Christ had not our Saviour himself placed that 
 contrast distinctly before us. He consecrated the 
 comparison by applying it — * Behold a greater than 
 Solomon is here.' In quoting these words we do 
 not presume to bring into comparison the two 
 natures^ but the two intellects — the two aspects 
 of truth. Solomon described the external world ; 
 Christ taught the moral law. Solomon illustrated 
 the aspects of nature ; Christ helped the aspirations 
 of the spirit. Solomon left us as a legacy, the saying 
 that *in much wisdom there is much grief;' and 
 Christ preached to us the lowly wisdom which can 
 consecrate grief; making it lead to the elevation of 
 our whole being and to ultimate happiness. The 
 two majesties - the two kings — how different ! Not 
 till we are old, and have suffered, and have laid 
 our experience to heart, do we feel the immeasurable 
 distance between the teaching of Christ and the 
 teaching of Solomon ! " 
 
 Then returning to the Queen of Sheba, he treated 
 
 tlie character as the type of the intellectual woman. 
 
 He contrasted her rather favourably with Solomon. 
 
 He described with picturesque felicity, her long and 
 
 toilsome journey to see, to admire, the man whose 
 
 wisdom had made him renowned;— the mixture of 
 
 o 2 
 
 ' ■ Vn 
 
I'SM 
 
 li 
 
 186 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 Ml- '. I 
 
 I 
 
 I' \ 
 
 enthusiasm and humility which prompted her desire 
 to learn, to prove the truth of what rumour had 
 conveyed to her, to commune with him of all that 
 was in her heart. And she returned to her own 
 country rich in wise sayings. But did the final 
 result of all this glory and knowledge reach her 
 there? and did it shake her faith in him she had 
 bowed to as the wisest of kings and men ? " 
 
 He then contrasted the character of the Queen of 
 Sheba with that of Mary, the mother of our Lord, 
 that feminine type of holiness, of tenderness, of long- 
 suffering ; of sinless purity in womanhood, wifehood, 
 and motherhood: and rising to more than usual 
 eloquence and power, he prophesied the regeneration 
 of all human communities tlirough the social eleva- 
 tion, the intellect, the purity, and the devotion of 
 Woman. 
 
THE BODY. A TEMPLE. 
 
 187 
 
 V. 
 
 Fi'om a Sermon {apparently extempore) by a Dissenting Minister. 
 
 The ascetics of the old times seem to have had a 
 belief that all sin was in the body ; that the spirit 
 belonged to God, and the body to his adversary the 
 devil ; and that to contemn, iU-treat, and degrade by 
 every means this frame of ours, so wonderfully, so 
 fearfully, so exquisitely made, was to please the 
 Being who made it ; and who, for gracious ends, no 
 doubt, rendered it capable of such admirable deve- 
 lopement of strength and beauty. Miserable mis- 
 take I 
 
 To some, this body is as a prison from which we 
 are to rejoice to escape by any permitted means : to 
 others, it is as a palace to be luxuriously kept up and 
 decorated within and without. But what says Paul 
 (Cor. vi. 19.), — "Know ye not that your body is 
 the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which 
 ye have from God, and which is not your own?" 
 
 Surely not less than a temple is that form which 
 the Divine Redeemer took upon him, and deigned, 
 for a season, to inhabit ; which he consecrated by his 
 life, sanctified by his death, glorified by his trans- 
 figuration, hallowed and beautified by his resur- 
 rection ! 
 
 o 3 
 
 i 
 
 ! 1 
 
188 
 
 M 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 It in because they do not recognise this body as u 
 temple, built up by God's intelligence, as a fitting 
 sanctuary for the immortal Spirit, and this life equally 
 with any other form of life as dedicate to Him, that 
 men fall into such opposite extremes of sin : — the 
 spiritual sin which contemns the body, and the sen- 
 sual sin which misuses it. 
 
 VI. 
 
 When I was at Boston I made the acquaintance 
 of Father Taylor, the founder of the Sailors' Home 
 in that city. He was considered as the apostle of 
 the seamen, and I was full of veneration for him as 
 the enthusiastic teacher and philanthropist. But it 
 is not of his virtues or his labours that I wish to 
 speak. He struck me in another way, as a poet; 
 he was a born poet. Until he was five-and-twenty 
 he had never learned to read, and his reading after- 
 wards was confined to such books as aided him in 
 his ministry. He remained an illiterate man to the 
 last, but his mind was teemiiijj; with spontaneous 
 
 n, 
 
FATHER TAYLOR. 
 
 18tf 
 
 imagery, allusion, metaphor. One might almost say 
 
 of him, 
 
 " He could not ope 
 llis mouth, but out there flew a trope ! " 
 
 These images and allusions had a freshness, an origi- 
 nality, and sometimes an oddity that was quite start- 
 ling, and they were generally, but not always, bor- 
 rowed from his former profession — that of a vsailor. 
 
 One day we met him in the street. He told us 
 in a melancholy voice that he had been burying a 
 child, and alluded almost with emotion to the great 
 number of infants he had buried lately. Then after 
 a pause, striking his stick on the ground and looking 
 upwards, he added, " There nmst be something wrong 
 somewhere ! there's a storm brewing, when the doves 
 are all flying aloft ! " 
 
 One evening in conversation with me, he compared 
 the English and the Americans to Jacob's vine, which, 
 planted on one side of the wall, grew over it and 
 hung its boughs and clusters on the other side, — " but 
 it is still the same vine, nourished from the same 
 root ! " 
 
 On one occasion when I attended his chapel, the 
 sermon was preceded by a long prayer in behalf of 
 an afilicted family, one of whose members had died 
 
 o 4 
 
5 
 
 '1 
 
 \ '■ 
 
 li 
 
 ^9 
 
 u 
 
 SI" 
 
 tin 
 
 1. 1 . 
 
 
 i 
 
 ^ ,1 
 
 w 
 
 190 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS. 
 
 or been lost in a whaling expedition to the South 
 Seas. In the midst of much that was exquisitely 
 pathetic and poetical, refined ears were startled by 
 such a sentence as this, — " Grant, O Lord ! that this 
 rod of chastisement be sanctified, every twig of it, to 
 the edification of their souls ! " 
 
 Then immediately afterwards he prayed that the 
 Divine Comforter might be near the bereaved father 
 " when his aged heart went forth from his bosom to 
 flutter round the far southern grave of his boy ! " 
 Praying for others of the same family who were on 
 the wide ocean, he exclaimed, stretching forth hif< 
 arms, " O save them ! O guard them I thou angel 
 of the deep!" 
 
 On another occasion, speaking of the insufficiency 
 of the moral principles without religious feelings, he 
 exclaimed, " Go heat your oven with snowballs ! 
 What! shall I send you to heaven with such an 
 icicle in your pocket ? I might as well put a mill- 
 stone round your neck to teach you to swim ! " 
 
 He was preaching against violence and cruelty : 
 " Don't talk to me," said he, " of the savages ! a 
 ruffian in the midst of Christendom is the savage of 
 savages. He is as a man freezing in the sun's heat, 
 groping in the sun's light, a straggler in }>{iradise, an 
 alien in heaven ! " 
 
FATHER TAYLOR. 
 
 191 
 
 In his chapel all the principal seats in front of the 
 pulpit and down the centre isle were filled by the 
 sailors. We ladies, and gentlemen, and strangers, 
 whom curiosity had brought to hear him, were ranged 
 on each side ; he would on no account allow us to 
 take the best places. On one occasion, as he was de- 
 nouncing hypocrisy, luxury, and vanity, and other 
 vices of more civilised life, he said emphatically, " I 
 don't moan you before me here," looking at the sailors ; 
 " 1 believe you are wicked enough, but honest fel- 
 lows in some sort, for you profess less, not more, 
 than you practise ; but I mean to touch starboard and 
 larboard there!" stretching out both hands with 
 the forefinger extended, and looking at us on either 
 side till we quailed. 
 
 He compared the love of God in sending Christ 
 upon earth, to that of the father of a seaman who 
 sends his eldest and most beloved son, the hope of 
 the family, to bring back the younger one, lost on his 
 voyage, and missing when his ship returned to port. 
 
 Alluding to the carelessness of Chri.stians, he used 
 the figure of a mariner, steering into port through a 
 narrow dangerous channel, " false lights here, rocks 
 there, shifting sand banks on one side, breakers on 
 the other ; and who, instead of fixing his attention to 
 keep the head of liis vessel right, and to obey the 
 instruction?* of the pilot as he ssings out from the 
 
 '■■■ .*■ 
 
102 
 
 THEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTS, 
 
 wlicel, throws the pilot ovcrhoard, lashes down the 
 helm, and walks the deck whistling, with his hands 
 in the pockets of his jacket." Here, suiting the action 
 to the word, he put on a true sailor-like look of de- 
 fiant jollity ; — changed in a moment to an expres- 
 sion of horror as he added, " See ! see ! she drifts 
 to destruction 1 " 
 
 N 
 
 One Sunday he attempted to give to his sailor con- 
 gregation an idea of Redemption. He began with an 
 eloquent description of a terrific storm at sea, rising 
 to fury through all its gradations ; then, amid the 
 waves, a vessel is seen labouring in distress and 
 driving on a lee shore. The masts bend and break, 
 and go overboard ; the sails are rent, the helm un- 
 shipped, they spring a leak ! the vessel begins to fill, 
 the watfer gains on them ; she sinks deeper, deeper, 
 deeper! deeper! He bent over the pulpit repeating 
 the last words again and again ; his voice became low 
 and hollow. The faces of the sailors as they gazed 
 up at him with their mouths wide open, and their 
 eyes fixed, I shall never forget. Suddenly stopping, 
 and looking to the farthest end of the chapel as into 
 space, he exclaimed, with a piercing cry of exultation, 
 "A life boat! a life boat!" Then looking down 
 upon his congregation, most of whom had sprung to 
 their feet in an ecstasy of suspense, he said in a deep 
 impressive tone, and extending his arms, " Christ is 
 that life boat ! '' 
 
 ¥ 
 
RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 10S 
 
 VII. 
 
 RELIGION AND SCIENCK. 
 
 " It is true, that science has not made Nature as 
 expressive of God in the first instance, or to the be- 
 ginner in religion, as it was in earlier times. Science 
 reveals a rigid, immutable order ; and this to common 
 minds looks much like self-subsistence, and does not 
 manifest intelligence, which is full of life, variety, 
 and progressive operation. Men, in the days of 
 their ignorance, saw an immediate Divinity accom- 
 plishing an immediate purpose, or expressing an im- 
 mediate feeling, in every sudden, striking change of 
 nature — in a storm, the flight of a bird, &c. ; and 
 Nature, thus interpreted, became the sign of a pre- 
 sent, deeply interested Deity. Science undoubtedly 
 brings vast aids, but it is to prepared minds, to those 
 who have begun in another school. The greatest aid 
 it yields consists in the revelation it makes of the 
 Infinite. It aids us not so much by showing us 
 marks of design in this or that particular thing as by 
 shtjiwing the Injinite in ihajinite. Science does this 
 office when it unfolds to us the unity of the universe, 
 
 o 6 
 
191 
 
 THKOLOOICAL FRA0MBNT8. 
 
 which thua becomes the sign, the efflux of one un- 
 bounded intelligence, when it reveals to us in every 
 work of Nature infinite connections, the influences of 
 all-pervading laws — when it shows us in each created 
 thing unfathomable, unsearchable depths, to which 
 our intelligence is altogether unequal. Thus Nature 
 explored by science is a witness of the Infinite. It 
 is also a witness to the same trutli by its beauty ; for 
 what is so undefined, so mysterious as beauty?" — 
 Dr. Charming, 
 
 \ 
 
 *fT. 
 
 \ 
 
 >' 
 
 /^' 
 
of one iin- 
 118 in cvory 
 nflucnccs of 
 ach created 
 I, to which 
 hu8 Nature 
 nfinite. It 
 beauty ; for 
 eauty?"— 
 
 m 
 
 \P^\rlf 0, 
 
 fitcraturt anl^ Jlrt 
 
 ^ff' 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 «j 
 
 o 7 
 
iijiitrs friiiii 5Biuik0. 
 
 1. 
 
 " A GiiEAT advantage is derived from the occasional 
 ))ractice of reading together, for each person selects 
 different beauties and starts different objections: 
 wliile the same passage perhaps awakens in each 
 mind a different train of associated ideas, or raises 
 different images for the purposes of illustration." — 
 Francis Horner. 
 
 " C'est ainsi que je poursuis la communication de 
 quelque esprit fameux, non afin qu'il m'enseigne mais 
 afin que je le connaiss-c, et ({ue le connaissant, s'il le 
 faut, je I'imitc." Montaupie. 
 
igs 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 DR. ARNOLD. 
 
 3. 
 
 I SAT up till half-past two this morning reading 
 Dr. Arnold's " Life and Letters," and have my soul 
 full of him to-day. 
 
 On the whole I cannot say that the perusal of this 
 admirable book has changed any notion in my mind, 
 or added greatly to my stock of ideas. There was 
 no height of inspiration, or eloquence, or power, to 
 which I looked up ; no profound depth of thought or 
 feeling into which I looked down ; no new lights ; no 
 new guides; no absolutely new aspects of things 
 human oi* spiritual. 
 
 On the other hand, I never read a book of the 
 kind with a more harmonious sense of pleasure and 
 approbation, — if the word be not from me pre- 
 sumi)tuous. While I read page after page, the 
 mind which was unfolded before me seemed to me a 
 brother's mind — the spirit, a kindred spirit. It was 
 the improved, the elevated, the enlarged, the en- 
 riclied, the every-way superior reflection of my own 
 intelligence, but it was certainlv that. I felt it so 
 
DR. ARNOLD, 
 
 199 
 
 nff reaclinir 
 
 from beginnlnjT to end. Exactly the reverse was the 
 fcelmg with which I laid down the Life and Letters 
 of Southey. I was instructed, amused, interested ; 
 I profited and admired; but with the man Southey 
 I had no sympathies : my mind stood off from his ; 
 the poetical intellect attracted, the material of the 
 character repelled me. I liked the embroidery, but 
 the texture was disagreeable, repugnant. Now with 
 regard to Dr. Arnold, my entire sympathy with 
 the character, with the material of the character, did 
 not extend to all its manifestations. I liked the tex- 
 ture better than the embroidery ; — perhaps, because 
 of my feminine organisation. 
 
 Nor did my admiration of the intellect extend to 
 the acceptance of all the opinions which emanated 
 from it; perhaps because from the manner these 
 were enunciated, or merely touched upon (in letters 
 chiefly), I did not comprehend clearly the reasoning 
 on which they may have been founded. Perhaps, if 
 I had done so, I must have respected them more, 
 perhaps have been convinced by them ; so large, so 
 candid, so rich in knowledge, and apparently so 
 logical, was the mind which admitted them. 
 
 And yet this excellent, admirable man, seems to have 
 
 feared God, in the common-place sense of the word 
 
 fear. He considered the Jews as out of the pale of 
 
 equality ; he was against their political emancipation 
 
 from a hatred of Judaism. He subscribed to the 
 
200 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 Athanasian Creed, which stuck even in Georgfc the 
 Third's orthodox throat. He believed in what Cole- 
 ridge could not admit, in the existence of the spirit 
 of evil as a person. He had an idea that the Church 
 of God may be destroyed by an Antichrist; h(^ 
 speaks of such a consummation as possible, as pro- 
 bable, as impending ; as if any institution really from 
 God could be destroyed by an adverse power! — and 
 he thought that a lawyer could not be a Christian. 
 
 4. 
 Certain passages filled me with astonishment as 
 coming from a churchman, particularly what he says 
 of the sacraments (vol. ii. p. 75. 113.); and in another 
 place, where he speaks of " the pestilent distinction 
 between clergy and laity ;" and where he says, " 1 
 hold that one form of Church government is exactly 
 as much according to Christ's will as another." And 
 in another place he speaks of the Anglican Church 
 (with reference to Henry VITI. as its father, and 
 Elizabeth as its foster-mother), as " the child of regal 
 and aristocratical selfishness and unprincipled tyranny, 
 who has never dared to speak boldly to the great, 
 but has contented herself with lecturing the poor ; " 
 but he forgot at the moment the trial of the bishops 
 in James's time, and their noble stand ajjainst rejral 
 authority. 
 
DR. ARNOLD. -SECTARIANISM. 
 
 201 
 
 5. 
 With regard to conservatism (vol. ii. pp. 19. ()2.), 
 lie seema to mean — as I understand the wlu)le pai^s- 
 ajje, — that it is a good instinct but a h'Ai\ principle. 
 Yet as a principle is it, as he says, "always wrong?" 
 Though as the adversary of progress, it must be 
 always wrong, yet as the adversary of change it vmij 
 be sometmics right. 
 
 «l 
 
 iiriflH 
 
 
 ill 
 
 1'. 
 
 IIH 
 
 mm 
 
 
 »■ 
 
 '! 
 
 ill 
 
 
 ^1 
 
 
 ',1 If 1 ^ 
 
 At ^P 
 
 ii 
 
 
 1 r 
 
 
 1 1' 
 
 1 
 
 il 
 
 He remarks that most of those who arc above sec- 
 tarianism are in general indifferent to Christianity, 
 while almost all who profess to value Christianity 
 seem, when they arc brought to tlie test, to care only 
 for their own sect. " Now," he adds, " it is manifest 
 to me, that all our education must be Christian, and 
 not be sectarian." Yet the whole aim of education 
 up to this time has been, in this country, eminently 
 sectarian, and every statesman who has attempted to 
 place it on a broader basis has been either wrecked 
 or stranded. 
 
 " All sects," he says in another place, " have had 
 among them marks of Christ's Catholic Church in the 
 graces of his Spirit and the confession of his name," 
 and he seems to wish that some one would compile a 
 book showing side by side \vhat professors of all sects 
 have done for the good of Christ's Church, — the 
 
 )■ i 
 
202 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 martyrdoms, the missionary labours of Catholics, 
 Protestants, Arians, &c. ; " a grand field," he calls 
 it, — and so it were; but it lies fallow up to this 
 time. 
 
 " The philosophy of medicine, I imagine, is at 
 zero ; our practice is empirical, and seems hardly more 
 than a course of guessing, more or less happy." In 
 another plfice (vol. ii. p. 72.), he says, " yet I honour 
 medicine as the most beneficent of all professions." 
 
 ^f: 
 
 8. , 
 
 He says (vol. ii. 42.), " Narrow-mindedness tends 
 to wickedness, becajise it does not extend its watch- 
 fulness to every part of our moral nature." ** Thus, 
 a man may have one or more virtues, such as are 
 according to his favourite ideas, in great perfection : 
 and still be nothing, because these ideas are his idols, 
 and, worshipping them with all his heart, there is a 
 portion of his heart, more or less considerable, left 
 without its proper object, guide, and nourishment; 
 and so this portion is left to the dominion of 
 evil," &c. 
 
 (One might ask how, if a man worship these ideas 
 with all his heart, a portion could be left ? but the 
 sense is so excellent, I cannot quarrel with a sliglit 
 inaccuracy in the expression. I never uuito under- 
 
DR. ARNOLD. - CONSCIENCE. 
 
 808 
 
 stood before why it is difficult to subncribe to the 
 truth of the phrase " He is a good but a narrow- 
 minded man," hut felt the incompatibility.) 
 
 9. 
 
 He says " the word useful implies the idea of good 
 robbed of its nobleness." Is this true ? the useful is 
 the ffood applied to practical purposes ; it need not, 
 therefore, be less noble. The nobleness lies in the 
 spirit in which it is so applied. 
 
 10. 
 
 Benthamism (what is it?), Puritanism, Judaism, 
 how he hates them I I suppose, because he fea?'s 
 God and fears for the Church of God. Hatred of all 
 kinds seems to originate in fear. 
 
 11. 
 What he says of conscience, very remarkable ! 
 " Men get embarrassed by the common cases of a 
 misguided conscience : but a compass may be out of 
 order as well as a conscience; and you can trace 
 the deranging influence on the latter quite as surely 
 as on the former. The needle may point due south 
 If you hold a powerful magnet in that direction ; still 
 the compass, generally speaking, is a true and i?ure 
 guide," &c. and then he adds, " he who believes his 
 
 p 
 
204 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 (■^ ' f 
 
 conscience to be God's law, by obeying it obeys 
 God." 
 
 I think there would be much to say about all this 
 passage relating to conscience, nor am I sure that I 
 quite understand it. Derangement of the intellect 
 is madness; is not derangement of the conscience 
 also madness ? might it not be induced, as we bring 
 on a morbid state of the other faculties, by over use 
 and abuse? by giving it more than its due share of 
 l)ower in the commonwealth of the mind ? It should 
 preside, not tyrannise; rule, not exercise a petty 
 cramping despotism. A healthy courageous con- 
 science gives to the powers, instincts, impulses, fair 
 play ; and having once settled the order of govern- 
 ment with a strong hand, is not always meddling 
 though always watchful. 
 
 Then again, how is conscience " God's law?" 
 Conscience is not the law, but the interpreter of the 
 law ; it does not teach the difference between right 
 and wrong, it only impels us to do what we believe 
 to be right, and smites us when we think we have 
 been wrong. How is it that many have done wrong, 
 and every day do wrong for conscience' sake? — and 
 does that sanctify the wrong in the eyes of God, as 
 well as in those of John Huss ? 
 
 12. 
 
 ** Prayer," he says, " and kindly intercourse witli 
 
DR. ARNOLD. - COLKRIDGK. 
 
 2(>S 
 
 tiie poor, are the two great satcguardH of spiritual 
 life — its more than food and raiment." 
 
 True ; but there in something higher than this fed 
 and clothed spiritual life ; something more difficult, 
 yet less conscious. 
 
 1.1. 
 
 In allusion to Coleridge, he says very truly, that 
 the power of contemplation becomes diseased and 
 perverted when it is the main employment of life. 
 But to the same great intellect he does beautiful jus- 
 tice in another passage. " Coleridge seemed to me to 
 love truth really, and, therefore, truth presented herself 
 to him, not negatively, as she does to many minds, 
 who can see that the objections against her are un- 
 founded, and therefore that she is to be received ; but 
 she filled him, as it were, heart and mind, imbuing 
 him with her very self, so that all his being com- 
 prehended her fully, and loved her ardently; and 
 that seems to me to be true wisdom." 
 
 m\ 
 
 m 
 
 [•course witli 
 
 14. 
 
 Very fine is a passage wherein he S2)eaks against 
 meeting what is wrong and bad with negatives, with 
 merely proving the wrong to be wrong, and the false 
 to be false, without substituting for either the posi- 
 tively good and true. 
 
 p 2 
 
m 
 
 20C 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 15. 
 
 He contrasts as the two forms of the present danger 
 to the Church and to society, the prevalent epicurean 
 atheism, and the lying and formal spirit of priestcraft. 
 He seems to have had an impression that the Church 
 of God may be " utterly destroyed " (?), or, he asks, 
 " must we look forward for centuries to come to the 
 mere alternations of infidelity and superstition, scepti- 
 cism and Newmanism ?" It is very curious to see two 
 such men as Arnold and Carlylc both overwhelmed 
 with a terror of the magnitude of the mischiefti they 
 see impending over us. They are oppressed with 
 the anticipation of evil as with a sense of personal 
 calamity. Something alike, perhaps, in the tempera- 
 ments of these two extraordinary men; — large con- 
 scientiousness, large destructivene t^, and small hope : 
 there was great mutual sympathy and admiration. 
 
 16. 
 
 Very admirable what he says in favour of com- 
 prehensive reading, against exclusive reading in one 
 line of study. He says, " Preserve proportion in 
 your reading, keep your view of men and things ex- 
 tensive, and depend upon it a mixed knowledge is 
 not a superficial one ; as far as it goes the views that 
 it gives are true ; but he who reads deeply in one 
 class of writers only, gets views which are almost 
 
DR. ARNOLD. -HIS VIEWS ON BEAUTY. 
 
 2(>7 
 
 sure to be perverted, and wliicli arc not only narrow 
 butfalse,^'' 
 
 I 
 
 1 i\ 
 
 17. 
 
 All his descriptions of natural scenery and beauty 
 show his intense sensibility to them, but nowhere 
 is there a trace of the love or the comprehension 
 of art, as the reflection from the mind of man 
 of the nature and the beauty he so lo^•ed. Thus, 
 after dwelling on a scene of exquisite natural 
 beauty, he says, " Much more beautiful, because 
 made truly after God's own image, are the forms and 
 colours of kind, and wise, and holy thoughts, words, 
 and actions ; " that is to say — although he knew not 
 or made not the application — Art, in the high 
 sense of the word, for that is the embodying in beau- 
 tiful hues and fomis, what is kind, wise, and holy ; 
 in one word — good. In fact, he says himself, art, 
 physical science, and natural history, were not in- 
 cluded within the reach of his mind; the first for 
 want of taste, the second for want of time, and the 
 third for want of inclination. 
 
 18. 
 
 He says, " The whole subject of the brute creation, 
 
 r .3 
 
 m 
 
 I :- 
 
I.': >1 
 
 t ;, 
 
 131 i 
 li:;:; : 
 
 SOS 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 18 to ine one of «uch painful myntcry, that I dure 
 not approach it." ThU in very striking from such a 
 man. How deep, consciouHly or unccmsciously, docs 
 this feeling He in many minds ! 
 
 Bayle had already termed the acts, motives, and 
 feelings of the lower order of animals " un des 
 j)lus profonds abimes sur quoi notre raison peut 
 s'exerciser." 
 
 There is nothing, as I have sometimes thought, in 
 which men so blindly sin as in their appreciation and 
 treatment of the whole lower order of creatures. Jt 
 is affirmed that love and mercy towards animals are 
 not inculcated by any direct precept of Christianity, 
 but surely they are included in its spirit ; yet it has 
 been remarked that cruelty towards animals is far 
 more common in Western Christendom than in the 
 East. With the Mahometans and Brahminical races, 
 humanity to animals, and the sacredness of life in all 
 its forms, is much more of a religious principle than 
 among ourselves. 
 
 Bacon, in his " Advancement of Learning," does 
 not think it beneath his philosophy to point out as a 
 part of human morals, and a condition of human im- 
 provement, justice and mercy to the lower animals — 
 " the extension of a noble and excellent principle of 
 compassion to the creatures subject to man." " The 
 Turks," he says, " though a cruel and sanguinary 
 
PR. ARNOLD. - ANIMAL LIPK. 
 
 aoo 
 
 nation l)otli in dcHcont and discipline, ^ivc alms to 
 brutes, and t»nfl[or them not to l)c tortured." 
 
 It nhould piccm im if the primitive Chris<tiun.s, l)y 
 laying »o much stress upon a futiu'e life in eon- 
 tradintinction to this life, and placing the lower 
 creatures out of the pale of hope, placed them at the 
 same time out of the pale of sympathy, and thus laid 
 tlie foundation for this utter disregard of animals in 
 the light of our fellow creatures. Their definition of 
 ^irtue was the same as Palcy's — that it was good 
 pcrforaied for the sake of ensuring everlasting hap- 
 piness — which of course excluded all the so-called 
 brute creatures. Kind, loving, submissive, conscien- 
 tious, much-enduring, we know them to be ; but be- 
 cause we deprive them of all stake in the i'uture, 
 because they have no selfish calculated aim, these i 
 are not virtues; yet if we say " a vicious horse," why J 
 not say a virtuous horse ? 
 
 The following passage, bearing curiously enough 
 on the most abstruse part of the question, I found in 
 Ilallam's Literature of the Middle Ages : — " Few," 
 he says, " at present, who believe in the imma- 
 teriality of the human soul, would deny the same to 
 an elephant; but it must be owned that the dis- 
 coveries of zoology have pushed this to consequences 
 which some might not readily adopt. The spiritual 
 being of a sponge revolts a little our prejudices ; yet 
 there is no resting-place, and we must admit this, or 
 
 r 4 
 
 liillit 
 
/ 
 
 t is 
 
 210 
 
 NOTES PROM BOOKS. 
 
 be content to sink ourselves into a mass of medullary 
 fibre. Brutes have been as slowly emancipated in 
 philosophy as some classes of mankind have been in 
 civil polity; their souls, we see, were almost uni- 
 versally disputed to them at the end of the seven- 
 teenth century, even by those who did not absolutely 
 bring them down to machinery. Even within the 
 recollection of many, it was common to deny them 
 any kind of reasoning faculty, and to solve their 
 most sagacious actions by the vague word instinct. 
 We have come of late years to think better of our 
 humble companions ; and, as usual in similar cases, 
 the preponderant bias seems rather too much of a 
 levelling character." 
 
