THE GIFT OF MAY TREAT MORRISON IN MEMORY OF ALEXANDER F MORRISON THE DAY-BOOK OF JOHN STUART BLACKIE BY THE SAME AUTHOR. The Struggle for Success; A Study in Social Compromise, Expediency, and Adaptability. Crown Zvo, cloth 6s. Rectorial Addresses delivered before the Univer- sity of Edinburgh, 1859-1899. Edited with an Introduction by Archibald Stodart-Walker. Demy Zvo, cloth js. 6d. net. Robert Buchanan : The Poet of Modem Revolt. An Introduction to his Poetry. Cr. Zvo, buckram, 6s. Physical Sanity ; A Contribution towards the Ideal of Health. [/« preparation. London; GRANT RICHARDS, 48 Leicester Square, W.C. J^^»a v Iv a^dnTi LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS 48 LEICESTER SQUARE, W.C. 1902 First Edition March igoi Second Edition March igo3 Edinburgh : T. and A. Constable, (late) Printers to Her Majesty i EYES. ROVIDENCE gave us two eyes, both in front, because all action is forward, but one on each side, because action right forward in a straight line can never be independent of side regards, and safety lies, while in advance in a straight line marked, in keeping a sharp eye on either side, to see that nothing is near that may interfere with our direct purpose. An eye in the back of the head we do not require, as in the general case it would have nothing to do, and if it had, might disturb and distract the natural for- ward movement. Now apply this to human char- acter. The man who sees right forward with only one eye in the centre of his forehead, is the man io6 MORALS AND of one dominant idea, philosophical or social, who is right in his principle and aim, but who refuses to look on both sides for qualifying and modifying circumstances. But the great defect is repre- sented by a man with one eye, and that on the side of his head. All his views are from one side, and his whole life a sort of special pleading for his favourite side of the question. Another one- eyed man is the extreme Tory ; his eye is in the back of his head ; he sees only what is behind— he is a register of the Past. But the wise man, while he advances towards a noble object, has an eye on both sides of his head, and forms his con- clusions from the pleadings of two adverse parties. He may also have an eye in the back of his head, and this he uses as a philosopher, a poet, or an historian. Vision all round, but action right forward, with occasional trending sideward like a ship on the tack, as side influences may dictate. PLATO. PLATO, with all his greatness, was the product of reaction against the latter democracy of Athens : and as such essentially one-sided, and in his polemical attitude only half true. As a Greek he was an intellectualist, as an anti-democrat he GENERAL PHILOSOPHY 107 was an absolutist, and both without qualification. As an intellectualist he condemned art, and subordinated it to knowledge ; as an absolutist, he denied freedom, annihilated the individual, and turned society into a moral machine. He was a doctrinaire of the grandest order, and, like every doctrinaire, ignored the actual, and set himself to building palaces without bricks. His one-sided worship of the abstract idea as opposed to the embodied real reaches the height of grave paradox and solemn absurdity in the well-known cases of the preference of the carpenter to the poet, and his cool abolition of the family as the great social monad. In the spirit of Diogenes, when I read these things I feel inclined to say : Plato was the most sublime of philosophical pedants, the most intellectual of Puritans, the most unpractical of politicians, and the most consistent of Tories. THE NEW GOSPEL. I. TTATE all men. ^ ■*■ 2. Suspect your friends, if you have any. 3. Envy your friends, if you have any. 4. Despise your opinions. 5. Waste your substance. I08 MORALS AND 6. Steal your neighbour's substance. 7. Never speak the truth unless you are sure men won't believe you. 8. Never confess that you are in the wrong. 9. Always follow the fashion. 10. Never be generous except when you have reason to believe that by giving a penny in one direction you may gain a shilling in another. 11. Give your passions full swing. 12. Think everybody a humbug except yourself. 13. Call everything 'bosh' except your own business. 14. Divide all mankind into two classes, the clever and the stupid, or the strong and the weak, of which the latter is naturally the tool and the slave of the former. LAW. T AW is limitation ; limitation in some form or -*-^ other of the freedom and the love of freedom with which we are all born. These limitations are necessary partly for the sake of the individual whose ideas of liberty might lead to excess, and from excess plunge into ruin, but chiefly for the sake of Society, which could not exist if every man for himself were allowed to fix the ratio GENERAL PHILOSOPHY 109 with which his instinct of self-assertion and self- aggrandisement should display itself. Unlimited individual liberty would in the general case mean general injustice, and unlimited licence for the strong to trample down the weak. Therefore there must be laws, and laws assuming the form of restraint. All restraint is disagreeable, and the more so when, as constantly happens in Law, an odious restriction is placed on all, to prevent the abuse of liberty by one in a hundred ; for the Law cannot know who may make a hurtful use of natural liberty, and, to protect the interests of one, is compelled to control the pleasures of the many. Moreover, the restrictions of Law are apt to assume a certain formalism and pedantry which set them at war with our aesthetical sensibilities. The rules of life and the restrictions which they imply are artificial ; the poetry of life and the freedom in which it revels is natural. A familiar example strikes me from agricultural economy. The windings of a rivulet, through a flowery meadow, are pleasing and picturesque, but if, to prevent the flooding of the meadow and render the ground fit for agricultural purposes, the stream should be forced to flow in an artificial channel, the limitation will naturally take the form of a straight line, and the beautiful brook will no MORALS AND become an unlovely ditch. So difficult is it to make the natural useful without doing prejudice to its beauty. Farmers and landscape-gardeners are, like stone walls and hedges, moral incom- patibles. W JUDGMENTS. HEN we condemn other people we gener- ally mean indirectly to flatter ourselves. T JUDGMENTS. HE cheapest way to attain a reputation for being somebody is to deal in harsh judg- ments and severe criticisms, for the public gener- ally is charitable enough to suppose that the person who deals in such swooping sentences has some substantial ground for his assumed superiority. JUDGMENTS. WHEN we look along a long line of street, and endeavour with our eye to fix the middle point, we are sure to divide it unequally, taking the first half as longer than it actually is, and under- rating the more distant half. Why? Because the eye measures the distance of the nearer half GENERAL PHILOSOPHY in from point to point, and calculates the intervals accordingly ; but of the second half, the intervals, not being clearly seen, are apt to be overlooked and slumped, so as to appear fewer than they actually are. An exactly similar phenomenon takes place in our estimate of time, looking backward. We see what belongs to our own time distinctly and clearly, point by point, bad and good, and form, if we choose, easily an accurate estimate ; but of any far-distant epoch we have only a vague and dim notion, and may easily overlook either the bad or the good points of the epoch, as our humour or the predominant impression may lead us. Thus ages of decadence, as the ages of the Roman Emperors, will be apt to appear worse than they were ; and bright ages, such as epochs of heroism and regeneration in Church and State, will appear better than they were. In the one case we make no allowance for the virtues which exist as a secret salt even in the worst ages ; in the other we make no allowance for the weeds which spring up with the good seed, most abundantly where the soil is stimulated by the richest manure. Saints were never so saintly, nor bad men so irredeemably bad, as they appear stereotyped in the bright or black record of history. Contemplation of the Past 112 MORALS AND PHILOSOPHY always tends to give a certain exaggeration to the view. We are apt to overlook all features of character not specially prominent, but we magnify those which are dominant. And thus we fill our imagination unawares with pictures of Gods and devils, who at bottom were only men. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN, ETC. H HUMILITY. FT^VERY religion and every philosophy has its -■--' favourite virtue; and so Christianity has humility. The accentuation of this virtue arises necessarily out of the great distance between God and man potentiated in Monotheism. No doubt the Greek also felt how weak a thing a poor mortal man is before the thunder of Olympian Jove, but Polytheism had its graduated steps, which naturally led up to the Thunderer ; Mono- theism concludes all these gradations under the common condemnation of idolatry. The noblest expression of the Christian virtue of humility is found in the evangelical prophet Isaiah, ii. 7-22, and its most ludicrous caricature and lamentable travesty in the practice of Indian ascetics and Christian monks, both emphatically condemned by St. Paul in i Timothy iv. 3. Loyalty to the supreme ruler of the universe does not mean self-suppres- sion any more than does loyalty to an earthly ruler; it merely means reverential recognition. If I could imagine myself seated on the everlasting throne of the God, the hearer of prayer, I should Il6 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN of all things be pleased least with those exag- gerated expressions of self-condemnation which form the staple of our formularies of prayer both in Calvinistic Scotland and in Episcopal England ; great part of this is hypocritical, and as shallow as paint on the face of a Jezebel. I should listen rather to the petitions sent up in the spirit of sober self-assertion of which we have an example in the twenty-fifth and other Psalms. An excess of honest pride is a less grave offence against the just balance of the ethical ideal than an ostentatious parade of an unreal humility. FAITH. T X ^HAT a woman strongly wishes, that she " ^ readily believes. And with words of hopeful promise she her better sense deceives. FAITH. FAITH in man is a duty as well as faith in God ; in fact, our general conduct every day in our intercourse with our fellow-beings depends at every turn on our faith in our fellow-beings. When that faith ceases, society ceases with it, and a rule not of men with moral natures, but of tigers and foxes in the guise of men, commences with it. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 117 METAPHYSICS???! ART is the joyous externalisation of inward- •^ '*' ness. Beauty is joyous externalisation of outwardness. Poetry is the tempered soul leaping at verity. Truth is the so-ness of the as-it-were. Right is the awful yes-ness of the oversoul meditating on the how-ness of the thing. Society is the heterogeneous buying peace with homogeneity. A thing is simply an is-ness. Matter is is-ness possessed of somewhat-ness. Mind is am-ness. Philosophy is mind trying to find out its own little game. A TRIAD. n^HOUQHT is the seed of all wise growths That spring from stable root, And from that root, when nicely stirred. The bloom that blushes is the word, And from that blossom the ripe fruit That swells to crown our human need With glory is the deed. 1 This satire is included with some reservation. It is entered in the Day-Book in a strange hand, and is the only instance of such an occurrence. —A. S. W. ii8 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN SPECIALISTS. SPECIALISTS have a tendency to encroach, and, not content with being helps to Nature, aspire to be her guide and her governess. Thus the surgeon, glorying in his art, will be forward to perform a delicate operation when it would be safer to abstain ; the theologian laces, in scholastic creeds, lungs which had better be left to their free play ; the lawyer makes laws which he finds it impossible to enforce, or which, if enforced, pro- duce some evil greater than that which he wished to eradicate ; the grammarian binds you by rules of style more stringent than the practice of the writers from whom he draws them ; and the critic judges the literature of all ages by a standard formulated from the fashion of the age to which he belongs. Nature always asserts her absolute freedom, and will neither have her legitimate range limited, nor her normal limitations invaded by the devices of any mortal. THE THREE PS. THE Devil has three special baits to hook us at his leisure, And all the three begin with P— power, and pelf, and pleasure. A LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 119 SENSE AND SENSIBILITY RE equally at variance. Sensibility magnifies trifles, sense disregards them. LIFE. ^TT^HE temptation of young men is to get drunk -■- with life, the temptation of old men to get sick of it. LIFE. W E come like shadows, and we pass Like flitting shadows on a glass. LIFE. LIFE is not a jest, as the poet's epitaph has it in Westminster, but it certainly is a game, a game with a very serious stake, which it requires constant watchfulness to play well. In this, throws of the dice represent the favours of circumstance ; the moves, the skill of the player. LIFE. LIFE is a great snubbing school; the conceited fool who does not learn wisdom there, will learn it nowhere. 120 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? (I) T S life worth living ? This means, I suppose, ^ You don't quite like the smell that meets your nose: Well, I agree, a leek is not a rose. But with all that, I mean to keep my NOSE. (2) Is life worth living ? Well, to tell you true, It scarcely is— if all men were like you ! (3) Is life worth living? Ask the bird that wings Its breezy way, and upward soars and sings. (4) Is life worth living ? Well, I would not fetter A free man's choice ; try if death suits you better. (5) Is life worth living ? To propose the question Gives proof of huge conceit or bad digestion. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 121 (6) Is life worth living ? You don't like your dinner ! What then? This proves that you're a sickly sinner. (7) Is life worth living ? Well, the truth to tell, I 'm pleased with Earth — where would you choose to dwell ? (8) Is life worth living? Well, in any place — Earth, hell, or heaven— sour blood will make wry face. (9) Is life worth living ? Well— one thing is clear, If you go hence, no man will miss you here. (10) Is life worth living ? Ask the flowers that spread Their summer glory o'er the blushing bed. They court the sun ; and you debate if light Were not much better swallowed up in night. The mouth from which such senseless babblings come Should do the world a pleasure and be— dumb ! 122 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN (II) Is life worth living ? Ask the blackcocks and the hens, That pick hard berries in wild Highland glens ; They die sometimes by rot, sometimes by shot. But all agree that they would rather not. Learn, reasoning man, from the unreasoning bird, And when you could be wise, don't be absurd. (12) Is life worth living ? Pity 'tis that ever Wit should forge nonsense, itching to be clever ! Go, work like other men, and find your joy In fruitful toil, and don't write books, my boy. (13) Is life worth living ? Ask the question when Death's scythe is near, you'll get true answer then. (14) Is life worth living ? This depends on you ! Be true, and worth will live in all you do ; Be false, and honest Nature will uprise. And blow your worthless work, like chaff, before your eyes. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 123 (15) Is life worth living ? Is the sun worth shining ? The sea worth flowing, or the grass worth grow- ing? The clouds worth raining, or your wit worth straining ? If to this way your wise men are inclining, I'll be a fool with some few grains of sense remaining. (16) Is life worth living? When all Nature cries Amen to you, I '11 shut both ears and eyes, And creep for comfort where the dead man lies 1 (17) Is life worth living ? Yours or mine? Inanity May suit your taste ! My watchword is Humanity. I 'm proud to be a man, the top of Nature, And, as a man with men, to grow to kingly stature. (18) When fears increase and apprehensions grow, Life is not worth the living. Let us go ! 124 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN LIFE. T IFE has been often and justly compared to ^-^ a river which, small and weak at the beginning, widens and strengthens as it goes on, till it becomes a strong rushing stream, with a broad opening into the sea. But what makes it broad and strong ? The receiving into its bosom of the streams on either side that flow in the same direction. So it is with our moral life. Our strength and our breadth depend on the amount of receptivity) in other words, every moral nature is great in proportion as it receives into itself, and assimilates, the wealth of kindred moral natures. But receptivity depends on sympathy, and sympathy is only another name for Love\ which in this view is not only the fulfilling of the Law, but the making of the man. The best man is he who is made up of the greatest number of other men. WISDOM OF LIFE. THE wisdom of life consists in a careful cul- ture of your capacities, a large expansion of your sympathies, a loving acknowledgment of your surroundings, a quick eye for opportunity, and a dexterous use of circumstances. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 125 RULES OF LIFE. (I) TV VTY rule of life is with sure plan to work, ^^^ To trust in God and sing a cheerful song ; To search what gem in each cold day may lurk, And catch a side-advantage from a wrong. (2) Not what you plan alone, and what you do. But when and where, how much, and how you do it; These rule the chanceful games of life, and you Must wisely view each move, or you will rue it. (3) Wouldst thou lead a happy life ? Believe the thing that 's said, boy ; By the handle take the knife. And never by the blade, boy. And if aught may chance amiss, At home or in the street, boy. Seek— and you will find— a kiss In every cross you meet, boy. 126 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN (4) Have no faith in what thou fearest, Evil finds who evil fears; And for vanished loves the dearest Weep, but never nurse your tears. Watch and wait, look not for wonders, Scan the time with watchful eyes ; Let the past's distressful blunders Teach the future to be wise. (5) With wisdom plan and with stout patience plod, And leave the growth of well-sown seed to God. (6) Never hurry, never worry, Never fret and fume, And when the Devil shows his face, Bid him leave the room. (7) Don't be hasty, and don't be slack, And always keep a reserve at your back ? (8) How make your wit and your width to swell? Do one thing at a time, and do it well. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 127 THE MOMENT. USE the moment, though it speed On hasty wing from thee ; The passing breeze that wafts the seed May sow a mighty tree. LIFE. LIFE is the only teacher. No man who has not fought a battle and served in a campaign knows what war means; no man who has not lived out in practice the precepts of the Gospel knows what the Bible means; and no man who has not acted philosophy as well as read about it knows what wisdom means. LIFE-SELF-LIMITATION. YOU fret and fume and kick against Your human limitations ; Learn from that linnet in the cage, And let it teach you patience. It hath no space to flap its wing, It may not burst its bars, And yet the pretty plumy thing The livelong day will bravely sing A tune that never jars. 128 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN LIFE. T HESE seven things I find necessary for a noble and fruitful life : — 1. Health, as the strong root and the sap of the tree. 2. Truth, without which man must walk in the dark. 3. Love, without which a man must live for himself and not as a social animal; or say rather, love, which alone supplies the steam by which the machine of society is set in motion. 4. Volition or will, which directs that steam into a particular line, making the will a deed. 5. Courage, to stand to your point and withstand the gainsayer. 6. Patience, to wait the end. 7. Sense or judgment, with which to know the moment, and to use the opportunity, and to balance the forces, and to con- trol the operations ; a faculty without which the greatest gifts are apt to waste themselves in exhibitions more fruitful of momentary wonder than of abiding results. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 129 LIFE. ^ROM darkness into darkness shot, We blaze an hour and are forgot. HAPPINESS. T^OUR steps to happiness : 1. Accept your limitations. 2. Seize your opportunity. 3. Enjoy the good of the hour. 4. Improve the bad, and if you can't, let it drop. RULES OF LIFE. (I) dXrjOevwv ev dydirrj. Speaking the truth in love. If men were wise from brave St. Paul This goodly text to borrow, And act it out from hour to hour And day to day, with sacred power. They 'd make this earth for great and small A heaven of bliss to-morrow. I 130 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN (2) Know what you are, and where you are, and when you lift your hand, Know what to strike, and where to strike, with luck at your command. (3) Know what you are, and where you are, and ply an honest trade, And by the handle take the knife, and never by the blade. LIFE AND DEATH. ^T^HE minute and curious care which Nature ^ displays in the creation of the individuals is to our imagination strangely contrasted with the style of apparently wholesale carelessness and indifference with which she sweeps them off the stage in death. But there is really nothing strange in the matter: she makes them alive in millions, to show her joy in life; she sweeps them away by death in thousands, that she may make room for more life. And as for the particular form in which death comes, that is a matter that depends on a concatenation of divinely ordered forces, with which we have LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 131 nothing to do. We see that the merciless wars of William the Conqueror achieved in a short time a unity for England which she had tried in vain by a floundering process of five hundred years to work out for herself; and so storms and earthquakes, which bring many deaths in their train, have no doubt a mission of conser- vatism and new creation to perform in the organism of the whole, of which the individuals who suffer, though they may submit to the necessity, will never either comprehend or relish the operation. DEATH. DEATH is the price we pay on earth's green sod For God's free gift to live and work with God. DEATH. BLAME not the Gods ; all things grow old and die, That earth may have an ever new supply Of fresh young lives, to romp and dance and play Upon the fresh green sward in merry May. 132 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN You 've played your part from youth to sober age Not badly ; wisely now you leave the stage. DEATH-BEDS. DEATH-BEDS are generally stupid, often painful, sometimes horrible, seldom glori- ous, sometimes ghastly farcical. Such a ghastly farce as that enacted by the attendant priesthood at the death-bed of Charles H. of England and Louis XV. of France is enough to make any man virtuous. To avoid such a hideous com- bination of the tragic and the ridiculous in the close of life, let me at all events cultivate a little decency in its career. DEATH. (1894.) ' OT death is evil, but the way to death. Through dim divinings and with scanted breath, A length of deedless days and sleepless nights Sown with all sorrows, shorn of all delights. Teach me, O God, in might and mercy sure, Teach me, the child of joyance, to endure. I Written just before his death.