 When natural philosophers speak of " the higher 
 reason and more limited instincts of man," as com- 
 pared with animals, do they mean savage man or 
 cultivated man ? In the savage man the instincts 
 have a power, a range, a certitude, like those of 
 animals. As the mental faculties become expanded 
 and refined the instincts become subordinate. In 
 tame animals are the instincts as strong as in wild 
 animals ? Can we not, by a process of training, sub- 
 stitute an entirely different set of motives and 
 habits ? 
 
 Why, in managing animals, do men in general 
 make brutes of themselves to address what is most 
 brute m the lower creature, as if it had not been 
 
DR. ARNOLD. — ANIMAL LIFE. 
 
 211 
 
 1, as corn- 
 
 demonstrated that in using our higher faculties, our 
 reason and benevolence, we develop sympathetically 
 higher powers in them, and in subduing them through 
 wliat is best within us, raise them and bring them 
 nearer to ourselves ? 
 
 In general the mere we can gather of facts, the 
 nearer we are to the elucidation of theoretic truth. 
 But with regard to animals, the multiplication of 
 facts only increases our difficulties and puts us to 
 confusion. 
 
 " Can we otherwise explain animal instincts than 
 by supposing that the Deity himself is virtually the 
 active and present moving principle within them? 
 If we deny them soul, we must admit that they have 
 some spirit direct from God, what we call unerring 
 instinct, which holds the place of it," This is the 
 opinion which Newton adopts. Then are we to 
 
 infer that the reason of man removes him further 
 from God than the animals, since we cannot oifend 
 God in our instincts, only in our reason? and that 
 the superiority of the human animal lies in the power 
 of sinning ? Terrible power ! terrible privilege ! out 
 of which we deduce the law of progress and the 
 necetJsity for a future life. 
 
 The following passage bearing on the subject is 
 from Bentham : — 
 
 " The day may come when the rest of the animal 
 creation may ac(iuire those rights which never could 
 
 , 
 
 !!h 
 
 !i: 
 
 l,R 
 
:!" .OliWlfa 
 
 If Ml I* 
 
 ■'I n 
 
 w 
 
 .J 'iliv 
 
 r'f 
 
 -:;»- 
 
 ;'■'■> ' 
 
 & 's; 
 
 212 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 have been withholden from them but by the hand of 
 tyranny. It may come one day to be recognised 
 that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or 
 the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons insuf- 
 ficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the caprice 
 of a tormentor. What else is it that should trace the 
 insuperable line? is it the faculty of reason, or, 
 perhaps, the faculty of discourse ? But a full-grown 
 horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational as 
 well as a more conversable animal than an infant of 
 a day, a week, or even a month old. But suppose 
 the case were otherwise, what would it avail ? The 
 question is not, ' can they reason ? ' nor * can they 
 speak ? ' but * can they suffer ? '" 
 
 I do not remember ever to have lieard the kind 
 and just treatment of animals enforced upon Chris- 
 tian principles or made the subject of a sermon. 
 
 .j;.. 
 
 19. 
 
 Once, when I was at Vienna, there was a dread 
 of hydrophobia, and orders were given to massacre all 
 
DR. ARNOLD. - ANIMAL LIFE. 
 
 21.? 
 
 the (logs which were foiincl unclaimed or uncollared 
 ill the city or suburbs. Men were employed for this 
 purpose, and they generally carried a short heavy 
 stick, which they flung at the poor proscribed animal 
 with such certain aim as either to kill or maim it 
 mortally at one blow. It happened one day that, 
 close to the edge of the river, near the Ferdinand's- 
 Briicke, one of these men flung his stick at a 
 wretched dog, but with such bad aim that it fell into 
 the river. The poor animal, following his instinct or 
 his teaching, immediately plunged in, redeemed the 
 stick, and laid it down at the feet of its owner, who, 
 snatching it up, dashed out the creature's brains. 
 
 I wonder what the Athenians would have done to 
 such a man? they who banished the judge of the 
 Areoi)agus because he flung away the bird which 
 
 ii 
 
 I' i 
 si I 
 
 'IS 
 
 
 
 %-\ 
 
 had sought shelter in his bosom ? 
 
 20. 
 
 I return to Dr. Arnold. 
 
 He laments the neglect of our cathedrals, and the 
 absurd confusion in so many men's minds " between 
 what is really Po|)ery, and what is but wisdom and 
 
 
 .•; 
 
214 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 1.1 ! 
 
 ' is 
 
 'A- 
 
 ^f ti 
 
 beauty adopted by the Roman Catholics and neglected 
 
 by us." 
 
 21. 
 
 He says, " Then, only, can opportunities of evil be 
 taken from us, when we lose also all opportunity of 
 doing or becoming good." An obvious, even com- 
 mon-place thought, well and tersely expressed. The 
 inextricable co-relation and apparent antagonism of 
 good and evil were never more strongly put. 
 
 The defeat of Varus by the Germans, and the de- 
 feat of the Moors by Charles Martel, he ranked 
 as the two most important battles in the history of 
 the world. I see why. The first, because it de- 
 cided whether the north of Europe was to be com- 
 pletely Latinised ; the second, because it decided 
 whether all Europe was to be completely Ma- 
 homedanised. 
 
 23. 
 " How can he who labours hard for his daily 
 bread — hardly and with doubtful success — be made 
 wise and good, and therefore how can he be made 
 happy ? This question undoubtedly the Church was 
 meant to solve ; for Christ's kingdom was to undo 
 the evil of Adam's sin; but the Church has not 
 
DR. ARNOLD. — SCHOOL LIFE. 
 
 215 
 
 solved it nor attempted to do so, and no one else has 
 gone about it rightly. How shall the poor man find 
 tune to be educated ? " 
 
 This question, which " the Church has not yet 
 solved," men have now set their wits to solve for 
 themselves. 
 
 24. 
 
 When in Italy he writes: — "It is almost awful 
 to look at the beauty which surrounds me and then 
 think of moral evil. It seems as if heaven and hell, 
 instead of being separated by a great gulf from us 
 and from each other, were close at hand and on each 
 other's confines." 
 
 " Might but the sense of moral evil be as strong 
 in me as is my delight in external beauty ! " I 
 
 A prayer I echo. Amen I if by the sense he moan 
 the abhorrence of it; otherwise, to be perpetually 
 haunted with the perception of moral evil were 
 dreadful ; yet, on the other hand, I am half ashamed 
 sometimes of a conscious shrinking within myself from 
 the sense of moral evil, merely as I should shrink 
 from external filth and deformity, as hateful to per- 
 ception and recollection, rather than as hateful to God 
 and subversive of goodness. 
 
 2.5. 
 
 Here is a very striking passage. He says, " A 
 
■ n 
 
 216 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 
 13' 
 
 in. 
 
 hi! 
 
 p ( 
 
 great school is very trying ; it never can pro- 
 sent images of rest and peace ; and when the spring 
 and activity of youth are altogether unsanctified by 
 anything pure and elevated in its desires, it becomes 
 a spectacle that is dizzying and almost more morally 
 distressing than the shouts and gambols of a set of 
 (lunatics. It is very startling to see so much of sin 
 I combined with so little of sorrow. In a parish, 
 amongst the poor, whatever of sin exists there is sure 
 also to be enough of suffering : poverty, sickness, and 
 old age are mighty tamers and chastisers. But, with 
 boys of the richer classes, one sees nothing but 
 plenty, health, and youth ; and these are really awful 
 to behold, when one must feel that they are un- 
 blessed. On the other hand, few things are more 
 beautiful than when one does see all holy and noble 
 thoughts and principles, not the forced growth of 
 pain, or infirmity, or privation, but springing up as 
 by God's immediate planting, in a sort of garden of 
 all that is fresh and beautiful ; full of so much hope 
 for this world as well as for heaven." 
 
 To this testimony of a schoolmaster let us add the 
 testimony of a schoolboy. De Quincey thus describes 
 in himself the transition from boyhood to manhood : 
 " Then first and suddenly were brought powerfully 
 before me the change which was worked in the 
 aspects of society by the presence of woman ; woman, 
 pure, thoughtful, noble, coming before me as Pandora 
 
 
DR. ARNOLD. -SCHOOL LIFE. 
 
 217 
 
 crowned with perfections, llight over against this 
 ennobling spectacle, with equal suddenness, I placed 
 the odious spectacle of schoolboy society — no matter 
 in what region of the earth, — schoolboy society, so 
 frivolous in the matter of its disputes, often so 
 brutal in the manner ; so childish and yet so remote 
 from simplicity; so foolishly careless, and yet so 
 revoltingly selfish ; dedicated ostensibly to learning, 
 and yet beyond any section of human beings so con- 
 spicuously ignorant." 
 
 There is a reverse to this picture, as I hope and 
 believe. If I have met with those who looked back 
 on their school-days with horror, as having first con- 
 taminated them with " evil communication," I have 
 met with others whose remembrances were all of 
 sunshine, of early friendships, of joyous sports. 
 
 Nor do I think that a large school composed 
 wholly of girls is in any respect better. In the low 
 languid tone of mind, the petulant tempers, the 
 small spitefulnesses, the cowardly concealments, the 
 compressed or ill-directed energies, the precocious 
 vanities and affectations, many such congregations of 
 Femmelettes would form a worthy pendant to the pic- 
 ture of boyish turbulence and vulgarity drawn by 
 Dc Quincey. 
 
 I am convinced from my own recollections, and 
 from all I have learned from experienced teachers in 
 large schools, that one of the most fatal mistakes in 
 
 I 
 
 !! I 
 
218 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 ! M'^ 
 
 \4 
 
 the training of children has been the too early sepa- 
 ration of the sexes. I say, has been, because I find 
 that everywhere this most dangerous prejudice has 
 been giving way before the light of truth and a more 
 general acquaintance with that primal law of nature, 
 which ought to teach us that the more we can assimi- 
 late on a large scale the public to the domestic train- 
 ing, the better for all. There exists still, the im- 
 pression — in the higher classes especially — that in 
 early education, the mixture of the two sexes would 
 tend to make the girls masculine and the boys effe- 
 minate, but experience shows us that it is all the 
 other way. Boys learn a manly and protecting ten- 
 derness, and the girls become at once more feminine 
 and more truthful. Where this association has 
 begun early enough, that is, before five years old, 
 and has been continued till about ten or twelve, it 
 has uniformly worked well; on this point the evi- 
 dence is unanimous and decisive. So long ago as 
 1812, Francis Horner, in describing a school he 
 visited at Enmore, near Bridgewater, speaks with 
 approbation of the boys and the girls standing up 
 together in the same class; it is the first mention, I 
 find, of this innovation on the old collegiate, or 
 charity-school plan, — itself a continuation of the 
 monkish discipline. He says, "I liked much the 
 placing the boys and girls together at an early age ; 
 it gave the boys a new spur to emulation." When 
 
DR. ARNOLD. SCHOOL LIPF. 
 
 210 
 
 1 have seen a class of j^irls stand up togothcr, there 
 has been a sort of empty tittering, a vacancy in the 
 face.", an inertness, which made it, as I thought, very 
 up-hill work for the teacher ; so when it was a class 
 of boys, there has been often a sluggishness — a ten- 
 dency to ruffian tricks —requiring perpetual effort on 
 the part of the master. In teaching a class of boys 
 and girls, accustomed to stand up together, there is 
 little or nothing of this. They are brighter, readier, 
 better behaved ; there is a kind of mutual influence 
 working for good; and if there be emulation, it is 
 not mingled with envy or jealousy. Mischief, such 
 as might be apprehended, is in this case far less 
 likely to arise than where boys and girls, habitually 
 separated from infancy, arc first thrown together, 
 just at the age when the feelings are first awakened 
 and the association has all the excitement of novelty. 
 A very intelligent schoolmaster assured me that he 
 had had more trouble with a class of fifty boys, than 
 with a school of three hundred boys and girls to- 
 gether (in the midst of whom I found him), and that 
 there were no inconveniences resulting which a wise 
 and careful and efficient superintendence could not 
 control. " There is," said he, " not only more cmu- 
 lation, more quickness of brain, but altogether a 
 ' superior healthiness of tone, body and mind, where 
 the boys and girls are trained together till about ten 
 years old; and it extends into their after life: — I 
 
 
m. 
 
 ii " 
 
 Mr 
 
 I \ 
 
 n 
 
 ii 
 
 Hi A 
 
 
 
 Ifpi 
 
 lii' 
 1 1 
 
 f-. i ■■ tii 
 
 
 
 m>'. 
 w 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 4^ 
 
 m- 
 
 no 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 should say because it is in accordance with the laws 
 of God in forming us with mutual sympathies, moral 
 and intellectual, and mutual dependence for help 
 from the very beginning of life." 
 
 What is curious enough, I find many people — 
 fathers, mothers, teachers, — who are agreed that in 
 the schools for the lower classes, the two sexes may 
 be safely and advantageously associated, yet have a 
 sort of horror of the idea of such an innovation in 
 schools for the higher classes. One would like to 
 know the reason for such a distinction, instead of 
 being encountered, as is usual, by a sneer or a vile 
 innuendo. 
 
 1 
 
 .^i^^. 
 
 NIEBUHR. 
 
 LIFB AND LETTERS, 1852. 
 
 26. 
 
 In a letter to a young student in philology there are 
 noble passages in which I truly sympathise. He 
 
 ii-*' 
 
NIEUUIIR. 
 
 Ml 
 
 f^iivH, mnonjjj other things : " I wish you had loss 
 [)lciiaure in natires, not excepting those of Horace. 
 Turn to the works which elevate the heart, in wliich 
 you contcniphitc great men and great evcntir», and 
 live in a higher world. Turn away from those which 
 represent the mean and contemptible side of ordinary 
 circumstances and degenerate days: they are not 
 suitable for the young, who in ancient times would 
 not have been suffered to have them in their hands. 
 Homer, ^schylus, Sophocles, Pindar, — these are 
 the poets for youth." And again : " Do not read 
 the ancient authors in order to make ajsthctic reflec- 
 tions on them, but in order to drink in their spirit 
 and to fill your soul with their thoughts; and in 
 order to gain that by reading which you would have 
 gained by reverently listening to the discourses of 
 ffreat men." 
 
 We should turn to works of art with the same 
 feeling. 
 
 On the whole, all my own educational experience 
 has shown me the dangerous — in some cases fatal — 
 effects on the childish intellect, where precocious 
 criticism was encouraged, and where caricatures and 
 ugly disproportioned figures, expressing vile or ridi- 
 culous emotions, were placed before the eyes of 
 children, as a means of amusement. 
 
 If I were a legislator I would forbid travesties and 
 ridiculous burlesques of Shakspeare's finest and most 
 
 Q 2 
 
 
I 
 
 m 
 
 222 
 
 NOTK8 PROM ROOKS. 
 
 ■:\' h ' 
 
 I ■ 
 
 serious dramns to be acted in our tlicatrcn. Tliiii 
 this has been done and recently (as in the case of t\n\ 
 Merchant of Venice) seems to me a national disjrmco. 
 
 27. 
 
 It is strange, confounding, to hear Niel)uhr speak 
 thus of Goethe:-- 
 
 " I am inclined to think that Goethe is utterly 
 destitute of susceptibility to impressions from the fine 
 arts." (! 1) He afterwards does more justice to Goethe 
 — certainly one of the profoundest critics in art Avho 
 ever lived; although I am inclined to think that 
 his was an educated perception rather than a natural 
 sensibility. Niebuhr's criticism on Goethe's Italian 
 travels, — on Goethe's want of sympathy with the 
 people, — his regarding the whole country and nation 
 simply as a sort of bazaar of art and antiquities, 
 an exhibition of beauty and a recreation for himself: 
 his habit of surveying all moral and intellectual great- 
 ness, all that speaks to the heart, with a kind of 
 patronising superiority, as if created for his use, — and 
 finding amusement in the folly, degeneracy, and cor- 
 ruption of the people; — all this appears to me 
 admirable, and so far I had strong sympathy with 
 Niebuhr ; for I well remember that in readins: 
 Goethe's " Italianische Reise," I had the same per- 
 ception of the heartless and the superficial in point 
 of feeling, in the midst of so much that was fine and 
 
N 1 E UU 11 R. 
 
 aa 
 
 viiluiihle in criticism. It is well to l»c artistic in art, 
 but not to walk about the world rti nrtistv, studying; 
 luiinanity, and the deepest human interests, as if they 
 were art. 
 
 Niebuhr afterwards says, in speaking of Kome, 
 " I am sickened here of art, as I should be of sweet- 
 meats instead of bread." So it rnust be where art is 
 separated wholly from morals. 
 
 28. 
 
 He speaks of the " wretched superstition," and the 
 "utter incapacity for piety" in the people of the 
 Roman States. 
 
 Superstition and the want of piety go together ; 
 and the combination is not peculiar to the Italians, 
 nor to the lioman Catholic faith. 
 
 29. 
 
 In speaking of the education of his son, he de- 
 precates the learning by rote of hymns. "To a 
 happy child, hymns deploring the misery of human 
 life are without meaning." (And worse.) " So like- 
 wise to a good child are those expressing self-accu- 
 sation and contrition." (He might have added, and 
 self-applause.) 
 
 I am quite sure, from my own experience of 
 children who have been allowed to learn penitential 
 
 Q 3 
 
\n 
 
 ! 
 
 i 
 
 
 f ; 
 
 n 
 
 ¥>]' I 
 
 224 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 psalms and hymns, that they think of wickedness as 
 a sort of thing which gives them self-importance. 
 
 30. 
 
 " Only what the mind takes in willingly can it 
 assimilate with itself, and make its own, part of its 
 life." 
 
 A truism of the greatest value in education ; but 
 who thinks of it when cramming children's minds 
 with all sorts of distasteful heterogeneous things ? 
 
 31. 
 
 " When reflection has become too one-sided and 
 too domineering over a deeply feeling heart, it is apt 
 to lead us into errors in our treatment of others." 
 
 And all that follows — very wise ! for the want of 
 this reflection leaves us stranded and wrecked through 
 feeling and perception merely. 
 
 32, 
 
 Very curious and interesting, as a trait of character 
 and feeling, is the passage in which he represents 
 himself, in the dangerous confinement of his second 
 wife, as praying to his first wife for succour. " In 
 my terrible anxiety," he says, " I prayed most 
 earnestly, and entreated my Milly, too, for help. 1 
 comforted Gretchen by telling her that Milly would 
 send help. When she was at the worst, she sighed 
 out, * Ah, cannot your Amelia send me a blessing?' " 
 
NIEBUHB. 
 
 iM 
 
 This is curious from a Protestant and a philo- 
 sopher. It shows that there may be something 
 nearly allied to our common nature in the Koman 
 Catholic invocation to the saints, and to the souls of 
 the dead. 
 
 33. 
 
 Niebuhr, speaking of a lady (Madame von der 
 Kecke, I think, — the " Elise " of Goethe) who had 
 patronised him, says, ** I will receive roses and 
 myrtles from female hands, but no laurels." 
 
 This makes one smile; for most of the laurels 
 which Niebuhr will receive in this country will be 
 through female hands — through the admirable trans- 
 lation and arrangement of his life and letters by 
 Susanna Winkworth. 
 
 Ml 
 
 I;, i 
 
 8: " i 
 
 :| 
 
 34. 
 
 The following I read with cordial agreement: — 
 " While I am ready to adopt any well-grounded 
 opinion" (regarding, I suppose, mere facts, or specu- 
 lations as to things), *' my inmost soul revolts against 
 receiving the judgment of others respecting persons ; 
 and whenever I have done so I have bitterly repented 
 of it." 
 
 35. 
 
 He says, " I cannot worship the abstraction of 
 
 g 4 
 
1.5 i\ 
 
 I Ji 1 
 
 t li 
 
 i 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 Virtue. She only charms me when she addressea 
 herself to my heart, and speaks thus the love from 
 which she springs. I really love nothing but what 
 actually^exists." 
 
 What does actually exist to us but that which we 
 believe in ? and where we strongly love do we not 
 believe sometimes in the unreal? is it not then the 
 existing and the actual to us ? 
 
 36. 
 
 " A faculty of a quite peculiar kind, and for which 
 we have no word, is the recognition of the incom- 
 prehensible. It is something which distinguishes the 
 seer from the ordinary learned man." 
 
 But in religion this is faith. Does Niebuhr admit 
 this kind of faith, " the recognition of the incompre- 
 hensible," in philosophy and not in religion ? for he 
 often complains of the want in himself of any faith 
 but an historic faith. 
 
 37. 
 
 " In times of good fortune it is easy to appear 
 great — nay, even to act greatly ; but in misfortune 
 very difficult. Tlic greatest man will commit blunders 
 in misfortune, because the want of proportion be- 
 tween his means and his ends progressively increases, 
 and his inward strength is exhausted in fruitiest^ 
 efforts." 
 
NIEBUHR. 
 
 227 
 
 This is true ; but under all extremes of good or 
 evil fortune we are apt to commit mistakes, because 
 tlie tide of the mind does not flow equally, but rushes 
 along impetuously in a flood, or brokenly and dis- 
 tractedly in a rocky channel, where its strength is 
 exhausted in conflict and pain. The extreme pressure 
 of circumstances will produce extremes of feeling in 
 minds of a sensitive rather than a firm cast. 
 
 , n 
 
 38. 
 
 Tliis next passage is curious as a scholar's opinion 
 of "free trade" in the year 1810; though I believe 
 '^he phrase " free trade " was not even invented at 
 . a time — certainly not in use in the statesman's 
 vocabulary. 
 
 '* I presume you will admit that commerce is a 
 good thing, and the first requisite in the life of any 
 nation. It appears to me, that this much has now 
 been palpably demonstrated, namely, that an advanced 
 and complicated social condition like this in which we 
 live can only be maintained by establishing mutual 
 relationships between the most remote nations ; and 
 that the limitation of commerce would, like the 
 sapping of a main pillar, inevitably occasion the fall 
 of the whole edifice ; and also that commerce is so 
 essentially beneficial and in accordance with man's 
 nature, that the well-being of each nation is an 
 
229 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 advantage to all the nations that stand in connection 
 with it." 
 
 It is strange how long we have been (forty years, 
 and more,) in recognising these simple principles; 
 and in Germany, where they were first enunciated, 
 they are not recognised yet. 
 
 CHARACTER OF DEMADES. 
 
 (VBOM NIEBUUB'S LECTUBBS.) 
 
 39. 
 
 \ 
 
 "Br his wit and his talent, and more especially 
 by his gift as an improvisatore, he rose so high that 
 he exercised a great influence upon the people, and 
 sometimes was more popular even than Demosthenes. 
 With a shamelessness amounting to honesty, he 
 bluntly told the people everything he felt and what 
 all the populace felt with him. When hearing such 
 a man the populace felt at their ease ; he gave them 
 the feeling that they might be wicked without 
 being disgraced, and this excites with such people a 
 feeling of gratitude. There is a remarkable passage 
 in Plato, where he shows that those who deliver 
 hollow speeches, without being in earnest, have no 
 
CHARACTER OF DEMADE8. 
 
 229 
 
 n connection 
 
 power or influence ; whereas others, who are devoid 
 of mental culture, but say in a straightforward 
 manner what they think and feel, exercise great 
 power. It was this which in the eighteenth century 
 gave the materialist philosophy in France such enor- 
 mous influence with the higher classes ; for they were 
 told there was no need to be ashamed of the vul- 
 garest sensuality ; formerly people had been ashamed, 
 but now a man learned that he might be a brutal 
 sensualist provided he did not offend against elegant 
 manners and social conventionalism. People rejoiced 
 at hearing a man openly and honestly say what they 
 themselves felt. Demades was a remarkable charac- 
 ter. He was not a bad man ; and I like him much 
 better than Eschines." 
 
 What an excuse, what a sanction is here for the 
 demagogues who direct the worst passions of men 
 to the worst and the most selfish purposes, and the 
 most debasing consequences ! Demades " not a bad 
 man ? " then what is a bad man ? 
 
2:nt 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 LORD BACON. 
 
 (1849.) 
 
 40. 
 
 " It was not the pure knowledge of nature and 
 universality, but it was the proud knowledge of 
 good and evil, with an intent in man to give the law 
 unto himself, which was the form of the first tempta- 
 tion." 
 
 But, in this sense, the first temptation is only the 
 type of the perpetual and ever-present temptation — 
 the temptation into which we are to fall througli 
 necessity, that we may rise through love. 
 
 41. 
 
 Here is an excellent passage — a severe comment- 
 ary on the unsound, unchristian, unphilosophical, 
 distinction between morals and i)olitic8 in govern- 
 ment : — 
 
 I i\ 
 
LORD BACON. 
 
 231 
 
 " Although men bred in learning are perhaps to 
 peck in points of convenience and reasons of* state 
 and accommodations for the present, yet, on the 
 other hand, to recompense this they are perfect in 
 those same plain grounds of religion, justice, honour, 
 and moral virtue which, if they be well and watch- 
 fully pursued, there will be seldom use of those other 
 expedients, no more than of physic in a sound, well- 
 directed body." 
 
 42. 
 
 " Now (in the time of Lord Bacon, that is,) now 
 sciences are delivered to be believed and accepted, 
 and not to be farther discovered ; and therefore, 
 sciences stand at a clog, and have done for many 
 as-es." 
 
 In the present time, this is true only, or espe- 
 cially, of theology as an art, and divinity as a science ; 
 so made by the schoolmen of former ages, and not 
 yet emancipated. 
 
 43. 
 
 " Generally he perceived in men of devout simpli- 
 city this opinion, that the secrets of nature were the 
 secrets of God, part of that glory into which man is 
 not to press too boldly." 
 
 God has placed no limits to the exercise of the 
 intellect he has given us on this side of the grave. 
 
 ni 
 
?Jt 
 
 ill' 
 
 ( I 
 
 232 
 
 NOTES PROM BOOKS. 
 
 But not the lesa will he keep his own secrets from 
 us. Has he not proved it? who has opened that 
 door to the knowledge of a future being which it, 
 has pleased him to keep shut fast, though watched 
 by hope and by faith ? 
 
 44. 
 
 The Christian philosophy of these latter times 
 appears to be foreshadowed in the following sentence, 
 where he speaks of such as have ventured to deduce 
 and confirm the truth of the Christian religion from 
 the principles and authorities of philosophers : " Thus 
 with great pomp and solemnity celebrating the inter- 
 marriage of faith and sense as a lawful conjunction, 
 and soothing the minds of men with a pleasing 
 variety of matter, though, at the same time, rashly 
 and unequally intermixing things divine and things 
 human." 
 
 This last common-place distinction seems to me, 
 however, unworthy of Bacon. It should be banished 
 — utterly set aside. Things which are divine should 
 be human, and things which are human, divine ; not 
 as a mixture, " a medley," in the sense of Bacon's 
 words, but an interfusion ; for nothing that we 
 esteem divine can be anything to us but as we make 
 it ours^ i. e. humanise it ; and our humanity were a 
 poor thing but for " the divinity that stirs within 
 us." We do injury to our own nature — we miscon- 
 
 ,!-.. 
 
LORD BACON. 
 
 2.33 
 
 ccivc our relations to the Creator, to his univerHo, 
 and to each other, so long as we separate and stu- 
 diously keep wide apart the divine and the human. 
 
 45. 
 
 " Let no man, upon a weak conceit of sobriety or 
 an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain that a 
 man can search too far or be too well studied either 
 in the book of God's word or the book of God's 
 works." Well advised I But then he goes on to 
 warn men that they do not " unwisely mingle or 
 confound their learnings together : " mischievous 
 this contradistinction between God's word and God's 
 works ; since both, if emanating from him, must be 
 equally true. And if there be one truth, then, to 
 borrow his own words in another place, " the voice 
 of nature will consent, whether the voice of man do 
 so or not." 
 
 46. 
 
 Apropos to education — here is a good illustration : 
 " Were it not better for a man in a fair room to set up 
 one great light or branching candlestick of lights, 
 than to go about with a rushlight into every dark 
 corner?" 
 
 And here is another : " It is one thing to set 
 forth what ground lieth unmanured, and another to 
 correct ill husbandry in that which is manured." 
 
Ir 
 
 ;t\i! 
 
 ii 
 
 J; 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 234 
 
 NOTKS FROM BOOKS. 
 
 47. 
 
 " It is without all controversy that learning doth 
 make the minds of men gentle and generous, ami- 
 able and pliant to government, whereas ignorance; 
 maketh them churlish, thwarting, and nmtinous." 
 
 48. 
 
 (( 
 
 An impatience of doubt and an unadvised haste 
 to assertion without due and mature suspension of 
 the judgment, is an error in the conduct of the under- 
 standing." 
 
 " In contemplation, if a man begin with certainties 
 he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to 
 begin with doubts he shall end in certainties." Well 
 said and profoundly true. 
 