— A. S. W. N LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 133 Endure, in truth no easy thing to learn, But how to learn it be thy main concern ; Though now thou canst not march with rattling speed, Thy soul shall shape thy thought into a deed ; Look round and find some useful thing to do, And God will make it pleasant work for you. DEATH. GOD is life, disease a natural accident, and death a necessary close. Strictly speaking, not death but dying is the great evil; so this evil is only necessary from the obstinacy with which everything living clings to life. If life were as miserable and worthless a thing as some thankless persons in fits of idle talk would have it, there would be a good many more suicides in the world than even the blackest columns of the newspapers report. Suicide is only a desperate stroke of Nature to get rid of an overclouded, overstrained, or undermined vitality which has become unbearable. The blasted tree that will neither bend nor break must be hewn down. 134 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN DEATH. T^EATH is generally stupid and humiliating, ^^ sometimes painfully tragic, sometimes con- temptible, very seldom noble. The best chance of a noble death is not on the sick-bed, but on the battlefield. CHIEF END OF MAN. ^T^HE chief end of man is victory over recur- ^ rent evil through intelligent energy inspired by love. CHIEF END OF MAN. 'T^HE chief end of man is to realise his highest ^ ideal by intelligent and persevering work in the face of difficulty, obstruction, and danger. Of this we may take a lesson from the salmon. MAN— HIS SPHERE. SHUN lofty thoughts, and wisely fear To be sublimely crazy ; Scan, if you will, the starry sphere, But learn to love the daisy. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 135 MAN. nr^HE true test of greatness in a man is to -*- throw him suddenly into new circum- stances and see how he comports himself. Mere talent under effective drill may do good work under common conditions; but when new rela- tions and unaccustomed circumstances fling a man back on Nature and first principles, no amount of mere talent, however well drilled, will enable a man to master the situation. Face to face with untried problems, only the originality of a strong and thoughtful nature can prevail. Witness Braddock in the Ohio campaign of 1755. MEN. T T ATE no man ; but pity sinners, despise ^ ^ cowards, avoid knaves, work with the wise, and amuse yourselves with fools. MEN. IN managing men, the great point is not to offend their self-importance. All men value themselves as something, and think that they have no right to be treated as mere tools. Never- 136 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN theless, they must be guided and virtually used as tools by those who are natural superiors, and with- out whose direction they are powerless. In this state of things the man who claims the guidance, must, above all things, avoid the air of superiority, and appear to refer to the decision of the weaker party a course of conduct which really proceeds from himself. What Chinese Gordon says of the Chinese is true of all men: 'They like to have an option, and hate having a course struck out for them, as if they were of no account in the matter.' MAN AND MEN. f^ OD cares for man ; men care for themselves, ^^ or at least are meant to do so. Here lies the key to many mysteries, and a text potent to turn much superficial pessimism into substantial optimism. Death, for instance, is the greatest of evils to the individual, but at the same time the greatest benefit to the race ; for if it were not for the constant disappearance of the old and unfit, there would be no room on the stage for the advent of a fresh troop of new and eager per- formers. Thus death, the greatest bane to the individual man, becomes the condition precedent LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 137 to the great miraculous blessing of the races that inhabit the earth, the blessing of rejuvenescence. Then again, War, which means death in its most hateful and odious form to many, brings with it a double blessing to those who are strong and fortunate enough to survive its necessary bane: the blessing of manly self-assertion and self- sacrifice on the part of those who stand up in defence of the most sacred rights, and the lesson of moderation and respect for rights, which the invader carries with him from the field where his insolent aggression was repelled. Liberty is always most highly prized by those who have expended their strength and risked their lives to obtain it. And in a similar fashion may we not say that not only military warfare, but all struggle and striving, bring with them a blessed fruit, which to comfortable ease must for ever have remained impossible ; and in this view all tempta- tions, trials, and hardships, though evil in them- selves, and disagreeable to the individual, are beneficial to the race, as the conditions of a moral victory and a well-tried manhood are unattain- able without them. Lastly, under the head of Providential arrangements, good for the race, but bringing with them not a little that is bad to a few individuals of the race, I must set down the 138 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN potency of that passion which leads to the union of the sexes, and the connubial relations ; for how many a tragic love-story and fretful marriage might have been avoided, had the passion been less potent, and the unions to which it leads been made under the influence of more cool, cautious, and calculated motives ! But then, neither might the growth of human life on the globe have been so luxuriant, nor the character of the progeny of such multifarious diversity as under the present system of pleasant fancy and impulsive attractive- ness. It is better that marriages should be rash sometimes, and unwise, than that they should be always prudent and politic, in a fashion not far removed from selfishness. In short, my optimistic formula would go so far as to say that all evil is good for the race, though bad for the individual, or bad both for the race and the individual, to make a higher good for both possible. YOUTH AND AGE. NOTHING is more beautiful than youth- youth which has the promise not only of virtue that now is, but of that which is to come. One thing I know, and can conceive more beauti- \ LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 139 ful than youth, viz. : that rare form of old age which unites the pleasantness of an unruffled front with the beauty of purified emotion and the sublimity of grave experience. YOUTH AND AGE. QPARE no arrowSy is the young man's joy ; ^ Waste no arrows, says a wise old boy. YOUTH AND AGE. YOUNG men imagine that they can take Heaven by storm ; old men think that there is no Heaven to storm. The young err by rashness, the old by despair : both foolishly, for the mission of man is not to storm Heaven, but to cultivate Earth. Or The young man's danger is his hasty conceit to appear to be somebody, and to do something ; the old man's temptation is to retire from the scene prematurely, because he thinks he can do nothing. The one requires wisdom to pause, the other courage to go on. 140 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN FRIENDS. TTAVE friends the many leal and true, ^ ■*• But like the pest the bad eschew, Nor choose thou him, though classed a saint, Who blurs all bright things with the taint Of his own sadness ; fear to borrow Love from sick souls that dote on sorrow. KINSHIP AND FRIENDSHIP. T^INSHIP is a matter of community of blood; ^^ Friendship, of communion of souls. Blood may be, no doubt, thicker than water, but soul has more attraction than body. Things may be very close of kin externally, like frogs and toads, but altogether different in their habits. Frogs and toads, though close akin. Don't agree at all ; Froggie loves the nimble leap. Toady loves to crawl. MEN. "pNON'T blame manhood, with Nature go to -■-^ school, And learn sometimes to think yourself a fool. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 141 You 'd have no birds but eagles in your ken, And make all hills as big as Nevis Ben ; Be wise, nor hope nor fear great things from men. What Plato says is true, and very true — The very bad and very good are few. MAN. ^T^AKEN overhead, under normal conditions, -■" human beings are good, but often weak, and rather striving after wisdom than finding it. MAN'S PLACE. 'T^HE Gods command our fate, and point the ■^ way. Our part to wonder, worship, and obey. All men are beggars to the God who gave both heart and hands, And beggars must take what they get, nor dare to make demands ; The worms make no demand for wings, and you, if you are wise. Will hold by mother earth, nor lust to navigate the skies. 142 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN YOUTH AND AGE. SUPPOSE a green old age entirely free from all that is commonly classed under the * infirmities of old age,' and this case, no doubt, is rare— even so, as compared with youth, it is deprived of great advantages— spurs to exertion, more accurately— which age cannot possibly have : (i) the novelty of the scene, and the stimulus to adventure therewith connected ; (2) the self- importance of the individual, and the importance he attaches to his own work. The young man is impelled to action by the love of doing something in an unknown world, and by the thought of doing something that gives him a prominence in the world ; the old man requires to go out of his way to find anything new in the world, and whatever he finds to do, after a large experience of life, must appear to him infinitely less significant than when he first started in life. He used to think even his crude opinions big with the Fate of a mighty Future ; he is soon aware that even his best actions may pass over the billowy roar of things, with as little effect as a local shower on the tides of ocean. From this diversity of position arises, that while the besetting sins of youth are LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 143 conceit and rashness, the natural weaknesses of old age are indifference and timidity. The young man is too ignorant to be wise, the old man too wise, and it may be too weak, to be adventurous. AGE. *T X 7HAT use of you, senseless old man? ^ ^ I much desire to know.'— * I stand a sign-post, and I can Show young fools where to go. 'And yet, belike, my use is small And vain my warning civil ; Young men spurn old wisdom's call. And ride straight to the devil.' YOUTH AND AGE. THE watchwords of age are Endure and Enjoy, the watchwords of youth are Believe and Achieve. WOMEN. WOMAN, the gentlest of all creatures, is apt to become masterful and even tyrannical. This, because she is a creature in whose composi- 144 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN tion emotion dominates, and emotion, when highly stimulated, becomes passion, and passion spurns all reasonable limitation and becomes tyrannical. Besides, there are women with more than ordinary firm will and persistent purpose; these, when winged by the passion which is natural to the sex, become intolerant, masterful, and more tyranni- cal than men. If they love strongly, they also hate strongly, and fly directly to the mark of their abhorrence, like an arrow from a bow. Qualifica- tion, to the intense action of the impassioned soul, is treachery, and contradiction is treason. Like a stormy wind they will have their sweep and ignore all contraries. And from this predominance of the emotional element, it seems plain that, though she may try many things and succeed in most, she is, with her normal outfit, materially incapacitated from being a statesman or a judge. WOMAN— OPPRESSIVE KINDNESS. NAY, spare me this : your fair command 'Tis hard to be refusing ; But sometimes I incline to stand On legs of my own choosing. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 145 Your careful, far-providing ways Are of sublime dimensions ; But Hell, the Spanish proverb says. Is paved with good intentions. WOMEN. (AFTER EURIP. 'IPHIG.') TTOXES and priests and lawyer loons have ^ wiles. But chiefly fear a woman when she smiles. Smiles I can stand, but when a woman weeps, I weep, and with one piteous look she reaps A harvest of submission. WOMEN. T X rOMEN have more love than men and less ^ ^ charity ; more love, because the emotional element generally is more potent in the sex ; less charity, because where love is strong, hatred is apt to be strong in proportion, and where hatred is strong, charity and toleration— for these two virtues are merely different stages of the same growth— are more difficult of exercise and more ra:-e. Here, as in other cases, the virtue and the K 146 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN vice, the abundance on the one side and the defect on the other, grow out of the same root. CRITICISM OF WOMEN. ^TT^HE criticism of women proceeds not generally ■^ so much from a large survey and a cool judgment as from a delicate sensibility. Their finer feeling finds an offence in many things which are passed over unnoticed by the broader survey of the man. It is a misfortune to have a more keen sensibility to faults than a ready appreciation of excellences in a person or object ; for this tendency, however free from vice, not only perverts judgment but prevents enjoyment. This is the misfortune of women and of not a few men also of the most highly cultivated taste. WOMEN. A WOMAN wishes and believes, a man wills -*^ and achieves. The wish of the woman hardens into a faith, the will of the man ripens into a fact. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 147 WOMEN— OBSERVATION. AT'OU may dodge the police, you may spin out a -*- lease Of life from the Fates of a length quite un- common ; But when she would know what you 're backward to show, You '11 never deceive the sharp eye of a woman. A LADY. A LADY is a woman made perfect in dignity, -^^ grace, goodness, intelligence, polish and usages of society, always without any loss of naturalness and simplicity on the one hand and of energy and force on the other. WOMAN. A MASCULINE woman and a feminine man are equally out of Nature, but with this difference : that whereas the woman of the male temper only fails to be agreeable, the man of the female temper makes himself contemptible. 148 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN DISEASES-SPIRITUAL AND CORPOREAL. '\ X 7'HY do spiritual physicians from the pulpit " ^ systematically magnify and exaggerate our moral diseases, while our medical attendants rather extenuate and understate them ? SAINTSHIP. T F to unmake the work so grandly made ^ By God, to turn self-torture to a trade. Be saintship ; to hate all things fair and fine, And, with my back turned to the bright sunshine, To mope in mouldy cell or grimy shrine ; To hear with horror when a tuneful fiddle Calls nimble legs to trip it down the middle ; To count it sin to kiss a pretty maid When eyes are blind, or neath a leafy shade ; To put peas in my shoes and drink no wine, And teach my stomach to despise my dinner ; If to such saintship your chaste heart incline. Be you the saint, and let me be the sinner. LOVE. THERE are no two things more different, though bearing a common name, than Love Platonic and Love Christian. Platonic love is an LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 149 impassioned admiration of excellence ; Christian love, as commonly understood, is an intense sentiment of brotherhood. The one is closely allied to worship, the other is a form of pity. LOVE. LOVE is the fulfilling of the Law, the satisfac- tion of the soul, the cement of society, and the salvation of the state. LOVE. T OVE as many persons and as many creatures as -*-^ you possibly can. Love is the only power by which you can make yourself rich in a moral world. Love especially all innocent, good, and beautiful things. Love flowers, love children, love above all things good and chaste women ; them you cannot love too much ; their love will always benefit you, never do you harm. Every man who hates or despises another without cause simply excludes himself by his own fault from much of the disposable wealth of the moral world. He is like a man who should take 15s. instead of 20s. because he falsely believes that 5s. out of every 20s. are base coin. ISO LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN KISS. WHY kiss? because each inward passion flies To fashion for itself a fit expression, And thus the rounded rosy lips are wise To give the swelling heart a full confession. EYES. EYES are the windows of the soul. And when I look on thine, Methinks a God looks out on me From their pure lucid shine. Light, Life and Love— what triune grace More full of God may be ? And when I look into thine eyes, I find them all the three. Let Athanasius launch his creed, And Calvin dogmatise ; The Trinity that serves my need. Looks from thy soulful eyes. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 151 MARRIAGE. LIVE unwived, and as life goes, Of your own self you '11 soon grow weary ; Marry, and if you find a rose, You '11 find a thorn too in your dearie. What then ? No doubt the rose has thorns, Still 'tis the best of flowers to me ; And though my cow may butt with horns. The best of good milk-cows is she. MARRIAGE. IT is always more easy to gain a man's heart than to keep it. It is gained by the charm of the moment, it is kept by the wisdom of the life. DIGNITY. THE moment a man begins to think of his dignity, that moment he loses true dignity. Dignity of character arises from being habitually possessed by a high social ideal, which of course excludes all occupation with self. Self is always small. 152 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN SOLITUDE AND SOCIETY. TT^XCESS of society, in the poet or philosopher, -*—' dissipates the constructive faculty; excess of solitude concentrates it upon unrealities. WORK. ^T^HE necessity of working is the true school -■■ of character, the mother of great achieve- ments. The more Nature does for us, the less we do for ourselves, and the less of effective manhood do we possess. Witness the men of New England in America contrasted with the men of the South, and the Scots as contrasted with the English. Bred in a hard school, more work may always be expected from the rough Scot than from his soft Southern neighbour. CIRCUMSTANCES. GREAT men and small men owe their advance- ment equally to the wise use of circum- stances, but small men like Monk succeed by becoming the tool of the dominant party, great men like Cromwell by making the dominant party the tool to their advancement. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 153 DANGER. THE man that blinks at danger and the man that is blind to it both equally fail to see victory ; for such blinking implies fear, the over- ture of defeat; and such blindness signifies the want of precision which makes the steps invisible that lead to victory. DIFFICULTIES. T^IFFICULTIES are the true test of great- ^■—^ ness. Cowards shrink from them, fools bungle them, wise men conquer them. CIRCUMSTANCE. "PRUDENCE yields to circumstance, folly '■' quarrels with it, pride defies it, wisdom uses it, and genius controls it. WISHES. T T E who wishes, feeds on dreams ; ^ -^ He who frets, prolongs his sorrow ; He to-day who wisely schemes Will reap rich crop of good to-morrow. 154 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN A GENTLEMAN. A GENTLEMAN is a man who, when a -*^^ subscription list is carried round, always gives a guinea, and never a pound ! A GENTLEMAN. A GENTLEMAN is a man who combines a high and well-grounded self-esteem with a habitual, nice, and delicate regard to the rights and feelings of others. According to this defini- tion, the person who incurs a gambler's debts, and pays them, while his tailor's bill remains unpaid, is not a gentleman. GOOD MANNERS. GOOD manners are the natural and graceful expression of a beautiful and noble nature, deriving their value from the root out of which they grow; never shallow, therefore, and never artificial, and as various as the types of character of which they are the outcome. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 155 'A CLEVER FELLOW.' ALL eyes, all ears, all tongue, a clever fellow ; But if you seek for thinking, ripe and mellow, You might as well seek for that thinking in A dog's tail wagging, or a monkey's grin. HEALTH. A MEDICAL man, meeting with a hale and hearty octogenarian, asked him to tell him shortly what special rules he had observed during life so as to stand out in such good condition for fourscore years. His reply was : 'The rules that I would give from my own experience, for a length of happy years, are these : (i) Be at peace with your conscience and your God; (2) Be at peace with your neighbour ; (3) Have nothing to do with doctors.' This answer, when sounded to the bottom, practically implies to the dismissal of all professional ministers to human weakness, as well as to the medical profession, for a man who takes good care of his own conscience has no need to ask advice from the priest, and the man who does not quarrel with his neighbour has seldom need to apply to a lawyer. 156 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN BEAUTY. A FAIR face, like a fine vestibule to a house, is a good introduction to society ; but if the fine vestibule leads into a mean and dirty abode, it only makes the disappointment the greater. So with faces: if the fair face leads to no fair soul, the eye of admiration that feeds upon it will soon be sated, and pass lightly into indifference, or even contempt. A fair face without a fair soul is like a glass eye that shines and sees nothing. WEALTH. * ^ X 7EALTH consists,' said Voltaire, 'in the ^ ^ abundance of useful and agreeable things.' True, but well-being in a state, which is of more importance than wealthy consists in the abundance of healthy, happy, and normally well- conditioned human beings. MONEY. T^ESPISE not money : he is prince of fools ^^ Who being hired for v>:ork neglects his tools ; The poor man has two hands ; the rich man plies A hundred arms, and sees with fourscore eyes. LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 157 WEATHER. SOME days are good, some bad, some worse, Some bright, some dull and dreary ; But you still keep your quiet course, And never spur the jaded horse. And rest when you are weary. FASHION. NATURE loves freedom. Fashion forges rules, A shield to cowards, and a guide to fools. CHARACTER. A MAN'S character is formed, in the general -*^ case, more by the quality and growth of work, by which he holds a place in a working world, than by the capacities and tendencies with which he is born. That profession, therefore, or occupation is best for the formation of character, the practice of which imposes on a man the necessity of cultivating and bringing to a fruitful growth the greatest variety of the human endowments with which he made his start ; and that is worst which, by confining a man to a 158 LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN narrow sphere of monotonous action, leaves a great part of his nature to become dwarfed for want of exercise, and sacrifices the well-rounded completeness of a normally developed man to the accomplished dexterity of a single function. Most professions in this day, especially under the specialising forces connected with our modern civilisation, fall more or less under the action of this dwarfing and narrowing tendency, and he is in all cases at once the strongest man and the most perfect gentleman who has kept his mind and manners and whole tone most free from the special type which the daily practice of his pro- fession is