 This is a celebrated and often-cited passage; an 
 admitted principle in theory. I wish it were oftencr 
 applied in practice, — more especially in education. 
 For it seems to me that in teaching children o. 
 ought not to be perpetually dogmatising. We ouglit 
 not to be ever placing before them only the known 
 and the definite; but to allow the unknown, the 
 uncertain, the indefinite, to be suggested to their 
 minds : it would do more for the growth of a truly 
 religious feeling than all the catechisms of scien- 
 tific facts and creeds of theological definitions that 
 ever were taught in cut and dried question and 
 
LORD BACON. 
 
 2»5 
 
 nadviHcd haste 
 
 "it 
 
 ■,sj 
 
 answer. Why should not the younj; candid mind 
 be allowed to reflect on the unknown, a8 such ? 
 on the doubtful, as such — open to inquiry and 
 liable to discussion ? Why will teachers suppose that 
 in confessing their own ignorance or admitting un- 
 certainties they must diminish the respect of their 
 pupils, or their faith in truth? I should say from my 
 own experience that the eftect is just the reverse. 
 1 remember when a child, hearing a very cele- 
 brated man profess his ignorance on some particular 
 subject, and I felt awe-struck — it gave me a per- 
 ception of the infinite, — as when looking up at the 
 starry sky. What we unadvisedly cram into a child's 
 mind in the same form it has taken in our own, does 
 not always healthily or immediately assimilate ; it 
 dissolves away in doubts, or it hardens into prejudice, 
 instead of mingling with the life as truth ought to 
 do. It is the early and habitual surrendering of the 
 mind to authority, which makes it afterwards so 
 ready for deception of all kinds. 
 
 49. 
 
 He speaks of " legends and narrations of miracles 
 wrought by martyrs, hermits, monks, which, though 
 they have had passage for a time by the ignorance 
 of the people, the superstitious simplicity of some, and 
 the politic toleration of others, holding them but as 
 divine poesies ; yet after a time they grew up to be 
 
 R 
 
I^f 
 
 NOTES FROM »(K)KB. 
 
 esteemed but as old wives' fables, to the great scandal 
 and detriment of relijjion." 
 
 Very ambiguous, surely. Docs he mean that it 
 was to the great scandal and detriment of religion 
 that they existed at all? or that they came to b(» 
 regarded as old wives' fables ? 
 
 80. 
 
 Ho says, farther on, " though truth and error arc 
 carefully to be separated, yet rarities and reports 
 that seem incredible are not to be sui)pres8ed or 
 denied to the memory of men." 
 
 " For it is not yet known in what cases and 
 how far effects attributed to superstition do partici- 
 pate of natural causes." 
 
 51. 
 
 (( 
 
 To be speculative with another man to the end 
 to know how to work him or wind him, proceedetli 
 from a heart that is double and cloven, and not 
 entire and ingenuous ; which, as in friendship, it is a 
 want of integrity i so towards princes or superiors it 
 is a want of duty.'''* (No occasion, surely, for the 
 distinction here drawn ; inasmuch as the want of 
 integrity involves the want oi every duty.) 
 
 Then he speaks of " the stooping to points of ne- 
 cessity and convenience and outward basenesses," as to 
 be accounted " submission to the occasion, not to the 
 
LORD BACON. 
 
 in 
 
 person." Vile distinction ! an cxcumc to liiniHelt' for 
 Ills dedication to the Kinj?, and hin flattery of Carr 
 and Villier.-. 
 
 52. 
 Our English Universities are only now beginning; 
 to show some sign (reluctant sign) of submitting U 
 that re-examination which the gri;;it phii >s>>plii'V re- 
 commended two hundred and fifty years arro when 
 he says: "Inasmuch as most of the U5.^[j;««3 ayA 
 orders of the universities were derived I'vom i</* re 
 obscure times, it is the more requisite! Ihoy be re- 
 examined" — and more to the same puvpo-^e. 
 
 53. 
 
 " If that great Workmaster (God) had beer* of a 
 human disposition, he would have cast the nlurs luto 
 some pleasant and beautiful works and O'.'dors like 
 the frets in the roofs of houses ; whereas, one can 
 scarce find a posture in square or triangle or straight 
 line amongst such an infinite number, so diiierin<r an 
 harmony there is between the spirit '.'i' ipan and the 
 spirit of nature." 
 
 Perhaps if our human vision Q(^i\d hd renioved to a 
 sufficient distance to contemplr a the whole of what we 
 now see in part, what appears disorder might appear 
 beautiful order. The stars which now appear as if 
 flung about at random, would perhaps be resolved 
 
 R 2 
 
 
 vn 
 
 ill 
 
238 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 .',. i 
 
 P I i 
 
 into some exquisitely beautiful and regular edifice. 
 The fly on the cornice, " whose feeble ray scarce 
 spreads an inch around," might as well discuss the 
 proportions of the Parthenon as we the true figure 
 and frame of God's universe. 
 
 I remember seeing, through Lord Rosse's telescope, 
 one of those nebulae which have hitherto appeared 
 like small masses of vapour floating about in space. 
 I saw it composed of thousands upon thousands of 
 brilliant stars, and the effect to the eye — to mine at 
 least — was as if I had had my hand full of diamonds, 
 and suddenly unclosing it, and flinging them forth, 
 they were dispersed as from a centre, in a kind of 
 partly irregular, partly fan-like form ; and I had a 
 strange feeling of suspense and amazement while 
 I looked, because they did not change their relative 
 position, did not fall — though in act to fall — but 
 seemed fixed in the very attitude of being flung forth 
 into space; — it was most wondrous and beautiful 
 to see ! 
 
 I i 
 
 f." 
 
 i,i<t 
 
 r»l 
 
IX)RD BACON. 
 
 ^ffular edifice. 
 
 54. 
 
 It is pleasant to me to think that Bacon's 
 stupendous intellect believed in the moral progress 
 of human societies, because it is my own belief, and 
 one that I would not for worlds resign I indeed 
 believe that each human being must here (or here- 
 after?) work out his own peculiar moral life: but 
 also that the whole race has a progressive moral life : 
 just as in our solar system every individual planet 
 moves in its own orbit, while the whole system 
 moves on together ; we know not whither, we know 
 not round what centre — ** ma pur si muovc ! " 
 
 55. 
 
 Yet he says in another place, with equal wit and 
 sublimity, " Every obtaining of a desire hath a show 
 of advancement, as motion in a circle hath a show of 
 progression." Perhaps our movement may he spiral? 
 and every revolution may bring us nearer and nearer 
 to some divine centre in which we may be absorbed 
 at Inst ? 
 
 ( i 
 
 56. 
 
 He refers in this following passage to that theory 
 of the angelic existences which we see expressed in 
 ancient symbolic Art, first by variation of colour 
 only, and later, by variety of expression and form. 
 
240 
 
 NOTES PROM BOOKS. 
 
 m 
 
 inisii 
 
 itlh 
 
 H < 
 
 He says, — " We find, as far as credit is to be given 
 to the celestial hierarchy of that supposed Dionysius, 
 the senator of Athens, that the first place or degree 
 is given to the Angels of Love, which are called 
 Seraphim ; the second to the Angels of Light, which 
 are termed Cherubim ; and the third, and so follow- 
 ing, to Thrones, Principalities, and the rest (which 
 are all angels of power and ministry) ; so as the 
 angels of knowledge and illumination are placed 
 before the angels of oflSce and domination." 
 — But the Angels of Love are first and over all. 
 In other words, we have here in due order of pre- 
 cedence, 1. Love, 2. Knoavledge, 3. Power,— the 
 angelic Trinity, which, in unity, is our idea of God. 
 
 CHATEAUBRIAND. 
 
 ("M£M0;RES d'outre-tomde." 1851.) 
 
 H -Afi I 
 
 .57. 
 
 Chateaubriand tells us that when his mother and 
 sisters urged him to marry, he resisted strongly — he 
 
CHATEAUBRIAND. 
 
 241 
 
 thought it too early; hesaya with a peculiar naivete, 
 « Je ne me sentais aucune ];^aalite de mari : toutes 
 mc3 illusions etaient vivaiites, rien n'etait epuise en 
 moi, I'energie meme de mon existence avait double 
 par mes courses," &c. 
 
 So then the " existence epuise " is to be kept for 
 the wife! "la vie usee^^ — "lajeunesse abusee^'" is good 
 enough to make a husband ! Chateaubriand, who in 
 many passages of his book piques himself on his 
 morality, seems quite unconscious that he has here 
 given utterance to a sentiment the most profoundly 
 immoral, the most fatal to both sexes, that even his 
 immoral age had ever the effrontery to set forth. 
 
 \\ 
 
 58. 
 
 " II parait qu'on n'apprend pas a mourir en tuant 
 les autres." 
 
 Nor do we learn to suffer by inflicting pain : 
 nothing so patient as pity. 
 
 i^ 
 
 ■ I 
 
 59. 
 
 t( 
 
 Le cynisme des moeurs ramene dans la societe, 
 enannihilant le sens moral, une sorte de barbares; ces 
 barbares de la civilisation, propres a dctruire comme 
 lea Goths, n'ont pas la puissance de fonder comme 
 cux; ceux-ci etaient les enormes enfants dune nature 
 vierge; ceux-la sont les avortons monstrueux d'une 
 nature depravee." 
 
 u 4 
 

 
 !t: 
 
 rf? 
 
 tff 
 
 f;r, 
 
 M 
 
 S' 
 
 I 
 
 
 iiRi 
 
 l;ii':l 
 
 III 1 
 ;ilil|ii 
 
 i;l ! 
 
 f. 
 
 I'll 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 We too often make the vulgar mistake that 
 undisciplined or overgrown passions are a sign of 
 strength; they are the signs of immaturity, of 
 "enormous childhood." — And the distinction (above) 
 is well drawn and true. The real savage is that 
 monstrous, malignant, abject thing, generated out of 
 the rottenness and ferment of civilisation. And yet 
 extremes meet : I remember seeing on the shores of 
 Lake Huron some Indians of a distant tribe of Chip- 
 pawaa, who in appearance were just like those 
 fearful abortions of humanity which crawl out of 
 the darkness, filth, and ignorance of our great towns, 
 just so miserable, so stupid, so cruel, — only, per- 
 haps, less loicked. 
 
 60. 
 
 Chateaubriand was always comparing himself with 
 Lord Byron — he hints more than once, that Lord 
 Byron owed some of his inspiration to the perusal 
 of his works— more especially to Renee. Tn this he 
 was altogether mistaken. 
 
 til. 
 "Una intelligence superieure n'enfante pas le nml 
 sans douleur, parceque ce n'est pas son fruit naturcl, 
 et qu'elle ne devait pas le porter." 
 
 Madame de Coeslin (whom he describes as an ini- 
 
CHATEAUBRIAND. 
 
 2V\ 
 
 mistake that 
 [are a sign of 
 imatiirity, of 
 [nction (above) 
 (savage is tliat 
 nerated out of 
 on. And yet 
 the shores of 
 tribe of Chip- 
 Lisr like those 
 crawl out of 
 ir great towns, 
 , — only, per- 
 
 personation of aristocratic morgue and all the pre- 
 tension and prejudices of the ancien regime), " lisant 
 dans un journal la mort de plusieurs rois, elle ota ses 
 lunettes et dit en se mouchant, * II y a done une ejn- 
 zootie sur ccs betes a courotine / '" 
 
 I once counted among my friends an elderly lady 
 of high rank, who had spent the whole of a long life 
 iu intimacy with royal and princely personages. In 
 three different courts she had filled offices of trust 
 and offices of dignity. In referring to her experience 
 she never either moralised or generalised ; but her 
 scorn of **ces betes a couronne," was habitually 
 expressed with just such a cool epigrammatic blunt- 
 ness as that of Madame de Coeslin. 
 
 ■ I 
 
 I 
 
 ig himself with 
 nee, that Lord 
 to the perusal 
 ee. In this he 
 
 mte pas le nial 
 1 fruit naturel. 
 
 bes 
 
 as an nn- 
 
 6'}. 
 
 " L'aristocratie a trois ages successifs ; I'age des 
 superiorites, I'age des privileges, I'age des vanites ; 
 sortie du premier, elle degenere dans le second et 
 s'eteint dans le dernier." 
 
 In Geraiany they are still in the first epoch. In 
 England we seem to have arrived at the second. In 
 France they are verging on the third. 
 
 G4. 
 
 Chateaubriand says of himself: — 
 " Dans le premier moment d'une offense je la sens 
 •d peine ; mais elle se grave dans ma raemoire ; son 
 
24i 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 souvenir au lieu dc decroitre, s'augmente avec le 
 temps. II dort dans mon coeur des mois, des annucs 
 entieres, puis il se reveille li la moindre circonstancc 
 avec une force nouvelle, et ma blessure devient plus 
 vive que le pr<3mier jour : mais si je ne pardonne 
 point a mes ennemis je ne leur fais aucun mal ; je 
 suis rancunier et ne suis point vindicntif.^^ 
 
 A very nice and true distinction in point of feel- 
 ing and character, yet hardly to be expressed in 
 English. We always attach the idea of malignity 
 to the word rancour, whereas the French words 
 rancune, rancunier, express the relentless without 
 the vengeful or malignant spirit. 
 
 Such characters make me turn pale, as I have done 
 at sight of a tomb in which an offending wretch had 
 been buried pTive. There is in them always some- 
 thing acute and deep and indomitable in the internal 
 and exciting emot'on; slow, scrupulous, and timid 
 in the external demonstration. Cordelia is such a 
 character. 
 
 65. 
 
 Chateaubriand savs of his friend Pelletrie, — " II 
 n'avait pas precisement des vices, mais il etait rongc 
 d'une vermine de petits defauts dont on ne pouvait 
 I'epurer." I know such a man ; and if he had com- 
 mitted a murder every morning, and a highway 
 robbery every night, - if he had killed his father and 
 
CHATEAUBRIAND. 
 
 2IS 
 
 eaten him with any possible sauce, he could not be 
 more intolerable, more detestable than he is I 
 
 66. 
 
 " Un homme nous protege par cc qu'il vaut ; une 
 fenime par ce que vous valez: voila pourquoi de ces 
 deux empires I'un est si odieux, I'autre si doiix." 
 
 t 
 
 67. 
 
 He says of Madame Roland, "EUe avait du carac- 
 terc plutot que du genie ; le premier pent donner le 
 second, le second ne peut donner le premier." What 
 does the man mean ? this is a mistake surely. What 
 the French call caractere never could give genius, 
 nor genius, caractere. Au reste^ I am not sure that 
 Madame Roland — admirable creature! — had genius; 
 but for talent, and caractere — first rate. 
 
 68. 
 
 " Soyons doux si non voulons etre regettes. La 
 hauteur du genie et les qualites superieures ne sont 
 plcurees que des anges." 
 
 " Veillons bien sur notre caractere. Songeons que 
 nous pouvons avec un attachement profond n'en pas 
 moins empoisonner des jours que nous racheterions 
 au prix de tout notre sang. Quand nos amis sont des- 
 cendus dans la tombe, quels moyens avons nous de 
 reparer nos torts ? nos inutiles regrets, nos vains 
 

 ii^^i 
 
 
 Wi'^ * 
 
 
 p 
 
 ^;|1^; -I 
 
 
 11 
 
 24A 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 repentird, sunt ila un remede aux peines que nous 
 leurs avons faites? lis aur<nicnt mieux aim6 de nou» 
 un sourire pendant leur vie que toutes nos larmes 
 aprSs leur mort." 
 
 69. 
 
 " L'amour est si bien la felicity qu'il est poursuivi 
 de la chiraere d'etre toujours ; il ne veut prononcer 
 que des sermentsirrevocables; au defaut de ses joies, 
 il cherche k eterniser ses douleurs ; ange tombe il 
 parle encore le langage qu'il parlait au sejour incor- 
 ruptible ; son esperance est de ne cesser jamais. 
 Dans sa double nature et dans sa double illusion, ici- 
 bas il pretend se perpetuer par d'immortelles pensees 
 et par des generations intarissables." 
 
 Madame d'Houdetot, after the death of Saint Lam- 
 bert, always before she went to bed used to rap three 
 times with her slipper on the floor saying, — " Bon 
 soir, mon ami ! bon soir, bon soir I " 
 
 So then, she thought of her lover as gone down — 
 not up? 
 
BIBHOP CUMBERLAND. 
 
 247 
 
 
 "? 
 
 BISHOP CUMBERLAND. 
 
 DISnOP OF FETEBBOBOUOn IK lOUl. 
 
 ! ' 
 
 71. 
 
 Bishop Cumberland founds the law of God, 
 as revealed in the Scriptures, upon the general law 
 of nature. He does not attempt to found the laws 
 of nature upon the Bihle. " We believe," he says, 
 " in the truth of Scripture, because it promotes and 
 illustrates the fundamental laws of nature in the 
 government of the world." 
 
 Then does the Bishop mean here that the Bible is 
 not the WORD nor the will of God, but the exposi- 
 tion of the WORD and the record of the will, so far 
 as either could be rendered communicable to human 
 comprehension through the medium of human lan- 
 jjuajxe and intelligence ? 
 
 There is a striking passage in Bunsen's Hipolytus, 
 which may be considered with reference to this 
 opinion of the Bishop. 
 
 He (Bunsen) says, that " what relates the his- 
 
 H 
 
243 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKH. 
 
 tory of * the word of God' in hia humanity, and in 
 this world, and what records its teachings, and warn- 
 ings, and promises (that is, the Bible ?) was mistaken 
 for * the word of God' itself, in its proper sense." 
 
 Does he mean that we deem erroneously the col- 
 lection of writings we call the Bible to be " the word 
 of God;" whereas, in fact, it is "the history, the 
 record of the word of God?" that is, of all that God 
 has spoken to man — in various revelations — throiij^h 
 human life — by human deeds? — because this is 
 surely a most important and momentous distinction. 
 
 Ill' ' im 
 
 72. 
 
 According to Bishop Cumberland, benevolence , in 
 its large sense, — that is, a regard for all good, uni- 
 versal and particular, — is the primary law of nature; 
 and Justice is one form, and a secondary form, of this 
 law : a moral virtue, not a law of nature, — if I un- 
 derstand his meaning rightly. 
 
 Then which would he place highest, the law of 
 nature or the moral law ? 
 
 If you place them in contradistinction, then are 
 we to conclude that the law of nature precedes the 
 moral law, but that the moral law supersedes the Irav 
 of nature? Yet no law of nature (as I under- 
 stand the word) can be superseded, though the moral 
 law may be based upon it, and in that sense may 
 be above it. 
 
BISHOP CUMBERLAND. 
 
 249 
 
 jhest, the law of 
 
 inction, then are 
 
 ure precedes the 
 
 ipersedes the law 
 
 re (as I under- 
 
 lough the moral 
 
 that sense may 
 
 78. 
 
 In this following passage the Bishop seems to have 
 anticipated what in more modern times has been 
 called the " greatest happiness principle.^'* He says: — 
 
 " Tl»e good of all rational beings is a complex 
 wliolc, being nothing but the aggregate of good en- 
 joyed by each/' " We can only act in our proper 
 spheres, labouring to do good, but this labour will 
 be fruitless, or rather mischievous, if we do not keep 
 in mind the higher gradations which terminate in 
 universal benevolence. Thus, no man must seek his 
 own pleasure or advantage otherwise than as his 
 family permits ; or provide for his family to the 
 detriment of his country ; or promote the good of his 
 country at the expense of mankind ; or serve man- 
 kind, if it were possible, without regard to the 
 majesty of God." 
 
 74. 
 
 Paley deems the recognition of a future state so 
 essential that he even makes the definition of virtue 
 to consist in this, that it is good performed for the 
 sake of everlasting happiness. That is to say, he 
 makes it a sort of bargain between God and man, a 
 contract, or a covenant, instead of that obedience to 
 a primal law, from which if we stray in will, we do 
 so at the necessary expense of our happiness. Bishop 
 
 va 
 
 
 n 
 
 '. ! 
 
h' 
 
 I'M I" 
 
 I ! 'i| 3 ^ I 
 
 ;:ii 
 
 250 
 
 NOTES FROM HOOKH. 
 
 Cumberland bus no rct'orence to tbin doctrino of 
 Palcy's ; — seems, indeed, to set it imdo altogetbor, 
 as contrary to tbe essence of virtue. 
 
 On tbe wbole, tbis good liinliop appears to bave 
 treated etbics not as an ecclesiastic, but as Ha(*<)i) 
 treated natural philosopby ; — tbe pervading npirit 
 is tbe perpetual appeal to experience, and not to 
 autbority. 
 
 COMTE'S PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 1862. 
 
 75. 
 
 CoMTE makes out tbree elements of progrcsfs. 
 " les pbilosopbes, les proletaires, et les femmes :" 
 : — types of intellect, material activity, and sentirtient. 
 
 From Woman, be says, is to proceed the preponder- 
 ance of the social duties and affections over effotism 
 and ambition. (La preponderance de la sociabilite 
 sur la personalite.) He adds : — " Ce sexe est cer- 
 tainement superieure au notre quant a I'attribut le 
 
COMTK'S PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 »l 
 
 plus fondamcntalc ilc I'cspt^cc hitmainc, la tonclencc 
 (Ic tairc prcvaloir la sociahilite 8ur la pcrsonnlite, 
 
 ?fi. ■ ' 
 
 " S'il ne fiiUait qiC aimer comme dans I'Utopic 
 Chrctiennc, 8ur une vie future ail.iuichie dc toute 
 r<roi(<tc ncccssite mat^rielle, la femmc regnerait; mais 
 il taut surtout agir et penser pour combattrc contro 
 les rigucurs dc notrc vraic destin^ie : d^s-lors riiomnic 
 doit commander malgrc sa moindrc nioralite." 
 
 " Malgr6 ?" Sometimes man commands because of 
 tlic "moindre morality :"— it spares much time in 
 scruples. u--itJ«/L kX.*^^.^~ ^s %v,**-c«X. c^v >>.V4.A.(«ca.<h a-i/Ma** 
 
 77. 
 
 " L'infliience feminine devient I'auxiliaire indis- 
 pensable de tout pouvoir spirituel, comme le moyen- 
 itge Ta tant montrd." 
 
 " Au moyen ^ge la Catholicism occidentale {3baucha 
 la systematisation de la puissance morale en super- 
 posant d I'ordre pratique une libre autoritc spirituelle, 
 liabituellement secondee par les femmes." 
 
 78. 
 
 « La Force, proprement dite, c'est ce qui regit les 
 actes, sans regler les volontes. 
 
 Herein lies a distinction between Force and 
 Power ; for Power, properly so called, does both. 
 
NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 I & 
 
 1" 
 
 III 
 
 79. 
 
 He insists throughout on the preclominance of so- 
 ciabilite over personalite — and what is that but tlie 
 Christian law philosophised ? and again, " II n'y a 
 de directement morale dans notre nature que 
 I'amour." Where did he get this, if not in the Gospel 
 of St. John? 
 
 " Celui qui se croirait independant des autres dans 
 ses affections, ses pensees, ou ses actes, ne pourrait 
 meme formuler un tel blaspheme sans une contra- 
 diction immediate — puisque son langagc meme ne lui 
 appartient pas." 
 
 80. 
 
 He says that if the women regret the age of 
 chivalry, it is not for the external homage then paid 
 to them, but because "I'element le plus moral de 
 I'humanite" (woman, to wit) "doit preferer a tout 
 autre le seul regime qui erigea directement en prln- 
 cipe la preponderance de la morale sur la politique. 
 Si elles regrettent leur douce influence anterieure, 
 c'est surtout comme s'effagant aujourd'hui sous un 
 grossier egoisme. 
 
 " Leurs vocux spontanes seconderont toujours Ics 
 efforts directes des philosophes et des proletaires 
 pour transformer enfin les debats politiqucs en 
 transactions sociales en faisant prevaloir les devoirs 
 sur les droits.''^ 
 
-■/ 
 
 COMTE'S PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 253 
 
 This is admirable ; for we are all inclined to think 
 more about our rights (and our wrongs too) than 
 about our duties. 
 
 t 
 
 81. 
 
 " Si done aimer nous satisfait mieux que d'etre 
 aime, cela constate la superiority naturelle des afFec- 
 tions desinteress^es." 
 
 Meaning — what is true — that the love we bear 
 to another, much more fills the whole soul and is 
 more a possession, more of an actuating principle, than 
 the love of another for us : — but both are necessary 
 to the complement of our moral life. The first is 
 as the air we breathe ; the last is as our daily bread. 
 
 82. 
 
 He says that the only true and firm friendship is 
 that between man and woman, because it is the only 
 affection " exempte de toute concurrence actuelle 
 ou possible." 
 
 In this I am inclined to agree with him, and to 
 regret that our conventional morality or immorality, 
 and the too early severance of the two sexes in edu- 
 cation, place men and women in such a relation to 
 each other, socially, as to render such friendships 
 difficult and rare. 
 
 83. 
 
 " En verit(3 I'amour nc saurait etre profond, s'il 
 n'est pas pur," 
 
 s2 
 
 I )l 
 
 \- i 
 
 I- -A 
 
 \\ 
 
m 
 
 
 2S4 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 ( irr.:;i;i 
 
 Hi" ill 
 
 Christianity, he says, " a favoris^ Tcssor de la 
 veritable passion, tandisque le polytheisme consacrait 
 surtout les appetits." 
 
 He is speaking here as teacher, philosopher, and 
 legislator, not as poet or sentimentalist. Perhaps it 
 will come to be recognised, sooner or later, that what 
 people are pleased to call the romance of life is 
 founded on the deepest and most immutable laws of 
 our being, and that any system of ecclesiastical 
 polity, or civil legislation, or moral philosophy, whicli 
 takes no account of the primal instincts and affections, 
 which are the springs of life and on which God made 
 the continuation of his world to depend, must of 
 necessity fail. 
 
 I have just read a volume of Psychological Essays 
 by one of the most celebrated of living surgeons, and 
 closed the book with a feeling of amazement : a lonj; 
 life spent in physiological experiences, dissecting dead 
 todies, and mending broken bones, has then led him, 
 at last, to some of the most obvious, most commonly 
 known facts in mental philosophy ? So some of our 
 profound politicians, after a long life spent in govern- 
 ing and reforming men, may arrive, at last, at some of 
 the commonest facts in social morals. 
 
 84. 
 
 He contends for the indissolubility of marriage, and 
 
 iiiiiii{ii 
 
COMTE'S PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 266 
 
 ty of marriage, and 
 
 a<»aiiist. divorce ; and he thinks that education should 
 be in the hands of women to the age of ten or twelve, 
 " Afin que le cccur y prevale toujours sur I'csprit:" 
 all very excellent principles, but supi)osing a hypo- 
 thetical social and moral state, from which we are as 
 yet far removed. What he says, however, of the in- 
 dissolubUity of the marriage bond is so beautiful and 
 eloquent, and so in accordance with my own moral 
 theories, that I cannot help extracting it from a mass 
 of heavy and sometimes unintelligible matter. He 
 begins by laying it down as a princii)le that the 
 " amelioration morale de I'homme constitue le princi- 
 pale mission de la feinme," and that " une telle des- 
 tination indique aussitot que le lien conjugal doit 
 etre unique et indissoluble, afin que les relations 
 domestiques puissent acquerir la plenitude et la 
 fixite qu'exige leur efficacitc morale." This, how- 
 ever, supposes the holiest and completest of all bonds 
 to be sealed on terms of equality, not that the latter 
 end of a man's life, la vie usee et la jemiesse epuisee, 
 are to be tacked on to the beginning of a woman's 
 fresh and innocent existence ; for then influences are 
 reversed, and instead of the amelioration of the mas- 
 culine, we have the demoralisation of the feminine, 
 nature. He supposes the jiossibility of circum- 
 stances w^liich demand a personal separation, but even 
 then sans permettre uri noacemc marriage. In such 
 
 s a 
 
. ' i 
 
 ill 
 
 iiilii 
 
 256 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 a case his religion imposes on the innocent victim 
 (whether man or woman) " une chastete compatible 
 d'ailleurs avec la plus profonde tendresse. Si cette 
 condition lui semble rigoureuse, il doit Taccepter, 
 d'abord, en vue de I'ordre general ; puis, comme vine 
 juste consequence de son erreur primitive." 
 
 There would be much to say upon all this, if it 
 were worth while to discuss a theory which it is not 
 possible to reduce to general practice. We cannot 
 imagine the possibility of a second marriage where 
 the first, though perhaps unhappy or early ruptured, 
 has been, not a personal relation only, but an inter- 
 fusion of our moral being, — of the deepest impulses of 
 life — with those of another ; these we cannot have a 
 second time to surrender to a second object; — but 
 this might be left to Nature and her holy instincts to 
 settle. However, he goes on in a strain of eloquence 
 and dignity, quite unusual with him, to this effect : — 
 " Ce n'est que par I'assurance d'une inalterable per- 
 petuite que les liens intimes peuvent acquerir la 
 consistance et la plenitude indispensable a leur effica- 
 cite morale. La plus meprisable des sectes ephemeres 
 que suscita I'anarchie moderne (the Mormons, for in- 
 stance?) me parait etre celle qui voulut eriger I'incon- 
 stance en condition de bonheur.'' . . . . " Entre deux 
 etres aussi complexes et aussi divers que I'homme et 
 la fenmie, ce n'est pas trop de toutc la vie pour se 
 bicn connuitrc et s'aimer diguemcnt. Loin de taxer 
 
 
 i 
 
COMTE'S PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 257 
 
 innocent victim 
 itete compatible 
 Iresse. Si cette 
 doit Taccepter, 
 )iiis, comme line 
 itive." 
 
 )n all this, if it 
 
 ' which it is not 
 
 3e. We cannot 
 
 marriage where 
 
 early ruptureci, 
 
 y, but an inter- 
 
 spcst impulses of 
 
 e cannot have a 
 
 d object; — but 
 
 loly instincts to 
 
 lin of eloquence 
 
 o this effect : — 
 
 inalterable per- 
 
 snt acquerir la 
 
 )le a leur effica- 
 
 ctes ephemeres 
 
 lormons, for in- 
 
 :; erif^er I'incon- 
 
 . " Entre deux 
 
 que I'homme et 
 
 la vie pour se 
 
 Loin de taxer 
 
 d'illusion la haute idee que deux vrais epoux s^c 
 forment souvent I'un de I'autre, je I'ai presque 
 toiijours attribuee $i 1' appreciation plus profonde que 
 procure seule vine ])leine intimlte, qui d ailleurs de- 
 vcloi^pe des qualites inconnues aux indiffercnts. On 
 doit meme regarder con:..ie tres-honorablo pour 
 notre espece, cette grande estime que ses menibres 
 s'inspirent mutuellement quand ils s'etudient beau- 
 coup. Car la haine et Vindifference mcritc7'aient 
 scules le reproche (Tuveufflement qvhine aj)preciation 
 superficielle applique a Vamour. II faut done juger 
 plelnement conforme a la nature huniaine I'institution 
 ([ui prolonge an dela dii tombeau I'indentification de 
 deux dignes epoux." 
 
 He lays down as one of the primal instincts of 
 human kind " lltomme doit nourir la femmeP This 
 may have been, as he says, a universal instinct; 
 perhaps it ought to be one of our social ordina- 
 tions ; perhaps it may be so at some future time ; 
 but we know that it is not a present fact ; that the 
 woman must in many cases maintain herself or 
 l)eri8h, and she asks nothing more than to be allowed 
 to do so. 
 
 However, I agree with Comte that the position 
 of a woman, enriched and independent by her own 
 l;d)oiir, is anomaloas and seldom happy. It is a 
 remark I have heard somewhere, and it appears to 
 me true, that there exists no being so hard, so 
 
 8 4 
 
 I \l 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 :t': 
 
 ■II 
 
258 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 keen, so calculating, so unscrupulous, so merciless 
 in money matters as the wife of a Parisian shop- 
 keeper, where she holds the purse and manages tlie 
 concern, as is generally the case. 
 
 i' 
 
 85. 
 
 Here is a passage wherein he attacks that egotism 
 which with many good people enters so largely into 
 the notion of another world ; — which Paley incul- 
 cated, and which Coleridge ridiculed, when he spoke 
 of " this worldliness," find the " other worldliness." 
 
 '* La sagesse sacerd( tale, digne organe de I'instinct 
 public, y avait intimement rattachd les principales 
 obligations sociales a titre de condition indispensable 
 du salut personnel : mais la recompense infinie pro- 
 mise ainsi a tons les sacrifices ne pouvait jamais 
 permcttre une affection pleinement d(3sinteress<!;e." 
 
 This perpetual iteration of a system of future 
 reward and punishment, as a principle of our religion 
 and a motive ^f action, has in some sort demoralised 
 Christianity ; especially in minds where love is not a 
 chief element, and which do not love Christ for his 
 love's sake, but for his power's sake ; because judg- 
 ment and punishment are supp"??ed to be in his 
 hand. 
 
 86. 
 
 Putting the test of revelation out of the question, 
 and dealing with the philosopher philosophically, tlic 
 
COMTE'8 PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 2S0 
 
 best refutation of Comte's system is contained in the 
 following criticism : it seems to me final. 
 
 " In limiting religion to the relations in which we 
 stand to each other, and towards Humanity ^ Comte 
 omits one very important consideration. Even upon 
 his own showing, this Humanity can only be the 
 supreme being of our planet, it cannot be the Supreme 
 Being of the Universe. Now, although in this our 
 terrestrial sojourn, all we can distinctly know must 
 be limited to the sphere of our planet ; yet, stand- 
 ing on this ball and looking forth into infinitude, we 
 know that it is but an atom of the infinitude, and 
 that the humanity we worship here, cannot extend 
 its dominion there. If our relations to humanity 
 may be systematized into a cultus, and made a reli- 
 gion as they have formerly been made a morality, 
 and if the whole of our practical priesthood be 
 limited to this religion, there will, nevertheless, 
 remain for us, outlying this terrestrial sphere, — the 
 .sphere of the infinite, in which our thoughts nuist 
 wander, and our emotions will follow our thoughts; 
 so that besides the religion of huiaanity there must 
 ever be a religion oi the Universe. Or, to bring 
 this conception within ordinary language, there must 
 ever remain the old distinctions between religion and 
 morality^ our relations to God, and our relations 
 towards man. The only difference being, that in 
 the old theology moral precepts wore inculcated with 
 
 ¥. 
 
; m 
 
 260 
 
 NOTES PROM BOOKS. 
 
 a view to a celestial habitat ; in the neiv, the nioriil 
 precepts are inculcated with a view to the general 
 progress of the race." — Westminster Review. 
 
 In fact the doctrine of the non-plurality of worl(l« 
 as recently set forth by an eminent professor and 
 D.D. would exactly harmonise with Comte's " Cultc 
 du Positif," as not merely limiting our sympathies 
 to this one form of intellectual being, but our re- 
 ligious notions to this one habitable orb. 
 
 But to those who take other views, the argument 
 above contains the philosophical objection to Comte's 
 system, as such ; and I repeat, that it seems to me un- 
 answerable; but there are excellent things in his 
 theory, notwithstanding; — things that make us pause 
 and think. In some parts it is like Christianity with 
 Christ, as a personalite, omitted. For Christ the 
 humanised divine, he substitutes an abstract deified 
 humanity. 1854. 
 
(JOKTHK. 
 
 2U1 
 
 GOETHE. 
 
 (DU'HTL'XO i;ni) waiiuiieit.) 
 
 .; ' I 
 
 87. 
 
 "•As a man embraces the determination to become 
 a soldier and go to the wars, bravely resolved to bear 
 dangers, and difficulties, and wounds, and death 
 itsolF, but at the same time never anticipating the 
 [)articular form in which those evils may surprise us 
 ill an extremely unpleasant manner; — just so we 
 rush into authorship ! " 
 
 ! ^M 
 
 88. 
 
 Goethe says of Lavater, " that the conception of 
 humanity which had been formed in himself, and in 
 his own humanity, was so akin to the living image of 
 Clirist, that it was impossible for him to conceive 
 how a man could live and breathe without being a 
 Chns?tian. Pie had, so to speak, a physical affinity 
 
',1! 
 
 h 
 
 262 
 
 NOTES PROM BOOKS. 
 
 with Chriatianity ; it was to him a necessity, nut 
 only morally, but from organisailon." 
 
 Lavater's individual feeling Avas, perhaps, but an 
 anticipation of that which may become general, uni- 
 versal. As we rise in the scale of being, as we 
 become more gentle, spiritualised, refined, and in- 
 telligent, will not our " physical affinity" with the re- 
 ligion of Christ become more and more apparent, till 
 it is less a doctrine than a principle of life? So its 
 Divine Author knew, who prepared it for us, and is 
 preparing and moulding us through progressive im- 
 provement to comprehend and receive it. 
 
 89. 
 
 Goethe speaks of " polishing up life with the 
 varnish of fiction;" the artistic turn of the man's 
 mind showed itself in this love of creating an effect 
 in his own eyes and in the eyes of others. But what 
 can fiction — what can poetry do for life, but present 
 some one or two out of the multitudinous aspects of 
 that grand, beautiful, terrible, and infinite mystery ? 
 or by life, does he mean here the mere external forms 
 of society ? — for it is not clear. 
 
 '^^A^^^. 
 
 LXS. 
 
HAZLITT'S LIBER AMORI8. 
 
 2ea 
 
 I uecessityj not 
 
 HAZLITT'S "LIBER AMORIS," 
 
 1827. 
 
 90. 
 
 Is love, like faith, ennobled through its own depth 
 and fervour and sincerity ? or is it ennobled through 
 the nobility, and degraded through the degradation 
 of its object ? Is it with love as with worship ? Is 
 it a religion, and holy when the object is pure and 
 good? Is it a superstition, and unholy when the 
 object is impure and unworthy? 
 
 Of all the histories I have read of the aberrations 
 of human passion, nothing ever so struck me with a 
 sort of amazed and painful pity as Hazlitt's "Liber 
 Amoris." The man was in love with a servant girl, 
 who in the eyes of others possessed no particular 
 charms of mini or person, yet did the mighty love of 
 
 J 
 
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 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, NY. 14580 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 

lal ill 
 
 a64 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 this strong, masculine, and gifted being, lift her into 
 a sort of goddess-ship ; and make his idolatry in its 
 intense earnestness and reality assume something of 
 the sublimity of an act of faith, and in its expression 
 take a flight equal to anything that poetry or fiction 
 have left us. It was all so terribly real, he sued with 
 such a vehemence, he suiFered with such resistance, 
 that the powerful intellect reeled, tempest-tost, and 
 might have foundered but for the gift of expression. 
 He might have said like Tasso — like Goethe rather 
 — "Gab mir ein Gott zu sagen was ich leide!" 
 And this faculty of utterance, eloquent utterance, 
 was perhaps the only thing which saved life, or reason, 
 or both. In such moods of passion, the poor unedu- 
 cated man, dumb in the midst of the strife and the 
 storm, unable to comprehend his intolerable pain or 
 make it comprehended, throws himself in a blind 
 fury on the cause of his torture, or hangs himself in 
 his neckcloth, 
 
 91. 
 
 Hazlitt takes up his pen, dips it in fire and thus 
 he writes : — , 
 
 " Perfect love has this advantage in it, that it leaves 
 the possessor of it nothing farther to desire. There 
 is one object (at least), in which the soul finds abso- 
 lute content; — for which it seeks to live or dares to 
 die. The heart has, as it were, filled up the moulds 
 
HAZLITT'S LIBER AMORIS. 
 
 2«r. 
 
 of the imagination; the truth of passion keeps pace 
 with, and outvies the extravagance of mere language. 
 There are no words so fine, no flattery so soft, that 
 there is not a sentiment beyond them that it is im- 
 possible to express, at the bottom of the heart where 
 true love is. What idle sounds the common phrases 
 adorable creature, divinity, angel, are I What a proud 
 reflection it is to have a feeling answering to all 
 these, rooted in the breast, unalterable, unutterable, 
 to which all other feelings are light and vain ! Per- 
 fect love reposes on the object of its choice, like the 
 halcyon on the wave, and the air of heaven is around 
 
 it!" 
 
 fire and thus 
 
 92. 
 
 " She stood (while I pleaded my cause before her 
 with all the earnestness and fondness in the world) 
 with the tears trickling from her eye-lashes, her head 
 drooping, her attitude fixed, with the finest expres- 
 sion that ever was seen of mixed regret, pity, and 
 stubborn resolution, but without speaking a word — 
 without altering a feature. It was like a petrifaction 
 of a human face in the softest moment of passion,'*'' 
 
 93. 
 
 " Shall I not love her," he exclaims, " for herself 
 alone, in spite of fickleness and folly? to love her for 
 her regard for me, is not to love her but myself. 
 
 i 
 
 t j' 
 
 ' ' • '• \ '1 
 
 mm 
 
NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 ! i« 
 
 I!' •■' 
 
 
 .-,. I 
 
 11 
 
 ! ' 
 
 \m\ 
 
 iim, i 
 
 She has robbed me of herself, shall she also rob me 
 of my love of her ? did I not live on her smile ? is it 
 less sweet because it is withdrawn from me ? Did I 
 not adore her every grace ? and does she bend less 
 enchantingly because she has turned from me to 
 another ? Is my love then in the power of fortune 
 or of her caprice ? No, I will have it lasting as it is 
 pure ; and I will make a goddess of her, and build a 
 temple to her in my heart, and worship her on inde- 
 structible altars, and raise statues to her, and my 
 homage shall be unblemished as her unrivalled sym- 
 metry of form. And when that fails, the memory of 
 it shall survive, and my bosom shall be proof to scorn 
 as hers has been to pity ; and I will pursue her with 
 an unrelenting love, and sue to be her slave and tend 
 her steps without notice, and without reward ; and 
 serve her living, and mourn for her when dead ; and 
 thus my love will have shown itself superior to her 
 hate, and I shall triumph and then die. This is my 
 idea of the only true and heroic love, and such is 
 mine for her.'* 
 
 Hazlitt, when he wrote all this, seemed to himself 
 full of high and calm resolve. The hand did not 
 fail, the pen did not stagger over the paper in a 
 formless scrawl, yet the brain was reeling like a 
 tower in an earthquake. " Passion," as it has been 
 well said, " when in a state of solemn and omni- 
 
 %ir. 
 
 '•-■■'■■ "^'' "■"■i"-- 
 
THE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 m 
 
 potent vehemence, Jilways appears to be calninej^s to 
 him whom it domineers ;" not unfreqiiently to others 
 also, as the tide at its highest flood looks tranquil, 
 and " neither way inclines." 
 
 THE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 ' 1 
 
 94. 
 
 Reading the Life and Letters of Francis Horner, 
 in the midst of a correspondence about Statistics and 
 Bullion, and Political Economy, and the Balance of 
 Parties, I came upon the following exquisite pas- 
 sage in a letter to his friend Mrs. Spencer : — 
 
 " I was amused by your interrogatory to me about 
 the Nightingale's note. You meant to put me in a 
 dilemma with my politics on one side and my gal- 
 lantry on the other. Of course you consider it as a 
 plaintive note, and you were in hopes that no idolator 
 of Charles Fox would venture to agree with that 
 opinion. In this difficulty I must make the best 
 escape I can by saying, that it seems to me neither 
 cheerful nor melancholy, — but always according to 
 the circumstances in which you hear it, the scenery, 
 
■■ 
 
 26S 
 
 NOTES PROM BOOKS. 
 
 II '^ 
 
 K-.i 
 
 !ii; 
 
 your own temper of mind, and so on. 1 settled it ho 
 with myself early in this month, when I heard thcin 
 every night and all day long at Wells. In daylight, 
 when all the other birds are in active concert, tlio 
 Nightingah^ only strikes you as the most active, emu- 
 lous, and successful of the whole band. At niglit, 
 especially if it is a calm one, with light enough to 
 give you a wide indistinct view, the solitary music of 
 this bird takes quite another character, from all tlio 
 associations of the scene, from the languor one feols 
 at the close of the day, and from the stillness of spirits 
 and elevation of mind which comes upon one when 
 walking out at that time. But it is not always so — 
 different circumstances will vary in every possible 
 way the eifect. Will the Nightingale's note sound 
 alike to the man who is going on an adventure to 
 meet his mistress (supposing he heeds it at all), and 
 when he loiters along upon his return? The last 
 time I heard the Nightingale it was an expe- 
 riment of another sort. It was after a thun- 
 derstorm in a mild night, while there was silent 
 lightning opening every few minutes, first on one 
 side of the heavens then on the other. The care- 
 less little fellow was piping away in the midst of 
 all this terror. To me, there was no melancholy in 
 his note, but a sort of sublimity ; yet it was the same 
 song which I had heard in the morning, and which 
 then seemed nothing but bustle." 
 
3t it was the same 
 
 THE NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 2A0 
 
 And in the same spirit Portia moralises: — 
 
 The nightingale, if she should sing by day, 
 When every goose is cackling, would be thought 
 No better a musician than the wren. 
 How many things by season, seasoned are 
 To their right praise and true perfection ! 
 
 Nor will Coleridge allow the song of the nightin- 
 gale to be always plaintive, — "most musical, most 
 melancholy ; " he defies the epithet though it be 
 Milton's. 
 
 'Tis the vterry nightingale, 
 That crowds and hurries and precipitates 
 With thick fast warble his delicious notes, 
 As he were fearful that an April night 
 Would be too short for him to utter forth 
 His love-chaunt, and disburthen his full soul 
 Of all its music' 
 
 As a poetical commentary on these beautiful 
 passages, every reader of Joanna Baillie will remem- 
 ber the night scene in De Montfort, where the cry of 
 the Owl suggests such different feelings and associa- 
 tions to the two men who listen to it, under such 
 different circumstances. To De Montfort it is the 
 screech-owl, foreboding death and horror, and he 
 stands and shudders at the "instinctive wailing." 
 To Rezenvelt it is the sound which recalls his boyish 
 days, when he merrily mimicked the night bird till it 
 returned him cry for cry, — and he pauses to listen 
 with a fanciful delight. 
 
 T 2 
 
 il 
 
, \ 
 
 m 
 
 N0TE8 PROM BOOKS. 
 
 THACKERAY'S LECTURES ON THE ENGLISH HUMOURISTS. 
 
 (1853.) 
 
 i 
 
 95. 
 
 A LECTURE should not read like an essay; and, 
 therefore, it surprises me that these lectures so cju'e- 
 fuUy prepared, so skilfully adapted to meet tlie 
 requirements of oral delivery, should be such agree- 
 able reading. As lectures, they wanted only a little 
 more point, and emphasis and animation on the part 
 of the speaker: as essays, they atone in eloquence 
 and earnestness for what they want in finish and 
 purity of style. 
 
 Genius and sunshine have this in common that 
 they are the two most precious gifts of heaven to 
 earth, and are dispensed equally to the just and the 
 unjust. What struck me. most in these lectures, when 
 I heard them, (and it strikes me now in turning over 
 the written pages,) is this : we deal here with writers 
 
THE ENGLISH HUMOURISTS. 
 
 m 
 
 n HUMOURISTS. 
 
 and artists, yet the purpose, from beginning to end, 
 JH not artistic nor critical, but moral. Thackeray 
 tells us himself that he has not assembled his hearers 
 to bring them better acquainted with the writings of 
 tijcse writers, or to illustrate the wit of these wits, 
 or to enhance the humour of these humourists ; — 
 no ; but to deal justice on the men as men — to tell 
 us how thef/ lived, and loved, suffered and made 
 suffer, who still have power to pain or to please; 
 to settle their claims to our praise or blame, our 
 love or hate, whose right to fame was settled long 
 ago, and remains undisputed. This is his purpose. 
 Thus then he has laid down and acted on the prin- 
 ciple that " morals have something to do with art ; " 
 that there is a moral account to be settled with 
 men of genius ; that the power and the right re- 
 mains with us to do justice on those who being 
 dead yet rule our spirits from their urns; to try 
 them by a standard which perhaps neither them- 
 selves, nor those around them, Avould have a'^iiHted. 
 Did Swift when he bullied men, lampooned w men, 
 trampled over decency and humanity, flung round 
 him filth and fire, did he anticipate the time when 
 before a company of intellectual men, and thinking, 
 feeling women, in both hemispheres, he should be 
 called up to judgment, hands bound, tongue-tied ? 
 Where be now his gibes? and where his terrors? 
 Thackeray turns him forth, a spectacle, a lesson, a 
 
 T 3 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 ^l 
 
 y y^ 
 
'ill 
 
 272 
 
 NOTES FROM BOOKS. 
 
 warning ; probes the lacerated selt-love, lioldn u\t to 
 scorn, or pity more intolerable, the miserable ego- 
 tism, the halt-disteuipercd brain. O Stella ! 
 Vanessa ! are vou not avenged ? 
 
 Then Sterne — how he takes to pieces his feigned 
 originality, his feigned benevolence, his feigned mismi- 
 thropy — all feigned ! — the licentious parson, the 
 trader in sentiment, the fashionable lion of his day, 
 the man without a heart for those who loved him, 
 without a conscience for those who trusted him ! yet 
 the same man who gave us the pathos of" Le Fevre," 
 and the humours of " Uncle Toby ! " Sad is it ? un- 
 grateful is it ? ungracious is it ? — well, it cannot be 
 helped ; you cannot stifle the conscience of humanity. 
 You might as well exclaim against any natural re- 
 sult of any natural law. Fancy a hundred years 
 hence some brave, honest, human-hearted Thackeray 
 standing up to discourse before our great-great- 
 grandchildren in the same spirit, with the same 
 stern truth, on the wits, and the poets and the 
 artists of the present time ! Hard is your fate, 
 O ye men and women of genius I very hard and 
 pitiful, if ye must be subjected to the scalpel of 
 such a dissector ! You, gifted sinner, whoever you 
 may be, walking among us now in all the impunity 
 of conventional forbearance, dealing in oracles and 
 sentimentalisms, performing great things, teachin<>' 
 good things, you are set up as one of the lights of the 
 
■w 
 
 THACKKRAY'S WOMKN. 
 
 iVi 
 
 world : — Lo! iiiiothor time coinof; the toreh is taken 
 out of your luiiul, and held up to your face. AVhat ! 
 is it a mask, and not a lace? *' OHT, ott'ye lendinj^sl" 
 ( f od ! how much wiser, as well as better, not to 
 study how to seem, but how to be ! How much 
 wiser and better, not to have to shudder before 
 the truth as it oozes out from a thousand unguesscd, 
 unguarded apertures, staining your lawn or your 
 ermine ; not to have to tremble at the thought of 
 that future Thackeray, who " shall pluck out the 
 heart of your mystery," and shall anatomise you, and 
 deliver lectures upon you, to illustrate the standard 
 of morals and manners in Queen Victoria's reign I 
 
 In these lectures, some fine and feeling and dis- 
 criminative passages on character, make amends for 
 certain offences and inconsistencies in the novels ; I 
 mean especially in regard to the female portraits. No 
 woman resents his Kebecca — inimitable Becky! — 
 no woman but feels and acknowledges with a shiver 
 the completeness of that wonderful and finished 
 artistic creation ; but every woman resents the selfish 
 inane Amelia, and would be inclined to quote and to 
 apply the author's own words when speaking of 
 ' Tom Jones:' — " I can't say that I think Amelia a 
 virtuous character. I can't say but I think Mr. 
 Thackeray's evident liking and admiration for his 
 Amelia shows that the great humourist's moral sense 
 
 was blunted by his life, and that here in art and 
 
 1 4 
 
 i 
 
 •"t 
 
M 
 
 II 
 
 ,f. 
 
 
 n* 
 
 NOTES PROM ROOKH. 
 
 ethics thero is a great error. It' it be right to huvo 
 a heroine whom we arc to admire, let us take care at 
 least that she is admirable." 
 
 Laura, in ' Pendennis,' is a yet more fatal mistake. 
 She is drawn with every generous feeling, every good 
 gift. Wc do not complain that she loves that poor 
 creature Pendennis, tor she loved him in her child- 
 hood. She grew up with that love in her heart ; it 
 came between her and the perception of his faults; it 
 is a necessity indivisible from her nature. Hallowed, 
 through its constancy, therein alone would lio its best 
 excuse, its beauty and its truth. But Laura, faitli- 
 less to that first affection ; Laura, waked up to the 
 appreciation of a far more manly and noble nature, 
 in love with Warrington, and then going back to 
 Pendennis, and marrying him ! Such infirmity might 
 be true of some women, but not of such a woman 
 as Laura ; we resent the inconsistency, the indelicacy 
 of the portrait. 
 
 And then Lady Castlowood, — so evidently a 
 favourite of the author, what shall we say of her ? 
 The virtuous woman, par excellence j who "never 
 sins and never forgives," who never resents, nor 
 relents, nor repents; the mother, who is the rival of 
 her daughter ; the mother, who for years is the con- 
 Jidante of a man's delirious passion for her own child, 
 and then consoles him by marrying him herself! 
 Mr. Thackeray ! this will never do ! such women may 
 
n 
 
 !!■ 
 
 THACKKRAY'8 WOMEN. 
 
 C7a 
 
 rif;ht to have 
 18 take care jit 
 
 exirit, but to hold them up us examples of excellence, 
 and fit objects of our best sympathies, is a fault, and 
 proves a low standard in ethics and in art. " When an 
 author presents to us a heroine whom we arc called 
 upon to admire, let him at least take care that she \n 
 admirable." If in these, and in some other instance!^, 
 Tliackeray has given us cause of offence, in the 
 lectures we may thank him for some amends : he has 
 shown us what he conceives true womanhood and 
 true manliness ought to be ; so with this expression 
 of gratitude, and a far dcei)er debt of gratitude left 
 unexpressed, I close his book, and say, good night ! 
 
 I 
 
 T ,. 
 
'Bmin 0tt |lrt 
 
 ^'&M 
 
 1 
 
 96. 
 
 Sometimes, in thoughtful moments, I am struck 
 by those beautiful analogies between things appa- 
 rently dissimilar — those awful approximations be- 
 tween things apparently far asunder — which many 
 people would call fanciful and imaginary, but they 
 seem to bring all God's creation, spiritual and mate- 
 rial, into one comprehensive whole ; they give me, V 
 thus associated, a glimpse, a perception of that overr^_ 
 
 m 
 
 
ANALOGIES. 
 
 277 
 
 whelming unity which we call the universe, the 
 multitudinous ONE. • 
 
 Thus the principle of the highest ideal in art, 
 as conceived by the Greeks, and unsurpassed in its 
 purity and beauty, lay in considering well the cha- 
 racteristics which distinguish the human form from 
 the brute form ; and then, in rendering the human 
 form, the first aim was to soften down, or, if pos- 
 sible, throw out wholly, those characteristics which 
 belong to the brute nature, or are common to the 
 brute and the man; and the next, to bring into pro- 
 minence and even enlarge the proportions of those 
 manifestations of form which distinguish humanity ; 
 till, at last, the human merged into the divine^ and 
 the God in look, in limb, in feature, stood revealed. 
 
 Let us now suppose this broad principle which the 
 Greeks applied to form, ethically carried out, and 
 made the basis of all education — the training of man 
 as a race. Suppose we started with the general; 
 axiom that all propensities which we have in common 
 with the lower animals are to be kept subordinate, 
 and so far as is consistent with the truth of nature re- 
 fined away ; and that all the qualities which elevate, 
 all the aspirations which ally us with the spiritual, are 
 to be cultivated and rendered more and more promi- 
 nent, till at last the human being, in faculties as well 
 as form, approaches the God-like — I only say — 
 suppose? 
 
 :::i 
 
 I: I. 
 
 f! 
 
278 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 ' Again : it has been said of natural philosophy (Zoo- 
 logy) that in order to make any real progress in the 
 science, as such, " we must more and more disregard 
 differences i and more and more attend to the obscured 
 but essential conditions which are revealed in resem- 
 blances ^ in the constant and similar relations of prim- 
 itive structure." Now if the same principle were 
 carried out in theology, in morals, in art, as well as in 
 science, should we not come nearer to the essential 
 truth ill a//? 
 
 ^A 
 
 97. 
 
 " There is an instinctive sense of propriety and 
 reality in every mind ; and it is not true, as some 
 great authority has said, that in art we are satisfied 
 with contemplating the work without thinking of the 
 artist. On the contrary, the artist himself is one 
 great object in the work. It is as embodying tlie 
 energies and excellences of the human mind, as 
 exhibiting the efforts of genius, as symbolising high 
 feeling, that we most value the creations of art; 
 without design the representations of art are merely 
 fantastical, and without the thought of a design act- 
 
DEFINITION OP ART. 
 
 279 
 
 ill"- upon fixed principles in accordance with a high 
 standard of goodness and truth, half the charin of 
 design is lost." 
 
 Mi; 
 
 nSRI 
 
 ■ • 98. ; . , . 
 
 " Art, used collectively for painting, sculpture, 
 architecture and music, is the mediatress between, 
 and reconciler of, nature and man. It is, therefore, 
 the power of humanising nature, of infusing the 
 thoughts and passions of man into everything which 
 is the object of his contemplation. Colour, form, 
 motion, sound, are the elements which it combines, 
 and it stamps them into unity in the mould o? amoral 
 iden." 
 