too apt to impress upon him. CONTRARIES. ALL moral maxims are true only in the circumstances to which they are meant to apply; and as circumstances are often not only different but contrary, of course contrary maxims may apply to contrary circumstances, and two apparent contradictions may be equally true. Of this we have an interesting example in St. Paul's letter from Rome to Timothy, where he gives an account of the evil treatment he had received from those who ought to have befriended him in his LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN 159 misfortunes. Alexander, the coppersmith, he says, did him much evil, and of the other persons who should have stood by him, not one remained, but all sought safety for themselves. Of the first offender he says— not 'God forgive him,' as might have expected, but — 'May God reward him accord- ing to his works ' ; but of the others, ' May it not be accounted to them.' No doubt there is a reason in this special instance, for Alexander had done positive harm, and great harm, to the Apostle, while the others had only left him in the lurch ; positive malice in the one case, and want of moral courage in the other; but a great principle is deducible from both : that no moral maxim is given as an absolute rule for all possible cases, and that a case may always occur where the exact contrary maxim will supply the wisdom of the moment. Wishing well to our enemy is no doubt a very high platform of moral judgment; nevertheless, cases may occur in which a righteous indignation may pray God to punish the rascal as he deserves. CHARACTER. TT is new circumstances that try a man, develop -^ what is in him, and form his character. There- fore the surest way to stunt your growth as a i6o LIFE, MEN AND WOMEN moral being, and make the formation of a manly character impossible, is to remain through life under the influence of the same narrow surround- ings amid which you were born. A CAUTION. WALK warily, for though you fall And lightly rise again. Small men will spy and magnify The slips of bigger men. SONG. I SING a song when I am glad, Song gives sweet breath to gladness ; And with sweet song, when I am sad, I take the sting from sadness. WINE. WINE is the drink of the gods, milk the drink of babies, tea the drink of women, beer the drink of Germans, and water the drink of beasts. LITERATURE AND CRITICISM, ETC. CRITICISM. (ADVERTISEMENT.) TX RANTED a smart young man to perform ^ ^ the business of literary critic to the Review. He must be a young man of quick glance, and of ready and fluent style. Profound thought, sound judgment, and large experience unneces- sary; but clever conceits and a turn for epi- grammatic points are prime requisites. Accuracy will be expected when dealing with minute points in history and topography, but any difficulty on this head may be avoided by dealing largely in generals. A quick sensibility to faults is desir- able rather than a large sympathy v/ith beauties ; and in all cases a general tone of superiority is indispensable, and always more grateful if sauced with impertinence. N.B.— No person need apply who is of nice and scrupulous conscience, or who allows himself to be influenced in forming his judgment by Matthew i64 LITERATURE AND CRITICISM vii. I., or by St. Paul's declaration that love is the fulfilling of the Law, or by Goethe's doctrine that reverence lies at the root of all excellence. A POPULAR CRITIC. A SMART book taster, without taste for books, -*^ A lad with lips of scorn and loveless looks. Blind to all beauty, to a fault sharp-eyed. Blown with conceit and stilted up with pride, This is your Critic or for prose or rhyme. The shallowest sophist of this talking time. CRITICISM. THERE are three kinds of Criticism : (i) The Criticism which sees virtues in order to imitate them ; (2) The Criticism which sees faults in order to avoid them ; (3) The Criticism which seeks faults for the mere pleasure of seeing them. Of these the first is the most productive of devoted enjoyment, being in fact the regular and proper food of the soul; the second is useful as an adjunct to the first as a matter of discipline ; the third is altogether worthless, or rather positively pernicious. A LITERATURE AND CRITICISM 165 ANONYMOUS CRITICISM. NONYMOUS Criticism, though not neces- sarily bad, in practice has generally a de- moralising tendency. It acts as the shield of ignorance and the mother of impertinence. CRITICISM. ^^RITICISn is good when it grows as an ^-^ incident to admiration, bad when practised as a dominant function and a special business ; good also when our object in criticising is to avoid faults in ourselves, not to find faults in others. Here, as in all other cases, it is the moral in- spiration that gives value to the function of the understanding. Love is the fulfilling of the Law. CRITICISM. * IVT O man,' says Ruskin, * can be rightly appre- -^-^ ciated except by an equal or a superior.' Hence the rarity of true Criticism. In nine cases out often in critical writing, the superior is judged by the inferior ; and if to the want of capacity to judge from this inequality of platform, we add the want of love, that is, the want of the desire to make a true judgment, we shall easily understand what floods of foamy and tainted matter must in i66 LITERATURE AND CRITICISM this writing age be darkly poured forth on the world of readers in the shape of criticism. All are ambitious to have an opinion, but few give themselves any trouble about the source from which, or the materials out of which, they derive it. The wisdom of the wise is not to have many loose opinions to sport, but a few well-weighed judgments to publish when opportune; in other cases to be silent. BOOKS. T300KS are useful being good, but not good -■— ^ books alone ; 'Tis thinking knows to build the house, books but supply the stone. BOOKS. WHO trust in books are slaves to their own tools, And though bedoctored in a hundred schools. And laced with logic and with grammar rules, Are gilded skeletons or stilted fools. BOOKS. THE way to know a country is to walk through it, the way to know a book is to think through it. The process in both cases must be LITERATURE AND CRITICISM 167 slow, but it is complete, and the results are permanent. A railway traveller touches a country, a pedestrian shakes hands with it, a settler lives in it. BOOKS. T WE 's the great teacher: take this text from me; •^ I 'm an old stager bred behind the scenes ; Men may write books on Strategy, but he Who smells the powder knows what battle means. LIBRARY. HOW to keep your library in good order- Keep your books in glass cases, and never take them out. POETRY. POETRY is harmonious wisdom or impassioned philosophy. POETRY. POETRY is Reality, selected, sifted, permeated and enlarged by the instinct of perspective in the soul, (2) illustrated and decorated by fancy, (3) animated by passion, (4) dissected by reason, and (5) harmonised by the rhythmical utterance of i68 LITERATURE AND CRITICISM intelligent speech natural to the soul when moved by noble and pleasant emotions, (6) and so handled under all these influences as to slide sweetly in the ears of the hearers (for readers are only a modern and a secondary phenomenon) with a cunning combination of solidifying enjoyment and stimulating suggestiveness. POETRY. POETRY is harmonious wisdom; if without wisdom, it should not be written at all. The world can never be the better, often the worse, for dressing folly out with fine phrases. If, on the other hand, the thing that is written in verse be without fine harmony, it had better have been written in prose. 'Tis better to walk decently than to dance awkwardly. POETS. * T^OETS are generally unhappy.' This remark, -*■ made to me by an intelligent lady of my acquaintance, sets me a -thinking. A certain amount of truth lies, no doubt, in this observation ; but, as usual in such cases, it is only part of the truth stated as the whole. The truth here is LITERATURE AND CRITICISM 169 twofold : (i) It is true that all thinking- has a certain affinity with sadness, which cannot be predicated of thoughtlessness ; and all true poets are thinkers, being in fact impassioned philoso- phers ; (2) There is a class of poets whose poetry consists in ecstatic sketches of intellectual exalta- tion, from which, by the law of reaction, recurrent fits of meditative melancholy consequently pro- ceed. But beyond this, I see no truth in the assertion that poets are generally unhappy— that they are in any way as a class more unhappy than other men. Of course, if they are thoughtless and imprudent, and live at random, and allow them- selves to drift, or if they are wanton, licentious, and dissipated, they will pay for it ; but if they do so, they do so like hundreds of men who are not poets, only fools. One might as reasonably say that poets are generally intemperate. But if Burns indulged in the national potation rather freely, this was the fashion of the age to which he belonged, and no part of the gift of the Muses which he pos- sessed. If some moments are given to melancholy, it is quite as true that some poets are given to drink; not that poets generally are drunkards. Take the great British poets of the last hundred years— Burns, Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Tennyson, Browning, Shelley, Keats, Byron, to 170 LITERATURE AND CRITICISM mention a few— and say whether the unhappiness that attaches to some of them does not belong to the idiosyncrasy of the individual rather than to characteristics of the class. On the contrary, I should say that poets as a class are happier, and a great deal happier, than other men. Granted that they have more keen sensibilities ; but if this increases their capacity of pain, it increases the number and the intensity of their pleasurable feelings in the same proportion. To our moral nature sympathy means wealth, and as a poet is the most sympathetic of human beings, he must also be the most wealthy, and if the most wealthy, the most happy, provided always he makes a good use of his wealth, v/hether moral or material. Nobody denies that money, or material wealth, is a good thing, though of course it conduces to material happiness only when under the pre- sidency of Reason ; in the same way sympathy, or moral wealth, is inherently a good thing, though of course always as subject to regulation under the supremacy of Reason. All that can be wisely said about the alleged unhappiness of poets perhaps amounts to this: that if they are unhappy, they are so in a more intense style than prosaic mortals, and their expositions of moral misery, as in the case of Byron, will be more LITERATURE AND CRITICISM 171 noticeable, and more talked about ; just as the sins of the saints are a more marketable commodity in the gossiping world than the sins of sinners. ARISTOCRACY AND POETRY. "OETWEEN the aristocracy in its best form ^-^ as the fairest blossom of society, and poets as the blossom of the intellectual life, there runs a parallel in certain points which may be stated thus : (i) The aristocracy, as being born free from the necessity of working for their daily maintenance, start at once on a higher platform, their case being, not the low one, how to live, but how to live well, to live pleasantly, gracefully, and nobly; the ground being, as it were, cleared for them, they have only to grow, and to grow freely and grandly. (2) Hence they have leisure and opportunity to take a larger and a broader view of human life. Not confined to a narrow space, they travel both in body and in thought through different countries, and learn to make just judg- ments by comparison ; hence they are more apt for administration, for statesmanship, and for politics. (3) Their peculiar virtues are these — they are independent and free from all servility in mind and manner; they are secure in their 172 LITERATURE AND CRITICISM position, and therefore can afford to be generous and forgiving, when those on a lower platform