 This is Coleridge's definition: — Art then is nature, 
 humanised; and in proportion as humanity is elevated 
 by the interfusion into our life of noble aims and pure 
 affections will art be spiritualised and moralised. 
 
 ,»!r»» 
 
 '■ I 
 
 99. 
 
 If faith has elevated art, superstition has every- 
 where debased it. 
 
 i 
 ii 
 
 > \ :ii' 
 
280 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 100. 
 
 Goethe observes that there is no patriotic art ami 
 no patriotic science — that both are universal. 
 
 There is, however, national art, but not national 
 science : we say " national art," " natural science." 
 
 '"">v 
 
 10!. 
 
 it 
 
 Verse is in itself music, and the natural symbol 
 of that union of passion with thought and pleasure, 
 which constitutes the essence of all poetry as con- 
 tradistinguished from history civil or natural." — 
 Coleridge. 
 
 In the arts of design, colour is to form what verse 
 is to prose — a more harmonious and luminous vehicle 
 of the thought. 
 
DUTCH PICTURES. 
 
 281 
 
 102. 
 
 Subjects and representations in art not elevated 
 nor interesting in themselves, become instructive and 
 interesting to higher minds from the manner in which 
 they have been treated ; perhaps because they have 
 passed through the medium of a higher mind in 
 taking form. 
 
 This is one reason, though we are not always con- 
 scious of it, that the Dutch pictures of common and 
 vulgar life give us a pleasure apart from their won- 
 derful finish and truth of detail. In the mind of 
 the artist there must have been the power to throw 
 himself into a sphere above what he represents. 
 Adrian Brouwer, for instance, must have been 
 something far better than a sot ; Ostade something 
 higher than a boor; though the habits of both led 
 them into companionship with sots and boors. In 
 the most farcical pictures of Jan Steen there is a 
 depth of feeling and observation which remind me 
 of the humour of Goldsmith ; and Teniers, we 
 know, was in his habits a refined gentleman; the 
 brilliant elegance of his pencil contrasting with the 
 grotesque vulgarity of his subjects. To a thinking 
 mind, some of these Dutch pictures of character are 
 full of material for thought, pathetic even where 
 least sympathetic: no doubt, because of a latent 
 sympathy with the artist, apart from his subject. 
 
 ■ % 
 
 
 'r 
 
 I'i 
 
 m 
 
 
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 :l 
 
282 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 -1,0 1 
 
 103. 
 
 Coleridge says, — *« Every human feeling is greater 
 and larger than the exciting cause." (A philosophical 
 way of putting Rochefoucauld's neatly expressed 
 apothegm : " Nous ne sommes jamais ni si heureux 
 ni si malheureux que nous I'imaginons.") " A proof," 
 he proceeds, " that man is designed for a higher state 
 of existence ; and this is deeply implied in music, 
 in which there is always something more and beyond 
 the immediate expression." 
 
 But not music only, every production of art 
 ought to excite emotions greater and thoughts larger 
 than itself. Thoughts and emotions which never 
 perhaps were in the mind of the artist, never were 
 anticipated, never were intended by him — may be 
 strongly suggested by his work. This is an impor- 
 tant part of the morals of art, which we must n wer 
 lose sight of. Art is not only for pleasure and profit, 
 but for good and for evil. 
 
 Goethe (in the Dichtung und Wahrheit) describes 
 the reception of Marie Antoinette at Strasbourg, 
 where she passed the frontier to enter her new king- 
 dom. She was then a lovely girl of sixteen. He 
 
:r, 
 
 '/ 
 
 MORALS IN ART. 
 
 283 
 
 relates that on visiting before her arrival the reception 
 room on the bridge over the Rhine, where her Ger- 
 man attendants were to deliver her into the hands of 
 the French authorities, he found the walls hung with 
 tapestries representing the ominous story of Jason 
 and Medea — of all the marriages on record the most 
 fearful, the most tragic in its consequences. " What ! " 
 he exclaims, his poetical imagination struck with the 
 want of moral harmony, " was there among these 
 French architects and decorators no man who could 
 perceive that pictures represent things, — that they 
 have a meaning in themselves, — that they can im- 
 press sense and feeling, — that they can awaken pre- 
 sentiments of good or evil?" But, as he tells us, his 
 exclamations of horror were met by the mockery of 
 his French companions, who assured him that it was 
 not everybody's concern to look for significance in 
 pictures. 
 
 These self-same tapestries of the story of Jason 
 and Medea were after the Restoration presented by 
 Louis XVIII. to George IV., and at present they 
 line the walls of the Ball-room in Windsor Castle. 
 We might repeat, with some reason, the question of 
 Goethe ; for if pictures have a significance, and speak 
 to the imagination, what has the tragedy of Jason 
 and Medea to do in a ball-room ? 
 
 Goethe, who thus laid down the principle that works 
 
 11 
 
 I'' 
 
 
 S' 
 
 ■:-i 
 
 if 
 
 fc 
 
 * I 
 
 I* I 
 
284 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 •^1 
 
 of art speak to the feelings and the conscience, and 
 can awaken associations tending to good and evil, by 
 some strange inconsistency places art and artists 
 out of the sphere of morals. He speaks some- 
 where with contempt and ridicule of those who 
 take their conscience and their morality with them 
 to an opera or a picture gallery. Yet surely he 
 is wrong. "Why should we not? Are our con- 
 science and our morals like articles of dress which 
 we can take off and put on again as we fancy 
 it convenient or expedient ? — shut up in a drawer 
 and leave behind us when we visit a theatre or 
 a gallery of art ? or are they not rather a part of 
 ourselves — our very life — to graduate the worth, to 
 fix the standard of all that mingles with our life? 
 The idea that what we call taste in art has something 
 quite distinctive from conscience, is one cause that 
 the popular notions concerning the productions of 
 art are abandoned to such confusion and uncer- 
 tainty ; that simple people regard taste as something 
 forensic, something to be learned, as they would 
 learn a language, and mastered by a study of rules 
 and a dictionary of epithets ; and they look up to 
 a professor of taste, just as they would look up to 
 a professor of Greek or of Hebrew. Either they 
 listen to judgments lightly and confidently promul- 
 gated with a sort of puzzled faith and a surrender 
 of their own moral sense, which are pitiable ; — 
 
// 
 
 MORALS IN ART. 
 
 280 
 
 as if art also had its infallible church and its hier- 
 archy of dictators ! — or they fly into the opposite 
 extreme, and seeing themselves deceived and mis- 
 led, fall away into strange heresies. All from igno- 
 rance of a few laws simple in their form, yet infinite 
 in their application ; — natural laws we must call 
 them, though here applied to art. 
 
 In my younger days I have known men conspicuous 
 for their want of elevated principle, and for their 
 dissipated habits, held up as arbiters and judges of 
 art; but it was to them only another form of 
 epicurism and self-inaulgence ; and I have seen 
 them led into such absurd and fatal mistakes for 
 want of the power to distinguish and to generalise, 
 that I have despised their judgment, and have come 
 to the conclusion that a really high standard of taste 
 and a low standard of morals are incompatible with 
 each other. 
 
 1^ 
 
 iPl't 
 
 104. 
 
 " The fact of the highest artistic genius having 
 manifested itself in a polytheistic age, and among 
 a people whose moral views were essentially degraded, 
 has, we think, fostered the erroneous notion that the 
 
 I 
 
 ! 
 
28« 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 sphere of art has no connection with that of morality. 
 The Greeks, with penetrative insight, dilated the 
 essential characteristics of man's organism as a 
 vehicle of superior intelligence, while their intense 
 sympathy with physical beauty made them alive to 
 its most subtle manifestations ; and reproducing their 
 impressions through the medium of art, they have 
 given birth to models of the human form, which 
 reveal its highest possibilities, and the excellence of 
 which depends upon their being individual expres- 
 sions of ideal truth. Thus, too, in their descriptions 
 of nature, instead of multiplying insignificant details, 
 they seized instinctively upon the characteristic fea- 
 tues of her varying aspects, and not unfrequently 
 embodied a finished picture in one comprehensive 
 and harmonious word. In association with their 
 marvellous genius, however, we find a cruelty, a 
 treachery, and a licence which would be revolting if 
 it were not for the historical interest which attaclies 
 to every genuine record of a bygone age. Their low 
 moral standard cannot excite surprise when we con- 
 sider the debasing tendency of their worship, the 
 objects of their adoration being nothing more than 
 their own degraded passions invested with some of 
 the attributes of deity. Now, among the modificca- 
 tions of thought introduced by Christianity, there is 
 perhaps none more pregnant with important results 
 than the harmony which it has established between 
 
■itwdj I 
 
 MORALS IN ART. 
 
 287 
 
 religion and morality. The great law of right and 
 wrong has acquired a sacred character, when viewed 
 as an expression of the divine will ; it takes its rank 
 among the eternal verities, and to ignore it in our 
 delineations of life, or to represent sin otherwise than 
 as treason against the supreme ruler, is to retain in 
 modern civilisation one of the degrading elements of 
 heathenism. Conscience is as great a fact of our 
 inner life as the sense of beauty, and the harmonious 
 action of both these instinctive principles is essential 
 to the highest enjoyment of art, for any internal dis- 
 sonance disturbs the repose of the mind, and thereby 
 shatters the image mirrored in its depths." — A. S. 
 
 f"' 
 
 •'^> 
 
 105. 
 
 " Mais vous autres artistes, vous ne considerez pour 
 
 la plupart dans les ceuvres que la beaute ou la sin- 
 
 gularite de I'execution, sans vous penetrer de I'idee 
 
 dont cet ojuvre est la forme ; ainsi votre intelligence 
 
 adore souvent I'expression d'un sentiment que votre 
 
 coeur repousserait s'il en avait la conscience." — 
 
 George Sand. 
 
 u 2 
 
 ..V 
 
 II 
 
 (,I 
 
 
If '■] 
 
 ; 
 
 5»Jvj 1 
 
 ||||!ll*it.:|- 
 
 2HM 
 
 MOTES ON ART. 
 
 106. 
 
 Lavater told Goethe that on a certahi occasion wlicn 
 he held the velvet bag in the church as collector of 
 the offerings, he tried to observe only the hands ; and 
 he satisfied himself that in every individual, the 
 shape of the hand and of the fingers, the action anil 
 sentiment in dropping the gift into the bag, were 
 distinctly different and individually characteristic. 
 
 What then shall we say of Van Dyek, who painted 
 the hands of his men and women, not from indi- 
 vidual nature, but from a model hand — his own 
 very often? — and every one who considers for a mo- 
 ment will see in Van Dyck's portraits, that, however 
 well painted and elegant the hands, they in very few 
 instances harmonise with the personalite ; — that the 
 position is often affected, and as if intended for dis- 
 play, — the display of what is in itself a positive fault, 
 and from which some little knowledge of comparative 
 physiology would have saved him. 
 
 There are hands of various character ; the hand to 
 catch, and the hand to hold ; the hand to clasp, and 
 the hand to grasp. The hand that has worked or 
 
PHY8I'vK4NO>«Y OF IIANliH. 
 
 28l» 
 
 coiiUl work, nnd tlio ImfJ'l that liii;' never done ai»y- 
 tliin^ but liold it^J^' out to b^ kissed, like that of 
 Joanna of Arragon in Kjij>hnors picture. 
 
 Let any one look at the handa in Titian's portrait 
 of old Paul IV.: though exquisitely modelled, they 
 have an expression which reminds us of claws; they 
 belong to the face of that grasping old man, and 
 could belong to no other. 
 
 107. 
 Mozart and Chopin, though their genius was dif- 
 ferently developed, were alike in some things : in 
 nothing more than this, that the artistic element in 
 both minds wholly dominated over the social and 
 practical, and that their art was the element in which 
 they moved and lived, through which they felt and 
 thought. I doubt whether either of them could have 
 said, " D^abordje snis homme et puis je suis artiste ; " 
 whereas this could have been said with truth by 
 Mendelsohn and by Litzst. In Mendelsohn the 
 enormous creative power was modified by the in- 
 
 u 3 
 
 III 
 
 I I 
 
 il 
 
l! 
 
 290 
 
 NOTES ON AET. 
 
 ,1 i 
 
 tellcct and the conscience. Litzst has no creative 
 power. . 
 
 Litzst has thus drawn the character of Chopin : — 
 " Rien n'etait plus pur et phis exalte en meme temps 
 que ses pensees ; rien n'etait plus tenace, plus exclusif, 
 et plus minutieusement devoue que ses affections. 
 Mais cet etre ne comprenait que ce qui etait iden- 
 tique a lui-meme : — le reste n'existait pour lui que 
 comme une sorte de reve facheux, auquel il essa} ait 
 de se soustraire en vivant au milieu du monde. 
 Toujours perdu dans ses reveries, la realite lui deplai- 
 sait. Enfant il ne pouvait toucher a un instrument 
 tranchant sans se blesser ; homme il ne pouvait se 
 trouver en face d'un homme different de lui, sans se 
 heurter contre cette contradiction vivante." 
 
 " Ce qui le preservait d'un antagonisme perpetuel 
 c'etait I'habitude volontaire et bientot inveteree de 
 ne point voir, de ne pas entendre ce qui lui deplai- 
 sait: en general sans toucher a ses affections per- 
 sonelles, les etres qui ne pensaient pas comme lui 
 devenaient a ses yeux comme des especes de fantomes ; 
 et comme il etait d'une politesse charmante, on pou- 
 vait prendre pour une bienveillance court oise ce qui 
 n'etait chez lui qu'un froid dedain — une aversion 
 insurmontfible." 
 
 108. 
 
 The father of Mozart was a man of high and strict 
 
has no creative 
 
 CHO?lN AND MOZART. 
 
 2K1 
 
 religious principle. He had a conviction — in this 
 case more truly founded than is. usual — that he was 
 the father of a great, a surpassing genius, and con- 
 sequently of a being unfortunate in this, that he 
 must be in advance of his age, exposed to error, to 
 envy, to injustice, to strife ; and to do his duty to his 
 son demanded large faith and large firmness. But 
 because he did estimate this sacred trust as a duty to 
 be discharged, not only with respect to his gifted son, 
 but to the God who had so endowed him ; so, in spite 
 of many mistakes, the earnest, straightforward endea- 
 vour to do right in the parent seems to have saved 
 Mozart's moral life, and to have given that complete- 
 ness to the productions of his genius, which the har- 
 mony of the moral and creative faculties alone can 
 bestow. 
 
 " The modifying power of circumstances on Mo- 
 zart's style, is an interesting consideration. What- 
 ever of striking, of new or beautiful he met with in 
 the works of others left its impression on him ; and 
 he often reproduced these efforts, not servilely, but 
 mingling his own nature and feelings with them in a 
 manner not less surprising than delightful." 
 
 This is true equally of Shakespeare and of Raphael, 
 
 both of whom adapted or rather adopted much from 
 
 their precursors in the way of material to work 
 
 iq)on ; and whose incomparable originality consisted 
 
 u 4 
 
 V. 
 
 li 
 
 w 
 
 4, 
 Is 
 
#-^ 
 
 mi:' 
 
 . .■&/«. ' ■' ■< H 
 
 \ lit- 
 
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 hrt^'' 1 
 
 
 4 'nf > ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 f H^^ll 
 
 id! 
 
 i ' 
 
 Jm^MB 
 
 f i i ft 
 
 flHi 
 
 1 ii 
 
 ^^H 
 
 flF 
 
 ^mR 
 
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 ^^^B 
 
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 I'WI 
 
 1' 
 
 ' ! 
 
 292 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 in the interfusion of their own great individual genius 
 with every subject they touched, so that it became 
 theirs, and could belong to no other. 
 
 The Figaro was composed at Vienna. The Don 
 Juan and Clemenza di Tito at Prague;— which 1 
 note because the localities are so characteristic of the 
 operas. Cimarosa's Matrimonio Segreto was composed 
 at Prague ; it was on the fortification of the Hrad- 
 schin one morning at sun-rise that he composed tlie 
 Pria che spunti in del Vaurora, 
 
 When called upon to describe his method of com- 
 posing, what Mozart said of himself was very striking 
 from its naivete and truth. " I do not," he said, 
 " aim at originality. I do not know in what my ori- 
 ginality consists. Why my productions take from 
 my hand that particular form or style which makes 
 them Mozartishy and diiferent from the works of 
 other composers is probably owing to the same cause 
 which makes my nose this or that particular shape ; 
 makes it, in short, Mozart's nose, and different from 
 other people's." 
 
 Yet as a composer, Mozart was as objective^ i\^ 
 dramatic, as Shakspeare and Raphael; Chopin, in 
 comparison, was wholly suhjectioe, — the Byron of 
 Music. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 293 
 
 dividual genius 
 that it became 
 
 na. The Don 
 gue;— which 1 
 acteristic of the 
 
 was composed 
 
 1 of the Hrad- 
 e composed the 
 
 nethod of com- 
 as very striking 
 
 not," he said, 
 in what my ori- 
 tions take from 
 e which makes 
 I the works of 
 
 the same cause 
 irticular shape; 
 I different from 
 
 as objective, as 
 el; Chopin, in 
 -the Byron of 
 
 ^-^ 
 
 109. 
 
 Talking once with Adelaide Kemble, after she had 
 been singing in the " Figaro," she compared the 
 music to the bosom of a full blown rose in its volup- 
 tuous, intoxicating richness. I said that some of 
 Mozart's melodies seemed to me not so much com- 
 posed, but found — found on some sunshiny day in 
 Arcadia, among nymphs and flowers. "Yes," she 
 replied, with ready and felicitous expression, " not 
 inventions, but existences.'^ 
 
 110. 
 
 Old George the Tliirdj in his blindness and mad- 
 ness, once insisted on making the selection of pieces 
 for the concert of ancient music (May, 181 1), — it wns 
 soon after the death of the Princess Amelia. " The 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
 ! 
 
 1 ■!• ; 
 
 Hi 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 n^lB ''r 
 
 J ! 
 
 ' !■ . i 
 
 1 
 
 ;.!,'i 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
29 !• 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 programme included some of the finest passages in 
 Handel's ' Samson,' descriptive of blindness ; the 
 * Lamentation of Jeplithah,' for his daughter ; Pur- 
 ccl's * Mad Tom,' and closed with * God save the 
 King,' to make sure the application of all that went 
 beforv\" 
 
 111. 
 
 (( 
 
 Every one who remembers what Madlle. Kacliel 
 was seven or eight years ago, and who sees her now 
 (1853), will allow that she has made no progress in 
 any of the essential excellences of her art. A 
 certain proof that she is not a great artist in the true 
 sense of the word. She is a finished actress, but she 
 is nothing more, and nothing better ; not enough the 
 artist ever to forget or conceal her art, consequently 
 there is a want somewhere, which a mind highly 
 toned and of quick perceptions feels from beginning 
 to end. The parts in which she once excelled — the 
 Phedre and the Hermione, for instance— have become 
 formalised and hard, like studies cast in bronze ; and 
 when she plays a new part it has no freshness. I 
 
lirir 
 
 MADLLE. RACHEL. 
 
 29S 
 
 always go to see her whenever I can. I admire her 
 as what she is — the Parisian actress, practised in 
 every trick of her metier. I admire what she does, 
 I think how well it is all done^ and am inclined to 
 clap and applaud her drapery, perfect and ostenta- 
 tiously studied in every fold, just with the same feel- 
 ing that I applaud herself. 
 
 As to the last scene of AdrienneLccouvreur,( which 
 those who are avides de sensation, athirst for painful 
 emotion, go to see as they would drink a dram, and 
 critics laud as a miracle of art; it is altogether a 
 mistake and a failure,) it is beyond the just limits of 
 terror and pity — beyond the legitimate sphere of art. 
 It reminds us of the story of Gentil Bellini and the 
 Sultan. The Sultan much admired his picture of 
 the decollation of John the Baptist, but informed 
 him that it was inaccurate — surgically — for the 
 tendons and muscles ought to shrink where divided ; 
 and then calling for one of his slaves, he drew his 
 scimitar, and striking off the head of the wretch, gave 
 the horror-struck artist a lesson in practical anatomy. 
 So we might possibly learn from Rachel's imitative 
 representation, (studied in an hospital as they say,) 
 how poison acts on the frame, and how the limbs and 
 features writhe into death; but if she were a great 
 moral artist she would feel that what is allowed to 
 be true in painting, is true in art generally ; that 
 mere imitation, such as the vulgar delight in, and 
 
I,:! 
 
 
 29S 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 u, ii 
 
 hold up their hands to see, is the vulgarest and 
 easiest aim of the imitative arts, and that between 
 the true interpretation of poetry in art and such base 
 mechanical means to the lowest ends, there lies an 
 immeasurable distance. 
 
 I am disposed to think that Rachel has not genius, 
 but talent, and that her talent, from what I see year 
 after year, has a downward tendency, — there is not 
 sufficient moral seasoning to save it from corruption. 
 I remember that when I first saw her in Hermione 
 she reminded me of a serpent, and the same impres- 
 sion continues. The long meagre form with its 
 graceful undulating movements, the long narrow face 
 and features, the contracted jaw, the high brow, the 
 brilliant supernatural eyes which seem to glance every 
 way at once ; the sinister smile ; the painted red lips, 
 which look as though they had lapped, or could lap, 
 blood ; all these bring before me, the idea of a Lamia, 
 the serpent nature in the woman's form. In Lydia, 
 and in Athalie, she touches the extremes of vice and 
 wickedness with such a masterly lightness and pre- 
 cision, that I am full of wondering admiration for 
 the actress. There is not a turn of her figure, not an 
 expression in her face, not a fold in her gorgeous 
 drapery, that is not a study ; but withall such a 
 consciousness of her art, and such an ostentation of 
 the means she employa, that tl.e power remains 
 
•;:7 
 
 MADLLE. RACHEL. 
 
 297. 
 
 power remains 
 
 always extraneous, as it were, and exciting only to 
 the senses and the intellect. 
 
 Latterly she has become a hard mannerist. Iler 
 face, once so flexible, has lost the power of expressing 
 the nicer shades and softer gradations of feeling ; so 
 much so, that they write dramas for her with super- 
 naturally wicked and depraved heroines to suit her 
 especial powers. I conceive that an artist could not 
 sink lower in degradation. Yet, to satisfy the taste of 
 a Parisian audience and the ambition of a Parisian 
 actress this was not enough, and wickedness re- 
 quired the piquancy of immediate approximation with 
 innocence. In the Valeria she played two characters, 
 and appeared on the stage alternately as a miracle of 
 vice and a miracle of virtue : an abandoned prostitute 
 and a chaste matron. There was something in this 
 contrasted impersonation, considered simply in rela- 
 tion to the aims and objects of art, so revolting, that 
 I sat in silent and deep disgust, which was partly 
 deserved by the audience which could endure the 
 exhibition. 
 
 It is the entire absence of the high poetic element 
 which distinguishes Rachel as an actress, and places 
 her at such an immeasurable distance from Mrs. 
 Siddons, that it shocks me to hear them named 
 together. 
 
 !1 
 ' 1 
 
 \\ 
 
 ■ ! 
 II 
 
 m 
 
 i- 
 
 m I 
 
 

 ') i 1 
 
 
 ti,i 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 112. 
 
 It is no reproach to a capital actress to play effec- 
 tively a very wicked character. Mrs, Siddons played 
 the abandoned Millwood as carefully, as completely 
 as she played Hermione and Constance; but if it liad 
 required a perpetual succession of Calistas and Mill- 
 woods to call forth her highest powers, what should 
 wc think of the woman and the artist ? 
 
 113. 
 
 When dramas and characters are invented to suit 
 the particular talent of a particular actor or actress, 
 it argues rather a limited range of the artistic power ; 
 though within that limit the power may be great 
 and the talent genuine. 
 
 Thus for Liston and for Miss O'Neil, so distin- 
 guished in their respective lines of Comedy and 
 Tragedy, characters were especially constructed and 
 plays written, which have not been acted since their 
 time. 
 
 114. 
 
 - A celebrated German actress (who has quitted the 
 stage for many years) speaking of Rachel, said that 
 the reason she must always stop short of the highest 
 place in art, is because she is nothing but an actress — 
 that only; and has no aims in life, has no duties, 
 
HISTRIONIC ART. 
 
 299 
 
 i"J' 
 
 feelings, employments, sympathies, but tlio.sc which 
 centre in herself in the interests of her art; — which 
 thus ceases to be art and becomes a metier. 
 
 This reminded me of what Pauline Viardot once 
 said to me : — " D'abord je s,\x\s,femme, avec les devoirs, 
 Ics affections, les sentiments d'une femme ; et puis je 
 suis artiste.''^ 
 
 115. 
 
 The same German actress whose opinion I have 
 quoted, told me that the Leonora and the Iphigenia 
 of Goethe were the parts she preferred to play. 
 The Thekla and the Beatrice of Schiller next. (In 
 all these she excelled.) The parts easiest to her, 
 requiring no effort scarcely, were Jerta (in Houwald's 
 Tragedy, " Die Schuld"), and Clarchen in Egmont; 
 of the character of Jerta, she said beautifully : — 
 '* Ich habe es nicht gespielt, Ich habe es gesagt ! " (I 
 did not play it, I uttered it.) This was extremely 
 characteristic of the woman. 
 
 I once asked Mrs. Siddons, which of her great 
 characters she preferred to play ? She replied after 
 a moment's consideration, and in her rich deliberate 
 emphatic tones : — " Lady Macbeth is the character 
 I have most studied.''^ She afterwards said that she 
 had played the character during thirty years, and 
 scarcely acted it once, without carefully reading over 
 the part and generally the whole play in the morn- 
 
 - fi 
 
 ;i 
 
 T 
 
 11 'I 
 
 i 1 
 
 i! 
 
 h 
 
 [•I 
 
 
300 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 ti. 
 
 ilL 
 
 I'X 
 
 (i J- 
 
 ing ; and that she never read over the play without 
 finding something new in it; " something," she said, 
 " which had not struck me so much as it ouffht to 
 have struck me." 
 
 Of Mrs. Pritchard, who preceded Mrs. Siddons in 
 tlie part of Lady Macbeth, it was well known that 
 she had never read the play. She merely studied 
 her own part as written out by the stage-copyist ; of 
 the other parts she knew nothing but the cues. 
 
 1 
 
 116. \ 
 
 When I asked Mrs. Henry Siddons, which of her 
 characters she preferred playing? she said at once, 
 " Imogen, in Cymbeline, was the character I played 
 with most ease to myse'i, and most success as re- 
 garded the public ; it cost no effort." 
 
 This was confirmed by others. A very good 
 judge said of her — " In some of her best parts, us 
 Juliet, Rosalind, and Lady Townley, she may have 
 been approached or equalled. In Viola and Imogen 
 she was never equalled. In the grace and simplicity 
 of the first, in the refinement and shy but impas- 
 sioned tenderness of the last, / at least have never 
 seen any one to be compared to her. She hardly 
 seemed to act these parts; they came naturally to 
 her." 
 
til 
 
 ACTREHSE8. 
 
 aoi 
 
 ;t success as re- 
 
 This reminds mo of another anecdote of the same 
 accomplished actress and admirable woman. The 
 people of Edinburgh, among whom she lived, had so 
 identified her with all that was gentle, refined and 
 noble, that they did not like to see her play wicked 
 parts. It happened that Godwin went down to 
 Edinburgh with a tragedy in his pocket, which had 
 been accepted by the theatre there, and in which 
 Mrs. Henry Siddons was to play the principal part 
 — that of a very wicked woman (I forget the name 
 of the piece). He was warned that it risked the 
 success of his play, but her conception of the part 
 was so just and spirited, that he persisted. At the 
 rehearsal she stopped in the midst of one of her 
 speeches and said, with great naivete^ " I am afraid, 
 Mr. Godwin, the people will not endure to hear me 
 say this!" He replied coolly, "My dear, you cannot 
 be always young and pretty — you must come to this 
 at last, — go on." He mistook her meaning and the 
 feeling of " the people." The play failed ; and the 
 audience took care to discriminate between their 
 disapprobation of the piece and their admiration 
 for the actress. 
 
 1 ! 
 
 117. 
 
 Madame Schroeder Devrient told me that she suno- 
 with most pleasure to herself in the " Fidelio ; " and 
 in this part I have never seen her equalled. 
 
 P. 
 
NOTEB ON ART, \ 
 
 Fanny Kcmble told me the part she had played 
 with most pleasure to herself, was Cam'iola, in Mas- 
 singer's " Maid of Honour." It was an cxqui;<itc 
 impersonation, but the play itself ineffective and 
 not successful, because of the weak and worthlcsta 
 character of the hero. 
 
 118. 
 
 Mrs. Charles Kean told me that she had played 
 with great ease and pleasure to herself, the part of 
 Ginevra, in Leigh Hunt's " Legend of Florence." 
 She made the part (as it is technically termed), and 
 it was a very complete and beautiful impersonation. 
 