could not afford to be generous, and might be apt to be jealous or suspicious ; they have a fine sense of honour, because habitually obliged to acknow- ledge in others what their sense of self-esteem misses so strongly in themselves ; they are courteous, and polite, and pleasant in their manners, because from the cradle upwards they have been removed from all sorts of coarseness, rudeness, and violence. They are like garden plants, if not always more vigorous than the wild ones, certainly more fine and more delicate. Now take the poet. As the aristocrat of intellect, he starts where prosaic souls end ; his finer sympathy, more vivid conception, and more wide imagination place him on an intellectual platform as high above a merely utilitarian intellect as the aristocratic platform in society is above the plat- form of the working man. Humanity is his shop, and the whole of human fates and fortunes his business. Then the form of expression which he cultivates with all the graces of number, and picture, and passion, is as superior to the ex- pression of prose as the manners of the aristo- cracy are to the manners of a clown. Again, his virtues are similar : independence, generous LITERATURE AND CRITICISM 173 sympathy, truthfulness, and kindly recognition of the good and the beautiful in others. But the vices which lie near to these virtues are as obvious, and run in as perfect a parallelism. The more sail, of course always the more danger, unless ballast be present ; and so the very freedom from vulgar restraining powers, which belongs to the poet and the aristocrat, leads to all sorts of licence, insolence, self-indulgence, and excess, to which natures of lower range and more narrow sweep have no temptation. We may say, therefore, that the poet and the aristocrat equally require an extraordinary amount of self- control and of fine moral sensibility to save them from the abuse of their powers ; and we may say axiomatically perhaps, that the man of poetical temperament, like the scion of social aristocracy, if not better, is apt to be worse, than other men ; just as a high-pressure steam-engine is more dangerous than a low-pressure one unless regula- tion be proportionally strong. LANGUAGE. HE most persistent force in social life, even more persistent than religion, is language, growing as it does from one generation to another T 174 LITERATURE AND CRITICISM almost as closely as the atmosphere which they breathe, or the blood v/hich they inherit. But the linguistic atmosphere which people breathe for the purpose of social intercourse may be corrupted more easily and more extensively than the atmo- sphere which supplies them with the breath of life ; and the great agent employed in the corrup- tion is conquest, or great social preponderance acting persistently in a less violent form. Ex- posed to such a preponderant influence from without, every language will die unless endowed with a strong power of self-assertion. The Flemish settlers whom Henry I. settled in Pem- brokeshire did not adopt the Welsh language, because the influence of Wales was too weak, and the social influence of England too strong, to overwhelm their persistency in a dialect so cognate to English, and so foreign to Welsh. The language of their Turkish conquerors did not extirpate the language of the Greeks, partly from the odious character of the conquerors, which created repulsion rather than fusion, partly from the exceptionally strong power of resistance in the literary and religious tradition of the people, of which their language was the exponent. But whenever a people inferior in social influence and in culture is habitually exposed to the action, under LITERATURE AND CRITICISM 175 favourable circumstances, of a superior people, there the language, which the people may have spoken for thousands of years, is doomed. An example of this before our eyes is Gaelic in the Scottish Highlands, which is receding every day from the ground which it has so long held, in such fashion that the children of Highlanders are in many districts growing up in utter ignorance of the language which warmed the devout feelings and braced the manly purposes of their fathers. So it must ever be. Language is 'like money,' it exists for a moral, as the other for a material, currency; and as the sphere of the currency is contracted, it must contract along with it, and in due sequence disappear altogether. STYLE. THE first quality of style is to be easy and natural, to drop like ripe apples (so Goethe's style), or to hit like the strokes of a good fencer (so Shakespeare in Julius Csesar). I do not like an over-condensed style, like that of Thucydides in his speeches; an involved and affected and in- geniously obscure style is bad, because it is the object of style to manifest thought, and it is an excellence to make this manifestation with grace. 176 LITERATURE AND CRITICISM I do not care how long a man is in building his sentences, but when they are built, let the painful process of their creation not appear. PEDANTRY. A PEDANT is a bookish thing That makes a mighty clamour To plait a wreath from dead men's bones, And strangle thought in grammar. IMAGINATION. IMAGINATION is always wiser when she recreates the best that has been, than when she prophesies the best that may be. In the former case, she can deviate from truth only by a little exaggeration and high colouring, for which a wise allowance will be made ; in the other case, the temptation is near to stray into the region of the impossible and the absurd. IMAGINATION. IMAGINATION is, of all our faculties, the one, I fancy, which demands most schooling, and yet, I am afraid, is apt to get least or none at all ; LITERATURE AND CRITICISM 177 for our schoolmasters never thought of testing us as to whether we saw in the marshalled vision of the mind's eye the things we were reading about ; and if the schoolmasters fail to do their duty to the imaginative faculty in the training of our youthful years, is it surprising that in the conduct of life we so often fail to do our duty to ourselves? Disappointed expectations and needless frets are the daily fruits which we see from an ill-regulated imagination. We are disappointed because we do not find what we had no right to expect, and we fret because we are apprehensive of things which in all likelihood will never take place. EDUCATION. T IFE is action. Nine hundred and ninety-nine -*— ' men out of a thousand are meant for action, not for contemplation nor study. Therefore a school, which ought to be the vestibule of life, but does not prepare for action, is a mistake, and the schoolmaster who measures the aptitude of his boys by their capacity for knowing will often be found to have been a false prophet in reference to their future career. Clive, the idle descendant of a Shropshire boy, was the founder of our Indian Empire. M 178 LITERATURE AND CRITICISM EDUCATION. THE work of education is twofold, to develop healthy tendencies, and to supply natural deficiencies. But here two cautions are to be observed. When the tendency is strong, it may require pruning and restraining, rather than cherishing and encouraging; in any case it requires regulation, and must submit itself to discipline : and again, when the deficiency is great, it is waste of labour to attempt supplying it. Our great schools, impressing, as they for the most part do, one uniform mould on variously constituted souls, err greatly in both these regards, for they both fail in many cases to stimulate native tendencies, and on the other hand give themselves much trouble to sow the seeds of certain favourite excellences on soils where they cannot possibly grow. ELOQUENCE. A GREAT orator, like a great historian, must be in some sense a poet, that is, he must possess in a considerable degree the pictorial power and the fervid passion that belongs to the LITERATURE AND CRITICISM 179 poet. But as his object is to move the will and to stir the action, he must, above all things, be a man of action and a man of business. A genius for affairs, therefore, is the right hand of the orator, poetry is his left hand. Moral earnestness, which strides right into action, is of far more conse- quence to him than a rich imagination or a playful fancy. A supercharge of the poetical tendency may damage him essentially, by diverting him from his main object, and by amusing, when he ought to be convincing, his hearers. He must speak with a single eye to immediate action, or he speaks in vain. ELOQUENCE. 7^ VERY orator becomes a sophist whenever -*—' the press of circumstances or the bold march of an adversary forces him to maintain an intolerable position. In order to prove himself consistent, which is the natural tendency of all human beings, he must either deny or distort or ignore the facts which are at war with the position which he defends, and the attitude which he assumes. i8o LITERATURE AND CRITICISM HISTORY. * 'T^HE proper study of mankind is man/ -*• But, would you think right nobly of your clan, Some facts there be all foul with ugly sin, Some men whom we must blush to call our kin. These study not, but let them lie and rot With all unseemly things, and be forgot. CARLYLE. CARLYLE is strong to rouse by a tremendous moral force, and to startle by vivid and striking pictures; but he has neither wisdom to guide those whom he has roused, nor sobriety to tone his pictures down to reality. He is always talking about veracity, but he habitually revels in exaggeration and one-sided presentation, which is more than half a lie. POLITICS. ETC. NOTE.— It is necessary to observe that the definitions which Professor Blackie gives of the various parties were made in 1882, before the absorption of the eclectic doctrines of the Conservative Democrats into the official Conservative party, and before the union of the Tory and Liberal parties, in the face of the common foe of ad- vanced Radicalism, had driven pure Toryism out of the region of practical politics, and had shattered the wall of partition dividing the Conservative from the moderate Liberal.— A. S. W. POLITICS. A TORY is an animal, solid, stable, and -'^ stationary. Firmly rooted in the Past, he draws his nourishment from the traditions of his fathers, submits himself willingly to the con- stituted authorities of the present, the heritage of the past, and finds his proper field of action in the administration of things as they are. His advantage consists in the hearty enjoyment of things as they are, whatever they be; he is dis- posed to make the best of them, and in so doing often acts wisely, always comfortably for the time. His disadvantage lies in his blindness to the future, and in his systematic ignoring of the principle of change and progress in the universe. When all things are moving around him, from his want of adaptability to new circumstances, he at last is forced to accept un- graciously changes which it would have been his wisdom to anticipate. He is a creature altogether destitute of creative or plastic power in social matters. New gospels never were i84 POLITICS preached, new states never founded, by him; but he knows well how to use a new social organism when once created— if a good man, for the public good ; if a bad man, for his own advantage. A Radical is a person emphatically opposed to all class distinctions and privileges, historical traditions, and constituted authorities. His watchword is liberty, and he uses this liberty, if a bad man, for the dominance and aggrandise- ment of the individual ; if a good man, for help- ing on the progress of society through the agency of an intelligent majority of the popula- tion when it can be found, or through the exer- tions of an energetic, self-constituted minority forcing its superior intelligence on the majority. His great excellence, when in his best form, is a love of Justice; his great defect, a lack of Reverence. From this, as from his rejection of all authority and old traditions, he must neces- sarily be a man of principle, a theorist, or what the French call a doctrinaire; he is apt to be conceited, opinionative, dogmatic, despotic, and imperious, and constitutionally inclined to look on all conciliation as cowardice, and on all qualification as treachery. POLITICS 185 The Liberal^ as the mean between these ex- tremes, is the man who believes in stability without stagnation, and in progress without disturbance. POLITICAL PARTIES. T IKE other things in the world, political parties -*-^ have their growth. The Conservatives grow by casting off old prejudices and adapting them- selves to new circumstances ; the Liberals com- mence with breaking down all artificial fences that prevent the natural exercise of freedom in the individual, and end by levelling all distinctions however salutary under the overwhelming will of the mere majority. The growth of the Tories is towards expansion and improvement, the growth of the Liberals is towards violence and monotony. The young Liberal fights for free- dom, the old Liberal riots in power. POLITICAL PARTIES. I. T IBERALISM is that form of polity which -^-^ delights to encourage and promote as much freedom in the individuals composing the body social as is consistent with the i86 POLITICS good of the whole. Its watchwords are Liberty and Progress. 