 These answers appear to me psychologically, as 
 well as artistically, interesting, and worth pre- 
 serving. 
 
 119. 
 
 Mrs. Siddons, when looking over the statues in 
 Lord Lansdowne's gallery, told him that one mode of 
 expressing intensity of feeling was suggested to her 
 
sho had played 
 
 ACTAESSES. 
 
 8M 
 
 hy tlic pOKitioii of some of the Egyptian statues with 
 the arms Jose down at the sides and tlic hands 
 clenclied. This is curious, for the attitude in tlio 
 Egyptian gods is intended to express repose. As tho 
 expression of intense passion sfelf-controUed, it might 
 be appropriate to some characters and not to others. 
 Rachel, as I recollect, uses it in the Phodre : — 
 Madame Rcttich uses it in the Medea. It would not 
 1)0 characteristic in Constance. 
 
 ill 
 
 ,;j 
 
 120. 
 
 On a certain occasion when Fanny Kemble was 
 reading Cymbeline, a lady next to me remarked that 
 Imogen ought not to utter the words " Senseless 
 linen! — happier therein than I!" aloud, and to 
 Pisanio, — that it detracted from the strength of the 
 feeling, and that they should have been uttered aside, 
 and in a low, intense whisper. " lachimo," she 
 added, " might easily have won a woman who could 
 have laid her heart so bare to a mere attendant I " 
 
 On my repeating this criticism to Fanny Kemble, 
 she replied just as I had anticipated: " Such criticism 
 
 X 2 
 
304 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 ■fe. '! 
 
 HJ': 
 
 i •''. 
 
 ilT-*^ 
 
 is the mere expression of the natural emotions or 
 character of the critic. She would have spoken tlie 
 words in a whisper ; / should have made the exclama- 
 tion aloud. If there had been a thousand people hv, 
 I should not have cared for them — I should not have 
 been conscious of their presence. I should have 
 exclaimed before them all, * Senseless linen I— happier 
 therein than I!'" 
 
 And thus the artist fell into the s<ame mistake of 
 which she accused her critic — she made Imogen utter 
 the words aloud, because she would have done so her- 
 self. This sort of subjective criticism in both was 
 quite feminine ; but the question was not how either 
 A. B. or F. K. would have spoken the words, but 
 what would have been most natural in such a woman 
 as Imogen? 
 
 And most undoubtedly the first criticism was as 
 exquisitely true and just as it was delicate. Such a 
 C woman as Imojxen would not have uttered those words 
 c -] aloud. She would have uttered them in a whisper, 
 and turning her face from her attendant. With such 
 a woman, the more intense the passion, the more 
 conscious and the more veiled the expression. 
 
MARIA MADDALENA. 
 
 SOS 
 
 121. 
 
 I read in the life of Garrick that, " about 1741, a 
 taste for Shakespeare had lately been revived by the 
 encouragement of some distinguished persons of 
 taste of both sexes; but more especially by the 
 ladies wlio formed themselves into a society, called 
 tlie ' Shakespeare Club.' " There exists a Shakes- 
 peare Society at this present time, but I do not 
 know that any ladies are members of it, or allowed 
 to be so. 
 
 u ' 
 
 122. 
 
 The " Maria Maddalena" of Friedrich Hebbel is a 
 domestic tragedy. It represents the position of a 
 young girl in the ]ower classes of society — a character 
 of quiet goodness and feeling, in a position the most 
 usual, circumstances the most common-place. The 
 representation is from the life, and set forth with a 
 truth which in its naked simplicity, almost hardness. 
 
 becomes most tragic and terrible. 
 
 X 3 
 
 Around this girl. 
 
 H 
 
 ii 1 
 

 SOB 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 m 
 
 i!-m 
 
 'm 
 
 
 portrayed with consummate delicacy, is a group of 
 men. First her father, an honest artisan, coarse, 
 harsh, despotic. Then a light-minded, good-natured, 
 dissipated brother, and two suitors. All these love 
 her according to their masculine individuality. To 
 the men of her own family she is as a part of the 
 furniture — something they are accustomed to see— 
 necessary to the daily well-being of the house, with- 
 out whom the fire would not be on the hearth, nor 
 the soup on the table ; and they are proud of her 
 charms and good qualities as belonging to them. By 
 her lovers she is loved as an object they desire to 
 possess — and dispute with each other. But no cue 
 of all these thinks of her — of what she thinks, feels, 
 desires, suffers, is, or may be. Nor does she seem to 
 think of it herself, until the storm falls upon her, 
 enwraps her, overwhelms her. Then she stands in 
 the midst of the beings around her, and who are one 
 and all in a kind of external relation to her, com- 
 pletely alone. In her grief, in her misery, in her 
 amazement, her perplexity, her terror, there is no one 
 to take thought for her, no one to help, no one to 
 sympathise. Each is self-occupied, self-satisfied. 
 And so she sinks down and perishes, and they stand 
 wondering at what they had not the sense to ^ce, 
 wringing their hands over the irremediable. It is 
 the Lucy Ashton of vulgar life. 
 
 The manners and diaructers of this play arc ci^scn- 
 
THE ARTIST NATURE. 
 
 307 
 
 tially German ; but the stuff — the material of the 
 piece — the relative position of the personages, might 
 be true of any place in this christian, civilised 
 Europe. The whole is wonderfully, painfully 
 natural, and strikes home to the heart, like Hood's 
 " Bridge of Sighs." It was a surprise to me that such 
 a piece should have been acted, and with applause, 
 at the Court Theatre at Vienna; but I believe it 
 has not been given since 1849. 
 
 is play arc c^seii- 
 
 123. 
 
 Here is a v.^ry good analysis of the artistic nature : 
 " II ressent une veritable emotion, mais il s'arrange 
 pour la montrer. II fait un peu ce que faisait cet 
 acteur de I'antiquite qui, venant de perdre son fils 
 unique et jouant quelque temps apres le role 
 d'Electre embrassant I'urne d'Oreste, prit entre ses 
 mains I'urne qui contenait les cendres de son enfant, 
 et joua sa propre douleur, dit Aulus Gellius, au lieu 
 de jouer celle de son role. Ce melange de I'emotion 
 naturelle et de I'emotion theatrale est plus frequent, 
 qu'on ne croit, surtout a certaines epoques quand le 
 raffinement de I'Education fait que I'homme ne sent 
 
 X 4 
 
 1 
 
i^m--'- 
 
 308 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 A \ 
 
 mi 
 
 ■T r t 
 
 pas seulement ses emotions, mais qu'il sent aust^i 
 I'effet qu'elles peuvent produire. Beaucoup dc gens 
 alorsjsont naturellement comediens; c'est a dire qii'ils 
 donnent un role a leurs passions : ils scntent en de- 
 hors au lieu de sentir en dedans ; leurs emotions sojit 
 en relief au lieu d'etre en profondeur.'" — St. Marc — 
 Girardin. 
 
 I think Margaret Fuller must have had the above 
 passage in her mind when she worked out this ha})py 
 illustration into a more finished form. She says : — 
 " The difference between the artistic nature and the 
 unartistic nature in the hour of emotion, is this : in 
 the first the feeling is a cameo, in the last an intaglio. 
 Raised in relief and shaped out of the heart in the 
 first ; cut into the heart, and hardly perceptible till 
 you take the impression, in the last." 
 
 And to complete this fanciful and beautiful ana- 
 logy, we might add, that because the artistic nature 
 is demonstrative, it is sometimes thought insincere ; 
 and insincere it is where the form is hollow in 
 proportion as it is cast outward, as in the casts 
 and electrotype copies of the solid sculpture. And 
 because the unartistic nature is undemonstrative, 
 it is sometimes thought cold, unreal; for of this 
 also there are imitations; and in passing the toucli 
 over certain intaglios, we feel by contact that they 
 are not so deep as we supposed. . 
 
 God defend us from both ! from the hollow nut*(^ 
 
.1 .1 
 
 "J>' 
 
 FEMALE CRITICISM. 
 
 3(m 
 
 tluit imitates solidity, and the shallowness that 
 imitates depth ! 
 
 the hollowness^i 
 
 124. 
 
 Goethe said of some woman, " She knew some- 
 tliing of devotion and love, but of the pure admira- 
 tion for a glorious piece of man's handiwork — of a 
 mere sympathetic veneration for the creation of the 
 human intellect — she could form no idea." 
 
 This may have been true of the individual woman 
 referred to; but that female critics look for something 
 in a production of art beyond the mere handiwork, 
 and that " our sympathetic veneration for a creation 
 of human intellect," is often dependent on our moral 
 associations, is not a reproach to us. Nor, if I may 
 presume to say so, does it lessen the value of our 
 criticism, where it can be referred to principles. 
 Women have a sort of unconscious logic in these 
 matters. 
 
 /^ 
 
 i!^:; 
 
 •|.';i. 
 
 
 \h 
 

 310 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 
 125. 
 
 " When fiction," says Sir James Mackintosh, " re- 
 presents a degree of ideal excellence superior to any 
 virtue which is observed in real life, the effect is 
 perfectly analogous to that of a model of ideal beauty 
 in the fine arts." 
 
 That is to say — As the Apollo exalts our idea of 
 possible beauty, in form, so the moral ideal of man 
 or woman exalts our idea of possible virtue, provided 
 it be consistent as a whole. If we gave the Apollo a 
 god-like head and face and left a part of his frame 
 below perfection, the elevating effect of the whole 
 would be immediately destroyed, though the figure 
 might be more according to the standard of actual 
 nature. 
 
 126. 
 
 " In Dante, as in Shakespeare, every man selects 
 by instinct that which assimilates with the course of 
 his own previous occupations and interests." {Meri- 
 vale,) True, not of Dante and Shakespeare only, 
 but of all books worth reading : and not merely of 
 books and authors, but of all productions of mind in 
 whatever form which speak to mind ; all works of art, 
 from which we imbibe, as it were, what is sympa- 
 thetic with our individuality. The more universal the 
 
THE GREEK APHRODITE. 
 
 811 
 
 sympathies of the writer or the artist, the more of 
 such individualities will be included in his domain of 
 
 power. 
 
 127. 
 
 The distinction so cleverly and beautifully drawn 
 by the Germans (by Lessing first I believe) between 
 "Bildende" and " Redende Kunst" is not to be ren- 
 dered into English without a lengthy paraphrase. 
 It places in immediate contradistinction the art which 
 is evolved in words, and the art which is evolved in 
 forms. 
 
 f Hfflf 1 
 
 M' 
 
 I i 
 
 1 I 
 
 128. 
 
 Venus, or rather the Greek Aphrodite, in the sub- 
 lime fragment of Eschylus (the Dana'ides) is a grand, 
 severe, and pure conception ; the principle eternal of 
 beauty, of love, and of fecundity — or the law of the 
 continuation of being through beauty and through 
 
 H I 
 
 m 
 
Hi' 
 
 312 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 love. Such a conception is no more like the Ovidean 
 Roinaii Venus than the Venus of Milo is like the 
 Venus de Medicis. 
 
 129. 
 
 In the Greek tragedy, love figures as one of the 
 laws of nature — not as a power, or a passion; these 
 are the aspects given to it by the Christian imagi- 
 nation. 
 
 Yet this higher idea of love did exist among the 
 ancients — only we must not seek it in their poetry, 
 but in their philosophy. Thus we find it in Plato, 
 set forth as a beautiful philosophical theory ; not as 
 a passion, to influence life, nor as a poetic feeling, to 
 adorn and exalt it. Nor do we moderns owe this idea 
 of a mystic, elevated, and elevating love to the Greek 
 philosophy. I rather agree with those who trace it 
 to the mingling of Christianity with the manners of 
 the old Germans, and their (almost) superstitious 
 reverence for womanhood. In the Middle Ages, 
 where morals were most depraved, and women most 
 helpless and oppressed, there still survived the theory 
 formed out of the combination of the Christian spirit, 
 and the Germanic customs ; and when in the 15tli 
 
WILKTE'S LIFE AND LETTERS. 
 
 31S 
 
 century Plato became the fnshion, then the theory 
 became a science, and what had been religion became 
 again philosophy. This sort of speculative love be- 
 came to real love what theology became to religion ; 
 it was a thesis to be talked about and argued in uni- 
 versities, sung in sonnets, set forth in art ; and so 
 being kept as far as possible from all bearings on 
 our moral life, it ceased to find consideration either 
 as a primseval law of God, or as a moral motive 
 influencing the duties and habits of our existence ; 
 and thus we find the social code in regard to it 
 diverging into all the vagaries of celibacy on one 
 hand, and r.U the vilenesses of profligacy on the 
 other. 
 
 130. 
 
 Wilkie's " Life and Letters" have not helped me 
 much. His opinions and criticisms on his own art 
 are sensible, not suggestive. I find, however, one or 
 two passages strongly illustrative of the value of 
 truth as a principle in art, and the sort of tntality it 
 gives to scenery and objects. 
 
 i|ii 
 
 a 
 
 
314 
 
 NOTES ON AET. 
 
 I'll 
 
 I' 31? 
 
 'l 
 
 ■ t 
 
 
 ! 
 
 i 
 
 iiife'. 
 
 ^ {Pill 
 
 » lillill 
 
 He writes, when travelling in Holland, to hi.s 
 friend, Sir George Beaumont ; — 
 
 " One of the first circumstanees that struck nic 
 wherever I went was what you had prepared me for ; 
 the resemblance that everything bore to the Dutch 
 and Flemish pictures. On leaving Ostend, not only 
 the people, houses, trees, but whole tracts of country 
 reminded me of Teniers, and on getting furtlicr 
 into the country this was only relieved by the pictures 
 of Hubens and Wouvermans, or some other masters 
 taking his place. 
 
 " I thought I could trace the particular districts in 
 Holland where Ostade, Cuyp, and Rembrandt had 
 studied, and could almost fancy the spot where the 
 pictures of other masters had been painted. Indeed 
 nothing seemed new to me in the whole country ; and 
 what one could not help wondering at, was, that 
 these old masters should have been able to draw the 
 materials of so beautiful a variety of art, from so 
 contracted and monotonous a theme." 
 
 Their variety arose out of their truthfulness, I 
 had the same feeling when travelling in Holland and 
 Belgium. It was to me a perpetual succession of 
 reminiscences, and so it has been with others. 
 Rubens and Rembrandt (as landscape painters) — 
 Cuyp, Hobbima, were continually in my mind ; 
 occasionally the yet more poetical Ruysdaal ; but 
 who ever thinks of AVouvcrmans, or Berghani, or 
 
tlolland, to his 
 
 TRUTH IN ART. 
 
 »IS 
 
 Karel dii Jardin, aa national or natural painters? 
 their scenery ia all got up like the scenery in a ballet, 
 and I can conceive nothing more tiresome than a 
 room full of their pictures, elegant as they arc. 
 
 131. 
 
 Again, writing from Jerusalem, Wilkie says, 
 " Nothing here requires revolution in our opinions of 
 the finest works of art : with all their discrepancies 
 of detail, they are yet constantly recalled by what is 
 here before us. The back-ground of the Heliodorus 
 of Kaphael is a Syrian building ; the figures in the 
 Lazarus of Sebastian del Piombo arc a Syrian 
 people ; and the indescribable tone of Rembrandt is 
 brought to mind at every turn, whether in the street, 
 the Synagogue, or the Sepulchre." And again: "The 
 painter we are always referring to, as one who has 
 most truly given the eastern people, is Rembrandt." 
 
 He partly contradicts this afterwards, but says 
 that Venetian art reminds him of Syria. Now, the 
 Venetians were in constant communication with the 
 East ; all their art has a tinge of orientalism. As to 
 Rembrandt, he must have been in familiar inter- 
 course with the Jew merchants and Jewish families 
 settled in the Dutch commercial towns ; he painted 
 them frequently as portraits, and they perpetually 
 appear in his compositions. 
 
 11 
 
 s 
 
i^*ti.;if^ 
 
 SIA 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 t't il' l!. 
 
 t;i?:1ili:'l| 
 ml-'' i 
 
 •:f ^« 
 
 132. 
 
 In the following; passage Wilkie seems iinoon- 
 seiously to have antieipated the invention (or ratlior 
 the discover^/) of the Daguerreotype, and some of its 
 results. He says : — " If by an operation of mcelia- 
 nism, animated nature could be copied witli the accu- 
 racy of a cast in plaster, a tracing on a wall, or a 
 reflection in a glass, without modification, and witli- 
 out the proprieties and graces of art, all that 
 utility could desire would be perfectly attained, but 
 it would be at the expense of almost every quality 
 Avhich renders art delightful." 
 
 One reason why the Daguerreotype portraits are 
 in general so unsatisfactory may perhaps be traced to 
 a natural law, though I have not heard it suggested. 
 It is this : every object that we behold we see not 
 with the eye only, but with the soul; and this is 
 especially true of the human countenance, which in 
 so far as it is the expression of mind we see througli 
 the medium of our own individual mind. Thus a 
 portrait is satisfactory in so far as the painter has 
 sympathy with his subject, and delightful to us in 
 proportion as the resemblance reflected through his 
 sympathies is in accordance with our own. Now in the 
 Daguerreotype there is no such medium, and the face 
 comes before us without passing through the human 
 mind and brain to our apprehension. This may be 
 
AN ALTAR PIUCU. 
 
 :U7 
 
 tho rcjwoii why a Dagucrrootypc, however heautit'ul 
 and accurate, in Hchlc^m satisfactory or agreeable, and 
 tluit while we acknowledge its truth as to fact, it 
 iilwayw leavcH something for the sympathies to desire. 
 
 He says, " One thing alone seems common in all 
 the stages of early art ; the desire of making all other 
 excellences tributary to the expression of thought 
 and sentiment." 
 
 The early i)ainters had no other excellences except 
 those of thought and exj^ression ; therefore could 
 not sacrifice what they did not possess. They drew 
 incorrectly, coloured ineffectively, and were ignorant 
 of perspective. 
 
 I 
 
 134, 
 
 When at Dusseldorf, I found the President of the 
 Aoademy, Wilhelm Schadow, employed on a church 
 picture in three compartments; Paradise in the 
 
318 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 IH''' 
 
 m 
 
 111 
 
 1 i; f 
 
 centre ; on the right side, Purgatory ; on the left 
 side, Hell. He explained to me that he had not 
 attempted to paint the interior of Paradise as the 
 sojourn of the blessed, because he could imagine no 
 kind of occupation or delight which, prolonged to 
 eternity, would not be wearisome. He had there- 
 fore represented the exterior of Paradise, where 
 Christ, standing on the threshold with outstretched 
 arms, receives and welcomes those who enter. (This 
 was better and in finer taste than the more common 
 allegory of St. Peter and his keys.) On one side of 
 the door, the "Virgin Mary and a group of guardian 
 angels encourage those who approach. Among these 
 we distinguish a martyr who has died for the truth, 
 and a warrior who has fought for it. A care-worn, 
 penitent mother is presented by her innocent daugh- 
 ter. Those who were "in the world and the world 
 knew them not," are here acknowledged — and eyes 
 dim with weeping, and heads bowed with shame, are 
 here uplifted, and bright with the rapturous gleam 
 which shone through the portals of Paradise. 
 
 The idea of Purgatory, he told me, was suggested 
 by a vision or dream related by St. Catherine of 
 Genoa, in which she beheld a great number of men 
 and women shut ud in a dark cavern; angels de- 
 scending from heaven, liberate them from time to 
 time, and they are borne away one after another 
 from darkness, pain, and penance, into life and light 
 
AN ALTAR PIECE. 
 
 Sitf 
 
 — again to behold the face of then* Maker — recon- 
 ciled and healed. In his picture, Schadow has re- 
 presented two angels bearing away a liberated soul. 
 Below in the fore-ground groups of sinners are wait- 
 ing, sadly, humbly, but not unhopefuUy, the term of 
 their bitter penance. Among these he had placed a 
 group of artists and poets who, led away by tempta- 
 tion, had abused their glorious gifts to wicked or 
 worldly purposes; — Titian, Ariosto, and, rather to 
 my surprise, the beautiful, lamenting spirit of Byron. 
 Then, what was curious enough, as types of ambition. 
 Lady Macbeth and her husband, who, it seems, were 
 to be ultimately saved, I do not know why — unless 
 for the love of Shakspeare. 
 
 Hell, like all the hells I ever saw, was a failure. 
 There was the usual amount of fire and flames, 
 dragons and serpents, ghastly, despairing spirits, but 
 nothing of original or powerful conception. When 
 I looked in Schadow's face, so beautiful with bene- 
 volence, I wondered how he could — but in truth he 
 could not — realise to himself the idea of a hell ; all 
 the materials he had used were borrowed and com- 
 monplace. 
 
 But among his cartoons for pictures already 
 painted, there was one charming idea of quite a 
 (liiFerent kind. It was for an altar, and he called it 
 " The Fountain of Life." Above, the sacrificed 
 Redeemer lies extended in his mother's arms. The 
 
 V 2 
 
 '1 
 
 ~"F 
 
320 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 l|!'<fi 
 
 lij,n 
 
 wi 
 
 lri-1 
 
 pure abundant Waters of Salvation, gushing tVoiii 
 the rock beneath their feet, are received into a great 
 cistern. Saints, martyrs, teachers of the truth, are 
 standing round, drinking or filling their vases, whicli 
 they present to each other. From the cistern flows 
 a stream, at which a family of poor peasants are 
 drinking with humble, joyful looks; and as the 
 stream divides and flows away through flowery mea- 
 dows, little sportive children stoop to drink of it, 
 scooping up the water in their tiny hands, or sipping 
 it with their rosy smiling lips. A beautiful and 
 significant allegory beautifully expressed, and as 
 intelligible to the people as any in the " Pilgrim's 
 Progress." 
 
 135. 
 
 Haydon discussed " High Art " as if it depended 
 solely on the knowledge and the appreciation of 
 form. In this lay his great mistake. Form is but 
 the vehichi of the liighest art. 
 
 'H' 
 
 136. 
 
 Southey says that the Franciscan Order "ex- 
 cluded all art, all science ; — no pictures might pro- 
 
 U 1! 
 
ARTIST. LIFE. 
 
 li'il 
 
 ftme their churches." This is a most extraordinary 
 instance of ignorance in a man of Southey's uni- 
 versal learning. Did he forget Friar Bacon? had 
 he not heard of that museum of divine pictures, the 
 Franciscan church and convent at Assisi? And 
 that some of the greatest mathematicians, architects, 
 mosaic workers, carvers, and painters, of the 13th 
 and 1 4th centuries were Franciscan friars? 
 
 191 
 
 W, 
 
 ^^V4;&^^^ 
 
 137. 
 
 Wordsworth's remark on Sir Joshua Reynolds as 
 a painter, that " he lived too much for the age and 
 the people among whom he lived," is hardly just ; as 
 a portrait- painter he covdd not well do otherwise; his 
 profession was to represent the people among whom 
 he lived. An artist who takes the higher, the crea- 
 tive and imaginative walks of art, and who thinks he 
 can, at the same time, live for and with the age, and 
 for the passing and clashing interests of the world, 
 and the frivolities of society, does so at a great risk : 
 there must be perilous discord between the inner 
 and the outer life — such discord as wears and irri- 
 tates the whole physical and moral being. Where 
 the original material of the character is not strong, 
 
 Y 3 
 
 mm 
 
32:2 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 the artistic genius will be gradually enfeebled and 
 conventionalised, through flattery, through sym- 
 pathy, through misuse. If the material be strong, 
 the result may perhaps be worse; the genius may ]m 
 demoralised and the mind lose its balance. I have 
 seen in my tinie instances of both. 
 
 " The man," says Coleridge, " who reads a work 
 meant for immediate effect on one age, with tlio 
 notions and feelings of another, may be a refined 
 gentleman but a very sorry critic." 
 
 This is especially true with regard to art: but 
 Coleridge should have put in the word, owZy, (" only 
 the notions and feelings of another age,") for a 
 very great pleasure lies in the power of throwing 
 ourselves into the sentiments and notions of one 
 age, while feeling ivith them, and reflecting upon 
 them, with the riper critical experience which be- 
 longs to another age. 
 
MATERIALISM IN ART. 
 
 323 
 
 139. 
 
 A good taste in art feels the presence or the 
 absence of merit ; a just taste discriminates the de- 
 cree, — the poco-piu and the poco-meno. A ffood 
 taste rejects faults ; a Just taste selects excellences. 
 A ffood taste is often unconscious ; a Just taste is 
 always conscious. A ffood taste may be lowered or 
 spoilt ; a just taste can only go on refining more and 
 more. 
 
 li --^ 
 
 140. 
 
 Artists are interesting to me as men. Their work 
 as the product of mind, should lead us to a know- 
 ledge of their own being ; else, as I have often said 
 and written, our admiration of art is a species of 
 atheism. To forget the soul in its highest manifes- 
 tation is like forgetting God in his creation. 
 
 141. 
 
 " Les images peints du corps humain, dans les figures 
 oil doniine par trop le savoir anatomiqne, en revelant 
 trop clairement a I'homme les secrets de sa structure, 
 
 Y 4 
 
 P 
 
 I 
 
 I li. 
 
324 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 
 it 
 
 
 lui en decouvrent aussi par trop ce qu'on pourrait 
 appeler le point de vue materiel, ou si Ton vout 
 imimaV^ 
 
 This is the fault of Michal-Angelo ; yet I have 
 sometimes thought that his very materialism, so 
 grand, and so peculiar in character, may have arisen 
 out of his profound religious feeling, his stern 
 morality, his lofty conceptions of our mortaly as well 
 as immortal destinies. He appears to have beheld 
 the human form only in a pure and sublime point of 
 view ; not as the animal man, but as the habitation, 
 fearfully and wondrously constructed, for the spirit 
 of man, — 
 
 " The outward shape, 
 And unpolluted temple of the mind." 
 
 This is the reason that Michal-Angelo's materialism 
 affects us so differently from that of Rubens. In 
 the first, the predominance of form attains almost a 
 moral sublimity. In the latter, the predominance of 
 flesh and blood is debased into physical grossness. 
 Michal-Angelo believed in the resurrection of the 
 BODY, emphatically ; and in his Last Judgment the 
 dead rise like Titans, strong to contend and mighty 
 to suffer. It is the apotheosis of form. In Rubens's 
 picture of the same subject (at Munich) the bodily 
 presence of resuscitated life is revolting, reminding 
 us of the text of St. Paul — *' Flesh and blood shall 
 not inherit the kingdom of God." Both pictures arc 
 
 V '\\mm 
 
MATERIALISM IN ART. 
 
 S35 
 
 (Bsthetically false, but artistically miracles, and should 
 thus be considered and appreciated. 
 
 I have never looked on those awful figures in the 
 Medici Chapel without thinking what stupendous 
 intellects must inhabit such stupendous forms — ter- 
 rible in their quietude; but they are supernatural, 
 rather than divine. 
 
 " Heidnische Ruhe und Christliche Milde, sie bleiben l)ir fremde ; 
 Alt-testamentisch bist Du, Ziirnender, wie ist Dein Gott ! " 
 
 John Edward Taylor, in his profound and beautiful 
 essay " Michael- Angelo, a Poet," says truly that 
 " Dante worshipped the philosophy of religion, and 
 Michal-Angelo adored the philosophy of art." The 
 religion of the one and the art of the other were 
 evolved in a strange combination of mysticism, 
 materialism, and moral grandeur. The two men were 
 congenial in character and in genius. 
 
 -H 
 
 1^ fl 
 
 y 5 
 
i' 
 
 A FRAGMENT ON SCULPTURE, 
 
 r 
 
 AND ON CERTAIN CHAKACTBRS IN HISTORY AND POETRY CONSIDRHEI) 
 
 AS SUBJECTS OV MODERN ART. 
 
 1848. 
 
 I SHOULD begin by admitting the position laid down 
 by Frederick Schlegel, that art and nature are not 
 identical. " Men," he says, " traduce nature, who 
 falsely give her the epithet of artistic ; " for thougli 
 nature comprehends all art, art cannot comprehend 
 all nature. Nature, in her sources of pleasure and 
 contemplation is infinite ; and art, as her reflection 
 in human works, finite. Nature is boundless in her 
 powers, exhaustless in her variety ; the powers of 
 art and its capabilities of variety in production are 
 bounded on every side. Nature herself, the infinite, 
 
 
 ©' 
 
A FRAGMENT ON SCULI>TlIftK. 
 
 'n: 
 
 m 
 
 roETRT coNsrnKnEi) 
 
 has circumscribed the bounds of finite art ; the one 
 is the divinity ; the other, the priestess. And if 
 poetic art in the interpreting of nature share in her 
 infinitude, yet in representing nature through mate- 
 rial, form, and colour, she is, — oh, how limited! 
 