2. Conservatism is that form of polity which strives to preserve the authorities, institutions, and functions of the Past with as little change as possible from the motive forces of the Present. Its watchwords are Authority and Stability. 3. Absolutism or Toryism is that principle of polity which asserts the absolute right of the one or the few to govern the many. Its watchword in its worst form is Master- dom ; in its best. Paternity. RADICALISM. WHY is Radicalism like a thistle ? Because when growing it is full of prickles, and when matured it bears a blood-red blossom. POLITICS. AN absolute Tory is generally a clod or a fool, a Tory with sense is a Liberal more or less, a Liberal with sense is a Tory more or less, and a Liberal without sense is a Radical. f POLITICS 187 POLITICS. ^T^HE toughness of the Conservative party -■' need astonish nobody. Whatever exists has a tendency and a natural right to maintain itself against aggression as long as it can. Old people will continue to live even when they are useless and even troublesome. But there is this difference between individuals and society: the son dare not and will not, unless he be a monster, cut his father's life short in order that he may more properly administer his neglected estate; but the young generation which makes society at any present age, has always a right to re- pudiate its father, the Past, and, if necessary, make a violent end of it. Following out the comparison of father and son, the kindly feeling of the Conservatives to the Past is no doubt the product of a fine social instinct; but this piety towards the social father loses the greater part of its moral beauty, when we consider that the maintenance of the father's life, in the case of society, is identical with the material interests of the social son. The father and son, in the case of society, are not separate beings, but a transmission of continued life from one stage to another without break. 188 POLITICS GLADSTONE. TN the conduct of life, as in the development -*• of character, every man's greatest danger lies in the exercise of his strong point. All strength, unless constantly kept in rein, being naturally self-assertive, is apt to grow into violence, and to ripen into despotism. Of this the rise and fall of the great Napoleon is a signal example. Gladstone's strong point, intellec- tually, is delight in the following out of a great principle ; starting from that as from a postulate, he loves to deduce a chain of consequences that together work out a grand organum, pervaded from beginning to end with the potency of the original idea. Morally, again, his strong point is Justice, an instinctive and highly sensitive honourable recognition of the rights which each may claim from another in a well-ordered social system. This sense of justice is the inspiring soul of all his reform legislation. This is plainly also what makes him a Liberal. He started with Toryism, of which the watchword is Authority, rightful mastery of the strong over the weak; but he early renounced this creed in favour of Liberalism, free assertion of the individual, and POLITICS 189 protection of the weak against the strong, by equality of rights and fair-play between man and man in the social system. Now, these two strong points highly potentiated make him a strong man. Let us now see how the strong man goes wrong. He does so (i) intellectually, by giving full swing to his grand idea and all its necessary deductions, in face of a world com- posed of the most complex materials, the most antagonistic forces, and the most unyielding temper. The great man, with his great idea in such a world, is like a man that marches forth to cut logs with razors, and to mow down trees with a scythe. The stroke is majestic, but the material will not yield. A statesman is here exactly like an engineer: his calculations are of no value, and his proudest structure will only lead to precipitation, unless he knows exactly the strength of his materials. (2) Again, morally, a man with a divine rage for justice may per- petrate the greatest injustice, if he assumes that all men deserve to be treated in the same chivalrous way, and to be treated with the ex- treme of fair-play simply because they are men. A thief is a man, and a swindler is a man, a a fool is a man, and a madman is a man ; each of them must be treated not only as men, but ipo POLITICS as the special kind of men that they are; and the justice which they have a right to claim is not what a man may claim from man as man, but what belongs to a thief as a thief, to a fool as a fool, or to a lunatic as a lunatic. In the exercise of both functions, the moral and the intellectual, it is quite plain that a great man cannot go forth to control a real world from a purely ideal point of view. In politics especially, the most difficult of all arts, the art of managing reasonably a multitude of more or less un- reasonable persons claiming to be reasonable, the statesman who assumes to domineer with a grand idea— 'the ideologist '—in Napoleon's favourite phrase, is blind, either wholly or partially. The grandeur of his ideas does not in the least degree diminish their offence; they do not square with the fact; and the fact is the matter with which statesmanship is concerned. It is different in poetry, in painting, or in an academical lecture. A grand idea consistently thought out in a system of metaphysics may act as a powerful and profitable stimulus to think- ing; carried out in practice, it may dethrone a monarch or overrun an empire. POLITICS 191 DESPOTISM. ^T^HE besetting sin of strong minds is des- ■^ potism; his strength naturally gives the strong man the feeling that he has a right to dominate, but no right in this complex world is absolute ; every right demands a qualification from some counter right, besides being subject to the general law of moderation. The moment he forgets this the strong man becomes a despot. Despotism, in common parlance, is a political word, but there is a despotism of beauty, of generosity, of any strong passion or high ideal, as well as of power, which the more readily masters a strong man because its char- acter is unselfish. In this I explain much of Gladstone's action. I give him credit for the noblest possible motives. It is the essence of generosity, or of an extreme sense of justice, of which indeed generosity is only the superla- tive degree, and of this bantling Gladstone is the generous father; and the more generous the more despotic, for he cannot but think, with so exalted an inspiration, he has some rights over meaner souls. So the Devil leads us poor mortals by the despotism of unqualified virtues, no less certainly sometimes, though less 192 POLITICS ignobly, than by the despotism of unredeemed vices. GOVERNMENT. THEY who would rule the many must serve the many. Therefore kings, politicians, and editors of party newspapers are sometimes slaves. GOVERNMENT. GOVERNMENT of men or of beasts must always be with a strong hand first, with a kind hand afterwards, but with a strong hand always in the background. GOVERNMENT. THE art of government is more like the skill of the coachman than the skill of the rider. The rider has only one horse to manage, and to know its mettle and control it for his purposes can seldom be a very difficult business ; but the coach- man has to study the temper of two, three, or four horses, often very different, and to work their diverse speeds with the unity of a well-harmonised POLITICS 193 movement. This never can be a light matter. A great equestrian genius may do wonders on the back of a horse, but only a driver of tact and dex- terity can manage a four-in-hand. Centralisation in government is a hasty and unqualified method of avoiding the difficulty of studying the temper of social forces, and ruling according to local differences. Your centraliser can ride a horse, but he cannot drive a coach. England, Ireland, Scot- land, and the Colonies are four horses which John Bull has found it very difficult to direct towards a common Imperial end. DEMOCRACY. "TNEMOCRACY, like every other general term, '-^ varies in significance, according to the variety of its accidental contents. In whatever circumstances democracy means the government of the intelligent few by the ignorant many, such government is necessarily bad. But the actual fact may be that democracy means the general sense of the community, of which the ignorant many form only a part, and under such conditions the government of the whole people may readily be better than the government of a selfish few. Democracy may be better than oligarchy ; that is, N 194 POLITICS a government by a motley many better than a government by a selfish few ; government by a balance of social forces better than a government by the dominance of a single force. DEMOCRACY. THE tone of government by the masses is well indicated by the tone of the gallery in the theatre. There is no essential or dominant wickedness in the sentiment of 'the Gods.' On the contrary, they are always ready with a spontaneous burst of applause in response to a noble sentiment or a generous action. But for a nice and delicate appreciation they are utterly unfit: as little can they be credited with a delicately cultivated taste; and they are quite capable of enjoying exaggeration, caricature, and rant, in every form which tasteless actors may be forward to present them with. So it is exactly in Politics. The 'masses' readily sympathise with a policy in defence of which the popular cries of justice and fair-play, freedom and independence, may be made to sing in the ears of the unthinking multitude ; but for a statesman-like judgment on a difficult question of dealing with a fevered and fretful state of the body social, they are utterly unfit. Such grand phrases as liberty, equality, POLITICS 195 fraternity, justice, fair-play, generosity, find a ready entrance into the popular ear, but they are too vague to furnish materials for a judgment, or reasons for a policy. THE PEOPLE: HOW TO PLEASE THEM. TV! OT from the false to sift the true, or from the ^ ^ foul the fair, The many seek but something new and strange to make them stare. POPULARITY. THE people always either applaud or condemn in the gross. For a discriminating judg- ment they have neither leisure nor capacity, therefore they can never be nicely just. When they are roused they swell like the tide, and till their impulse is exhausted ; then their ebb is likely to be as deficient as their flow was superfluous. WAR. ^T^HE final object of war is conquest, and the -*■ final object of conquest is the unifying of the discordant elements of an irregular