 If each of the forms of poetic art has its law of 
 limitation as determined as the musical scale, nar- 
 rowest of all are the limitations of sculpture, to 
 wliich, notwithstanding, we give the highest place ; 
 iiud it is in regard to sculpture, we find most fre- 
 quently those mistakes which arise from a want of 
 knowledge of the true principles of art. 
 
 Admitting, then, as necessary and immutable, the 
 limitations of the art of sculpture as to the manage- 
 ment of the material in giving form and expression ; 
 its primal laws of repose and simplicity ; its rejection 
 of the complex and conventional ; its bounded capa- 
 bilities as to choice of subject ; must we also admit, 
 with some of the most celebrated critics of art, that 
 there is but one style of sculpture, the Greek? And 
 that every deviation from pure Greek art must be 
 regarded as a depravation and perversion of the 
 powers and subjects of sculpture. I do not see that 
 this follows. 
 
 W 
 
 It is absolute that Greek art reached lonjj ago the 
 tonn of its development. In so far as regards the 
 
■i2^ 
 
 NOTKS ON ART. 
 
 principles of beauty and exccutii)n, it can go no far- 
 ther. We may stand and look at the relics of tlic 
 Parthenon in awe and in despair; wc can do neitlur 
 more, nor better. But we have not done with Greek 
 sculpture. What in it is purely ideals is eternal; 
 what is conventional, is in accordance with the primal 
 conditions of all imitative art. Therefore thou'>li 
 it may have reached the point at which develop- 
 ment stops, and though its capability of adaptation 
 be limited by necessary laws ; still its all-beautifiij, 
 its immortal imagery is ever near us and around 
 us; still "doth the old feeling bring back the 
 old names," and with the old names, the forms ; still, 
 in those old familiar forms we continue to clothe all 
 that is loveliest in visible nature ; still, in all our 
 associations with Greek art — 
 
 '• 'Tis Jupiter who brings whate'er is great, 
 And Venus who brings every thing that's fair." 
 
 That the supreme beauty of Greek art — that the 
 majestic significance of the classical myths — will ever 
 be to the educated mind and eye as things indifferent 
 and worn out, T cannot believe. 
 
 But on the other hand it may well be doubted 
 whether the impersonation of the Greek allegories 
 in the purest forms of Greek art will ever give 
 intense pleasure to the people, or ever speak home 
 
A FRAGMENT ON SCULITURE. 
 
 m 
 
 to ihe licarta of the men and women of these timen. 
 And this not from the want of an innate taste and 
 capacity in the minds of the masses — not because 
 ijjnorance has " frozen the genial current in their 
 souls " — not merely through a vulgar preference for 
 mechanical imitation of common and familiar fonns ; 
 but from other causes not transient — not accidental. 
 A classical education is not now, as hereto- 
 fore, the onli/ education given ; and through an 
 honest and intense sympathy with the life of their 
 own experience, and from a dislike to vicious asso- 
 ciations, though clothed in classical language and 
 classical forms, thence is it that the people have 
 turned with a sense of relief from gods and god- 
 desses, Ledas and Antiopes, to shepherds and shep- 
 herdesses, groups of charity, and young ladies in the 
 cliaracter of Innocence, — harmless, picturesque inani- 
 ties, bearing the same relation to classical sculpture 
 that Watts's hymns bear to Homer and Sophocles. 
 
 Classical attainments of any kind are rare in our 
 English sculptors ; therefore it is, that we find them 
 often quite familiar with the conventional treatment 
 and outward forms of the usual subjects of Greek 
 art, without much knowledge of the original poetical 
 conception, its derivation, or its significance ; and 
 equally without any real appreciation of the idea of 
 which the form is but the vehicle. Hence they do 
 
 i; ' 
 
 I m 
 
;i;(() 
 
 NOTR8 ON ART. 
 
 
 not flcein to be aware li(»\v far thirt orijr'mal i:oiu;c|)- 
 tion is capable of being varicil, modified, animated 
 as it were, with an infusion of fresh life, without 
 deviating from its essential trutii, or transgress! iijr 
 those narrow limits, within which all sculpture iimst 
 be bounded in respect to action and attitude. To 
 exjiress character within these limits is the grand 
 difficulty. We must remember that too much vtiluc 
 given to the head as the seat of mind, too niuoli 
 expression given to the features as the exponents 
 of character, must diminish the importance of those 
 parts of the form on which sculpture mainly depends 
 for its effect on the imagination. To convey tlic 
 idea of a complete individuality in a single figure, 
 and under these restrictions, is the problem to be 
 solved by the sculptor who aims at originality, yet 
 feels his aspirations restrained by a fine taste and cir- 
 cumscribed by certain inevitable associations. 
 
 It is therefore a question open to argument and 
 involving considerations of infinite delicacy and 
 moment, in morals and in art, whether the old 
 Greek legends, endued as they are with an imperish- 
 able vitality derived from their abstract truth, may 
 not be susceptible of a treatment in modern art ana- 
 logous to that which they have received in modem 
 poetry, where the significant myth, or the ideal 
 character, without losing its classic grace, has been 
 
A FRAOMKNT ON S( IILITURK, 
 
 Ml 
 
 ;iiiiiii:ite(l witli u |>iin'i' scntiniciit, uiul developed into 
 ii liiglicr cx|)res5«lvcncss. Wordsworth's Dion and 
 Laodomia; Shelley's version of the Hymn to Mer- 
 cury ; Goethe's rphi«^cnia; Lord Byron's rronic- 
 tlicus ; Keats's IIyi»enon ; Barry CornwuU's Pro.-or- 
 pina; are instances of what] mean in ijoetry. To 
 do the same tiling in art, rcquiiVii tiiat ou." r lulptors 
 fijjould stand in the same relation to PiiidijiM p'ld 
 Praxiteles, that our greatest poets benr lo U(Viac!" or 
 Euri[)ides; that they should be ihcniselve;-^ [tootii 
 and interpreters, not mere translators and imilators. 
 Further, we all know, that there is often a neces- 
 sity for conveying abstract ideas in tiic form > of in t. 
 We have then recourse to allegory ; yet uDej^orical 
 statues are generally cold and convcntionn! and 
 addressed to the intellect merely. Now ihero nm 
 occasions, in which an abstract quality or liiou^fht h 
 fivr more impressively and intelligibly conveyed by 
 an impersonation than by a personijication, I mean, 
 tliat Aristides might exjn'css the idea of justice; 
 Penelope, that of conjugal faith ; Jonatlian and 
 David (or Pylades and Orestes), irioTidahir-; Bl/pah, 
 devotion to the memory of the d jad ; Iphlgenia, 
 tiic voluntary sacrifice for p ;,;ood cause ; and so of 
 many others ; and s^ich iigures would have this ad- 
 vantage, that wit]' the significance of a symbol they 
 would combine all the powers of a sympathetic 
 reality. 
 
 ^v \y 
 
 
 
T\^ 
 
 8:V2 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 
 HELEN. 
 
 I HAVE never seen any statue of Helen, ancient 
 or modern. Treated in the right spirit, I can hardly 
 conceive a diviner subject for a sculptor. It woiiltl 
 be a great mistake to represent the Greek Helen 
 merely as a beautiful and alluring woman. This, at 
 least, is not the Homeric conception of the character, 
 which has a wonderful and fascinating individuality, 
 requiring the utmost delicacy and poetic feeling to 
 comprehend, and rare artistic skill to realise. The 
 oft-told story of the Grecian painter, who, to create 
 a Helen, assembled some twenty of the fairest models 
 he could find, and took from each a limb or a feature, 
 in order to compose from their separate beauties an 
 ideal of perfection, — this story, if it were true, would 
 only prove that even Zeuxis could make a great mis- 
 take. Such a combination of heterogeneous elements 
 would be psychologically and artistically false, and 
 would never give us a Helen. 
 
HELEN. 
 
 88S 
 
 She has become the ideal type of a fatal, faithless, 
 dissolute woman ; but according to the Greek myth, 
 ^Q\9, predestined, — at once the instrument and the 
 victim of that fiat of the gods which had long before 
 decreed the destruction of Troy, and her to be the 
 cause. She must not only be supremely beautiful, — 
 " a daughter of the gods, divinely tall, and most 
 divinely fair!" — but as the offspring of Zeus (the 
 title by which she is so often designated in the Iliad), 
 iis the sister of the great twin demi-gods Castor and 
 Pollux, she should have the heroic lineaments proper 
 to her Olympian descent, touched with a pensive 
 sliade ; for she laments the calamities which her fatal 
 charms have brought on all who ha\ e loved her, all 
 whom she has loved : — 
 
 " Ah 1 had I died ere to these shores I fled, 
 False to my country and my nuptial bed ! " 
 
 She shrinks from the reproachful glances of those 
 whom she has injured ; and yet, as it is finely inti- 
 mated, wh«^rever she appears her resistless loveliness 
 vanquishes every heart, and changes curses into 
 blessings. Priam treats her with paternal tender- 
 ness ; Hector with a sort of chivalrous respect. 
 
 " If some proud brother eyed me with disdain, 
 Or scornful sister with her sweeping train, 
 Thy gentle accents softened all my pain ; 
 Nor was it e'er my fate from thee to find 
 A deed ungentle or a word unkind." 
 
. I 
 
 li! 
 
 384 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 Helen, standing on the walls of Troy, and lookin<> 
 over the battle plain, where the heroes of her for- 
 feited country, her kindred and her friends, are 
 assembled to fight and bleed for her sake, brino-s 
 before us an iuiage full of melancholy sweetness as 
 well as of consummate beauty. Another passage in 
 which she upbraids Venus as the cause of her fault 
 — not as a mortal might humbly expostulate with 
 an immortal, but almost on terms of equality, and 
 even with bitterness, — is yet more characteristic. 
 " For what," she asks, tauntingly, " am I reserved ? 
 To what new countries am I destined to carry war 
 and desolation ? For what new lover must I break 
 a second vow? Let me go hence I and if Paris 
 lament my absence, let Venus console him, and for 
 his sake ascend the skies no more!" A regretful 
 pathos should mingle with her conscious beauty and 
 her half-celestial dignity ; and, to render her truly, 
 her Greek elegance should be combined with a deeper 
 and more complex sentiment than Greek art has 
 usually sought to express. 
 
 I am speaking here of Homer's Helen — tho 
 Helen of the Iliad, not the Helen of the tragedians 
 — not the Helen who for two thousand years has 
 merely served " to point a moral ; " and an artist 
 who should think to realise the true Homeric con- 
 ception, should beware of counterfeits, for such are 
 abroad. 
 
 M 
 
HETRX. 
 
 WS 
 
 There is a wild Greek myth that it -'xa not the 
 real Helen, but the phantom of Helen, who fled with 
 Paris, and who caused the destruction of Troy ; 
 while Helen herself was leading, like Penelope, a 
 pattern life at Memphis. I must confess I prefer 
 the proud humility, the pathetic elegance of Homer's 
 Helen to such jugglery. 
 
 It may flatter the pride of virtue, or it may move 
 our religious sympathies, to look on the forlorn 
 abasement of the ^Magdalene as the emblem of peni- 
 tence; but there are associations connected with 
 Helen — "sad Helen," as she calls herself, and as I 
 conceive the character, — which have a deep tragic 
 significance; and surely there are localities for which 
 the impersonation of classical art would be better 
 fitted than that of sacred art. 
 
 I do not know of any existing statue of Helen. 
 Nicetas mentions among the relics of ancient art 
 destroyed when Constantinople was sacked by the 
 Latins in 1202, a bronze statue of Helen, with long 
 hair flowing to the waist ; and there is mention of an 
 Etruscan figure of her, with wings (expressive of her 
 celestial origin, for the Etruscans gave all their gods 
 and demi-gods wings) : in Miiller I find these two 
 only. There are likewise busts ; and the story of 
 Helen, and the various events of her life, occur 
 perpetually on the antique gems, bas-reliefs, and 
 painted vases. The most frequent subject is her 
 

 336 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 
 abduction by Paris. A beautiful subject for a bas- 
 relief, and one I believe not yet treated, would be 
 Helen and Priam mourning over the lifeless form of 
 Hector ; yet the difficulty of preserving the simple 
 sculptural treatment, and at the same time discrimin- 
 ating between this and other similar funereal groups, 
 would render it perhaps a better subject for a picture, 
 as admitting then of such scenery and accessories as 
 would at once determine the signification. 
 
 PENELOPE. 
 
 ALCESTIS. 
 
 LAODAMIA. 
 
 Statues of Penelope and Helen might stand in 
 beautiful and expressive contrast ; but it is a contrast 
 which no profane or prosaic hand should attempt to 
 realise. Penelope is all woman in her tenderness and 
 her truth; Helen, half a goddess in the midst of 
 error and remorse. 
 
 Nor is Penelope the only character which might 
 stand as a type of conjugal fidelity in contrasted 
 companionship with Helen : Alcestis, who died for 
 
L.VODAMIA. 
 
 :W7 
 
 LAODAMIA. 
 
 her husband ; or, better still, Laodainia, whoso in- 
 tense love and longing recalled hers from the shades 
 below, are susceptible of the most beautiful sta- 
 tuesque treatment ; only we must bear in mind that 
 the leading motif in the Alcestis is diityy in the 
 Laodamia, love. 
 
 I remember a bas-relief in the Vatican, which 
 represents Hermes restoring Protesilaus to his mourn- 
 ing wife. The interview was granted for three hours 
 only ; and when the hero was taken from her a second 
 time, she died on the threshhold of her palace. This 
 is a frequent and appropriate subject for sarcophagi 
 and funereal vases. But there exists, I believe, no 
 single statue commemorative of the wife's passionate 
 devotion. 
 
 The modern sculptor should penetrate his fancy 
 with the sentiment of Wordsworth's Laodamia. 
 
 While the pen is in my hand I may remark that 
 two of the stanzas in the Laodamia have been 
 altered, and, as it seems to me, not improved, since 
 the first edition. Originally the poem opened thu!< : 
 
 I'i;'; 
 
 " With sacrifice, before the rising morn 
 Perform'd, my slaughter'd lord have I required ; 
 And in thick darkness, amid shades forlorn, 
 Him of the infernal Gods have I desired : 
 Celestial pity I again implore ; 
 Restore him to my sight — great Jove, restore !" 
 
 z 2 
 

 338 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 ■ -.1 It 
 
 1 ^ *''! 
 
 Altered thus, and comparatively flat : — 
 
 " With sacrifice before the rising morn 
 Vows have I made, by fruitless hope inspired ; 
 And from the infernal Gods, mid shades forlorn 
 Of night, my slaughtered lord have I required : 
 Celestial pity I again implore ; 
 Restore him to my sight — great Jove, restore I " 
 
 In the early edition the last stanza but one stood 
 thus : — 
 
 " Ah 1 judge her gently who so deeply loved 1 
 Her who, in reason's spite, yet without crime. 
 Was in a trance of passion thus removed ; , 
 
 Delivered from the galling yoke of time, ' 
 
 And these frail elements,— to gather flowers 
 Of blissful quiet 'mid unfading bowers!" 
 
 In the later editions thus altered, and, to my taste, 
 spoiled: • — 
 
 "By no weak pity might the Gods be moved ; 
 She who thus perish'd not without the crime 
 Of lovers that in Reason's spite have loved. 
 Was doomed to wander in a grosser clime, 
 Apart from happy ghosts, that gather flowers 
 Of blissful quiet 'mid unfading bowers." 
 
 Altered, probably, because Virgil has introduced 
 the shade of Laodamia among the criminal and un- 
 happy lovers, — an instance of extraordinary bad taste 
 in the Roman poet; whatever may have been her 
 faults, she surely deserved to be placed in better 
 company than Phasdra and Pasiphae. Words- 
 
HIPP0LYTU8. 
 
 i»9 
 
 worth's intuitive feeling and taste were true in the 
 first instance, and he might have trusted to them. 
 In my own copy of Wordsworth I have been care- 
 ful to mark the original reading in justice to the 
 original Laodamia. 
 
 , and, to my taste, 
 
 HIPPOLYTUS. 
 
 NEOPTOLEMUS, 
 
 I HAVE never met with a statue, ancient or modern, 
 of Hippolytus; the finest possible ideal of a Greek 
 youth, touched with some individual characteristics 
 which are peculiarly fitted for sculpture. He is a 
 hunter, not a warrior; a tamer of horses, not a com- 
 batant with spear and shield. He should have the 
 slight, agile build of a young Apollo, but nothing of 
 the God's effeminacy ; on the contrary, there should 
 be an infusion of the severe beauty of his Amazonian 
 mother, with that sedateness and modesty which 
 should express the votary and companion of Diana ; 
 
 z 3 
 
 ^':":!| 1 
 
 m 
 
 

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 m 
 
 
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 ^'' ' 
 
 
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 \ 
 
 
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 11 
 
 MO 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 while, as the fated victim of Venus, whom he had 
 contemned, and of his stepmother Phaedra, whom he 
 had repulsed, there should be a kind of melanclioiy 
 in his averted features. A hound and implements of 
 the chase would be the proper accessories, and the 
 figure should be undraped, or nearly so. 
 
 A sculptor who should be tempted to undertake 
 this fine, and, as I think, untried subject — at least 
 as a single figure — must begin by putting Racine out 
 of his mind, whose "Seigneur Hippolyte" makes 
 sentimental love to the " Princesse Aricie," and 
 must penetrate his fancy with the conception of 
 Euripides. 
 
 I find in Schlegel's " Essais litt^raires," a few lines 
 which will assist the fancy of the artist, in repre- 
 senting the person and character of Hippolytus. 
 
 " Quant a I'Hippolyte d'Euripide, il a une teinte 
 si divine que pour le sentir dignement il faut, pour 
 ainsi dire, ^tre initio dans les mysteres de la beaute, 
 avoir respire I'air de la Gr^ce. Rappelez vous ce que 
 I'antiquite nous a transmis de plus accompli parmi 
 les images d'une jeunesse h^ro'ique, les Dioscures de 
 Monte-Cavallo, le Meleagre et I'ApoUon du Vati- 
 can. Le caract^re d'Hippolyte occupe dans la 
 poesie £i peu pr^s la meme place que ces statues 
 dans la sculpture." " On pent remarquer dans plu- 
 sieurs beautes ideales de Tantique que les anciens* 
 
HIPP0LYTU8. 
 
 841 
 
 voulant creer une image perfectionnee de la nature 
 humaine ont fondu les nuances du caractere d'un 
 8exe avee celui de I'autre ; que Junon, Pallas, Diane, 
 ont une majeste, une severite male; qu' ApoUon, 
 Mercure, Bacchus, au contraire, ont quelque chose 
 de la grace et de la douceur des femmes. De meme 
 nous voyons dans la beaute heroi'que et vierge 
 d'Hippolyte I'image de sa mere I'Amazone et le 
 reflet de Diane dans un mortel." 
 
 (The last lines are especially remarkable, and are 
 an artistic commentary on what I have ventured to 
 touch upon ethically at page 85.) 
 
 The story of Hippolytus is to be found in bas- 
 reliefs and gems; it occurs on a particularly fine 
 sarcophagus now preserved in the cathedral at 
 Agrigentum, of which there is a cast in the British 
 Museum. 
 
 Under the heroic and classical form, Hippolytus 
 conveys the same idea of manly chastity and self- 
 control which in sacred art would be suggested by 
 the figure of Joseph. 
 
 I 
 
 A. noble companion to the Hippolytus would be 
 Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. He is the young 
 Greek warrior, strong and bold and brave ; a fine 
 
 z 4 
 
 n 
 
M'i 
 
 NOTK8 ON ART. 
 
 I,' t 
 
 ll Ml 
 
 ideal type of generosity and truth. Ihe conceptiun, 
 as I imagine it, should be taken from the Philoetetcs 
 of Sophocles, where Ncoptolemus, indignant at tl>e 
 craft of Ulysses, discloses the trick of which he liad 
 been made the unwilling instrument, and restores 
 the fatal, envenomed arrows to Philoctetes. The 
 celebrated lines in the Iliad spoken by Achilles — 
 
 Iff 
 
 »«■'' 
 
 > " Who dares think one thing and another tell 
 
 My soul detests him as the gates of hell ! " 
 
 should give the leading characteristic motif in the 
 figure of his son. There should be something o^' 
 remorseful pity in the very youthfid features; the 
 form ought to be heroically treated, that is, un- 
 draped, and he should hold the arrows in his hand. 
 
 Neoptolemus, as the savage avenger of his father's 
 death, slaying the grey-haired Priam at the foot of 
 the altar, and carrying off Andromache, is, of course, 
 quite a different version of the character. He then 
 figures as Pyrrhus — 
 
 " The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, 
 Black as his purpose, did the night resemble." 
 
 The fine moral story of Neoptolemus and Philt)c- 
 tetes is figured on the Etruscan vases. Of the 
 young, truth-telling, Greek hero I find no single 
 statue. 
 
 ::.!i;)i 
 
IPHIGKNIA. 
 
 34.1 
 
 IPHIGENIA. 
 
 I HAVE often been surprised that we have no statue 
 of this eminently beautiful subject. We have the 
 story of Iphigenia constantly repeated in gems and 
 bas-reliefs ; the most celebrated example extant 
 being the Medici Vase. But no single figure of 
 Iphigenia, as the Greek ideal of heroic maidenhood 
 and self-devotion, exists, I believe, in antique sculp- 
 ture. The small and rather feebly elegant statuette 
 by Christian Tieck is the only modern example I 
 have seen. 
 
 Iphigenia may be represented under two very 
 different aspects, both beautiful. 
 
 First, as the Iphigenia in Aulis ; the victim 
 sacrificed to obtain a fair wind for the Grecian fleet 
 detained on its way to Troy. Extreme youth and 
 grace, with a tender resignation not devoid of 
 dignity, should be the leading characteristics; for 
 we must bear in mind that Iphigenia, while re- 
 gretting life and the " lamp-bearing day," and " the 
 
 pi; i 
 
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 I' -", 
 
 III III 
 
 J 
 
 I! i'\ 
 
 l!lM 
 
 lilll 
 
■'iu 
 
 N(>TK8 ON ART. 
 
 If 
 
 fit. ■ ?■• 
 
 beloved light," and her Argive home and her 
 " Mycenian handmaids," dies willingly, as the Greek 
 girl ought to die, for the good of her countiy. 
 She begins, indeed, with a prayer for i)ity, with la- 
 mentations for her untimely end, but she resuniotj 
 her nobler self; and all her sentiments, when she is 
 brought forth, crowned for sacrifice, are worthy of the 
 daughter of Agamemnon. She even exults that she 
 is called upon to perish for the good of Greece, and 
 to avenge the cause of right on the Spartan Helen. 
 " I give," she exclaims, " my life for Greece ! sacri- 
 fice me — and let Troy perish I" When her mothc 
 weeps, she reproves those tears : " It is not well, 
 O my mother I that I should love life too much. 
 Think that thou hast brought me forth for the com- 
 mon good of Greece, not for thyself only 1 " She 
 glories in her anticipated renown, not vainly, since, 
 while the world endures, and far as the influences 
 of literature and art extend, her story and her 
 name shall live. The scene in Euripides should be 
 taken as the basis of the character — the finest 
 scene in his finest drama. The tradition that Iphi- 
 genia was not really sacrificed, but snatched away 
 from the altar by Diana, and a hind substituted in 
 her place, should be present to the fancy of the 
 artist, when he sets himself to represent the majestic 
 resignation of the consecrated virgin ; as adding a 
 touch of the marvellous and ideal to the Greek ele- 
 gance and simplicity of the conception. 
 
II'llKiKNlA. 
 
 Mf 
 
 The picture of Iphigenia tw drawn by Tciiiiysou 
 irt wonderfully vivid ; but it wants the (ireek dig- 
 nity and statuesque feeling ; it is emphatically a 
 picture, all over colour and light, and crowdi'd with 
 accessories. He represents her as eiK mntering 
 Helen in the land of Shadows, and, turning from her 
 " with sick and scornful looks averse," for she remem- 
 bers the tragedy at Aulis. 
 
 " My youth (she said) was blasted with a curse 
 
 This woman was the cause ! 
 I wus cut off from hope in that $<ad place 
 
 Which yet to name ray spirit loathes und fears. 
 My father held bis hand upon his face ; 
 
 I, blinded with my tears, 
 Essayed to speak ; my voice came thick with sighs 
 
 As in a dream ; dimly I could descry 
 The stern black-bearded kings with wolfish eyes 
 
 Waiting to see me die. 
 The tall masts quiver'd as they lay afloat, 
 
 The temples and the people and the shore ; 
 One drew a sharp knife thro' my tender throat 
 
 Slowly — and nothing more. " 
 
 The famous picture by Timanthes, the theme of 
 admiration and criticism for the last two thousand 
 years, which every writer on art deems it proper to 
 mention in praise or in blame, could hardly have 
 been more vivid or more terrible than this. 
 
 The analogous idea, that of heroic resignation and 
 self-devotion in a great cause, would be conveyed in 
 sacred art by the figure of Jephtha's daughter ; she 
 too regrets the promises of life, but dies not the less 
 
 li i 
 
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 ^ ' 
 
 li ' I 
 
 m". 
 

 B'sh^i" 
 
 346 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
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 willingly. " My father, if thou hast opened thy 
 mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to tliat 
 which hath proceeded out of thy mouth ; forasniucli 
 as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of tliinc 
 enemies, even of the children of Ammon." And for 
 a single statue, Jephtha's daughter would be a fine 
 subject — one to task the powers of our best sculp- 
 tors ; the sentiment would be the same as the Iphi- 
 genia, but the treatment altogether different. 
 
 For the Iphigenia in Tauris I think the modern 
 sculptor would do well to set aside the character as 
 represented by Euripides, and rather keep in view the 
 conception of Goethe.* In his hand it has lost no- 
 thing of its statues(iue elegance and simplicity, and has 
 gained immeasurably in moral dignity and feminine 
 tenderness. The Iphigenia in Tauris is no longer 
 young, but she is still the consecrated virgin ; no 
 more the victim, but herself the priestess of those 
 very rites by which she was once fated to perish. 
 While Euripides has depicted her as stern and astute, 
 Goethe has made her the impersonation of female 
 devotedness and mild, but unflinching integrity. She 
 is like the young Neoptolemus when she disdains to 
 use the stratagem which Pylades had suggested, when 
 
 * There is a fine translation of the German Iphigenia by Miss 
 Swanwick. (Dramatic Works of Goethe. Bohn, 1850.) 
 
 m 
 
EVE. 
 
 847 
 
 she dares to speak the truth, and trust to it alone for 
 help and safety. The scene in which she is haunted 
 by the recollection of her doomed ancestry, and 
 mutters over the song of the Parcae on that far-off 
 sullen shore, is sublime, but incapable of representa- 
 tion in plastic art. It should, however, be well 
 studied, as helping the artist to the abstract con- 
 ception of the character as a whole. 
 
 Carstens made a design, suggested by this tragedy, 
 of the Three Parcoe singing their fatal mysterious 
 song. A model of one of the figures (that of Atropos) 
 used to stand in Goethe's library, and a cast from 
 this is before me while I write : every one who sees 
 it takes it for an antique. 
 
 ^-:^'- 
 
 :'!*.'!: 'I 
 
 EVE. 
 
 I HAVE but a few words to say of Eve. As she is 
 the only undraped figure which is allowable in sacred 
 art, the sculptors have multiplied representations of 
 
 r HI 
 
n 
 
 3i» 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 I 
 
 H 
 
 her, more or less finely imagined ; but what I con- 
 ceive to be the true type has seldom, very seldom, 
 been attained. The remarks which follow are, how- 
 ever, suggestive, not critical. 
 
 It appears to me — and I speak it with reverence 
 — that the Miltonic type is not the highest con- 
 ceivable, nor the best fitted for sculptural treatment. 
 Milton has evidently lavished all his power on this 
 fairest of created beings; but he makes her too 
 nymph-like — too goddess-like. In one place he 
 compares he/ to a "Wood-nymph, Oread, or Dryad 
 of the groves ; in another to Diana's self, " though 
 not, as she, with bow and quiver armed." The scrip- 
 tural conception of our first parent is not like this ; 
 it is ampler, grander, nobler far. I fancy her the 
 sublime ideal of maternity. It may be said that 
 this idea of her predestined motherhood should not 
 predominate in the conception of Eve before the 
 Fall : but I think it should. 
 
 It is most beautifully imagined by Milton that 
 Eve, separated from her mate, her Adam, is weak, 
 and given over to the merely womanish nature, for 
 only when linked together and supplying the com- 
 plement to each other's moral being, can man or 
 woman be strong ; but we must also remember that 
 the "spirited sly snake," in tempting Eve, even 
 when he finds her alone, uses no vulgar allurement?. 
 " Ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil." 
 