population into an organised social whole. The conquest of England by the Normans, and of Gaul by the 196 POLITICS Romans, distinctly shows this. The case of Ireland proves the same thing from the negative side. Ireland was never a nation, because it was never thoroughly conquered. WAR. OF most nations that have played a great part in history, it may be said that, in what are called their most glorious periods, their foreign policy has been fed and fattened on the division and degradation of their neighbours. So France with regard to Germany. WAR. A GREAT national war is a school of manhood, and as such operates powerfully in a wide sphere, to which the piping times of peace are a stranger. The stormy sweep of war makes all men unite in well-ordered ranks for a common cause, sinking all petty jealousies in the ardour of a common struggle. In peace every one looks to himself; there is no clamant demand for a display of patriotic virtue and unselfish energy. WAR. WAR is the necessary consequence of the existence of a world rich in various forms of strongly self-assertive vital forces with contrary POLITICS 197 tendencies which naturally come into collision; and there are only two ways in which this result could be avoided: (i) Either by destroying the variety and contrariety of the vital forces and making a more scanty existence with an absolute monotony of movement ; or (2) by making the weaker of the contrary forces always yield to the stronger, and thus produce a society of absolute masterdom and unqualified slavery. This, of course, every one feels would be a great evil ; but an evil which, in a rich and various world, it is impossible always to avoid ; and an evil also, which, in such circumstances, is the best school of manhood. The man who has not self-respect and self-assertion enough to stand up sword in hand, when he is threatened by an opposing force, is not worthy to live in a society of free men ; and so in all ages, from Marathon to> Bannockburn, and from Bannockburn to Waterloo, war has been the nursery of national types, and the school of manhood to the noblest peoples. It is therefore not an evil in its social results, but only in the manner by which the result is produced. 198 POLITICS OLD COUNTRIES AND NEW. '^nr^HIS old Europe wearies me,' said Napoleon. -■' Why? Because in any old country a public man must be, in the first place, a servant of traditions; the one great intellect must yield to accumulated voices of the small; whereas an ambitious intellect of the highest order, whether in literature or in action, strives to stamp itself despotically on its surroundings and play the God to a new chaos. This ambition, which in Asia might have made Napoleon the most creative genius of his time, ruined him in Europe, which happened to be made of stuff that his despotism could neither conceive nor control. HISTORY. STUDY history, not by reading through whims, but by thinking through periods. It is with history as it is with travelling through a great country. The byways are often the most pleasant and the most instructive. Printed by T. and A. Constable, (late) Printers to Her Majesty at the Edinburgh University Press Cloth. Crown Svo. 6s. THE STRUGGLE FOR SUCCESS A Study in Social Compromise, Expediency and Adaptability By ARCHIBALD STOD ART-WALKER, M.A., M.D., CM., F.R.C.P., etc. SOME PRESS NOTICES ' A series of discourses on questions of the profoundest interest. . . . He has conceived a view of life characterised alilce by broad sympathies and practical wisdom, and set it forth with courage and brilliancy.' — The Scotsman. ' An able and suggestive book. . . . Mr. Stodart-Walker has a calm and detached mind.' — Illustrated London News (Mr. L. F. Austin). ' Decidedly racy, vigorous, unconventional, outspoken, and original.' — Britisli Weekly (Dr. Robertson Nicol). ' A mass of common-sense. ... It is good for people occasionally to see some one leaping over the forbidden pale with a thoroughly human and non-academic manner. ... He is splendidly lucid.'- Daily Cbronicle. ' Exceedingly able, clever, and interesting. ... A great deal of fresh thinking, of the wisdom of experience, and of lively writing. The author is a genuine humorist.'— Glasgow Herald. ' His book is written as an appeal to thinking men and women, so that he neither blinks facts nor tends to the cultivation of priggishness. ... A real service to many readers in showing them things as they are. Well conceived, well intentioned, well carried out, and deserves long to enjoy a popular position.'— Literary World. ' Full of good matter. '— Mancliester Guardian. ' Its strong point is undoubtedly the genuine eloquence of its best passages. . . . The description of the man who is mentally sane is admirable. ' — The Lancet. ' A really striking grasp of some of the most burning questions of the day.'— British Medical JoumaL 'Worked out with admirable skill, not following blindly one school of thought, but with a welcome impartiality selecting what he considers best from each, and welding them into a presentable and sane method of regarding man in his relations to society. . . . Strikingly lucid, intensely interesting, full of a broad tolerance and keen logic, and practical enough to merit the study of every one." — North British Daily MaiL 'Of the result of a neglect of all self-inhibition (control), Mr. Stodart- Walker draws an admirable word-picture.' — Weekly Register. STRUGGLE FOR SUCCESS : PRESS iiOTICES— Continued. ' Every chapter is interesting.' — Grapllic. ' Will be found very readable even by those who disagree with him. . . . Determined to shut his ej'es to nothing and make the best of every- thing.'— Morning Leader. ' An invitation to think.'— Standard. ' As an exposition of the . . . common-sense point of view Mr. Stodart- Walker's brilliantly and racily-written book is probably unrivalled.' — Western Morning News. ' We welcome this attempt to lay bare the mass of fallacy and incon- sistency upon which the social fabric is reared.'— Irish Times. ' Mr. Stodart- Walker has succeeded in clothing the dry skeleton of science with the flesh and blood of popularity. He has read widely and remembered accurately, and is ab'e to lead the least scientific of us through pleasant by-ways, whilst the book will add not a few original ideas to a subject of the most engrossing interest. . . . Broad-minded, reasonable, sound, caustic' — Black and White. ' This remarkable volume, . . . suggestive and stimulating, the result and outcome of much thinking. As a contribution to the discussion of evolutionary ethics the work has its value. He ought at least to set minds in motion.'— Aberdeen Free Press. ' Upon the topic of marriage — eloquent and extremely up to date. An entertaining and improving book.' — The Pilot. ' Argued out with great skill and a wide range of knowledge. On the physical side Mr. Stodart-Walker's position is exceedingly strong.' — Liverpool Mercury. ' For a sane, manly, sincere, and well-informed inquiry into the general laws governing civilisation, commend us to The Struggle for Success — a wise and thoughtful disquisition into the nature of great principles.' — Sydney Morning Herald. ' The conclusions are reached by process of sound reasoning from the viewpoint of those who live in the world and of it.' — Sydney Daily Telegraph. ' A most valuable book, written according to the rules of logic, and with a true knowledge of physiological and physical science, and an exceptional insight into psychological processes. Dr. Stodart -Walker is a sociologist, and he writes of things as they are, and as they ought to be, and as they might easily be. Its value is immensely enhanced by the fact that although it is scientific in the best sense of the word, although it is a philosophical treatise, its style is so simple, so direct, and so eminently readable, that the book should certainly have a popular success.' — Birmingham Gazette. ' The thoughts of an eminent scientific purist. His qualifications for the franchise constitute a magnificent ideal.' — The Speaker. 'An honest thinker — a neo-pagan.' — Sheffield Telegraph. Demy 8vo. Cloth. 7s. bd. net. RECTORIAL ADDRESSES DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, 1859-1899 Edited, with an Introduction By ARCHIBALD STODART-WALKER President of the Union, 1891 * The addresses are not of topical or ephemeral interest, but solid and lasting contributions to subjects that "abide our questionings " through the ages, and their collection is a service rendered to high-class literature.' — Saturday Review. * A volume of momentous deliverances.' — Outlook. 'These addresses are great occasions, and many uncon- nected with the University will be glad to have them in book form.' — Literary World. *A happy thought happily carried out. . . . None of them are unworthy of preservation.' — Globe. ' These addresses were well worth rescuing from the dusty files of old newspapers.' — Daily News. 'The most noteworthy is that of Carlyle, which may be regarded as a compendium of his philosophy. . . . Perhaps the good example set by Edinburgh in the publication of these addresses will be followed by the other Universities.' — Aberdeen Free Press. RECTORIAL ADDRESSES : PRESS NOTICES— Continued. 'Addresses by some of the most eminent men of the last half-century. The high standard of literary excellence main- tained throughout.' — Binningliam Gazette. 'The addresses are as well worth reading to-day as they were worth hearing at the time of delivery.' — Birmingham Daily Post. 'Mr. Stodart-Walker has prefaced the volume with an ably- written introduction, giving some account of the office held in succession by so many men of the highest distinction, and embodying some shrewd appreciations of the various addresses and of their respective authors.' — The World. ' Mr. Stodart-Walker's sketch of Carlyle on the rectorial platform is especially interesting.' — Liverpool Mercury. ' A very happy idea— all interesting from various points of view, and many of them of great and permanent worth.' — Great Thoughts. 'Full of literary charm.'— Manchester Guardian. ' Its chief charm is that those who have contributed to it have left the questions that in the eye of the world have appeared to engross them most, and brought forth from more intimate treasure-houses the fruits of wise reflection on subjects of the widest human interest. There is in them all a strong individual note.' — Scotsman. London: GRANT RICHARDS,48 Leicester Square, W.C. THE SELECTED POEMS OF JOHN STUART BLACKIE Edited, with an Appreciation By his Nephew ARCHIBALD STO DART-WALKER. * This book will abide for the sake of its appreciation. As we see him here, Blackie was above all things a man. There is wisdom enough in this volume for most of the work of life.' — Daily News. 'A charming portrait of Professor Blackie. Mr. Stodart- Walker has done his work extremely well.' — Illustrated London News. ' If it were for his ballads, legends, and narrative poem? alone, the verses of Professor Blackie must always be prized- Mr. Walker's appreciation is carefully drawn, and judiciously and temperately balanced.' — Pall Mall Gazette. 'Very often, and with no erring hand, Blackie struck the note that reaches the heart. The voice of Nature spoke through him free and untutored . . . always and without ex- ception its utterance was vigorous and sincere. Mr. Stodart- Walker's introduction is admirably felt and well expressed.' — Arthur Waugh, in Daily courier. 'Than the "Appreciation" no finer estimate of Professor Blackie's character and of his influence upon the world of letters has been penned.'— Dundee Courier. ' An introduction delightful to read. . . . The book contains the best specimens.' — Scotsmaiu UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. m APR 5 i9S5 R ECE MAIN LOAM A.M. .^tLa.i9:ioiii|lg' VED DESK P.M 1 ' ^^MlL Form L9-25m-9,'47(A5618)444 y^jVERSITY ef CALIFORNH AT .JV- PR4129.B5 A5 1902 *^ 4129 B5A5 1902 ' * — T^' L 009 497 981 2 ¥■ !-::,'