EVE. 
 
 340 
 
 Milton, indeed, seasons his harangue with flattery : 
 but for this he has no warrant in Scripture. 
 
 As the Eve of Paradise should be majestically 
 sinless, so after the Fall she should not cower and 
 wail like a disappointed girl. Her infinite fault, 
 her infiinto woe, her infinite penitence, should have 
 a touch of grandeur. She has paid the inevitable 
 price for that mighty knowledge of good and evil 
 she so coveted; that terrible predestined expe- 
 rience — she has found it, or it has found her; — and 
 she wears her crown of grief as erst her crown of 
 innocence. 
 
 I think the noble picture of Eve in Mrs. Brown- 
 ing's Drama of Exile, as that of the Mother of our 
 redemption not less than the Mother of suffering 
 humanity, might be read and considered with advan- 
 tage by a modern sculptor. 
 
 " Rise, woman, rise 
 To thy peculiar and best altitudes 
 Of doing good and of resisting ill ! 
 Something thou hast to bear through -womanhood ; 
 Peculiar suffering answering to the sin. 
 Some pang paid down for each new human life ; 
 Some weariness in guarding such a life, 
 Some coldness from the guarded ; some mistrust 
 From those thou hast too well served ; from those beloved 
 Too loyally, some treason. But go. thy love 
 Shall chant to itself its own beatitudes 
 After its own life-working ! 
 I bless thee to the desert and the thorns, 
 

 350 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 ■! 1 
 
 fj'i 
 
 I!! 
 
 To the elemental change and turbulence, 
 And to the siolemn dignities of grief; 
 To each one of these ends, and to this end 
 Of Death and the hereafter ! 
 
 Eve, I accept, 
 
 For nie and for my daughters, this high part 
 Which lowly shall be counted!" 
 
 The figure of Eve in Raphael's design (the on^. 
 engraved by Marc Antonio) is exquisitely statuesque 
 as well as exquisitely beautiful. In the moment 
 that she presents the apple to Adam she looks — 
 perhaps she ought to look — like the Venus Vinci- 
 trice of the antique time ; but I am not sure ; and, 
 at all events, the less of the classical sentiment the 
 better. 
 
 >DAM. 
 
 I HAVE seen no statue of Adam : bat surely he is 
 a fine subject, either alone or as the companion of 
 Eve; and the Miltonic type is here all-sufficient, 
 combining the heroic ideal of Greek art with some- 
 thing higher still — 
 
 " Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure," 
 
 whence true authority in men — in fact, essential 
 manliness. 
 
 11 ^ 
 
ANGKLS. 
 
 »5l 
 
 Goethe had the idea that Adam ought to be re- 
 presented with a spade, as the progenitor of all who 
 till the ground, and partially draped with a deer- 
 skin, that is, before the Fall ; which would be well : 
 but he adds that Auam sliould have a child at his 
 feet in the act of strangling a serpent. This appears 
 to me objectionable and ambiguous ; if admissible at 
 all, the accessory figure would be a fitter accom- 
 paniment for Evo. 
 
 ANGELS. 
 
 Angels, properly speaking, are neither winged 
 men nor winged children. "Wings, in ancient art, 
 were the symbols of a divine nature ; and the early 
 Greeks, who humanised their gods and goddesses, 
 and deified humanity through the perfection of the 
 forms, at first distinguished the divine and the 
 human by giving wings to all the celestial beings ; 
 thus liftino; them above the earth. Our relisjious 
 idea of angels is altogether different. Give to the 
 child-form wings, in other words, give to the child 
 nature. Innocent and pure, the adjuncts of wisdom 
 and power, and thus you realise the idea of the 
 
 A A 
 
 'i^'f 
 
 : Ml 
 
»62 
 
 NOTES ON ART, 
 
 angel as Raphael conceived it. It is so difficult to 
 image in the adult form the union of perfect purity 
 and perfect wisdom, the absence of experience and 
 suffering, and the capacity of thinking and feelinnf, 
 a condition of being in which all conscious motive is 
 lost in the impulse to good, that it remains a problem 
 in art. The angels of Angelico da Fiesole, who 
 are not only winged, but convey the idea of move- 
 ment only by the wings, not yy the limbs, are ex- 
 quisite, as fitted to minister to us in heaven, but 
 hardly as fitted to keep watch and ward for us en 
 earth — 
 
 " Against foul fiends to aid us militant." 
 
 The feminine element always predominates in the 
 conception of angels, though they are supposed to 
 be masculine : T doubt whether it ought to be so. 
 
 W* ^F ^P ^F 
 
 While these sheets are going through the press, I 
 find the following beautiful passage relative to angels 
 in the last number of " Fraser's Magazine " : — 
 
 " It is safer, even, and perhaps more ort^ :dox and 
 scriptural, to * impersonate' time and space, strength 
 and love, and even the laws of nature, than to give 
 us any more angel worlds, which are but dead skele- 
 tons of Dante's creations, without that awful and 
 living reality which they had in his mind ; or to fill 
 children's books, as the High Church party are doing 
 
ANGELS. 
 
 ;\M 
 
 Ugh the press, I 
 
 now, with pictures and tales of certain winged her- 
 maphrodites, in whom one cannot think (even by the 
 extremest stretch of charity) that the writers or 
 draughtsmen really believe, while one sees them ser- 
 vilely copying mediaeval forms, and intermingling 
 them with the ornaments of an extinct architecture ; 
 thus confessing naively to every one but themselves, 
 that they accept the whole notion as an integral por- 
 tion of a creed, to which, if they be members of the 
 Church of England, they cannot well belong, seeing 
 that it was, happily for us, expelled both by law and 
 by conscience at the Reformation. " 
 
 This is eloquent and true ; but not the less true it 
 is, that, if we have to represent in art those " spi- 
 ritual beings who walk this earth unseen, both when 
 we sleep and when we wake" — beings, who (as the 
 author of the above passage seems to believe) may 
 be intimately connected with the phenomena of the 
 universe — we must have a type, a bodily type, 
 under which to represent them ; and as we Cannot do 
 this from knowledge, we muot do it symbolically. 
 Angels, as we figure them, are symbols of moral and 
 spiritual existences elevated above ourselves — we do 
 not believe in the forms, we only accept their signi- 
 ficance. I should be glad to see a better impersona- 
 tion than the impossible creatures represented in art ; 
 but till some artist-poet, or poet-artist, has invented 
 such an impersonation, we must employ that which 
 
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 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 is already familiarised to the eye and the fanov 
 without imposing on the understanding. 
 
 MIRIAM. 
 
 RUTH. 
 
 Both the Old and the New Testament abound in 
 sculptural subjects: but fitly to deal with the CM 
 Testament required a Michal- Angelo. Beautiful as 
 are the gates of Ghiberti, they are hardly what the 
 Germans would call " alt-testamentische," they are so 
 essentially elegant and graceful, and the old Hebrew 
 legends and personages are so tremendous. Even 
 Miriam and Buth dilate into a sort of grandeur. In 
 representation I always fancy them above life-size. 
 
 I doubt whether the same artist who could conceive 
 the Prophets would be able to represent the Apostles, 
 or that the same hand which gave us Moses could 
 give us Christ. Michal-Angelo's ideal of Christ, 
 both in painting and sculpture, is, to me, revolting. 
 
CHRIST. 80L0M0X. DAVID. 
 
 H55 
 
 5 and the fimov 
 
 CHRIST. SOLOMON. DAVID. 
 
 I DO not like the Idea of Mo.scs and Christ placed 
 together. Much finer in artistic and moral contrast 
 would be the two teachers, — Christ as the divine and 
 spiritual law-giver, Solomon as the type of worldly 
 wisdom. They should stand side by side, or be seated 
 each on his throne, a crowned King, with book and 
 sceptre — but how different in character ! 
 
 ibove life-size. 
 
 We have multiplied statues of David. 1 have 
 never seen one which realised the finest conception of 
 his character, either as Hero, King, Prophet, or Poet. 
 In general he figures as the slayer of Goliath, and is 
 always too feeble and boyish. David, singing to his 
 lute before Saul ; David as the musician and poet, 
 young, beautiful, half-draped, heaven-inspired, exor- 
 cising by his art the dark spirit of evil which possessed 
 the jealous King; — this would be a theme for an 
 artist, and would as finely represent the power of 
 sacred song as a figure of St. Cecilia. But the senti- 
 ment should not be that of a young Apollo, or an 
 Orpheus ; therein would lie the chief difficulty. 
 
 ? 
 
 A A .'i 
 
MA 
 
 NOTES OX ART. 
 
 HAGAR. 
 
 REHEKAH. 
 
 RACHEL. 
 
 imi 
 
 T UEMEMBKU to Imve seen fine statues of llauar 
 holding her pitcher, of liebekali contemplating lier 
 bracelet, and of Rachel as the shepherdess. But J 
 would have a different version ; Hagar as the poor 
 cast-away, driven forth with her boy into the wilder- 
 ness; llebekah as the exulting bride; and Rachel 
 as the mild, pensive wife. They would repretent, in 
 a very comi)lete manner, contrasted phases of the 
 destiny of Woman, connected together by our religious 
 associations, and appealing to our deepest human 
 sympathies. 
 
 THE QUEEN OF 8HEBA. 
 
 The Queen of Sheba would be a fine subject for a 
 
QITKKN OP 8HRBA. 
 
 LADY (JOniVA. 
 
 Ml 
 
 slnnjle statiio, as the religious type of the queenly, 
 intellectual woman, the treatment heing kept an far 
 as possible from that of a Pallas or a Muse. 
 
 The journey of the Queen of the South to visit 
 Solomon woukl be a capital subject for a processional 
 bas-relief, and as a pendant to the journey of " the 
 Wise Men of the East," to visit a j^reater than Solo- 
 mon. The latter has been i)erpetually treated from 
 the fourth century. Of the journey of the (^uoen 
 of Sheba I have seen, as yet, no example. 
 
 ic subject for a 
 
 LADY GODIVA. 
 
 With regard to statuesque subjects from modern 
 history and poetry, — Romantic Sculpture, as it is 
 styled, — the taste both of the public and the artist 
 evidently sets in this direction. That the treatment 
 of such subjects should not be classical is admitted; 
 but in the development of this romantic tendency 
 there is cause to fear that we may be inundated 
 
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 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
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 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14S80 
 
 (716) S72-4503 
 
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 358 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 with all kinds of picturesque vagaries and violations 
 of the just laws and limits of art. " ' , .{. 
 
 I remember, however, a circumstance which makes 
 me hopeful as to the progress of feeling ; knowledge 
 may come hereafter. I remember about twenty 
 years ago proposing the figure and story of Lady 
 Godiva as beautiful subjects for sculpture and paint- 
 ing. There were present on that occasion, among 
 others, two artists and a poet. The two artists 
 laughed outright, and the poet extemporised an 
 epigram upon Peeping Tom. If I were to propose 
 Lady Godiva as a subject now*, I believe it would 
 be received with a far different feeling even by those 
 very men. If I were Queen of England I would 
 have it painted in Fresco in my council chamber. 
 There should be seen the palfrey with its rich 
 housings, and near him, as preparing to mount, the 
 noble lady should stand, timid, but resolved : her 
 veil lies on the ground ; the drapery just falling from 
 her fair limbs is partly sustained by one hand, while 
 with the other she loosens her golden tresses. A 
 bevy of waiting-maids, with averted faces, disappear 
 hurriedly beneath the massive porch of the Saxon 
 
 * 1848. At the moment I transcribe this (1854), <i very charm- 
 ing statue of the Lady Godiva (suggested, I believe, by Tennyson s 
 poem) stands in the Exhibition of the Royal Academy. 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 350 
 
 is and violations 
 
 ice which makes 
 ing; knowledge 
 • about twenty 
 story of Lady 
 )ture and paint- 
 )ccasion, amono* 
 'he two artists 
 xtemporiged an 
 w^ere to propose 
 believe it would 
 ? even by those 
 igland I would 
 )uncil chamber, 
 with its rich 
 ? to mount, the 
 resolved; her 
 ust falling from 
 ►ne hand, while 
 )n tresses. A 
 aces, disappear 
 of the Saxon 
 
 >4), a very chanu- 
 ve, by Tennyson Si 
 leniy. 
 
 palace, which forms the background, with sky and 
 trees seen through openings in the heavy architecture. 
 This is the picturesque version of the story; but 
 there are many others. As a single statue, the 
 figure of Lady Godiva affords an opportunity for 
 the legitimate treatment of the undraped female form, 
 sanctified by the purest, the most elevated associa- 
 tions; — by woman's tearful pride and man's respect 
 and gratitude. . , . . 
 
 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Shakspeare, who is so horribly unjust to Joan 
 of Arc, has put a sublime speech into her mouth 
 where she answers Burgundy who had accused her 
 of sorcery, — 
 
 " Because yoa want the grace that others have, 
 You judge it straight a thing impossible 
 To compass wonders but by help of devils ! " 
 
 The whole theory of popular superstition comprised 
 in three lines ! 
 
 But Joan herself — how at her name the whole 
 
 Pi 
 
 ii'ii: 
 
360 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 heart seems to rise up in resentment, not so much 
 against her cowardly executioners as against those 
 who have so wronged her memory I Never was a 
 character, historically pure, bright, definite, and per- 
 fect in every feature and outline, so abominably 
 treated in poetry and fiction, — perhaps for this 
 reason, that she was in herself so exquisitely wrought, 
 so complete a specimen of the heroic, the poetic, the 
 romantic, that she could not be touched by art or 
 modified by fancy, without being in some degree 
 profaned. As to art, I never saw yet any representa- 
 tion of "Jeanne la grande Pastoure," except, per- 
 haps, the lovely statue by the Princess of Wurtem- 
 burg, which I could endure to look at — and even 
 that gives us the contemplative simplicity, but not 
 the power, intellect, and energy, which must have 
 formed so large a part of the character. Then as to 
 the poets, what shall be said of them ? First Shaks- 
 peare, writing for the English stage, took up the 
 popular idea of the chargicter as it prevailed in Eng- 
 land in his own time. Into the hypothesis that the 
 greater part of Henry VI. is not by Shakspeare, 
 there is no occasion to enter here ; the original 
 conception of the character of Joan of Arc may not 
 be his, but he has left it untouched in its principal 
 features. The English hated the memory of the 
 French Heroine because she had caused the loss of 
 France and had humiliated us as a nation ; and our 
 
JOAN OP ARC. 
 
 3«ll 
 
 chroniclers revenged themselves and healed their 
 wounded self-love by imputing her victories to 
 witchcraft. Shakspeare, giving her the attributes 
 which the historians of his time assigned to her, re- 
 presents her as a warlike, arrogant sorceress — a 
 '* monstrous woman" — attended and assisted by 
 demons. I pass over the depraved and perverse 
 spirit in which Voltaire profaned this divine cha- 
 racter. A theme which a patriot poet would have 
 approached as he would have approached an altar, 
 he has made a vehicle for the most licentious parody 
 that ever disgraced a national literature. Schiller 
 comes next, and hardly seems to me more excusable. 
 Not only has he missed the character, he has deli- 
 berately falsified both character and fiict. His 
 " Johanna " might have been called .by any other 
 name ; and the scene of his tragedy might have been 
 placed anywhere in the wide world with just the 
 same probability and truth. Schiller and Goethe held 
 a principle that all considerations were to yield before 
 the proprieties of art. But Milton speaks somewhere 
 of those " faultless proprieties of nature " which 
 never can be violated with impunity : and Art can 
 never move freely but in the domain of nature and 
 of truth. All the fine writing in Schiller's " Maid 
 of Orleans" can never reconcile me to its absolute 
 and revolting falsehood. The sublime, simple-hearted 
 girl who to the last moment regarded herself as set 
 
 ;i|!ii 
 
 1^-1 
 
362 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 \ 
 
 Ml i' 
 
 mm 
 
 apart by God to do His work, he makes the victim 
 of an insane passion for a young Englishman. In 
 the love-sick classical heroines of Corneille and Ra- 
 cine there is nothing more Frenchified, more absurd, 
 more revolting. Then he makes her die victorious 
 on the field of battle defending the oriflamme; — 
 far, far more glorious as well as more pathetic her 
 real death — but it offended against Schiller's aesthetic 
 conception of the dignity of tragedy. 
 
 Lastly, we have Southey's epic : what shall be 
 said of it? — even what he said of the Lusiad of 
 Camoens, "that it is read with little emotion, and 
 remembered with little pleasure." No. I do not 
 wish to see Joan turned into a heroine of tragedy or 
 tale, because, as it seems to me, the whole life and 
 death of this martyred girl is too near us, and too 
 historically distinct, and, 1 will add, too sacred, to 
 be dressed out in romantic prose or verse. What 
 "Walter Scott might have made of her I do not 
 know — something marvellously picturesque and life- 
 like, no doubt — and yet I am glad he did not try 
 his hand on her. But she remains a legitimate and 
 most admirable subject for representative art; and 
 as yet nothing has been done in sculpture to fix the 
 ideal and heroic in her character, nor in painting, 
 worthy of her exploits. There exists no cotemporary 
 portrait of her except in the brief description of her 
 in the old French Chronicle of the Siege of Orleans, 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 36» 
 
 where it is said that her figure was tall and slender, 
 her bust fine, her hair and eyes black ; that she wore 
 her hair short, and could never be persuaded to put 
 on a head-piece, and farther (and in this respect both 
 Schiller and Southey have wronged her), that she 
 had never slain a man, using her consecrated sword 
 merely to defend herself. I should like to see a fine 
 equestrian statue of her by one of our best English 
 sculptors, set up in a conspicuous place among us, as 
 a national expiation. 
 
 Southey mentions that in the beginning of the 
 last war, about 1795, when popular feeling, excited 
 almost to frenzy, raged against France, a pantomime, 
 or ballet, was performed at Covent Garden, from the 
 story of Joan of Arc, at the conclusion of which she 
 is carried away by demons, like a female Don Juan. 
 This denouement caused such a storm of indignation, 
 that the author — one James Cross — was obliged, 
 after the first two or three representations, to change 
 the demons into angels, and send her straight into 
 Heaven : — an anecdote pleasant to record as illus- 
 trating the sure ultimate triumph of truth over false- 
 hood ; of all the better sympathies over" prejudice 
 and wrong; — in spite of history, and, what is more, 
 in spite of Shakspeare ! 
 
 ' '1 
 
 If! 
 
tm 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 CHARACTERS FROM SHAK8PEARE. 
 
 Joan of Arc is not, however, a Shakspeariau 
 character ; and, in fact, there are very few of his per- 
 sonages susceptible of sculptural treatment. They 
 are too dramatic, too profound, too complex in their 
 essential nature where they are tragic ; too many- 
 sided and picturesque where they are comic. 
 
 For instance, the attempt to condense into marble 
 such light, evanescent, quaint creations as those in 
 " The Midsummer's Night's Dream" is better avoided ; 
 we feel that a marble fairy must be a heavy absurd- 
 ity. Oberon and Titania might perhaps float along 
 in a bas-relief; but we cannot put away the thought 
 that they have reality without substantiality, and we 
 do not like to see them, or Ariel, or Caliban fixed 
 in the definite forms of sculpture. 
 
 There are, however, a few of Shakspeare's charac- 
 ters which appear to me beautifully adapted for 
 statuesque treatment : Perdita holding her flowers ; 
 Miranda lingering on the shore; might well replace 
 
/ 
 
 CHARACTERS FROM SHAKSPEARB. 
 
 865 
 
 the innumerable " Floras " and " Nymphs preparing 
 to bathe," which people the ateliers of our sculptors. 
 Cordelia has something of marble quietude about 
 her ; and Hermione is a statue ready made. And, 
 by the way, it is observable that Shakspeare repre- 
 sents Hermione as a coloured statue. Paulina will 
 not allow it to be touched, because " the colour is 
 not yet dry." Again, — 
 
 " Would you not deem those veins 
 Did verily bear blood ? 
 
 The very life seems warm upon her lips, 
 The fixture of her eye hath motion in't, 
 And we are mocked by Art ! 
 
 The ruddiness upon her lip is wet, 
 
 You'll mar it if you kiss it, stain your own 
 
 With oily painting." 
 
 I think it possible to model small ornamental 
 statuettes and groups from some few of the scenes in 
 Shakspeare's plays ; but this is quite different n ,>m 
 life-size figures of Hamlet, Othello, Shylock, Mac- 
 beth, which must either have the look of real in- 
 dividual portraiture, or become mere idealisations of 
 certain qualities; and Shakspeare's creations are 
 neither the one nor the other. 
 
 !* I 
 
 ii 
 
 i! 
 
'< 
 
 im 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 CHARACTERS FROM SPENSER. 
 
 Spenser is so essentially a picturesque poet, he 
 depends for his rich effects so much on the combina- 
 tion of colour and imagery, and multiplied accessories, 
 that one feels — at least / feel, on laying down a 
 volume of the " Fairie Queene " dazzled as if I had 
 been walking in a gallery of pictures. His " Masque 
 of Cupid," for instance, although a procession of 
 poetical creations, could not be transferred to a bas- 
 relief without completely losing its Spenserian cha- 
 racter — its wondrous glow of colour. Thus Cupid 
 " uprears himself exulting from the back of the 
 ravenous lion ;" removes the bandage from his eyes, 
 that he may look round on his victims ; " shakes 
 the darts which his right hand doth strain full 
 dreadfully," and " claps on high his coloured wings 
 twain." This certainly is not the Greek Cupid, nor 
 the Cupid of sculpture ; it is the Spenserian Cupid. 
 So of his Una, so of his Britomart, and the Red Cross 
 Knight and Sir Guyon : one might make elegant 
 statuesque impersonations of the allegories they in- 
 volve, as of Truth, Chastity, Faith, Temperance ; but 
 then they would lose immediately their Spenserian 
 
COMU8. 
 
 Mt 
 
 character and sentiment, and must become something 
 altogether different. 
 
 "^i^ 
 
 THE LADY. 
 
 COMUS. 
 
 It is not so with Milton. The " Lady " in 
 Comus, whether she stand listening to the echos of 
 her own sweet voice, or motionless as marble under 
 the spell of the " false enchanter," looking that divine 
 reproof which in the poem she speaks, — 
 
 " I hate when vice can bolt her arguments, 
 And virtue has no tongue to check her pride " — 
 
 is a subject perfectly fitted for sculpture, and never, 
 so far as I know, executed. It would be a far more 
 appropriate ornament for a lady's boudoir than 
 French statues of Modesty, which generally have 
 the effect of making one feel very much ashamed. 
 
 Sabrina has been beautifully treated. 
 
 It is difficult to render Comus without making 
 him too like a Bacchus or an Apollo. He is neither. 
 He represents not the beneficent but the intoxicating 
 and brutifying power of wine. His joviality should 
 
 D B 
 
am 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 not b(i that of a God, but with something miB- 
 chicvous, bestial, Faun-like; and ho should have, 
 with the Dionysian grace, a dash of the cunning and 
 malignity of his Mother Circe. These characteristics 
 should be in the mind of the artist. The panther's 
 skin, the coronal of vine leaves, and, instead of the 
 Thyrsus, the magician's wand, are the proper acces- 
 sories. It is also worth notice, that in the antique 
 representations Comus has wings as a demigod, and 
 in a picture described by Philostratus (a night scene) 
 he lies crouched in a drunken sleep. Little use, how- 
 ever, is made of him in the antique myths, and the 
 Miltonic conception is that which should be embodied 
 by the modern sculptor. 
 
 II Penseroso and L'AUesjro, if embodied in 
 sculpture as poetical abstractions (either masculine 
 or feminine) of Melancholy and Mirth, would cease 
 to be Miltonic, for the conceptions of the poet are 
 essentially picturesque, and expressed in both cases 
 by a luxuriant accumulation of images and acces- 
 sories, not to be brought within the limits of plastic 
 art without the most tasteless confusion and in- 
 consistency. 
 
MILTON'S SATAN. 
 
 •.m 
 
 nth something mis- 
 tid ho should have, 
 
 of the cunning and 
 rheso characteristics 
 ist. The panther'8 
 
 and, instead of the 
 e the proper acces- 
 that in the antique 
 I as a demigod, and 
 atus (a night scene) 
 ip. Little use, how- 
 lue myths, and the 
 should be embodied 
 
 , if embodied in 
 (either masculine 
 Mirth, would cease 
 as of the poet are 
 ssed in both cases 
 images and acces- 
 le limits of plastic 
 onfusion and in- 
 
 SATAN. 
 
 The religious idea of a Satan — the imperso- 
 nation of that mixture of the bestial, the malignant, 
 the impious, and the hopeless, which constitute 
 THE Fiend, the enemy of all that is human 
 and divine — I conceive to bo quite unfitted for 
 the purpose of sculpture. Danton's attempt dege- 
 nerates into grim caricature. Milton's Satan — 
 " the archangel ruined," — is however a strictly 
 poetical creation, and capable of the most poetical 
 statuesque treatment. But we must remember that, 
 if it be a gross mistake, religious and artistic, to 
 conceive the Messiah under the form of a larger, 
 stronger humanity, with a physique like that of a 
 wrestler, it is equally a mistake to conceive the lost 
 angel, our spiritual adversary, under any such coarse 
 Herculean lineaments. There can be no image of 
 the Miltonic Satan without the elements of beauty, 
 " though changed by pale ire, envy, and despair 1 " 
 Colossal he may be, vast as Mount Athos ; but it is 
 not necessary to express this that he should be hewn 
 out of Mount Athos, or look like the giant Poly- 
 pheme ! His proportions, his figure, his features — 
 like his power — are angelic. As the Hero — for he 
 is SO' — of the " Paradise Lost," the subject is open 
 to poetic treatment ; but I am not aware that as yet 
 it has been poetically treated. 
 
S70 
 
 NOTES ON ART. 
 
 rU 
 
 n 
 
 Of the Italian poetry and history, and all the 
 wondrous and lovely shapes which come thronging 
 out of that Elysian land, — I can say nothing now, — 
 or only this, — that after all I am not quite sure that 
 I am right ahout Spenser. For, at first view, what 
 poet seems less amenahle to statuesque treatment 
 than Dante ? One would have imagined that only a 
 preternatural fusion of Michal-Angelo and Rem- 
 brandt could fitly render the murky recesses and 
 ghastly and monstrous inhabitants of the Inferno, or 
 attempt to shadow forth the dazzling mysteries of 
 the Paradiso. Yet see what Flaxman has achieved ! 
 His designs are legitimate bas-reliefs, not pictures in 
 outline. He has been true to his own art, and all 
 that could be done within the limitation of his art he 
 has accomplished. It is a translation of Dante's 
 Ideas into sculpture, with every thing peculiarly/ 
 Dantesque in the treatment, set aside. 
 
 Now as to our more modern poets. — From amid 
 the long array of beautiful subjects which seem to 
 move in succession before the fancy, there are two 
 which stand out prominent in their beauty. First, 
 Lord Byron's " Myrrha," who with her Ionian ele- 
 gance is susceptible of the purest classical treatment. 
 She should hold a torch ; but not with the air of a 
 Maenad, nor of a Thais about to fire Persepolis. 
 The sentiment should be deeper and quieter. 
 
 J 
 
 t, 
 
MYRRHA. 
 
 ION. 
 
 371 
 
 Jtory, and all the 
 ih come thronging 
 ay nothing now, — 
 not quite sure that 
 at first view, what 
 :uesque treatment 
 agined that only a 
 k.ngelo and Eem- 
 urky recesses and 
 of the Inferno, or 
 iling mysteries of 
 nan has achieved I 
 fs, not pictures in 
 3 own art, and all 
 ation of his art he 
 ation of Dante's 
 
 thing peculiarly 
 Je. 
 
 •ets. — From amid 
 s which seem to 
 y, there are two 
 ' beauty. First, 
 I her Ionian ele- 
 issical treatment, 
 vith the air of a 
 
 fire Persepolis. 
 
 quieter. 
 
 " Dost thou think 
 A Greek girl dare not do for love that which 
 An Indian widow does for custom?" 
 
 Ion in Talfourd's Tragedy — the boy-hero, in all 
 the tenderness of extreme youth, already self-devoted 
 and touched with a melancholy grace and an eleva- 
 tion beyond his years — is so essentially statuesque, 
 that I am surprised that no sculptor has attempted 
 it ; perhaps because, in this instance, as in that of 
 Myrrha, the popular realisation of both characters as 
 subjects of formative art has been spoiled by thea- 
 trical trappings and associations. 
 
 c c 
 
 "SSpiT 
 

 , Kit. .. i 
 
 London : 
 A. andG. A. Spottiswooob, 
 New-(treet-Square. 
 
 i.<.. 
 
 " V V